CHECK IT! Activity Review

Next Page ▶️

Task Review 

How Lock Picking Works

This task is a good example of a Reading Part 3 Matching Headings task the General Training exam. 

You probaby don't know what “lock picking,” is. However, there is lots of explanation in the text.  It is important not to panic if you don’t know about the main subject.  

“Picking” a lock means to open it without a key. 

Next Page ▶️

The Main Ideas of Each Section 

Start by thinking of the main idea of each section. 

Next Page ▶️

Are there any headings that are easy to match with the main idea?

Next Page ▶️

Check the headings and locate any organizing words present.  

Do these organizing words match with any of the paragraphs? 

Organzing words have a green box.

Are any headings similar? 

Headings that are similar have the same shape next to them. 

Look for important functional words that limit the headline to something specifc. 

Specific words are circled in red. 

Next Page ▶️

Section A: This section could match with viii because this section talks about a locksmith (“a person who can let you back in very easily") and spies and detectives who “pick” locks (“open without a key” is paraphrase for “pick").  

Next Page ▶️

Section B: This section could match iv “The cylinder and the bolt” or vii “How a basic deadbolt systems works.”  Choosing the correct answer in this case is easy, because this section does not discuss the cylinder (only the deadlbolt).  Thus, vii is incorrect. 

Next Page ▶️

Section C: As with section B, section C only discusses the cylinder lock, so iv would not be correct in this case either and ix is a more accurate title for the section.  Note that the “pin design” mentioned is not another type of lock, but rather a design that is used with cylinder locks. 

Next Page ▶️

Section D: Section D is a large section that discusses several things about pin locks.  First, it talks about tools a bit and then talks about how lock picking is done in detail.

You could choose from 3 potential headings. 

1. ii: How to open a lock without a key 
2. iii: Choosing the right tool to open locks 
3. x: How to pick different kinds of locks  

• x could not be correct because this option would mean that the section discusses more than 1 types of lock (which it does not).  
• This means that you have to choose the best option between ii and iii. 
• iii is not the best option because tools are only mentioned briefly and there is MORE writing about the process of how to open the lock.  
• For this reason ii is correct.

Next Page ▶️

Section E: This section talks about two other types of locks. For this reason, it would be easy to select either heading vi (“varieties”  is a synonym for “types”) or heading x. This section doesn’t actually describe how to pick these other types of locks, it just states why it is more difficult to open them without a key.  For this reason, vi is the correct heading. 

Many students find that section 3 of the reading module is very difficult because there is always some challenging vocabulary that they are not familiar with.  This happens to all IELTS candidates, even if their English skills are very advanced. The matching headings task type is a particularly good task type to receive in this situation because you are being asked about the main idea and not a detail. 

With detail-based questions, you may miss answers because you don’t know the exact meaning of certain words, however with this task type you can keep going through the text if you don’t understand while being confident that if the term is part of the main idea of the writing it will be fully described. 

Remember to closely evaluate each word in the heading and to use organizing words as clues so that you can easily guess the answer, based on the main idea in the paragraph.