Trong bài viết này, IPP sẽ hướng dẫn chiến thuật làm bài dạng Matching Sentence Endings để đạt band điểm cao trong IELTS Reading. 

Các bước làm dạng bài Matching Heading Questions trong IELTS Reading

STEP 01: phân tích các keywords trong câu cần điền và trong các dữ liệu của bài => xác định các key words độc nhất ví dụ như năm, tên riêng, số lượng để chọn xem rà dữ liệu nào trước. Với các câu dễ locating, bạn cần làm trước và cross out đáp án, để có hướng locate vị trí của các câu còn lại.

QUESTIONS

1. After reforms, most mails was
2. Each steel printing plate was [locating dễ] 
3. Every penny black was
4. Putting a letter in an envelope was [locating dễ] 
5. Keeping the borders of each stamp was

A. unusual in 1840. => QUAN TRỌNG!! rà key words này trước để xem đáp án nằm ở đoạn văn nào để chặn đoạn cho các câu hỏi khác => chỉ xuất hiện trong đoạn H => as it should be remembered that in 1840 the use of envelopes was unusual, most letters being written, folded, and sealed with sealing wax. => chắc chắn đây là trả lời cho câu số 4 => câu số 5 ở sau đoạn văn H

B. able to print sheets of 240 stamps. => QUAN TRỌNG!! rà key words này trước để xem đáp án nằm ở đoạn văn nào để chặn đoạn cho các câu hỏi khác => chỉ xuất hiện trong đoạn F => The stamps were printed in sheets of 240, engraved on steel plates, on gummed paper with a single small crown watermark on each stamp. => chắc chắn đây là trả lời cho câu số 2 => câu số 3 ở sau đoạn F và câu số 1 ở trước đoạn văn F

C. paid for by the sender.

D. very difficult to achieve.

E. very expensive to send.

F. designed with two letters in the bottom corners.

G. quickly accepted.

READING TEXT for Matching Sentence Endings in IELTS Reading

STEP 02: với các câu còn lại, bắt đầu locating và so sánh giữa text trong bài với đối tượng cần kiếm để chọn đúng thông tin.

The Penny Black

A. In 1840, the United Kingdom introduced the penny black, the first adhesive postage stamp issued anywhere in the world. For many years the postal service in the U.K. had been a very expensive service for ordinary people to use. The costs were prohibitive, a single letter sometimes costing a working person’s full day’s wage. The postal system also had many strange anomalies, such as certain categories of mail going free (and therefore being paid for by the charges on others), newspapers going for nothing, most mail being paid for by the addressee rather than by the sender, and so on.

B. There were moves for postal reform for many years (giới thiệu có reforms), until eventually these moves started gathering some force through the attention of many, amongst whom Rowland Hill is the best known, and Robert Wallace, MP for Greenock, was instrumental.

C. The story is long and involved, but eventually, The Penny Postage Bill was passed by Parliament on 17 August 1839 (đây là “reform”). Some basic elements of the plan were the lowering of postage rates for basic letters to one penny, the removal of certain idiosyncrasies, that prepayment would become normal, and the availability of printed envelopes, letter sheets, and labels to show prepayment [Q1]. The “labels” were the penny black and twopence blue.

D. A bookseller and printer from Dundee, James Chalmers, holds a strong claim to be the actual inventor of the adhesive postage stamp. He is said to have been interested in postal reform from about 1822, and to have printed samples of his idea for printed gummed labels in August 1834. It seems that, although Hill also presented the idea of adhesive stamps, he was probably keener on the use of standard prepaid letter folders, such as were issued in 1840 using a design by William Mulready.

E. The new stamps went on sale on 1st May 1840 and were valid for postage from 6th May 1840 (although some were used during the 1st-5th May period). The Mulreadies were issued at the same time. Public reaction to these new items was quite the opposite to Rowland Hill’s expectations. The labels were well-received and admired; the Mulready design was lambasted and ridiculed. Initial supplies of the stamps were rushed through the printing and distribution process, but supplies soon caught up with requirements.

F. The stamps were printed in sheets of 240, engraved on steel plates, on gummed paper with a single small crown watermark on each stamp [Q2]. Eleven different printing plates were used, and it is possible in almost every case to work out which plate any individual stamp was printed from by a few characteristics. Things like the positioning of the corner letters within their squares, the presence of the “O flaw”, which rays of the stars in the upper corners are broken at what points, and so on, can point to a correct plate identification, but more specialised literature is required in order to do this. Some plates are scarcer than others, plate 11 being the scarcest.

