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IELTS Reading Classification question

In this exercise you will train your IELTS Reading skills and develop answering techniques
for classification questions in IELTS Reading. Just to remind you, in classification questions
you're given some options (A, B, C etc.) and a list of statements. Your task is to read the text,
and connect each statement to one option.

Fluctuation of unemployment rate

During the recent downturn, the unemployment rate in America jumped from 4.4% to 10%.
Economic growth has since pepped up. But unemployment is nowhere near pre-crisis lows:
America’s rate, at 6.2%, is still 40% higher than late 2006. Economists are raising the spectre
of “structural” unemployment to explain this puzzle. What is it?

Economists often refer to three types of unemployment: "frictional", “cyclical” and


“structural”. Cold-hearted economists are not too worried about the first two, which refer to
people moving between jobs and those temporarily laid-off during a downturn.

Frictional unemployment exists because both jobs and workers are heterogeneous (in other
words, they have different expectations). And a mismatch can result between the
characteristics of supply and demand. Such a mismatch can be related to skills, payment,
worktime, location, attitude, taste, and a multitude of other factors. New entrants (such as
graduating students) and re-entrants (such as former homemakers) can also suffer a spell of
frictional unemployment. Workers as well as employers accept a certain level of
imperfection, risk or compromise, but usually not right away; they will invest some time and
effort to find a match. This is in fact beneficial to the economy since it results in a better
allocation of resources. However, if the search takes too long and mismatches are too
frequent, the economy suffers, since some work will not get done. Therefore, governments
seek ways to reduce unnecessary frictional unemployment, and hopefully it’s not hard to do
so.

The second type, cyclical unemployment deals with an economy's business cycle. Cyclical
unemployment occurs when there are job losses during downturns and contractions in the
business cycle. A lack of demand is one of the main factors that cause cyclical
unemployment. When there is a drop in consumer demand, business revenues usually decline.
Consequently, companies have to lay off workers to cut their costs to maintain their profit
margins.

For example, the U.S. economy faced cyclical unemployment during the 2008 financial
crisis. As more and more subprime mortgage lenders filed for bankruptcy, homes were not
being constructed. Consequently, many people who were employed as construction workers
and home builders lost their jobs and experienced cyclical unemployment.

The third kind refers to people who are excluded, perhaps permanently, from the labour
market. In econo-speak, structural unemployment refers to the mismatch between the number
of people looking for jobs and the number of jobs available. It is bad news both for those who
suffer from it and for the society in which they live. People out of work for long periods tend
to have poorer health than average. The structurally unemployed also squeeze social-security
budgets.

Structural unemployment in advanced economies has been rising for decades, as jobs in
industries like mining and manufacturing have withered. In Britain between 1984 and 1992,
employment in coal mining fell by 77% and in steelmaking by 72%. Communities that were
built around a single profession were devastated. Many of the people affected only had
experience of a specific, high-skill job. They did not have the skills or attributes needed to be
successful in many service-sector jobs (such as working in a call centre or in a restaurant).
Hence they were structurally unemployed. A different problem may be afflicting advanced
economies today. The downturn was truly nasty and has lasted for years. Many people gave
up looking for a job and withdrew from the labour force. In America the number of these

“discouraged workers” jumped from 370,000 in 2007 to 1.2m in 2010. (Today it is twice its
2007 level.)

Most economists would accept that a certain level of unemployment is inevitable: an attempt
to achieve full employment would stoke massive wage inflation. Whatever its causes,
governments have to understand structural unemployment. Economic growth alone will not
be enough to get everyone into work. Supply-side reforms, such as job training (known by
wonks as “active labour market policies”) are also needed.

Questions 1-8
Classify the following statements as referring to:

frictional unemployment
cyclical unemployment
structural unemployment

Write the appropriate letters A, B or C in boxes 1-8:

1. Mismatch between the number of people looking for jobs and the number of jobs
available results in a long-term unemployment.
__________

2. In 2008 many Americans who were employed as construction workers lost their jobs.
__________

3. Downturns in the economy’s business cycle results in temporary job losses.


__________

4. It is not difficult to reduce this kind of unemployment.


__________

5. As jobs in industries like mining and manufacturing have withered, this type of
unemployment has started to rise in advanced economies.
__________

6. Mismatch between the characteristics of supply and demand on job market results in
this type of unemployment.
__________

7. During the economy’s most massive downfalls, many people give up looking for a job
and withdraw from the labour force.
__________

8. To reduce this kind of unemployment, society needs supply-side reforms and job
trainings.
__________
ANSWERS
TRUE, FALSE, NOT GIVEN

Read the text and answer the questions below.

Is there such a thing as Canadian English? If so, what is it?

  The standard stereotype among Americans is that Canadians are like Americans, except they say ‘eh’ a
lot and pronounce ‘out and about’ as ‘oot and aboot’. Many Canadians, on the other hand, will tell you
that Canadian English is more like British English, and as proof will hold aloft the spellings colour and
centre and the name zed for the letter Z.

  Canadian does exist as a separate variety of British English, with subtly distinctive features of
pronunciation and vocabulary. It has its own dictionaries; the Canadian Press has its own style guide; the
Editors’ Association of Canada has just released a second edition of Editing Canadian English. But an
emblematic feature of Editing Canadian English is comparison tables of American versus British spellings
so the Canadian editor can come to a reasonable decision on which to use… on each occasion. The core
of Canadian English is a pervasive ambivalence.

  Canadian history helps to explain this. In the beginning there were the indigenous people, with far
more linguistic and cultural variety than Europe. They’re still there, but Canadian English, like Canadian
Anglophone society in general, gives them little more than desultory token nods. Fights between
European settlers shaped Canadian English more. The French, starting in the 1600s, colonised the St
Lawrence River region and the Atlantic coast south of it. In the mid-1700s, England got into a war with
France, concluding with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which ceded ‘New France’ to England. The English
allowed any French to stay who were willing to become subjects of the English King.

  At the time of the Treaty of Paris, however, there were very few English speakers in Canada. The
American Revolution changed that. The founding English-speaking people of Canada were United
Empire Loyalists – people who fled American independence and were rewarded with land in Canada.
Thus Canadian English was, from its very beginning, both American – because its speakers had come
from the American colonies – and not American, because they rejected the newly independent nation.

  Just as the Americans sought to have a truly distinct, independent American version of English, the
loyalists sought to remain more like England… sort of. These were people whose variety of English was
already diverging from the British and vice versa: when the residents of London and its environs began to
drop their r’s and change some of their vowels people in certain parts of the United States adopted some
of these changes, but Canadians did not.

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?

In boxes 1-5, chose

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information


FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1. Canadian English is considered more like British English by Canadians.


________
2. According to the second paragraph, Canadian English is pretty similar to British, with some
minor differences.
________
3. The St Lawrence River was colonised by Canadians in 1600.
________
4. Canadian English is considered neither American nor not American.
________
5. The fifth paragraph states that many English-speaking countries adopted changes in
pronunciation. ________

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