IELTS Reading: Note Completion
9. Note Completion:
This task is similar to the summary completion in that there are blanks within a bullet-point paragraph structure. You have to fill in the blanks anywhere in a sentence by finding the corresponding keywords from the answer statement in the text provided. Again, synonymous language and paraphrase will be used throughout. All sentences have to be grammatically correct. Your task is to complete the notes (or fill in the blanks).
Procedure:
- Read the text carefully. How many words do you need to fill in the blanks?
- Skim/read the notes, as it is usually quite short, and highlight and predict the part of speech that might fill the blank.
- Start with the first blank and find the passage in the text that corresponds with that specific blank– it may use synonymous language or paraphrase the summary line.
- Check the grammar (part of speech) you are to fill in the blank with and reference the number of words needed (adjective, noun, verb, adverb, preposition, pronoun, conjunction, etc.).
- Enter your answer and repeat the procedure further down from your first answer as the next answer will be found below the first answer – answers in text follow the Answer statements in order.
Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
Edward Porter Alexander
- Edward Porter Alexander was an artillery general for the confederate army.
- He graduated (1) ______________ overall at West Point Academy in 1857, and then quickly became an (2) ________, which meant that he took on various military projects before the Civil War.
- After becoming a Captain of Confederate engineers, he fought in the First Battle of Manassas as a (3) ____________ officer.
- In 1862, Alexander’s status in the army was elevated to colonel and he fought in the Battle of Fredericksburg and was given the task of placing the (4) _______ on Maye’s Heights.
- At the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, where he was the commander in charge of the (5) ______ artillery, he helped out a large attack on July 2nd.
- After the war, we worked as a professor of engineering until he passed away in 1910. But before he died he wrote about his rise to General in his (6)____.
Edward Porter Alexander
Edward Porter Alexander was one of only three Confederate officers to rise to the rank of general in the artillery branch. Respected by some of the Confederacy’s most important commanders, Alexander would participate in nearly every major campaign in the eastern theatre, contributing substantially to the army’s greatest successes and sharing in its bitterest defeats. Born in Washington, Georgia to Leopold and Sarah Gilbert Alexander, the future artillerist entered West Point during Robert E. Lee’s tenure as the academy’s superintendent. Alexander graduated third of thirty-eight cadets in the class of 1857 and immediately accepted a commission as an engineer, a coveted position at that time. His early assignments included teaching at West Point, weapons experiments, and, most notably, devising a flag signal system for the U.S. Army—a system that would later be used by both Union and Confederate forces in the coming war. In 1861, upon learning of his home state’s secession, Alexander resigned from the Federal army and accepted a commission as Captain of Confederate engineers. While organizing and training the new Confederate signal service, Alexander was ordered to report to General P. G. T. Beauregard and would serve as a signal officer in the First Battle of Manassas. By the summer of 1863, Alexander’s reputation in the Army of Northern Virginia was unquestioned and it is likely for this reason that the young colonel played such a pivotal role in the Battle of Gettysburg. Commanding the reserve artillery for Longstreet’s corps, Alexander’s guns lent support to Confederate assaults on July 2. The following day, July 3, Alexander was assigned to command the Confederate artillery barrage that was to clear the way for Pickett’s Charge. General Longstreet, whose doubts about the success of the charge would become legendary, placed upon Alexander the additional responsibility of telling Major General George Pickett when to commence the attack. When Federal fire had slackened, Alexander reluctantly sent word to Pickett. Unfortunately, Alexander’s barrage was less successful than hoped. After the initial surprise of the barrage, many Union guns conserved their ammunition for the infantry attack they knew was coming. In spite of the defeat at Gettysburg, Alexander would continue to serve with distinction for the duration of the war, ultimately becoming First Corps chief of Artillery. In February of 1864, he was promoted to brigadier general and that spring saw action during Grant’s Overland Campaign. During the siege of Petersburg, General Alexander suspected that the Federals were tunneling underneath the Confederate lines, a suspicion that would later be confirmed. Before the plot could be foiled, however, Alexander was severely wounded by a Yankee sharpshooter. He returned from his wound in time to supervise the defense of Richmond and the retreat to Appomattox. After the war, Alexander served briefly as a professor of engineering before moving onto other business ventures, including one in the burgeoning railroad industry. Like many veterans, he wrote about his wartime experience, and his memoir is considered one of the best contemporary analyses of the Army of Northern Virginia. Edward Porter Alexander died in Savannah, Georgia in 1910.
|
Edward Porter Alexander. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2020, from https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/edward-porter-alexander
Answers:
- third
- engineer
- signal
- artillery
- reserve
- memoir