How to succeed in EPSO verbal reasoning tests, volume 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. About the author
3. Summary of methods and strategies
3.1. Overview on EPSO verbal tests
3.2. Methods to solve verbal reasoning questions
3.3. Strategies to improve your performance
4. Sample questions
5. Analysing and solving questions
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Exercise 5
Exercise 6
Exercise 7
Exercise 8
Exercise 9
Exercise 10
Exercise 11
Exercise 12
Exercise 13
Exercise 14
Exercise 15
Exercise 16
Exercise 1 7
Exercise 18
Exercise 19
Exercise 20
6. Conclusions and recommendations
Appreciation to the reader
1. INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this book is to help prepare verbal reasoning tests for
competitions or selection procedures, especially those ones organised by the
European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO), like Administrators (AD),
Assistants (AST), and contract agents (CAST), to get a job in the EU
institutions.
The book is a follow-up to our first guide on this subject, but can be used
independently. However, we recommend the acquisition of the first book in
order to revise and practise different methods to solve these exercises, some
considerations on the language that you should choose for this test, and all
details about EPSO verbal reasoning tests, which we will not repeat here,
with the purpose of offering only fresh content to our readers. We will only
present a brief reminder about these EPSO tests, the methods that we
analysed in the previous book, and a review of our strategies to improve your
performance.
For this reason, we will dedicate the core part of this book to show and study
in detail a new series of sample exercises, carefully selected and very close to
the ones that we usually find in the actual exams.
Again, after my long experience in teaching and coaching, I consider that,
instead of a large amount of exercises with a quite short explanation of each
solution, as you can find in other handbooks and platforms (which are good
to practise when you feel more confident), it is much more effective, in order
to reach a full understanding for many candidates with difficulties in quick
reading or text analysis, to focus on a smaller number of exercises and
explain each one in depth, guiding you step-by-step along the process –
mental and technical – that will allow you to get to the right answer of every
question .
Our main goal with this second book is to increase your reading and
comprehension speed, together with your ability to detect keywords in the
text passages and answer options. Besides, we will offer new tips and tools,
as well as potential ‘shortcuts’, to facilitate your task of solving the exercises
as fast as possible. All this will raise your marks, making you achieve top
scores in verbal reasoning tests.
In the last part of the book, I will summarise my conclusions and
recommendations about these tests, with the aim of easing your study and
review.
Finally, I encourage you to devote enough time and effort to prepare your
selection procedures. No professional success of your life will be comparable
to the satisfaction and excitement of passing an open competition, and getting
a job at the public administration.
I wish my readers the best of luck.
2. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
He is an economist and official at the public administration in Spain, having

held several positions as a head of unit from 2009 to the present, mostly in
the areas of human resources, finance, programme management, law
enforcement and general administration.
He has been a successful candidate in numerous tests of the highly
competitive EPSO Administrators' cycle – reasoning tests, intermediate tests,
and assessment centre interviews, and in various EPSO CAST profiles.
He has also worked as a national expert at the European Commission,
provided training to civil servants, and coached many candidates for the
EPSO reasoning tests, helping them improve their verbal, numerical and
abstract thinking abilities.
3. SUMMARY OF METHODS AND STRATEGIES
3.1. Overview on EPSO verbal tests

The verbal reasoning tests of the competitions organised by EPSO are aimed
at measuring the reading comprehension and verbal deduction skills of the
candidates. These skills imply making inferences and drawing logical
conclusions to pick up the right answer of each question. The topics of the
questions are really diverse, probably in line with their ultimate goal:
checking the ability of the future EU Administrators or Assistants to quickly
interpret reports and documents of a wide variety of matters in which they
could work throughout their professional career.
These verbal reasoning tests, according to the information provided by
EPSO, are addressed to evaluate “your ability to think logically and
understand verbal, numerical information”. The mention of ‘numerical
information’ here means that you can expect to find some figures or
percentages to interpret in verbal questions too [1] .
As we already know, these tests are Computer-Based Tests (CBT), with the
format of Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ), so you need to find out which
is the right answer from the options provided – only one of them being
correct. The verbal reasoning test is usually composed of 20 questions and
lasts 35 minutes, with a pass-mark of 10/20, for generalists’ competitions
(AD and AST) and CAST calls. Of course, we should pay attention to every
particular notice of competition or call that we are going to apply for, to
check if some other conditions or pass-marks are established.
3.2. Methods to solve verbal reasoning questions
There are two basic methods that we can follow:
- A natural approach, which consists in start reading the text passage,
then read the standard question, and finally read the answer options.
- A ‘reverse’ approach, which entails starting by reading first the
standard question (to verify if we are looking for the correct or
incorrect answer), then immediately the answer options, making
mental notes of their keywords, and finally read the text, to check
which alternatives we can eliminate and select the response most in
accordance with the information provided.
This second approach also offers an interesting variation that involves
dividing your task into the four options: you read only the first option,
take mental note of its keywords, and go directly to the text to check
whether it is correct or not. Then you repeat the process with the other
options. This variation is helpful for many candidates when they feel
they cannot take mental notes of all the keywords of the four options,
which can be challenging in a lot of questions indeed.
As we saw in our previous book, both methods have their advantages,
allowing you to get a little familiar with the theme of the excerpt, or making
you save some time and quickly eliminate one or more of the answer options.
There is also a ‘combined’ method, which we recommended practising too,
divided in the following steps: (1) a quick read of the first few lines of the
text, to get at least an outline of the subject; (2) reading and checking each
answer option separately against the text passage, by using the scanning
technique, to delete the incorrect or incompatible ones; and (3) picking up the
right option .
You should also take into account the particular competition or call that you
are applying for and its conditions, in order to prioritise your speed and try to
get one of the highest scores at all costs, or to ensure getting the pass-mark
that you need to move forward to the next round.
In any case, we recommended trying all these methods to see which one
gives better results in your particular case.
3.3. Strategies to improve your performance
We summarise below some techniques from our previous book that could be
helpful to develop your performance in this type of tests:
- You should only consider correct the statement that is fully proven
by the information in the excerpt . Be aware of statements with
insufficient information or ‘cannot say’ statements. Some of them
are especially confusing for candidates, because they are ‘correct’ if
you use general and common knowledge outside the text, so you
have a natural instinct to agree with these statements.
- Be careful with topics that are familiar to you , because of your
studies or professional experience: you will face the trap of having to
leave apart any previous knowledge outside the text.
- Highlight the keywords that take the meaning of a statement to a

extreme point, that is to say, not admitting any exceptions : e.g.,
“always”, ”never”, “all”, “none”… For this reason, they are more
likely to be incorrect.
- Pay attention to keywords that limit the scope of the information
provided in the text passage, for example: particular, specific,
various, certain… You should avoid making assumptions on a larger
group that the one specified in the text (generalisation).
- Be alert to similar, but not exact, expressions and meanings, as well

as adjectives and adverbs like “some”/”any”, “hardly”/”mostly”,
“not many”/”quite a few”, “sometimes”/”often”,
“partially”/”completely” and others.
- Avoid pitfalls on over-specification (provision of additional
information not confirmed in the passage), even if the added data
seems logical.
- Look at the answer options with ‘fresh eyes’ , that is, not expecting
that they always match your own conclusions from the text passage.
- Do not presume a cause-and-effect relationship just because two
facts are presented together or in chronological order.
- Do not forget to check the standard question : even though the vast
majority of EPSO verbal reasoning tests ask you to select the correct
or true answer, we cannot completely dismiss the possibility of
finding a question about choosing the incorrect or false statement.
- Be aware of time management : if we must solve 20 questions in 35

minutes, then we have 1 minute and 45 seconds per question. We
can check how our progress is going; for example, we should have
responded the question number 10 having at least 17 minutes and 30
seconds remaining before the end of the exam.
- Always answer all questions : remember that there is no negative
marking for incorrect answers in this test, so it is a must to answer all
the questions, even if we had only a few seconds left and were
forced to do it almost randomly.
- Practise as much as you can , by using different materials and
sources, sticking to the time, and simulating exam conditions as far
as possible.
- Read a lot about a wide variety of themes (EU news, history, science,
art, technology, economy, psychology, medicine…), and especially
unfamiliar matters to you.
- Summarise articles and news in two or three sentences to train your
brain in extracting the main ideas of text passages with a similar
extension to the ones in verbal reasoning tests.
Apart from these important tips from our previous manual, we will add new
techniques and tools in the last chapter of this book.
4. SAMPLE QUESTIONS
In this chapter, we are going to initially provide the questions and answer
options as you will find them at the actual test, that is, without any comment
or tip from us, so you can try to solve them on your own. Later, after reading
our solutions, this part will also allow you to practise again by repeating the
exercises from time to time.
We are going to present very similar questions to the ones used by EPSO in
their sample tests and actual exams. For the purpose of our book, we consider
essential to show you, step by step, how to analyse and solve this kind of
questions.
In other manuals and platforms, like the ones we already mentioned, you can
find a large number of exercises from different styles and authors, which is
really convenient to practise as much as possible.
In our book, we prefer to focus on fewer questions instead, in order to explain
in a more detailed manner – thinking of the candidates with a particular
difficulty to face these tests – how to apply our method and the mental
process that will guide the reader to reach the solutions in the fastest and
safest way.
It is now your time to take action.
We recommend following this plan, in order to make the most of your
practice and learning:
- First you should try to answer the 20 questions provided in 35
minutes, meeting the time restriction of the EPSO test. Do not look
at the solutions yet.
- After a few days, try to solve again the same 20 questions on your
own without time limit, that is, using all the time you need.
- Then, you can read our solutions and explanations.
- Finally, after one month or so practising with other materials and
platforms to put into practice our tips and recommendations, you can
repeat this test to check your progress.
Notes : We will indicate the source of each text passage in brackets. These
sources can be helpful for you to practise your reading in a variety of topics.
Exercise 1
Kamala Harris plays Wordle as a “brain cleanser” between official
duties and has never failed to guess the five-letter word of the day, but
cannot share successes with friends because her official phone does not
let her send text messages. The vice-president discussed her love for the
online game designed by Welsh-born Josh Wardle in an interview with
the Ringer. “I have 100%,” she said, “and I intend to keep it that way.”
She also said her winning streak was just 48, because “it got messed up
when it got moved over to the New York Times”. Wardle designed
Wordle for his partner. The Times bought it in January for a price “in
the low seven figures”. Players of Wordle are given six chances to guess
one five-letter word a day, coloured squares indicating letters in the right
slot or contained in the word elsewhere. ( The Guardian )
Which of the following statements is correct?
A) Josh Wardle designed Wordle for his partner, who loved online word
games.
B) The vice-president’s official phone is probably blocked from sending
text messages due to security restrictions.
C) Kamala Harris has won more than 48 consecutive games in Wordle.
D) The price paid by The New York Times to buy Wordle was between 10
and 15 million.
Exercise 2
After eight long months of empty seats, we will welcome our audience in
the theatres in June in the Czech Republic. However, we are still
experimenting with the digital formats for the theatre and thus also
international public can still attend several of them:
- The English and German subtitles are available for our experimental
project Eyewitness by the director Jiří Havelka - a set of witness
testimonies reflecting the historical responsibility of common people for
major historic events;
- The English version of an audio-performance You in My House for two
spectators and an apartment by Jiří Austerlitz;
- English and French version of video performance For Beauty by director
Daniel Špinar is online and will be also presented in the frame of hybrid
- partly live/partly online festival of the Czech theatre Fais un saut a
Prague this June in Paris.
Currently, we are hosting two Belarussion playwrights at the creative
residency in Prague and preparing the Handout of contemporary of
Belarussian drama in English as well. ( European Theatre Convention )
A) According to the announcement, there are at least four performances in
digital format still available for the international public.
B) The experimental project Eyewitness by the director Jiří Havelka is
available in English and German, in addition to his native Czech.
C) One of the performances will be presented in June outside Prague.
D) All the performances mentioned in the announcement have in common
that they are available in English version or subtitles.
Exercise 3
Estonia's recent tightening of anti-money laundering measures to flush
illicit crypto financiers out of its market is leading neighbors Latvia and
Lithuania to strengthen their regulatory demands on crypto companies.
Tallinn’s earlier loose laws had led to a buildup of opaque shell
companies within its fast-growing crypto sector. Riga and Vilnius are
now concerned that any shady actors fleeing the Estonian clampdown
could simply ship their business across the border to profit from their
weaker regulatory regimes. However, the industry has warned that
national crackdowns will make it harder for companies to navigate
Europe. Not to mention there's an EU bill designed to regulate the bloc's
crypto market that could come into force in a few years' time, which will
replace the Baltic laws. But Latvian and Lithuanian policymakers aren’t
willing to wait given the Baltic’s checkered past of dirty money scandals
— especially in Estonia, which is undergoing an international routine
audit on its dirty money safeguards. ( politico.eu )
A) Latvia and Lithuania are afraid that, if they do not strengthen their
regulatory framework now, any dubious agents in the crypto sector could
come from Estonia.
B) The potential new laws of the Baltic countries on crypto market will
probably be pointless, due to the incoming EU regulation on the same
subject.
C) The industry alerted to the consequences of national restrictions for the
free competition.
D) The ongoing audit on dirty money safeguards in Estonia is one of the
reasons of the country’s recent tightening of anti-money laundering
measures.
Exercise 4
Take an evening walk on 17th Cross Road in Bengaluru’s HSR Layout
district, and you bump into tech types stepping out of their startup’s
office and into one of the local microbreweries. They might work for
Udaan (e-commerce), Vedantu (education technology) or another of the
growing herd of private startups valued at $1bn, whose proliferation in
the area has prompted locals to dub it “Unicorn Street”. That name
might be outdated, says Mohit Yadav, co-founder Bolt.Earth, a unicorn
wannabe housed in the MyGate building. “Unicorn neighbourhood”
would be more apt, he chuckles. HSR Layout was not always the startup
hub of Bengaluru, itself the startup capital of India. Five years ago
Koramangala, a few kilometres to the north, was the place to be—until
rising office prices pushed out new startups. The fact that young firms
are beginning to eye an ever-wider region to set up shop hints that
Bengaluru is maturing as a venue for ambitious technologists. The city is
home to 26 unicorns, and last year attracted $13bn in venture capital. (
The Economist )
A) Koramangala, a district in the north of Bengaluru, India, was the startup
hub of the city five years ago.
