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 9Book 3 · Section 1 · 9 / 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 9
READING TEXT
  1. William Caxton was the first English printer. He was born in Kent in 1422.
  2. His father was a farmer. William did not want to become a farmer like his
  3. father. So his father sent him to London. He worked in an office which traded
  4. with different countries. William liked to read new books which were printed
  5. in Europe.
  6. At the age of thirty William Caxton started his own business in Belgium.
  7. Later he left his business and began to translate French books into English. He
  8. became interested in printing and at last he learnt to print. But what William
  9. Caxton wanted very much was to have his own press one day and he did.
  10. He brought his printing-press to London. Printing was something new at
  11. that time and some people thought it was the work of the devil. Some of the
  12. people wanted to break his press. Caxton printed his first book in 1477. It
  13. was the first book printed in the English language. The book was Caxton's
  14. translation of the French “Tales of Troy”.
  15. William Caxton printed about eighty books. He translated thirty-one books
  16. from French. Caxton died in 1491.
QUESTION 1

William Caxton was sent to London as

QUESTION 2

The word printed in line 12 means

QUESTION 3

According to Paragraph 2, lines 6—9, Caxton was eager

QUESTION 4

The English translation of “Tales of Troy” was

QUESTION 5

According to the text, Caxton