INTENSIVE IELTS

Reading – Table Completion

I. The Basic

In this task type, you will be provided with a table that summarizes the reading text (the information in the
table will be paraphrased). This table will contain several gaps, your task is to fill in these gaps with words
from the text.

It tests your ability to scan for information, understand main ideas and paraphrase.

II. Vocabulary

 Fossil fuel (n): fuels, such as gas, coal, and oil, that were formed underground from plant and animal
remains millions of years ago.

 Inevitable (adj): certain to happen and unable to be avoided or prevented.

 Emission (n): the act of sending out gas, heat, light, etc.

 Manipulation (n): controlling someone or something to your own advantage, often unfairly or
dishonestly.

 Proponent (n): a person who speaks publicly in support of a particular idea or plan of action.

 Iodide (n): a chemical compound of iodine with another element.

 Cement (n): a grey powder that is mixed with water and sand to make mortar or with water, sand, and
small stones to make concrete.

 Sunshade (n): an object similar to an umbrella that you carry to protect yourself from light from the sun.

 Refract (v): When water or glass, etc. refracts light or sound, etc., it causes it to change direction.

 Algae (n): very simple, usually small plants that grow in or near water and do not have ordinary leaves
or roots.

 Aerosol (n): a metal container in which liquids are kept under pressure and forced out in a spray.

 Stratosphere (n): the layer of gases surrounding the earth at a height of between 15 and 50 kilometres.

 Scrutinize (v): to examine something very carefully in order to discover information.

 Birch (n): a tree with smooth, often white bark (= outer covering) and thin branches.

 Telepathy (n): the ability to know what is in someone else's mind, or to communicate with someone
mentally, without using words or other physical signals.

 Parapsychology (n): the study of mental abilities, such as knowing the

future or telepathy, that seem to go against or be outside the known laws of nature and science.

 Meta (prefix): outside the normal limits of something.

III. Example
Read the following passage and answer the questions.

Reducing the Effects of Climate Change

A - Such is our dependence on fossil fuels, and such is the volume of carbon dioxide already released into
the atmosphere, that many experts agree that significant global warming is now inevitable. They believe
that the best we can do is keep it at a reasonable level, and at present the only serious option for doing
this is cutting back on our carbon emissions.

But while a few countries are making major strides in this regard, the majority are having great difficulty
even stemming the rate of increase, let alone reversing it. Consequently, an increasing number of scientists
are beginning to explore the alternative of geo-engineering — a term which generally refers to the
intentional large-scale manipulation of the environment.

According to its proponents, geo-engineering is the equivalent of a backup generator: if Plan A - reducing
our dependency on fossil fuels - fails, we require a Plan B, employing grand schemes to slow down or reverse
the process of global warming.

B - Geo-engineering; has been shown to work, at least on a small localised scale. For decades, May Day
parades in Moscow have taken place under clear blue skies, aircraft having deposited dry ice, silver iodide
and cement powder to disperse clouds.

Many of the schemes now suggested look to do the opposite, and reduce the amount of sunlight reaching
the planet. The most eye-catching idea of all is suggested by Professor Roger Angel of the University of
Arizona. His scheme would employ up to 16 trillion minute spacecraft, each weighing about one gram, to
form a transparent, sunlight-refracting sunshade in an orbit 1.5 million km above the Earth. This could, argues
Angel, reduce the amount of light reaching the Earth by two per cent.

C - The majority of geo-engineering projects so far carried out — which include planting forests in deserts
and depositing iron in the ocean to stimulate the growth of algae - have focused on achieving a general
cooling of the Earth. But some look specifically at reversing the melting at the poles, particularly the Arctic.
The reasoning is that if you replenish the ice sheets and frozen waters of the high latitudes, more light will
be reflected back into space, so reducing the warming of the oceans and atmosphere.

The concept of releasing aerosol sprays into the stratosphere above the Arctic has been proposed by
several scientists. This would involve using sulfur or hydrogen sulfide aerosols so that sulfur dioxide would
form clouds, which would, in turn, lead to a global dimming. The idea is modeled on historic volcanic
explosions, such as that of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, which led to a short-term cooling of
global temperatures by 0.5 °[Link] have also scrutinised whether it's possible to preserve the ice sheets
of Greenland with reinforced high-tension cables, preventing icebergs from moving into the sea.
Meanwhile in the Russian Arctic, geo-engineering plans include the planting of millions of birch trees.
Whereas the - regions native evergreen pines shade the snow and absorb radiation, birches would shed
their leaves in winter, thus enabling radiation to be reflected by the snow.

Re-routing Russian rivers to increase cold water flow to ice-forming areas could also be used to slow down
warming, say some climate scientists.

Complete the table below. Choose ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.
 Procedure Aim

put a large number of tiny spacecraft into orbit far to create a 1…………….. that would reduce the
above Earth amount of light reaching Earth

place 2……. in the sea to encourage 3………...to form

release aerosol sprays into the stratosphere to create 4……… that would reduce the amount of
light reaching Earth

fix strong 5……………. to Greenland ice sheets to prevent icebergs moving into the sea

plant trees in Russian Arctic that would lose their to allow the 6……………….. to reflect radiation
leaves in winter

change the direction of 7………………… to bring more cold water into ice-forming areas

IV. Tips

 Like all other IELTS tasks, always remember the word limit.

 The table you are given will often have title, pay attention to this title, as it will help you understand the
topic of the text.

 The next thing you need to understand is how the table is organized. Look at the order of the questions
to see whether you should read the table across in rows or down in columns.

 Read the headings of the columns and/or rows. They will let you know what kind of information is in that
part of the table.

 You can try to form incomplete sentences using these information, this will make them more coherent
and easier to [Link] example, in the exercise we did at the beginning:

Procedure Aim

put a large number of tiny spacecraft into orbit far to create a 1…………….. that would reduce the
above Earth amount of light reaching Earth

place 2……. in the sea to encourage 3………...to form

Form sentences:

 Putting tiny spacecraft into orbit can create a 1. ………… that reduces the amount of light reaching
Earth.

 The aim of placing 2. ……… in the sea is to encourage 3. …….. to form.

Then you can approach the task as a sentence completion task: Underline keywords in the sentences you
just created, then scan for synonyms & paraphrase in the text to find the information you need.

Similar to all completion exercises, always Identify the type of word that you need to fill in each gap (noun,
verb, adjective…) so that you can choose the correct word.
 V. Strategies

In order to do this type of question, follow these steps:

1. Read the instructions carefully, and note the word limit.

2. Read the title of the table.

3. Read the questions to know the layout of the table.

4. Form sentences with the information in the table.

 Highlight keywords in these sentences.

5. Scan the reading text

 Look first for proper names, because they can’t be paraphrased.

 Then look for special, unusual words, it is unlikely that these will be paraphrased.

 Next look for numbers, because they can easily be identified even if paraphrased.

 Then look for SYNONYMS of the keywords that you highlighted earlier.

6. Once you’ve located the part of the text that contains the information you need, read that part carefully
and choose the word(s) you need.

7. Check your answer after you finish. See if:

 Your answer is grammatically correct

 It matches the information in the passage

 You have used the correct number of words

 The spelling is correct

VI. Exercise

Complete the table below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Telepathy Experiments

The ganzfeld experiment tries to recreate these conditions with participants sitting in soft reclining chairs in
a sealed room, listening to relaxing sounds while their eyes are covered with special filters letting in only soft
pink light. In early ganzfeld experiments, the telepathy test involved identification of a picture chosen from
a random selection of four taken from a large image bank.

The idea was that a person acting as a 'sender‘ would attempt to beam the image over to the ‘receiver’
relaxing in the sealed room. Once the session was over, this person was asked to identify which of the four
images had been used. Random guessing would give a hit-rate of 25 per cent; if telepathy is real, however,
the hitrate would be higher.

In 1982, the results from the first ganzfeld studies were analysed by one of its pioneers, the American
parapsychologist Charles Honorton. They pointed to typical hit-rates of better than 30 per cent - a small
effect, but one which statistical tests suggested could not be put down to chance.
The implication was that the ganzfeld method had revealed real evidence for telepathy. But there was a
crucial flaw in this argument - one routinely overlooked in more conventional areas of science.

Just because chance had been ruled out as an explanation did not prove telepathy must exist; there were
many other ways of getting positive results. These ranged from 'sensory leakage' - where clues about the
pictures accidentally reach the receiver - to outright fraud. In response, the researchers issued a review of
all the ganzfeld studies done up to 1985 to show that 80 per cent had found statistically significant evidence.

However, they also agreed that there were still too many problems in the experiments which could lead to
positive results, and they drew up a list demanding new standards for future research. After this, many
researchers switched to auto ganzfeld tests - an automated variant of the technique which used computers
to perform many of the key tasks such as the random selection of images.

By minimising human involvement, the idea was to minimise the risk of flawed results. In 1987, results from
hundreds of auto ganzfeld tests were studied by Honorton in a 'meta-analysis', a statistical technique for
finding the overall results from a set of studies. Though less compelling than before, the outcome was still
impressive.

Yet some parapsychologists remain disturbed by the lack of consistency between individual ganzfeld
studies. Defenders of telepathy point out that demanding impressive evidence from every study ignores
one basic statistical fact: it takes large samples to detect small effects. If, as current results suggest,
telepathy produces hit-rates only marginally above the 25 per cent expected by chance, it's unlikely to be
detected by a typical ganzfeld study involving around 40 people: the group is just not big enough.

Only when many studies are combined in a meta-analysis will the faint signal of telepathy really become
apparent. And that is what researchers do seem to be finding.

Complete the table below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Name/date Description Result Flaw

Ganzfeld Involved a person acting as a Hit-rates were Positive results could be

Autoganzfeld 6……………..were used for key The results were The 9 ………................... between
studies 1987 tasks to limit the amount of then subjected to different test results was put
7…………........................... in a 8…………….…… down to the fact that sample
carrying out the tests. groups were not
10…...…………(as with most
ganzfeld studies).