IELTS is a language proficiency test accepted globally, which is why millions of students appear for it every year. But many cannot pass the test and leave their dreams midway. One of the reasons is the tough exam questions. One such section was that IELTS students struggled to answer IELTS general reading summary completion questions as they were not equipped with proven tips. Read this blog on IELTS reading list completion to learn how to approach these types of questions and answer them correctly. So, let’s check it out!
Table of Contents
The IELTS reading list completion is a type of task that is used to assess a student's skills and ability to identify the right answer. It is used to analyse if a student can differentiate between facts and opinions.
This task is similar to MCQs or matching heading questions, which are also included in the IELTS exam. But, what differentiates this from others is the list of options. Yes, in other questions, there is only one right answer, but here, all options can possibly be right. So, this requires the complete attention of students. Thus, it is considered tough. However, you can get complete information here. So, let's get started with the types of questions in this section.
Different types of questions are included in the IELTS reading list completion task and are listed below:
This is a type where you have to choose a factor/cause/reason contributing to some action. It is used to identify your IELTS reading and reasoning skills.
Example: What Factors Influence Growth in Population?
1. Economic Conditions
2. Educational Knowledge
3. Health Facilities
4. Space Exploration
In this type of list completion in IELTS reading, the questions are based on the characteristics. You have to select from the list of descriptions or features that match the answer.
Example: What Characteristics Define a Mammal?
1. Breathes Through Gills
2. Have Fur or Hair
3. Lays Eggs
4. Warm-Blooded
These questions are based on a list of steps or processes. If you want to get a good IELTS band score, you need to choose the correct steps or methods from the given list of options.
Example: What Are the Modern Agriculture Steps to Improve Crop Yield?
1. Crop Rotation
2. Selective Breeding
3. Slash and Burn Farming
4. Genetic Modification
The next type of IELTS reading questions requires you to recognize and differentiate between the advantages and disadvantages presented in the passage. Here, you have to pick the right option from the given list.
Example: What Are the Advantages of Vegetarian Diet?
1. Deficiency in Nutrients
2. High Cholesterol Levels
3. Lower Heart Disease Risk
4. Reduced Impact on the Environment
These are the different types of questions in the IELTS reading list completion. Let’s now understand this topic better with a few samples.
In this section, we will explore IELTS reading practice test samples to help you understand the list of completion questions. These examples will guide you on how to analyze the questions and complete a list with the correct answers.
This is a sample of the IELTS reading test with a list completion questions. Understand it well to answer the questions correctly.
IELTS Reading Passage: The Nature of Genius
Paragraph 1
There has always been an interest in geniuses and prodigies. The word 'genius', from the Latin gens (= family) and the term 'genius', meaning 'begetter', comes from the early Roman cult of divinity as the head of the family. In its earliest form, genius was concerned with the ability of the head of the family, the paterfamilias, to perpetuate himself. Gradually, genius came to represent a person's characteristics, and thence an individual's highest attributes derived from his 'genius' or guiding spirit. Today, people still look to stars or genes, astrology or genetics, in the hope of finding the source of exceptional abilities or personal characteristics.
Paragraph 2
The concept of genius and gifts has become part of our folk culture, and attitudes are ambivalent towards them. We envy the gifted and mistrust them. In the mythology of giftedness, it is popularly believed that if people are talented in one area, they must be defective in another, that intellectuals are impractical, that prodigies burn too brightly too soon and burn out, that gifted people are eccentric, that they are physical weaklings, that there's a thin line between genius and madness, that genius runs in families, that the gifted are so clever they don't need special help, that giftedness is the same as having a high IQ, that some races are more intelligent or musical or mathematical than others, that genius goes unrecognized and unrewarded, that adversity makes men wise or that people with gifts have a responsibility to use them. Language has been enriched with such terms as 'highbrow', 'egghead', 'blue-stocking', 'wiseacre', 'know-all', 'boffin', and, for many, 'intellectual' is a term of denigration.
