IELTS Reading

Matching Sentence Endings

Explanation :
The instructions will contain two lists:

· A list of incomplete sentences.

· A list of possible sentence endings.

Your task is to match them together based on the information in the reading text.
There will be more sentence endings than beginnings so you won’t need them all.

Here’s an example from a past test paper:

Source: Cambridge English Past Test Paper

Key tips
1) The answers appear in the same order in the text as the order of the list of incomplete
sentences.

2) Use a process of elimination to select the correct answers.

3) Don’t read the text until you’ve studied the incomplete sentences and the sentence
endings.

4) You don’t need to read the whole text in detail, just the relevant sentences.

5) All the sentence endings will appear in the text but not all will match one of the
incomplete sentences.
6) Synonyms and paraphrasing will be used. You are matching meaning, not the exact words.

7) The grammatical structure of the two halves of the sentence must match. If they don’t, you
have the wrong match.

The Strategy
# 1 Read just the incomplete sentences to start with and try to understand what they mean.

# 2 Highlight key words. This will help you to focus on the meaning and identify the words
you will later scan the text for.

# 3 Now read the sentence endings to get their general meaning.

# 4 Next, start looking for possible matches. Many of the possible sentence combinations will
clearly be wrong due either to meaning or grammatical structure. You can eliminate these
immediately.

Here’s what to do.

a) Go to the first incomplete sentence and read it carefully.

b) Look down the list of sentence endings and note those that could be a potential match.
Write their letter next to the incomplete sentence you’re considering, e.g.

1. B, C, F

2. A, E

You will probably spot at least one obviously correct match straight away and certainly many
that can’t be correct and can be quickly eliminated.

This won’t take too long and you’ll end up with a comprehensive list of potential correct
answers. Doing this first will narrow down your search considerably when you come to look
for the right answers in the text.

# 5 Now it’s time to find the location of the first answer in the text.

Watch out for synonyms and paraphrasing.

# 6 Once you’ve found the right part of the text, read around the key words for the
information to enable you to select the correct answer.

# 7 Double-check that the matched sentence is grammatically correct and fill in your answer
sheet. Then, cross through the sentence ending in the list to eliminate it from further
consideration.
# 8 Repeat this strategy for the remaining incomplete sentences. Remember that the rest of
the answers will come in order in the text.
1) First, I read all the incomplete sentences and thought about their meaning. I also
highlighted the key words.

1 The ancient species of crocodile ate marine creatures that

2 The skeleton is kept in

3 Bones of the early type of crocodile

4 The geology of southern Germany

2) Next, I read the sentence endings to get their general meaning.

3) I start looking for possible matches and note them beside the incomplete sentences.

1 The ancient species of crocodile ate marine creatures that C, F

2 The skeleton is kept in E, G

3 Bones of the early type of crocodile B

4 The geology of southern Germany A, D

A is believed to be 150 million years ago.

B show some unique features.

C resembled dolphins.

D was laid down when the area was under water.

E a museum in the town near where it was found.

F swam fast through the water.

G the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences.

There is one clear match – 3B.

3 Bones of the early type of crocodile

B show some unique features.

It’s the only match for sentence 3 that makes sense and is grammatically correct. I did
consider ending C (resembled dolphins) but it isn’t grammatically correct so doesn’t sound
quite right.

I fill in my answer and cross through B to eliminate it from further consideration.

4) I’m ready to begin looking for the locations of the other answers in the text.
I go to sentence 1 and scan for the keywords I highlighted earlier (crocodile, ate), thinking
about possible synonyms as I do so.

1 The ancient species of crocodile ate marine creatures that

I find both ‘crocodiles’ and ‘fed on’, a synonym of ate, in the second paragraph of section
one.

A The ancestor of today's crocodiles belonged to a group of animals that developed a tail fin
and paddle-like limbs for life in the sea, resembling dolphins more than crocodiles. These
slender animals, which fed on fast-moving prey such as squid and small fish, lived during the
Jurassic era in shallow seas and lagoons in what is now Germany.

I now have the location of the answer so go back to the list of sentence endings and re-read
the ones I’ve selected as possible answers.

C resembled dolphins.

F swam fast through the water.

Looking at the phrase after the words ‘fed on’, I see that the obvious match is sentence
ending F.

I check that the completed sentence is grammatically correct. It is, so I fill in my answer,
cross through ending F and move on to sentence 2.

5) As the answers come in order in the text, I scan on from the location of the first answer for
the next pair of key words I’ve chosen.

2 The skeleton is kept in

I spot ‘skeleton’ in the next paragraph but not ‘kept’ or anything that immediately seems to be
a synonym. However, on skim reading this paragraph and the next one, the context
paragraph B would suggest that this is where the answer is located.

I read in detail, searching for a synonym of my key word ‘kept’. I spot ‘housed’ which is a
match.

B An international team of scientists, including researchers from Germany and the University
of Edinburgh, identified the new species from a remarkably well-preserved skeleton. The
fossil was discovered in 2014 in a quarry near the town of Bamberg in Bavaria, Germany by a
team from the Naturkunde-Museum Bamberg, where it is now housed.

I’m confident that I have the location of the answer so go back to the list of sentence endings
and re-read the ones I’ve selected as possible answers.

E a museum in the town near where it was found.

G the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences.

The first thing I notice is that there’s no mention of ‘the University of Edinburgh's School of
GeoSciences’ in this paragraph so this can’t be the right answer and can be eliminated.

The match must thus be E. It’s hidden in the paraphrasing but I’ve got enough clues to know
that it’s right so don’t waste time double-checking it. I fill in my answer, check the grammar
and move on.

(If I didn’t feel confident enough to do this without being sure, I’d quickly scan the text
for ‘University of Edinburgh’ which would be easy to find being a name. If I did this I’d
immediately see that the paragraph it’s in has nothing to do with where the skeleton is kept so
it can’t be the right answer.)

6) I’ve already found the match for sentence 3 so I can go straight to sentence 4.

7) First I scan for the key word ‘Germany’ as it will be the easiest to find.

4 The geology of southern Germany

I spot it in paragraph D.

D Dr Mark Young, of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, who took part in
the study, said: "The rock formations of southern Germany continue to give us fresh insights
into the age of dinosaurs. These rock layers were deposited at a time when Europe was
covered by a shallow sea, with countries such as Germany and the UK being a collection of
islands."

I now look for ‘geology’. I can't see it but I know that it’s the study of ‘rock formation’ which
is in the text. I'm happy that I've found the location of the answer.

I now go to the two potential sentence endings and look for matching key words and meaning
in these.

A is believed to be 150 million years ago.

D was laid down when the area was under water.

Reading the paragraph in detail, I can see no mention of a period of time so doubt that it could
be answer A.

Answer D, however, has the phrase ‘the area was under water’ which is a near perfect match
for the phrase in the text ‘covered by a shallow sea’. This must be the answer. I fill it in and
I'm done.

(If I didn’t know the meaning of 'geology', I could still have found the answer by working
with key words in the sentence endings. It's often more a matter of eliminating impossible
matches than it is proving the correct one.)
I hope you’ve noticed in this explanation section that I haven’t wasted time reading
everything in detail to be sure of the answers. If the clues clearly point to a correct match, it’s
almost certainly right.

Time is your biggest enemy in the IELTS Reading test. Make your choice quickly and keep
moving on.

Answers

1 F

2 E

3 B

4 D
HOMEWORK

NAME MATCHING/ TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN/ SENTENCE COMPLETION

https://www.bestmytest.com/ielts/ielts-academic-reading/15