IELTS Reading – diagram completion

How to tackle this type of reading.

You are given a text and a diagram or a plan, which you have to label according to the text.
Your diagram may be a technical drawing, a description of something from the natural
world, a process or a plan of something.
This is how the diagram completion question may look like on IELTS Reading test:

 Read the text, underlining the new terms and important names.
 Look at the diagram and think which parts of it you can label.
 Check your assumptions by looking back at underlined terms and label the parts
you’re sure of.
 If there are some unlabelled parts left, check the diagram for key words. Then, scan
the text for the right answer.
Label the parts of a leaf on the diagram below. Choose ONE WORD from the Reading
Passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
Answers and explanations

1. Arrow near the number 1 points to the little threads in the middle of
the leaf. After you look at the underlined words, you’ll see what’s
written in the fourth paragraph:

If you look closer at leaves, you will notice networks of thin threads.
Those networks are called veins.

So the correct answer is: veins or vein.

2. The second arrow points to a large vein in the centre of the leaf. The
last sentence of the fourth paragraph says: The main vein of a leaf,
running down the centre of the leaf, is called midrib. So the correct
answer is: midrib.

3. The bracket near number 3 captures the main part of the leaf. The
third paragraph tells us that

The blade is the broad, flat part of the leaf.

Thus, the correct answer is blade.

4. The fourth part you have to label is the part of the leaf that connects it
to the plant’s stem. And once again, you scan the text for the
underlined words and see this phrase in the last paragraph:

The area of some plants that connects the plant's stem and leaf is called
the petiole.

So the correct answer is petiole.