e· ExamHubENGLISH WORKBOOK TRAINER
All books› Book 2› Section 1
SECTION 01 · Reading: separate texts

Reading

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

40 texts
Text 31Book 2 · Section 1 · 31 / 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 31
READING TEXT
  1. Perhaps better known than the Cullinan Diamon
  2. d is the Hope Diamond, a
  3. valuable and rare blue gem with a background of more than 300 years as a
  4. world traveler. The 112-carat blue stone that later became the Hope Diamond
  5. was mined in India sometime before the middle of the seventeenth century
  6. and was first known to be owned by Shah Jahan, who built the TajMahal in
  7. memory of his beloved wife. From India, the celebrated blue stone has changed
  8. hands often, moving from location to location in distant corners of the world.
  9. In the middle of the seventeenth century, a trader from France named Jean
  10. Baptiste Tavernier acquired the large blue diamond, which was rumored to have
  11. been illegalwly removed from a temple. Tavernier returned to France with the big
  12. blue gem, where the stone was purchased by the Sun King, Louis XIV. Louis
  13. XIV had it cut down from 112 to 67 carats to make its shape symmetrical and to
  14. maximize its sparkle. The newly cut diamond, still huge by any standards, was
  15. passed down through the royal family of France, until it arrived in the hands of
  16. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. During the French Revolution, Louis XVI and
  17. his wife met their fate on the guillotine in 1793, and the big blue diamond
  18. disappeared from public sight.
  19. The diamond somehow managed to get from France to England, where
  20. banker Henry Hope purchased it from a gem dealer early in the
  21. nineteenth century. The huge blue stone was cut into a 45.5-carat oval,
  22. and at this point it took on the name by which it is known today. The
  23. diamond stayed in the Hope family for around a century, when deep
  24. indebtedness brought on by a serious gambling habit on the part of one
  25. of Henry Hope's heirs forced the sale of the diamond.
  26. From England, the Hope Diamond may have made its way into the
  27. hands of the Sultan of Turkey; whatever route it took to get there, it
  28. eventually went onto the United States when American Evelyn Walsh
  29. McLean purchased it in1911. Mrs. McLean certainly enjoyed showing
  30. the diamond off. The guests in her home were sometimes astounded to
  31. notice the huge stone embellishing the neck of Mrs. McLean's Great Dane
  32. as the huge pet trotted around the grounds of her Washington, D.C.
  33. home. The Hope Diamond later became the property of jeweler Harry
  34. Winston, who presented the stunning 45.5-caratpiece m
  35. to the Smithsonian in 1958. The Hope Diamond is now taking a well-
  36. earned rest following its rigorous travel itinerary and is on display at the
  37. Smithsonian Institution in Washington. D C. where it has been since
  38. 1958.
QUESTION 1

The main idea of this text is that the Hope Diamond

QUESTION 2

The word purchased in line 11 may best be replaced by

QUESTION 3

The word it in line 12 stands for

QUESTION 4

Which lines in paragraph 2 describe what happened to the royal French owners of the diamond?

QUESTION 5

It can be inferred from the text that the author is not certain

QUESTION 6

The word dealer in line 19 is most likely

QUESTION 7

According to paragraph 3, how long did the diamond stay in the Hope family?

QUESTION 8

According to the text, M.rs. McLean

QUESTION 9

Which country is NOT mentioned in the text as a place where the Hope Diamond spent some time?

QUESTION 10

Which paragraph discusses the period when the Hope Diamond received its current name?