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IELTS / Guides / Reading · Summary completion
IELTS Reading · Guide

Summary Completion (Words from the Passage) in IELTS Reading: a method

You complete a short summary of part or all of the passage by writing words taken from the passage. The summary paraphrases the original, so you must match ideas, not words. It tests your grasp of how the passage develops as well as your accuracy in copying.

About Reading practice

Format

  • Usually 5 to 8 gaps in one summary, often covering a single section of the passage and sometimes all of it. The word limit is printed in the instruction.
  • The gaps normally follow the order of the passage, which makes the summary a map of the section it covers.
  • Answers are words from the passage, exactly as written. This is a different task from summary completion with a box of words.
  • A hyphenated word is one word. On computer you type into the gap, and spelling is marked.
  • The summary has a title that tells you which part of the passage it covers.

Strategy

  1. Read the instruction for the word limit, then read the summary title and the whole summary once without trying to fill any gap. This gives you the outline and tells you where in the passage to look.
  2. Use the title and the first sentence to find the start of the relevant section of the passage, then expect the gaps to follow in order from there.
  3. Predict the word type for each gap from the grammar: an article before it, a verb after it, 'of' before it. A gap after 'an' needs a vowel sound, and a gap after 'their' needs a noun.
  4. Find the passage sentence that matches the summary sentence. They will have different words, so match ideas: 'was removed' might be 'was taken away' in the summary.
  5. Within that sentence, find the word that fills the gap. Several words may be near, so check which one has the right grammar and meaning for the gap.
  6. Copy the word exactly. Read the completed summary sentence back and check it is grammatical and says what the passage says.
  7. Check the limit and spelling, and make sure you have not repeated a word that appears right before or after the gap.

Common traps

  • Matching the words of the summary instead of the ideas. The summary is a paraphrase, and a sentence with the same words may be about another part.
  • Choosing a word that fits the grammar but is from the wrong fact, because the summary sentence has been compressed and you grabbed the nearest noun.
  • Changing the form of a word to make it fit, instead of finding the right word. The answer is in the passage in exactly the form needed.
  • Writing a phrase longer than the limit, such as 'the local council' for ONE WORD ONLY.
  • Ignoring the gap's place in the order of the summary and looking in the wrong part of the passage.

Practise it inside a real Reading section

Practice on PrepFreely is always a complete section, so you meet this question type in the same place and proportion as on test day. Random sections never repeat until you've done them all. Every answer is explained.

Practise Reading Take the Reading course

FAQ

Do the answers follow the order of the passage?

Normally yes, within the section the summary covers.

Can I use a word that is not in the passage?

No. In this version, every answer is taken from the passage.

What is the difference between this and summary completion with a box?

Here you copy words from the passage and write them in. In the box version you choose a letter from a list of words that are mostly synonyms of the passage.

Does the summary cover the whole passage?

Sometimes, but often only one or two paragraphs. The title and the first sentence show which.

Do I need to understand every word in the summary?

No. You need the idea of each sentence and the word type of each gap. The answer is in the passage, so you do not have to know the word in advance.

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