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.

35 texts
Text 25Book 3 · Section 1 · 25 / 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

  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 25
READING TEXT
  1. If you are superstitious, you are not unlike innumerable humans who have lived
  2. before and who are living today. One group of ancient people who believed in luck
  3. were the Aztecs.
  4. The Aztec calendar .was 360 days divided into 18 months of 20 days each; this
  5. left five days remaining and they were considered to be unlucky. During that time
  6. the Aztecs would smash their old gods and let the sacred fires of the temples burn
  7. out. Even furniture and goods were destroyed. On the night of the fifth day the
  8. priests prepared to give sacrifices to the gods.
  9. As the forked tongues of the fires licked at the darkening sky of the fifth day,
  10. messengers hurried about the country to announce that the gods of the evil had
  11. been finally satisfied and that happier times would return with the rising sun. Once
  12. the sun came up it was considered to be lucky times again.
  13. Today, with the exception of Friday the thirteenth, our calendar does not contain
  14. days that are considered to be particularly unlucky. Still there are many who
  15. believe that luck plays an important role in determining their destiny. If you shy
  16. away from walking under a ladder, throw salt over your shoulder when the shaker
  17. spills, or never open an umbrella in the house, you are at least partially showing
  18. that what has been identified as lucky or unlucky affects you.
  19. So concerned are some people about the simple number thirteen, that many
  20. hotels do not have Room 13 or even a thirteenth floor.
  21. Whatever your personal opinion about lucky or unlucky things, one thing is
  22. certain − what an individual person perceives as luck influences his or her behavior.
QUESTION 1

The sentence “you are not unlike innumerable humans' means

QUESTION 2

The Aztec year consisted of

QUESTION 3

The unlucky days of the Aztecs were

QUESTION 4

During the unlucky days the Aztecs

QUESTION 5

Lucky times for the Aztecs came with

QUESTION 6

Which of the statements is true?

QUESTION 7

The word concerned in line 19 may NOT be replaced by

QUESTION 8

The author thinks that what a person perceives as luck

QUESTION 9

According to the text, c

QUESTION 10

The text mainly discusses