📖 Reading
Two academic passages of roughly 700 words each, with ten questions per passage. The subjects are university-level but no outside knowledge is needed — everything required is in the passage.
❓ What you will be asked
- Factual information — what the passage states
- Negative factual — which of these is NOT stated (read all four)
- Vocabulary in context — the meaning as used here, not the dictionary's first meaning
- Reference — what does 'it', 'this' or 'they' refer to
- Sentence simplification — which sentence keeps the essential meaning
- Inference — what follows from the passage without being stated
- Rhetorical purpose — why the author mentioned something
- Insert text — where a given sentence belongs
- Prose summary — choose the three main ideas (worth two points)
♟️ How to work
- Do not read the whole passage carefully first. Skim for structure — the first sentence of each paragraph — then go to the questions, which follow the passage in order.
- For vocabulary questions, cover the options, decide what the word means here, then look.
- For negative factual questions, find and tick the three that ARE in the passage. The remaining one is the answer.
- Never choose an answer because it is true in the world. Choose it because the passage says so.
- Budget about 17 minutes per passage and leave nothing blank — there is no penalty for a wrong answer.
⚠️ What loses marks
- Reading every word of the passage before looking at a single question.
- Picking the option that repeats the most words from the passage — that is usually the trap.
- Bringing in your own knowledge of the subject.
- Spending six minutes on one hard question and losing four easy ones.
✍️ Now practise it
Original material written for this site, with every answer explained.
