Read Alouds 2021

Read Aloud 

Read Alouds

In this section, you are given a text on screen. You get 40 seconds to read through the text and understand the content before the time starts. You then have another 40 seconds to read aloud as naturally and clearly as possible.

You can expect around 6-7 texts for this section. Each text will usually be a single paragraph between 50-65 words.

How you are scored

Content: Each replacement, omission or insertion of a word counts as one error Maximum score depends on the length of the item prompt

Pronunciation: 5 Native-like 4 Advanced 3 Good 2 Intermediate 1 Intrusive 0 Non-English

Oral fluency: 5 Native-like 4 Advanced 3 Good 2 Intermediate 1 Limited, 0 Disfluent

1. Internal Combustion Engine 

Internal combustion engine enables the driver to decide which source of power is appropriate for the travel requirements of a given journey. Major US auto manufacturers are now developing feasible hybrid electric vehicles, and some are exploring fuel-cell technology for their electric cars.

2. Online Shopping 

A unique characteristic of online shopping environments is that they allow vendors to create retail interfaces with highly interactive features. One desirable form of interactivity from a consumer perspective is the implementation of sophisticated tools to assist shoppers in their purchase decisions by customizing the electronic shopping environment to their individual preferences.

3. MBA 

Exhilarating, exhausting and intense. There are just some of the words used to describe doing an MBA. Everyone’s experience of doing MBA is, of course, different through denying that it’s hard and a demanding work whichever course you do. MBA is one of the fastest growing areas of studying in the UK so that must be a sustainable benefit against form in one pain.

4. Educational Demand 

Public demand for education has remained strong, reflecting the importance of education as a means of social progress. Aware of the social value of education to the world of the work, the government continues to innovate and update the education system in order to produce a qualified and competent work force.

5. Abstract Preparation 

The preparation of abstracts is an intellectual effort, requiring general familiarity with the subject. To bring out the salient points of an author’s argument calls for skills and experience. Consequently, a considerable amount of qualified manpower that could be used to advantage in other ways must be diverted to the task of facilitating access to information.

6. Tea Ceremony 

The Japanese tea ceremony is a ritual tour influenced by Buddhism in which green tea is prepared and served to a small group of guests in a peaceful setting. The ceremony can take as long as four hours and there are many traditional gestures that both the server and the guest must perform.

7. Recycling 

When we recycle, used materials are converted into new products, reducing the need to consume natural resources. If used materials are not recycled, new products are made by extracting fresh, raw material from the Earth, through mining and forestry. Recycling helps conserve important raw materials and protects natural habitats for the future.

8. Companies 

Companies will want to be known not just for the financial results they generate, but equally for the imprint they leave on society as a whole. First, ensuring that their products contribute positively. Second, operating in a way that approaches a "net-neutral" impact to the natural environment. And third, cherishing their people.

9. Examination 

The department determines whether or not the candidate has passed the examination. In cases where an appearance for the final public oral examination would constitute a substantial financial hardship for the candidate, the director of graduate studies may recommend to the dean of the Graduate School that the examination be waived.

10. Measurable Benefit 

Perhaps the most measurable benefit of the program has been the opportunity to me in small groups, something that is difficult to arrange such a desperate organization. Many officers would have to work together for thirty years but would not know other's strengths and weaknesses.

11. Domestic Division 

Traditional divisions of domestic work are understood to persist because of the strong association of the home with femininity and paid work with masculinity - to challenge who does what in the home is arguably tantamount to challenging what it is to be a woman or a man.

12. Nutritionally Bankrupt 

Globalization has affected what we eat in ways we are only beginning to understand. Modern food production no longer relates to our biological needs but is in direct conflict with them. The relationship between diet and our fertility, our risk of cancer, heart disease and mental illness is becoming clearer. Yet much of our food is nutritionally bankrupt.

13. Actor Training 

Training to become an actor is an intensive process which requires curiosity, courage and commitment. You’ll learn how to prepare for rehearsal, how to rehearse and how to use independent and proactive processes to achieve your best work possible for stage and screen.

14. Orientalists 

Orientalists, like many other nineteenth-century thinkers, conceive of humanity either in large collective terms or in abstract generalities. Orientalists are neither interested in nor capable of discussing individuals; instead, artificial entities predominate. Similarly, the age-old distinction between "Europe" and "Asia" or "Occident" and "Orient" herds beneath very wide labels of every possible variety of human plurality, reducing it in the process to one or two terminal collective realities.

15. Business School Admission 

Business school admissions officers said the new drive to attract younger students was in part the result of a realization that they had inadvertently limited their applicant pool by requiring several years' work experience. Talented students who might otherwise have gone to business school instead opted for a law or policy degree because they were intimidated by the expectation of work experience.

