Exercise 4: Multiple Choice

British & IGCSE › Cambridge IGCSE English as a Second Language (0510)

What Exercise 4 is

Exercise 4 is the last of the four reading exercises in Paper 1. You read one text, often a blog or an article, of about 550–600 words. Then you answer six multiple-choice questions, Questions 10–15. Each question has three options, A, B and C, and only one is correct. This exercise replaced the old summary-writing task when the syllabus was revised for first examination in 2024, so older revision books may not include it.

Exercise 4 looks easy because you do not have to write anything. In fact, many students lose marks here because all three options often look correct at first. The wrong options (called distractors) are written very carefully. They use words from the text, or say something true that does not answer the question, or go a little too far. This page shows you how to see through them.

The method, step by step

The key idea of this method: find your own answer in the text before you look at A, B and C. The options are designed to confuse you, so do not let them do your thinking.

1. Read the question stem only (the question without the options). Underline the key words and note any paragraph reference, e.g. 'in paragraph 3'.
2. Paraphrase the question in your own words. 'What is the writer's view of modern equipment?' = 'Does he like it, dislike it, or both? Why?'
3. Find the place in the text. The questions usually follow the order of the text: question 10 is near the beginning and question 15 near the end. A question about the whole text (e.g. 'the writer's main purpose') may come last.
4. Read the relevant sentences carefully, and the sentence before and after. The answer often depends on a word like *but*, *however*, *although* or *only*.
5. Answer in your head first. Say a short answer to yourself, e.g. 'He thinks it's useful but has made people lazy.'
6. Now read A, B and C. Choose the one that matches your own answer.
7. Eliminate. For each wrong option, find the exact reason it is wrong (see the distractor types below). If you cannot prove why two options are wrong, go back to the text.
8. Never leave a blank. There is no penalty for a wrong answer.

Why wrong options look right: the six distractor types

The question types, with worked examples

Each worked example below uses a short original extract. Try to answer in your head before you open the answer.

1. Detail. Extract: 'The library is open every day except Friday. On Saturdays it closes early, at 2 p.m., so that the staff can run free reading workshops for children in the afternoon.'

1. Why does the library close early on Saturdays? A It is closed on Fridays. B Staff run activities for children. C Fewer people visit at weekends.

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   B. 'so that the staff can run free reading workshops for children'. A is true (closed on Fridays) but answers a different question: true but not the answer. C is not mentioned: it sounds sensible, but the text never says it.

2. Writer's purpose. Extract: 'Building a habit takes time. Think of learning to ride a bike: nobody manages it on the first day, but after a few weeks you no longer think about it at all.'

1. Why does the writer mention learning to ride a bike? A to give an example that makes the main point clearer. B to suggest that cycling is a good habit. C to describe her own childhood.

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   A. The bike is an example of a habit that becomes automatic. 'Think of…' is a typical signal of an example. B uses the topic word (bike) but the writer is not recommending cycling. C is not mentioned: she says 'nobody', not 'I'.

3. Attitude / opinion. Extract: 'Online lessons are certainly convenient, and I would not want to lose them completely. Still, I find that I remember far less from a screen than from a real classroom.'

1. What is the writer's attitude to online lessons? A She thinks they should be stopped. B She has mixed feelings about them. C She prefers them to classroom lessons.

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   B. 'certainly convenient… would not want to lose them' (positive) + 'Still, I remember far less' (negative) = mixed feelings. A is too extreme and the opposite of 'would not want to lose them completely'. C is the opposite: she remembers more in a real classroom.

4. Meaning of a phrase. Extract: 'When the new manager arrived, she turned the whole system on its head. Staff who used to start at nine now started at seven, and meetings that had been weekly became daily.'

1. What does 'turned the whole system on its head' mean? A She changed it completely. B She studied it carefully. C She made it more difficult.

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   A. The following sentence explains it: start times and meetings all changed. Always read the sentence after a phrase question: it usually explains the phrase. C might seem possible (starting at seven is harder), but the phrase is about change, not difficulty. B is not supported.

