Student worksheet

Reading Lesson

Economic resources: identifying options for filling gaps

By the end of the lesson I will be able to:

• identify possible options for filling gaps.
• respond to summary completion tasks where options are provided.
• recognise common compound words.

INTRODUCTION

1. What do these products have in common?

1. Candles 5. Petrol
2. Golf balls 6. Plastic bottles
3. Make-up 7. Tents
4. Medicine

IELTS SKILLS

2. Look at this sentence. Which of the options below could fill the gap?
The world is facing a ________ crisis.

A. strong B. economic C. fuels D. pollution E. healthy

3. Match the explanations to the four incorrect options from activity 2.

1. We don’t usually put a plural noun before another noun. _ _______________________________________
2. The word doesn’t collocate (go together) with crisis. ___________________________________________
3. The word doesn’t make sense in the gap. ____________________________________________________
4. The word can’t go after a.________________________________________________________________

4. Choose the best option to fill the gaps.

1. I got a ___________ from the bank.
A. loan B.   money C.   account

2. The company has a ____________ problem.

A. money B.   financial C.   finances

3. The economy is looking ____________.

A. healthily B.   rich C.   strong

IELTS Coach PHOTOCOPIABLE | © British Council | IC_B1_R09_HO_v1.5 Page 1

 4. The government prevented ____________ disaster.
A. economical B.   economic C.   economy

5. There aren’t many ____________ opportunities at the moment.

A. jobs B.   employment C.   working

USEFUL LANGUAGE FOR IELTS

5. Create compound words by matching words from column A and column B.

A B

transport increase

fossil supply

production fuel

wind cost

tax network

water power

6. Which compound words from activity 5 are being described?

1. We burn it to produce energy_____________________________________________________________
2. We need it for washing_ _________________________________________________________________
3. Governments can collect more money with this_ ______________________________________________
4. A clean source of energy_________________________________________________________________
5. A system that we use when we travel_ ______________________________________________________
6. How much it is to make something_ ________________________________________________________

TASK FOCUS

7. Look at activity 9. Are these statements about the task true (T) or false (F)?
1. You can complete the task without looking at the reading passage. T/F
2. You have to write down the correct word. T/F
3. You must choose a word from the reading passage. T/F
4. The summary is based on the whole reading passage. T/F

8. Look at activity 9. Choose three options from the list of words that could fill each gap.

Page 2 PHOTOCOPIABLE | © British Council | IC_B1_R09_HO_v1.5 IELTS Coach

 IELTS PRACTICE

9. Answer the questions below on the reading passage.

Complete the summary using the list of words, A–O, below.

Write down the correct letter, A–O.

Much of human progress in the twentieth century was due to oil. In particular, it helped 1. _________________
to develop without the use of 2. ________________. It is possible that solar power or 3. _______________
might meet the world’s energy needs in the future, but it will be difficult to replace products like plastics
and 4. _________________, which rely on oil and which have made mass production possible.
Also, we must remember that producing all the energy we need from renewable power is not always
5. __________________. In the future the price of oil is likely to go up. This is not simply because of low
oil supplies. Rather it is because there must be a rise in 6. ___________________, which will be necessary
to protect our 7. _________________. Consequently, costs are likely to rise for all of us.

A wind B waves C steel D chemicals E cheap

F possible G acceptable H climate I environment J transport

K economies L clothing M lives N trees O taxes

10. Answer the questions below on the reading passage.

Classify the following as relating to

A products made from natural resources

B products made from oil
C products made from natural resources and oil

Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

1. will be produced in layers _______

2. are now added to sun cream _______

3. will be sent back to shops _______

4. will become cheaper _______

5. will be recycled more _______

6. have led to economic unfairness _______

11. How do you think living in a world without oil could affect you personally? Would you have to make any
changes to your lifestyle?

