Lessons / Reading / Matching sentence endings
IELTS Reading
Matching sentence endings
Complete each sentence beginning with the ending the passage supports.
The instructions, word for word as the test writes them
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A–G, below.
Write the correct letter, A–G, next to Questions 24–27.
What this task is
Sentence beginnings on one side, a longer list of endings on the other. Every ending fits every beginning grammatically. That is a design rule of the type. So grammar eliminates nothing, and meaning, checked against the passage, does all the work.
The beginnings follow passage order, which quietly tells you where in the text each completed sentence must be checked.
The traps
These are built in on purpose. Know them by name and half the danger is gone.
Several endings make sensible real-world sentences with a given beginning. Only one makes the sentence the passage actually supports.
There are always more endings than beginnings. Two or three match nothing at all.
What to do next time
- Work beginning by beginning, in order. Find its region of the passage, then test the endings against that region.
- Read the full completed sentence and check it as a claim. Is this sentence true according to the text?
- Do not spend effort eliminating on grammar. The test writers already made every combination grammatical.
Now meet it under a clock. Start a free mock. Every matching sentence endings question you get wrong comes back with the sentence that proves the answer, and the reason the trap was tempting.