B) The increasing number of startups valued at $1bn in the area of 17th
Cross Road is the reason why locals nickname it “Unicorn Street”.
C) The 26 unicorns in the city attracted an average of $2bn in venture
capital.
D) Some of the unicorns mentioned in the article are Udaan, Vedantu, and
Bolt.Earth.
Exercise 5
In 1519, Hernan Cortes and his band of some 600 conquistadors began
their audacious assault on the Aztec Empire. By 1521, the Aztec capital
city of Tenochtitlan was in ashes, Emperor Montezuma was dead and the
Spanish were firmly in control of what they took to calling "New Spain."
Along the way, Cortes and his men collected thousands of pounds of
gold, silver, jewels and priceless pieces of Aztec art. What became of this
unimaginable treasure? For the Spanish, the concept of wealth was
simple: it meant gold and silver, preferably in easily negotiable bars or
coins. For the Aztecs and their allies, it was more complicated. They used
gold and silver but primarily for ornaments, decorations, plates, and
jewelry. The Aztecs prized other things far above gold: they loved
brightly colored feathers, preferably from quetzals or hummingbirds.
They would make elaborate cloaks and headdresses out of these feathers
and it was a conspicuous display of wealth to wear one. ( ThoughtCo )
A) Wearing cloaks and headdresses with coloured feathers was a way to
show off in Aztec society.
B) The Spanish took a little more than three years to conquer Tenochtitlan
and control “New Spain”.
C) The Aztecs used gold and silver mainly for ornaments, decorations,
plates, and jewelry, and only secondarily for payments.
D) The Aztecs valued gold and silver equally and below the brightly
coloured feathers from quetzals or hummingbirds.
Exercise 6
The Commission adopted today its Partnership Agreement with
Germany, laying down Germany's investment strategy for more than
€20 billion in cohesion funding for the period 2021-2027. The cohesion
funds will continue to support German regions in promoting economic,
social and territorial cohesion, supporting key EU priorities such as the
green and digital transition. The funds will contribute to the country's
competitive, innovative and sustainable growth. The Partnership
Agreement covers 3 cohesion policy funds: the European Regional and
Development Fund - ERDF; the European Social Fund Plus - ESF+; the
Just Transition Fund – JTF; as well as the European Maritime Fisheries
and Aquaculture Fund - EMFAF. The Partnership Agreement with
Germany paves the way for 52 operational programmes to start
implementation on the ground: 31 regional, 2 national and 19
INTERREG programmes. Each of the 16 federal states (“Bundesland”)
in Germany manages a separate ERDF and ESF+ programme, with the
exception of Lower Saxony, which has opted for a combined
ERDF/ESF+ programme. Moreover, two programmes will be
implemented at the federal level: the EMFAF programme and a separate
nation-wide ESF+ programme. ( EU Press corner )
A) The Just Transition Fund is specifically aimed to a key EU priority such
as the green and digital transition.
B) The four funds mentioned in the article cover the full aid that Germany
will receive in the period 2021-2027, unless the Partnership Agreement is
modified.
C) There will be 15 separate ESF+ programmes in total in Germany.
D) The ERDF, the ESF+, and the JTF are cohesion policy funds included in
the Partnership Agreement with Germany for the period 2021-2027.
Exercise 7
Christie’s has unveiled an abstract painting by Jackson Pollock featuring
the postwar painter’s signature ‘drip’ style that will be auctioned next
month. Number 31 (1949) will hit the block during an evening sale in New
York on May 12 dedicated to art produced in the 20th century. It is
expected to fetch a price in excess of $45 million and will be offered
without a guarantee. Pollock completed the work, which stands at 31-by-
22-inches, in 1949, during a formative time in his career when he
produced a series of drip paintings. The works would make him a
standard bearer of abstract expressionism and derive from a period that
commands the artist’s top auction prices. The present lot was included in
retrospectives dedicated to Pollock in 1967 and again in 1998 both at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York. If the present work reaches its
high estimate, it will be among the top four works by the artist sold at
auction. ( ARTnews )
A) Jackson Pollock’s paintings are easily identifiable by the ‘drip’ style of
their signature.
B) Number 31 will hit the block, setting a new record for the artist at
auction, if it reaches its expected price over $45 million.
C) This work and other drip paintings during a formative time in his career
derive from a period that dominates his top auction prices.
D) This will be the third auction of the present lot, after the previous two in
1967 and 1998 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Exercise 8
Croatia’s capital and largest city, Zagreb, has a rich history, impressive
architecture, multiple cultural spaces, and excellent connectivity, so it
deserves to be one of Europe’s favourite destinations for a great value
city break. The licitarsko srce – a gingerbread heart decorated with red
and white icing – is Zagreb’s best known souvenir, a sweet treat with a
long history. Traditionally these biscuits were baked as tokens of love
and friendship. They are made from honey dough and were sold at fairs
at festival times. Now you can buy them in Zagreb year-round, though
the biggest quantities are made and sold around Valentine’s Day. These
gingerbread hearts are considered to be such an important aspect of
Croatia’s culture that UNESCO has given them Intangible Cultural
Heritage status. ( The Travel Magazine )
A) Zagreb is today one of Europe’s favourite destinations because of its rich
history and multiple cultural spaces, among other reasons.
B) The gingerbread heart known as licitarsko srce is today considered to
have a relevant role in Croatia’s cultural heritage.
C) The gingerbread hearts are sold in Zagreb throughout the year, but the
best qualities are made around Valentine’s Day and festival times.
D) These biscuits were traditionally baked as tokens of love and friendship,
but in our days are mostly sold as souvenirs.
Exercise 9
With its durability and transfixing swirl of translucent amber and brown
layers, tortoiseshell has been used for centuries to make everything from
jewelry to combs to dishware. Tortoiseshell almost exclusively comes
from the critically endangered hawksbill turtle. Between 1884 and 1992,
at least nine million hawksbills were killed and sold for their shells.
Today, fewer than 25,000 breeding females remain globally, and its
international commercial trade is banned. Tortoiseshell is widely and
accurately replicated with resin, making it difficult to tell real from fake.
The turtle conservation group SEE Turtles is leading an effort to use
modern technology to combat the illicit trade of this age-old material.
SEE Turtles, with partners at the Smithsonian OCIO Data Science Lab,
built an app to help. Named SEE Shell, the app uses machine learning to
identify with 94 percent accuracy whether a photo of something with a
tortoiseshell pattern is real or faux. It’s the first mobile app to use
computer vision to combat the illegal wildlife trade. ( National
Geographic )
A) Before 1884, there was no commercial trade of hawksbill turtles yet,
because tortoiseshell was not so popular.
B) Between 1884 and 1992, an annual average of more than 80.000
hawkbills were killed and sold for their shells.
C) In spite of the ban on international commercial exchange, illicit trade
continues because it is difficult to accurately replicate tortoiseshell in
certain products.
D) SEE Shell is the first mobile app to use machine learning to combat the
illegal wildlife trade.
Exercise 10
Scientists have published the first complete, gapless sequence of a human
genome, two decades after the Human Genome Project produced the
first draft human genome sequence. According to researchers, having a
complete, gap-free sequence of the roughly 3 billion bases (or "letters")
in our DNA is critical for understanding the full spectrum of human
genomic variation and for understanding the genetic contributions to
certain diseases. The work was done by the Telomere to Telomere (T2T)
consortium, which included leadership from researchers at the National
Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National
Institutes of Health; University of California, Santa Cruz; and
University of Washington, Seattle. NHGRI was the primary funder of
the study. Analyses of the complete genome sequence will significantly
add to our knowledge of chromosomes, including more accurate maps
for five chromosome arms, which opens new lines of research. This helps
answer basic biology questions about how chromosomes properly
segregate and divide. The T2T consortium used the now-complete
genome sequence as a reference to discover more than 2 million
additional variants in the human genome. ( Science Daily )
A) The National Human Genome Research Institute was the founder of the
Telomere to Telomere (T2T) consortium.
B) The T2T consortium included researchers from at least four different
institutes and universities.
C) The analysis of the complete genome sequence will add significant
knowledge and accuracy to our maps of chromosomes, finishing several
lines of investigation.
D) It took scientists two decades to publish the complete sequence of the
roughly 3 billion bases in our DNA, since the production of the first draft
human genome sequence.
Exercise 11
People using self-driving cars will be allowed to watch television on built-
in screens under proposed updates to the Highway Code. The changes
will say drivers must be ready to take back control of vehicles when
prompted, the government said. The first use of self-driving technology
is likely to be when travelling at slow speeds on motorways, such as in
congested traffic. However, using mobile phones while driving will
remain illegal. No self-driving cars are currently allowed on UK roads,
but the first vehicles capable of driving themselves could be ready for use
later this year, the Department for Transport (DfT) said. The planned
changes to the code are expected to come in over the summer. The
updates, proposed following public consultation, were described as an
interim measure to support the early adoption of the technology and a
full regulatory framework is planned to be implemented by 2025. They
will also lay out that users of self-driving cars will not be responsible for
crashes. Instead insurance companies, not individuals, will be liable for
claims in many circumstances, the DfT said. ( BBC News/ Technology )
A) Using mobile phones while driving is currently legal, provided that
hands-free devices are utilised.
B) The new full regulatory framework has been postponed until 2025 to
allow the public consultation process.
C) Under the new Highway Code, users of self-driving cars will not be
responsible for crashes: insurance companies will be liable for claims in
all circumstances.
D) Watching television on built-in screens in self-driving cars is currently
not allowed on UK roads.
Exercise 12
The fact that diet can impact an individual’s health is well acknowledged
by healthcare providers worldwide. People who have access to adequate
nutrition are more likely to have strong immune systems, safer
pregnancy and childbirth, lower risk of diabetes and cardiovascular
disease, and they live longer. The reasons for this are myriad, complex,
and not yet well understood. Some research has shown that a diet rich in
added sugars, saturated and trans fats and excess sodium may induce
chronic inflammation — an underlying risk factor in the development of
heart disease, type 2 diabetes, poor gut health, and other chronic
diseases. Likewise, the American Heart Association recently made diet
and lifestyle recommendations that included a diet rich in fruits,
vegetables, whole grains, legumes, low-fat dairy, and plant-based or lean
animal protein to support cardiovascular health. Experts think that this
diet supports good health through its potential to reduce harmful risk
factors of cardiovascular disease, including inflammation, elevated
cholesterol, high blood pressure, and poor sleep. ( Medical News Today )
A) Some research has shown that a diet low in sugars, saturated fats and
sodium protects against heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and poor gut
health.
B) The reasons for the impact of diet on individual’s health are all well
known by healthcare providers worldwide.
C) Experts think that a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes,
low-fat dairy, and plant-based or lean animal protein supports good
health.
D) Some harmful risk factors of cardiovascular disease are sedentary
lifestyle, elevated cholesterol, and high blood pressure.
Exercise 13
A paper published last month by researchers in Spain documents the
effects of an online math tutoring program provided for about 175
socioeconomically disadvantaged students 12 to 15 years old in Madrid
and Catalonia in the spring of 2021, when schools had reopened after
COVID-19 shutdowns. The tutors were math teachers who’d undergone
15-20 hours of additional training in skills that included tutoring
techniques. Each tutor worked with groups of two students for eight
weeks. After school, when students were at home, they went online to
connect with their tutors for three 50-minute sessions per week. They
worked on math skills and concepts, but the tutors also helped students
build good work routines and supported their emotional well-being. The
researchers found that compared to a control group, students in the
tutoring program had higher standardized test scores and grades, and
were less likely to repeat a grade. They also were more likely to report
putting increased effort into their schoolwork. Researchers estimated
that the rise in the students’ grades was equivalent to the bump that six
additional months of learning would produce. ( Education Week )
A) The tutoring program provided for disadvantaged students included math
skills, study routines, and support to physical and mental well-being.
B) Each student under this programme had 1200 minutes of online tutoring
in total.
C) In comparison with the rest of the students of their schools, students in
the tutoring program were less likely to repeat a grade and more likely to
put increased effort into their tasks.
D) The progress in the students’ grades was sufficient to compensate six
months of the lost time in learning.
Exercise 14
A ridge etched into the ice sheet of Greenland provides an unexpected
hint that plentiful pockets of water may be trapped just underneath the
surface of Jupiter's ice-covered moon Europa, one of the solar system's
likeliest candidates to host microbial life. The surface of Europa, one of
Jupiter's four main moons, is covered with a 15-mile-thick (20
kilometers) ice crust, underneath which scientists believe an ocean
swashes. The ice crust is latticed with so-called double ridges, pairs of
long parallel raised lines with a vale in between, as much as hundreds of
miles or kilometers long. But there might be scientific promises much
closer to the frozen moon's surface, according to a new study that found
similarities between processes shaping the surface of the distant moon
and Earth's own icy Greenland. A recent analysis of satellite images
revealed that a strikingly similar ridge formed in the ice sheet covering
Greenland about 10 years ago. "This is the first time that we've seen a
double ridge like this on Earth," Riley Culberg, a lead author of the new
study, told Space.com. ( Space.com )
Which of the following statements is incorrect?
A) Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, is covered with an ice crust that could
contain an ocean underneath.
B) A double ridge like this had never been seen on Earth before the finding
in the ice sheet of Greenland.
C) If plentiful pockets of water were trapped underneath its surface, as
scientists believe, Europa is likely to host microbial life.
D) Double ridges in the ice crust with a vale in between are a good sign of
the potential existence of water below.
Exercise 15
On Sunday, 18-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz won the Miami Open,
beating Casper Ruud in the final to become the youngest winner of the
tournament in its 37-year history. After winning his first Masters 1000
title, Alcaraz was congratulated by his country's most famous tennis
player — 21-time grand slam winner Nadal, who earned his "King of
Clay" moniker due to his dominance on Roland Garros' red stuff.
