True / False / Not Given — the decision tree · Vrai / Faux / Non Donné — l'arbre de décision
A Thursday meeting does not itself exclude Monday
- Original text A: “The club opened in 2018. Members meet on Thursdays.” The statement “Members also meet on Mondays” is NOT GIVEN: a Thursday meeting does not rule out another meeting. Original text B adds “Members meet only on Thursdays”; the Monday statement is now FALSE · FAUX.
- Both texts support “The club opened in 2018”. Neither describes who most members are, so “Most members are students” remains NOT GIVEN. One small qualifier changes the evidence; a club timetable cannot produce a membership census by magic.
The passage says nothing at all about a statement, but the statement is obviously true in the real world. What is the answer?
The task tests the passage, not the world. If the passage neither states nor contradicts it, the answer is NOT GIVEN however true it is.
Text A says members meet on Thursdays, without saying only. “Members also meet on Mondays”: choose the evidence label.
A Thursday meeting neither establishes nor excludes a Monday meeting.
Compare the whole claim with the relevant context
- Find the passage material about the claim, then compare who, action, time, quantity and qualification. Support → TRUE; contradiction → FALSE; neither → NOT GIVEN. Evidence can span connected sentences; it need not appear in one exact wording match.
- You may inspect support and contradiction in either order. The ordered practice below is one usable routine, not an official requirement to check FALSE first. “I did not find it quickly” is a search outcome, not proof that the passage gives no answer.
Put the decision steps in order.
This is one usable reading routine, not an official requirement to inspect contradiction before support. Inspect the full relevant context before deciding information is absent.
Some does not establish most or all
- “Overfishing was one cause of the decline” does not establish that it was the main cause: NOT GIVEN. If the text instead says “Habitat loss was the main cause; overfishing was a smaller contributor”, calling overfishing the main cause contradicts that comparison.
- Original mini-text: “Eight volunteers attended. Two did not submit a safety form.” “Every volunteer submitted a form” is FALSE · FAUX because there are explicit counterexamples. “Six submitted forms” is NOT GIVEN: the text does not say what the other six did.
Passage: 'One cause of the decline was overfishing.' Statement: 'The main cause of the decline was overfishing.'
NOT GIVEN. One cause could be the main cause, but the passage does not say whether it is. FALSE would require a contradiction, such as naming another main cause.
“Eight volunteers attended. Two did not submit a form.” “Every volunteer submitted a form”: choose the label.
The two explicit non-submitters contradict every.
From the same volunteer text, “Six volunteers submitted forms”: choose the label.
The text gives no submission status for the other six; subtracting two does not establish what they did.
Paraphrase must preserve time and strength
- “Numbers fell steeply after 1990” supports “There was a sharp decline in numbers after 1990”. A related claim beginning “from 1990 onwards” can introduce a different time boundary or duration; do not declare it equivalent without checking the text.
- Repeated words are not automatically traps, and unfamiliar synonyms are not automatically correct. Compare the complete meaning, including only, most, all and never. A passage can support a claim without repeating its exact phrase.
A shared phrase alone establishes that a statement is TRUE.
Check the complete meaning and qualifiers. Shared wording alone does not establish support, contradiction or missing information.
Match the requested evidence labels
- TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN identifies agreement with information; YES/NO/NOT GIVEN identifies agreement with the writer’s views or claims. Follow the requested labels or on-screen choices. Outside knowledge cannot fill a missing statement of the writer’s position.
- If time remains and you still cannot establish the evidence, respond rather than leaving a blank. A uniform random guess among three labels has a one-third probability of a mark, not a partial mark guaranteed for each question. Repeated neighbouring labels do not justify changing an evidence-supported answer.
For a question about the WRITER'S OPINION, the three answers are YES, NO and ___.
Yes / No / Not Given for views, True / False / Not Given for facts. Using the wrong set costs the mark even when the judgement was right.
Change the text and check whether the label changes
- For the original club text with only, “Opened in 2018” → TRUE; “Meet on Mondays” → FALSE; “Most are students” → NOT GIVEN. Remove only, and the Monday claim loses its contradiction. The diagram below uses the explicitly restricted version.
- Recap: distinguish absent evidence from opposing evidence, and preserve every qualifier. Rules checked on 2 October 2026: official IELTS Academic Reading guide. These original examples teach evidence decisions, not an official score conversion.
- The text may support, contradict or leave a claim unsettled. A plausible guess about the world is not passage evidence.
Match the distinctions in this worked case.
The original text says the club opened in 2018 and members meet only on Thursdays. Only excludes Monday meetings; no membership profile establishes most are students.
From text B, “Members meet only on Thursdays”, with no membership profile: how should “Most members are students” be labelled?
Only restricts meeting days but gives no membership profile. The student-majority claim is neither supported nor contradicted.