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SECTION 01 · Reading: separate texts

Reading

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

35 texts

Text 17Book 3 · Section 1 · 17 / 35

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 17

READING TEXT

Vertical farming is the method of growing plants and crops over each
other, mostly in multi-storey structures. They often look like skyscrapers
with glass around them, similar to a giant greenhouse. Such farming
methods can already be seen in cities. For agriculture experts vertical
farming will be in widespread use in the future because the world's
population is growing constantly and there is more need for farming land.
The idea of vertical farming was first introduced by Life Magazine in 1909
and there have been attempts to create them from as early as 1951 up to the
present day. The Armenian “Tower Hydroponicums' (1951) were the first
built examples of a vertical farm. In 1999D. Despommier, a professor
at Columbia University, developed a method of growing food in city
skyscrapers that could be as tall as thirty storeys. Today, such projects are
carried out in many countries, for example Korea, Japan, and Singapore.
Vertical farming offers many advantages. Crops can be grown on a smaller
area of land, water can be recycled and used over and over again. Plants grow
on minerals and do not need soil. Many farming products can be harvested
more than once per year. With some fruits and berries, like strawberries, up to
30 harvests would be possible.

QUESTION 1

Vertical farming is a method of

a)building skyscrapersb)making houses of glassc)growing plantsd)breeding animals on farms

QUESTION 2

Vertical farming will be widespread in the future because

a)the world's population is growing and there is less and less farming landb)the world's population doesn't need farming land any morec)in the future there will be no need for farmingd)today one can see a lot of greenhouses in large cities

QUESTION 3

The first examples of vertical farming were built

a)in Korea, Japan, and Singaporeb)at Columbia University in 1909c)in Armenia in 1951d)by Desppommier in 1999

QUESTION 4

In 1999D. Despommier developed a method of

a)growing vegetables on the 30th floor of buildingsb)making food in tall skyscrapersc)growing up in skyscrapers as tall as 30 storeysd)growing plants in very tall buildings

QUESTION 5

Which of the following is NOT mentioned as an advantage of vertical farming?

a)A smaller area of land can be used for farmingb)Fruits and berries are bigger and tastierc)Much less water is needed for watering the cropd)It is possible to have several harvests a year