Paragraph 3
The nineteenth century saw considerable interest in genius and produced not a few studies of famous prodigies. Perhaps for us today, two of the most significant aspects of most of these studies of genius are the frequency with which early encouragement and teaching by parents and tutors had beneficial effects on the intellectual, artistic, or musical development of the children but caused great difficulties of adjustment later in their lives, and the frequency with which abilities went unrecognized by teachers and schools. However, the difficulty with the evidence produced by these studies, fascinating as they are in collecting together anecdotes and apparent similarities and exceptions, is that they are not what we would today call norm-referenced. In other words, when, for instance, information is collated about early illnesses, methods of upbringing, schooling, etc., we must also take into account information from other historical sources about how common or exceptional these were at the time. For instance, infant mortality was high and life expectancy much shorter than today, home tutoring was common in the families of the nobility and wealthy, bullying and corporal punishment was common at the best independent schools and, for the most part, the cases studied were members of the privileged classes. It was only with the growth of pediatrics and psychology in the twentieth century that studies could be carried out on a more objective if still not always very scientific, basis.
Paragraph 4
Geniuses, however, are defined, are but the peaks that stand out through the mist of history and are visible to the particular observer from his or her particular vantage point. Change the observers and the vantage points, clear away some of the mist, and a different lot of peaks appear. Genius is a term we apply to those whom we recognize for their outstanding achievements and who stand near the end of the continuum of human abilities which reaches back from the mundane and mediocre to the incapable. There is still much truth in Dr Samuel Johnson's observation, The true genius Is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction'. We may disagree with the 'general', for we doubt if all musicians of genius could have become scientists of genius or vice versa, but there is no doubting the accidental determination that nurtured or triggered their gifts into those channels into which they have poured their powers so successfully. Along the continuum of abilities are hundreds of thousands of gifted men and women, boys and girls.
Paragraph 5
What we appreciate, enjoy, or marvel at in the works of genius or the achievements of prodigies are the manifestations of skills or abilities that are similar to, but so much superior to, our own. But that their minds are not different from our own is demonstrated by the fact that the hard-won discoveries of scientists like Kepler or Einstein become the commonplace knowledge of schoolchildren and the once outrageous shapes and colors of an artist like Paul Klee so soon appear on the fabrics we wear. This does not minimize the supremacy of their achievements, which outstrip our own as the sub-four-minute milers outstrip our jogging.
Paragraph 6
To think of geniuses and the gifted as having uniquely different brains is only reasonable If we accept that each human brain is uniquely different. The purpose of instruction is to make the US even more different from one another, and in the process of being educated, we can learn from the achievements of those more gifted than ourselves. But before we try to emulate geniuses or encourage our children to do so we should note that some of the things we learn from them may prove unpalatable. We may envy their achievements and fame, but we should also recognize the price they may have paid in terms of perseverance, single-mindedness, dedication, restrictions on their personal lives, the demands upon their energies and time, and how often they had to display great courage to preserve their integrity or to make their way to the top.
Paragraph 7
Genius and giftedness are relative descriptive terms of no real substance. We may, at best, give them some precision by defining them and placing them in a context but, whatever we do, we should never delude ourselves into believing that gifted children or geniuses are different from the rest of humanity, save in the degree to which they have developed the performance of their abilities.
Questions for Reading Passage: The Nature of Genius
Questions 1-5
Choose FIVE letters, A-K.
Write the correct letters in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
NB Your answers may be given in any order.
Below are listed some popular beliefs about genius and giftedness.
Which FIVE of these beliefs are reported by the writer of the text?
A. Truly gifted people are talented in all areas.
B. The talents of geniuses are soon exhausted.
C. Gifted people should use their gifts.
D. A genius appears once in every generation.
E. Genius can be easily destroyed by discouragement.
F. Genius is inherited.
G. Gifted people are very hard to live with.
H. People never appreciate true genius.
I. Geniuses are natural leaders.
J. Gifted people develop their greatness through difficulties.
K. Genius will always reveal itself.
Question 1
ANSWER: B, C, F, H, J
Explanation :
In the 3rd line of the 2nd paragraph, it is mentioned: "that prodigies burn too brightly too soon and burn out". It clarifies that talented people are soon exhausted because it is popularly believed that genius people are brilliant in one area, but they must be defective in another. In short, there is a thin line between genius and madness.
Question 2
ANSWER: B, C, F, H, J
Explanation :
In the 7th line of the 2nd paragraph, it is mentioned: "People with gifts have a responsibility to use them". It clarifies that a person with special abilities should use it with responsibility.
