Introduction
In the IELTS reading sentence endings task you are given some incomplete sentences and some possible sentence endings, you have to select the correct endings after reading through a given text. This type of question is not very common in the test.
IELTS Reading matching sentence endings sample task
[Note: This is an extract from a Part 3 text about the scientific community in London in the
1500s.]
Science in 16th-century London
The Jewel House, a new book by historical researcher and author
Deborah Harkness
Deborah Harkness devotes her elegant
and erudite new book, The Jewel House, to the
scientific community in 16th-century London.
She (rightly) argues that it is thanks to the
imaginative collective efforts of the urban
scientists that London became the melting pot
in which a new mathematical and
experimental culture crystallized.
Harkness is known for her ingenuity as a
researcher and her historical empathy. In The
Jewel House, Harkness turns her skills on the
city of London as a whole with surprising and
fascinating results. She began her research by
asking herself a new question: not what
caused scientific revolution but what the
names science and scientist meant in 16th-century London. Then she collected a vast
range of sources, from printed books to
scientific instruments and notebooks, and
recorded, in a relational database, information
on the men and women who produced them.
Every chapter of The Jewel House charts the
activities of a particular community. Harkness
leads us through the streets of London,
showing us, neighborhood by neighborhood,
where the major forms of natural knowledge
found homes. For example, apothecaries
settled in Lime Street, in what is now the City,
where they created a dense network of shops
and gardens. Clockmakers, both native
craftsmen and many from overseas,
clustered in several parishes near St Paul’s
Cathedral. The once wealthy merchant,
Clement Draper, even managed to transform
the King’s Bench prison in Southwark, where
he served time as a debtor, into a center of
research and discussion. By the end of the
book Harkness has mapped London’s
scientific communities with astonishing
precision.
Moreover, when Harkness reconstructs
these groups, she provides not traditional,
static accounts of their theories, but
dynamic analyses of their practices as
these developed over time. In many cases,
she makes clear, the alchemists of
Elizabethan London already understood
that knowledge of nature had to rest not on
authority but on familiarity through practice.
In one crucial respect, Harkness argues,
many of the 16th-century London scientists
differed from the later ones of the 17th
century. They saw themselves less as
individuals out to gain fame, than as
members of larger textual communities bent
on exchanging and compiling information.
The passages in which Harkness analyzes the
16th- century practices of note-taking and
communication are among the most novel
and informative in this fine book. She shows
that they adopted the textual information
processing methods of humanist scholarship
to radically new ends
In this book, Harkness has charted the local
and cosmopolitan worlds of science in
Elizabethan London with a learning, precision
and intelligence that compel admiration.
Moreover, she has crafted a complex and
effective new analytical mechanism which
may transform the practices of historians of
early modern science.
Source: Official IELTS website www.https://ielts.org
IELTS Reading matching sentence endings tips
Answers appear in the same order in the text as the sentences
A saving grace about these questions is that the answers will appear in the same order in the text as the incomplete sentences.
Read the incomplete sentences
Always read the incomplete sentences first, then the possible sentence endings and then read the given text.
Avoid spending too much time reading the text
Skim-read the given text to gain an understanding and avoid spending too much time on understanding it.
Identify the synonyms and paraphrasings
Synonyms and paraphrasing will be used throughout the text. You should be able to identify the synonyms and paraphrasing used to be able to ace these questions.
Avoid grammatical mistakes
When completing the sentences ensure that the sentences are grammatically correct. Only correct answers will lead to grammatically correct sentences.
IELTS Reading matching sentence endings strategy
Read the question
Read the question carefully to understand what is required. If it says to choose the correct letters between A and F, select and write only the letters, not the complete sentence. Failure to follow instructions will result in the answer being incorrect.
Read and understand the incomplete sentences
First, read the incomplete sentences, understand their meaning and identify keywords.
Read the sentence endings
Next, read the sentence endings to understand their meaning.
Match the incomplete sentences with the endings
Now try to match the incomplete sentences with the probable endings. In doing so make sure the sentence formed is grammatically correct. If not then the sentence ending is not accurate. Using this mechanism you can identify and eliminate the endings that are not correct.
Skim the text
Skim the text and search for the identified keywords. You will not find a word-to-word match. Instead, look for paraphrasing and synonyms for the keywords.
check the answer
Once you have identified check it to ensure the completed sentence is grammatically correct.
Correct answers
1 B ■ She started by seeking to understand how basic terms were used in the past
2 D ■ she examined how their methods evolved and changed
3 F ■ they used old ways of analysing written information for new purposes
Work out the answers
I first read the question and understood that the incomplete sentences were to be completed using the sentences from A to F.
1 Harkness’s research method was different to that of other writers because
After understanding the meaning of the incomplete sentence I identified the keywords. Then I understood the meaning of the possible sentence endings. the first one is not the correct one as it is in present perfect tense whereas the first half of the sentence is in past tense and if used the sentence will not be dramatically correct so this cannot be the proper option.
A she has the greatest knowledge of Elizabethan London
The next sentence option seemed like a good fit as it is in past tense and matches the flow of the incomplete sentence by stating that Harkness was different because she started by seeking to understand how basic terms were used in the past.
B she started by seeking to understand how basic terms were used in the past
Once I identified the possible ending I skimmed through the given text searching for the synonyms and paraphrasing for the keywords research method and different. You will note that in the extract from the second paragraph of the text, it says she began the research by asking herself a new question. New question has been used as a paraphrase for a different method. After reading the text following this it is clear that option B is the correct answer as it is grammatically correct too.
She began her research by asking herself a new question: not what caused scientific revolution but what the
names science and scientist meant in 16th-century London.
2 Harkness’s reconstruction of the 16th-century London scientific groups was new because
The second sentence focuses on what was new in Harkness’s reconstruction of the 16-century London scientific groups. I identified Harkness’s reconstruction and scientific groups was new as the keywords. Then I read and understood the next sentence option but it didn’t seem to fit well as it didn’t seem like the correct reason for why the reconstruction of the scientific group was new.
C they worked as individuals rather than as a group.
The next sentence option seemed like a better match.
D she examined how their methods evolved and changed.
Once I identified the possible ending. After skimming through the text searching for the keywords Harkness’s reconstruction and scientific groups was new I came across the extract below where it was clear that dynamic was used as a synonym for new and developed for evolved. This meant that option D was the correct answer.
Moreover, when Harkness reconstructs these groups, she provides not traditional, static accounts of their theories, but dynamic analyses of their practices as these developed over time.
3 Harkness shows that the 16th-century London scientists were innovative because
The third sentence focuses on how Harkness shows that London scientists were innovative. I identified London scientists and innovative as the keywords. Next, I read the next sentence option which doesn’t seem to be the correct option as it doesn’t answer why the London scientists were innovative, also it only mentions that one scientist Clement Draper was the best scientist of this time, whereas the question focuses on all scientists of London at the time.
E Clement Draper was the best scientist of his time
The next option talks about how they used old ways of analysing written information for new purposes. This seems like the correct option.
F they used old ways of analysing written information for new purposes.
To validate I skimmed through the text searching for the keywords and came to the last line of the text where they is used to address London scientists and radically new ends is used as a synonym for innovative / innovation. Option F is indeed the correct option.
She shows that they adopted the textual information processing methods of humanist scholarship to radically new ends.