IELTS Coach PHOTOCOPIABLE | © British Council | IC_B1_R09_HO_v1.5 Page 3

 The post-oil economy

A. Our modern economy has been built on cheap fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas). Low transport costs
have transformed the way we make and sell products, creating global production and sales networks.
For instance, a company can design clothes in the United States, have the clothes made in Vietnam, and
then transport them to Europe for sale. Oil has also enabled a revolution in materials too, giving us cheap
plastics, like polyester and PVC that make jackets, shoes, and mobile phones. Fossil fuels also power the
furnaces that make glass and steel and produce the electricity that runs factories. Quite simply, mass
production and mass consumption would not have happened without oil. But as oil, gas and coal slowly
run out, as they must do, will the economy as we know it survive?
B. One way to ask this question is to consider whether economic growth could have been sustained during
the twentieth century without fossil fuels. Take railway development, for example. Before coal was used
to power steam trains, wood was used. As a consequence, a great deal of forest was cut down. Fossil fuels
replaced wood as a major source of energy, and this had the effect of saving many forests. Power from
waves, rivers and tides might go some way to replacing the coal and other fossil fuels that we use, but
even if hydroelectric dams were built across all the world’s rivers this would only provide a few of the
16–18 terawatts of energy that the world currently consumes. Hope for replacing fossil fuels therefore
rests with wind and solar power. These forms of energy could produce tens of terawatts and so it is
certainly possible to replace fossil fuels with another energy source. Currently, these replacement
sources of fuel are only economically viable due to financial help from governments, but as renewable
energy is produced on a greater scale it will inevitably fall in price.
C. It is unlikely that we will move to a completely oil-free economy, however. For a start, as we have noted,
oil has given the economy much more than energy. It would be impossible to grow enough cotton to
replace polyester and PVC, or find enough alternatives to phase out chemical products in the short term.
And even as far as energy is concerned, there are limitations to renewable power sources. For example,
it seems unlikely that electric cars or solar powered planes will be able to manage long-distance travel as
efficiently as oil-fuelled vehicles. The creation of the steel used to produce wind turbines will still depend
on fossil fuels, and back-up power (when demand exceeds supply on cloudy or windless days) will continue
to require the use of non-renewable resources.
D. It is also clear that the cost of the oil that remains in production must rise. People have long believed that
a price increase will be inevitable as a direct result of oil scarcity but, in fact, even if oil and gas don’t
become as scarce as rapidly as many have predicted, there will be other upward pressures on price in the
form of tax increases. Existing supplies of oil would last for around nine years if everyone used oil at the
same rate as people in the United States do currently, so if we are to avoid an economic ‘shock’, it is
essential that governments try to weaken our dependency on fossil fuels through rises in taxation. Raising
the price of oil will also be necessary to protect the planet from global warming.

Page 4 PHOTOCOPIABLE | © British Council | IC_B1_R09_HO_v1.5 IELTS Coach

 E. A higher oil price means that transport and production costs are likely to rise. This will have a particularly
great effect on some areas of the economy. Industries that transport goods, like aviation or shipping,
and sectors that rely on transport services, like manufacturing, will have to restructure their practices
significantly. For example, they may have to reduce the amount that they import and export across long
distances. Consumers might start to see a greater range of goods produced locally. Farms may also
diversify and instead of dedicating vast areas to a single product, grow layers of crops on top of each other,
with fruit trees, berry bushes, herbs and root vegetables all growing in the same space. People may also
see their towns and cities become mixed-use settlements with some small-scale agriculture and industry
mixed with housing. Populations could also return to higher density areas, where they can access services
like shops and public transportation more easily.
F. Meanwhile, consumer goods are likely to evolve as scientists look to nature to help them replace oil-based
products. Take sun cream, for example. This is currently made using substances derived from oil that block
UV rays. However, bacteria living in the sea, known as cyanobacteria, make their own sunscreen molecules
which could be extracted and added to sun cream, replacing petrochemicals. In clothes manufacturing,
we are likely to see far greater use of recycled materials of all types and high-cost, high-quality products,
designed to last for longer. In addition, in the future consumers may return plastic and paper packaging
to shops for re-use rather than throwing it away.
G. If much of this seems like a depressing return to the dark ages, then consider this. The billions that a few
wealthy countries have earned from an economy driven by oil products have not stimulated economic
development very evenly. The globalisation of trade due to low transport costs has meant that some
countries have been reduced to the status of suppliers of agricultural goods to the rich world, and this has
done little to make them wealthier. It has been very easy for large companies to scale up their production,
and local design and creativity has found it very difficult to compete with this. The frenzy of economic
activity that oil made possible has also had a negative impact on a wide range of natural resources, from
water supplies to forests. Perhaps the absence of oil will lead to a fairer distribution of economic resources
and a more stable, sustainable economy.

IELTS Coach PHOTOCOPIABLE | © British Council | IC_B1_R09_HO_v1.5 Page 5