1. Maria’s mother is now ↓

 

1. in Chile
2. in Calgary
3. in Vancouver
4. in Victoria

Answer = iv.

The correct answer is ‘in Victoria’.

To answer this question (1) you should scan to a place in the text where ‘Maria’s mother’ is mentioned – it is found in the 1^st paragraph where it says ‘My mum’. This is a good example of a substitution for a noun that is not a pronoun, of a typical expression Canadians used to refer to their mother.

(2) now read the text a little above ‘my mum’ and remember you are looking for a place–Q1. Maria’s is now….where? because all the examples are of different cities or places. (3) Notice that 2 lines above ‘my mum’ are the independent clause ‘my family’s visit from Chile–immediately cross out ‘in Chile’ as a possible answer because ‘the family’ is visiting some other place than Chile. (4) Notice: Vancouver is mentioned 2 lines after ‘my mum’ but in the following independent clause ‘we took the family sightseeing here in Vancouver’ BUT this is immediately followed with the ‘THEY left yesterday for Victoria…. ‘and will return in 3 days’.

INFERENCE – you have to make the slight inference that ‘Maria’s mother’ is part of the ‘family’.

(5) The pronoun ‘they’ refers to ‘the family’ and logically if Maria’s mother’ is part of the family, then she is ‘in Victoria’ with them. So, this is the correct answer–‘in Victoria’.

Calgary can be eliminated because this is where Maria’s friend Mea lives ( ‘it is a bit of a drive from Calgary’) -referring to the fact that Mea could not make the graduation ceremony.

Vancouver can be eliminated because this is where Maria lives (and ‘they’ – ‘the family’ left Vancouver for Victoria yesterday’.

Another way to approach Part 1 questions is to (1) scan to the information needed and then read the entire paragraph to locate the specific information needed to answer the question.

*Note–substitutions for nouns, as either pronouns or different nouns ‘my mum’ are a common way to confuse readers on this part of the exam.

2. In a few weeks, Maria’s son Marco will ↓:
3. start a new job
4. graduate from university

• visit his family in Japan

1. visit Mea and her family

Answer = i. The name Marco is not mentioned in the first paragraph, but if you scan the text looking for the word ‘Marco’, it is found in the first sentence of the second paragraph. If you then read the first and second sentence for meaning you will read: “Marco broke the news that he had accepted a job offer in Tokyo. He leaves at the end of the month!” Therefore, a ‘few weeks’ can be understood as the time it would take to get to the end of the month – ‘by the end of the month’–approximately 3 weeks (a couple of weeks would mean 2 weeks).

Marco has already graduated from university (1^st paragraph), so answer ii. is incorrect. Also, answers iii. And iv. Are incorrect because the text never mentions ‘visit Japan or Mea’.

**Very Important Note: Once you find 1 answer, you never have to find an answer previous to that point in the reading. For example, ‘Marco’ is found in the 2^nd Paragraph; you will never be asked to find an answer in the 1^st paragraph again–thus, the questions are in order. This will help your speed through these questions because you can start scanning from the place in the text where you answered your last question!

 

3. Marco’s employers are ↓
4. not supportive of his inexperience
5. doing little for Marco’s adaptation

• specialists in town reconstruction

1. inexperienced with disasters

Answer = iii. Returning to the 2^nd paragraph, and below ‘he has accepted the job in the text, it states exactly what the company does: “He was invited to work at a top engineering firm that specializes in rebuilding cities after large disasters…”. So, you would scan this sentence to find the correct answer. Notice they changed the form of the root word ‘special’ from the verb form ‘specializes’ to the noun form ‘specialists’ (see the Suffixes and Prefixes above).

All other answers (i., ii., and iv.) are the opposite of what is mentioned in the text, so they are incorrect. (i.) The company is very supportive, offering a translator and a tutor. Thus, (ii.) they are doing a lot to support or help Marco adapt to life in Japan. Finally, (iv.) the text clearly states that the company Marco will work for is experienced because they specialize in rebuilding, and the text offers detail in the fact that they have been extremely busy since the earthquake in 2011.

4. Marco is feeling ↓
5. unsure about the job
6. happy about leaving his parents

• nervous about speaking Japanese

1. sad about moving to Japan

Answer = iii.

If a test-taker of this test scans to the last sentence in the 2^nd paragraph, Question 4 is answered: “He’s a little apprehensive about communicating in Japanese…”. It might be argued that Marco is (i) ‘unsure about the job’ because he is apprehensive, but test-takers have to complete THE MEANING of the clause – it says ‘communicating in Japanese’, which can only mean (iii.)‘nervous about speaking Japanese or communicating in another language (see sentence structure above).

 

Answers ii. and iv. Oppose each other in meaning and are incorrect because ‘apprehensive’ means unsure, not happy or sad.

5. Maria and Jack are worried about

 

1. Marco being in an earthquake
2. Marco not speaking the language

• Never seeing Marco again

1. Marco’s lack of life experience

Answer = iv.

The 2^nd independent clause that opens the 3^rd paragraph states that: “but Jack and I are having a tougher time with it.” Test-takers would scan to this point in the text because the phrase ‘Jack and Maria’ from Question 5 can easily be understood to be ‘Jack and I’ – the ‘I’ being Maria. This is a short paragraph, so it should be read in its entirety to find ‘what it is that Jack and Maria are worried about.

In the first independent clause of the second sentence, the answer is found: “We think he’s too young to be so far away.” Test-takers have to make a slight inference again to realize that ‘too young’ equates to ‘lack of life experience’ to achieve the correct answer.

The correct answer can also be achieved by elimination. i., ii., are incorrect because they are mentioned in different paragraphs, before the mention of ‘Jack and I /Maria’ in the text – remember the answers are in order. iii. is incorrect because the text never mentions that ‘Jack and Mea’ will never see their son again.

Note: Reading for meaning means you have to understand the meaning of individual words. If you do not you have to rely on the context that particular word is used (see Context above)

 

6. Mea and Maria
7. are neighbours
8. are cousins

• are co-workers

1. are old friends

Answer = iv.

We know that Mea and Maria are old friends because the second sentence in the 3^rd paragraph states: “Just the other day Jack and I were talking about the trip all of us took to Disneyland when the kids were little, do you remember that? It’s been 20 years!” From this sentence, any test-taker should realize that Mea and Maria have been in contact with each other for over 20 years and this means that they are ‘good’ and ‘old’ friends.

Answer i. is incorrect because Mea has to travel to Vancouver from Calgary mentioned in the 1^st paragraph. Likewise, Mea and Maria are not cousins because they would then be ‘family’, and the family took a trip to Victoria, and Mea was not invited (inference). Finally, iii. is a wrong answer; though they might have been co-workers at one point in their lives because being co-workers was never mentioned in the text.

**Be careful: do not make assumptions about characters in the text and then answer to an answer that fits your assumption. For example, in Question 6 above, a test-taker might assume because Maria and Mea are such good friends that they ‘must have’ worked together, so then it is possible that answer iii. might be chosen.

Remember: All answers must be supported (by textual facts) in the text (for 20 years, and co-working was not mentioned). If not supported, there should be only a logical guess to be made (inference) to get the correct answer.

 

Here is the response to the message above (note ‘who’ sign-off at the end of this response and ‘to whom’ the response is written). Complete the response by filling in the blanks. Select the best choice for each blank from the drop-down menu.

Note: paragon Testing will more than likely use two names that are close in spelling or in ‘sound’/ pronunciation to further confuse test-takers (i.e. Mar – E -AH [Maria] and ME -AH [Mea])