This document provides a lesson on completing sentence gaps in IELTS reading comprehension questions. It discusses identifying paraphrases and synonyms within passages to determine the missing words. An example is worked through demonstrating how to find the correct answer by locating a rephrased sentence in the text. Finally, the document includes a practice exercise requiring students to fill gaps in sentences from a passage on the European settlement of Australia using no more than three words each.

1. Lesson 5: IELTS Sentence Completion
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2. Objective:
Objectives: to practice how to answer IELTS sentence
completion tasks and to examine paraphrase and
synonyms.

3. Sentence Completion
Often in the reading the test requires the candidate to complete a
sentence.
In this type of task, you are given a sentences from the reading with
a gap in it.
You have to fill it with words taken directly from the reading.
Check if the question tells you to use the exact words from the
reading - some do not A widespread problem.

4. Sentence Completion
When doing this, various factors are important to keep in
mind:
• make sure the answer does not exceed the stated
word limit. Articles and unneeded adjectives can
sometimes be left out to achieve this.
• make sure the answer fits into the statement
grammatically.
• be aware that the statement will not use the same
words as the text.

5. Sentence Completion
As the statement you are given in IELTS sentence completion tasks will not be
taken exactly from the reading, you need to be aware of
paraphrasing and synonyms.
These will both be used in the questions. This is what they mean:
Paraphrase: to repeat something written or spoken using different words
Synonym: a word or phrase which has the same or nearly the same meaning as
another word or phrase in the same language
So when you look at the question, you will need to find a paraphrase of that
sentence and probably some synonyms in the reading in order to find the right
one, and then work out the answer

6. Practice 1
Let's have a short IELTS sentence completion practice before completing
the task.
Firstly, see if you can find the sentence below in the reading. You will need
to find paraphrases / synonyms of the words in bold in order to identify it:
Britain decided to send people to live and govern Australia due to
_________________ factors.

7. Practice 2
You should have identified it as this first sentence in paragraph 2:
A number of reasons contributed to Britain's decision to
colonise Australia.
And these were the paraphrases / synonyms:
reasons = factors
Colonise = send people to live and govern
So you should then be able to work out that the correct answer to put
in the gap is "a number of".
Now, using this technique and the tips at the top, read the full
passage and do the IELTS sentence completion exercise below (the
reading is shorter than a real IELTS reading).

8. IELTS Sentence Completion Practice Exercise
European Settlement of Australia 1
European settlement of Australia began in 1788 when a British penal colony
was established on the east coast. From this starting point Australia grew
rapidly and continually, expanding across the entire continent.
A number of reasons contributed to Britain's decision to colonise Australia. The
most important factor was Britain's need to relieve its overcrowded prisons.
Several violent incidents at overcrowded prisons convinced the British
government of the need to separate unruly elements from the rest of the prison
populace.
Additionally, Australia was of strategic importance to Britain, and it provided a
base for the Royal Navy in the eastern sea. Also, Australia could be used as an
entry point to the economic opportunities of the surrounding region. All these
points figured in the decision by Lord Sydney, secretary of state of home
affairs, to authorise the colonisation

9. IELTS Sentence Completion Practice Exercise
European Settlement of Australia 2
To this affect, on May 13, 1787, Captain Arthur Phillip, commanding
eleven ships full of convicts, left Britain for Australia. He successfully
landed a full fleet at Botany Bay on January 18, 1788. However, they
left the bay eight days later because of its openness and poor soil, and
settled instead at Port Jackson, a few kilometres north. The ships
landed 1,373 people, including 732 convicts, and the settlement
became Sydney. Australia Day is now celebrated on 26 January each
year, to commemorate this first fleet landing.

10. Questions: Complete the following
Complete the following statements using NO MORE THAN THREE
WORDS.
(put your choice into the gaps - use small letters and don't put any spaces
after your last word)
1. Australia was originally founded as ___________________
2. The major consideration in colonizing Australia was Britain’s __________
3. It was thought that Australia could be utilised as ____________ to the
neighbouring region
4. Lord Sydney took every factor into account when he gave official
permission for _______________ of Australia
5. Botany Bay was abandoned by the settlers due to the lack of cover and
__________________

11. Answers
1. a penal colony
2. overcrowded prisons
3. an entry point
4. the colonisation
5. poor soil

12. European Settlement of Australia
These are the paraphrases and synonyms that you would have
needed to identify in order to successfully find the answers:
Original word from the reading Synomym / paraphrase from the
question
Question 1 began founded
Question 2 most important factor major consideration
Question 3
used utilized
surrounding neighbouring
Question 4
all these points figured took every factor into account
authorise official permission
Question 5
left abandoned
openess lack of cover

13. Well done
End of the lesson
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