As you know, IELTS questions often use synonyms, antonyms (the opposite), or short definitions of high-level words.
Here’s an article from one of my favorite free IELTS reading sites, Newsela, with some of the words in bold.
Read the passage and answer the questions below:
“Bennu is shaped like a ball, with a fat middle. Scientists believe the equatorial girth is loose rubble or gravel, the ideal size for collecting a sample. The asteroid rotates every four hours — yes, a day is just over four hours at Bennu. This rotation is slow enough for a spacecraft to reach out and suck in samples, using nitrogen gas to stir up the surface. “We are basically a space vacuum cleaner,” Lauretta said Wednesday. Also think hummingbird, as the spacecraft hovers over Bennu during the big grab. Bennu is believed to be 1,600 feet across. Asteroids smaller than 650 feet in diameter were eliminated as candidates; they spin so fast that their surface material can be hurled out into space.”
Q: What are the synonyms (or definitions) for these words?
- rubble/gravel
- ideal
- to stir up
- diameter
- to hurl