Reading
Filling gaps in a summary of the passage, with or without a word list. With a practice exercise and answers.
IELTS summary completion gives you a short summary of part of the passage with words removed, and asks you to fill the gaps. It appears in both the reading and listening tests, and it rewards grammar as much as comprehension.
There are two versions. In one you take the words from the passage, within a word limit. In the other you choose from a list of options, which is usually longer than the number of gaps.
Two versions
The instructions tell you which one you have, and the method is different for each.
A word limit applies, usually one to three words, and the words must come from the text exactly as written. Spelling counts.
You choose from options A to H or similar. There are always more options than gaps, and the extras are usually near-synonyms.
Rarely the whole passage. Work out which section it summarises before you start, because everything you need is in that part.
Unlike matching headings, summary completion answers appear in the order of the passage, so each answer is after the last one.
A gap after an article needs a noun. A gap after to needs a verb. This alone rules out most wrong options before you read anything.
The summary will not repeat the passage's wording. You are matching meaning, then supplying the exact word the text used.
Method
Six steps. The first two happen before you look at the passage at all.
Read it through without stopping at the gaps. Knowing what the summary is about tells you which part of the passage to work in.
Noun, verb, adjective, number. Read the words either side of the gap and decide before you search. It halves the work.
Scan the passage for a name, number or unusual term from the summary. That locates the paragraph the summary is built from.
The answers come in sequence, so once you have found gap 2, gap 3 is later in the text. Never search the whole passage again.
Put your answer in and read the sentence. If the grammar is wrong, the answer is wrong, even when the meaning feels right.
No more than two words means two. Copy from the passage rather than adjusting the word to fit.
Practice
Read the passage, then choose the word that fills each gap in the summary.
Amid growing social and political pressure to give up, there is at last some good news for smokers. Research presented to the European Society of Cardiology suggests that two glasses of red wine contain enough beneficial chemicals to suspend the damage that one cigarette does to the functioning of the arteries.
The findings do not, of course, suggest that drinking red wine allows anyone to smoke freely, and they are a long way from any drug capable of reversing the harm done by long-term smoking.
The health effects associated with red wine are not new. The Romans and the Greeks both regarded it as a form of medicine, possibly because of the abundance of polyphenols, naturally occurring chemicals that have a cleansing effect on the arteries.
Summary
Despite increasing (1) ______ pressure to quit, there is good news for smokers. Research presented to the European Society of Cardiology states that two glasses of red wine contain enough beneficial (2) ______ to suspend the negative impact that one (3) ______ has on the arteries. The (4) ______ do not suggest that red wine allows unlimited smoking. Red wine's reputation is old: the Romans and the (5) ______ treated it as medicine.
1Gap 1
social. The passage says social and political pressure. The gap sits before pressure and needs an adjective, which rules out most alternatives before you even search.
2Gap 2
chemicals. Beneficial chemicals appears directly in the text. Polyphenols are chemicals, but they appear in a different paragraph and are not what this sentence says.
3Gap 3
cigarette. The damage that one cigarette does. The word one before the gap tells you a singular countable noun is needed.
4Gap 4
findings. The passage says the findings do not suggest. Researchers would make sense in English but is not the word used, and summary completion requires the writer's word.
5Gap 5
Greeks. The Romans and the Greeks both regarded it as medicine. Note that the answers have appeared in the order of the passage throughout.
Most wrong answers in summary completion are grammatically impossible before you even consider the meaning, which is why predicting the word class first makes such a difference.
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Choosing from four options is the easier version. In the test you often supply the word yourself, within a word limit, spelled correctly.
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Yes. The gaps follow the order of the text, so once you have found one answer the next is later in the passage. This makes it one of the faster question types.
Not when you are taking words from the passage. The answer must appear in the text exactly as you write it, so if the grammar does not fit, you have the wrong word.
That is normal in the word-list version. The extra options are usually near-synonyms of the right answers, included to catch candidates matching on meaning alone.
Yes. The same question type is used in listening, with the added difficulty that the recording is played once only.
Scan for a name, number or unusual term that appears in the summary. Summaries normally cover one or two paragraphs, not the whole text.
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