In the IELTS Academic Reading Test, one of the skills that you will be tested on is

your
ability to identify main ideas. In order to test your ability to do this, you will
often
be asked to choose headings for paragraphs. With this type of question, you are
demonstrating
that you understand what each paragraph or section is about.
So what does this task type involve?
In this task you have to look for the main idea in each paragraph of the reading
passage.
You will see a list of headings. You must match a heading with each paragraph. The
heading
should express the main idea of the paragraph. You will also notice that there are
always
extra headings that you wont use. Another thing to remember is that you cannot use
a
heading twice. Finally, there may be an example given, so do not use this example
heading.
So as you can see, in this example the reading passage has five paragraphs. You
need to choose
the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings. There are eight
headings
so you dont need to use all of them. As you will also notice, there is an example
heading given, for paragraph C.
So what is the best way to approach this task? Well, first of all, look at the list
of headings
and underline the keywords. Check if any of the headings are given as examples. If
they are, cross them out so that you are not tempted to use them. Then, go to the
reading
text and read the first paragraph, underlining the keywords and the topic sentence,
if you
can find one. Try to sum up the main idea of the paragraph in your head. Then, go
back
to the list of headings and choose the one that best matches the main idea of that
paragraph.
Write the number of this heading on your answer sheet. If you find more than one
match, make
a note of them and decide on the best one at the end. Finally, repeat these steps
for
each paragraph.
Lets take a look at another example.
Spend about thirty seconds reading the text. In particular, focus on the topic
sentence
and keywords throughout the paragraph.
In this example, you have three possible headings. All of them look possible.
However, i is not the answer because although Whale migration routes is
mentioned
in the text, this is not the main idea.
Similarly, option iii is not correct, because again, How whale songs are
recorded
is mentioned in the text, but this is also not the main idea of the paragraph.
In this case, option ii is the correct answer. This heading best summarises the
main
idea of the paragraph.
Now its your turn to practice matching the correct headings to paragraphs.