"Many congratulations Carlitos for your historic triumph in Miami,"
Nadal wrote on Twitter. "The first of many to come, for sure." Alcaraz
was also lauded by Spain's King Felipe VI. "I was more nervous for that
call than the match," a smiling Alcaraz said after winning the Miami
Open. "It's pretty amazing that the Spanish king congratulates you on
the hard work that you put every day and your win. It's something that
you never thought you were going to receive, a Spanish king call. It's
amazing." ( CNN/ Sports )
A) Nadal congratulated Alcaraz for his Miami Open title, which had also
been won previously by Nadal, but being older than Alcaraz.
B) Carlos Alcaraz, a young tennis player from Murcia, Spain, beated the
Norwegian Casper Ruud to become the youngest winner of the Miami
Open tournament in its history.
C) Despite his short tennis career, Alcaraz has already won some Masters
1000 titles, but never the Miami Open.
D) The young winner, Carlitos, never expected to receive one day a call
from the Spain’s King.
Exercise 16
Keeping our eyes focused on what we reach for, whether it be an item at
the grocery store or a ground ball on the baseball field, may appear
seamless, but, in fact, is due to a complex neurological process involving
intricate timing and coordination. In a newly published study in the
journal Nature , a team of researchers sheds additional light on the
machinations that ensure we don't look away from where we are
reaching. The work centers on a form of coordinated looking and reach
called "gaze anchoring" — the temporary stoppage of eye movements in
order to coordinate reaches. "Our results show that we anchor our gaze
to the target of the reach movement, thereby looking at that target for
longer periods," explains Bijan Pesaran, a professor at NYU's Center for
Neural Science and one of the paper's authors. "This is what makes our
reaches much more accurate.” The study, conducted with Maureen
Hagan, a neuroscientist at Australia's Monash University, explores the
frequently studied but not well understood process of gaze anchoring. (
Science Daily )
A) The process of gaze anchoring, or the temporary stoppage of eye
movements to coordinates reaches, is more complex than it may seem.
B) Maureen Hagan, one of the study’s authors, is a neuroscientist at
Australia's Monash University.
C) The professor at NYU’s Center for Neural Science has a different
opinion than the neuroscientist at Australia’s Monash University.
D) It is more complex to keep our eyes focused on an item at the grocery
store than on a ground ball on the baseball field.
Exercise 17
The language sciences have for a long time assumed that the sound of a
word should tell us nothing about what it means. This is meant to explain
why different languages often use very different sound patterns to
express the same meaning. For example, the perennial woody plant that
we refer to in English as “tree” is “ Baum ” in German, “ arbre” in
French, and “shù” ( 樹 ) in Mandarin Chinese. Of course, languages
contain onomatopoeia such as beep, bang and buzz – but many scholars,
like Steven Pinker, have argued that such sound-meaning relations are
mere exceptions that prove the rule. However, as language scientists
have looked more closely at the world’s more than 7,000 languages, they
have discovered that sound symbolism is no rare exception but arises in
many shapes and forms. For example, if you pick a language at random
that has the concept of “red”, the corresponding word is more likely than
not to have an “r” sound in it — such as “ rød ” in Danish, “ rouge ” in
French, and “ krasnyy ” ( красный ) in Russian. This doesn’t mean that
an “r” sound always means “red”, only that words for red often have “r”
sounds in them the world over. ( The Conversation )
A) An “r” sound in a word for a colour usually means that the colour is
“red”, if you pick a language that has this concept of “red”.
B) It is more likely than not to have an “r” sound in the words for red.
C) Onomatopoeia implies sound-meaning relations, which are mere
exceptions in the world’s more than 7,000 languages.
D) It is easier to learn a language with many onomatopoeic words than with
few.
Exercise 18
Representation in film and television is something that so many people
have been striving for decades now. There’s still work to be done within
the industry to ensure that diverse experiences are being portrayed on
screen, but Hollywood has made strides in recent years. The deaf
community is such a group that has experienced an increase in visibility
over the years, which has been a true joy to witness. Viewers have gotten
to see some incredible movie and TV characters played by deaf actors,
plenty of stellar performances. Looking back at one of these truly
fantastic characters, it’s honestly hard not to think about Sarah Norman
from Randa Haines’ 1986 romance, Children of a Lesser God , and the
person who brought the character to life on screen – Marlee Matlin, then
aged 21. This film was actually the actress’ first movie role, and it earned
her an Oscar for Best Actress, making her the first deaf performer to
even win an Academy Award. ( Cinema Blend )
A) Many people have been striving for decades to play good characters in
film and television, although this is harder for deaf actors.
B) The deaf community has raised its visibility in film over time, which
allowed viewers to enjoy amazing characters played by deaf actresses,
like the Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin.
C) Randa Haines was the character played by Marlee Matlin in the film
Children of a Lesser God .
D) Marlee Matlin was the first deaf performer to win an Academy Award,
and the youngest winner in the Best Actress category.
Exercise 19
Japan has one of the oldest national anthems in the world. ‘Kimigayo’ is
the country’s single-verse national anthem, based on the words of a
classical Japanese waka poem written by an unknown author during
Japan’s Heian period (794–1185). As well as being one of the oldest
known national anthems, it is also the world’s shortest, standing at just a
single verse. The melody for the Japanese national anthem today uses
music composed by court composers Yoshiisa Oku and Akimori
Hayashi, arranged by the German composer Franz Eckert in 1880. The
title of the anthem is usually translated as ‘His Imperial Majesty’s
Reign’ and the short hymn really is about the worship of Japan’s
emperor, wishing their reign to be a long and prosperous one. As a
result, it’s shrouded in controversy. Many in Japan and other Asian
countries raise an eyebrow at the song’s association with militarism, and
the virtual worship of the emperor encouraged by its lyrics. ( Classic fm )
A) Japan has not only the second oldest national anthem, but also the
world’s shortest, standing at just a single verse.
B) All Japanese people unreservedly support the lyrics of their national
anthem.
C) Japan had the oldest national anthem in the world until its melody was
arranged by a German composer in 1880.
D) ‘Kimigayo’, the title of the anthem, is usually translated as ‘His Imperial
Majesty’s Reign’.
Exercise 20
Guinness World Records – originally the Guinness Book of Records –
the ultimate authority on record-breaking achievements, started out as
an idea for a book of facts to solve arguments in pubs. The idea came
about in the early 1950’s when Sir Hugh Beaver (1890- 1967), Managing
Director of the Guinness Brewery, attended a shooting party in County
Wexford. There, he and his hosts argued about the fastest game bird in
Europe and failed to find an answer in any reference book. In 1954,
recalling his shooting party argument, Sir Hugh had the idea for a
Guinness promotion based on the idea of settling pub arguments and
invited the twins Norris (1925-2004) and Ross McWhirter (1925-75) who
were fact-finding researchers from Fleet Street to compile a book of facts
and figures. After an initial research phase, work began on writing the
book, which took 13 and a half 90-hour weeks, including weekends and
bank holidays. Little did the McWhirters know that taking shape was a
book that would go on to become an all-time best seller. ( Guinness World
Records )
A) The Guinness Book of Records started out as an idea for a book to solve
arguments in pubs then frequented by journalists and researchers from
Fleet Street.
B) The McWhirter twins worked on the book for 13.5 weeks, 90 hours per
business week, plus weekends and bank holidays.
C) Ross McWhirter outlived his twin brother by almost 30 years.
D) Writing the book took the McWhirters around 1200 hours in total.
5. ANALYSING AND SOLVING QUESTIONS
Before start solving the questions, let us review the approach to verbal
reasoning tests that we explained at the beginning of our book.
We presented three possible methods:
- A natural approach, which consists in start reading the text passage,
then read the standard question, and finally read the answer options.
- A reverse approach, which entails starting by reading first the
standard question, then immediately the answer options, and finally
read the text. It offers the possible variation to separately check each
option against the text.
- A combined method: reading the first few lines of the text to get an
outline of the subject, then check the standard question and read the
answer options (in a row or separately), and finally the rest of the
text passage – unless you found it relatively short or about a familiar
topic and decided to finish the reading as a first step.
For didactic purposes, we will demonstrate the use of all these methods in our
book, and explain why we decide to employ one or another in certain
exercises.
Anyway, as we said, we recommend that you practise a little these three
methods, at the beginning of your training, to see which one gives better
results in your case, and of course considering your specific competition and
exam conditions.
Next, we will show our way to solve every exercise with a detailed
explanation, including some tips to speed your task up and to ease your
comprehension of the text passages and answer options, which will be
valuable for you to face other similar questions in your tests.
Exercise 1
Kamala Harris plays Wordle as a “brain cleanser” between official
duties and has never failed to guess the five-letter word of the day, but
cannot share successes with friends because her official phone does not
let her send text messages. The vice-president discussed her love for the
online game designed by Welsh-born Josh Wardle in an interview with
the Ringer. “I have 100%,” she said, “and I intend to keep it that way.”
She also said her winning streak was just 48, because “it got messed up
when it got moved over to the New York Times”. Wardle designed
Wordle for his partner. The Times bought it in January for a price “in
the low seven figures”. Players of Wordle are given six chances to guess
one five-letter word a day, coloured squares indicating letters in the right
slot or contained in the word elsewhere. ( The Guardian )
A) Josh Wardle designed Wordle for his partner, who loved online word
games.
B) The vice-president’s official phone is probably blocked from sending
text messages due to security restrictions.
C) Kamala Harris has won more than 48 consecutive games in Wordle.
D) The price paid by The New York Times to buy Wordle was between 10
and 15 million.
Solution :
Before starting our study of this exercise, let us focus on a particular aspect of
the solving method.
An ‘astute’ candidate could think: if I were the test author, I would set as
right answers mostly options D and C, to force the test takers to read and
analyse the majority of the options before finding the good one. So, should I
start analysing the answer options from D to A, to cover this possibility?
Well, in our long experience with reasoning tests (verbal, numerical, and
abstract ones), we have observed in some manuals and platforms, and even in
some psychometric tests for admission to schools, a slight preference, so to
speak, to set as a right answer D or C over A or B.
On the contrary, in the majority of EPSO reasoning tests, we have found that
the right answer was randomly and fairly distributed over the four options.
We cannot ignore that EPSO counts with highly qualified specialists to
design its tests, as well as a lot of officials that also passed these same
reasoning tests with high marks to ask them to try and ‘test the tests’ before
launching them, so it is unlikely that they could not foresee a certain way to
systematically ‘shortcut’ the verbal reasoning that candidates are expected to
demonstrate at the exam [2] .
In any case, there is no reason to think that following the order from A to D
will give you better results than any other particular sequence, so in this book
we will often follow the order from D to A options, not only to satisfy our
most astute and creative readers, but also to ‘close the circle’ that we opened
in our previous book: this will be a ‘pure-pure’ reverse method.
Moreover, after your practices with our first book, you are ready to try a
‘cold’ approach to the questions, that is, not starting by reading the first few
lines of the passage.
This way, you will not know the topic of the text (except from the answer
options) and you will not have the initial knowledge that sometimes allows
you to directly check option A, but in return, you will save some valuable
seconds to dedicate to your analysis of the four options.
Honestly, we consider that both methods – the ones presented in our first and
second books – are equally useful to get a notable mark in your exam: it
depends on your own experience and comfort (and the development of your
skills to take mental notes and quickly scan texts) to choose one or another.
Having said that, let us start by analysing our answer options from D to A.
Option D: The price paid by The New York Times to buy Wordle was
between 10 and 15 million.
In order to scan the text passage to check this statement, we can select the
keywords ‘New York Times’, which is expected to be less common than the
others.
They appear in the fourth sentence of the text, and this newspaper is
mentioned again in the sixth sentence:
[…] (W)hen it got moved over to the New York Times ”. Wardle designed
Wordle for his partner. The Times bought it in January for a price “in the low
seven figures ”.
So now we know that the price paid was in the low seven figures. This
requires a little of (very easy) numerical reasoning on our side. A price of
seven figures has to be between 1 000 000 (that is, 1 million) and 9 999 999
(which is almost, but less than, 10 million). Only with this simple conclusion,
we can eliminate option D, because the price paid cannot be between 10 and
15 million in any case. In fact, all possible prices between 10 and 15 million
would contain eight figures: from 10 000 000 to 15 000 000.
Clarifying a little more the question to our readers, for potentially similar
exercises, we can add than the ‘low seven figures’ (therefore, the price paid
by the Times in this case) would normally extend from 1 million to 3 million,
leaving figures between 4 and 6 million as ‘medium seven figures’, and
considering amounts from 7 to 9.99 million as ‘high seven figures’.
Option C: Kamala Harris has won more than 48 consecutive games in
Wordle .
We should use the name of Ms Kamala Harris to find the relevant
information here. However, when we start reading the text we soon realise
that she plays the leading role in this article, so we are forced to read more
than a half of the passage to find sufficient evidence to verify this statement:
Kamala Harris plays Wordle as a “brain cleanser” between official duties
and has never failed to guess the five-letter word of the day , but cannot share
successes with friends because her official phone does not let her send text
messages. The vice-president discussed her love for the online game designed
by Welsh-born Josh Wardle in an interview with the Ringer. “ I have 100%
,” she said, “and I intend to keep it that way.” She also said her winning
streak was just 48 , because “ it got messed up when it got moved over to the
New York Times”.
When we put together all this information, we can deduce that Ms Harris has
played, and won, more than 48 games, because she said that her winning
streak was ‘just 48’ due to the change of online platform (to the New York
Times), which messed up her streak.
We can safely infer, with the data proven by the text , that she played before
and had to win before too, in a consecutive way, as the statement says,
because she holds an impressive 100% success rate with this game. She has
never lost, so her winning streak has never been interrupted.
For these reasons, option C is the right answer here.
Option B: The vice-president’s official phone is probably blocked from
sending text messages due to security restrictions .
This is a good example of an option that adds realistic information , based in
common knowledge, but not proven by the article (a pitfall for the candidate).
