verbal reasoning - colour publishing · despite the increasingly popularity of contactless card use...

Analysing the Type of Language

For True, False, Can’t Tell questions you can look at the type of language used to help you decide on the answer.

• “Seeing a product used in a popular television programme will always increase the demand for the product”

‘Will always’ is very definitive language, so the answer is more likely to be Can’t Tell or False. If the statement said ‘might’ or “sometimes’ then the answer is more likely to be True.

• “Nike running shoes are the best shoes in the sports market”

‘Best’ is again extreme language. If the statement said they are ‘one of the best’, it is less extreme and more likely to be true.

�

Examples of extreme phrases

Extreme phrases tend to be False or Can’t Tell.

“Will always”“Definitely”“Always”“Every time”“Biggest”

�

Examples of mild phrases

Mild phrases tend to be True.

“Might”“Could”“One of the (best)”“Sometimes”

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Page � ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••11UKCAT BMAT www.medicmind.co.uk Interview UCAS

Extreme Language Lesson 4

Practice 2: Extreme Language Questions


Sports in UK Schools

On 17th February 2013, at the annual Sports Conference conference, Government has been accused of "turning its back on school sport" and undermining the Olympic legacy six months after the Games.

Shadow Sports Minister Clive Efford MP told the BBC: "What has gone on in school sport is absolutely disastrous.” Education Secretary Michael Gove is expected to announce a new strategy for school sport later this month.

Efford continues: ‘We need a long-term strategy blueprint to get sport into our schools. If we don't, we're storing up a huge problem for ourselves, for the economy and for the NHS. Doing nothing isn't an option’. Despite record investment in elite and community sport, the Government has made some cuts in schools sports. Ministers say they are spending £1bn on youth sport over the next five years through Sport England.

But the government has abolished ring-fenced funding for the national School Sport Partnerships (SSPs) and ended recommendation for two hours of PE in schools each week. The SSP network enabled well-equipped 'hub' secondary schools to lend PE teachers to those that needed them, especially primary schools.

2. Two hours of PE are no longer done at any UK schools

A. TrueB. FalseC. Can’t tell

3. Michael Gove has some control over sports in schools.


Technique: Keyword Approach

You will not have the luxury of being able to read the passage. The biggest mistake students make is trying to read too much, and therefore falling heavily short of time.

We teach our students to follow the Keyword Approach:

1) Read only the first two lines of the passage.

By reading the first part of the passage you can gauge the topic of the passage, which will help you when choosing a relevant keyword. You will see the value in this later.

2) Read the question and pick a keyword

Pick a keyword from the statement or question. This keyword will help you find the information you are looking for in the passage.

3) Search for the keyword in the passage

Look for the keyword in the passage. When you find it, read from the sentence before the keyword, to the sentence after. This small section of the passage should contain your answer.

4) Eliminate the wrong answers

Knock out the wrong answers, and select the correct one.

�

Choosing a Good Keyword

• Key words should not appear all over the passage, because it won’t narrow down any information for you!

• Dates, numbers and nouns (with capitalised letters) make very good keywords because they are easy to find by visual inspection


Keyword Approach Lesson 5

• The keyword does not necessarily have to be a ‘word’. It can instead be a ‘phrase’, or a selection of two words.

�

Importance of Step 1 of the Keyword Approach

Imagine you had a passage about the growing popularity magazines. Each paragraph discussed different types of publication, such as sport magazines, travel magazines, or cooking magazines.

Your question is:

“Magazines relating to football are becoming increasingly popular”

• True • False • Can’t Tell

From the passage topic, we know that ‘magazine’ will not be a good keyword as it appears in most paragraphs. Whereas ‘football’ would be a brilliant key word.

Now reverse the situation.…

Imagine the passage was all about football. Each paragraph explored different elements of the sport, such as football on TV, local academies, football literature and magazines. In this scenario, a good keyword is ‘magazine’, and a weak keyword is ‘football’.

This shows you the value of reading the first 2 lines of the passage to gauge the general topic and help you pick the right keyword.