5. Main idea of a paragraph (gist). Extract: 'Many people imagine desert foxes live alone. In fact, they live in family groups. Parents share the job of hunting, older cubs help to look after younger ones, and the whole family may share a den for years.'

1. What is the main idea of the paragraph? A Desert foxes are better hunters than people think. B Desert foxes are more social than many people believe. C Young desert foxes stay with their parents for life.

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   B. The paragraph contrasts 'many people imagine… alone' with 'in fact, family groups' and gives examples of sharing. A picks one detail (hunting) and changes it. C is too extreme: 'may share a den for years' does not mean for life. For gist questions, the right answer covers the WHOLE paragraph, not one detail.

6. Implied meaning. Extract: 'I checked the timetable three times, packed my bag the night before and set two alarms. Even so, I was at the station forty minutes early.'

1. What can we understand about the writer? A He was anxious about missing the train. B He usually arrives late. C The train was delayed.

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   A. Nothing says 'anxious', but checking three times, two alarms and arriving forty minutes early all show worry. B is not supported: nothing tells us about his usual habits. C is not mentioned at all.

Timing

Exercise 4 carries 6 marks. Following the time plan on the exam overview page, give it about 15 minutes: about 2 minutes to read the stems, about 2 minutes per question (including finding the place in the text and eliminating options) and a final minute to check. Because it comes last in the reading section, do not let earlier exercises steal its time.

Full practice: Listening to the wild

Set a timer for 15 minutes. Read the blog, then choose A, B or C for each question.

Listening to the wild – a blog by Adam Reyes, wildlife sound recordist

People often ask me whether I get bored. I spend most of my working life sitting completely still in places few people ever visit – a frozen lake in Finland, a mangrove swamp on the Red Sea coast, the edge of a desert at three in the morning – waiting for a sound that may never come. The honest answer is no. For me, waiting is not empty time. It is when I notice everything.

I never planned this career. At university I studied music, and I assumed I would end up teaching piano. Then, in my final year, a lecturer played us a recording of a humpback whale. Most of my classmates thought it was a pleasant curiosity and forgot about it by lunchtime. I went home and listened to it eleven times. Within a year, I had spent all my savings on a second-hand microphone and was travelling to the coast at weekends to record anything I could.

The equipment has changed enormously since then. Modern recorders are light enough to carry in a jacket pocket, and they can run for days on a single battery. This sounds like pure progress, and in many ways it is. But I sometimes worry that it has made recordists lazy. When I started, every minute of tape was precious, so you thought carefully before pressing the button. Now people leave machines running for a week and hope that something interesting turns up. They collect far more sound, but I am not convinced they listen to it any more closely.

The biggest enemy of my work is not cold, or insects, or even dangerous animals. It is human noise. Aeroplanes, distant roads and boat engines reach places you would imagine were silent. A recording that is perfect for twenty minutes can be ruined by a single plane passing overhead. Fifteen years ago, I could find long stretches of natural silence in most of the places I visited. Today, in some forests, I am lucky to get ten minutes. That is not just a problem for people like me. Many animals depend on sound to find partners or to warn each other of danger, and scientists are only beginning to understand what all this noise is doing to them.

That is why I have started sharing my recordings with researchers free of charge. A sound recording is a kind of photograph of a place at a particular moment. If a scientist can compare the sounds of a coral reef today with my recording of the same reef ten years ago, they can learn a great deal about how healthy it is. Last year, a team studying a reef in the Red Sea used three of my old recordings to show that fish numbers there were finally recovering. I never imagined that my hobby-turned-job would become useful in this way, and it is easily the most satisfying part of what I do.

Young people sometimes write to me asking how to start. My advice surprises them: don't buy anything yet. Go outside, close your eyes and spend fifteen minutes just listening. Try to name every sound you hear, and notice the ones you had stopped hearing. If you find that boring, this is probably not the job for you. If you find it fascinating, then – and only then – buy the cheapest recorder you can find. Expensive equipment will not train your ears. Only patience will.

