5.2. Matching Information and Features
Find the paragraph that holds a piece of information, and the person who holds a view, one step at a time.
Reading Passage 1 has six paragraphs, A-F. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A-F, for questions 1-4. NB You may use any letter more than once.
- 1a comparison between the cost of beaver dams and that of built alternatives1
- 2a reason why the animal was once hunted2
- 3a measurement taken during a storm3
- 4a warning about applying the results elsewhere4
Look at the following statements (Questions 24-26) and the list of people below. Match each statement with the correct person, A-D. Write the correct letter, A-D, for questions 24-26.
- AAbraham Osler
- BGeorge Airy
- CCharles Dowd
- DSandford Fleming
- 24He arranged for the time to be sent out from an observatory along the telegraph network.24
- 25He altered a single public clock without telling anyone.25
- 26He proposed dividing the world into zones an hour apart.26
The short version
Matching information: which paragraph contains a reason, a figure, a warning? You choose the paragraph's letter.
Matching features: who said or did this? You match each statement to a name from a list.
The questions do not follow the order of the passage. Answer 3 may sit above answer 2.
When the instructions say you may use any letter more than once, one paragraph or one person can answer two questions.
Match the meaning of a sentence, not a word it shares with the statement.
What you have to do
You get a short list of statements. In matching information, each one describes a piece of information, such as a reason or a warning, and you choose the letter of the paragraph that contains it. In matching features, each one is a view or an action, and you choose the letter of the person or group it belongs to, from a list. The answers do not follow the order of the passage, and a letter may be used twice when the instructions say so.
What "contains this information" means
A paragraph contains a piece of information when one of its sentences says that thing, usually in different words. A reason why a bridge was closed is contained in the paragraph that gives the reason. The word reason does not have to appear there. A paragraph that only mentions the bridge, or repeats a word from the statement, does not count. You are looking for the one sentence that does what the statement describes.
Step by step
- 1Read the statements first, and label each one
Before you touch the passage, read every statement in the list. For each one, note what kind of thing it is: a reason, a figure, a warning, a comparison, a view. For feature questions, read the list of names as well. Now you know what you are hunting for.
- 2Look for a sentence that does that job
Run your eye down each paragraph looking for a sentence that gives a reason, a figure, a warning, whatever your label says. Names, dates and numbers jump out fastest, so start with the statements that contain one. When you land on a sentence, read all of it.
- 3Match the meaning, not the words
The statement will not repeat the passage's words. A warning about using the results elsewhere may appear as should not be applied to other sites. Ask: does this sentence say what the statement says? For feature questions, find the verb that hands over the view, such as argues or warns. Take the name in front of it.
- 4Rule out statements, not letters
When you find a match, choose the letter and rule that statement out. Do not rule the letter out: the instructions may let you use it again, and one paragraph often answers two statements. Leave the hard statements and do the rest first.
- 5If you cannot find it
Look in the paragraphs you have not used yet, because the answers usually spread across the passage. If it is still missing after a minute, choose the letter of the paragraph on the closest topic and move on. Never leave a box empty: a wrong letter costs nothing.
Quiz time4 questions
Each question gives you the one or two sentences you need. Practise the judgement, not the searching.
The shared word
Read the extract, then choose the piece of information it contains.
Read thisThe pond was closed to swimmers in 1998 after two summers of algae. The council spent £60,000 on a filter in 2004, and the pond reopened the following spring.
Which piece of information does this extract contain?
The wrong owner
Read the extract. The statement is a view. Decide who holds it.
Read thisStallholders say the covered hall has halved their takings, because passing shoppers no longer see the stalls from the street. The chamber of commerce disagrees: it argues that the move brought shoppers back into the town centre.
Statement: The market now sells less than it did. Who holds this view?
Match the meaning, not the words
Read the extract, then choose the piece of information it contains. None of the options repeats its words.
Read thisThe survey covered one ward over six weeks. The authors say the pattern may not hold on a ward where most patients stay for a single night.
Which piece of information does this extract contain?
A letter used twice
Paragraph B is the answer to question 1, the cost of a project. The instructions say you may use any letter more than once.
Read thisParagraph B: The new footbridge cost £1.2 million, twice the figure the council first announced. It opened in March 2019, and the ferry that had crossed at that point ran for the last time the same week.
Which of these can Paragraph B also answer?
Try a full set
Below is a three-paragraph passage with both tasks set as the test sets them. Work the five steps in order: label each statement, hunt for the sentence that does that job, match the meaning, rule the statement out, and guess if you are stuck. A paragraph may be used more than once.
A In 2011 the county council began switching off two thirds of its street lights between midnight and five in the morning. The stated reason was money. The lights cost £4 million a year to run, and the council expected the switch-off to save a quarter of that. A second reason was mentioned less often. Most of the lamps were over forty years old, and a lamp that is off for five hours a night needs replacing later than one that burns all night. B Residents' associations objected from the first week. Their case was not about cost. They argued that a dark street invites burglars and makes an elderly person afraid to walk home from a late bus. The council answered with its own figures, which showed no rise in recorded crime in the first year. The associations replied that people who feel unsafe simply stay indoors, so a crime count measures nothing about fear. C The clearest evidence came from a road safety charity, which compared collision records on the darkened roads with those on roads that stayed lit. It found no change in the number of night-time collisions on either. The charity does not treat this as proof that the switch-off is safe. Its report warns that the roads studied were mostly residential, with little traffic after midnight, so the result should not be applied to main roads or junctions.
The full set3 questions
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Match each statement to the paragraph that contains it. In this set each letter is used once.
A letter used more than once
The instructions say you may use any letter more than once. One paragraph answers this question as well as one in the set above.
Which paragraph contains a comparison between two groups of roads?
Whose view is it?
Match each statement with the group that holds the view. Find the verb that hands the view over before you choose.
Tips
- Start with names and numbers
A statement with a date, a figure or a name is found fastest. Do those first, and leave a reason or a warning until fewer paragraphs are left to try.
- Skim first if the passage is new to you
Skim first: read the title and the first sentence of each paragraph, and note two words for each. Then a statement about a warning sends you to the right paragraph at once.
- Find the verb that hands over the view
Before you choose a letter in a feature question, find argues, warns, says or claims. The name in front of that verb is your answer, whatever the paragraph is mostly about.
Recap
Read the statements first and label each one: a reason, a figure, a warning, a view.
Find the sentence that says what the statement says in different words, and check who owns the view.
Answers jump around the passage, and a letter may be used twice when the instructions allow it.
Next: finishing a sentence with the ending that matches one clause in the passage.