Here is a step by step guide for completing this kind of task. Remember to practise these steps until you have memorised them! Take a look at the task below.
| It is a common 9 ……………….. that only men suffer from colorblindness. On average 10 ……………….. than ten percent of men have this problem. Women have two 11 ……………….. For this reason it is 12……………….. for a woman to suffer from colorblindness. |
||||||||||
|
Often, the first thing you think is “what shall I read first?” In this case, the first thing to do is think about your grammar knowledge – just like you do in the listening exam during your preparation time. What kind of words do I need? What are the most logical answers?
9 – must be a singular noun
10 – something related to the percentage – must be “more” or “less”
11 – a plural, countable noun
12 – needs an adjective
Does this knowledge help you? Now look at the text here http://www.ielts-exam.net/ielts_reading/119/#P6b What you want to do is pick a keyword from the first sentence of the question, and match that to something in the text. Look at the beginning of paragraph B and you can see “men” and “colorblindness”. Now all you need to do is match a word or a synonym to one of the possible answers (you can see the word “myth” very early on – the answer to question 9).
Now complete the other three questions.
Summary
- Read the question and look at the grammar first
- Match a keyword / keywords from the first sentence to a location in the text
- Match synonyms or exact words to words in the box
So, in this task you don’t need to understand very much at all – you are just matching a few words and synonyms! Good news!
Simon