Part 4: sentence and summary completion
Turn understanding into marks in Part 4 sentence and summary completion: predict the grammar of every gap, recognise paraphrase between the page and the lecture, and spell academic words perfectly.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to:
- Use articles, quantifiers, verb forms and word order to predict the exact form of each answer
- Recognise the common ways a lecture is paraphrased in sentences and summaries
- Handle summaries with and without a word box
- Avoid plural, uncountable-noun, word-class and spelling errors in academic vocabulary
Sentence completion vs summary completion
Sentence completion gives you separate sentences, each paraphrasing one point from the lecture, in the order you will hear them:
Complete the sentences below. Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.
33 In parts of Sheffield, some robins now sing at ______.
Summary completion gives you one paragraph that summarises a section of the lecture, with the gaps in order. It comes in two forms:
- Without a box: you write words you hear, within the word limit.
- With a box: you choose from a list of words or phrases (A, B, C…) and write the letter. The box always has more options than gaps.
In both tasks, the sentence or summary is written by the examiner, not copied from the script. The words around the gap are paraphrased. When there is no box, the answer itself is exactly the word the speaker says. Your job is to recognise the paraphrase, catch the exact word and write it in a form that fits.
The four checks for every gap
- 1
Meaning: what kind of information?
Read the whole sentence, not just the words near the gap. Is it a cause, a material, a place, a group of people, a quality, a time? ‘Walls made of fired ___’ → a building material.
- 2
Grammar: what form?
Noun, verb, adjective or adverb? Singular or plural? Countable or uncountable? Does an article force a particular form? Is it a passive (were ___ by) that needs a past participle?
- 3
Limit: how many words?
ONE WORD ONLY means exactly one. No articles. Hyphenated words count as one word; car park counts as two.
- 4
Spelling: letter by letter
Check double letters, silent letters, vowel sounds you don't stress (temp-er-ature) and plural endings. British and American spellings are both accepted.
Grammar clues around the gap
| Clue in the sentence | What you need | Example |
|---|---|---|
a / an ___ | Singular countable noun. ‘An’ means the NEXT word starts with a vowel sound | The team built an ___ to measure noise. → instrument |
the ___ of | Noun | the ___ of the river → mouth, depth |
several / many / a number of / various ___ | Plural noun | several ___ were interviewed → farmers |
less / much / little / a great deal of ___ | Uncountable noun | less ___ was needed → repair, water |
___ + noun | Adjective or noun modifier | the ___ population → urban, rural |
was / were / been ___ by | Past participle | were ___ by the tide → submerged |
to ___ / can ___ / should ___ | Base form of a verb | farmers began to ___ crops → rotate |
verb + more ___ / verb + ___ than | Adverb (usually -ly) | they sang more ___ → softly |
___ + verb without -s | Plural subject | ___ reduce the flow → dams |
Questions 31–35 · Complete the sentences below. Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.
31 Early cities were usually built close to ______ for easy transport.
32 Walls made of fired ______ lasted much longer than mud walls.
33 Several ______ were employed to manage the city's water supply.
34 A shortage of ______ forced some settlements to move.
35 Waste was carried away through an underground ______.
- 31After ‘close to’: a noun for a place connected with transport. No article in front, so a plural or uncountable noun: ‘rivers’ or ‘harbours’ (‘the sea’ would be two words).
- 32‘Fired ___’ + ‘walls made of’: a material that is baked in a kiln, probably ‘bricks’ or ‘clay’. Both fit the grammar, so listen for the exact word and form.
- 33‘Several’ → plural countable noun. ‘Were employed’ → people: engineers, officials, workers.
- 34‘A shortage of’ → an uncountable or plural noun: water, timber, food, labour.
- 35‘An underground ___’: the ‘an’ belongs to ‘underground’, so the noun can start with any letter: channel, drain, tunnel. It must be singular, though.
Check your understanding: grammar fit
7 questions- 1
Gap: ‘The team interviewed a number of local ______.’ The lecturer says: ‘…so we spoke to local fishermen in each village.’ Which answer is correct?
- 2
Gap: ‘Less ______ was needed after the new design was introduced.’ Which answer fits grammatically?
