7.1. Multiple Choice
Read the stem, find the sentence, then pick the option that matches its meaning, one step at a time.
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
- 27Which fault in the popular form of the ten-thousand-hour rule does the writer consider the more serious?
- AIt treats a group's mean total as a target each individual has to reach.
- BIt rests on evidence gathered at a single institution.
- CIt ignores how narrowly the kind of practice being counted was defined.
- DIt assumes that musicians can accurately recall their childhood routines.
- 28The writer mentions chess players in order to
- Ashow that the rule holds in at least one field.
- Billustrate how much the required hours can vary.
- Cquestion whether their ratings are reliable.
- Dcompare their training with that of musicians.
The short version
Each question has a stem, which is the question itself, and four options, A to D. One is correct.
The answer comes from one sentence of the passage. Find it before you read the options.
An option that repeats a word from the passage is often the trap.
The questions follow the order of the passage.
What you have to do
Each question has a stem, which is the question itself, and four options labelled A to D. One option is correct, and you choose its letter. The stem may ask what happened, why the writer mentions something, or what the writer will not claim. The answer is always in the passage, usually in one sentence. The questions follow the order of the passage, so the answer to question 28 sits below the answer to question 27.
Step by step
- 1Read the stem first, and read it to the end
Before you look at the options, read the stem. Highlight the question word: why, what, which. Notice any phrase that narrows it, such as in order to or will not. The stem tells you what kind of sentence you are looking for: a reason, an event, a refusal.
- 2Find the sentence the stem points to
Scan for the names, numbers and dates in the stem, or words that mean the same. The questions follow the order of the passage, so look below your last answer. When you land, read the whole sentence and the one after it.
- 3Put the sentence in your own words before you read the options
Say to yourself what the sentence means, in plain words. Only then read A to D. The correct option says what the sentence says, in different words. Reading the options first sends you hunting for matching words instead of matching meaning.
- 4Rule out every option the passage contradicts or never says
Take each option back to the sentence and ask: does the passage say this? If it says the opposite, rule the option out. If it says nothing about it, rule it out. If it is true but answers a different question from the stem, rule it out too.
- 5If you are stuck, eliminate, then pick from what survives
Rule out the option you are surest is wrong, then choose between the rest using the stem. A survivor with unfamiliar wording is usually the answer. Choose a letter and move on. Never leave the box empty: a guess can score, a blank cannot.
Stem: Why did the council refuse to reopen the footpath?
Sentence found: *The council refused, not because of the cost, which was small, but because the path crossed a field the owner had just sold.* In my own words: the refusal was about the field being sold, not about money. Now the options. *Because the cost was too high* shares the word *cost*, but the passage says the cost was small, so it is ruled out. *Because the repairs were cheap* is true but does not answer why they refused, so it is ruled out. *Because the land had changed hands* says the same as the sentence, in different words. That is the answer.
Work every question the same way: stem, sentence, your own words, then rule out.
Quiz time5 questions
Each question gives you the one or two sentences you need, and three options rather than the four in the test. Practise the judgement, not the searching.
Read the stem first
Read the stem, then the extract, then choose. Highlight the question word before you start.
Read thisThe line was closed in 1966 not because nobody used it but because the coal it carried had stopped moving. Passenger numbers in its final year were the highest since the war.
Why was the line closed in 1966?
The shared word
Put the sentences in your own words before you read the options.
Read thisCampaigners wanted a station at Milford, where the old platform still stands. The council refused. The platform is too short for modern trains, and it sits on a curve that would hide the signal from the driver.
What does the writer say about the old platform at Milford?
True but not the answer
Every option here is tempting. Take each one back to the stem.
Read thisThe reopened line carries about 900 passengers a day, three times the forecast. Most of them are travelling to the hospital at Ashby, which had no bus service worth the name until the trains returned.
Why do most passengers use the reopened line?
The twisted figure
Check what the passage says happened to each number before you trust it.
Read thisThe reopening cost £41 million, against a budget of £35 million. The overspend was not on the track but on a footbridge the planners had left out, which took a year to design.
What caused the project to overspend?
When you are stuck
If no option looks right, rule out the wrong ones and pick from what survives.
Read thisWhether the line will pay for itself is a question the council no longer asks in public. Its latest report talks instead about the hospital's parking problem, which has eased.
What does the writer suggest about the council?
Try a full set
Below is a full passage with three questions set as the test sets them. Work the five steps in order: stem first, find the sentence, your own words, rule out, then pick from what survives.
The 1990s seawalls at Holme Creek were built to keep high water off a new road, not to grow saltmarsh. They did their job. They also squeezed the remaining mudflat into a narrowing strip, so wading birds lost feeding time on each tide. A 2018 restoration opened two breaches in the outer wall and let the tide back onto 14 hectares of old pasture. The first public claim was that bird numbers would rise "along this coast". The project team has since withdrawn that sentence. Counts rose in the restored creek. They did not rise at the next two estuaries, which were never part of the works. The useful figure is local: winter counts of redshank in the creek were about 35 per cent higher in the third season than in the two years before the breaches. Visitors often ask whether the same acreage would work on a different estuary. The team will not say that it would. Holme Creek has a shallow gradient and a nearby roost. A steeper shore, or a shore with no high-tide roost, would need a different design. The 1990s walls are mentioned in the report only to explain the squeeze, not as a model to copy. What the team will claim is narrower: where a wall has already taken the intertidal zone, a designed breach can return feeding time to the birds that still use that creek. It is not a coast-wide recovery plan, and it is not an argument for knocking down every defence.
The full set3 questions
Why mention the 1990s walls?
Read the stem first. Use the passage above.
Why does the writer mention the 1990s seawalls?
The claim they withdrew
Use the passage above.
What has the project team stopped claiming?
What they will not say
Use the passage above.
What will the team not claim?
Tips
- Eliminate rather than select
Rule out what the passage contradicts or never says. What survives is usually the answer, even when its wording feels unfamiliar.
- Read the stem to the end
Stems often narrow the question sharply: the writer mentions X in order to. The reason, not the fact, is the answer.
- A shared word is a warning, not a match
When an option repeats a word you saw in the passage, check twice what the passage said about that word.
Recap
Read the stem first, find the sentence, put it in your own words, then read the options.
A shared word is a warning sign, not a match.
Rule out what the passage contradicts or never says, then pick from what survives.
Next: the version where you pick two or three letters from a longer list.