The skills you need to develop for matching headings are:
- recognising the logic and structure of an academic text
- identifying the purpose of a paragraph
- dismissing single mentions within a paragraph
- using synonyms to confirm your answer
- guessing meaning from context
- analysing the topic sentence of each paragraph
Step 1: Read the TITLE and SUBTITLE
(Scroll down to find my FREE video course about Matching Headings, based on this text from Cambridge Practice Tests Book 10 Test 2 Section 1)
Tea and the Industrial Revolution
A Cambridge professor says that a change in drinking habits was the reason for the Industrial Revolution in Britain.
The title (and subtitle, if there is one) can tell you a lot about the type of text you will read.
Recognising the structure will help you find information more quickly.
This Reading has an Academic Research structure: the researcher highlights a problem and then tries to solve it and then gives evidence to support his arguments.
We can see in the title:
- The problem: no-one knows exactly what caused the Industrial Revolution in Britain
- The solution: the writer suggests that drinking TEA could be the answer
We then expect to find reasons to support the writer’s arguments for this in the text.
Step 2: Read the HEADINGS and underline KEY WORDS
Read the Headings below and see how the information appears in the Paragraph (Text) that matches.
Headings
1. The time and place of the Industrial Revolution.
2. Conditions required for industrialisation.
3. Two keys to Britain’s industrial revolution.
4. The search for the reasons for an increase in population.
5. Changes in drinking habits in Britain.
6. Comparisons with Japan lead to the answer.
Step 3: Find information in the text that matches the KEY WORDS
1. The time and place of the Industrial Revolution.
Why did this particular Big Bang happen in Britain? And why did it strike at the end of the 18th century?
2. Conditions required for industrialisation.
There are about 20 different factors and all of them need to be present before the revolution can happen. For industry to take off, there needs to be the technology and power to drive factories, large urban populations to provide cheap labour, easy transport to move goods around, an affluent middle-class willing to buy mass-produced objects, a market-driven economy and a political system that allows this to happen.
3. Two keys to Britain’s industrial revolution.
Tea and beer, two of the nation’s favourite drinks, fuelled the revolution.
4. The search for the reasons for an increase in population.
Then there was a burst in population growth. People suggested four possible causes.
5. Changes in drinking habits in Britain.
The poor turned to water and gin.
6. Comparisons with Japan lead to the answer.
Macfarlane looked to Japan, which was also developing large cities about the same time and also had no sanitation.
7. Industrialisation and the fear of unemployment.
17th century Japan had turned its back on any work-based revolution, afraid that they would put people out of work.
What do you notice?
The information in the text uses synonyms from the Headings e.g.
an increase in population = a burst in population growth
reasons = causes
changes = turned to
drinking habits = water and gin
fear = afraid
unemployment = put people out of work
Step 4: Make sure the Heading that you have chosen relates to the WHOLE paragraph
Matching Headings is different from Matching Information question types.
Headings sum up the whole paragraph, not just one mention in the paragraph. This is where you find the tricks.
There are 2 extra headings that you do not need.
Usually the extra headings refer to something which is mentioned in a paragraph but which is NOT the central theme of the paragraph.
Look at the 2 extra headings that are not used. You can see they ARE in the text, but this is not the whole theme of the paragraph.
- The development of cities in Japan
Macfarlane looked to Japan, which was also developing large cities about the same time.
- The cases of Holland, France and China
Other nations such as Japan, the Netherlands and France also met some of these criteria but were not industrialising.
Does the topic sentence (first line of the paragraph) hold the key to the answer?
Not always. In all of the examples above, only ONE of them is the first/topic sentence of the paragraph.
However some of the key sentences are introduced by a general topic sentence which guides you to the specific answer.
e.g.
2. (Topic sentence) ‘Macfarlane compares the puzzle to a combination lock. There are about 20 different factors and all of them need to be present before the revolution can happen’.
3. (Topic Sentence) ‘The missing factors are to be found in almost every kitchen cupboard.Tea and beer, two of the nation’s favourite drinks, fuelled the revolution’.
Remember!
- You need to look for the central theme of each paragraph.
- The answer is not always in the first line
- The answer lies in synonyms
- The tricks are ‘extra mentions’ but not central themes.
Watch the videos that go with this lesson below and subscribe to my YouTube Channel to find more like this.
For more advice on different types of reading, click on the links below:
General Training: This one’s a live podcast, so you can see the text at the same time.