Even before you read, you should be able to predict
① must be a noun after “The”
② likely to be a noun after “from”
③ must be a verb form
④ must be an adjective between “this” and “theory”
The table below shows some examples from an IELTS reading paper. As you can see, paraphrasing and synonyms are used in many of the questions and if you were looking for words that exactly match those in the text you wouldn’t find them. Instead, be aware that you are looking for meaning; not words.
Sometimes the question will state ‘using words from the text’ or ‘from the text’. In this case you should only use words from the text and not change them or use different forms of the words. If it does not say this, then you are allowed to change the words as long as the meaning is the same.
your answer 2. This is also a text completion task, but this time you can only use 1 or 2 words from
the passage 3. This is not a text completion task. The words you use do not need to come from the
We have to understand how Cambridge actually make the IELTS reading tests in order to be successful. The people who write the tests take a piece of writing and they then use paraphrasing and synonyms to make many of the questions.
➢ Also note that it says ‘from the text’. This means that we can’t change the words from the text.
The word limit and whether we should use words from the text or not can change from question to question so read questions carefully. 1. Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the
Another major problem is that the words used in the text you have to complete will not exactly match the words from the passage. This means that you need to read for meaning and not simply look for the same words in the passage. For example, there is no point looking for the word “pet” as the word in the passage is “domesticated”.
Read the instructions carefully, noting how many words you can write and whether you should include the exact words from the question or not.
Read the incomplete sentences first. Think about what word form can be used and try to predict the answer. Also think about keywords and how they could be represented by synonyms or paraphrasing.
passage for each answer. 2. Complete the table below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage
for each answer. 3. Answer the question below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer. In each case you need to do something different. 1. This a text completion task and you can use 1,2 or 3 words from the passage for
Sentence Completion
Paraphrasing trategy
The task is to complete a text with words from the passage. The text you need to complete can vary, sometimes it is a series of sentences, sometimes a table and sometimes a short summary.
Check how many words it asks you to write. If it says ‘no more than two’, you can write one or two words. If it says ‘no more than three’, you can write one, two or three words. Remember that numbers written numerically, such as 72 count as one word and hyphenated words, such as state-of-the-art, count as one word.
The answers appear in the same order as the questions. The answer to number 1 will be above number 2, and the answer to number 3 will be below the answer to number 2.
⑤ either a place or a time after “in”
Tip: Even if you can predict the correct word form before you read, you must check afterwards that what you have written is good grammar.
➢ Note that it says NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer. This means that we can write one or two words only. If we write any more than this, we get the question wrong.
Find where the answer is located in the text before you try to answer the question. Remember where before what.
Read the questions before reading the text.
passage
Questions The (1)________________ were the first people to have the cat as a pet. We
know this from (2)______________________ created over millennia ago and it is thought that cats (3)_________________ so that they could enjoy eternal life. There is, however, some doubt about this (4)__________________ theory because the remains of a cat were found buried with human remains in (5)____________.
Locate where the information is by scanning quickly. If you can’t locate the answer quickly, move on.
Read the incomplete sentence again. Study the reading text more carefully to establish the answer. Check your spelling.