10 In the first paragraph, what does the writer say about waiting?

• A It is the part of his job that he finds hardest.
• B It gives him the chance to pay close attention to his surroundings.
• C It happens less often in his job than people expect.

11 What does the writer suggest about his reaction to the whale recording?

• A It interested him much more than it interested other students.
• B It made him decide to leave university immediately.
• C It made him want to find out how the recording had been made.

12 What is the writer's opinion of modern recording equipment?

• A It is too expensive for most beginners.
• B It is too heavy to carry to remote places.
• C It is useful but may have encouraged bad habits.

13 What does the writer say about human noise in paragraph 4?

• A It is harder to escape than it used to be.
• B It causes him fewer problems than the cold and insects do.
• C It is the main reason why animals are disappearing from forests.

14 What does the writer mean when he calls a sound recording 'a kind of photograph of a place'?

• A It can be as beautiful as a picture of a natural place.
• B It shows what a place was like at one moment in time.
• C It should be used by scientists together with real photographs.

15 What is the main purpose of the final paragraph?

• A to describe the letters he receives from young people
• B to recommend suitable equipment for beginners
• C to suggest a way of finding out whether the job suits you

[Total: 6 marks]

1. Question 10

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   Answer: B. Evidence: 'For me, waiting is not empty time. It is when I notice everything.' *notice everything* = *pay close attention to his surroundings*. A is wrong: he says the honest answer to 'do you get bored?' is no, and never calls waiting the hardest part (this option is not mentioned). C is wrong: he spends 'most of my working life… waiting', so waiting is very common – this is the opposite.

2. Question 11

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   Answer: A. Evidence: 'Most of my classmates thought it was a pleasant curiosity and forgot about it by lunchtime. I went home and listened to it eleven times.' The contrast implies he was far more interested. B is too extreme: he bought a microphone 'within a year' and nothing says he left university, and he was in his final year anyway. C is not mentioned: he wanted to record sounds himself, but the text says nothing about how the whale recording was made.

3. Question 12

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   Answer: C. Evidence: 'This sounds like pure progress, and in many ways it is. But I sometimes worry that it has made recordists lazy.' Useful (light, long battery) + worry about habits = C. A is a 'same words' trap: the word *expensive* appears in the last paragraph, about beginners, but he never says modern equipment is too expensive. B is the opposite: modern recorders are 'light enough to carry in a jacket pocket'.

4. Question 13

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   Answer: A. Evidence: 'Fifteen years ago, I could find long stretches of natural silence… Today, in some forests, I am lucky to get ten minutes.' B is the opposite: he says the biggest enemy of his work 'is not cold, or insects, or even dangerous animals. It is human noise.' C is too extreme: scientists are 'only beginning to understand' the effect of noise on animals, so the text does not say it is the main reason animals are disappearing.

5. Question 14

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   Answer: B. Evidence: 'a kind of photograph of a place at a particular moment' + the example of comparing a reef 'today' with 'ten years ago'. A takes the phrase literally and adds beauty, which the writer does not talk about. C uses the word *photograph* and mentions scientists, but the text never says scientists use photographs as well: not mentioned.

6. Question 15

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   Answer: C. Evidence: 'Go outside, close your eyes and spend fifteen minutes just listening… If you find that boring, this is probably not the job for you.' The whole paragraph gives a test to see if the job suits you. A is true but not the purpose: he mentions that young people write to him only to introduce his advice. B is the opposite of his advice: 'don't buy anything yet', and later only 'the cheapest recorder', and he says expensive equipment will not train your ears.

Final checklist

• I read the question stem and found my own answer in the text before reading A, B and C.
• I read the sentence before and after the key line, especially words like but, however, only.
• For each wrong option, I know WHY it is wrong (same words, not mentioned, too extreme, opposite, true but not the answer, wrong person or time).
• For gist and purpose questions, my answer covers the whole paragraph, not one detail.
• I checked strong words (always, only, immediately, main) against the text.
• I answered all six questions.