G. Every penny black stamp has letters in the lower two corners [Q3]. These simply identify what sheet position the stamp occupied. When the printing plates were produced the lower squares were blank, and the letters were punched in by hand. The left square letter shows which horizontal row the stamp was in – the first row being A, the second B, and so on down to the twentieth row with T. The right square letter indicates the vertical column, again with A for the first column, B, C, and so on across to L for the last (twelfth) column. It should be noted therefore that each letter combination is just as common or as scarce as any other.

H. There were 68,158,080 penny blacks issued (yes, 68 million!), and even with only a 2% survival rate, there are likely to be about 1.3 million still in existence. The survival rate may well be considerably higher than 2%, as it should be remembered that in 1840 the use of envelopes was unusual, most letters being written, folded, and sealed with sealing wax [Q4]; this meant that whenever a letter was filed in a lawyer’s office, bank, etc., the whole thing would be kept – letter and outer cover including the adhesive stamp.

I. From the collector's perspective, the physical condition of the stamp – any fault such as a thin, tear, crease, or stain will lower the value, and the number, size, and regularity of the margins make a big difference to value. The stamps were not perforated and had to be separated using scissors or a knife. As there was only about 1mm between one stamp and another, it was very easy to stray just a little and cut into the printed design of the stamp [Q5]. A stamp with two full margins and perhaps a couple of other part margins is about average. Collectors will pay higher prices for examples with four good, wide, and even margins.

VOCABULARY LIST

• adhesive (adj.): dính
• addressee (n.): người nhận 
• element (n.): yếu tố, thành tố
• public reaction (n.): phản ứng của người dân
• be rushed through (v.): bị hối thúc làm cho nhanh
• plate identification (n.): nhận dạng tấm (in) - “tấm stickers/tấm stamps” 
• scarce (adj.):  khan hiếm
• punched in (v.): nhấn/đấm vào
• perspective (n.): viễn cảnh/góc nhìn
• margins (n.): mép/rìa
• fault (n.): lỗi lầm
• crease (n.): vết nhăn/vết nhàu
• stain (n.): vết bẩn
• prohibitive (adj.): bị cấm
• postal (adj.) reform (n.): cải cách bưu chính
• idiosyncrasies (n.):đặc điểm riêng
• prepayment (n.): khoản trả trước
• adhesive (adj.): dính
• lambasted (adj.): chê bai
• ridiculed (adj.): chế giễu
• sealed (adj.): được niêm phong
• perforated (adj.): đục lỗ

Questions 01 - 05 

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A–G, below.

Write the correct letter, A-G, as your answer to each question.

1. After reforms, most mails was
2. Each steel printing plate was
3. Every penny black was
4. Putting a letter in an envelope was
5. Keeping the borders of each stamp was

A. unusual in 1840.

B. able to print sheets of 240 stamps.

C. paid for by the sender.

D. very difficult to achieve.

E. very expensive to send.

F. designed with two letters in the bottom corners.

G. quickly accepted.

KEY & EXPLANATION

1. After reforms, most mails was => trước đoạn F

Kiếm được reform và đọc kỹ, sau “reforms” chuyện gì xảy ra 

prepayment would become normal = mails were paid for by the sender.

=> ANSWER: C. paid for by the sender.

B. There were moves for postal reform for many years (giới thiệu có reforms), ….

C. The story is long and involved, but eventually, The Penny Postage Bill was passed by Parliament on 17 August 1839 (đây là “reform”). ….. prepayment would become normal, and the availability of printed envelopes, letter sheets, and labels to show prepayment [Q1].

3. Every penny black was

=> sau đoạn F, trước đoạn H

=> ANSWER: F. designed with two letters in the bottom corners.

H. Every penny black stamp has letters in the lower two corners.

5. Keeping the borders of each stamp was

=> sau đoạn H

=> ANSWER: D. very difficult to achieve.

I. As there was only about 1mm between one stamp and another, it was very easy to stray just a little and cut into the printed design of the stamp. 

=> between one stamp and another = the borders of each stamp

=> easy to stray [dễ trượt tay => khó giữ thẳng mép]