The Email That Answers Half the Reading
A reading task presents two texts. Text A is a 220-word newspaper column about a Skopje tram extension, arguing the project is overdue. Text B is a 180-word letter to the editor from a resident of the affected neighbourhood, arguing the route will destroy a market. The questions ask students to identify the columnist's attitude, the resident's main concern, and one point on which the two texts agree. A student reads Text A carefully, answers the attitude question confidently, then skims Text B in 40 seconds and writes that the resident 'opposes all public transport.' The student also answers the agreement question by quoting the columnist's claim that the project is overdue. Time remaining: 6 minutes for 4 questions.
1. Diagnose the student's errors in the Text B answer and the agreement answer.
Read the worked answer
The Text B error is overgeneralisation: the resident opposes this route and its effect on the market, not public transport as a whole. The student converted a specific objection into a sweeping one, which is a classic distractor pattern in reading papers. The agreement error is a misreading of the task: 'agree' requires a proposition both texts support, but the student supplied only the columnist's position and never checked Text B against it. Quoting one text cannot establish agreement. Both errors share a cause: Text B was processed at skim level, so the student extracted a vague negative tone instead of the specific concern, and had nothing to compare against for the agreement item.
2. With 6 minutes left, how should the student reallocate effort across the four remaining questions?
Read the worked answer
First, re-read Text B once at normal speed, not skim speed, focusing on the sentence that states the concern (likely containing 'но' or 'бидејќи'). That single read fixes both the main-concern item and gives material for the agreement item. Second, for the agreement item, locate one proposition in Text A and scan Text B for a matching idea, such as both texts acknowledging that the area needs better transport links. Third, answer the remaining items in order of confidence, not order on the page. Budget roughly 2 minutes for the Text B re-read, 2 minutes for the agreement item, and 2 minutes for final checks. Do not re-read Text A in full; it was already understood.
3. What general principle about paired-text reading questions does this case illustrate?
Read the worked answer
Paired-text items reward balanced processing. When two texts are set against each other, the exam typically tests comparison, contrast, and shared ground, so under-reading either text makes at least one item unanswerable. A reliable method is to read both texts once for gist before answering anything, then return to specific lines for each question. Tone and attitude questions need the whole text because attitude is built across sentences; agreement questions need both texts side by side. Skimming is appropriate for locating a detail once you know what you are looking for, not for forming a judgement about a writer's position.