Question 3
ANSWER: B, C, F, H, J
Explanation :
In the fourth line of the second paragraph, it is mentioned that "genius runs in families, that the gifted." This clarifies that genius is inherited; talent runs in the blood. Also, God's gifts are so clever that they do not need any help from anyone.
Question 4
ANSWER: B, C, F, H, J
Explanation :
In the 6th line of the 2nd paragraph, it is mentioned: "Genius goes unrecognized and unrewarded". It clarifies that normal people do not appreciate genius as they are different from them. For example, having a high IQ, being more intelligent in music or maths, etc.
Question 5
ANSWER: B, C, F, H, J
Explanation :
In the 6th line of the 2nd paragraph, it is mentioned: "that adversity makes men wise". It clearly shows that genius people endure many difficulties to prove themselves right and this makes them wise people.
Explore 100+ IELTS Reading Practice Tests with Answers to Prepare for Reading Section
This includes another sample on the list completion in IELTS reading. You can refer to this to understand how to analyze and answer the question correctly.
IELTS Reading Passage- Johnson's Dictionary
1. For the century before Johnson's Dictionary was published in 1775. there had been concern about the state of the English language. There was no standard way of speaking or writing and no agreement as to the best way of bringing some order to the chaos of English spelling. Dr Johnson provided the solution.
2. There had, of course, been dictionaries in the past, the first of these being a little book of some 120 pages, compiled by a certain Robert Cawdray, published in 1604 under the title A Table Alphabetical! 'of hard usual English words'. Like the various dictionaries that came after it during the seventeenth century, Cawdray tended to concentrate on 'scholarly' words; one function of the dictionary was to enable its students to convey an impression of fine learning.
3. Beyond the practical need to make order out of chaos, the rise of dictionaries is associated with the rise of the English middle class, who were anxious to define and circumscribe the various worlds to conquer - lexical as well as social and commercial. It is highly appropriate that Dr Samuel Johnson, the very model of an eighteenth-century literary man, as famous in his own time as in ours, should have published his dictionary at the very beginning of the heyday of the middle class.
4. Johnson was a poet and critic who raised common sense to the heights of genius. His approach to the problems that had worried writers throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was intensely practical. Up until his time, the task of producing a dictionary on such a large scale had seemed impossible without the establishment of an academy to make decisions about right and wrong usage Johnson decided he did not need an academy to settle arguments about language; he would write a dictionary himself; and he would do it single-handed. Johnson signed the contract for the Dictionary with the bookseller Robert Dosley at a breakfast held at the Golden Anchor Inn near Holbom Bar on 18 June 1764. He was to be paid £ 1.575 in installments, and from this, he took money to rent 17 Gough Square, in which he set up his 'dictionary workshop'.
5. James Boswell, his biographer described the garret where Johnson worked as ‘fitted up like a counting house' with a long desk running down the middle at which the copying clerks would work standing up. Johnson himself was stationed on a rickety chair at an 'old crazy deal table' surrounded by a chaos of borrowed books. He was also helped by six assistants, two of whom died whilst the Dictionary was still in preparation.
6. The work was immense; filling about eighty large notebooks (and without a library to hand). Johnson wrote the definitions of over 40,000 words and illustrated their many meanings with some 14.000 quotations drawn from English writing on every subject, from the Elizabethans to his own time. He did not expect to achieve complete originality. Working to a deadline, he had to draw on the best of all previous dictionaries and make his work one of heroic synthesis. It was very much more. Unlike his predecessors, Johnson treated English very practically, as a living language, with many different shades of meaning. He adopted his definitions on the principle of English common law - according to precedent. After its publication, his Dictionary was not seriously rivaled for over a century.
7. After many vicissitudes the Dictionary was finally published on 15 April 1775. It was instantly recognized as a landmark throughout Europe. This very noble work.' wrote the leading Italian lexicographer;' will be a perpetual monument of Fame to the Author, an Honour to his own Country in particular, and a general Benefit to the republic of Letters throughout Europe.' The fact that Johnson had taken on the Academies of Europe and matched them (everyone knew that forty French academics had taken forty years to produce the first French national dictionary) was cause for much English celebration.
