Skim for names first
Run your eye down the article for people and their titles. Here there are three: a councillor, a restaurant owner and an access adviser. Each one gets a meter.
CELPIP GymReading courseLesson 4 · Reading Part 4, reading for viewpoints
Know the commenter's side first
Part 4's wrong answers are often true things said by the wrong person. Give everyone in the article a side, work out the commenter's before you touch a blank, and the choices sort themselves.
5 minutes to read
Thick needle: the reader's comment
1
Map the voices in the article
Before you read for detail, skim the article for names. Give each person a side: for, against or in between. Read every person to the end, because a side can shift in the last sentence. Scroll through one article and watch a needle settle for each voice.
Why it scores. The questions offer real opinions attached to the wrong person. With a map of who stands where, you check the name instead of trusting the opinion.
Beats the right view, wrong person trap
Set the first needle
Osei calls the ban long overdue. That's for, and firmly. Two words on your pad will do: Osei, for.
Set the next one, with its reason
Ferrante would lose his lunch crowd. Against. Note the reason too, since a question may ask why someone objects.
Read each voice to the end
Rao starts on the ban's side. Then comes "still", and the needle swings back. She's in between, and a question will count on you having stopped too soon.
Now answer from the map
This menu asks who likes the goal but fears the result. One needle sits in the middle, so you answer from the map without rereading. The fourth meter waits for the comment.
Council is weighing a ban on new drive-throughs. Imani Osei is pushing it, Dario Ferrante runs a burger stand on Mercer Street, and Anjali Rao advises the city on access.
“Nobody should have to cross four lanes of idling cars to reach a bus stop. This is long overdue.”
“Half my customers never leave their cars. Take away the window and you take my lunch crowd with it.”
“Cleaner streets would help everybody. Still, for many people I work with, that window is the only counter they can reach.”
supports the bylaw's aim but fears it will shut some people out.
Imani OseiCouncillor
Dario FerranteRestaurant owner
Anjali RaoAccess adviser
The commenterRead next
2
Find the comment's "but"
Before you choose a single blank, read the comment from start to finish and skip past the menus. Find the word where it turns: but, however, still, that said. Whatever comes before it is a polite nod. Whatever comes after is the commenter's side, and it may oppose the article.
Why it scores. The blanks are written to depend on where the commenter stands. Once you know the side, each menu becomes a much smaller choice.
Sets up all five blanks
Sure, nobody enjoys a lineup of idling cars, but those windows are the only hot meal open after my night shift.
Before itThe polite nod
After itHer real side
The commenter's meter goes to against, before a single blank is touched.
3
Blanks follow the commenter, not the article
Every choice fits the sentence, and some repeat what the article said. Point each one for or against, and keep only those pointing the way the commenter does. When a commenter disagrees with the article, the article's own phrase is the one to avoid.
Why it scores. Blanks test understanding, not grammar. Only the commenter's position tells the choices apart.
Wins blanks where every choice sounds right
The commenter is against the ban, so a choice has to point left.
Banning new windows would .
- make Mercer Street far safer
- finally end the idling problemThe article's words, Osei's side
- leave night workers with nothing openPoints her way
- cost the city very little
4
An unknown word? Read its direction
This part is full of rare words, and you rarely need to know them. Cover the word and read what's around it. If the neighbours sound bad, the word is bad. If they sound good, it's good. Often that's all a question needs: which way the word points.
Why it scores. A question about a view usually turns on whether something is for or against. Direction answers that even when the dictionary meaning is out of reach.
Beats hard vocabulary
Owners fear the rule would prove deleterious to shops already squeezed by rising rents.
- −fear
- −squeezed
- −rising rents
Points to harm
Deleterious means harmful. You never needed the dictionary, only the direction.
The clock, spent well
13 minutes2 minutesSkim for names, and give each a side.
5 minutesThe article's five questions.
1 minuteRead the comment whole, and find its "but".
4 minutesThe five blanks, pointing the commenter's way.
1 minuteBack to anything you guessed.
Quick hacks for Part 4
Smaller than a move, and just as easy to forget on the day.
- ClockThe longest clock comes last
Thirteen minutes, after three parts of reading. Sit back for five seconds before you begin: this is where tired eyes start to skim.
- PadInitials and an arrow
Three or four names, each with an arrow up, down or sideways. That's the whole map, and it takes twenty seconds.
- WordsWhat's in quotation marks is theirs
A person's own words are their view. The writer's line about them can be softer or harder, so when a question asks what someone thinks, go to the quote.
- WordsSome, most, all
A choice that says all where the article said some is wrong, however right the rest of it sounds. Check the size of every claim.
- If it slipsCan't decide a blank? Read the sentence after it
A comment usually carries on in the same direction. The next sentence tells you which way the blank points.
Take this into the test
- 1Skim for names and give each one a side.
- 2Find the comment's "but" before any blank.
- 3Keep the choices that point the commenter's way.