This is not one of the more common questions but should be studied all the same. You are being tested on your understanding of how the ideas in the sentences are connected to the main ideas in the reading text.
This post
will:
- look at example questions
- discuss common problems
- give you tips and advice
- provide you with a strategy to use on exam day
1. Example question
As you can see below, there are a number of incomplete sentences and you must match them with the correct endings. There will always be more options than you actually need. In the exam there are normally 4-6 incomplete sentences and 7-10 optional endings.
2. Common Problems
1. Lots of people think that they can answer these questions by using logic and grammar and they don’t look at the reading text. They think this will save them time and they can work out the answer quickly just by looking at the answers and matching the sentences that make the most sense. Don’t do this. It is a test of your understanding of the reading text more than a test of how sentences generally go together.
2. The examiner will try and trick you by connecting ideas in the reading text to endings that are not the correct answer. Remember that you are matching incomplete sentences to endings, not endings to the text.
3. Many people look for the exact words contained in the question in the reading text. The examiners will probably use synonyms and paraphrasing instead of exactly the same words.
4. Don’t waste your time looking for words that exactly match with the text, instead look for synonyms and paraphrases.
For a more
detailed look at paraphrasing and synonyms check out our post on sentence
completions tips.
3. Tips
1. The answers are in the same order in the text as they are in the questions, so the answer to question 2 will be after the answer to question 1 and so on. Locate question one first and then you know where to begin.
2. Try to predict how each sentence will end before you look at the endings. Start with the incomplete sentences first before you look at the endings or the text. There are more endings than required, so looking at all of these in detail is a waste of time.
3. Think of synonyms and paraphrases that the examiners could be using instead of exactly the same words.
4. All of the sentence endings appear in the text, but you don’t need to read all of them, just the ones that you decide to match with the incomplete sentences.
5. When highlighting keywords, it is often a good idea to highlight any names, including place names, or dates. These are often easy to find in the reading text.
6. Don’t just match words. Make sure the meaning in the reading text matches.
7. Spend more time on the first question because this is the most difficult. You have lots of different options for the first question and it will take you more time to work out the answer. The last question should take you much less time because you have less options to choose from.
4. Strategy
1. Read the question carefully.
2. Read the incomplete sentences first and don’t look at the endings yet. Try to understand what they mean and highlight any keywords especially names, places or dates.
3. Predict what the endings might be before looking at them. Think about what word type (verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs) makes the sentence grammatically correct.
4. Look at the endings but not in too much detail. Try to see if there are any obvious answers.
5. Eliminate endings that definitely cannot match. Think about grammar, collocations and meaning.
6. Match the endings you think might be correct. Write two or three options if necessary.
7. Find the correct part of the reading text for each incomplete sentence. Be careful with synonyms and paraphrases.
8. Understand the meaning of that part of the text and choose the correct answer.
Summary
Task type and format
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Test takers are given the first half of a sentence based on the text and
asked to choose the best way to complete it from a list of possible options.
They will have more options to choose from than there are questions.
Test takers must write the letter they have chosen on the answer sheet.
The questions are in the same order as the information in the passage: that
is, the answer to the first question in this group will be found before the
answer to the second question, and so on. This task type may be used with any
type of text.
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Task focus
|
Matching sentence endings assesses the test takers’ ability to understand
the main ideas within a sentence.
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No. of questions
|
Variable
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I hope you
found this useful. If you have any questions please let me know in the comments
below or on the Facebook page.
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