Short answer: Summary completion gives you a paragraph that condenses part of the passage, with gaps to fill using words from the text or from a box. The summary paraphrases the passage, so you find each gap by meaning, not by matching words; the answer itself, though, must be copied exactly as it appears. Read the summary first, predict the kind of word each gap needs, locate the sentence in the passage, and copy the word within the limit.
Summary completion looks like a gift. The passage has already been condensed for you, the gaps are short, and the answer is somewhere on the page. Then you time yourself and find that seven gaps have taken twelve minutes, because you read the whole passage looking for each one. The task rewards a specific way of reading: the summary tells you what to look for, the passage tells you where it is, and the two use different words for the same idea. Learn to move between them and a summary group becomes the quickest seven marks on the paper.
What the task looks like
A summary is a paragraph of six to ten sentences that restates one part of the passage, usually one or two sections rather than the whole text. Between five and eight gaps are numbered. The instruction takes one of three forms, and the form changes what you do.
| Instruction | Where the answer comes from | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Complete the summary using words from the passage. Write ONE WORD ONLY. | The text itself. | The answer is a word printed in the passage, copied exactly, one word. The most common form, and the form used in the tests on this site. |
| Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage. | The text itself. | Up to two words, exactly as printed and in the same order. "Solar panels" is right; "panels of solar" is not. |
| Choose from the list of words below (A to L). | A box of options, more than the gaps. | The answers are letters. The words in the box are often synonyms or different forms of words in the passage, so this version is a vocabulary test as much as a reading test. |
The summary is written by a question writer, not copied from the passage, and that is the whole difficulty. "The most dramatic reversal on record" in a passage becomes "the best-known revival" in a summary; "a shift across three generations" becomes "a change that takes three ........". You are looking for ideas said differently, and then, at the last moment, for one word said identically.
The 5-step method
- Read the summary first, all of it. Before you look at the passage, read the summary from beginning to end. You now know which part of the passage it covers and roughly what it says. Underline the two or three words in each sentence that are unlikely to have been paraphrased: names, numbers, technical terms, dates. These are your anchors in the text.
- Predict the word class of each gap. Read the sentence around the gap. What is missing grammatically: a noun, a verb, an adjective, a number? Is the noun singular or plural (look at the verb and the article)? Is the verb past or present? Write the class in the margin: N, N pl, V, ADJ. This step is what makes the answer obvious once you reach the right sentence, and it also stops you writing a word that cannot fit.
- Locate the sentence in the passage. Use the anchors. Scan for the name, number or term from the summary sentence; the gap's answer is in that sentence or the one next to it. Because the summary follows the passage in order, start each search where the last one ended, not at the top.
- Match the meaning, then copy the word. Read the sentence you have found and check that it says what the summary sentence says. Then find the word that fills the gap. It will be there exactly, in the form the gap needs. If the word you have chosen is not in the sentence, either you have the wrong sentence or you have understood the gap wrongly; do not write a synonym.
- Check the limit, the spelling and the grammar. One word means one word. The spelling is the passage's spelling, letter for letter. Read the completed sentence once: if it is not grammatical, the word class was wrong.
Word-class clues in the summary
The summary sentence tells you the shape of the answer before you look for it. These are the clues that cost nothing to read and save a wrong answer each.
| What surrounds the gap | The gap is probably | Example |
|---|---|---|
| "a", "an", "the", "this", "each" before it | A singular noun | "kept only in an archive is like a seed in a ........" (a place, singular) |
| "three", "several", "many", "some" before it | A plural noun | "a shift over three ........" (plural: generations) |
| "of" before it, a noun after it | A noun, often abstract | "the result of ........" (conquest, pressure) |
| "to" before it, an object after it | A verb in the base form | "parents choose to ........ their children in it" |
| "by", "with" before it, a noun after it | A noun naming an agent or means | "preschools run by ........" (a group of people) |
| A noun straight after it | An adjective | "a ........ right to use it" (legal) |
| "in", "since", "by" and a gap | A year or a number | "granted in ........" |
A full worked summary, on a real passage
The passage "Why Languages Fall Silent" is the third passage of Reading Test 5 on this site, and its questions 27 to 33 are a summary completion with ONE WORD ONLY from the passage. The full text is on the passage page. Here is the summary as it appears in the test, then each gap worked through the method. Try the gaps yourself before opening the answers; the sentence of the passage quoted with each answer is the one you should have found.
Around seven thousand languages are spoken today, but most have very few speakers, and one estimate suggests that 27 ........ of them could lose their fluent speakers within a century. A language usually disappears through a shift over three 28 ........: the youngest members of a community stop using it because the new language opens doors. The pressures are mainly economic rather than the result of 29 ......... What is lost includes practical knowledge, a distinct way of organising experience and, some research suggests, the health and 30 ........ of the community. Revivals are possible: Hebrew became the mother tongue of a nation, Welsh was helped by schools and a 31 ........ right to use it in public life, and Māori by preschools run by 32 ......... Technology allows detailed documentation, but a language kept only in an archive is like a seed in a 33 ........: safe, but not alive.
- Prediction: "one estimate suggests that ........ of them" wants a quantity word. Anchor: "seven thousand", "estimate".
Show the answer for 27
HALF. Paragraph 1: "on one widely quoted estimate, as many as half of the languages now spoken could have no fluent speakers left by the end of this century". The summary says "within a century" for "by the end of this century" and "lose their fluent speakers" for "have no fluent speakers left". The word "half" is the only word that survived unchanged.
- Prediction: "three ........" wants a plural noun. Anchor: "shift", "three".
Show the answer for 28
GENERATIONS. Paragraph 2: "What happens instead is a shift across three generations". "Over" in the summary replaces "across" in the passage; the number and the noun are identical. Written in the singular, the answer is wrong.