16. Elephant 

The elephant is the largest living land mammal. During evolution, its skeleton has greatly altered from the usual mammal, designed for two main reasons. One is to cope with the great weight of huge grinding cheek teeth and elongated tusk, making the skull particularly massive. The other is to support the enormous bulk of such a huge body.

17. Shrimp Farm 

Shrimp farmers used to hold animals in nursery ponds for 30 to 60 days; now they try to move them into grow-out ponds in less than 30 days. This reduces stress on the animals and dramatically increases survivals in the grow-out ponds. Many farms that abandoned nursery ponds have gone back to them, and the results have been surprisingly positive. They're using the old, uncovered, earthen, nursery ponds.

18. Statistical Information 

The provision of accurate and authoritative statistical information strengthens modern societies. It provides a basis for decisions to be made on such things as where to open schools and hospitals, how much money to spend on welfare payments and even which football players to replace at half-time.

19. Slang 

Australians do speak English. However, for some tourists and travelers, it can be difficult to understand the slang. Also, the links between Australian and American English were seen to be very tenuous. At least some colloquialisms in Australian English do not exist in other types of English.

20. Brain 

The brain is divided into its 'hemispheres' by a prominent groove. At the base of this lies nerve fibers which enable these two halves of the brain to communicate with each other. But the left hemisphere usually controls movement and sensation in the right side of the body, while the right hemisphere similarly controls the left side of the body.

21. Grand Canyon 2 

Few things in the world produce such amazement as one's first of glimpse of the Grand Canyon; it took around more than 2 billion years to create this vast wonder - in some places. 17 miles wide, largely through the relentless force of Colorado River, which runs 277 miles along its length, a mile beneath its towering rims.

22. Electric Car 

First-year university students have designed and built a groundbreaking electric car that recharges itself. Fifty students from the University of Sydney's Faculty of Engineering spent five months cobbling together bits of plywood, foam and fiberglass to build the ManGo concept car. They developed the specifications and hand built the car. It's a pretty radical design: a four-wheel drive with a motor in each wheel.

23. Tesla 

Tesla's theoretical work formed the basis of modern alternating current electric power systems. Thomas Edison promised him almost one million dollars in today's money to undertake motor and generator improvement. However, when Tesla asked about the money, Edison reportedly replied "Tesla, you don't understand our American humor." The pair became arch-rivals.

24. MBA Students 

Along with customary classes on subjects such as finance, accounting, and marketing, today's MBA students are enrolling on courses for environmental policy and stewardship. Indeed, more than half of business schools require a course in environmental sustainability or corporate social responsibility, according to a survey of 91 US business schools, published in October 2005.

25. Fast Food 

Hundreds of millions of American people eat fast food every day without giving it too much thought, unaware of the subtle and not so subtle ramifications of their purchases. They just grab their tray off the counter, find a table, take a seat, unwrap the paper, and dig in. The whole experience is transitory and soon forgotten.

26. Bookkeeper Fraud 

A national study into fraud by bookkeepers employed at small and medium-sized businesses has uncovered 65 instances of theft in more than five years, with more than $31 million stolen. Of the cases identified by the research, 56 involved women and nine instances involved men. However, male bookkeepers who defrauded their employer stole three times, on average, the amount that women stole.

27. Black Swan 

Before European explorers had reached Australia, it was believed that all swans were white. Dutch mariner, Antonie Caen, was the first to be amazed at the sight of Australia's Black swans on the Shark Bay in 1636. Explorer Willem de Vlamingh captured two of these creatures on Australia's Swan River and returned with them to Europe to prove their existence. From that point on, black swans and Australia have been closely linked.

28. Semiconductor Industry 

The semiconductor industry has been able to improve the performance of electronic systems for more than four decades by making ever-smaller devices. However, this approach will soon encounter both scientific and technical limits, which is why the industry is exploring a number of alternative device technologies.

29. Legal Writing 

Legal writing is usually less discursive than writing in other humanities subjects, and precision is more important than variety. Sentence structure should not be too complex; it is usually unnecessary to make extensive use of adjectives or adverbs, and consistency of terms is often required.

30. Russia 

Long isolated from Western Europe, Russia grew up without participating in the development like the Reformation that many Russians taking pride in their unique culture find dubious value. Russia is, as a result, the most unusual member of the European family, if indeed it is European at all. The question is still open to debate, particularly among Russians themselves.

31. The UN 

Since its inception, the UN system has been working to ensure adequate food for all through sustainable agriculture. The majority of the world's poorest people live in rural areas of developing countries. They depend on agriculture and related activities for their livelihoods. This makes them particularly vulnerable to man-made and natural influences that reduce agricultural production.

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