Reading Part 4: the sentence that 'sounds right'
Ravi is doing Reading Part 4: a text about a school's 'no-plastic week' with five numbered gaps and six sentences A–F. He reads the six options first and notices that two of them mention students, so he puts one in gap 1 and one in gap 4 because those paragraphs talk about students. He does not read the sentences immediately before and after each gap. For gap 3, the sentence before says, 'The head teacher agreed to try the scheme for one term.' The sentence after says, 'That gave the students eight weeks to prepare.' Ravi chooses, 'However, not everyone was convinced.' He leaves option F unused, assuming it is the extra sentence. He finishes in six minutes and does not check. Later he cannot say why he chose C for gap 2 except that it 'sounded right'.
1. Explain a reliable procedure for Part 4 and identify two flaws in Ravi's method.
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Procedure: read the text with gaps quickly for gist (who, what, where), then work gap by gap. For each gap, read the sentence before and the sentence after, predict the kind of information needed (a contrast, a time, a person, an example), then test the options against both sides. Check pronouns and linking words, and read the completed paragraph silently to see if it flows. Two flaws in Ravi's method: (1) he reads options first and matches topic words ('students'), which is exactly the trap - the extra sentence and several distractors share topic words; (2) he ignores the sentences immediately before and after each gap, so he cannot see pronoun links such as 'That gave...'. He also assumes the last unused option is the extra one, instead of eliminating it. A third flaw is no final read-through.
2. For gap 3, what evidence would tell Ravi whether 'However, not everyone was convinced.' fits? Consider the sentence before and after, and the overall paragraph.
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Look at the links on both sides. 'However, not everyone was convinced.' begins with a contrast, so the sentence before must state a proposal or agreement that someone opposes. 'The head teacher agreed to try the scheme for one term' fits that side: agreement → 'However, not everyone was convinced.' But the next sentence is 'That gave the students eight weeks to prepare.' What does 'That' refer to? It needs a clear time period or decision. If the inserted sentence is about disagreement, 'That' has no sensible referent. The original next sentence probably follows something like 'The trial would run until the end of term.' So the option does not fit gap 3. Ravi's 'sounded right' is not evidence; the pronoun 'That' is the test.
3. How should Ravi handle the extra sentence and the final check?
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After placing five sentences, take the remaining option and test it in every gap, especially the ones he found hard. If it fits one gap better than his choice, swap; the extra sentence should be the one that fails in all five positions, not simply the last one left. Then read the whole text with his choices inserted. Check: does every pronoun have a referent? Do linking words match the logic (however, also, for example)? Does the timeline make sense? Does each sentence add new information rather than repeat the previous one? Finally, check that the sentence after each gap still follows grammatically. This final read is where most avoidable Part 4 errors are caught, and it takes about two minutes.