IELTS Reading: Why fairy tales are really scary tales 🧚‍♀️👻

<p>I had a special request from Isabella on Instagram today 👋🇧🇷. She asked me to look at a really difficult text (yes, this one's 9/10!).</p> <p>It's an Academic Passage 3 and it follows the Reading Type 2 structure (discursive) which goes like this -</p> <p><strong>Title: </strong>asks a question (<strong>Why? </strong>The answer is not what everyone thinks).</p> <p><strong>1. Old theory:</strong> Everyone thinks fairy tales have endured because the <strong>STORIES</strong> give us <strong>WARNINGS</strong> about life e.g. <em>Little Red Riding Hood.</em></p> <p><strong>2. New theory: </strong>Everyone is wrong. There's another reason.</p> <p><strong>3. Test to prove the old theory is wrong: </strong>Is the STORY important? 'NO'. Is the WARNING important? Answer: 'NO'.</p> <p><strong>4. Results of the test:</strong> The reason why fairy tales have endured is just that people enjoy scary stories.</p> <p><strong>5. Althernative theory (instantly proved wrong):</strong> The stories remain relevant because they're about women as victims.</p> <p><strong>6. Conclusion: </strong>Everyone likes scary stories because they build up our resistance to negative emotions, so the first theory is probably right.</p> <p>You can find similar 'discursive' structures here:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://ieltsetc.com/2018/08/ielts-reading-easter-island/"><strong>What destroyed the civilisation of Easter Island?</strong></a></li> <li><a href="https://ieltsetc.com/2019/02/ielts-reading-match-headings-first-lines/"><strong>Is there anybody out there? </strong></a><em>The search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.</em></li> <li><a href="https://ieltsetc.com/2018/12/ielts-reading-autumn-leaves/"><strong>Autumn Leaves</strong></a><strong> </strong><em>Canadian writer Jay Ingram investigates the mystery of why leaves turn red in the fall.</em></li> </ul> <p>My updated guide to <a href="https://ieltsetc.com/2020/03/time-management-ielts-reading-test/">Time Management in the Reading Test </a>gives you 8 techniques to help you improve your