IELTS Reading Diagram Label Completion Tips

In Diagram completion IELTS Reading question, a design or plan, a technical drawing, for example a machine or an invention or even a diagram of something in the natural world. If you are required to select words from the passage, then the number of words to be used in the answer will be mentioned.

For example, ONE WORD or NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS. Hyphenated words such as ‘mother-in-law’ count as one word. If you use the wrong number of words, your answer will be marked incorrect even if the information you give is correct. Thus, these questions require the IELTS Reading tips and tricks to solve them confidently in the Reading Paper. Applying certain essential Tips for IELTS Reading is mandatory to get a higher band score in the IELTS exam.

• Interpret a diagram
• Scan for selected and important information
• Identify synonyms & paraphrasing
• Read in detail for meaning

Also Read: IELTS Speaking Tips

Here are a few IELTS Reading tips to help you boost up your Reading score.

1. Do not panic if the diagram seems difficult, because it’s just a way of presenting the information- a combination of the language and the drawing. 
2. It might seem difficult in the beginning, but it isn’t if the proper strategy is followed. It’s purely a test of your reading skills and not the knowledge about the topic.
3. Use the clues in the diagram to help you understand it better. For example, some numbers or text, one complete label or even a heading in the word list box.
4. You will be given a glossary of the difficult terms if there are any in the passage. So, you do not need to understand each and every word in the text. It will be mentioned just below the text.
5. Try to understand the diagram before you start attempting the questions by finding the answers in the text.
6. Scan the key words in the paragraph to locate the answer and then read in detail to match the answer with the question in the text.
7. Look out for the synonyms in the paragraph to reach the answer really quickly because the same words won’t be used in the text again.
8. Leave the question for the time being if you are not able to find the answer and then come back later to fill in the blank. Do not leave the blank empty as there is no negative marking.
9. The answers don’t necessarily occur in order in the passage but will usually come from one part of the passage rather than being spread across the entire passage.
10. They’re often used with passages that describe processes or with descriptive passages.

Also Read: IELTS Listening Tips

Here are few Strategies to be followed while dealing witht the IELTS Reading Diagram Based questions.

Find out whether you must find the answers from the given list of the words or from the passage.

Try to get a general understanding of the diagram, first go and look out for the information already given like the headings, numbers or the labels already filled.

After scanning the text, you will know where the answers are located.

Read the text in detail to find the answers for all the blanks.

Fill in the blanks and keep checking the spellings.

Also Read: IELTS Writing Tips

 

 

Below are some examples of diagram labelling questions ielts reading to help you understand them better.

1.DIAGRAM OF A MAN-MADE PROCESS:

Questions 1-4

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

The Brooklyn Bridge

Looming majestically over New York City’s East River, the Brooklyn Bridge is one of the most remarkable engineering feats of the nineteenth century. At its opening ceremony, it was proclaimed the eighth wonder of the world because of its two stately towers and unprecedented length. Suspension bridges are generally measured by the length of their main span, which is the distance between their two supporting towers. The Brooklyn Bridge is dwarfed by modern suspension bridges, the longest of which is 1,991 metres, but at the time of its construction, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world at 480 metres. That was substantially longer than the previous record holder, which was 322 metres in length.

Prior to its completion in 1883, commuters had only been able to travel between the then-separate cities of Brooklyn and New York by ferry. A range of proposals for a bridge spanning the East River were put forward as early as 1800, but none were accepted by city officials due to the technical difficulty or prohibitive cost involved. It was not until 1867 that permission to build the Brooklyn Bridge as we know it today was finally granted by New York legislators. The designer of the Brooklyn Bridge, German-born immigrant John A. Roebling, was a pioneer in the design of steel suspension bridges, having previously designed and built others including the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge. Opened in 1866, this bridge is still standing today and crosses the Ohio River between Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, Kentucky.

Unfortunately, John A. Roebling did not live to see the completion of his bridge. While conducting final surveys of the site of the Brooklyn tower in June 1869, he sustained an injury when an incoming ferry crushed his foot against the dock. The injury itself was not life-threatening, but apart from allowing a surgeon to amputate his injured toes, he refused medical treatment, opting to treat his wound himself. His condition deteriorated when he contracted tetanus, which claimed his life three weeks later. His 32-year-old son, Washington A. Roebling, also a trained engineer, took over his father’s role.

Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began in January 1870. In order to dig solid foundations for the bridge’s stone towers, massive wooden boxes with no bottoms called caissons were used. The caissons allowed workers to dig away at the sand and rock on the riverbed without being flooded by the river water. The stone towers were built on top of the caissons, which sank deeper into the riverbed as the workers dug. Water was kept out of the chamber at the base of the caisson where the workers dug by means of compressed air, which was pumped in through a special duct in the roof of the caisson. Workers entered via a series of ladders, passing through an air lock on the way down. This had a door on each side, only one of which could be opened at any one time. Had both doors been opened, compressed air would have escaped, with dire consequences for the workers. The sand, rock and boulders that workers excavated were hoisted out of the caisson in huge buckets via a shaft. This was filled with water in order to maintain the correct air pressure. When the caissons had reached the desired depth, concrete was pumped into them until they formed solid blocks. These then become part of the permanent foundations.

Caisson work was extremely difficult, and the men who worked in the caissons took great risks. Not only was flooding a possibility, but fire was also a very real threat. In 1870, the timber roof of the Brooklyn caisson caught fire from a worker’s candle. This fire, nicknamed the “Great Blowout”, delayed construction for several months because repairs had to be carried out. The Manhattan caisson, which was built after the Brooklyn one, was lined with plate iron to ensure that it would not become engulfed in flames like its counterpart had. Many of the workers were also struck down by a mysterious ailment. Poorly understood at the time, the bends killed at least three workers, and caused joint pain, speech impediments and paralysis in many others. The high toll that the caisson work was taking on workers ultimately led Washington A. Roebling to halt construction, but that was not before Roebling himself had succumbed to the illness. His condition left him unable to supervise the project in person. He was forced to remain in his home, but his wife Emily, also a trained engineer, relayed his instructions to site workers, and eventually took over day-to-day supervision and project management.

Once the caissons were completed, the masonry towers continued to be built on top, a complex process that took four years. The weight of the blocks meant that a pulley system had to be used to transport them to the base of each tower. They were then carried up a timber track and manoeuvred into position with the help of a derrick. The next stage was the cabling. Work began on the four enormous cables that would support the roadway in 1877. Work was well underway when it was discovered that the cable manufacturer had been selling them faulty wires. This could have caused the bridge to collapse had it not been for the over-engineering in John A. Roebling’s design. It was too late to replace the cables, but they were able to reinforce them with additional wires, and the roadway was then suspended from the cables.

The Brooklyn Bridge was officially opened on 24 May 1883, connecting the cities of Brooklyn and New York for the first time in history. The project had taken 15 years, claimed the lives of 27 workers, and cost almost half a billion dollars in today’s money.

Answers:

1. shaft
2. compressed air
3. air lock
4. chamber

2.DIAGRAM OF A TECHNICAL DRAWING:

Questions 1 – 6

NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

School Experiments

It is essential when conducting this experiment to wear safety goggles. This experiment is divided into four distinct sections. The first, the reaction stage, is when a glass beaker is placed on top of a tripod, and 20cm of dilute sulphuric acid poured into it. The acid is then heated. When it is almost boiling, a small quantity of copper oxide powder is added to the beaker. The mixture is then stirred with a glass spatula until the copper oxide has dissolved. This process is then repeated until 1g of powder has been added to the sulphuric acid. The heat is then removed from the beaker and the solution allowed to cool. The second stage is the filtration stage and, as the name suggests, is where a filter and conical flask are used to remove any copper oxide that has not reacted. A clear copper sulphate solution will be left in the glass dish. The third stage is where heat is applied to the copper sulphate solution in order to concentrate the solution: the concentration stage. The final crystallization stage happens when the solution begins to cool, and pure copper sulphate crystals start to form.

Answers:

1.filtration

2.crystallization

3.copper oxide powder

4.Remove copper oxide / filter copper oxide

5.copper sulphate solution

6.copper sulphate crystals                               

3.DIAGRAM OF A BIOLOGICAL PROCESS:

Questions 1-3

ONE WORD ONLY

The animal cell

All living organisms are made up of cells. They are microscopic units of life which integrate together to forms tissues and organs in our bodies.

Although plant cells have a protective outer layer called the cell wall, it is lacking in animal cells. Instead, the outer layer of animal cells is a semi-permeable layer called cell membrane, which encloses all the smaller organelles within a cell.

At the center of an animal cell, there is a round-shaped organelle called the nucleus. Each cell has only one nucleus and it is the control center of cells.

The material all around the nucleus within the cell membrane is the cytoplasm. It is a gel-like material that contains the organelles of a cell like ribosomes, centrosomes, microfilaments, and microtubules.

The cell membrane houses another crucial organelle called the mitochondria. These are oval-shaped entities which generate power for the cell to function.

Answers:

1.cytoplasm

2.nucleus

3.semi-permeable/protective

4.DIAGRAM OF A TECHNICAL DRAWING:

Questions 1-5

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

How does a night vision work

Night vision technology has transformed from old-fashioned bulky devices to compact sophisticated equipment that can intensify any light source up to 50,000 times. A device for night vision was first developed in the 1930s by the German military, and later by the Americans. Today, it has become an essential device in the kit of soldiers, permitting them to find out their targets in reduced visibility or complete darkness and move around in comparative safety as there are fewer chances of a surprise attack. ‘It improves their mobility, their survivability and their lethality’, says Lt. Col. Timothy Fuller.

So, what makes night vision possible? Light is an electromagnetic wave, and the entire range of light that exists is termed as the electromagnetic spectrum. The light visible to humans is only a part of this spectrum, while infrared light and ultraviolet light are invisible to naked eyes. The night vision devices work on two different technologies. The first is image enhancement using the tiny amount of light available which is collected and amplified to the extent that we can easily see the image. Thermal imaging, on the other hand, functions by capturing the higher areas of the infrared spectrum, which is radiated by objects as heat instead of light.

Even on dark nights, the stars and the moon emit near-infrared light. In a device that works on image enhancement technique, this faint light is captured to amplify it to a visible level. As the light consisting of photons enters the front lens of the image intensifier tube, it hits a photocathode which converts the photons into electrons. These electrons multiply as they pass through a thin microchannel plate. At the end of the tube, the electrons strike a phosphor screen which converts them back into photons and creates an image, usually green, on the screen. Since more photons are emerging than those which entered the tube, the image is much brighter than the original scene. Rich Urich, director of operations at Night Vision Equipment Company in Prescott Valley Arizona, says, ‘The reason it is green is because when you put the unit down, you want your eyes to remain dilated so you can see in dim light.’

Thermal imaging devices record the temperature difference between an object and its surroundings using a sensor called a microbolometer. An image of the object is created, which is then sent to the display where the user can see it.
However, it is not only in warfare that this technology finds use. Night vision equipment is used extensively by law enforcement departments to detect criminals in the dark. They are also used on borders to keep a check on illegal crossings. The technology is also used to find leaks and repair insulation in homes.

Answers:

1.image intensifier

2.photocathode

3.microchannel plate

4.phoshor screen

5.green

5.DIAGRAM OF A NATURAL PROCESS:

Questions 1-10

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

Generalised Tortoise

Tortoises are from the reptile family in which they differ from turtles. Tortoises have shells to protect from the threat.The Head of the tortoise has a unique block shape and a beak consisting of narrow sets of eyes. Noses are practically  with two little holes in front of the beak.The shell of the tortoise is made of several small bones. However, it is covered by separate plates of keratin called scutes.central scute is right in the centre of the shell,usually located at the top.

Precentral scutes found next to the central scutes,collectively known as the vertebral. Vertebral scutes interpret the midline of the carapace. while, lateral scutes are put together on both sides of 8 lateral scutes 4 on each side of the vertebral. Lateral scutes are also known as coastals. Below the post central scutes the excretory part of the tortoise is placed.

Tiny scutes found on the edge/margin of the carapace which are called marginal scutes.The majority of the turtles have 13 scutes.The upper shell, which is the mound  top of the shell, is said to be carapace and the lower shell is a flat layer under the belly that is plastron to help to identify the specimen.Claws are used as grip to crawl underwater and move on beaches. Adult males use claws to grasp females while mating.Mostly female turtles use the hind flippers to dig conical-shaped nests up to the depth of 55cm where 150 eggs can be laid.Fore flippers are used to hold the prey and tear big parts of their food.

 Answers:

1.Precentral scutes

2.Lateral scutes

3.Claws

4.Post central scutes

5.Hind flipper

6.Marginal scutes

7.Carapace or Shell

8.Fore flipper

9.Central scutes

10.Head

This article contains all the essential IELTS Reading tips and tricks and how to improve your IELTS Reading score which you need for achieving higher bands. Practice by taking above sample paper into consideration and implementing the tips in your practice session. Diagram label questions are easy to solve if proper startegies are applied in the exam.You can also learn about the IELTS Modules in detail by watching FREE Online IELTS videos and increase your band score in no time.