IELTS Reading: Complete Sentences Accurately

For: Independent learners who locate the right information but lose accuracy through extra words, spelling or an unsuitable word form.

Test type: Academic and General Training. Both can include sentence completion; their reading texts differ.

Study time: 25 minutes. This is a short skill-building exercise, not a full Reading test.

Your learning goals

• Predict the kind of word needed in six gaps.
• Find the relevant information when the question uses a paraphrase.
• Complete six sentences with exact words from the passage within the stated limit.

What the task requires

Sentence completion asks you to select words from the text. Follow the word limit carefully; answers appear in the same order as the relevant information. See the official Academic Reading format and General Training Reading format.

In our matching-headings lesson, you identified whole-paragraph ideas. Here you will locate a precise detail and fit it into a sentence.

Strategy: predict, locate, copy, check

1. Read the instruction first. Notice whether numbers are allowed and how many words you may use.
2. Read the full sentence around the gap. Do you need a thing, place, action or description?
3. Find the corresponding idea in the passage. The question may use different wording.
4. Copy only the words needed. In a words-from-the-text task, do not replace them with your own synonym.
5. Read the completed sentence and check meaning, grammar, spelling and word count.

Worked example

Text: “Visitors leave their bags in lockers beside the entrance.”

Question: Visitors can store their bags in ____ near the entrance.

Instruction: Write ONE WORD ONLY from the text.

Answer: lockers. “Store” paraphrases “leave” here. The gap needs the place where the bags are kept. “Lockers beside the entrance” gives the right information but exceeds the limit. “Cupboards” might sound possible, but it is not the word in the text.

Independent practice: a garden above the office

Read the passage, then complete the sentences. Aim to answer in eight minutes before checking your work.

Turning a roof into a garden

An office building in Mill Lane had a flat roof that staff rarely visited. When the building manager suggested a small garden, the first step was not choosing flowers. A structural engineer inspected the roof to check how much weight it could safely support. Only after the inspection did the team agree on a design.

Rather than covering the entire roof with soil, the team put plants in lightweight containers. These could be moved when staff needed access to the roof surface for maintenance. The containers also allowed the team to begin with a small planted area and add to it gradually.

The roof received strong sunlight, and young plants sometimes dried out between visits. Staff installed a sensor to measure soil moisture. Its readings helped them decide when watering was necessary, rather than relying on a fixed daily routine. A timer controlled the water supply, but it did not measure the condition of the soil.

Several staff members volunteered to look after the garden. To avoid everyone arriving on the same day and nobody visiting later in the week, they created a rota. Each volunteer selected a regular time to check the plants and note any problems.

During the first summer, the team grew flowers, herbs and a few vegetables. At lunchtime, staff often picked mint to put in their drinks. They left the flowers in place for insects and took the vegetables to the shared kitchen when they were ready.

The manager wanted to know whether staff valued the space. At the end of the summer, the team collected feedback through an anonymous questionnaire. It asked how often people visited and what they would like to change. The answers helped the team plan seating for the following year, but the questionnaire did not measure changes in staff productivity.

Questions 1–6

Complete the sentences below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

1. Before the garden was designed, an engineer carried out an ____ of the roof.
2. The plants were placed in ____ that could be moved for maintenance.
3. A sensor measured soil ____ to help staff make watering decisions.
4. Volunteers used a ____ to spread their visits across the week.
5. Staff added ____ from the garden to their drinks.
6. The team used an anonymous ____ to gather opinions about the garden.

Vocabulary in context

• Structural engineer: a specialist who checks the strength and stability of structures such as buildings.
• Maintenance: work that keeps a building or object in good condition.
• Rota: a schedule allocating tasks or times to different people.
• Anonymous: without giving the respondent’s name.

Answer key and evidence

Common mistakes and corrections

• Copying a whole phrase: remove words already supplied by the question. For question 3, “soil moisture” becomes just “moisture” after the printed word “soil”.
• Changing the word to a synonym: use the exact word from the passage when the instruction requires it.
• Choosing by grammar alone: a noun can fit grammatically and still give the wrong information. Confirm the meaning too.
• Ignoring plural endings: “containers” matches both the passage and the completed sentence; copy the ending carefully.

Review and continue

For every error, record the answer, its location and whether your mistake involved meaning, word count or copying. A score out of six is a lesson check, not an IELTS band estimate.

Use ESS Asking About a Community Class to practise separating precise details from general context. Next, try one sentence-completion task from official Academic or General Training samples, following that task’s own limit.

Return to the IELTS hub.

Original independent ESS material, not official IELTS questions or a score prediction. References and ESS support links checked on 30 October 2026.