How to match Headings to Paragraphs in IELTS Reading (Part IV)

Today is holiday in Australia: Queen's birthday! Why not write another post related to Matching Headings to Paragraphs? Here we go again...

Paragraph four:

D.  "This kind of research would be impossible without computers,” said Delia Summers, a director of dictionaries. “It has transformed the way lexicographers work. If you look at the word “like”, you may intuitively think that the first and most frequent meaning is the verb, as in “I like swimming”. It is not. It is the preposition, as in: “she walked like a duck”. Just because a word or phrase is used doesn’t mean it ends up in a dictionary. The sifting out process is as vital as ever. But the database does allow lexicographers to search for a word and find out how frequently it is used – something that could only be guessed at intuitively before.

Which of this Heading is the right one for this paragraph? 

List of Headings          i.            Grammar is corrected         ii.            New method of research        iii.            Technology learns from dictionaries        iv.            Non-verbal content         v.            The first study of spoken language        vi.            Traditional lexicographical methods       vii.            Written English tells the truth      viii.            New phrases enter dictionary        ix.            A cooperative research project         x.            Accurate word frequency counts        xi.            Alternative expressions provided

First, you already know what to do: understand what you read. Try to use the paraphrasing technique that I already have explained in my last three posts.

Before saying what I understand about this paragraph, I will show something new that you can use in these kind of questions. Let's have a look at the paragraph again...

 “This kind of research would be impossible without computers,” said Delia Summers, a director of dictionaries. “It has transformed the way lexicographers work. If you look at the word “like”, you may intuitively think that the first and most frequent meaning is the verb, as in “I like swimming”. It is not. It is the preposition, as in: “she walked like a duck”. Just because a word or phrase is used doesn’t mean it ends up in a dictionary. The sifting out process is as vital as ever. But the database does allow lexicographers to search for a word and find out how frequently it is used – something that could only be guessed at intuitively before.

 The part in orange color expresses an opinion (from Delia Summers) and the part in yellow color expresses an example (the word like). However, the text in green color shows the main idea of the paragraph which contains perfectly both the opinion and the example.

After this analysis, I could say that the answer should be in the green part of this paragraph. Why? Because the main idea of this paragraph is there. So now, we have to figure out what heading matches perfectly with this topic idea.

Do not forget to identify your key words or key expressions, but in this case from the text in green color: The sifting out process is vital,  the database allows lexicographers to search for a word and find out how frequently it is used, something that could only be guessed at intuitively before.

There is only one Heading which matches perfectly with the topic idea and even more, with some key words:

  x.   Accurate word frequency counts

Do not believe yet?

Check all the other Headings in the list above and you would realize that no one matches with the topic idea of the paragraph (in green color)

Well, my tireless IELTS fighters, as you can see, I am using different approaches to answer the Matching Heading to Paragraph questions. You can use them too, but you have to study very hard and practice a lot.

See you soon!

Samy