Conversation: Matching
6 pts6 questions · 6 points · ~10 minutes
Task 6 tests your understanding of how natural English conversation works. You are given a dialogue between two people with 6 missing lines. A set of options (usually 8, with 2 distractors) is provided, and you must match the correct line to each gap. The challenge is understanding conversational flow, context, and pragmatic meaning.
Read the entire conversation first
Read the dialogue from beginning to end, including the gaps. Get a sense of the situation: who is talking, what they are talking about, and how the conversation develops. Understanding the overall context makes it much easier to predict what each missing line should express.
Read all the options
Go through every option and understand what each one communicates. Note which options are questions, which are answers, which express agreement or disagreement, and which change the topic. This categorisation helps you match them to the right gaps quickly.
Focus on what comes before and after each gap
The most important clues are the lines immediately before and after each gap. If the line before the gap is a question, the missing line is probably an answer. If the line after the gap says 'That sounds great', the missing line probably suggested something positive.
Match the clearest gaps first
Start with gaps where the conversational logic makes only one option possible. For example, if someone asks 'How was your trip?' and the line after the gap says 'I am glad you enjoyed it', the missing line must be a positive response about the trip. Lock these in and cross off used options.
Check for conversational coherence
A correct match must make the conversation flow naturally. The response should logically follow the previous line, and the next line should logically follow your inserted option. Read the three lines together (before, inserted, after) and make sure they sound like a real conversation.
Verify with the distractor options
After filling all 6 gaps, check the 2 remaining unused options. They should be lines that do not fit anywhere in the conversation. If an unused option would actually work perfectly in one of the gaps, reconsider your choices. The distractors are designed to be close but not quite right.
- •Pay attention to pronouns in the options. If an option says 'I did that too', look for a gap where the other speaker has just described doing something.
- •Look for topic continuity. If the conversation is about weekend plans and one option suddenly talks about school homework with no transition, it is probably a distractor.
- •Notice question-answer pairs. A question in the conversation must be followed by a relevant answer, and a statement might be followed by a reaction or a follow-up question.
- •Watch for discourse markers like 'Actually', 'By the way', 'Anyway', and 'So' which signal topic shifts, returns to a topic, or conclusions. These must fit the flow of the conversation.
- •Practise with English TV shows or films where two characters are having a dialogue. Pause after one line and predict what the other person will say.
- •Expressions of agreement ('Exactly', 'That is true'), disagreement ('I am not sure about that'), and surprise ('Really?') must match the tone and content of the preceding line.
This is the shortest task on the exam with 6 questions in approximately 10 minutes. Spend the first 2 minutes reading the full dialogue and all options. Then spend about 5-6 minutes matching, starting with the most obvious gaps. Use the final 2 minutes to re-read the completed conversation from start to finish. At roughly 1.5 minutes per gap, this task should feel manageable as long as you do not overthink individual answers. If you are stuck between two options for one gap, look at the other gaps to see which option is needed elsewhere.