Keyword

Pick a keyword which doesn’t appear too often in the passage

Keywords appearing multiple times

When you find the keyword, look for the answer in the sentences around it, as per the Keyword Approach:

• If you find a reference to the question information, then you can be generally satisfied that you have found the right section of text. Choose the answer and move on.

• If you do not find a reference to the question information, then you may be inclined to choose ‘Can’t Tell’ and move on. But the keyword may appear again later on in the passage, so do a quick scan to see if there are multiple references

�

Keywords that do not appear in the passage

Sometimes the keyword will not appear in the passage. In this situation you have to assess the passage and decide on your approach appropriately.

If you believe that the answer is ‘Can’t Tell’, choose this and move on.

If you feel that the answer is still hidden somewhere, try a different approach to find it:

• Check again- if you have rushed your search, it is sometimes worth scanning the passage again for the keyword.

• Synonyms- you should search for synonyms or rephrasing of the keyword. For example, the keyword ‘holiday’ may instead appear as ‘vacation’ or ‘trip’.

• Alternative keyword- you can choose a different keyword if you are confident the passage will have a reference to the information in the question.


Practice 3: Spotting Keywords


The Final Straw for Recyclers

A waste disposal firm has stepped into the row over hard-to-recycle products by demanding a tax on plastic drinking straws.

The firm, BusinessWaste, says manufacturers should revert to old-style paper straws, which biodegrade. Plastic straws were described as "the ultimate in human wastefulness" by the firm. It follows news that the most hated products for recyclers are Pringles and Lucozade Sport. BusinessWaste's spokesman Mark Hall said: "A plastic straw has a lifespan of around 20 minutes, and then it's thrown away. "Where recycling facilities exist, most pubs and bars don't bother separating out used straws to recycle because it's fiddly, and - frankly - they've been in the mouth of a stranger. They are pretty much the ultimate in human waste, and a problem that can so easily be solved with very little effort.”

The firm suggests a 5p plastic straw tax, in the footsteps of the plastic bag tax, which has radically cut the use of single-use bags. It also takes aim at adults who use drinking straws. Mr Hall added: "Face the facts, you're not eight years old. Only kids need a straw with their fizzy pop. Why on earth do you need a straw in your Gin and Tonic?

A plastic bottle tax was considered by the government earlier in the year but abandoned after manufacturers pointed out the costs in establishing proper recycling schemes.

4. Which of the following is true?

A. Plastic straws are non-biodegradableB. Gin and Tonic is normally served with a plastic straw.C. Lucozade Sport are against the move to tax plastic strawsD. Restaurants do not re-use plastic straws.

5. The majority of people spend above £8 on a contactless transaction.


Practice 4: Spotting Keywords


The Rise of Contactless Payment

The use of contactless payments in the first half of the year outstripped use in the whole of 2015 as consumers switched from cash to cards.

Spending and the number of transactions on contactless were higher in January to June than all of last year, figures from the UK Cards Association show. Contactless now accounts for 18% of card spending - up from 7% a year ago, the data shows. The average contactless transaction is for £8.60. This suggests that marketing by the card companies to encourage the use of contactless for small retail purchases - particularly food and drink - has worked.

Use is high in London, reflecting the common use of contactless by commuters on the capital's transport system. Cash is still the most common method of payment despite the increasingly popularity of contactless card use and online shopping. "Contactless cards are firmly entrenched as the preferred way to pay for millions of consumers, who expect to be able to use them for everyday purchases," said Richard Koch, head of policy at the UK Cards Association.

The one-off spending limit on contactless cards rose from £20 to £30 in September last year, but some major retailers do not accept this method of payment. Research by Barclaycard earlier this year suggested that Britons over the age of 60 were the fastest growing group of people taking to contactless card payments.

5. The majority of people spend above £8 on a contactless transaction.


Spotting Slight Adjustments

Question statements may be very similar to phrases in the passage, and this can often trick you into choosing the wrong answer. Therefore it is essential to read the sentences around the keyword carefully, word to word, from the start to end.

