Think about these questions, or answer them aloud.
IELTS Reading – Multiple choice. You usually choose the best answer from four options (A–D). Some questions ask you to choose TWO answers from five options, or THREE from a longer list. Most questions test details in one part of the passage and follow the order of the passage. A final question may ask about the whole text, for example its main purpose or the best title.
TOEFL Read an Academic Passage. You read a short academic text of about 200 words and answer 5 questions. The questions test facts, vocabulary, inference, the connection between ideas and the writer's purpose. Because the text is short, every sentence matters.
In the B1 course you learned to read the question stem carefully and remove wrong options. At B2 the texts are denser, and the wrong options are more convincing. The key skill is to explain why each wrong option is wrong.
| Type | Typical stem | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Detail | According to paragraph 2, why…? | Scan for the key words, then read two or three sentences carefully. |
| Vocabulary | The word X is closest in meaning to… | Replace the word with each option and check that the sentence still makes sense. |
| Inference | What can be inferred about…? | The answer is not written directly, but it must follow logically from the text. Do not add your own knowledge. |
| Connection | How does paragraph 3 relate to paragraph 2? | Ask: does it give an example, a cause, a result, a contrast or a disadvantage? |
| Purpose | Why does the writer mention…? | Read the sentence before and after. Ask what point the example supports. |
| Main idea | What is the main purpose of the passage? / Which is the best title? | Choose the option that covers the whole text, not just one paragraph. |
| Trap | What it looks like | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Too extreme | The text says some, often or may; the option says all, always or will. | Text: attendance has fallen. Option: students have stopped attending altogether. |
| Opposite | The option uses words from the text but reverses the meaning. | Text: recordings help students revise before exams. Option: students use them to avoid revising. |
| True, but not the answer | The option is correct according to the text, but it does not answer this question. | The question asks about students; the option is about lecturers. |
| Not in the text | The option sounds reasonable, but the text never says it. | Option: students would prefer shorter lectures. |
Many universities now record their lectures and put them online. Students generally welcome this, saying that recordings help them to review difficult points before exams. However, some lecturers report that attendance has fallen, particularly in the later weeks of the term, and a few have stopped recording their classes as a result.
Question: “According to the text, how have students responded to recorded lectures?” The correct answer is “They have mostly been positive about them.” Why is each of these other options wrong?
For most of history, the night was dark. Apart from the moon, the stars and the occasional fire, living things experienced long hours of darkness for much of the year, and many species evolved to rely on it. Today, in large parts of the world, the night sky is never truly black. Street lamps, illuminated advertising and lit buildings create a glow that can be seen from many kilometres away, and ecologists have begun to ask what this artificial light is doing to the animals and plants that share our towns and countryside.
Insects are among the most obviously affected. Anyone who has left a window open on a summer evening knows that moths are drawn to lamps, but the consequences are more serious than a few unwanted visitors. An insect that circles a street light all night is not feeding or breeding, and many are eaten by predators or simply die of exhaustion. Researchers have long suspected that light contributes to the decline in insect numbers reported in many countries, although they stress that it is only one factor among several, alongside habitat loss and the use of pesticides.
For some animals, light at night is confusing rather than attractive. Sea turtles hatch on beaches at night and find the sea by moving towards the brightest horizon, which under natural conditions is the moonlit water. Where hotels and roads line the coast, young turtles may crawl inland instead, towards the lights. Similarly, birds that migrate at night can become disoriented by brightly lit towers and circle them until they are exhausted or collide with the glass.
The effects are not limited to animals. Trees growing next to street lamps have been observed to keep their leaves later into the autumn than trees of the same species in darker places, apparently because the extra light makes them behave as if the days were still long. Whether this harms the trees is not yet clear.
The encouraging news is that, unlike many forms of pollution, light pollution can be reduced almost immediately. Shielding lamps so that they point downwards, switching off lights in empty buildings and choosing lights with a warmer colour, which appears to attract fewer insects, can all make a difference. Some coastal towns now dim their seafront lighting during the turtle nesting season. The difficulty is less technical than social: many people associate bright lights with safety, and persuading them that darker streets need not be more dangerous may prove harder than changing the lamps themselves.
Question: According to paragraph B, what do researchers say about artificial light and the fall in insect numbers?
A It is the main cause.
B It is one of several causes.
C There is no clear connection.
D It mainly affects moths.
Key words in the stem: researchers, insect numbers. The last sentence of paragraph B says light “contributes to the decline… although… it is only one factor among several”. My own answer: one cause among others. → B
Naming the traps: A is too extreme (the text says one factor, not the main one). C is the opposite: researchers suspect a connection. D uses a word from the paragraph (moths), but the text never says light mainly affects moths: not in the text.
Question: What is the writer's main point in paragraph E?
A Light pollution is impossible to reduce.
B The technology for reducing light pollution is not yet available.
C Changing people's attitudes may be the biggest challenge.
D Coastal towns have solved the problem of light pollution.
The paragraph lists easy technical solutions, then ends: “The difficulty is less technical than social… persuading them… may prove harder than changing the lamps.” → C. A and B are opposite (the paragraph says light pollution can be reduced “almost immediately”). D is too extreme: some towns dim their lights during one season; nothing is solved.
Use the passage “Artificial light and the night-time world”. Choose the correct answer.
Not long ago, a broken toaster or a phone with a cracked screen was usually thrown away. Repairs often cost almost as much as a new product, spare parts were hard to find, and many devices were glued or sealed in ways that made them almost impossible to open. Throwing things away was not simply a wasteful habit; for many consumers it was the only sensible choice.
Over the past fifteen years or so, however, repair has made a surprising comeback. One sign is the growth of repair cafés: free community events where volunteers with practical skills help visitors fix clothes, bicycles, lamps and small electrical items. The first was held in the Netherlands in 2009, and the idea has since spread to thousands of locations around the world. Organisers say the events are as much about sharing knowledge as about mending objects, since visitors are encouraged to watch and help rather than simply hand over a broken item.
Governments have also become involved. In several countries and regions, new rules require manufacturers to make spare parts and repair information available for a number of years after a product is sold, at least for certain categories of goods such as washing machines and refrigerators. Supporters call this the “right to repair”. Manufacturers have often resisted such rules, arguing that untrained people could injure themselves or damage products, and that sealed designs help to keep devices thin and water-resistant.
The environmental case for repair is strong. Making a new laptop or phone requires mining, manufacturing and transport, and most of the carbon emissions linked to such a device are produced before it is ever switched on. Keeping an existing device in use for a few more years is therefore usually better for the environment than replacing it with a more energy-efficient model, although this is not true of every product. An old refrigerator, for example, may use so much electricity that replacing it is the greener choice.
Whether the repair movement will change the habits of the majority remains uncertain. Repair still takes time, and many people enjoy owning the latest model. Yet the movement may already have achieved something important: it has made “Can this be fixed?” a normal question to ask before buying something new.
Read “The return of repair”. Choose the correct answer. Question 5 asks for TWO answers.
Plants need carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, and they take it in through tiny openings in their leaves called stomata. The problem is that whenever the stomata are open, water escapes as vapour. For most plants this is a manageable cost, but in a hot desert, opening the stomata during the day could cause a plant to lose more water than it can replace.
Many cacti and other desert plants solve this problem with an unusual timetable. They open their stomata at night, when the air is cooler and more humid, and store the carbon dioxide they absorb in the form of an acid. During the day the stomata stay closed, and the stored carbon dioxide is released inside the leaf so that photosynthesis can continue in sunlight. This strategy, known as CAM, greatly reduces water loss.
The arrangement has a price, however. Because a plant can store only a limited amount of carbon dioxide overnight, CAM plants usually grow much more slowly than plants in wetter environments. In the desert, this is a sensible trade: survival matters more than speed.
Read the passage about desert plants and answer the 5 questions.
Until the nineteenth century, most towns kept their own local time, based on the position of the sun. When the sun was highest in the sky, it was noon, so a town a short distance to the west was a few minutes behind its neighbour. For people who rarely travelled far, these small differences hardly mattered.
The arrival of the railways changed this. A train could now pass through many towns in a single journey, and a timetable that used dozens of local times was confusing for passengers and dangerous for railway staff, who needed to know exactly when trains would meet on a single track. Railway companies therefore began to adopt one standard time for their whole network, usually the time of a major city.
At first, many towns kept their local time for everyday life while the station clock showed railway time, and some public clocks were even built with two minute hands. Gradually, however, the convenience of a shared time won, and governments made standard time official. The modern system of time zones, in which large regions share one time, grew directly from this practical problem.
Read the passage about standard time and answer the 5 questions.
Save words to review them later with flashcards.
“The second option was a distractor: it used the right words but the wrong meaning.”
“From her tone, I inferred that she was unhappy with the plan.”
“The illuminated signs could be seen from the motorway.”
“The birds became disoriented by the bright lights of the tower.”
“Habitat loss is a major threat to many insects.”
“Vinyl records have made a comeback in recent years.”
“Some companies resisted the new rules.”
“Most of a phone's emissions come from making it.”
“The air is more humid at night than during the day.”
“The company adopted a new timetable last year.”
“There is a trade-off between speed and accuracy.”
