matching features and matching information or sections paragraphs are the two IELTS reading
question types you voted to discuss in this video and rightly so they are
often overlooked in preparation but are commonly used in exams
let's look into strategies that can help you tackle these questions with speed
and accuracy and learn to apply these tips in practice it's Asiya let's get started [Music]
let's start with the matching information task in this reading passage 2 you are given five
sections to read through your task is to figure out which section contains certain information
based on a set of statements provided below now this type of question might remind you of matching
headings questions but there is an important difference between them in matching headings you
need to find the main idea of each paragraph which requires you to read everything on the other hand
with matching information you're asked to locate specific details within those sections so it's
more about finding certain information how do you go about solving matching information questions
our goal is to find answers quickly without getting lost in all the information
so here is my strategy first read the passage title to get an idea of what it's about
secondly look out for this note you may use any letter more than once in theory
this means that you're allowed to use the same option A B or C multiple times
but what I've discovered is that most likely one of the sections contains two answers
next carefully read through all the questions highlighting any relevant keywords and try to
memorize what each question is about don't spend too much time learning questions but pay attention
then go to the passage and read the first section or part of the section if it's long
return to your questions and check if any of them have been mentioned and Mark your answers
remember that not all sections contain an answer so it's okay if you don't find anything relevant
in the first section in this case move on to the next section and keep repeating the
process until you found all the answers if you finish the passage and you haven't found some of
the answers and have no idea where they were move on return to these questions only after
you answer the rest as it may take a lot of time now it's time to try this strategy in practice
I've prepared for you some questions from Cambridge practice test 17 Test 2 and I
recommend using these tests for your practice because they just like the real exam please count
how many questions you answer correctly and post your result in the comments at the end let's see
how well you can cope with this task and here is section A yes it's pretty long to start read the
title find the keywords then read the section and compare it to the questions below if that's too
much to read read the first half and then the second half go ahead and pause the video now
have you found your answer let's continue I found this bit at the very beginning it took at least 3
000 years for humans to learn how to domesticate the wild tomato and cultivate it for food
now two separate teams in Brazil and China have done it all over again in less than three years
and they have done it better in some ways this is question 17 a comparison between the early
domestication of the tomato and more recent research here is the second section pause the
video now done this answer is spread over several sentences while Tomatoes produce pea-sized fruits
people transform the plant which resulted in desirable traits or features such as larger fruits
sometimes the desirable mutations come with less desirable traits for instance the tomatoes grown
for supermarkets have lost much of their flavor now you know why our tomatoes are so tasteless
the answer is 15 B an explanation of how problems can arise when focusing only on a certain type
of tomato plant basically they try to grow large tomatoes and the problem is now they are tasteless
before we look into the matching features questions I want you to try one more section
because there is something unusual here please pause the video now
ready section discusses what changes were made in newly domesticated tomatoes and then we read
they're quite tasty a little bit strong and very aromatic the answer is 18 c a personal
reaction to the flavor have you found anything else how about this they managed to create a
strain or a kind of tomatoes resistant to a common disease called bacterios portrays and
in question 14 we're looking for a type of tomato that can resist a dangerous infection
to resist an infection is paraphrased as resistant to a disease the next question
type has a really useful trick that can help you a lot its matching features where you need
to match a set of questions or statements 19 20 21 two list of options in the Box ABC quite
often in this type of task you need to match research findings to a list of researchers
common denials academic in IELTS General training you may have a list of professions
or kinds of sports so what's the strategy firstly the questions which have numbers are not in order
so don't try to answer question 19 and then 2021 it doesn't work the good news is that options
are in order so first you read about kuta then GAO then Vanek there is a complication though
you may read about the same researchers several times so you definitely find good heart first and
GAO second but then you may read about kuta and GAO again before you get to wanek it still helps
to start just like with matching information questions carefully read all the questions
and highlight keywords now here is how you can answer these questions faster
scan the passage for options in our case surnames in many question types scanning doesn't work
because when you scan the text you don't get an understanding of what this passage is about but in
matching features that's fine as long as you have very specific options like surnames or professions
when you find an option mentioned slow down and carefully read the information about it
check if any of the questions match this information scan for the next option let
me show you how it works in practice we're gonna use the same passage about tomatoes
these questions come after the matching information questions you've just completed
so my tip is when you start a new section check all the question types if we done that all your
surnames would have already been highlighted in the beginning of the passage would look like this
can you see where you should start reading go ahead pause the video and find your answers
here is the first clue there are 50 000 edible plants or plants we can eat in the world but
ninety percent of our energy comes from just 15 crops and we have question 23 humans only
make use of a small proportion of the plant food available on Earth indeed there are
50 000 plants and we mainly eat 15 of them we don't make use of the other plants answer 23 a
information about the second scientist doesn't match any of the questions he's just saying that
they may domesticate new plants but among similar questions we are looking for the
adaptation to Future environmental challenges or domestication of one wild fruit so that's not it
the next section not a single researcher has been mentioned here we can skip it
in this section we can read about kudha pause the video now ready
well there are no answers here I kept this section deliberately to show you that you may
read paragraph after paragraph without finding any answers and it doesn't mean you've missed
something next joyous fanek I promise there is an answer you know the drill pause the video now
let's continue so Vanek decided to domesticate the ground cherry or golden Berry
there is potential for this to be a commercial crop says manic but she adds that taking the
work further would be expensive have a look at 22. efforts to domesticate one wild fruit
unlimited by the costs involved it's expensive and now we have three questions left and three
small paragraphs can you do that pause the video now okay Jonathan Jones thinks it will be hard
for new foods to grow so popular with farmers and consumers that they become new staple crops
table crop is rice for example we eat a lot of it so the answer is 20D the idea of growing and
eating unusual plants may not be accepted on a large scale they may not become our Staples
next GAO says they could create crops that will Thrive or grow really well even as the planet
warms have a look at question 19 domestication of certain plants could allow them to adapt to
Future environmental challenges when the planet warms and finally kudha didn't want to reveal or
say publicly which species were in his team's sights the answer is 21 a it's not advisable
for the future direction of certain research to be made public these are our answers we used option A
twice so how many questions out of nine could you answer correctly let me know in the comments these
questions aren't easy but perhaps the most complex out of all matching questions is matching headings
and if you practice now while you still remember the matching information questions you'll be able
to grasp the important difference between the two so here is the video with strategies and practice
and thank you so much for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye