OOPT - Oxford Online Placement Reading Comprehension Flashcards

Read the extract: "While the new congestion charge has undeniably cleared traffic from the city centre, it would be premature to hail it as a triumph; much of the displaced traffic has simply found its way onto narrow residential streets." Which statement best describes the writer's position?

Answer: The writer accepts that the charge has one benefit but doubts that it is a success overall.

"Undeniably" concedes a real benefit, and "it would be premature to hail it as a triumph" holds back full approval. The writer's view is qualified scepticism. They never call for the charge to be scrapped, so A goes too far. C reverses the writer's view. D is wrong because "premature" and "simply" both carry an evaluative tone.

Read the extract: "Researchers had expected the compound to lower blood pressure. Instead, it raised levels of a hormone that, in turn, made patients noticeably more alert. This proved far more commercially interesting." What does "This" refer to?

Answer: The unexpected effect of making patients more alert

"This" points back to the most recent idea in the previous sentence: the unplanned result that patients became more alert. The compound did not lower blood pressure ("Instead"), so B describes something that never happened. The expectation (A) and the hormone on its own (C) are not what turned out to be commercially interesting. The surprising outcome was.

Read the extract: "Granted, remote working spares employees a draining daily commute. Yet the chance corridor conversations that so often spark innovation rarely survive the transition to scheduled video calls." What is the function of the first sentence?

Answer: It acknowledges an opposing point before the writer's main argument is made.

"Granted" signals a concession: the writer admits an advantage of remote work. "Yet" then introduces the point the writer actually wants to make, that innovation suffers. The first sentence therefore concedes a point before the main argument. It is not the thesis (B), and it works against the second sentence rather than supporting it (C).

Read the extract: "Pressed by journalists on the timing of the tax reforms, the minister's reply was studiously vague, offering neither dates nor figures." In this context, "studiously" is closest in meaning to:

Answer: deliberately

"Studiously" here means done with careful intent, so the minister was vague on purpose. "Academically" (A) is a false friend based on 'study'. "Carelessly" (B) is the opposite, because studious vagueness is calculated. "Admirably" (D) adds approval that the context does not support.

Read the extract: "Of the twelve applicants, only those with previous overseas experience were shortlisted, although not all of them were." Which statement MUST be true according to the extract?

Answer: Every shortlisted applicant had previous overseas experience.

"Only those with overseas experience were shortlisted" means nobody without that experience made the shortlist, so every shortlisted applicant had it. The clause "although not all of them were" directly contradicts A. Nothing in the extract tells us how many applicants had the experience (C) or how many were shortlisted (D).

Read the extract: "The 'express' service took a leisurely four hours to cover the ninety miles to the coast, pausing at stations that most passengers had never heard of." What is the writer suggesting by putting 'express' in quotation marks?

Answer: That the label is ironic, because the service was anything but fast.

Scare quotes, together with "leisurely", the four-hour journey for ninety miles and the stops at obscure stations, show that the writer is mocking the name. The service did not live up to the 'express' label. No company or passenger is mentioned (A, B), and the details point to a slow journey, not a fast one (C).