How to Answer an IELTS Diagram Label Completion Question Type

In your IELTS preparation, you’ll need to practice a total of 11 IELTS reading question types. In this article, we’ll look at the Diagram Label Completion IELTS reading question type in detail and provide you IELTS reading exam tips on how you can successfully answer it.

In this post, you will

1. Identify what a diagram label completion question is
2. Learn IELTS reading exam tips & strategies for successfully answering a diagram label completion question
3. Do a diagram label completion IELTS reading practice question.

Diagram Label Completion Question Type Introduction

In this question type, you are given a diagram or plan. Your task is to complete the labels according to the text. The diagram may be a process or a plan of something, a technical drawing, or a description of something from the natural world.  Here is what a diagram label completion question might look like.

Questions 6-8

Label the diagram below

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer

Write your answers in boxes 6-8 on your answer sheet.

The complete question and answers can be found on our IELTS reading practice guide. You can also find a complete IELTS reading sample question for a Diagram Label Completion question type at the bottom of this post.

Common Problems Answering Diagram Label Completion Questions

The biggest problem with these questions is students failing to locate the paragraphs that contain the answers quickly. New terms in the text are almost always be tested in diagram label completion questions. Therefore, you reading strategy should be to scan for new terms in the text instead of reading the whole text.

Attention also matters. Instructions will tell you how many words you are supposed to write. If you write the incorrect number of words, you will lose marks.  Students also often lose marks because they spell words incorrectly.

IELTS Reading Exam Tips & Strategies: How to answer Diagram Label Completion Questions

The answer strategy for this question type is fairly simple and should allow you to answer it quickly and correctly.

1. Look at the diagram and, generally, try to understand what is happening (Don’t look for too long, you just want to get a quick understanding for now).
2. Now that you have a general idea, you are looking for new terms and important name, so scan for the new terms and important names in the text. Make sure you underline them in the text as well.
3. Look at the diagram and think which parts of it you can label.
4. Read in more detail to find the answer.
5. Check spelling.

Free IELTS Reading Samples

Let’s do some IELTS reading practices to hone the new skills, tips, and strategies you learned. Leave your answers in the comment section below and we’ll reply with the correct answers.

Reading Passage

Undersea turbines which produce electricity from the tides are set to become an important source of renewable energy for Britain. It is still too early to predict the extent of the impact they may have. but all the signs are that they will play a significant role in the future.

Operating on the same principle as wind turbines, the power in sea turbines comes from tidal currents which turn blades similar to ships' propellers, but, unlike the wind, the tides are predictable and the power input is constant. The technology raises the prospect of Britain becoming self-sufficient in renewable energy and drastically reducing its carbon dioxide emissions, if tide, wind and wave power are all developed. Britain would be able to close gas, coal and nuclear power plants and export renewable power to other parts of Europe. Unlike wind power which Britain originally developed and then abandoned for 20 years allowing the Dutch to make it a major industry, undersea turbines could become a big export earner to island nations such as Japan and New Zealand.

Tidal sites have already been identified that will produce one-sixth or more of the UK’s power - and at prices competitive with modern gas turbines and undercutting those of the already ailing nuclear industry. One site along the Pentland Firth between Orkney and mainland Scotland, could produce 10% of the country's electricity with banks of turbines under the sea, and another at Alderney in the Channel islands three times the 1,200 megawatts of Britain's largest and newest nuclear plant, Sizewell B, in Suffolk. Other sites identified include the Bristol Channel and the west coast of Scotland, particularly the channel between Campbeltown and Northern Ireland.

Work on designs for the new turbine blades and sites are well advanced at the University of Southampton‘s sustainable energy research group. The first station is expected to be installed off Lynmouth in Devon shortly to test the technology in a venture jointly funded by the department of Trade and Industry and the European Union. AbuBakr Bahaj, in charge of the Southampton  research. said: The prospects for energy from tidal currents are far better than from wind because the flows of water are predictable and constant. The technology for dealing with the hostile saline environment under the sea has been developed in the North Sea oil industry and much is already known about turbine blade design, because of wind power and ship propellers. There are a few technical difficulties, but I believe in the next nine to ten years we will be installing commercial marine turbine farms.' Southampton has been awarded £2’l5.U.`D over three years to develop the turbines and is working with Marine Current Turbines. a subsidiary of IT power; on the Lynmouth project. EU research has now identified 1GB potential sites for tidal power BG% round the coasts of Britain. The best sites are between islands or around heavily indented coasts where there are strong tidal currents.

A marine turbine blade needs to be only one-third of the size of a wind generator to produce three times as much power. The blades will be about 20 metres in diameter so around 30 metres of water is required. Unlike wind power, there are unlikely to be environmental objections. Fish and other creatures are thought unlikely to be at risk from the relatively slow turning blades. Each turbine will be mounted on a tower which will connect to the national power supply grid via underwater cables. The towers will stick out of the water and be lit. to warn shipping, and also be designed to be lifted out of the water for maintenance and to clean seaweed from the blades.

Dr Baha has done most work on the Alderney site, where there are powerful currents. The single undersea turbine farm would produce far more power than needed for the Channel Islands and most would be fed into the French Grid and be re-imported into Britain via the cable under the Channel.

One technical difficulty is cavitations, where low pressure behind a turning blade causes air bubbles. These can cause vibration and damage the blades of the turbines. Dr Bahaj said: 'We have to test a number of blade types to avoid this happening or at least make sure it does not damage the turbines or reduce performance. Another slight concern is submerged debris floating into the blades. So far we do not know how much of a problem it might be. We will have to make the turbines robust because the sea is a hostile environment. but all the signs that we can do it are good.

Questions

Questions 23-26

Label the diagram below

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer

Write your answers in boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet.