Two Headings, One Minute
In the Reading section, a candidate has 15 minutes left and 9 questions remaining across two texts. Text A is a 250-word article about a city's car-free Sundays. Text B is a 400-word letter from a shop owner arguing that the scheme hurt business. Question 8 asks: 'Which heading best matches paragraph 4 of Text B?' The options are A 'A reluctant compromise', B 'An unexpected benefit', C 'A familiar complaint', and D 'A costly mistake'. Paragraph 4 says: 'I was against the closure from the start. Yet when I looked at my takings for those Sundays, I had to admit they were slightly higher than on normal weekends. I would not call the scheme a success, but I cannot say it cost me money.' The candidate circles B because 'higher' matches 'benefit', then hesitates because 'reluctant' appears in A and the owner says 'I would not call it a success.' They have already spent 4 minutes on this question.
1. Which heading should the candidate choose? Justify your answer using the paragraph's main idea and the function of the word 'yet'.
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Choose B: 'An unexpected benefit'.
The paragraph's main idea is a contrast: the owner opposed the closure, yet the takings were slightly higher. 'Yet' signals that the evidence points against the owner's expectation. That is exactly an unexpected benefit.
Why not A: 'reluctant' describes the owner's attitude, not the paragraph's main point. Headings test the function of the paragraph, not a single emotional word. The sentence 'I would not call the scheme a success' shows reluctance, but the same sentence also says 'I cannot say it cost me money'. The dominant idea is the surprising financial result.
Why not C or D: both are contradicted by the evidence that takings were higher and did not cost the owner money. Word matching ('reluctant', 'cost') is the trap.
2. The candidate has 15 minutes for 9 questions. What should they do now, and what principle should guide the remaining time?
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Stop working on question 8 now. With 15 minutes and 9 questions, the candidate has about 1 minute 40 seconds per question; four minutes on one heading item has already broken that budget. They should:
- mark B and move on;
- answer every remaining item, using elimination rather than perfect certainty;
- keep 2 minutes at the end to transfer or check answers.
The guiding principle is that reading marks are lost more often by unanswered questions than by imperfect ones. A heading item should be decided on the paragraph's main idea plus contrast signals, not on repeated re-reading. If two options still seem possible, choose the one that covers the whole paragraph, not a single phrase.