Of the two summary questions in IELTS Reading, the one where you have a list of words is the most difficult.
This is because there are more steps to this type of question and also the words may not be exact synonyms but there will be words there in the box that look as though they might be synonyms. The skill is to discriminate among the list for the exact match.
The first thing you need to do is find the right place in the text. Check out the sentences that do not have gaps – these are here to help you find the exact place you need to look. I often find that students ignore these sentences – why? – you should always be thinking ‘why is that in the question?’ Try to paraphrase what you are given (you should do this with lots of question types) so you know precisely what you are looking for. Now using what you have in the question, search the text for the right place.
Take note also while you read, of the type of word you need – is it a noun? singular or plural? Try to substitute words that will fit - this will help you to find the appropriate word and also you may just pick the correct answer without even looking. It’s always good just to check, however, as often the ‘easy’ choice isn’t the right one!
So these are the steps:
- Look at the missing word in its context (in the question) check the other sentences given so you can locate the exact place.
- Look at what sort of word you need, noun, verb adjective etc.
- Look at any other features about the word – singular, plural - is there an article, is there an adjective or adverb or quantifier?
- Now go to the text and find the bit that is missing in the information (the gap)
- Match this word against the choices and pick your answer.
- Now move on to the next one.
- Try to do them systematically as the sentences are generally related to each other and it makes it easier to find them if you follow the paragraph.
Here is an example:
The discipline of neuroaesthetics aims to bring scientific objectivity to the study of art. Neurological studies of the brain, for example, demonstrate the impact which impressionist paintings have on our 31 ________ .
Alex Forsythe of the University of Liverpool believes many artists give their works the precise degree of 32 ________ which most appeals to the viewer’s brain. She also observes that pleasing works of art often contain certain repeated 33 ________ which occur frequently in the natural world.
A interpretation B complexity C emotions
D movements E skill F layout
G concern H images
All the gaps are nouns. In 32, we have ‘our’ so it could be singular, plural or uncountable – it looks like all would potentially fit here but perhaps C, F, G and H sound odd. 32 is a bit different as we have ‘the’ so it looks like a singular noun is best (or uncountable) therefore D, C and H won’t fit grammatically and F and G sound a bit strange. Finally 33 appears to be a plural or uncountable noun (repeated) so C, D and H would work.
Searching for neuroaesthetics, we see the word impressionist paintings and understand that they stimulate the amygdala – in the next line we learn that the amygdala is responsible for ‘feelings’ so the answer must be C (emotions). If we look for Alex Forsythe for the next question we discover that what artists give their work is a ‘key level of detail’ which would here be B (complexity).
Finally, to find 33 we need to search for repeated and a comparison with the natural world – it should be around the same place as the previous question because of ‘she’. We find the word ‘fractals’ which we are told are common in nature. To make a match we need to find out what these are and in the next sentence we fins that these are shapes and patterns which adapt to our visual system. This is not so straightforward but looking at the possible choices only H (images) will fit the information (C has been used and D doesn’t go with’ visual’).
As with all techniques for IELTS reading – you need to practise so it becomes efficient.