- 3
Gap: ‘The birds sang more ______ than before.’ Which form is correct?
- 4
Find and correct the mistake:
The researchers collected a lot of informations from farmers.
- 5
Find and correct the mistake:
Several hypothesis were tested in the study.
- 6
Gap: ‘The project was funded by an ______ organisation.’ Which TWO words fit grammatically?
Select 2.
- 7
The lecturer says: ‘The tide submerged the young plants.’ Sentence on the paper: ‘The young plants were by the tide.’
Answer every question to check.
Paraphrase: everything changes except the answer
The sentence on your paper and the lecturer's words carry the same meaning in different language. If you only listen for the exact words on the page, the answer will pass before you realise it. Learn the common transformations below and you'll recognise the moment your answer arrives, even when almost every word around it is different.
Common paraphrase patterns
| On the question paper | What the lecturer says | Answer | Type of paraphrase |
|---|---|---|---|
Bee numbers have fallen mainly because of ______. | The decline in bee populations is largely down to pesticides. | pesticides | Verb ↔ noun (fallen ↔ decline); synonym (mainly because of ↔ largely down to) |
The bridge was paid for mainly by private ______. | Most of the funding came from private investors. | investors | Passive ↔ active; synonym (paid for ↔ funding) |
The new method is more ______ than earlier ones. | Earlier techniques were far less accurate. | accurate | Comparison reversed (more… than ↔ less…) |
Participants were not allowed to keep their ______. | We asked everyone to leave their phones outside the room. | phones | Negative ↔ positive instruction |
The ______ of the plant is used in medicine. | It's the root, not the leaves, that has medicinal value. | root | Restructured sentence; a distractor (leaves) is rejected |
Most early cities grew up next to ______. | Almost all of the first cities were built beside rivers. | rivers | Synonyms (grew up ↔ were built; next to ↔ beside); most ↔ almost all |
Summary with a box vs summary without a box
Summary WITHOUT a box
- You write words from the recording
- A word limit applies (e.g. ONE WORD ONLY)
- Spelling must be perfect
- The answer is the exact word you hear
- Grammar tells you the form (plural, adverb…)
- Main risk: spelling and form errors
Summary WITH a word box
- You write a letter (A, B, C…)
- No word limit and no spelling risk
- The options are usually synonyms of what you hear: you hear disappointing and choose unsatisfactory
- More options than gaps, some of them close distractors
- Several options may fit the grammar, so meaning decides
- Main risk: choosing a word because it echoes the recording
With a box, don't wait for the exact word: think in meanings. Without a box, don't paraphrase: write the exact word you heard.
Academic words candidates often misspell
| Word | Common mistake | Memory trick |
|---|---|---|
environment | enviroment | There's iron in env-IRON-ment. |
government | goverment | People who GOVERN → govern + ment. |
necessary | neccessary, necesary | One collar, two sleeves: 1 c, 2 s. |
temperature | temprature | Say all four syllables: tem-per-a-ture. |
accommodation | acommodation, accomodation | It's big enough for two c's AND two m's. |
separate | seperate | There's A RAT in sep-ARAT-e. |
questionnaire | questionaire | Double n, one r: questio-NN-aire. |
phenomenon / phenomena | phenomenons | One phenomenon, two phenomena. |
criterion / criteria | criterias | ‘Criteria’ is already plural. |
hypothesis / hypotheses | hypotesis, hypothesises | hypo + thesis; -is → -es in the plural. |
sediment | sedement, sedimant | Ends in -ment, like environment. |
Wednesday / February | Wensday, Febuary | Say them as written: Wed-nes-day, Feb-ru-ary. |
Spelling under pressure: seven lecture extracts
Dictation: write the missing word
7 questions- 1
Extract 1: The experiment measured how the of the soil changed overnight.
- 2
Extract 2: Researchers analysed the at the bottom of the lake.
- 3
Extract 3: The introduced the scheme in 2015.
- 4
Extract 4: Participants completed a short before the test began.
- 5
Extract 5: This is especially common in coastal areas.
- 6
Extract 6: Several were tested, but only one was supported by the data.
