Reading Comprehension: A Hesitation Question and a NOT-True Item Under Time Pressure
Mei is on the last passage of a 25-minute reading section. She has 7 minutes left and four questions (Q4–Q7) to answer. The passage describes a town that closed its central street to cars in 2019: pedestrian traffic rose 30% and shop sales rose 12% in the first year. Two sentences matter:
(a) 'The council called the experiment a success, but the sales figures rose in the same month that a large supermarket opened on the ring road.'
(b) 'A survey found that residents over 65 felt the town center had become less convenient, though most still supported the ban.'
Q4 asks: 'Why does the writer hesitate to call the ban a success?' Options: A) sales rose only 12%; B) some residents found the center less convenient; C) the sales increase may have had another cause; D) the supermarket was built on the ring road.
Mei leans toward B because it comes late in the passage and she remembers the phrase 'less convenient'. She plans to answer Q5, a 'NOT true' item, from memory in the last 90 seconds.
1. Which option should Mei choose for Q4, and why is B attractive but wrong?
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Answer: C.
- The question asks about the writer's hesitation, so find the sentence where the writer evaluates the ban: 'The council called the experiment a success, but the sales figures rose in the same month that a large supermarket opened on the ring road.' The 'but' is the hesitation; what follows is a timing coincidence that offers a rival explanation for the 12% rise.
- C restates exactly that relation: 'may have had another cause'. The modal 'may' matches the writer's caution - the writer does not claim the supermarket caused the rise, only that the two happened together.
- B is true but is not the writer's reason for hesitating. It appears in a concessive sentence ('though most still supported the ban') and concerns comfort, not whether the ban worked. Choosing it confuses a supporting detail with the writer's own judgement.
- A mistakes the size of the figure for the logical problem; D states a fact but draws no conclusion from it.
Transferable rule: for 'why does the writer...' items, locate the evaluative sentence and match the logical move (coincidence, concession, contrast), not the most memorable phrase. Position in the passage is not evidence.
2. Mei intends to answer the 'NOT true' item from memory with 90 seconds left. Give her a procedure and explain the risk in her plan.
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Procedure for a NOT-true item with 90 seconds:
- Do not answer from memory. Gist memory keeps the striking detail ('30%', 'supermarket') and drops the qualifier ('in the same month', 'over 65'), and the qualifier is precisely where examiners plant the false option.
- Scan for each option's key noun and check the relation, not just the word. Three options will be supported by a specific line; the fourth usually fails in one of three ways: a reversed relation (cause/effect, before/after), a substituted number or group (all residents instead of over 65), or an over-generalisation (the ban 'failed' instead of 'the writer hesitates').
- As soon as one option fails that check, verify the other three quickly rather than rereading the whole passage, and mark the line numbers so a later recheck is cheap.
Risk in her plan: memory of tone is the least reliable evidence in this item type. The passage's mood ('the council was pleased') is not the same as the passage's facts, and a NOT-true item is almost always built on a factual detail the reader has half-forgotten.