Hello ExamSeekers,
During the past few weeks, I’ve been posting about the B1: Preliminary exam, and so far, I’ve talked about Reading Exam Part 1 – Multiple Choice and Reading Exam Part 2 – Matching. Today I’m posting about the third part: Multiple Choice.
PART 3 – Multiple Choice
The third part, for me, is the simplest because there is no trick. It is actually very straight forward since you read a text for comprehension, and you choose the correct answer. There is no straighter way to go. In this case, specifically, you have to read a longer text – differently from the previous ones – for detailed comprehension, gist, inference, and global meaning, as well as writer’s attitude and opinion.
Look at the sample text:
Then, you choose one of the provided options, as you can see below:
There are two ways of going through this task:
- Read the whole text, then go through the option-answers.
- Check the options, then look for the answers in the text.
I prefer the second option because you lose less time in the exercise, and you usually don’t waste too much time and effort going back and forth in the text.
TIP n.º 1
Can you see that there are 4 paragraphs in the text and 5 questions? Well, the first 4 questions are almost always directly linked to the 4 paragraphs above. So I usually read the 4 alternatives of the first question, then I read the first paragraph to find the correct option.
TIP n.º 2
I usually read A, B, C, D and I underline what I consider important aspects, because If I read the paragraph of the text and get confused, I go back to the options and check what I underlined, without having to read the complete sentence. It’s more focused.
TIP n.º 3
If you read the alternatives and the text, and you don’t have any clue. Eliminate the options that you are sure that don’t answer the questions accurately. There are usually 2 alternatives that don’t fit. It gives you more clarity, and you stop reading options that won’t help you at all.
Now, let’s try to answer question 1 using the tips?
11. Peter enjoys mountain biking because
A) it gives him the opportunity to enjoy the views.
B) he can use the time to plan his work.
C) he is able to stop thinking about his problems.
D) it helps him to concentrate better.
Paragraph 1:
There’s a popular idea that artists are not supposed to be into sport, but mountain biking is a huge part of my life. It gets me out of my studio, and into the countryside. But more importantly, racing along as fast as you can leaves you no time to worry about anything that’s going on in your life. You’re too busy concentrating on not crashing. The only things you pay attention to are the pain in your legs and the rocks on the path in front of you.
First, I read the alternatives and underlined essential aspects. Then I read the first paragraph underline what I thought would connect to the possible answers. Then I re-read my underlined options, and I eliminated A and B because there is no correlation whatsoever.
Actually, even option D is not a good option because in the text, he mentions that mountain biking makes you focus on the pain and on the path, but “more importantly,” it “leaves you no time to worry about anything.” So the correct alternative is letter C.
As I told you, this is a very straight forward exercise. You read, and you answer.
Now you might ask me: “What about question n.º 5?” Well, as I mentioned, there are 5 questions (5 possible marks), to 4 paragraphs, how can I solve that?! Usually, question number 5 is not related to a specific paragraph, but to the whole text. It might be a general comprehension of it, or a correlation to the title, or even your inference of what the writer intended to say. Therefore, you have to read the whole text once to understand and answer correctly.
Anyhow, it is still a simple read and choose the correct alternative text. If you still have questions, please comment in the comment session below, and I can help you 🙂
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I hope you have a great week,
Patricia Moura
PS: All samples are provided by Cambridge. And here are the answers:
11. C
12. C
13. D
14. A
15. B