The first sentence of the passage only said that Ms Harris ‘cannot share
successes with friends because her official phone does not let her send text
messages’. We do not know the reasons why this happened. Maybe her
phone is blocked for other causes; maybe it is not even blocked but this
feature is not operational due to malfunction or other reasons. Although the
statement says that security restrictions are ‘probably’ the reason (not
declaring a complete certainty), we have no evidence – in the article – to
support this or to assess the likelihood of any of the other possible causes. We
have to discard this option.
Option A: Josh Wardle designed Wordle for his partner , who loved online
word games .
Finally, we can also rule this option out, because it provides additional
information that is not backed by the text. We just know that ‘Wardle
designed Wordle for his partner’, but nothing is said about his partner’s love
for online word games. In fact, nothing is said about his partner in this article
at all. So anything in this option A that comes after ‘his partner, who…’ must
lead us to automatically dismiss this option, no matter how realistic or logical
(or romantic!) the information provided about his soulmate is.
Exercise 2
After eight long months of empty seats, we will welcome our audience in
the theatres in June in the Czech Republic. However, we are still
experimenting with the digital formats for the theatre and thus also
international public can still attend several of them:
- The English and German subtitles are available for our experimental
project Eyewitness by the director Jiří Havelka - a set of witness
testimonies reflecting the historical responsibility of common people for
major historic events;
Daniel Špinar is online and will be also presented in the frame of hybrid
- partly live/partly online festival of the Czech theatre Fais un saut a
Prague this June in Paris.
Belarussian drama in English as well. ( European Theatre Convention )
A) According to the announcement, there are at least four performances in
digital format still available for the international public.
B) The experimental project Eyewitness by the director Jiří Havelka is
available in English and German, in addition to his native Czech.
C) One of the performances will be presented in June outside Prague.
D) All the performances mentioned in the announcement have in common
that they are available in English version or subtitles.
Solution :
Let us analyse the four options from D to A again.
Option D: All the performances mentioned in the announcement have in
common that they are available in English version or subtitles.
This text passage seems an announcement indeed, because of the use of the
first person plural (‘we will welcome our audience’) and the several events or
performances listed with bullet points.
Probably the best keyword to check this option is ‘English’: it is necessarily
required in all references to performances to accept the validity of this
statement.
This way, we proceed to scan the passage and find that the first performance
mentioned is available with English subtitles:
- The English and German subtitles are available for our experimental project
Eyewitness by the director Jiří Havelka.
There are also English versions for the second and third performances:
Daniel Špinar is online and will be also presented in the frame of hybrid -
partly live/partly online festival of the Czech theatre Fais un saut a Prague
this June in Paris.
The last sentence of the passage requires a more delicate analysis on our side:
Belarussian drama in English as well.
This sentence can be divided in two parts, each one containing even a
different verb (or action):
- hosting two Belarussian playwrights in Prague;
- preparing the Handout of Belarussian drama.
And this could raise a justified doubt on the final provision ‘in English as
well’: is it referred to both actions, or only to the second one?
Our keen eye (as advanced students in verbal reasoning) has probably
detected that the first lines of the announcement expressed one of the targets
of the project:
[…] (W)e are still experimenting with the digital formats for the theatre and
thus also international public can still attend several of them.
This could reinforce the idea of the translation into English for both actions
indeed.
However, French and German are also mentioned in the passage, and could
well serve to the purpose of getting international audience.
A neutral reader could reasonably think (let us say, with 90 or 95%
assurance) that the final provision refers to both actions and the
plays/handout are going to be translated into English.
But still, we are not neutral (and innocent) readers: we are ‘ultra-sceptic’
candidates, used to fight against hundreds of pitfalls and obstacles to try to
tangle us (and emerging victorious, of course).
So we carefully reread the answer option and realise how strict and extreme it
is, not admitting any exceptions :
All the performances mentioned in the announcement have in common that
they are available in English version or subtitles.
Are all the performances really available in English?
Suddenly, we see the light at the end of the tunnel. The statement requires
that all performances are already available (in present) in English. And they
are not! The handout is still in preparation, even in its English version, and
something could happen (unforeseen circumstances, management
decisions…) and eventually change the final work.
So we can delete this option, or at least leave it as a ‘last resort’, if we do not
find another better.
Option C: One of the performances will be presented in June outside
Prague .
We can use ‘June’ as a good keyword to find the relevant paragraph, which
we have already read for the previous option:
- English and French version of video performance For Beauty […] will be
also presented in the frame of hybrid - partly live/partly online festival of the
Czech theatre Fais un saut a Prague this June in Paris .
So we can clearly validate this option: this performance will be presented in
Paris, not in Prague.
Note that even this apparently easy answer has a little trap – the mention of
Prague in the name of the Czech theatre ‘Fais un saut a Prague’ just before
the reference to June.
The exercise’s author (or ‘playwright’, never better said) prepared a real
‘drama’ for us with all these hidden dangers.
In any case, we can confirm that option C is the right answer, and much
better than the previous option, not having arguments against here.
Option B: The experimental project Eyewitness by the director Jiří Havelka is
available in English and German , in addition to his native Czech .
This alternative offers two additional pieces of information – this project is
available in Czech and Czech is the native language of the director – that we
cannot verify with the data provided in the text. Consequently, we must
refuse this option.
Option A: According to the announcement, there are at least four
performances in digital format still available for the international public.
With the reading of all the paragraphs that we already analysed, we know that
the experience with the digital formats for the theatre is referred to three
events (the three bullet points of the passage), while the last sentence is
related to two other events or actions that could result in online or on-site
formats. We have no evidence to affirm that at least four performances in
digital format are (in present) available, so we have to reject this option too.
Exercise 3
Estonia's recent tightening of anti-money laundering measures to flush
illicit crypto financiers out of its market is leading neighbors Latvia and
Lithuania to strengthen their regulatory demands on crypto companies.
Tallinn’s earlier loose laws had led to a buildup of opaque shell
companies within its fast-growing crypto sector. Riga and Vilnius are
now concerned that any shady actors fleeing the Estonian clampdown
could simply ship their business across the border to profit from their
weaker regulatory regimes. However, the industry has warned that
national crackdowns will make it harder for companies to navigate
Europe. Not to mention there's an EU bill designed to regulate the bloc's
crypto market that could come into force in a few years' time, which will
replace the Baltic laws. But Latvian and Lithuanian policymakers aren’t
willing to wait given the Baltic’s checkered past of dirty money scandals
— especially in Estonia, which is undergoing an international routine
audit on its dirty money safeguards. ( politico.eu )
A) Latvia and Lithuania are afraid that, if they do not strengthen their
regulatory framework now, any dubious agents in the crypto sector could
come from Estonia.
B) The potential new laws of the Baltic countries on crypto market will
probably be pointless, due to the incoming EU regulation on the same
subject.
C) The industry alerted to the consequences of national restrictions for the
free competition.
D) The ongoing audit on dirty money safeguards in Estonia is one of the
reasons of the country’s recent tightening of anti-money laundering
measures.
Solution :
Feeling encouraged by our quick detection of the right answers in the two
first exercises, we are going to employ again the ‘pure reverse’ analysis from
D to A.
Option D: The ongoing audit on dirty money safeguards in Estonia is one of
the reasons of the country’s recent tightening of anti-money laundering
measures .
By using ‘Estonia’ as a keyword, we can first observe at the beginning of the
article that this country’s recent ‘tightening of anti-money laundering
measures’ is the cause that neighbours Latvia and Lithuania ‘strengthen their
regulatory demands on crypto companies’. But nothing is said about the
reasons or causes of the Estonian measures.
Then, at the end of the article, we find that Estonia ‘is undergoing an
international routine audit on its dirty money safeguards’, but this fact is
presented without relation to the country’s anti-money laundering measures.
In any case, remember that presenting two facts together does not mean that
they are necessarily related : we need some connectors (because of, due to ,
etc.) to check a possible cause-effect relationship.
Therefore, we must reject this option.
Option C: The industry alerted to the consequences of national restrictions
for the free competition .
A smart strategy here is to look for ‘free competition’, because if the industry
alerted to consequences on this, these keywords have to appear in the passage
(or maybe ‘open competition’, but the noun competition is irreplaceable in
this context).
As you can see, there is no mention in the text about any consequences of
national restrictions on competition. The warning from the industry (in the
middle of the passage) was that ‘national crackdowns will make it harder for
companies to navigate Europe’, so the only direct conclusion that we could
extract is a potential barrier to mobility for businesses. We cannot confirm
this answer option.
This is a good example to illustrate the rule that we are not allowed to use
‘external knowledge’ to answer questions. So, even if you are an economist
and/or have certain knowledge in competition law, and you feel tempted to
associate obstacles to free movement of businesses with possible
consequences on competition, you cannot do it without breaking this rule.
Option B: The potential new laws of the Baltic countries on crypto market
will probably be pointless , due to the incoming EU regulation on the
same subject.
We can find the necessary information here in the fifth sentence of the
passage:
Not to mention there's an EU bill designed to regulate the bloc's crypto market
that could come into force in a few years' time, which will replace the Baltic
laws .
It seems obvious that we cannot conclude that the potential new Baltic laws
‘will probably be pointless’ only because (‘due to’) the incoming EU
regulation on the same subject. According to the text, the European
regulation ‘could come into force’ (or not) in a few years’ time, and a few
years is a long time to wait! In fact, the sixth and last sentence of the passage
clarifies that ‘Latvian and Lithuanian policymakers aren’t willing to wait
[…]’.
We must eliminate this option too.
Option A: Latvia and Lithuania are afraid that, if they do not strengthen
their regulatory framework now, any dubious agents in the crypto sector
could come from Estonia .
The first half of the passage explains that Estonia’s recent measures is leading
neighbours ‘Latvia and Lithuania to strengthen their regulatory demands on
crypto companies’.
Then, the article uses the reference to the capital cities of these three
countries – EU capitals that any smart candidate should know, of course, but,
as we said in our previous book, this is not even necessary and can normally
be deduced from the context and structure of the text. In this case, they are
mentioned in the same order and even style as their countries above:
Tallinn’s earlier loose laws had led to a buildup of opaque shell companies
within its fast-growing crypto sector. Riga and Vilnius are now concerned that
any shady actors fleeing the Estonian clampdown could simply ship their
business across the border to profit from their weaker regulatory regimes.
For this reason, the content of the statement is true and we can select option
A as the correct answer.
Exercise 4
Take an evening walk on 17th Cross Road in Bengaluru’s HSR Layout
district, and you bump into tech types stepping out of their startup’s
office and into one of the local microbreweries. They might work for
Udaan (e-commerce), Vedantu (education technology) or another of the
growing herd of private startups valued at $1bn, whose proliferation in
the area has prompted locals to dub it “Unicorn Street”. That name
might be outdated, says Mohit Yadav, co-founder Bolt.Earth, a unicorn
wannabe housed in the MyGate building. “Unicorn neighbourhood”
would be more apt, he chuckles. HSR Layout was not always the startup
hub of Bengaluru, itself the startup capital of India. Five years ago
Koramangala, a few kilometres to the north, was the place to be—until
rising office prices pushed out new startups. The fact that young firms
are beginning to eye an ever-wider region to set up shop hints that
Bengaluru is maturing as a venue for ambitious technologists. The city is
home to 26 unicorns, and last year attracted $13bn in venture capital. (
The Economist )
A) Koramangala, a district in the north of Bengaluru, India, was the startup
hub of the city five years ago.
B) The increasing number of startups valued at $1bn in the area of 17th
Cross Road is the reason why locals nickname it “Unicorn Street”.
C) The 26 unicorns in the city attracted an average of $2bn in venture
capital.
D) Some of the unicorns mentioned in the article are Udaan, Vedantu, and
Bolt.Earth.
Solution :
Let us recover here our common way to check answer options from A to D,
after the ‘mixed feelings’ resulting from our first three exercises.
Option A: Koramangala , a district in the north of Bengaluru , India, was
the startup hub of the city five years ago .
We can find the keywords ‘Bengaluru’, ‘Koramangala’, and ‘north’ linked in
the fifth sentence of the passage:
HSR Layout was not always the startup hub of Bengaluru , itself the startup
capital of India. Five years ago Koramangala , a few kilometres to the north
[…].
So Koramangala is to the north of HSR Layout, not in the north of
Bengaluru. In fact, you could check in the map – not valid to answer the
question, as external knowledge, but useful to expand your geography
knowledge – that Koramangala is south-east of Bengaluru.
We must reject option A.
Option B: The increasing number of startups valued at $1bn in the area of
17th Cross Road is the reason why locals nickname it “Unicorn Street ”.
We locate the relevant parts of the text in the first and second sentences:
Take an evening walk on 17th Cross Road […] the growing herd of private
startups valued at $1bn , whose proliferation in the area has prompted locals to
dub it “ Unicorn Street ”.
Therefore, the statement is clearly right: the increasing number of startups
reaching $1bn value is the reason why locals give this nickname to that street.
Option B is correct.
Option C: The 26 unicorns in the city attracted an average of $2bn in
venture capital .
The last sentence of the passage provides us with the key to verify this
alternative:
The city is home to 26 unicorns , and last year attracted $13bn in venture
capital .
A candidate could feel tempted to apply some numerical reasoning here and
try to calculate an average investment per unicorn (26 / 13 = 2). But we
should consider that $13bn is the amount in venture capital that the (entire)
city attracted, not only the 26 unicorns (note that the subject of the last
sentence is ‘the city’). So we must delete this answer option.
Option D: Some of the unicorns mentioned in the article are Udaan,
Vedantu , and Bolt.Earth .
According to the second sentence of the article, Udaan and Vedantu are some
of the unicorns indeed.
However, the third sentence indicates that Bolt.Earth is a ‘unicorn wannabe’
– it aspires or wants to be a unicorn, but it is not a unicorn yet. So this option
is incorrect too.
Exercise 5
In 1519, Hernan Cortes and his band of some 600 conquistadors began
their audacious assault on the Aztec Empire. By 1521, the Aztec capital
city of Tenochtitlan was in ashes, Emperor Montezuma was dead and the
Spanish were firmly in control of what they took to calling "New Spain."
