Ace The ielts essential tips for ielts general Training Module

Strategy for the Gap fills 

 

First of all try to understand what the main idea of the first sentence is. Then find it on 

your map – this should take you to the paragraph that "hides" the answer. 

 

Now, when you know where to look, you need to know what to look for. Look 

around the gap to understand what’s missing, a noun (like boy, toy, truck), an 

adjective (little, pretty, shiny) or a verb (stands, looks, moves).  

 

For example, what is missing here: “She ____ around and saw him in the corner”?  

 

You have 4 choices:  happy, man, looked, smiled. It is clear that you need a verb here, 

but which one, “looked” or “smiled”? Now it is time to start reading the text. 

Find where example answer is and start there. Remember to read only first, second 

and last sentence. Of course, “looked” is the right word!  

  

Sometimes there are words near gap that will give you a clue what kind of word is 

missing. For example, “Main physical activities in the summer camp are fishing, 

________ and swimming. Naturally, you will look for words that end with “ing” to 

fill for the gap – like “hiking”. 

 

There are 2 types of gap-fills: