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 34Book 2 · Section 1 · 34 / 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 34
READING TEXT
  1. Esperanto is what is called a planned, or artificial, language. It was
  2. created more than a century ago by Polish eye doctor Ludwik Lazar
  3. Zamenhof. Zamenhof believed that a common language would help to
  4. alleviate some of the misunderstandings among cultures.
  5. In Zamenhof's first attempt at a universal language, he tried to create a
  6. language that was as uncomplicated as possible. This first language included
  7. words such as ab, ac, ba, eb, be, and ce. This did not result in a workable
  8. language in that these monosyllabic words, though short, were not easy to
  9. understand or to retain.
  10. Next, Zamenhof tried a different way of constructing a simplified
  11. language. He made the words in his language sound like words that people
  12. already knew, but he simplified the grammar tremendously. One example of
  13. how he simplified the language can be seen in the suffixes: all nouns in this
  14. language end in o, as in the noun amiiko, which means “friend”, and all
  15. adjectives end in -a, as in the adjective bela, which means “pretty”. Another
  16. example of the simplified language can be seen in the prefix mal-, which
  17. makes a word opposite in meaning; the word malamiko therefore means
  18. “enemy,” and the word malbela therefore means “ugly” in Zamenhof's
  19. language.
  20. In 1887, Zamenhof wrote a description of this language and m published
  21. it. He used a penname, Dr. Esperanto, when signing the book. He selected the
  22. name Esperanto because this word means “a person who hopes” in his
  23. language. Esperanto clubs began popping up throughout Europe, and by
  24. 1905 Esperanto had spread from Europe to America and Asia.
  25. In 1905, the First World Congress of Esperanto took place in France, with
  26. approximately 700 attendees from 20 different countries. Congresses were
  27. held annually for nine years, and 4,000 attendees were registered for the
  28. Tenth World Esperanto Congress scheduled for 1914, when World War I
  29. erupted and forced its cancellation.
  30. Esperanto has had its ups and down t s in the period since World War I.
  31. Today, years after it was introduced, it is estimated that perhaps a quarter of
  32. million people are fluent in it.
  33. Current advocates would like to see its use grow considerably and are
  34. taking steps to try to make this happen.
QUESTION 1

The main idea of this text is

QUESTION 2

According to the text, Zamenhof wanted to create a universal language

QUESTION 3

The word simplified in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to

QUESTION 4

It can be inferred from the text that the Esperanto word malespera means

QUESTION 5

The expression popping up in paragraph 4 could best be replaced by

QUESTION 6

In which paragraph does the author explain why Zamenhof chose the name that he did for his language?

QUESTION 7

It can be inferred from the text that the Third World Congress of Esperanto took place

QUESTION 8

According to the text what happened to the Tenth World Esperanto Congress?

QUESTION 9

The expression “ups and downs' in paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to

QUESTION 10

The last paragraph discusses