8. Johnson had worked for nine years.' with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academic bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and sorrow'. For all its faults and eccentricities his two-volume work is a masterpiece and a landmark, in his own words, 'setting the orthography, displaying the analogy, regulating the structures, and ascertaining the significations of English words'. It is the cornerstone of Standard English, an achievement which, in James Boswell's words,' conferred stability on the language of his country'.
9. The Dictionary, together with his other writing, made Johnson famous and so well esteemed that his friends were able to prevail upon King George III to offer him a pension. From then on, he was to become the Johnson of folklore.
Questions for Reading Passage- Johnson's Dictionary
Questions 1-3
Which THREE of the following statements are true of Johnson’s Dictionary?
A. It avoided all scholarly words.
B. It was the only English dictionary in general use for 200 years.
C. It was famous because of the large number of people involved.
D. It focused mainly on language from contemporary texts.
E. There was a time limit for its completion.
F. It ignored work done by previous dictionary writers.
G. It took into account subtleties of meaning.
H. Its definitions were famous for their originality.
Question 1
ANSWER :D, E, G
Explanation :
According to the first few lines of paragraph six, "The work was immense, filling about eighty large notebooks (and without a library to hand). Johnson wrote the definitions of over 40,000 words and illustrated their many meanings and own time." Here, the word own time means contemporary, and it matches with D. So, as per that, D statement is correct.
Question 2
ANSWER :D, E, G
Explanation :
As per the fifth and sixth lines of paragraph six, "He did not expect to achieve complete originality. Working to a deadline, he had to draw on the best of all previous dictionaries and to make his work one of heroic synthesis." Here, the word working to a deadline means there was limited time. So, according to this, the E-statement is correct.
Question 3
ANSWER :D, E, G
Explanation :
The last few lines of paragraph six state, "Unlike his predecessors, Johnson treated English very practically, as a living language, with many different shades of meaning." Here, the following different shades of meaning denote subtleties of titles. It matches with the G statement. So, as per this, the answer is G.
Since there is no specific IELTS syllabus, you can refer to these samples to understand these topics. However, if you get stuck or need more help, feel free to check the next section to learn some effective strategies.
Now, you might be wondering, what is there to choose an answer from the list of options, right? However, this is considered the toughest section of all, considering all options sound right from the list. But don't worry; here are a few strategies from our experts to help you with the preparation:
l Understand the Question Type - Factors, Characteristics, Steps, or Advantages and Disadvantages
l Read the Passage - Skim it throughout and read thoroughly where the keywords or synonyms are used
l Answer the Questions - Start with eliminating the wrong options and walk your way to the right one.
l Check for Traps - Avoid assumptions, re-read partial information for clarity, and double-check your answers before time runs out.
These are a few strategies on how to complete a list that can help you solve these questions without any confusion. However, if you are still looking for more help with this, you can always count on our experts to help you with the writing, listening, speaking, and IELTS reading questions. So, why wait more? Reach out to us now!
In this blog, you've read about the IELTS reading list completion. You've checked out the basic information about this task, the types of questions included in it, and effective strategies. You can also check a few samples shared by our experts to answer such questions. However, if you are not sure or have any queries related to this question or any other related to IELTS, feel free to reach out to our experts for the best assistance.
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How to Prepare for IELTS Reading List Completion?
Here is a simple step-by-step process to help you prepare for the IELTS reading list completion task:
1. Know the question type
2. Read/skim the passage
3. Understand the instructions
4. Write the answers to questions
5. Check for grammar and spelling
How to Find the Right Answer?
There are 3 simple steps to do this:
1. Eliminate wrong options
2. Focus on keywords in the questions
3. Re-read the answers and passage to check the intent
How Many Words Can I Write in This?
There will be instructions provided for this section such as:
1. One Word Only - You should only write one word for these questions
2. No More Than Two Words - You should only write one or two words for these questions
3. No More Than Three Words - You should only write up to three words for these questions
How to Improve My Skills to Answer This Right?
Is Reading the Toughest of All Sections in IELTS?
The reading section is indeed considered a challenging one as it has a strict time limit of 60 minutes to answer 40 questions. Whether it's toughest or not depends on your skills and strengths.
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