e· ExamHubENGLISH WORKBOOK TRAINER
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SECTION 01 · Reading: separate texts

Reading

Choose a text number. Its questions will appear on its own page.

40 texts
Text 1Book 2 · Section 1 · 1 / 40
How to solve: ReadingA text with several questions: main idea, details, word meaning and inference.

What it tests

Careful reading: finding the main idea, locating details, understanding a word from its context and drawing conclusions the text supports.

In the exam: part I, 10 tasks.

Step by step

  1. Read the questions first, so you know what to look for.
  2. Skim the whole text once for its topic and the author's purpose.
  3. For each question find the exact place in the text (line numbers help) and read the sentence before and after it.
  4. Choose the option that says the same thing in other words — not the one that copies the most words.
  5. For “main idea” questions pick the option that covers the whole text, not one paragraph.

Watch out for

  • An option that is true in real life but not stated in the text.
  • An option that repeats words from the text but changes the meaning (“always” instead of “often”, wrong date or person).
  • A detail that is correct but too narrow for a “main idea” question.

Example

Text: “It took 800 men seven years to build the bridge.” — The bridge was built in: a) one year b) seven years c) 800 days

b) The text says “seven years”; 800 is the number of men, not days.

Text 1
READING TEXT
  1. Wrigley's chewing gum was actually developed as a premium to be given away
  2. with other products rather than as a primary product for sale. As a teenager,
  3. William Wrigley Jr. was working for his father in Chicago selling soap that had
  4. been manufactured in his father's factory.c The soap was not very popular with
  5. merchants because it was priced at five cents, and this selling price did not leave a
  6. good profit margin for the merchants. Wrigley convinced his father to raise the
  7. price to ten cents and to give away cheap umbrellas as a premium for the
  8. merchants. This worked successfully, confirming Wrigley that the use of premiums
  9. was an effective sales tool.
  10. Wrigley then established his own company; in his company he was selling soap
  11. as a wholesaler, giving baking soda away as a premium, and using a cookbook
  12. to promote each deal. Over time, the baking soda and cookbook became
  13. more popular than the soap, so Wrigley began a new operation selling baking
  14. soda. He began hunting for a new premium item to give away with sales of
  15. baking soda; he soon decided on chewing gum. Once again, when Wrigley
  16. realized that demand for the premium was stronger than the demand for the
  17. original product, he created the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company to produce
  18. and sell chewing gum.
  19. Wrigley started out with two brands of gum, Vassar and Lotta Gum,
  20. and soon introduced Juicy Fruit and Spearmint. The latter two brands grew in
  21. popularity, while the first two were phased out. Juicy Fruit and Spearmint are two
  22. of Wrigley's main brands to this day.
QUESTION 1

It is indicated in paragraph 1 that young William was working

QUESTION 2

According to paragraph 1, the soap that young Wrigley was selling

QUESTION 3

According to paragraph 2, it is NOT true that, when Wrigley first founded his own company, he was

QUESTION 4

Paragraph 2 discusses that Wrigley later

QUESTION 5

According to paragraph 3, the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company did all of the following EXCEPT