Along the way, Cortes and his men collected thousands of pounds of
gold, silver, jewels and priceless pieces of Aztec art. What became of this
unimaginable treasure? For the Spanish, the concept of wealth was
simple: it meant gold and silver, preferably in easily negotiable bars or
coins. For the Aztecs and their allies, it was more complicated. They used
gold and silver but primarily for ornaments, decorations, plates, and
jewelry. The Aztecs prized other things far above gold: they loved
brightly colored feathers, preferably from quetzals or hummingbirds.
They would make elaborate cloaks and headdresses out of these feathers
and it was a conspicuous display of wealth to wear one. ( ThoughtCo )
A) Wearing cloaks and headdresses with coloured feathers was a way to
show off in Aztec society.
B) The Spanish took a little more than three years to conquer Tenochtitlan
and control “New Spain”.
C) The Aztecs used gold and silver mainly for ornaments, decorations,
plates, and jewelry, and only secondarily for payments.
D) The Aztecs valued gold and silver equally and below the brightly
Solution :
As a reminder to our readers, in some exercises we will also use our
combined method of reading the first lines of the passage, as we did in our
first book.
For example, here you could read the first two sentences of the article to get
an overview of the topic:
In 1519, Hernan Cortes and his band of some 600 conquistadors began their
audacious assault on the Aztec Empire. By 1521, the Aztec capital city of
Tenochtitlan was in ashes, Emperor Montezuma was dead and the Spanish
were firmly in control of what they took to calling "New Spain".
Then you could start analysing the four options.
Option A: Wearing cloaks and headdresses with coloured feathers was a
way to show off in Aztec society.
We continue scanning the rest of the article and, in its final part, we find the
necessary data to check this statement:
The Aztecs prized other things far above gold: they loved brightly colored
feathers , preferably from quetzals or hummingbirds. They would make
elaborate cloaks and headdresses out of these feathers and it was a
conspicuous display of wealth to wear one.
In effect, we can see that the Aztecs used this finery to display their wealth.
Option A is the right one.
Option B: The Spanish took a little more than three years to conquer
Tenochtitlan and control “New Spain ”.
Our initial reading of the first lines is sufficient for us to discard this
statement: the assault on the Aztec Empire began in 1519, and the Spanish
had invaded Tenochtitlan and were in control of “New Spain” by 1521. So
the whole process of conquest had to last necessarily less than 3 years (from
January 1519 to December 1521 maximum) .
Option C: The Aztecs used gold and silver mainly for ornaments ,
decorations, plates, and jewelry, and only secondarily for payments .
The first part of the statement matches one of the sentences of the article:
They used gold and silver but primarily for ornaments , decorations, plates,
and jewelry.
Nevertheless, we have no information in the passage to validate the second
part, because nothing is said about the payments preferences of the Aztecs.
According to the wording of the text, they could not even have used them for
payments at all. This is an example of a ‘cannot say’ statement that we must
refuse.
Option D: The Aztecs valued gold and silver equally and below the brightly
Again, this is an answer option with two different parts: one can be easily
validated (the Aztecs valued gold and silver below the coloured feathers, as
we have already read), but the other is a ‘cannot say’ statement – we do not
know if they valued gold and silver equally, since no data is provided on this
point. We cannot accept this statement either.
Exercise 6
The Commission adopted today its Partnership Agreement with
Germany, laying down Germany's investment strategy for more than
€20 billion in cohesion funding for the period 2021-2027. The cohesion
funds will continue to support German regions in promoting economic,
social and territorial cohesion, supporting key EU priorities such as the
green and digital transition. The funds will contribute to the country's
competitive, innovative and sustainable growth. The Partnership
Agreement covers 3 cohesion policy funds: the European Regional and
Development Fund - ERDF; the European Social Fund Plus - ESF+; the
Just Transition Fund – JTF; as well as the European Maritime Fisheries
and Aquaculture Fund - EMFAF. The Partnership Agreement with
Germany paves the way for 52 operational programmes to start
implementation on the ground: 31 regional, 2 national and 19
INTERREG programmes. Each of the 16 federal states (“Bundesland”)
in Germany manages a separate ERDF and ESF+ programme, with the
exception of Lower Saxony, which has opted for a combined
ERDF/ESF+ programme. Moreover, two programmes will be
implemented at the federal level: the EMFAF programme and a separate
nation-wide ESF+ programme. ( EU Press corner )
A) The Just Transition Fund is specifically aimed to a key EU priority such
as the green and digital transition.
B) The four funds mentioned in the article cover the full aid that Germany
will receive in the period 2021-2027, unless the Partnership Agreement is
modified.
C) There will be 15 separate ESF+ programmes in total in Germany.
D) The ERDF, the ESF+, and the JTF are cohesion policy funds included in
the Partnership Agreement with Germany for the period 2021-2027.
Solution :
This is a quite long passage (180 words) but it presents the advantage of the
topic (EU funding), which should make it easier and faster to read for most
candidates to EU competitions.
In particular, it is about a Partnership Agreement between the Commission
and Germany on this country’s investment strategy:
The Commission adopted today its Partnership Agreement with Germany,
laying down Germany's investment strategy for more than €20 billion in
cohesion funding for the period 2021-2027.
Option A: The Just Transition Fund is specifically aimed to a key EU
priority such as the green and digital transition .
When we search for ‘Just Transition Fund’ in the text, we find only one
reference to this fund, to place it as one of the cohesion policy funds under
the Partnership Agreement. There is no explanation about the specific targets
of any of these funds, only to their general objectives:
The cohesion funds will continue to support German regions in promoting
economic, social and territorial cohesion, supporting key EU priorities such
as the green and digital transition. The funds will contribute to the country's
competitive, innovative and sustainable growth.
We cannot say which the specific aim of the JTF is from the information in
the text, so we must remove this answer option.
Option B: The four funds mentioned in the article cover the full aid that
Germany will receive in the period 2021-2027 , unless the Partnership
Agreement is modified .
This is another statement that cannot be confirmed by the information
provided in the passage. We do not know if the Agreement contains other
funds apart from the 3 cohesion policy funds (that is, funds outside the
‘cohesion policy’ framework). Moreover, we do not know the conditions of
the Agreement, so we ignore if the Agreement has to be necessarily modified
to increase the aid or if this possibility is already provided in the pact. Option
B is not valid.
Option C: There will be 15 separate ESF+ programmes in total in
Germany.
The last part of the text explains the following:
Each of the 16 federal states (“Bundesland”) in Germany manages a separate
ERDF and ESF+ programme , with the exception of Lower Saxony , which has
opted for a combined ERDF/ESF+ programme. Moreover, two programmes
will be implemented at the federal level : the EMFAF programme and a
separate nation-wide ESF+ programme .
This implies that the total number of separate ESF+ programmes in Germany
will be: 16 for the federal states, minus 1 for the case of Lower Saxony (with
a combined programme ERDF/ESF+, so not separate), plus 1 for the separate
nation-wide programme. So, 16 separate ESF+ programmes in total. The
answer option is incorrect.
Option D: The ERDF , the ESF+ , and the JTF are cohesion policy funds
included in the Partnership Agreement with Germany for the period 2021-
2027.
We should better use ‘cohesion policy funds’ as a key to scan the text,
because the names of the funds are often repeated throughout the article.
The fourth sentence of the passage literally says:
The Partnership Agreement covers 3 cohesion policy funds : the European
Regional and Development Fund - ERDF ; the European Social Fund Plus -
ESF+ ; the Just Transition Fund – JTF ; […].
We had already checked the country and the period from our previous
analysis, so option D is completely correct.
Exercise 7
Christie’s has unveiled an abstract painting by Jackson Pollock featuring
the postwar painter’s signature ‘drip’ style that will be auctioned next
month. Number 31 (1949) will hit the block during an evening sale in New
York on May 12 dedicated to art produced in the 20th century. It is
expected to fetch a price in excess of $45 million and will be offered
without a guarantee. Pollock completed the work, which stands at 31-by-
22-inches, in 1949, during a formative time in his career when he
produced a series of drip paintings. The works would make him a
standard bearer of abstract expressionism and derive from a period that
commands the artist’s top auction prices. The present lot was included in
retrospectives dedicated to Pollock in 1967 and again in 1998 both at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York. If the present work reaches its
high estimate, it will be among the top four works by the artist sold at
auction. ( ARTnews )
A) Jackson Pollock’s paintings are easily identifiable by the ‘drip’ style of
their signature.
B) Number 31 will hit the block, setting a new record for the artist at
auction, if it reaches its expected price over $45 million.
C) This work and other drip paintings during a formative time in his career
derive from a period that dominates his top auction prices.
D) This will be the third auction of the present lot, after the previous two in
1967 and 1998 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Solution :
In this exercise, option A is quite shorter than the others, so it is reasonable to
start by analysing them in the usual order. This is another practical criterion
that you can employ.
Option A: Jackson Pollock’s paintings are easily identifiable by the ‘drip’
style of their signature .
We can find the keywords ‘drip’ style in the first sentence of the passage,
which refers to “the postwar painter’s signature ‘drip’ style”.
It is important to take into account that the expression ‘signature style’ in
English is usually equivalent to ‘characteristic style’ or ‘distinctive style’ (not
the specific style of a signature). This is clearly the meaning of the “painter’s
signature ‘drip’ style” in this context.
So this option is incorrect.
Option B: Number 31 will hit the block, setting a new record for the artist
at auction , if it reaches its expected price over $45 million .
We continue reading the text and find some of our keywords in the following
sentences:
Number 31 (1949) will hit the block during an evening sale in New York on
May 12 dedicated to art produced in the 20th century. It is expected to fetch a
price in excess of $45 million and will be offered without a guarantee.
We need to scan the full passage to locate the essential information to check
this statement, in the last sentence:
If the present work reaches its high estimate, it will be among the top four
works by the artist sold at auction .
Thus, option B is incorrect too: the work would not set a new record; it would
simply be among the top four.
Option C: This work and other drip paintings during a formative time in
his career derive from a period that dominates his top auction prices .
The central part of the passage gives us the data that we need to verify this
statement:
Pollock completed the work , which stands at 31-by-22-inches, in 1949,
during a formative time in his career when he produced a series of drip
paintings . The works would make him a standard bearer of abstract
expressionism and derive from a period that commands the artist’s top auction
prices .
We can confirm that all data provided by the statement matches the
information in the text, so we can accept option C as the correct answer.
Option D: This will be the third auction of the present lot , after the
previous two in 1967 and 1998 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
You can easily find the corresponding information in the passage, by using
keywords such as ‘present lot’, the years ‘1967’ or ‘1998’, or even the name
of the Museum of Modern Art in New York; all of them are exclusively
placed in the second-to-last sentence:
The present lot was included in retrospectives dedicated to Pollock in 1967 and
again in 1998 both at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
This way, we can raise a couple of objections to this statement:
- We cannot know whether the previous two retrospectives dedicated
to Pollock in 1967 and 1998 were also auctions or not: maybe they
were just exhibitions.
- Even if the previous two were auctions too, we cannot know if there
were other auctions of the present lot at some other places, apart
from at this museum, so this would not be the third one.
For these reasons, we cannot admit this answer option.
Exercise 8
deserves to be one of Europe’s favourite destinations for a great value
city break. The licitarsko srce – a gingerbread heart decorated with red
and white icing – is Zagreb’s best known souvenir, a sweet treat with a
long history. Traditionally these biscuits were baked as tokens of love
and friendship. They are made from honey dough and were sold at fairs
at festival times. Now you can buy them in Zagreb year-round, though
the biggest quantities are made and sold around Valentine’s Day. These
gingerbread hearts are considered to be such an important aspect of
Croatia’s culture that UNESCO has given them Intangible Cultural
Heritage status. ( The Travel Magazine )
A) Zagreb is today one of Europe’s favourite destinations because of its rich
history and multiple cultural spaces, among other reasons.
B) The gingerbread heart known as licitarsko srce is today considered to
have a relevant role in Croatia’s cultural heritage.
C) The gingerbread hearts are sold in Zagreb throughout the year, but the
best qualities are made around Valentine’s Day and festival times.
D) These biscuits were traditionally baked as tokens of love and friendship,
but in our days are mostly sold as souvenirs.
Solution :
The first sentence of the passage provides us with a good overview of the
article’s topic and, in addition, offers us the key to check the first answer
option:
deserves to be one of Europe’s favourite destinations for a great value city
break.
Option A: Zagreb is today one of Europe’s favourite destinations because
of its rich history and multiple cultural spaces, among other reasons .
This alternative looks ‘attractive’ to the candidate, because it does not present
absolute or extreme statements: ‘one of the favourite destinations’ is more
flexible than ‘the favourite destination in Europe’, and ‘among other reasons’
is an open expression that admits other possible causes. So, in principle, it
sounds good as a potentially true answer.
However, there is a fundamental difference in the meaning of the sentence
‘Zagreb […] deserves to be one of Europe’s favourite destinations’ and the
statement ‘Zagreb is today one of Europe’s favourite destinations’. The first
is certainly an opinion of the author of the article, but this is not confirmed in
the text as a fact. We must refuse this option.
Option B: The gingerbread heart known as licitarsko srce is today considered
to have a relevant role in Croatia’s cultural heritage .
Note that a word (or a couple of words) in another language is often a good
keyword to scan the passage, because it is easier to detect and even written in
italics or in quotation marks.
The Croatian words for this gingerbread heart lead us to the second sentence
of the article :
The licitarsko srce – a gingerbread heart decorated with red and white icing
– is Zagreb’s best known souvenir , a sweet treat with a long history .
Meanwhile, the words ‘cultural heritage’ drive us to the last sentence:
These gingerbread hearts are considered to be such an important aspect of
Croatia’s culture that UNESCO has given them Intangible Cultural Heritage
status.
When we analyse both sentences in combination, we can deduce that these
gingerbread hearts have an important role in Croatia’s cultural heritage
indeed. Moreover, this has been acknowledged by UNESCO, by awarding
them the status of intangible cultural heritage.
Curiously, in order to prove the statement of this answer option, we have not
only a direct reference in the text about these biscuits’ important aspect of
Croatia’s culture , but also the ‘official certification’ from the competent
international organisation declaring this. We could say that this statement is
meta-proven by the passage and the competent authority! (This is like the
dream of a ‘verbal reasoner’, do not you think?).
