Note the limits, a word or two each
Read the email and jot down what it rules out. Thirty-odd people. A Sunday. A walker. Turn what it says into something the table can answer.
CELPIP GymReading courseLesson 2 · Reading Part 2, apply a diagram
Let the email pick the row
Marks here go on choices that are true, just not of the row the email means. Let the email pick the row before you open a menu, then read the last three questions for the people.
6 minutes to read
1
Write the limits, then find the row
Before you open a menu, note what the email rules out, a word or two each: how many, which day, what can't happen. Then cross rows off the document until one is left. If the email has already chosen, go straight to that row. On a page with nothing to choose between, a row is a day, a section or a job, and the words around the blank say which.
Why it scores. The wrong choices are real things from other rows, so they all look right until you know which row the sentence is about.
Beats the true detail from the wrong row
Thirty-odd: one column only
Run down Seats and nothing else. The Loft holds twenty, so it's gone. A row you've ruled out is now a source of wrong choices.
Sunday: the next column
Days, and only Days. The Cedar Room shuts on Sundays, so two rows are left, and you haven't had to compare a thing.
The walker: read the note
The Annex passes on seats and days, so the catch is in the asterisk: second floor, stairs only. The email never says stairs. A walker means the same thing.
One row left: now open the menus
Menu 1 lists rooms, so it wants a name, and the name is the row that stayed. There's nothing to weigh.
The wrong choices are on the rows that fell
Menu 2 asks what the room offers, and the right choice says a full kitchen another way. A piano, a projector and a balcony are all in the document, and all on rows you've already dropped.
Your note
- 30-odd peopleSeats
- SundayDays
- WalkerNote
Menu 1
- the LoftFell
- the Cedar RoomFell
- the AnnexFell
- the Garden RoomThe row left
Menu 2
- a piano to borrowThe Loft's
- a projector and screenCedar Room's
- a balconyThe Annex's
- somewhere to reheat foodFull kitchen, reworded
Millrace Hall: rooms to rent
RoomSeatsDaysNote
The Loft20Every dayPiano
Cedar Room40Mon to SatProjector
The Annex35Every dayBalcony*
Garden Room40Every dayFull kitchen
* Second floor, stairs only.
The email
Hi Priti,
I've been through the hall's sheet for Mum's lunch. With thirty-odd coming on the Sunday, and Dad on his walker, only one room will do: 1Choosethe Garden Room. Best of all, it has 2Choosesomewhere to reheat food, so your samosas can come straight from home.
2
Small print is a filter
Asterisks, footnotes and please-note lines are where a row that looked right stops being right. Read them against what the email says about the writer, and expect different words: the page says opening night, and the email says the first night of the run.
Why it scores. Some blanks take two facts together, a condition in the document and a situation in the email.
Wins the blanks that take two facts
Lakeshore Playhouse season passes
- Flex Pass any four shows*
- Balcony Pass six shows†
- Full Season all eight shows‡
† Balcony seats on Saturdays only.
‡ One free coat check with each pass.
* Not valid on opening nights.
The emailMarta's debut is the first night of the run, so I want us both in the audience.
Not valid on opening nights+The first night of the run=The Flex Pass is out
3
The last three are about people
Questions 6 to 8 leave the document behind. They ask why the email was written, how the two know each other, how someone feels or what they'll do next, and the answers sit in what's said in passing: the greeting, an aside, the last line. Mark those on your first read.
Why it scores. These questions turn on what the email only hints at. A reader still searching the table has nothing to find.
Wins the questions about people
DocumentNothing more to find there
The emailHi Hannah, could I borrow your tile saw this weekend? (I still can't pass the old Dawson Street office without smelling your burnt popcorn.) Between us, I've never cut tile and I'm dreading it.
- Why does Dev write?To borrow something
- Dev and Hannahused to be co-workers
- About the job, Dev isnervous
4
Names match, details don't
Look at the four choices before you search. If they're names, of rooms, courses or people, they're spelled as on the page, so go straight to the row and match them. If they're details, expect other words: a full kitchen turns into somewhere to reheat food. When a detail in a menu copies the page word for word, check whose row those words are on.
Why it scores. The kind of choice tells you how to search, and quick names leave time for reworded details.
Beats the familiar phrase
The choices are names
the Loft · the Annex · the Garden Room
Garden Room
Straight to the row. Spelled as printed.
The choices are details
a piano · a balcony · somewhere to reheat food
Full kitchensomewhere to reheat food
Say it another way, then look.
The clock, spent well
9 minutes1 minuteLearn the document's headings. Don't read its rows.
2 minutesRead the email and write its limits.
3 minutesThe five blanks, a row at a time.
2 minutesQuestions 6 to 8, from the email alone.
1 minuteHold the small print up to your picks.
Quick hacks for Part 2
Smaller than a move, and just as easy to forget on the day.
- ClockLook it up, don't read it through
The document is there to be searched. Learn its headings in a minute, and read a row only when the email sends you to it.
- MarksIf you're adding up prices, stop
These questions ask you to find and match, not to calculate. A sum on your pad means you've misread what's being asked.
- WordsShort choices, small differences
Most choices are a few words long. When two look alike, the word that differs is the thing to check on the page.
- WordsName the email's job in one word
Invite, complain, ask, remind, reply. One of the last three questions often wants exactly that.
- If it slipsTwo rows still standing? Go through your limits
One of them hasn't been used yet. Read your list again, and the row it rules out will show itself.
Take this into the test
- 1Limits first, a word or two each, then cross off rows.
- 2Hold the small print up to the writer's situation.
- 3Questions 6 to 8: leave the document and read the people.