Read the whole text first and skip the gaps; if there is a little word, find what it points back to and which way it turns; if not, follow the meaning and the argument; check the extra option last.
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Gap-Fill: Echo Words and Content Logic
Methods in this video
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- 1
Listen for the echo
When to use it: The key idea around a gap is said again in different words in one of the options (not copied word for word).
- Writers often say something again in different words.
- Look for the same idea in other words, not only for the identical word.
- Try the sentence that echoes the idea first.
- 2
Follow the thinking
When to use it: The gap has no small word and no clear echo, so you have to work it out from what the neighbouring sentences say.
- Decide what the next sentence should say first, then look in the options.
- If the sentence after the gap explains why, the gap may hold the point being explained.
- Do not pick a sentence just because it shares a word.
- 3
Check the extra sentence last
When to use it: There is one more sentence than gaps, and you do not know which one is the extra.
- Read the text quickly first, then read the sentences before and after each gap.
- Go through the gaps from the first one: fill what you can settle, skip what you can't yet, and cross off the options you have used on your scratch paper.
- Finally go back to fill the rest and check the one left: if the topic fits but neither side connects, it is the extra.
Practise exam-style questions with these methods
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