IELTS Reading: Match Headings

About the Task

You will be given a passage consisting of a number of paragraphs, each dealing with a particular theme. You will also be given a list of ‘Headings’ as options. Your task is to match each heading with the corresponding paragraph, based on the theme.

(There may be extra options.)

Sample Task

Find the reading passage at this link to the official IELTS page: https://www.ielts.org/-/media/pdfs/pb-sample-test-materials/academic-reading-sample-task-identifying-information-true-false-not-given.ashx?la=en. 

In your mind, label each paragraph as ‘A, B, C…’. Then come back and answer the following questions.

Reading Passage has 7 sections, A-G.

 Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-vii, in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.

1. First theory of birds being related to dinosaurs 

2. Discovery of fossils settling the debate

3. Revival of Huxley’s theory

4. First debunking of the ‘birds are dinosaurs’ theory 

5. Acceptance of common ancestor 

6. Cladistics changed the study of evolutionary relationships 

7. Major differences between bird and dinosaurs: How could they be related? 

How to Solve the Task?

Follow these steps:

1. Read the options of the headings.

2. Keeping the headings in mind, read the passage carefully. Identify the key theme in each paragraph.

3. As you read, see if you are able to match a particular heading with a paragraph.

4. Once you have read the whole passage and found all the key themes, go back to the beginning and link each paragraph with a heading based on the overlapping theme.

5. Fill in the answers.

Tips and Tricks

• How to identify the key theme? As you read the paragraph, try to figure out what the entire paragraph is trying to tell you. There may be multiple points and examples, but what is the idea linking all of them together? That’s your theme!

• Do not expect to find the exact wording of the headings in the passage. Concentrate on the meaning.

Correct answers: i. B, ii. G, iii. D, iv. C, v. F, vi. A, vii. E
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