IELTS Reading Sentence Completion Tips and Strategies

Sentence Completion questions come in different forms:

1. Single Word Answers: You may be required to fill in the blank with a single word from the passage.

2. Short Phrases: Sometimes, the answer might be a short phrase or a couple of words.

3. Numbers or Dates: The answer might be a specific number or date mentioned in the passage.

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The instructions will usually indicate the maximum number of words you can use.

Here are some examples of Sentence Completion question types for the IELTS Reading exam, along with the corresponding answers:

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Example 1:

Reading Passage: "The ancient city of Pompeii was destroyed in 79 AD when Mount Vesuvius erupted, covering the town in a thick layer of ash and pumice."

 

Sentence Completion: "Pompeii was buried in ash and ______ in 79 AD after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius."

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Answer: "pumice"

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Example 2:

Reading Passage: "The honeybee is a social insect that lives in large colonies. The queen bee is the only female that lays eggs and can lay up to 2,000 eggs a day."

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Sentence Completion: "In a honeybee colony, the ______ is the only female that lays eggs, and she can lay up to ______ eggs daily."

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Answer: "queen bee, 2,000"

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Example 3:

Reading Passage: "The Amazon Rainforest, often referred to as the 'lungs of the Earth,' spans over 2.7 million square miles and contains over 390 billion individual trees."

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Sentence Completion: "Known as the 'lungs of the Earth,' the Amazon Rainforest covers an area of over ______ square miles and is home to more than ______ individual trees."

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Answer: "2.7 million, 390 billion"

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Example 4:

Reading Passage: "The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440 transformed the way information was disseminated, leading to a rapid spread of knowledge."

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Sentence Completion: "The ______ was invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440 and revolutionized the distribution of information."

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Answer: "printing press"

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Example 5:

Reading Passage: "Albert Einstein, born in Germany in 1879, is best known for his theory of relativity. His work has significantly influenced modern physics."

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Sentence Completion: "Born in Germany in _______, Albert Einstein's contributions, especially his theory of _______, have greatly impacted the field of modern physics."

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Answer: "1879, relativity"

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These examples showcase different types of Sentence Completion questions that may appear in the IELTS Reading exam. They test your ability to read for detail, synthesize information, and recognize specific information within the text.

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For more in-depth insights on Sentence Completion or any other IELTS Reading topics, our specially crafted eBooks are at your disposal. They're packed with examples, explanations, and expert advice to help you succeed.

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Well, don’t worry if you are still confused about this question type. We are going to give you more detailed example answering real test questions.

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At first, please read this part of the passage taken from the Cambridge IELTS-18 Academic test paper:

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“On top of a striking new exhibition hall in southern Paris, the world’s largest urban rooftop farm has started to bear fruit. Strawberries that are small, intensely flavoured and resplendently red sprout abundantly from large plastic tubes. Peer inside and you see the tubes are completely hollow, the roots of dozens of strawberry plants dangling down inside them. From identical vertical tubes nearby burst row upon row of lettuces; near those are aromatic herbs, such as basil, sage and peppermint. Opposite, in narrow, horizontal trays packed not with soil but with coconut fibre, grow cherry tomatoes, shiny aubergines and brightly coloured chards.

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Pascal Hardy, an engineer and sustainable development consultant, began experimenting with vertical farming and aeroponic growing towers- as the soil-free plastic tubes are known – on his Paris apartment block roof five years ago. The urban rooftop space above the exhibition hall is somewhat bigger: 14,000 square metres and almost exactly the size of a couple of football pitches. Already, the team of young urban farmers who tend it have picked, in one day, 3,000 lettuces and 150 punnets of strawberries. When the remaining two thirds of the vast open area are in production, 20 staff will harvest up to 1,000 kg of perhaps 35 different varieties of fruit and vegetables, every day. ‘We’re not ever, obviously, going to feed the whole city this way,’ cautions Hardy. ‘In the urban environment you’re working with very significant practical constraints, clearly, on what you can do and where. But if enough unused space can be developed like this, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t eventually target maybe between 5% and 10% of consumption.’ ”

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Now, notice the questions that appeared in the exam, based on the given text above: