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demonstration - text and questionsdo not read the following text and questions first. go directly to the how to answer section which will show you the most efficient way of answering the questions.
your post office
at your service
at our main offices we are introducing,swheresappropriate, a number of changes to help improve the standard of service provided to our customers.
similar developments are taking place at many of our agency offices.
improvements:
more staff at peak periods for faster service a single queuing system for fairer service special service windows for some transactions post-shops in main offices with their own separate service till for greeting cards, stationery, stamps and gifts the refurbishment of a number of main offices to provide a better environment new vending machine services such as cash-change machines, and phonecard and stamp dispensers for faster service extended opening hours at selected main offices a new range of air package services. questions 1-3 do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage above? write:
true if the statement is true
false if the statement is false
not given if the information is not given in the passage
in the correct boxes on your answer sheet.
1. all offices will have more staff throughout the day.
2. there will be special service windows for cash transactions at all main offices.
3. it will be possible to obtain some items from machines in many offices.
question 4
using no more than three words answer the following question.
4. which change will ensure that the customers are treated more fairly?
question5
choose the correct answer by writing a, b, c, or d.
5. which offices will stay open longer?
a all offices
b all main offices
c some main offices
d some agency offices
how to answer
before you answer any questions
step 1 - look at the text quickly (survey the text)
the heading tells you that the text is about service at post offices. the sub-heading and the points listed below it show eight improvements to the services.
question 1
step 2 - read the instructions and the question
the instructions for questions 1-3 tell you to write true, false or not given on the answer sheet.
you are looking for specific information in the passage. the key words for question one are:
all offices will have more staff throughout the day.
the question is about more (additional) staff. you should also note that the question specifies all (not just some) offices and it also mentions throughout the day (that is, all day, not just part of the day).
step 3- find the answer
the best way to find the answer is to look quickly through the text for the key words or their synonyms (words with similar meaning). then, read the phrase or sentence that contains those words.
looking for the word ’office’, in the first section of the text you find that the changes are being introduced in ’our main offices’ and ’many of our agency offices’. it seems that the changes do not refer to all offices.
the word ’staff’ is in the first improvement listed. it says there are ’more staff at peak periods’. this means that there are only more staff at the busiest times of the day and not all day. therefore, the answer if false.
question 2
step 2 - read the question
they key words are underlined:
there will be special service windows for cash transactions at all main offices. you need t o find information about special service windows, namely: their functions ( are they used for cash transactions?) andswheresthey are located ( are they at all main offices?).
step 3- finzd the answer
’special service windows’ are mentioned in the third point, but cash transactions are not mentioned. there is no information in the text about what kinds of transactions take place. nor is there any information about whether these windows will be at all main post offices. therefore, the correct answer is not given.
question 3
step 2 - read the question
the key words are:
it will be possible to obtain some items from machines.
you should search the text for the word ’machines’ or synonyms. step 3 - find the answer
point 6 mentions ’cash machines’ and ’phonecard and stamp dispensers’. so you can obtain (get) cash (one item) from a machine, but what are ’dispensers’? the text tells you that they provide a faster service, and vending machines do that, so it is reasonable to guess that a dispenser is a kind of machine. so, you can get some items from machines. therefore, the correct answer is true.
note: if you don’t know the meaning of a word, you may be able to work out its meaning by looking at the words around it. this technique is called guessing from context. it is a very important skill and will be discussed in detail at the end of section 2.
question 4
step 2 - read the instructions and the question
here you are instructed to write your answer in up to three words (i.e. one, two or three words).
the key words in the question 4 are:
which change will ensure that the customers are treated more fairly?
all of the changes mentioned in the text are to ’help improve the standard of service’. which one provides fairer service?
stet 3 - find the answer
point one provides ’faster service’. point two provides ’fairer service’. you don’t need to read further than this. the answer is ’single queuing system’ (3 words).
question 5
step 2 - read the instructions and question
the instruction tell you to write a letter (a, b, c, or d), not a word.
the key words in the question are underlined: which offices will stay open longer?
the answer choices also help here. factors such as the type of office ( main or agency) and whether it is some or all offices are relevant.
step 3 - find the answer
we have already looked for the key word ’office’ (in question1) and found that the changes are being introduced in ’our main offices’ (sentence 1) and ’many of our agency offices’. it seems that the changes do not refer to all offices.
looking quickly for stay open longer or synonyms, we find ’extended opening hours’ in the seventh improvement. however, it mentions only ’ selected main offices’. the answer is therefore c - ’some main offices’.
analysis and practice
the three different kinds of questions used in the demonstration are the most common question types in section 1 of the reading test.
true - false - not given (questions 1-3)
short answer of no more than three words ( question 4)
multiple choice (question 5)
following the three-step strategy:
survey the text
read the instructions and the question(s)
find the answers
is usually the fastest and surest way of doin the kinds of questions you will find in section 1. we will now look at each of these steps in more detail.
step 1 - survey the text
you can quickly obtain a lot of useful information about a text by just looking at:
the title
section headings or subheadings