Build a person-to-idea map
Matching features asks you to connect a statement with an option, such as a researcher, a place or a project. In this lesson the options are people. Names are useful search anchors, but the nearest name is not necessarily the answer. A paragraph can describe one person’s work, quote another person and then return to the first person with a pronoun.
Read the options first and locate each name. Beside each one, write a short note about the approach or opinion attached to it. Then compare each question with those notes and check the full evidence sentence. A map such as “Chen: compare times” is more useful than underlining the word “Chen” every time it appears.
The statements in this exercise are deliberately mixed rather than following paragraph order. Check whether the instructions allow an option to be repeated. Here they do. Do not force one answer per person or eliminate a correct option just because you have already used it. Distinguish an observation from a recommendation: someone may describe a problem without proposing the remedy in the question.
Original passage: Four ways to investigate a busy street
A. A town invited four researchers to investigate a shopping street after traders complained that customers found it uncomfortable. Maya Chen placed small temperature recorders at six points and compared readings from early morning with those from late afternoon. She argued that a single midday survey would miss important changes. Chen did not interview visitors because her initial question concerned the physical conditions along the route.
B. Omar Bello took a different approach. He asked people to draw the route they had just walked, then explain why they had crossed the road or stopped. Several drawings showed detours around a narrow corner that looked harmless on the official map. Bello concluded that plans prepared at a desk should be checked against people’s accounts of using a place.
C. Leah Price studied the street’s benches. She counted occupied seats, but also recorded people who remained standing nearby. These visitors were easily excluded from ordinary occupancy surveys. Price suggested placing temporary benches in two positions before buying permanent furniture. Chen welcomed the experiment, although the temperature recordings themselves did not identify where benches should go.
D. Tomas Reed examined delivery activity. Shopkeepers initially requested a wider access lane, but his observations showed that the most difficult congestion occurred when several vehicles arrived together. He recommended testing staggered delivery appointments before altering the road. Reed also cautioned that a successful summer arrangement should be observed again in winter, when trading patterns could change. The researchers agreed to share their records, while keeping the distinct purpose of each investigation clear.
Original fictional learning text. The passage and questions were created for this lesson, not copied from an IELTS test.
Match each statement to a researcher
Choose A, B, C or D. You may use any option more than once.
- A — Maya Chen
- B — Omar Bello
- C — Leah Price
- D — Tomas Reed
Answers and the evidence behind them
Compare your reason as well as your answer. Each explanation identifies the decisive detail and the tempting mistake.
1. Reveal answer and explanation
D — Tomas Reed. Paragraph D links simultaneous vehicle arrivals to congestion, then proposes staggered appointments before road alterations. The change is to timing, not the size of the access lane requested by shopkeepers.
2. Reveal answer and explanation
A — Maya Chen. Paragraph A compares early-morning and late-afternoon temperature readings. “Environmental conditions” paraphrases temperature; none of the other researchers makes this time-of-day comparison.
3. Reveal answer and explanation
C — Leah Price. Paragraph C includes people standing near benches as well as seated visitors. Those standing people are the group that an occupancy-only count would leave out.
4. Reveal answer and explanation
B — Omar Bello. Paragraph B connects visitors’ route drawings with a narrow corner overlooked on the official map. The drawings were made by users of the street, not by the researchers redesigning it.
5. Reveal answer and explanation
C — Leah Price. Price suggests temporary benches in two positions before permanent furniture is bought. Chen welcomes that experiment, but welcoming someone else’s proposal does not make Chen its originator.
6. Reveal answer and explanation
D — Tomas Reed. Reed recommends another observation in winter after a successful summer trial. The question concerns a seasonal comparison, whereas Chen compares times within a day.
Use the wrong answers to improve your map
Questions 2 and 6 both involve time, but their relationships differ. One asks about a comparison already made within a day; the other asks about a future check across seasons. If your notes say only “time”, they are too broad. Replace them with “morning versus afternoon readings” and “repeat winter observation”.
Question 5 is an attribution trap. Two names appear in the same paragraph, but the verbs establish their roles: Price suggested, Chen welcomed. Circle the verb that assigns an action to its owner. Apply the same check to “disputed”, “repeated”, “funded” and “reported”; these verbs are not interchangeable.
For a fresh attempt, cover the questions and reconstruct the four-person map from memory. Then reopen the passage and correct the map before repeating the exercise. Repeating the same six answers is less useful than explaining why the connections belong to those people. Continue with matching paragraph information to practise location, then return here to distinguish locating an idea from identifying who proposed it.
Question-format reference: official IELTS Academic Reading guidance, checked 15 October 2026. All teaching examples and practice material on this page are original.