I'm going to talk about a question type called sentence completion.
With this type of task, you need to fill in a gap in a sentence with words containing
important points from the Listening text. The gap could be at the start, middle or end
of the sentence and it's important that you keep within a word limit.
This type of question can appear in any of the four sections of the Listening Test. Let’s
look at an example of a sentence completion question.
As you can see, questions 21 and 22 are sentences which have gaps here. These are examples of
sentence completion with gaps in the middle of the sentence.
The instructions, here, will tell you how many words or numbers you need to write. So, in
this example, you are limited to no more than two words.
There are a few very important things to remember when you do this type of question.
First of all, you need to write down the missing word or missing words in exactly the same
form as you hear them. You should not change the words in any way.
Also, the sentences on the question paper are a paraphrased form of what you hear in
the recording. That is, you will hear different words in
the recording to what you see on the page, but their meaning will be the same.
Remember as well that, like all the other sections of the IELTS Test, it's important
to spell answers correctly.
Let's talk about how to approach this task. First of all, before you listen, read the
instructions carefully to see how many words or numbers you need to write in the answer.
Then, highlight the keywords in the sentences and think of similar words, synonyms, that
you might hear in the recording. You should also think about the type of word that might
complete each gap. For example, could the missing word be a time, or maybe an amount?
Could it be a noun or an adjective perhaps?
Then, listen for the synonyms of the written sentence keywords that you have thought of.
These will help you find the answer. When you think you have the answer, write it in
the gap with the correct spelling. Later in the test, of course, you will need to transfer
this to the answer sheet, but it will help you later, if you get it correct now.
Another important step which you should do after listening is to read the complete sentence
to make sure it's grammatically correct. But what if you see that your completed sentence
is not grammatically correct?
Well, you may have made a mistake for one of the following reasons. The first reason
could be that you have not heard the correct form of the word.
As you can see in this example, you think you heard 'table' in the recording, but the
speaker actually said 'tables', which is the plural form of table. So this answer cannot
be correct.
Remember that only the form of the word that is used in the recording can be used.
Another reason that your answer might be wrong is because you have chosen the wrong word
from the listening. For example, if the words 'furniture' and 'tables' were used by the
speaker and you chose furniture, then this answer is wrong because, in this sentence,
it is grammatically incorrect. That is, furniture is an uncountable noun and so it doesn't fit
the gap.
As you have seen, grammar is particularly important in this question type. So, by being
careful about your grammar, you can improve your chances of getting a higher score.
Now take some time to review the written summary of how to do this task.