How to Solve Matching Information in IELTS Reading?

The IELTS reading test spans 60 minutes and has 40 questions. The IELTS reading test has a variety of question formats used to assess reading ability. One of the types of questions is Matching paragraph information. These are another type of question that comes up regularly in the IELTS Reading test. The statements in the matching information questions could be reasons, descriptions, summaries, definitions, facts or explanations.

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Matching information

Plants are not the only things who capture the power of the sun. Humans can turn sunlight into electricity with solar cells. A solar cell collects the power of the sun and stores it. Then, this power can be used to run anything that uses electricity: cars, computers, or homes. Besides all these amazing things, the sun also helps us to do something very simple, but needed. Without the sun, we would not be able to see anything! The sun also helps people to be healthy and strong. It acts as a natural cleaner for our skin. The sun can help kill harmful bacteria that live on our skin. And the sun helps our bodies produce vitamin D. People need vitamin D to have strong bones. The sun can also improve our mental health. In places where the sun doesn’t shine, people can suffer from seasonal affective disorder. This is a kind of depression. People with seasonal affective disorder do not have energy and feel sad. They are treated by sitting near a special light. But nothing is as good as being in real sunlight. Sunlight can help prevent depression and keep people happy. When the sun is shining, people have more hope about the future.

Questions:

1. Solar cells
2. Vitamin D
3. Sunlight

Information to match:

1. Bone strength
2. Used in cars and computers.
3. Cures depression

Answers:

1. Answer: B

Supporting sentence: “A solar cell collects the power of the sun and stores it. Then, this power can be used to run anything that uses electricity: cars, computers, or homes.”

Keywords: used, cars, computers

Keyword location: 3rd line

Explanation: The given line clearly highlights the use of solar cells which can provide power to computers and cars. The synonym of the car which is automobile has been used in the given information. Hence, B is the correct option.

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2. Answer: A

Supporting sentence: “People need vitamin D to have strong bones”

Keywords: strong bones

Keyword location: 7th line

Explanation: the passage states that the strength of the bones is provided by vitamin D. the use of the words strength and strong is highlighted. Thus, option A is correct.

3. Answer: C

Supporting sentence: “Sunlight can help prevent depression and keep people happy.”

Keywords: depression

Keyword location: 11th line

Explanation: The passage states that people with exposure to sunlight can help people get treated with seasonal disorders. The word prevent is used in the context of treatment or cure. Thus by matching the vocabulary, option C is correct.

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Matching features

In Britain, a London merchant named Thomas Boreham produced Cajanus, The Swedish Giant in 1742, while the more famous John Newbery published A Little Pretty Pocket Book in 1744. Its contents – rhymes, stories, children’s games plus a free gift (‘A ball and a pincushion’)——in many ways anticipated the similar lucky-dip contents of children’s annuals this century. It is a tribute to Newbery’s flair that he hit upon a winning formula quite quickly, to be pirated almost immediately in America. So the moral story for children was always threatened from within, given the way children have of drawing out entertainment from the sternest moralist. But the greatest blow to the improving children’s book was to come from an unlikely source indeed: early 19th century interest in folklore. Both nursery rhymes, selected by James Orchard Halliwell for a folklore society in 1842, and collection of fairy-stories by the scholarly Grimm brothers, swiftly translated into English in 1823,soon rocket to popularity with the young, quickly leading to new editions, each one more child-centered than the last.

Questions:

1. Authored Cajanus, The Swedish Giant
2. Book pirated in America
3. collection of Fairy stories not in English

Information to match:

1. Grimm Brothers
2. Thomas Boreham
3. John Newberry

Answers:

1. Answer: B

Supporting sentence: “In Britain, a London merchant named Thomas Boreham produced Cajanus, The Swedish Giant in 1742, while the more famous John Newbery published A Little Pretty Pocket-Book in 1744.”

Keywords: Thomas Boreham, produced, The Swedish Giant

Keyword location: 1st line

Explanation: the passage states that in 1742, Thomas Boreham who was a merchant from London had produced or authored Cajanus, The Swedish giant. Thus, option B is correct.

2. Answer: C

Supporting sentence: “It is a tribute to Newbery’s flair that he hit upon a winning formula quite quickly, to be pirated almost immediately in America.”

Keywords: pirated, America

Keyword location: 4th line

Explanation: the passage states that Newbery produced A Little Pretty Pocket-Book in 1744 which was immediately pirated in America. Thus, option C is correct.

3. Answer: A

Supporting sentence: “Both nursery rhymes, selected by James Orchard Halliwell for a folklore society in 1842, and collection of fairy-stories by the scholarly Grimm brothers, swiftly translated into English in 1823, soon rocket to popularity with the young, quickly leading to new editions, each one more child-centered than the last.”

Keywords: a collection of fairy stories, translated, English

Keyword location: 9th line

Explanation: the passage states that James Orchard Halliwell selected a collection of fairy tale stories which was written by the Grimm Brothers, and this was later in 1842, translated to English. Thus, option A is correct.

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Matching sentence endings

Meanwhile, the evaporated water was falling back to Earth as rain. When the fresh water reached the oceans, it made them less saline. With less salt in it to act as an antifreeze, parts of the ocean that would not normally freeze began to turn to ice. ‘The ice reflects sunlight into space,’ says Ryan. ‘The planet cools. Do you drive yourself into an ice age? Eventually; a small breach in the Gibraltar dam sent the process into reverse. Ocean water cut a tiny channel to the Mediterranean. As the gap enlarged, the water flowed faster and faster; until the torrent ripped through the emerging Straits of Gibraltar at more than 100 knots.

In the end, the rising waters of the vast inland sea drowned the falls and warm water began to escape to the Atlantic, reheating the oceans and the planet. The salinity crisis ended at about 5.4 million years ago. It had lasted roughly 400,000 years. For example, researchers have found salt deposits more than two kilometers thick — so thick, some believe, that the Mediterranean must have dried up and refilled many times.

Questions:

1. Salt in oceans acted as an
2. The ice age was reversed by a
3. As warm water flowed into the Atlantic

Information to match:

1. It reheated the oceans.
2. Antifreeze element
3. small breach in the Gibraltar dam

Answers:

1. Answer: B

Supporting sentence: “With less salt in it to act as an antifreeze, parts of the ocean that would not normally freeze began to turn to ice.”

Keywords: ice, antifreeze, ocean

Keyword location: 2nd line

Explanation: The passage states portions of the ocean water that will not usually freeze will turn into ice if there is less salt in the ocean. The salt in the ocean is an antifreeze. Thus option B is correct.

2. Answer: C

Supporting sentence: “Do you drive yourself into an ice age? Eventually; a small breach in the Gibraltar dam sent the process into reverse.”

Keywords: reverse, Gibraltar dam, ice age

Keyword location: 4th line

Explanation: the passage highlights that a minor fault in the Gibraltar dam made the process of the ice age reverse. It was curbed due to this reason. Thus option C is correct.

3. Answer: A

Supporting sentence: “In the end, the rising waters of the vast inland sea drowned the falls and warm water began to escape to the Atlantic, reheating the oceans and the planet.”

Keywords: warm water, Atlantic, reheating oceans

Keyword location: 8th line

Explanation: The passage highlights that the warm waters began to flow towards the Atlantic when the inland sea’s rising water submerged the falls. This helped with the reheating process of the oceans and the planet. Thus option A is correct.