Remember, you are skim reading to find the keyword. But once you have found the keyword, you are reading the sentence before to sentence after very carefully.

A good keyword would be ‘two-thirds’, bearing in mind that you may have to look out for a numerical figure. This takes us to the line ’65% of electric cars have been built with this new technology’.

You could easily fixate on the terms ’65%’ and ‘cars’, and be tricked into thinking this statement is True. However, there is a slight adjustment in the passage, because the passage discusses ‘electric cars’ whereas the statement is generic to all ‘cars’. The answer is therefore Can’t Tell.


Passage Adjustments Lesson 6

Example Passage

“The number of speeding tickets issued in the UK has grown significantly with the implementation of new technology in modern cars. The technology enables cars to accelerate much more efficiently, and often the driver does not realise the high pace they are travelling at.

Mark Watson, in the Road and Traffic Incidents Report, described his shock that ’65% of electric cars have been built with this new technology’. With the media fixation on modern safety and with widespread scrutiny of any single accident, it is becoming more important than ever to drive safely and carefully.”

Nearly two-thirds of cars have been built with the new technology discussed in the passage.


Other Examples of Passage Adjustments

�

How can I spot a Passage Adjustment?

• If you ready very carefully around the keyword, you should avoid the trap of a Passage Adjustment.

• If you see the exact same wording between statement and passage, be on the alert. In most cases the passage will have synonyms and reworded the correct answer. If the statement is ‘The annual increase in interest rates has led to…’, and the passage has the exact same wording, then there may be a slight one word adjustment.

Passage Question Statement Analysis

“2015 brought a rise in temperature in London”

“In 2015, temperatures in the UK increased’

Can’t Tell - the statement is true for London, but not the whole of the UK

“With new features such as fingerprint detection and a wider screen, the iPhone is slowly becoming one of the key dominant players in the mobile phone market”

“The iPhone has the biggest share of the market”

Can't Tell- it has a big share, but we do not know that it is the biggest

“Ristorante Pizza has a received glowing reviews in this morning’s BBC Food Blog. The blog described the quality standard of the pizza, and cited the user-friendly packaging as a big bonus”

“Ristorante Pizza has easy-to-use packaging, and iseasy to cook quickly”

Can't Tell- even though the first point is right, and the second could be plausible, we cannot be sure that it is easy to cook rapidly.



The Final Straw for Recyclers

A waste disposal firm has stepped into the row over hard-to-recycle products by demanding a tax on plastic drinking straws.

The firm, BusinessWaste, says manufacturers should revert to old-style paper straws, which biodegrade. Plastic straws were described as "the ultimate in human wastefulness" by the firm. It follows news that the most hated products for recyclers are Pringles and Lucozade Sport. BusinessWaste's spokesman Mark Hall said: "A plastic straw has a lifespan of around 20 minutes, and then it's thrown away. "Where recycling facilities exist, most pubs and bars don't bother separating out used straws to recycle because it's fiddly, and - frankly - they've been in the mouth of a stranger. They are pretty much the ultimate in human waste, and a problem that can so easily be solved with very little effort.”

The firm suggests a 5p plastic straw tax, in the footsteps of the plastic bag tax, which has radically cut the use of single-use bags. It also takes aim at adults who use drinking straws. Mr Hall added: "Face the facts, you're not eight years old. Only kids need a straw with their fizzy pop. Why on earth do you need a straw in your Gin and Tonic?

A plastic bottle tax was considered by the government earlier in the year but abandoned after manufacturers pointed out the costs in establishing proper recycling schemes.

6. There are currently no proper recycling facilities for plastic straws.

A. TrueB. FalseC. Can’t Tell

7. The government had considered enforcing a tax on plastic straws in 2017.

A. TrueB. FalseC. Can’t Tell

Introduction to Writer Questions

Writer Questions are centred around the writer’s opinion. For example:

• Which of the following would the author most likely agree with?• Which of the following does the author cite as a reason for the recession? • The author’s strongest stated opinion is…

For these questions we should only worry about the view of the author, not facts or statistics unless the writer has given an opinion on them.

