8.2. Flow-chart Completion
Fill the gaps in a chain of boxes with words copied from the passage, one stage at a time.
Complete the flow-chart below. Choose ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.
Returned packets are logged in a register
Pods are dried on a 3
Seed is passed through a 4
A sample is left to sprout in a covered 5
Packets are stored in glass 6
The short version
A flow-chart is a chain of boxes joined by arrows. Each box is one stage of a process.
Some boxes are complete. Others have a gap for one missing word.
The word is copied from the passage, inside the word limit in the instructions.
The answers usually come from one part of the passage, but not always in the order of the boxes.
What you have to do
The test shows a chain of boxes joined by arrows. Each box describes one stage of a process in a few words. Some are complete. Others have a numbered gap where one word is missing. You find the stage in the passage and copy the missing word from it, with the same spelling and inside the word limit, which you read each time. The answers usually come from one part of the passage, but may not follow the order of the boxes.
One box, one stage
The passage says far more about each stage than the box does. The box picks out one object or action from that stage and leaves a gap for it. So each gap is answered from a few sentences, often one paragraph, and never from the whole passage. Your job is to find those sentences and take one word from them.
Step by step
- 1Read the complete boxes first, not the passage
Read the chain from top to bottom. Note the stage word in each box, such as drying, testing or storage. The words in the boxes are your anchors: they tell you where each gap sits in the passage, and they are never answers.
- 2Find the stage in the passage
Scan for the stage word from the box, or a word that means the same. Sprout in the box may be germinate in the text. The stages often come in the order of the boxes, so look near the last answer you found first. When you land, read that paragraph.
- 3Match the action, not the word
The box says what happens in different words from the passage. Left to cool in a sealed ______ may be set aside in a sealed tin until cold in the text. Find the sentence that does the same thing as the box, then look for the missing noun in it.
- 4Fit the grammar, then check the arrow
Passed through a ______ wants one singular noun. Kept in glass ______ wants a plural. Drop any word that does not fit, and any word already on the chart. Then ask: does this happen after the box above and before the box below? If not, it came from the wrong stage.
- 5If you cannot find the stage
Use the complete boxes either side of the gap. Find their stages in the passage, and the gap belongs to the text between them. Copy the noun from there that fits the gap best, and move on. Never leave a box empty.
Quiz time4 questions
Each question gives you the one or two sentences you need, and tells you what the boxes around the gap say. Practise the matching, not the searching.
Match the action, not the word
A flow-chart of a garden compost bin. Box 3 has a gap. ONE WORD ONLY.
Read thisEach week the heap is turned with a garden fork so that air reaches the middle. Without air the scraps rot and smell rather than break down.
Turning: the heap mixed each week with a
Write no more than 1 word.
The paragraph after the box
Box 2 has a gap. Box 4, below it, reads: Liquid drained from a tap into a bucket. ONE WORD ONLY.
Read thisFresh scraps go in with a handful of shredded cardboard so that the heap does not turn to sludge. Once the bin is full, a tap at the base drains the dark liquid into a bucket.
Filling: scraps mixed with shredded
Write no more than 1 word.
The wrong shape
The last box has a gap. ONE WORD ONLY.
Read thisAfter three months the finished compost is rubbed through a wire screen and packed into paper sacks, which let it breathe.
Bagging: finished compost packed into paper
Write no more than 1 word.
If you cannot find the stage
Box 4 reads: Liquid drained from a tap into a bucket. Box 6 reads: Compost rubbed through a screen. Box 5 sits between them and you cannot place it. Here is the text between those two stages. ONE WORD ONLY.
Read thisThe liquid in the bucket is strong, so it is emptied into a watering can and mixed with ten parts water before it goes on the beds.
Feeding: liquid poured from a watering
Write no more than 1 word.
Try a full set
Below is a full passage and a six-box flow-chart with three gaps, set as the test sets them. Work the five steps in order: complete boxes first, find each stage in the passage, match the action, fit the grammar, then check the arrow.
A seed library lends packets of seed the way a book library lends books. Borrowers grow the plants, save seed from the best ones and return a share at the end of the season. What comes back is rarely ready to lend again, so every returned batch goes through the same six stages before it reaches the shelf. The first stage is intake. A volunteer weighs the donation, writes the variety and the year on a paper envelope and enters both in the register. Wet or mouldy seed is refused at this point, because it will spoil everything stored beside it. Next the seed is dried. The envelopes sit open on a rack in a warm room for two weeks, until a bean snaps rather than bends. The dried seed is then cleaned. Volunteers rub the pods apart and pass the seed through a sieve, which lets the seed fall and holds back the chaff. Once clean, a sample is tested. Ten seeds are laid on damp paper in a covered tray for a week. If fewer than seven sprout, the batch goes to the swap table instead of the library shelf. Seed that passes is labelled. Each packet carries the variety, the year and the germination rate from the test. Finally the packets are stored in glass jars in a cool cupboard away from the window. Heat and light shorten the life of seed more than anything else, which is why the last stage matters as much as the first.
Six stages in the order the passage gives them. Boxes 1, 2 and 5 are complete. Boxes 3, 4 and 6 have a gap. ONE WORD ONLY for each.
The full set3 questions
Box 3: cleaning
ONE WORD ONLY. Use the passage and the chart above.
Cleaning: seed passed through a
Write no more than 1 word.
Box 4: testing
ONE WORD ONLY.
Testing: a sample left to sprout in a covered
Write no more than 1 word.
Box 6: storage
ONE WORD ONLY.
Storage: glass kept away from heat and light
Write no more than 1 word.
Tips
- Read the complete boxes first
They tell you where in the passage the chain starts and ends, which turns a long text into a short one.
- Let the arrow check your answer
If your word makes the next box impossible, you have taken it from the wrong stage.
- Match the grammar of the gap
A gap after a wants a singular noun. That alone rules out most of what you could take from the paragraph.
Recap
Complete boxes are anchors: they place each gap in the passage and are never answers.
Work one stage at a time, in the order of the arrows, and match the action rather than the word.
Fit the grammar of the gap before you copy, and take the word from this stage, not the next.
Next: the habits that keep marks, then the step up to the band you are aiming for.