Test99DEMONSTRATION - TEXT AND QUESTIONS www.test99.com

Test99Do not read the following text and questions first. Go directly to the How to Answer section which will show you the most efficient way of answering the questions. www.test99.com

Test99YOUR POST OFFICE www.test99.com

Test99at your service www.test99.com

Test99At our main offices we are introducing,swheresappropriate, a number of changes to help improve the standard of service provided to our customers. www.test99.com

Test99Similar developments are taking place at many of our agency offices. www.test99.com

Test99Improvements: www.test99.com

Test99more staff at peak periods for faster service a single queuing system for fairer service special service windows for some transactions Post-Shops in main offices with their own separate service till for greeting cards, stationery, stamps and gifts the refurbishment of a number of main offices to provide a better environment new vending machine services such as cash-change machines, and phonecard and stamp dispensers for faster service extended opening hours at selected main offices a new range of air package services. Questions 1-3 Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage above? Write: www.test99.com

Test99TRUE if the statement is true www.test99.com

Test99FALSE if the statement is false www.test99.com

Test99NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage www.test99.com

Test99in the correct boxes on your answer sheet. www.test99.com

Test991. All offices will have more staff throughout the day. www.test99.com

Test992. There will be special service windows for cash transactions at all main offices. www.test99.com

Test993. It will be possible to obtain some items from machines in many offices. www.test99.com

Test99Question 4 www.test99.com

Test99Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS answer the following question. www.test99.com

Test994. Which change will ensure that the customers are treated more fairly? www.test99.com

Test99Question5 www.test99.com

Test99Choose the correct answer by writing A, B, C, or D. www.test99.com

Test995. Which offices will stay open longer? www.test99.com

Test99A all offices www.test99.com

Test99B all main offices www.test99.com

Test99C some main offices www.test99.com

Test99D some agency offices www.test99.com

Test99HOW TO ANSWER www.test99.com

Test99BEFORE YOU ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS www.test99.com

Test99Step 1 - Look at the text quickly (survey the text) www.test99.com

Test99The heading tells you that the text is about service at post offices. The sub-heading and the points listed below it show eight improvements to the services. www.test99.com

Test99QUESTION 1 www.test99.com

Test99Step 2 - Read the instructions and the question www.test99.com

Test99The instructions for questions 1-3 tell you to write True, False or Not Given on the answer sheet. www.test99.com

Test99You are looking for specific information in the passage. The key words for question one are: www.test99.com

Test99All offices will have more staff throughout the day. www.test99.com

Test99The question is about more (additional) staff. You should also note that the question specifies all (not just some) offices and it also mentions throughout the day (that is, all day, not just part of the day). www.test99.com

Test99Step 3- Find the answer www.test99.com

Test99The best way to find the answer is to look quickly through the text for the key words or their synonyms (words with similar meaning). Then, read the phrase or sentence that contains those words. www.test99.com

Test99Looking for the word office, in the first section of the text you find that the changes are being introduced in our main offices and many of our agency offices. It seems that the changes do not refer to all offices. www.test99.com

Test99The word staff is in the first improvement listed. It says there are more staff at peak periods. This means that there are only more staff at the busiest times of the day and not all day. Therefore, the answer if FALSE. www.test99.com

Test99QUESTION 2 www.test99.com

Test99Step 2 - Read the question www.test99.com

Test99They key words are underlined: www.test99.com

Test99There will be special service windows for cash transactions at all main offices. You need to find information about special service windows, namely: their functions ( are they used for cash transactions?) andswheresthey are located ( are they at all main offices?). www.test99.com

Test99Step 3- Finzd the answer www.test99.com

Test99Special service windows are mentioned in the third point, but cash transactions are not mentioned. There is no information in the text about what kinds of transactions take place. Nor is there any information about whether these windows will be at all main post offices. Therefore, the correct answer is NOT GIVEN. www.test99.com

Test99QUESTION 3 www.test99.com

Test99Step 2 - Read the question www.test99.com

Test99The key words are: www.test99.com

Test99It will be possible to obtain some items from machines. www.test99.com

Test99You should search the text for the word machines or synonyms. Step 3 - Find the answer www.test99.com

Test99Point 6 mentions cash machines and phonecard and stamp dispensers. So you can obtain (get) cash (one item) from a machine, but what are dispensers? The text tells you that they provide a faster service, and vending machines do that, so it is reasonable to guess that a dispenser is a kind of machine. So, you can get some items from machines. Therefore, the correct answer is TRUE. www.test99.com

Test99Note: If you dont know the meaning of a word, you may be able to work out its meaning by looking at the words around it. This technique is called guessing from context. It is a very important skill and will be discussed in detail at the end of Section 2. www.test99.com

Test99QUESTION 4 www.test99.com

Test99Step 2 - Read the instructions and the question www.test99.com

Test99Here you are instructed to write your answer in up to three words (i.e. one, two or three words). www.test99.com

Test99The key words in the question 4 are: www.test99.com

Test99Which change will ensure that the customers are treated more fairly? www.test99.com

Test99All of the changes mentioned in the text are to help improve the standard of service. Which one provides fairer service? www.test99.com

Test99Stet 3 - Find the answer www.test99.com

Test99Point one provides faster service. Point two provides fairer service. You dont need to read further than this. The answer is single queuing system (3 words). www.test99.com

Test99QUESTION 5 www.test99.com

Test99Step 2 - Read the instructions and question www.test99.com

Test99The instruction tell you to write a letter (A, B, C, or D), not a word. www.test99.com

Test99The key words in the question are underlined: Which offices will stay open longer? www.test99.com

Test99The answer choices also help here. Factors such as the type of office ( main or agency) and whether it is some or all offices are relevant. www.test99.com

Test99Step 3 - Find the answer www.test99.com

Test99We have already looked for the key word office (in question1) and found that the changes are being introduced in our main offices (sentence 1) and many of our agency offices. It seems that the changes do not refer to all offices. www.test99.com

Test99Looking quickly for stay open longer or synonyms, we find extended opening hours in the seventh improvement. However, it mentions only selected main offices. The answer is therefore C - some main offices. www.test99.com

Test99ANALYSIS AND PRACTICE www.test99.com

Test99The three different kinds of questions used in the Demonstration are the most common question types in Section 1 of the Reading test. www.test99.com

Test99True - False - Not Given (questions 1-3) www.test99.com

Test99short answer of no more than three words ( question 4) www.test99.com

Test99Multiple choice (question 5) www.test99.com

Test99Following the three-step strategy: www.test99.com

Test99survey the text www.test99.com

Test99read the instructions and the question(s) www.test99.com

Test99find the answers www.test99.com

Test99is usually the fastest and surest way of doin the kinds of questions you will find in Section 1. We will now look at each of these steps in more detail. www.test99.com

Test99STEP 1 - SURVEY THE TEXT www.test99.com

Test99You can quickly obtain a lot of useful information about a text by just looking at: www.test99.com

Test99the title www.test99.com

Test99section headings or subheadings www.test99.com

Test99any words in special print (bold, italics, CAPITALS or underlined) www.test99.com

Test99any diagrams, tables or pictures www.test99.com

Test99any unusual features of the text (e.g. layout or boxed text). www.test99.com

Test99Surveying tells you about the topic or subject of the text. It may also tell you something about how the text is organized (subheadings are especially useful). Surveying may also tell you something about the writers purpose - whether the intention is to give instructions, to compare, to give information, and so on.