Reading a Cinema Listing Under Time Pressure
A BGCSE reading passage contains a cinema programme in French. The text lists: « Salle 1 : Les Oiseaux de Minuit - 18h00, 20h30 (séance en VOSTFR). Salle 2 : Le Grand Bleu - 17h45, 21h00. Salle 3 : documentaire sur les océans - 19h15, séance unique. Tarif réduit 6,50 € pour les moins de 18 ans ; plein tarif 9,80 €. » A question asks: 'A 16-year-old wants to see a film at 20h30. How much will the ticket cost and in which room?' You have 8 minutes for the whole reading section, and this is question 4 of 12.
1. What is the correct answer, and what trap is the question testing?
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The 20h30 screening is Les Oiseaux de Minuit in Salle 1. The 16-year-old qualifies for tarif réduit (6,50 €) because the text says moins de 18 ans. The trap is combining the right room with the wrong price: a careless reader takes plein tarif 9,80 €, or matches 20h30 to Salle 2 by skimming. The answer requires linking three separate pieces of information (time → film → room; age → tariff), which is inference across the text, not single-word recall.
2. How should you allocate your remaining time across the 12 questions?
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You have used roughly 2–3 minutes on question 4, which is too slow. With 8 minutes total and 12 questions, the budget is about 40 seconds per question. Move on immediately after writing the answer; flag any uncertain item and return only if time remains. Questions often get harder later, so do not let one multi-part item consume the section. Skim for keywords (times, prices, ages) rather than reading every word of the programme.