Therefore, option B is the (most) correct answer (ever made).
Note : As we said in our first book, when you are reasonably sure that you
found the right answer (and not being necessary an official certification from
the authority, of course), you can move on to the next question in your exam
and save time for other questions. In any case, we always offer our analysis
of all options to provide full feedback to our readers.
Option C: The gingerbread hearts are sold in Zagreb throughout the year ,
but the best qualities are made around Valentine’s Day and festival times.
When we locate ‘Valentine’s Day’ in the passage, we can observe that the
biscuits are sold throughout the year certainly, but the second part of the
statement is not true:
Now you can buy them in Zagreb year-round , though the biggest quantities are
made and sold around Valentine’s Day .
So, the biggest quantities, not the best qualities, are made around Valentine’s
Day. This option is wrong.
Option D: These biscuits were traditionally baked as tokens of love and
friendship , but in our days are mostly sold as souvenirs .
The first part of the statement perfectly matches one of the sentences of the
text:
Traditionally these biscuits were baked as tokens of love and friendship.
Nevertheless, the second part cannot be confirmed with the data from the
article: we know that they are ‘Zagreb’s best known souvenir’, and they are
sold year-round, but we cannot verify if they are mostly sold as souvenirs or
for other reasons. In fact, the piece of information indicating that ‘the biggest
quantities are made and sold around Valentine’s Day’ points to more sales as
gifts of love and friendship than as souvenirs.
Anyway, this is a ‘cannot say’ statement that we must discard.
Exercise 9
With its durability and transfixing swirl of translucent amber and brown
layers, tortoiseshell has been used for centuries to make everything from
jewelry to combs to dishware. Tortoiseshell almost exclusively comes
from the critically endangered hawksbill turtle. Between 1884 and 1992,
at least nine million hawksbills were killed and sold for their shells.
Today, fewer than 25,000 breeding females remain globally, and its
international commercial trade is banned. Tortoiseshell is widely and
accurately replicated with resin, making it difficult to tell real from fake.
The turtle conservation group SEE Turtles is leading an effort to use
modern technology to combat the illicit trade of this age-old material.
SEE Turtles, with partners at the Smithsonian OCIO Data Science Lab,
built an app to help. Named SEE Shell, the app uses machine learning to
identify with 94 percent accuracy whether a photo of something with a
tortoiseshell pattern is real or faux. It’s the first mobile app to use
computer vision to combat the illegal wildlife trade. ( National
Geographic )
A) Before 1884, there was no commercial trade of hawksbill turtles yet,
because tortoiseshell was not so popular.
B) Between 1884 and 1992, an annual average of more than 80.000
C) In spite of the ban on international commercial exchange, illicit trade
continues because it is difficult to accurately replicate tortoiseshell in
certain products.
D) SEE Shell is the first mobile app to use machine learning to combat the
illegal wildlife trade.
Solution :
An interesting article on hawksbill turtle in danger is waiting for us in this
exercise.
Option D: SEE Shell is the first mobile app to use machine learning to
combat the illegal wildlife trade.
We can use the name of the app, SEE Shell, to quickly find the relevant
information here:
Named SEE Shell , the app uses machine learning to identify with 94 percent
accuracy whether a photo of something with a tortoiseshell pattern is real or
faux. It’s the first mobile app to use computer vision to combat the illegal
wildlife trade.
It turns out that this option is false: this is the first mobile app to use
computer vision for this purpose, not in using machine learning, according to
the text.
Option C: In spite of the ban on international commercial exchange, illicit
trade continues because it is difficult to accurately replicate tortoiseshell in
certain products.
The fifth sentence of the passage, easily located with the keywords, clarifies
this issue:
Tortoiseshell is widely and accurately replicated with resin, making it difficult
to tell real from fake.
The main proposition of this statement is false: tortoiseshell is accurately
replicated, so we do not need to check the other part (the reason why illicit
trade continues).
Option B: Between 1884 and 1992 , an annual average of more than 80.000
The article says:
Between 1884 and 1992 , at least nine million hawksbills were killed and sold
for their shells .
All the key elements match here, so we only need to do some numerical
reasoning or calculation to validate this answer option.
We know that nine million turtles were killed between 1884 and 1992. If you
had a calculator (and maybe you will in your exam, if a physical calculator is
provided in your test centre and you are sitting all reasoning tests in a row –
verbal, numerical, and abstract), then you could quickly divide 9 000 000
turtles by 108 years (that is, 1992 minus 1884), and obtain the annual
average.
But let us suppose that you do not have a calculator to solve this exercise.
You can estimate the annual average with your numerical reasoning: the
number of years is approximately 100 (a little more than a century, from
1884 to 1992). If you divide 9 000 000 turtles by 100 years, you get:
9 000 000 turtles / 100 years
Note that you do not need a calculator or even performing some mental
arithmetic here: simply to cross out as many zeros in the numerator as there
are in the denominator:
9 000 000 turtles / 100 years = 90 000 turtles/year
This rough estimate could suffice to accept this answer option if you were
running out of time and had to decide in a few seconds, because 90 000 is
clearly more than 80 000 turtles.
However, we are sure that you will have at least 1 minute and 30 seconds to
answer each question (following our tips and recommendations!), so you will
be able to fine-tune your reasoning a little more.
You can clearly see that, from 1884 to 1992, it is more than a century, in
particular: 100 years from 1884 to 1984, and eight years more to 1992; 108
years in total .
So, if you divide the same number of turtles, 9 000 000, by more than 100
years, will this increase or reduce our estimated annual average of 90 000?
9 000 000 turtles / 108 years = ????
This is like the typical math problem of our school times: if you divide the
same number of candies by more kids, will you get more or fewer candies per
kid? Obviously fewer.
In our exercise, this first conclusion is a bit worrying: if we reduce our rough
estimate (90 000), then we could reach the figure of the statement (80 000)
and would have to reject this alternative.
For this reason, it would be safer to refine our estimation a bit.
Dividing 9 000 000 / 108 through mental arithmetic is quite challenging. But
we could round the denominator (from 108 to 110) to get a ‘friendlier’
fraction:
9 000 000 / 110
And simplifying zeros:
900 000 / 11
This can easily be converted into a fraction 9/11 multiplied by 100 000.
(9/11) * 100 000
Next, you can use some of the tools that we presented in our second book on
numerical reasoning (see our footnote 1).
On the one hand, in our section on ‘How to convert fractions to decimals
faster’, we explained some mnemonic tips for common fractions, for
example, 1/7, 1/11, 1/15 and many others.
In particular, with our techniques you could remember that 1/11 is 0.0909…
On the other hand, we also saw how to deduce other fractions with higher
numerators, for example, to calculate 2/11:
2/11 = 2 * 1/11
Replacing the value of the fraction in decimals:
2 * 1/11 = 2 * 0.0909
Note that doing this calculation is much easier and faster than it looks,
because it is a simple multiplication by 2, in groups of two digits (that is, 2 *
09 = 18):
2 * 0.09 09 = 0.18 18
Let us go back to our exercise and the apparently difficult fraction that we
had obtained, 9/11.
It can also be broken down into two parts in a very similar way:
9/11 = 9 * 1/11
Replacing the value of the fraction again:
9 * 1/11 = 9 * 0.0909
And solving this multiplication in groups of two digits (in this case, 9 * 09 =
81):
9 * 0.09 09 = 0.81 81
So the fraction 9/11 is equivalent to 0.8181.
Now the complicated initial fraction that we had is completely disarmed and
at our mercy.
Initially, our fraction was 9 000 000 / 108, and we had already transformed it
into (9/11) * 100 000.
After getting the value of this fraction in decimals, we simply replace it:
(9/11) * 100 000 = 0.8181 * 100 000
And, to multiply by multiples of 10, we just move the decimal point as many
places as zeros:
0.8181 * 100 000 = 81 81 0
This way, we have got a more precise result: 81 810 turtles/year, which is
again over 80 000, as the statement said.
Moreover, we have an additional advantage: as we rounded the initial
denominator from 108 to 110 (a higher one), we divided the number of turtles
(our candies) by more years (kids) than the actual ones, so the calculated
average has to be lower than the actual figure. We still have a ‘security
margin’ to confirm that the annual average has to be more than 80 000, and
even more than 81 810, so this answer option is right.
You can check this with your calculator at home and get the exact result:
9 000 000 turtles / 108 years = 83 333 turtles/year
Option A: Before 1884, there was no commercial trade of hawksbill turtles
yet, because tortoiseshell was not so popular.
We cannot accept this statement, due to the first sentence of the passage:
‘[…] tortoiseshell has been used for centuries to make everything from
jewelry to combs to dishware’. So we cannot confirm that there was no
commercial trade (on the contrary, it seems more likely that there was), and
we have no evidence or reference to compare the popularity of tortoiseshell in
the previous period either.
Exercise 10
Scientists have published the first complete, gapless sequence of a human
genome, two decades after the Human Genome Project produced the
first draft human genome sequence. According to researchers, having a
complete, gap-free sequence of the roughly 3 billion bases (or "letters")
in our DNA is critical for understanding the full spectrum of human
genomic variation and for understanding the genetic contributions to
certain diseases. The work was done by the Telomere to Telomere (T2T)
consortium, which included leadership from researchers at the National
Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National
Institutes of Health; University of California, Santa Cruz; and
University of Washington, Seattle. NHGRI was the primary funder of
the study. Analyses of the complete genome sequence will significantly
add to our knowledge of chromosomes, including more accurate maps
for five chromosome arms, which opens new lines of research. This helps
answer basic biology questions about how chromosomes properly
segregate and divide. The T2T consortium used the now-complete
genome sequence as a reference to discover more than 2 million
additional variants in the human genome. ( Science Daily )
A) The National Human Genome Research Institute was the founder of the
Telomere to Telomere (T2T) consortium.
B) The T2T consortium included researchers from at least four different
institutes and universities.
C) The analysis of the complete genome sequence will add significant
knowledge and accuracy to our maps of chromosomes, finishing several
lines of investigation.
D) It took scientists two decades to publish the complete sequence of the
roughly 3 billion bases in our DNA, since the production of the first draft
human genome sequence.
Solution :
Option D: It took scientists two decades to publish the complete sequence
of the roughly 3 billion bases in our DNA , since the production of the first
draft human genome sequence .
In order to check a statement like this, with a time expression, we can directly
use the words ‘two decades’ for our search, or alternatively looking for
similar time intervals (20 years or two specific years distant in time around
this period).
In this case, we are lucky and find the relevant part of the article in the first
and second sentence:
Scientists have published the first complete , gapless sequence of a human
genome , two decades after the Human Genome Project produced the first
draft human genome sequence . According to researchers, having a
complete , gap-free sequence of the roughly 3 billion bases (or "letters") in our
DNA is critical for understanding the full spectrum of human genomic
variation and for understanding the genetic contributions to certain diseases.
As you can see, both assertions of this option can be validated with the
information of the article:
- The complete sequence (of a human genome) contains roughly 3
billion bases in our DNA.
- Scientists needed two decades to publish this complete sequence,
after the production of the first draft sequence of a human genome.
Therefore, option D is correct.
Option C: The analysis of the complete genome sequence will add
significant knowledge and accuracy to our maps of chromosomes, finishing
several lines of investigation .
The keywords ‘knowledge’ and ‘accuracy’ lead us to this sentence of the
text:
Analyses of the complete genome sequence will significantly add to our
knowledge of chromosomes, including more accurate maps for five
chromosome arms, which opens new lines of research .
So, while the first part of this option is right (the analysis of the complete
genome sequence will add significant knowledge and accuracy), the second
part is wrong: this will open new lines of investigation, instead of finishing
them. We must eliminate this alternative.
Option B: The T2T consortium included researchers from at least four
different institutes and universities.
We can scan the text (using the most promising keywords here, T2T
consortium ) and quickly check the partners of this association:
The work was done by the Telomere to Telomere (T2T) consortium , which
included leadership from researchers at the National Human Genome Research
Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health ; University of
California, Santa Cruz ; and University of Washington, Seattle . NHGRI was
the primary funder of the study.
Thus, the institutes and universities involved in the consortium are the
following:
- National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the
National Institutes of Health;
- University of California, Santa Cruz; and
- University of Washington, Seattle.
There is a clear ‘pitfall’ in the mention of ‘part of the National Institutes of
Health’, which could mislead the candidate to a wrong counting, but this
cannot make us lose our focus: there are only three different institutions
bringing researchers to the consortium. This answer option is incorrect.
Option A: The National Human Genome Research Institute was the
founder of the Telomere to Telomere (T2T) consortium .
Just after the piece of the passage that we analysed for the previous option,
the article explains :
NHGRI was the primary funder of the study.
We can observe the ‘play on words’ presented by this option (another little
trap to try to catch candidates in a too fast reading): a funder is a person or
organisation that provides money for a particular objective, while a founder is
the one that establishes an institution or association.
This answer option is incorrect too.
Exercise 11
People using self-driving cars will be allowed to watch television on built-
in screens under proposed updates to the Highway Code. The changes
will say drivers must be ready to take back control of vehicles when
prompted, the government said. The first use of self-driving technology
is likely to be when travelling at slow speeds on motorways, such as in
congested traffic. However, using mobile phones while driving will
remain illegal. No self-driving cars are currently allowed on UK roads,
but the first vehicles capable of driving themselves could be ready for use
later this year, the Department for Transport (DfT) said. The planned
changes to the code are expected to come in over the summer. The
updates, proposed following public consultation, were described as an
interim measure to support the early adoption of the technology and a
full regulatory framework is planned to be implemented by 2025. They
will also lay out that users of self-driving cars will not be responsible for
crashes. Instead insurance companies, not individuals, will be liable for
claims in many circumstances, the DfT said. ( BBC News/ Technology )
A) Using mobile phones while driving is currently legal, provided that
hands-free devices are utilised.
B) The new full regulatory framework has been postponed until 2025 to
allow the public consultation process.
C) Under the new Highway Code, users of self-driving cars will not be
responsible for crashes: insurance companies will be liable for claims in
all circumstances.
