Question Type: Gap Fill

"Gap fill" is exactly what it sounds like. You are given a passage and below that there are several sentences with missing words. You are expected to pick the correct word from the passage text and fill it in the gap. Some times there is a list of choices that you can choose from.

Strategy:

The key to solving Gap Fill questions is having good grammar. The missing word or phrase is usually a modified grammatical form of the original word so you should be skilled in transforming a noun to an adjective or a verb to an adverb etc.

Follow the strategy below to solve Gap Fill questions.

  1. First read the instructions carefully. It is here that you are told if the gap fill question is a summary of the entire passage or a part of the passage.
  2. Then, scan or skim the gap fill question text quickly for a general understanding of the text.
  3. Use your knowledge of grammar to work out the part of speech for the gap, e.g.noun, adjectival, adverbial, prepositional, etc…
  4. If the gap fill instruction says that the gap fill text is a summary of a part of the passage then read the first and last statements of the gap fill text and locate the paragraphs that the summary refers to.
  5. Now, read the first gap task and try to work out the full meaning of the sentence it is within. You may need to read the sentence before and after, too.
  6. Finally examine the keywords/phrases to look for in the passage, and locate them in the passage. Choose the word that best suits the gap, remembering that the words you find in the passage may not be in the form you require. You may need a noun, but the word given in the passage might be an adjective. In which case, you must change the form of the word to the word form required in the gap fill text.
  7. If you are given a list of words to choose for this task then pick the correct word/phrase from the list and cross it off to keep track of all the words that you have used up.

Question Type: Table & Diagram labelling

This one is quite simple. You need to read a passage and label (write a description) in 1 to 3 words for different parts of a drawing according to what you read.

Strategy:

Treat this as another gap fill question, the only difference being that the summary is depicted in a diagram rather than words. Start by looking at the diagram and try to guess what the gap labels might be referring to. Then quickly scan the article as described in the strategy for gap fill questions above and write the correct word / phrase in the answer sheet.

Follow these simple tips for diagram and table labelling questions:

TIP 1: Don’t ignore the key words and phrases in the table itself, use them to help you predict the type of word you need to find in the text!
TIP 2: The answers may not follow the order of the text, but are generally in the same part.
TIP 3: Remember to use words from the text without changing them or using more than the maximum number stated.

The following playlist covers these 2 question types in more detail:



Click on the playlist below to start learning NOW!

 

 

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