- 7
Extract 7: Most international students have to find their own in the second year.
Answer every question to check.
Part 4 practice: city noise and birdsong
10 questionsPart of a lecture on how urban noise affects the way birds sing, including studies of great tits, robins and white-crowned sparrows.
Recording
🎧 Read the questions first, then play the recording once — just like the real test. You can replay it after checking your answers.
Questions 31–35
Complete the sentences below.
Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.
31 Urban noise consists mainly of sound at low .
32 Male great tits in noisy parts of cities sing at a higher than those in forests.
33 In parts of Sheffield, some robins now sing at .
34 Night singing by robins was best predicted by the amount of noise.
35 Males that sing at a higher pitch may be less to females.
Questions 36–40
Complete the summary below.
Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.
The 2020 lockdown study
When traffic almost disappeared during the in spring 2020, researchers in San Francisco compared recordings of white-crowned sparrows with those from earlier years. Instead of becoming simpler, the birds' songs changed in surprising ways. The sparrows sang more than before, but their songs travelled about twice the . The of their songs also improved, as the birds used a wider range of notes. The lecturer concludes that, in normal conditions, city birds sing under a great deal of .
Final quiz: completion tasks
10 questions- 1
Sentence: ‘The fall in fish numbers was mainly caused by ______.’ Lecturer: ‘Pollution played a part, but the main reason fish stocks declined was overfishing.’
What is the answer?
- 2
Sentence: ‘The new material is more than steel.’ Lecturer: ‘Steel turned out to be far less flexible than the new composite.’
- 3
A summary has a word box. You hear: ‘The results of the trial were, frankly, disappointing.’ Which box option is most likely to be the answer?
- 4
Find and correct the mistake:
The enviroment of the delta is changing rapidly.
- 5
Find and correct the mistake:
The team used several equipments to measure the noise.
- 6
Which TWO spellings are accepted in IELTS?
Select 2.
- 7
Instructions: Complete the summary below. Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer. (There is no box of options.)
You may write a synonym of the word you hear, as long as it fits the meaning.
- 8
Sentence: ‘Unlike rural birds, city birds must compete with ______ noise.’ What should you predict?
- 9
Match each misspelling to the correct spelling.
seperategovermenttempraturequestionaireaccomodation - 10
In the birdsong lecture, why is ‘light’ wrong for Question 34 (‘…the amount of ______ noise’)?
Answer every question to check.
Key takeaways
Vocabulary from the lecture
Saved as flashcards with a free accountfrequency
noun/ˈfriːkwənsi/
the number of sound waves per second, which determines how high or low a sound is
কম্পাঙ্ক
Traffic noise is concentrated at low frequencies.
pitch
noun/pɪtʃ/
how high or low a sound or voice is
স্বরের উচ্চতা বা তীক্ষ্ণতা
Great tits in noisy areas sing at a higher pitch.
mask
verb/mɑːsk/
to cover or hide something so that it cannot be heard, seen or noticed
ঢেকে দেওয়া, আড়াল করা
Low-frequency noise masks the lower notes of the song.
predictor
noun/prɪˈdɪktə/
a factor that helps to show what will happen or why something happens
পূর্বাভাস দেয় এমন নির্দেশক
Daytime noise was the best predictor of night singing.
trade-off
noun/ˈtreɪd ɒf/
a balance between two things, where gaining one means losing some of the other
একটি পেতে অন্যটি ছাড়ার আপস
Singing higher to be heard may be a trade-off with attracting a mate.
adaptation
noun/ˌædæpˈteɪʃn/
a change in behaviour or form that helps a living thing survive in its environment
অভিযোজন
Night singing is an adaptation to daytime noise.
paraphrase
noun / verb/ˈpærəfreɪz/
to express the same meaning using different words; a version written this way
ভিন্ন শব্দে একই অর্থ প্রকাশ করা
The summary paraphrases the lecture, so listen for meaning, not matching words.
uncountable
adjective/ʌnˈkaʊntəbl/
describing a noun that has no plural form and cannot be used with ‘a’ or numbers
অগণনীয় (যা গোনা যায় না)
‘Equipment’ is uncountable, so ‘equipments’ is always wrong.
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