- Prediction: "the result of ........" wants an abstract noun, contrasted with "economic". Anchor: "pressures", "economic".
Show the answer for 29
CONQUEST. Paragraph 3: "The causes are less often conquest than pressure." The summary turns the contrast round ("mainly economic rather than the result of conquest") but keeps the pair of ideas. A candidate who writes "pressure" has picked the wrong half of the contrast.
- Prediction: "the health and ........ of the community" wants a noun paired with health. Anchor: "research", "community".
Show the answer for 30
WELLBEING. Paragraph 4: "those who keep their language tend to report better health and wellbeing than those who have lost it". "Some research suggests" in the summary stands for "Researchers working with indigenous groups have reported". Spelled as one word in the passage, so as one word in the answer.
- Prediction: "a ........ right" wants an adjective. Anchor: "Welsh", "schools".
Show the answer for 31
LEGAL. Paragraph 5: "by Welsh-medium schools, by a legal right to use Welsh in public life granted in 1993". The summary drops the date and keeps the adjective. "Official" would fit the grammar but is not in the passage, which is why step 4 matters.
- Prediction: "run by ........" wants a plural noun for people. Anchor: "Māori", "preschools".
Show the answer for 32
GRANDPARENTS. Paragraph 5: "the language nest, a preschool run entirely in Māori by grandparents". "Preschools" in the summary paraphrases "the language nest, a preschool"; "run by" is copied. The plural is in the passage.
- Prediction: "a seed in a ........" wants a singular noun for a place. Anchor: "archive", "seed".
Show the answer for 33
VAULT. Paragraph 6: "A language that exists only in an archive is safe, in the way that a seed in a vault is safe, and it is no more alive." The summary's "safe, but not alive" is the passage's "safe... and it is no more alive". The image is copied whole.
Seven gaps, seven paragraphs, in order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6. That is typical. Once gap 27 was found in the first paragraph, nobody needed to reread paragraph 1 for gap 28. The two summary groups in the other tests behave the same way: questions 27 to 33 on "The History of the Printing Press" in Test 1 and on "The Acoustics of Concert Halls" in Test 4 both follow their passage from the first paragraph to the last, one word each.
The traps
| Trap | What happens | Defence |
|---|---|---|
| The synonym | You understand the sentence and write the word you would use, not the word the passage uses ("official" for "legal"). | Step 4: the word must be in the sentence you found. If it is not, you are not finished. |
| The wrong half of a contrast | The passage sets two ideas against each other; the summary asks for one of them ("pressure" for "conquest"). | Read the summary sentence for its logic: "rather than", "not", "instead of" tell you which half. |
| The wrong number | Singular for plural, or the reverse. | Step 2: the article and the verb around the gap fix the number before you look. |
| The distant sentence | The answer is in the sentence after the anchor, not in the anchor sentence. | Read the anchor sentence and its neighbours. Ideas in summaries are often joined from two sentences. |
| The word from the question | You copy a word that is printed in the summary itself. | The answer is never a word already in the summary sentence. If your word is there, it is wrong. |
| Two words for one | The passage says "incense cedar", the gap says one word. | The gap has been written so that one of the two completes it; the other is printed before the gap. |
Five mistakes that cost the most
- Reading the passage before the summary. You end up rereading it seven times. The summary is the map; read it first, then go to the passage with a purpose.
- Searching for the summary's words. They have been changed on purpose. Search for what cannot be changed: names, numbers, terms, and then for the meaning.
- Writing a word that fits the grammar but is not in the text. A fluent candidate's worst habit. The instruction says "from the passage" and the marker checks that.
- Changing the form. "Generation" for "generations", "conquer" for "conquest". Copy the word as printed.
- Spending more than a minute on one gap. Seven gaps is seven marks out of forty. If a gap resists, mark it, do the next one, and come back: the next answer usually shows you where you were.
The three summary groups on this site are on the third passage of Tests 1, 4 and 5, where the exam puts its hardest text, and each wrong answer on the result page shows the sentence of the passage that held the word, so you can see whether you missed the sentence or copied it wrongly. Start with Reading Practice Test 5, whose summary you have just worked, then the other two without help. For the other question types and the time budget, read IELTS Reading Question Types: True/False/Not Given and More; for the group that comes just before the summary in many tests, read IELTS Reading Matching Headings: A 5-Step Method.
Quick answers
Do the answers come in the order of the passage?
Usually, yes. A summary follows the passage in order, and the gaps run through it in sequence, so once you have found gap 28 in paragraph 2 you can expect gap 29 in paragraph 2 or 3. The order can be broken when the summary covers only part of the passage or reorganises it, so treat the sequence as a strong hint, not a rule.
Can I change the form of the word?
No, when the instruction says "words from the passage". If the passage says "generations" and the gap needs a plural, the answer is "generations" exactly; writing "generation" is marked wrong. The grammar of the summary is written so that the word fits as it appears in the text. When the words come from a box, the same applies: copy the option as printed.
What does ONE WORD ONLY mean if the answer is a name?
One word. A summary gap that asks for one word will never require a two-word answer, so if the sentence in the passage gives a full name, the gap has been written so that a single word completes it, typically the surname or the key noun. Hyphenated words count as one word; numbers count as a number, not a word, unless the instruction says otherwise.
Is the band from these tests official?
No. The Reading tests on this site are marked against a key, and the raw score out of 40 is converted to an estimated band with the same kind of table as the exam, but they are practice tests and the band is an estimate to track progress. The site is independent and not affiliated with IELTS, the British Council, IDP, or Cambridge English.
The short version: read the summary before the passage, predict the word class of each gap, find the paraphrased sentence, copy the exact word within the limit, and never fill a gap from memory.