Lessons / Reading / Matching features
IELTS Reading
Matching features
Match statements to the right researcher, study or place, from a shared lettered list.
The instructions, word for word as the test writes them
Look at the following statements and the list of researchers below.
Match each statement with the correct researcher, A–D.
Write the correct letter, A–D, next to Questions 19–23.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
What this task is
A list of features and a set of statements. The features are usually people, sometimes studies, places or periods. Each statement paraphrases something one feature said, found or represents. You supply the letter.
The whole type is about attribution. The passage weaves several voices together on purpose, and the questions check whether you kept track of whose finding is whose.
The traps
These are built in on purpose. Know them by name and half the danger is gone.
The signature distractor: a statement that is accurate about the passage but belongs to a different researcher. Match on the finding without checking the name and you walk straight into it.
Answers ignore passage order. And when the rubric allows reuse, at least one letter usually is used twice.
What to do next time
- Before answering anything, mark every place each named feature appears. Most names come up more than once, and the second mention often carries the answer.
- Match on the claim plus its owner, never the claim alone.
- Statements are paraphrases. "Urban expansion" in the statement may be "the growth of cities" in the passage.
Now meet it under a clock. Start a free mock. Every matching features question you get wrong comes back with the sentence that proves the answer, and the reason the trap was tempting.