You will be provided with an incomplete table that paraphrases information given in the reading text. The information in the table may be organised differently from the way in which it appears in the text, for example it may be ordered chronologically (by order of time) instead of in order of importance.
Key Points:
1. You must answer the questions with words taken from the text.
2. You must not exceed the word limit.
3. Questions usually follow the order of the text.
4. Usually, you must make a grammatically correct sentence. This may require altering a word from the text to make it fit grammatically. For instance, if the text is written in plural form, but the question sentence to complete it is in singular form you will have to write the noun from the text in singular form on your answer sheet.
5. This type of question can usually be completed quite quickly, and you should do so, so as to have
more time for the other questions in the test.
Approach:
1. Spend 1-2 minutes looking at the table and especially any headings to get an idea of what information you will be searching for when you do your skim read.
2. Skim the text within 3 minutes.
3. Read the instructions carefully so you know the maximum number of words you can write
4. Read the first question and establish a keyword to search for in the text.
5. Locate the keyword/synonym in the text.
6. Look for the correct answer. It should be somewhere close to the keyword in the same sentence.
7. Repeat this strategy with other questions, starting from the place where you got the last answer (as most answers occur sequentially).
PRACTICE TASK
Changes in Industrial Britain
The spread of railways stimulated communication, and Rowland Hill’s standardisation of postal charges in 1839 saw a boom in mail services. But this was nothing compared to the revolution of the telegraph. If you think the Internet is big then just imagine how much bigger it would seem if you had never before seen a computer or telephone. That’s what the telegraph was to the Victorians. If rail travel shrank the country, the telegraph crushed it. It opened in the 1840s and soon went stratospheric – within ten years exchanging telegrams had become part of everyday life. By the mid-1860s London was connected with New York and ten years later messages could be exchanged between London and Bombay in minutes.
Questions 1 – 7
Complete the table below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
ANSWERS
1. postal charges
2. telegraph
3. (mid) 1860s
4. New York
5. (mid) 1870s
6. minutes
7. Bombay
