MATCHING HEADINGS

Headings are short sentences that summarise the information in a paragraph. You have
to pick the one that best summarises the information in a paragraph.

Each paragraph has a main idea and several supporting ideas. For Matching Heading
questions, you will have to truly understand the main idea of each paragraph, and then
choose the heading that resembles that main idea. Do not choose a heading that only
covers the supporting ideas.

NOTE:
1. Do this question first.
2. Don’t look at the headings first. Read the paragraph first.
3. Be aware of synonyms.
4. If there are words you don’t understand, don’t worry about this.
5. Pay attention to the first one or two sentences and the last sentence of the
paragraphs. They will usually be the topic sentence and the concluding
sentence.
6. If there are two or three headings that are similar, write them beside the
paragraph and try to find out the difference between the two headings.

Practice 1: Match each sentence with a function i-v from the list below

a. The aspiring space tourist will have to meet a number of criteria before being able to
travel.
b. However, while the prospect of space tourism has become a fact, booking a ticket is
not simple.
c. During the 21 st century, space technology has developed to such an extent that space
tourism has now become a reality.
d. First of all, as the price of a trip to the stratosphere is extraordinarily high, space
tourists will have to be wealthy.

i. example
ii. problem
iii. solution
iv. general statement
v. explanation
Practice 2: Match the two paragraphs with one of the following three headings:

1. How wildlife benefits from big trees

2. Factors that enable trees to grow to significant heights
3. How other plants can cause harm

Paragraph 1- Big trees are incredibly important ecologically. For a start, they sustain
countless other species. They provide shelter for many animals, and their trunks and
branches can become gardens, hung with green ferns, orchids and bromeliads, coated
with mosses and draped with vines. With their tall canopies basking in the sun, they
capture vast amounts of energy. This allows them to sustain much of the animal life in
the forest.

Paragraph 2- Only a small number of tree species have the genetic capacity to grow
really big. The mightiest are native to Norther America, but big trees grow all over the
globe, from the tropics to the boreal forests of the high latitudes. To achieve giant
stature, a tree needs three things: the right place to establish its seedling, good growing
conditions and lots of time with low adult mortality. Disrupt any of these, and you can
lose your biggest trees.

Let’s underline the topic sentence, then match the headings with the correct paragraph.
Exercise 1:
Exercise 2:
Exercise 3:
Exercise 4:
Exercise 5: