All books› Book 3› Section 1

SECTION 01 · Reading: separate texts

Reading

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

35 texts

Text 33Book 3 · Section 1 · 33 / 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 33

READING TEXT

Many animals and birds on Earth are disappearing nowadays. Indian tigers and
African elephants are among them. People have hunted and killed many tigers in
India and a lot of elephants in Africa. Why? Some people are afraid of tigers and
kill them to save their domestic animals and their lives. But some people often hunt
tigers for fun and for their beautiful skin. They can easily sell the skin and get a lot
of money as the prices are high.
The result is very sad. There are few Indian tigers on the Earth now. Many of
them are usually old, sick animals. Most tigers don't hunt people nowadays, but
hide from them in deep, dark forests. And the question is: “Have those animals got
a future?”
We can ask the same question about African elephants. They are wonderful
animals. They can help men. In the last century, Africa was full of elephants. But
these days there are not many of them in African parks.
This is the sad story of Indian tigers and African elephants. But many less
dangerous wild animals, fish and birds are also disappearing from the Earth.
Modern life is bad for them. The air is not fresh. The water is not clean. They
don't often have good things to eat and space to live. You can find their names in
the Red Book. People must take particular care of them all. We must find the
right balance between land, people and animals. We must take care of nature.

QUESTION 1

According to Paragraph 1, lines 1—6,

a)a lot of tigers have been killed in Africab)a great number of elephants were destroyed in Indiac)some tigers are killed by other animalsd)tigers are sometimes killed for self-protection

QUESTION 2

Indian tigers are killed

a)just for funb)exceptionally for their beautiful skinc)without any reasond)for different reasons

QUESTION 3

African elephants

a)first appeared in the last centuryb)are helpful animalsc)disappeared in the last centuryd)can be seen in African parks in great numbers

QUESTION 4

According to Paragraph 2, lines 7—10,

a)people hide from tigers in deep, dark forestsb)old tigers don't hunt people tc)at present few tigers hunt peopled)Indian tigers are sick animals

QUESTION 5

According to the text, nowadays

a)not only dangerous animals are disappearingb)there are a lot of Indian tigers on the Earthc)the number of African elephants has increasedd)fish and birds aren't in danger

QUESTION 6

According to Paragraph 4, lines 14—19,

a)animals drink polluted waterb)there is no air for animals to breathec)modern life is bad for usd)there is no food for wild animals at all

QUESTION 7

Which of the following words from the text means “rescue”?

a)killb)savec)hided)hunt

QUESTION 8

The word particular in line 18 may best be replaced by

a)partialb)usualc)spontaneousd)special

QUESTION 9

According to the text,

a)there is no space for animals to liveb)the names of all animals are in the Red bookc)less dangerous animals live in better conditionsd)animals also have the problem of good food

QUESTION 10

We may conclude from the text that c

a)Indian tigers and African elephants are the only animals in dangerb)people are taking good care of animalsc)modern conditions aren't good for many wild animalsd)there is the right balance between land, people and animals