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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 26Book 2 · Section 1 · 26 / 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

Read the questions first, so you know what to look for.
Skim the whole text once for its topic and the author's purpose.
For each question find the exact place in the text (line numbers help) and read the sentence before and after it.
Choose the option that says the same thing in other words — not the one that copies the most words.
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 26

READING TEXT

A little more than 100 years ago, a scientist in Medford, Massachusetts, was
trying to help local industry. Instead of helping local industry, however, he caused
a major problem with the local environment.
The scientist thought that it would be a good idea to try to develop the silk
making industry in Medford. He knew that the silk industry in Asia was successful
because of the silkworm, a caterpillar that ate only mualberry leaves. Mulberry trees
did not grow in Medford, so the scientist decided to work on developing a type of
silk-making worm that would eat the type of tree leaves in Medford.
His plan was to create a worm that was a cross .between the Asian silkworm
and another type of imported worm that wcould eat the types of leaves around
Medford. Unfortunately, his plan did not turn out as he wanted. He was not able to
come up with a silk-producing worm. However, the worms that he imported did
like to eat leaves around Medford. Many of the trees around Medford lost their
leaves to these worms and died.

QUESTION 1

The situation described in the text took place approximately

a)a decade agob)two decades agoc)a century agod)two centuries ago

QUESTION 2

According to paragraph 1, the scientist

a)had no effect on Medfordb)hurt rather than helped Medfordc)helped rather than hurt Medfordd)did not actually live in Medford

QUESTION 3

The word major in line 3 is closest in meaning to

a)importantb)high rankc)related to the main subjectd)minor

QUESTION 4

All of the following are mentioned in paragraph 2 about the scientist EXCEPT that he

a)worked in the silk industry in Chinab)wanted to develop the silk industry in Medfordc)knew something about the silk industry in Chinad)wanted to develop a certain kind of worm

QUESTION 5

Which of the following is NOT stated about the silkworm?

a)It is a type of caterpillarb)It likes only mulberry leavesc)It grows successfully in Asiad)It grows successfully in Medford

QUESTION 6

It is stated in paragraph 3 that the scientist wanted to create a worm

a)that was just like the Asian silkwormb)that could be imported farom Asiac)that would eat the leaves in Asiad)that was a mix of two other worms

QUESTION 7

According two paragraph 3, it is NOT true that the scientist

a)planned to create a new kind of wormb)created silkwormsc)imported wormsd)was unsuccessful

QUESTION 8

The word cross in line 9 is closest in meaning to

a)mixtureb)symbolc)movementd)across

QUESTION 9

The phrase come up with in line 12 is closest in meaning to

a)to findb)to appearc)to arrived)to survive

QUESTION 10

What did the scientist's worms do?

a)They made silkb)They turned into silkwormsc)They killed a lot of treesd)They died immediately