D) Watching television on built-in screens in self-driving cars is currently
not allowed on UK roads.
Solution :
Option D: Watching television on built-in screens in self-driving cars is
currently not allowed on UK roads .
‘Television’ is an efficient keyword for our text scanning and required in any
case to try to validate this statement.
‘Allowed’ (or ‘not allowed’) or their synonym must appear too in the relevant
sentence(s).
This way, we find the following sentences:
People using self-driving cars will be allowed to watch television on built-in
screens under proposed updates to the Highway Code .
[…]
No self-driving cars are currently allowed on UK roads […].
The first sentence states that watching television on built-in screens will be
allowed in self-driving cars (in future), under proposed updates to the
Highway Code (therefore, the updates are not in force yet), so this can only
lead us to conclude that this action is currently not allowed.
Moreover, the other sentence clarifies that self-driving cars are currently not
allowed in the UK. This strengthens our previous conclusion: if self-driving
cars are currently not allowed, how could it be allowed watching television
(or doing any other activity) while using these cars?
For these reasons, we can deduce that option D is true.
Option C: Under the new Highway Code , users of self-driving cars will
not be responsible for crashes : insurance companies will be liable for
claims in all circumstances .
The terms ‘responsible’ and ‘insurance companies’ drive us to the final part
of the passage:
They will also lay out that users of self-driving cars will not be responsible for
crashes . Instead insurance companies , not individuals, will be liable for
claims in many circumstances .
Thus, the first part of the statement is correct: the users will not be
responsible for crashes. But the second part is false: the insurance companies
will be liable in many circumstances, not in all of them. We have to refuse
this option.
Option B: The new full regulatory framework has been postponed until
2025 to allow the public consultation process.
The seventh sentence of the text provides the information that we need here:
The updates , proposed following public consultation , were described as an
interim measure to support the early adoption of the technology and a full
regulatory framework is planned to be implemented by 2025 .
We can clearly separate two assertions:
- The updates were proposed following public consultation.
- A full regulatory framework is planned to be implemented by 2025.
So the public consultation process was already carried out to propose the
updates, and it is not the reason of the postponement of the adoption of the
new framework. We must discard this answer option.
Option A: Using mobile phones while driving is currently legal , provided
that hands-free devices are utilised.
By searching for ‘mobile phones’ in the text, we soon check that using these
devices while driving is illegal, and will remain so:
However, using mobile phones while driving will remain illegal.
This alternative has to be rejected too.
Exercise 12
The fact that diet can impact an individual’s health is well acknowledged
by healthcare providers worldwide. People who have access to adequate
nutrition are more likely to have strong immune systems, safer
pregnancy and childbirth, lower risk of diabetes and cardiovascular
disease, and they live longer. The reasons for this are myriad, complex,
and not yet well understood. Some research has shown that a diet rich in
added sugars, saturated and trans fats and excess sodium may induce
chronic inflammation — an underlying risk factor in the development of
heart disease, type 2 diabetes, poor gut health, and other chronic
diseases. Likewise, the American Heart Association recently made diet
and lifestyle recommendations that included a diet rich in fruits,
vegetables, whole grains, legumes, low-fat dairy, and plant-based or lean
animal protein to support cardiovascular health. Experts think that this
diet supports good health through its potential to reduce harmful risk
factors of cardiovascular disease, including inflammation, elevated
cholesterol, high blood pressure, and poor sleep. ( Medical News Today )
A) Some research has shown that a diet low in sugars, saturated fats and
sodium protects against heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and poor gut
health.
B) The reasons for the impact of diet on individual’s health are all well
known by healthcare providers worldwide.
C) Experts think that a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes,
low-fat dairy, and plant-based or lean animal protein supports good
health.
D) Some harmful risk factors of cardiovascular disease are sedentary
lifestyle, elevated cholesterol, and high blood pressure.
Solution :
Option D: Some harmful risk factors of cardiovascular disease are
sedentary lifestyle , elevated cholesterol , and high blood pressure .
As we explained in the strategies in chapter 3, some statements are especially
difficult for candidates, because they are correct if we use common and
general knowledge, so one has a natural tendency to agree with them and
mark them as the fine answer. However, even if they are correct and true in
real life, we can only accept them when they are fully proven by the
information from the passage.
This answer option is a good example of this. We need to verify in the text
whether or not this assertion is grounded on the data provided.
We look for references to ‘cardiovascular disease’ and get to the last sentence
of the article:
Experts think that this diet* supports good health through its potential to
reduce harmful risk factors of cardiovascular disease , including inflammation
, elevated cholesterol , high blood pressure , and poor sleep .
*The diet is detailed in the previous sentence: a diet rich in fruits, vegetables,
whole grains, legumes, low-fat dairy, and plant-based or lean animal protein
.
So the risk factors of cardiovascular disease listed in the passage are the
following: inflammation, elevated cholesterol, high blood pressure, and poor
sleep. As you can see, they do not match the ones enumerated in this answer
option, because ‘sedentary lifestyle’ does not appear here.
Still, we should check the rest of the passage, in case that this factor is
mentioned in another phrase.
We can only find a reference to ‘lifestyle recommendations’ by the American
Heart Association that could certainly make us deduce that lifestyle has an
influence on cardiovascular disease, but there is no mention about what type
of lifestyle constitutes a risk factor and we cannot prove that this is, in
particular, a ‘sedentary lifestyle’.
Therefore, we must delete this option.
Option C: Experts think that a diet rich in fruits, vegetables , whole grains,
legumes, low-fat dairy, and plant-based or lean animal protein supports
good health.
Our analysis in depth for the previous answer option already showed that this
is precisely the diet recommended to support a good cardiovascular health,
more specifically this paragraph:
Likewise, the American Heart Association recently made diet and lifestyle
recommendations that included a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains,
legumes, low-fat dairy, and plant-based or lean animal protein to support
cardiovascular health.
We can conclude that this is the right alternative.
Option B: The reasons for the impact of diet on individual’s health are all
well known by healthcare providers worldwide.
‘Reasons’, ‘impact’, and ‘diet’ are good keywords here to find the relevant
information:
The fact that diet can impact an individual’s health is well acknowledged by
healthcare providers worldwide. People who have access to adequate
nutrition are more likely to have strong immune systems, safer pregnancy
and childbirth, lower risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and they
live longer. The reasons for this are myriad, complex, and not yet well
understood .
Note that the fact that diet has an impact on health is well known, but the
reasons why this happens are complex and not yet well understood. So this
option is incorrect .
Option A: Some research has shown that a diet low in sugars , saturated fats
and sodium protects against heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and poor gut
health.
This option is visibly wrong: according to the text, ‘[s]ome research has
shown that a diet rich in added sugars , saturated and trans fats and excess
sodium may induce chronic inflammation — an underlying risk factor in
the development of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, poor gut health, and other
chronic diseases’.
The passage does not explain the effects of a diet low in sugars, so we cannot
admit this alternative.
Exercise 13
A paper published last month by researchers in Spain documents the
effects of an online math tutoring program provided for about 175
socioeconomically disadvantaged students 12 to 15 years old in Madrid
and Catalonia in the spring of 2021, when schools had reopened after
COVID-19 shutdowns. The tutors were math teachers who’d undergone
15-20 hours of additional training in skills that included tutoring
techniques. Each tutor worked with groups of two students for eight
weeks. After school, when students were at home, they went online to
connect with their tutors for three 50-minute sessions per week. They
worked on math skills and concepts, but the tutors also helped students
build good work routines and supported their emotional well-being. The
researchers found that compared to a control group, students in the
tutoring program had higher standardized test scores and grades, and
were less likely to repeat a grade. They also were more likely to report
putting increased effort into their schoolwork. Researchers estimated
that the rise in the students’ grades was equivalent to the bump that six
additional months of learning would produce. ( Education Week )
A) The tutoring program provided for disadvantaged students included math
skills, study routines, and support to physical and mental well-being.
B) Each student under this programme had 1200 minutes of online tutoring
in total.
C) In comparison with the rest of the students of their schools, students in
the tutoring program were less likely to repeat a grade and more likely to
put increased effort into their tasks.
D) The progress in the students’ grades was sufficient to compensate six
months of the lost time in learning.
Solution :
Option D: The progress in the students’ grades was sufficient to
compensate six months of the lost time in learning.
Our text scanning shows (via ‘six months’) that the relevant data is located in
the last sentence of the article:
Researchers estimated that the rise in the students’ grades was equivalent to the
bump that six additional months of learning would produce.
We can observe that this is not comparable to the statement. The effect of six
additional months of learning (that is, when the students have already learned
for some time) does not have to necessarily equal the effect of six months of
lost time (when maybe they had no initial knowledge). Starting situations are
different, so the effect of six months of training could differ too.
We cannot accept this option.
Option C: In comparison with the rest of the students of their schools,
students in the tutoring program were less likely to repeat a grade and
more likely to put increased effort into their tasks.
The relevant information is again in the final part of the passage, just before
the last sentence that we already analysed:
The researchers found that compared to a control group , students in the
tutoring program had higher standardized test scores and grades, and were
less likely to repeat a grade. They also were more likely to report putting
increased effort into their schoolwork.
As you can see, the main difference between both assertions is at their
beginning: a ‘control group’ is not the same as ‘the rest of the students of
their schools’.
Note that a control group is usually a group with a similar number of
individuals but not subjected to the conditions of the research (a tutoring
programme in this case), so it allows researchers to better study effects and
consequences on the group under these conditions. For operational reasons, it
would rarely be composed of the entire remaining population.
Anyway, this would be ‘outside knowledge’ (basic statistics) that we do not
need – and must not use – to solve the question. The mere fact that both
concepts (the control group and the rest of the students) do not have to
necessarily be equal is reason enough to reject this option.
Option B: Each student under this programme had 1200 minutes of online
tutoring in total.
In order to check this option, we need to calculate how much online tutoring
time each student had.
We can extract from the passage numerical data that could be helpful for this
purpose:
175 socioeconomically disadvantaged students;

tutors were math teachers who’d undergone 15-20 hours of
additional training (spoiler alert: potential pitfall! This
information refers to training for teachers, not for students, so it
will be useless for our target);
each tutor worked with groups of two students for eight weeks;
when students were at home, they went online to connect with
their tutors for three 50-minute sessions per week.
So, the total number of students is irrelevant too, as we have the length of the
sessions (50 minutes), the number of sessions per week (3), and the total
number of weeks (8) of the tutoring programme. We only need to multiply
these figures to obtain the total time of online tutoring:
50 minutes/session * 3 sessions/week * 8 weeks = 1 200 minutes
We recommend writing down the specific item to which each figure is
referred (minutes, hours per week, lessons, students per room…) in your
calculations, because they can be helpful to ch eck that your operations were
correct, just by using the simplification of numerators and denominators that
we know. For example, in this case:
50 minutes/session * 3 sessions /week * 8 weeks = 1 200 minutes
We can validate this option and mark it as true.
Option A: The tutoring program provided for disadvantaged students
included math skills, study routines , and support to physical and mental
well-being .
This is the paragraph of the text that contains the pertinent information:
They worked on math skills and concepts, but the tutors also helped students
build good work routines and supported their emotional well-being .
We can quickly see that ‘physical well-being’ was not included in the
tutoring programme, so we must eliminate this option.
Exercise 14
A ridge etched into the ice sheet of Greenland provides an unexpected
hint that plentiful pockets of water may be trapped just underneath the
surface of Jupiter's ice-covered moon Europa, one of the solar system's
likeliest candidates to host microbial life. The surface of Europa, one of
Jupiter's four main moons, is covered with a 15-mile-thick (20
kilometers) ice crust, underneath which scientists believe an ocean
swashes. The ice crust is latticed with so-called double ridges, pairs of
long parallel raised lines with a vale in between, as much as hundreds of
miles or kilometers long. But there might be scientific promises much
closer to the frozen moon's surface, according to a new study that found
similarities between processes shaping the surface of the distant moon
and Earth's own icy Greenland. A recent analysis of satellite images
revealed that a strikingly similar ridge formed in the ice sheet covering
Greenland about 10 years ago. "This is the first time that we've seen a
double ridge like this on Earth," Riley Culberg, a lead author of the new
study, told Space.com. ( Space.com )
Which of the following statements is incorrect?
A) Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, is covered with an ice crust that could
contain an ocean underneath.
B) A double ridge like this had never been seen on Earth before the finding
in the ice sheet of Greenland.
C) If plentiful pockets of water were trapped underneath its surface, as
scientists believe, Europa is likely to host microbial life.
D) Double ridges in the ice crust with a vale in between are a good sign of
the potential existence of water below.
Solution :
We should pay special attention to this question because, when we have a
look at the standard question to verify if we are looking for the correct or
incorrect answer, we observe that this is one of the very rare cases in which
you must select the incorrect statement.
As we explained in our previous book on verbal reasoning, the vast majority
of EPSO tests ask about the true or correct answer, but we want to cover the
opposite case at least once in this book too, in order to always keep the
candidate watchful on this, and insisting in our recommendation of a quick
check of the standard question.
Let us start our study of the options from A to D, taking into account that, in
this exercise, we will have to reject three ‘correct’ answer options.
Option A: Europa , one of Jupiter’s moons, is covered with an ice crust that
could contain an ocean underneath .
It is easy to find the relevant sentence, through keywords such as ‘ice crust’
or ‘ocean’ (note that the noun ‘Europa’ is expected to be repeated more times
in an article on this moon, although it eventually appears only twice):
The surface of Europa , one of Jupiter's four main moons, is covered with a 15-
mile-thick (20 kilometers) ice crust , underneath which scientists believe an
ocean swashes.
Note that the expression ‘could contain’ (in the statement) fits the assertion of
the text: ‘scientist believe’.
So this option is right; it is not our target.
Option B: A double ridge like this had never been seen on Earth before the
finding in the ice sheet of Greenland .
We need to scan the full passage to get to the essential data here :
A recent analysis of satellite images revealed that a strikingly similar ridge
formed in the ice sheet covering Greenland about 10 years ago. "This is the
first time that we've seen a double ridge like this on Earth ," […].
