Logic (8 of 10)

One of the biggest problems in IELTS essays is a lack of logic. IELTS writing needs to be detailed and accurate, and you have to hit the target, dead centre, to get a high IELTS mark (hence the picture). So, let’s start thinking everyone.

Try to work out the logical problems with the following sentences. The answers will be given and explained in the next post.

1. Another major reason for some people smoking is ….
2. Smokers don’t have the common sense to give up.
3. When smokers inhale the drug, they feel pleasure.
4. Nicotine is a severe addiction.
5. A tax can pay for both health and the environment.

Answers to Logic 7 of 10

Here are the answers to the previous post.

I will give the original illogical sentence, then my comments.

1. He needed help to quit his smoking addiction.

We don’t quit an addiction. We just quit smoking. We can ‘break’ an addiction.

2. Smokers think this habit helps them release stress.

Smokers don’t ‘think’ smoking releases stress. It is actually a fact for them. The sentence should read, ‘Smoking helps smokers release stress.’

3. Raising cigarette prices will make smokers stop to buy cigarettes.

This is really a grammar error. There is a big difference between …

• To stop to buy something = I will stop (doing something) in order to buy it.
• To stop buying something = I will stop buying it = no longer buy it.

The student should use the second verb pattern: ‘stop buying’.

4. Smokers are addicted. That is why they are willing to buy cigarettes.

The word ‘willing’ is wrong. People are willing to do things that they want to do. Addicted people have to smoke. Many don’t want to do it; they have to do it. Thus, a better word would be ‘forced’ or ‘compelled’.

5. It started to decline until the end of the year.

Something starts at a point in time. It can’t ‘start’ over a period (‘until the end of the year’). The student should write, ‘It declines until the end of the year.’