IELTS · Guides · October 23, 2026 · 4 min read

IELTS Reading matching features: match statements to people, with a worked example

In matching features you get a list of statements and a short list of options, usually people (researchers, inventors, writers), sometimes dates, places, companies or theories. You match each statement to the option it belongs to and write a letter. The task tests whether you can tell who said or did what when several people are discussed in the same text.

What the task looks like

Questions 6–9. Look at the following statements and the list of people below. Match each statement with the correct person, A, B or C. NB You may use any letter more than once.

List of people A Pierre Laval B Mei Tanaka C Jonas Berg

The statements come in a numbered list. There are often more statements than options, so at least one letter must be used twice; the NB line says so. Some options may not be used at all.

The statements are not in the order of the text. The options, though, are names, and names are easy to find. That makes this task faster than it looks.

Method

1. Circle every mention of each name in the text before you read the statements. In a long passage, a person can appear in two or three paragraphs, sometimes as he, she, the Swedish researcher or just a surname.
2. Read the statements and underline the idea, not the name of a thing: believed the effect was temporary, was the first to measure.
3. Go through the text person by person. Read what each person said or did, then check it against all the statements. This is quicker than searching the whole text for each statement.
4. Watch who is speaking. A sentence like Laval’s findings were later questioned by Tanaka gives an idea to Tanaka, not to Laval.
5. Check the verb. Suggested, proved, disagreed, was the first to are different claims. A statement that says someone proved something is wrong if the text says they only suggested it.

A worked example

Early studies of sleep and learning were cautious. In 1924, the American psychologists Jenkins and Dallenbach found that people remembered more of what they had learned if they slept afterwards, but they believed sleep simply protected memories from interference rather than doing anything active. Decades later, Robert Stickgold argued the opposite: that the sleeping brain replays and strengthens new memories. Not everyone agrees. Jerome Siegel has pointed out that some animals sleep very little yet learn perfectly well, and he doubts that memory is the main purpose of sleep.

Match each statement with the correct researcher(s), A, B or C.

A Jenkins and Dallenbach B Stickgold C Siegel

1. Sleep plays an active role in forming memories.
2. Evidence from other species does not support a link between sleep and memory.
3. Sleep helps memory mainly by preventing disruption.

Answers: 1 — B, 2 — C, 3 — A.

1. Stickgold argued the opposite: the brain replays and strengthens memories, which is an active role. Jenkins and Dallenbach are the trap: they also linked sleep and memory, but they denied an active role.
2. Some animals sleep very little yet learn perfectly well is the evidence from other species.
3. Protected memories from interference → preventing disruption.

Common mistakes

• Matching by a shared word. A statement about memory is not automatically Stickgold’s because he talks about memory too. All three researchers do.
• Missing the second mention of a person. If a name appears in paragraph B and again in paragraph F, the answer may be in F.
• Giving someone an opinion they report rather than hold. Tanaka describes Laval’s view is Laval’s view.
• Using each letter once when the NB line says letters can be reused, or when there are more statements than options.

Practise on real-format texts

These practice-room texts include a matching features task with people, with a checked and explained answer to each question:

• The invention of nothing: the history of zero
• Putting the world on paper: mapmakers
• Lights on the rocks: lighthouse engineers

Matching features sits between matching information (find the paragraph) and Yes / No / Not Given (the writer’s views). All the question types are in the IELTS Reading guide.

Common questions

Do the statements follow the order of the text? No. Work through the text by person, not by statement.

What if two people seem to say the same thing? Read both places again and look at the exact claim: one of them usually says it more strongly, earlier, or about a different thing.

Are the options always people? Most often. They can also be dates or periods, countries, companies, or types of something (for example, kinds of rock or theories of learning). The method is the same.