�

Writer Question Approach

You can use the keyword approach again for Writer Questions. It is, however, particularly important to do step 1 thoroughly, and it is often worth reading the last few lines of the passage too:

1. Read the first two lines and last two lines of the passage to understand the general author opinion

2. Pick a keyword from the question statement

3. Search the passage to find the keyword. Read from the sentence before to the sentence after.

4. Eliminate the incorrect answers and select the correct one.

�

Finding the Conclusion of the Passage

The conclusion is the overall opinion of the passage. It can often be found at the end in the last paragraph, but the writer may also mention it in the first sentence of the passage and go on to discuss and justify the conclusion throughout the passage.


Writer Questions Lesson 7

Finding the Writer’s Strongest Opinion

• The writer’s most strongly stated opinion will tend to be found in the conclusion of the passage, so that is the best place to look.

• The strongest stated opinion may be mentioned the most number of times, or it could be a topic discussed in the most detail.

• When a question asks you for the writer’s strongest opinion, all of the options may be views held by the author. Therefore if you find a reference to statement A, for example, do not automatically assume that is the answer. You should check each option and find the strongest view.

• Ideally the strongest view will be surrounded by an indicator phrase:

‘Most important of all…’‘The most pressing issue…’‘…. is very important’

�

Timing for Writer Questions

Author questions can be quite time-consuming because to understand the writer opinion you sometimes have to read several lines. Therefore be wary not to spend too much time on them if you cannot reach the answer.


Official UKCAT Passage: Writer Questions

This question is not a Medic Mind passage, but instead an official past UKCAT Question.


Decline in Golf

The team turned up at the usual time — 9:15 on Saturday morning. Though it had rained for most of the summer, leaving the ground soft and very muddy, the course was still open for play. Under these conditions the green keepers would have normally closed the course in order to preserve the greens. However, due to the economic downturn, many ‘normal’ things no longer happen.

Golf clubs have been hit hard in these financially difficult times, with many now offering huge discounts to encourage membership. Many clubs are forced to keep the grounds open when they may have normally closed so that ‘pay and play’ members can support the club and add to the takings. More affluent clubs are surviving by diversifying and opening their facilities for private hire and various other functions and events.

Traditionally golf has always been seen as the sport for those with more time and money on their hands. It has very much been the domain of the male population, in particular those who have clinched important business deals while playing 18 holes. In more recent years it has won favour with a wide variety of people from different walks of life, and involved more women than ever before. However it is a leisure activity and when finances are tight, people are choosing not to spend large sums on membership fees and even on ‘pay and play’.

Even older retired people are feeling the pinch of financial uncertainty and golf is once again seen as a luxury that people can live without in order to save money. This is unfortunate as we have a larger population of older people than ever before. If more affordable, golf is a beneficial activity in terms of exercise and social interaction, both of which are so important to an ageing population who may suffer from loneliness and depression.

8. Which change would the author most likely make in order to increase the popularity of golf?

A. Extend opening hoursB. Returf the greenC. Reduce membership ratesD. Introduce discounts for businesses


8. Which change would the author most likely make in order to increase the popularity of golf?

A. Extend opening hoursB. Returf the greenC. Reduce membership ratesD. Introduce discounts for businesses

9. According to the passage, the author believes that golf:

A. Is accessible to everyoneB. Should be a luxuryC. Is a man’s gameD. Improves well-being

10. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A. Playing golf is now the best exercise for elderly peopleB. Playing golf is cheaper now than it ever has beenC. Fewer people play golf now than have done previouslyD. More women play golf now than businessmen

11. The author suggests that which of the following is happening as a result of the economic downturn?

A. Golf clubs are looking for alternative ways of generating incomeB. Only the more affluent golf clubs are surviving financiallyC. All the clubs are now staying open when conditions are unfit for playD. More of the population are suffering from loneliness and depression

verbal reasoning - colour publishing · despite the increasingly popularity of contactless card use...

Documents