Lessons / Reading / Matching information
IELTS Reading
Matching information
Find which paragraph contains a specific detail. A scanning task that ignores passage order.
The instructions, word for word as the test writes them
The passage has seven paragraphs, A–G.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A–G, next to Questions 14–18.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
What this task is
Each question describes a piece of information. A detail, an example, a reason, a comparison, a definition. You say which lettered paragraph contains it.
Careful: this is not about what a paragraph is mostly about. That is matching headings, a different task. A paragraph about corridor design can contain, in passing, the one comparison a question asks for. You are looking for contents, not topics.
The traps
These are built in on purpose. Know them by name and half the danger is gone.
One of only three Reading types whose answers ignore passage order. Question 14's answer can be in paragraph F and question 15's in paragraph B.
Not every paragraph is an answer. The unused ones are the distractors.
When the rubric says a letter may be used more than once, sometimes one paragraph genuinely holds two answers. Do not cross a paragraph off just because you have used it.
What to do next time
- Do this group after the other groups on the same passage, when you already know roughly what lives where.
- Boil each question down to its core: "a comparison of two costs", "an example of a failure". Then scan for that shape of information, not for matching words.
- The question paraphrases the passage. Expect "spending" in the question where the paragraph says "expenditure".
Now meet it under a clock. Start a free mock. Every matching information question you get wrong comes back with the sentence that proves the answer, and the reason the trap was tempting.