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 4Book 2 · Section 1 · 4 / 40
Before you practise

Rules, examples, common traps and a checklist for this section.

Study this section
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 4
READING TEXT
  1. Probably the most recognized board game around the world is the game of
  2. Monopoly. In this game players vie for wealth by buying, selling and renting
  3. properties; the key to success in the game, in addition to a bit of luck, is for a
  4. player to acquire monopolies on clusters of properties in order to force
  5. opponents pay exorbitant rents and fees.
  6. Although the game is published in countless languages and versions, with
  7. foreign locations and place names appropriate to the target language adorning its
  8. board, the beginnings of the game were considerably more humble. The game
  9. was invented in 1933 by Charles Darrow. During the height of the great
  10. depression, Darrow who lived in Germantown, Pennsylvania, was himself
  11. unemployed during those difficult financial times. He set the original game not as
  12. might be expected in his hometown of Germantown, but in Atlantic City, New
  13. Jersey, the site of numerous pre-Depression vacations, where he walked along
  14. the Boardwalk and visited Park place. Darrow made the first games by hand and
  15. sold them locally until Parker Brothers purchased the rights to Monopoly in
  16. 1935 and took the first steps toward the mass production of today.
QUESTION 1

The first paragraph of the text discusses

QUESTION 2

The meaning of the word exorbitant in line 5 is close to

QUESTION 3

The French version of Monopoly might possibly include a piece of property entitled

QUESTION 4

It is implied that Darrow selected Atlantic City for Monopoly because

QUESTION 5

Parker Brothers is probably