Both pieces of information are equivalent. This implies that this option is
correct too.
Option C: If plentiful pockets of water were trapped underneath its
surface , as scientists believe, Europa is likely to host microbial life .
The first lines of the article give us the key to evaluate this alternative:
A ridge etched into the ice sheet of Greenland provides an unexpected hint
that plentiful pockets of water may be trapped just underneath the surface of
Jupiter's ice-covered moon Europa , one of the solar system's likeliest
candidates to host microbial life .
This is a good moment to remind our readers one of our tips and
recommendations: do not presume a cause-and-effect relationship just
because two facts are presented together or in chronological order. This is
what happens here.
This option presents a possibility (that plentiful pockets of water were
trapped underneath its surface ) as a condition (the word ‘if’ is key) to make
Europa likely to host microbial life, while the text passage just displayed this
information (Europa, one of the solar system's likeliest candidates to host
microbial life ) in a way unrelated to that possibility: there are no expressions
of causality such as ‘because’, ‘due to’, etc.
For this reason, we must select option C as the incorrect statement and our
answer to this question.
Option D: Double ridges in the ice crust with a vale in between are a good
sign of the potential existence of water below .
We should first focus on this sentence in the middle of the passage :
The ice crust is latticed with so-called double ridges , pairs of long parallel
raised lines with a vale in between , as much as hundreds of miles or
kilometers long.
Then, combining this with the information that we already read for the
previous options (‘A ridge etched into the ice sheet of Greenland provides an
unexpected hint that plentiful pockets of water may be trapped […]’) and
other sentences (‘according to a new study that found similarities between
processes shaping the surface of the distant moon and Earth's own icy
Greenland’), as well as the general idea of the article that we should extract
by our own verbal reasoning, we can conclude that the statement in option D
is also true.
Exercise 15
On Sunday, 18-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz won the Miami Open,
tournament in its 37-year history. After winning his first Masters 1000
title, Alcaraz was congratulated by his country's most famous tennis
player — 21-time grand slam winner Nadal, who earned his "King of
Clay" moniker due to his dominance on Roland Garros' red stuff.
Nadal wrote on Twitter. "The first of many to come, for sure." Alcaraz
was also lauded by Spain's King Felipe VI. "I was more nervous for that
call than the match," a smiling Alcaraz said after winning the Miami
Open. "It's pretty amazing that the Spanish king congratulates you on
the hard work that you put every day and your win. It's something that
you never thought you were going to receive, a Spanish king call. It's
amazing." ( CNN/ Sports )
A) Nadal congratulated Alcaraz for his Miami Open title, which had also
been won previously by Nadal, but being older than Alcaraz.
B) Carlos Alcaraz, a young tennis player from Murcia, Spain, beated the
Norwegian Casper Ruud to become the youngest winner of the Miami
Open tournament in its history.
C) Despite his short tennis career, Alcaraz has already won some Masters
1000 titles, but never the Miami Open.
D) The young winner, Carlitos, never expected to receive one day a call
from the Spain’s King.
Solution :
The background colour of this sport article is the orange of the clay on the
tennis court. Let us analyse the four answer options.
Option A: Nadal congratulated Alcaraz for his Miami Open title, which
had also been won previously by Nadal , but being older than Alcaraz.
We can use the not common word ‘congratulated’ to find the relevant part of
the passage:
After winning his first Masters 1000 title, Alcaraz was congratulated by his
country's most famous tennis player — 21-time grand slam winner Nadal
, who earned his "King of Clay" moniker due to his dominance on Roland
Garros' red stuff.
To verify the specific title (Miami Open ), we need to analyse the first
sentence too:
On Sunday, 18-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz won the Miami Open ,
tournament in its 37-year history.
This introduction in the article is useful to obtain relevant information for one
or more answer options.
You can observe in most exercises that reading the first lines of the articles is
usually a good strategy. That is why we recommended doing so in our
combined method, as we explained in our first book.
In this case, however, we still need to validate the second part of the
statement (being older than Alcaraz ). The fact that Alcaraz was the youngest
winner of the title ever does not imply that Nadal was one of the previous
winners (regardless his amazing winning record, which is outside
knowledge).
We proceed to scan the full text, looking for some evidence, but we cannot
find anything to support it: no mention to Nadal’s victories, except for
Roland Garros tournament. So we must refuse this option.
Option B: Carlos Alcaraz , a young tennis player from Murcia, Spain ,
beated the Norwegian Casper Ruud to become the youngest winner of the
Miami Open tournament in its history.
Again here, the statement provides additional data that are not proven by the
text. According to the first lines that we have read, we cannot know the
hometown of Alcaraz or the nationality of Ruud. In this case, using external
knowledge, it turns out that both data are correct, so this could be a trap for
candidates who are tennis fans or just familiar with the subject.
Therefore, this is a ‘cannot say’ statement that we must remove from our
possible answers.
Option C: Despite his short tennis career , Alcaraz has already won some
Masters 1000 titles, but never the Miami Open .
According to the information that we already analysed (‘After winning his
first Masters 1000 title, Alcaraz […]’), we know that this player never won a
Masters 1000 title before, so this answer option is false.
Option D: The young winner , Carlitos , never expected to receive one day
a call from the Spain’s King .
The second half of the article shows the relevant data to check this statement:
Alcaraz was also lauded by Spain's King Felipe VI. "I was more nervous for
that call than the match," a smiling Alcaraz said after winning the Miami
Open. "It's pretty amazing that the Spanish king congratulates you on the hard
work that you put every day and your win. It's something that you never
thought you were going to receive , a Spanish king call. It's amazing. "
By the comments of Alcaraz, we can say with certainty that the young player
never expected to receive that call from the Spain’s King.
The nickname ‘Carlitos’ – applied to the player who won in Miami – can be
verified in a previous sentence:
Nadal wrote on Twitter.
All this proves that option D is correct.
Exercise 16
Keeping our eyes focused on what we reach for, whether it be an item at
the grocery store or a ground ball on the baseball field, may appear
seamless, but, in fact, is due to a complex neurological process involving
intricate timing and coordination. In a newly published study in the
journal Nature , a team of researchers sheds additional light on the
machinations that ensure we don't look away from where we are
reaching. The work centers on a form of coordinated looking and reach
called "gaze anchoring" — the temporary stoppage of eye movements in
order to coordinate reaches. "Our results show that we anchor our gaze
to the target of the reach movement, thereby looking at that target for
longer periods," explains Bijan Pesaran, a professor at NYU's Center for
Neural Science and one of the paper's authors. "This is what makes our
reaches much more accurate.” The study, conducted with Maureen
Hagan, a neuroscientist at Australia's Monash University, explores the
frequently studied but not well understood process of gaze anchoring. (
Science Daily )
A) The process of gaze anchoring, or the temporary stoppage of eye
movements to coordinates reaches, is more complex than it may seem.
B) Maureen Hagan, one of the study’s authors, is a neuroscientist at
Australia's Monash University.
C) The professor at NYU’s Center for Neural Science has a different
D) It is more complex to keep our eyes focused on an item at the grocery
store than on a ground ball on the baseball field.
Solution :
Option A: The process of gaze anchoring , or the temporary stoppage of
eye movements to coordinates reaches , is more complex than it may seem
.
Once more, our strategy of reading the first lines of the article to get an
overview of the topic and even directly answer some questions would save us
valuable time in this exercise. Nevertheless, we can also employ the keyword
‘complex’ for our search of the corresponding paragraph – the first one:
Keeping our eyes focused on what we reach for, whether it be an item at the
grocery store or a ground ball on the baseball field, may appear seamless,
but, in fact, is due to a complex neurological process involving intricate timing
and coordination.
This initial information is more than enough to consider this option as a very
good candidate to be the right one.
In any case, we should have a look to the rest of the passage to confirm this
view and discard potential surprises.
By the middle of the text, it mentions a work centred on a form of
coordinated looking and reach called " gaze anchoring " — the temporary
stoppage of eye movements in order to coordinate reaches .
Then, at the end of the article, it says that the study explores the frequently
studied but not well understood process of gaze anchoring .
With all these pieces of information, we can corroborate that our initial
overview is accurate and this is the correct answer option.
In your exam, you could move on to the next question and save a precious
time. Only if you still had time available after finishing the last question, you
could spend it checking the previously discarded options .
Option B: Maureen Hagan , one of the study’s authors , is a neuroscientist
at Australia's Monash University .
In our analysis of option A, we already read the data that we need to assess
this option, in the last sentence of the article:
The study , conducted with Maureen Hagan , a neuroscientist at Australia's
Monash University , explores […].
Note that the verb ‘to conduct’ can mean ‘to lead’ or ‘to guide’, but also ‘to
organise’ or ‘to present’. In addition, the preposition ‘with’ is essential here,
because ‘conducted with’, in this context, can mean ‘carried out with’ or
‘organised with’, so Maureen Hagan could likely be one of the collaborators
in the research, but not necessarily one of the study’s authors (as it is the case
of Bijan Pesaran, a professor at NYU's Center for Neural Science, mentioned
in a previous sentence with this role). Therefore, we must delete this option.
Option C: The professor at NYU’s Center for Neural Science has a different
We have no references or comments on the opinion of Maureen Hagan, the
neuroscientist at Australia’s Monash University, so we do not even need to
read the views of the NYU professor: this is a ‘cannot say’ statement that we
must reject too.
Option D: It is more complex to keep our eyes focused on an item at the
grocery store than on a ground ball on the baseball field .
Contrary to this statement, the first lines of the passage equated both actions
(‘whether it be an item at the grocery store or a ground ball on the baseball
field’), when considering the complex process of keeping our eyes focused.
This answer option cannot be accepted either.
Exercise 17
The language sciences have for a long time assumed that the sound of a
word should tell us nothing about what it means. This is meant to explain
why different languages often use very different sound patterns to
express the same meaning. For example, the perennial woody plant that
we refer to in English as “tree” is “ Baum ” in German, “ arbre” in
French, and “shù” ( 樹 ) in Mandarin Chinese. Of course, languages
contain onomatopoeia such as beep, bang and buzz – but many scholars,
like Steven Pinker, have argued that such sound-meaning relations are
mere exceptions that prove the rule. However, as language scientists
have looked more closely at the world’s more than 7,000 languages, they
have discovered that sound symbolism is no rare exception but arises in
many shapes and forms. For example, if you pick a language at random
that has the concept of “red”, the corresponding word is more likely than
not to have an “r” sound in it — such as “ rød ” in Danish, “ rouge ” in
French, and “ krasnyy ” ( красный ) in Russian. This doesn’t mean that
an “r” sound always means “red”, only that words for red often have “r”
sounds in them the world over. ( The Conversation )
A) An “r” sound in a word for a colour usually means that the colour is
“red”, if you pick a language that has this concept of “red”.
B) It is more likely than not to have an “r” sound in the words for red.
C) Onomatopoeia implies sound-meaning relations, which are mere
exceptions in the world’s more than 7,000 languages.
D) It is easier to learn a language with many onomatopoeic words than with
few.
Solution :
We can see that option D is much shorter than A, so it is reasonable to start
analysing the answer options in reverse order here.
Option D: It is easier to learn a language with many onomatopoeic words
than with few.
Maybe when you did this exercise, you selected the term ‘onomatopoeic’ to
scan the text, and this is a good try indeed – it is a quite uncommon word that
only appears once:
Of course, languages contain onomatopoeia such as beep, bang and buzz –
but many scholars, like Steven Pinker, have argued that such sound-meaning
relations are mere exceptions that prove the rule. However, as language
scientists have looked more closely at the world’s more than 7,000
languages, they have discovered that sound symbolism is no rare exception
but arises in many shapes and forms.
Unfortunately, neither the corresponding sentence nor the subsequent one is
related to the issue that we have to verify.
In this sense, and considering that we are already advanced students in verbal
reasoning (!), our advice to speed up the process of evaluating the answer
options is to refine your selection of keywords for your search as much as
possible: if there is a word that necessarily has to appear in the article to
confirm the validity of the statement, our best strategy is choosing this word
(and its synonyms) to find the relevant data or, in case it does not appear, to
reject the answer option.
Note that, in this case, to validate this option, you need to prove that
something is easier to learn than something else. So the verb ‘to learn’ (or its
synonyms) would have to appear in the passage, and consequently it is a
better keyword to search.
We can see in a quick text scanning that this word or other similar (‘training’,
‘courses’, ‘lessons’) are not mentioned in the article .
Therefore, there is no way to prove the statement in option D with the
information provided, and we must delete it.
Option C: Onomatopoeia implies sound-meaning relations , which are
mere exceptions in the world’s more than 7,000 languages .
The terms ‘onomatopoeia’ or ‘exceptions’ will lead us to the same paragraph
that we presented above:
Of course, languages contain onomatopoeia such as beep, bang and buzz –
but many scholars , like Steven Pinker, have argued that such sound-meaning
relations are mere exceptions that prove the rule. However , as language
scientists have looked more closely at the world’s more than 7,000 languages,
they have discovered that sound symbolism is no rare exception but arises in
many shapes and forms.
As you can see, the first part of the statement (onomatopoeia implies sound-
meaning relations ) matches the content of the article, but the second one
does not: according to language scientists , after studying more than 7,000
languages , they discovered that sound symbolism is no rare exception , but,
on the contrary, it is presented in many forms.
We must abandon option C too.
Option B: It is more likely than not to have an “r” sound in the words for
red .
The last lines of the passage, which can be located through red or “r” sound
as keywords, show us the information required to verify this statement:
For example, if you pick a language at random that has the concept of “red”
the corresponding word is more likely than not to have an “r” sound in it —
such as “ rød” in Danish, “ rouge” in French, and “ krasnyy” ( красный) in
Russian. This doesn’t mean that an “r” sound always means “red”, only that
words for red often have “r” sounds in them the world over .
We can observe that this information (words for red are more likely than not
to have an “r” sound) perfectly matches the assertion in option B, so this is
the right answer.
Option A: An “r” sound in a word for a colour usually means that the colour
is “red”, if you pick a language that has this concept of “red”.
This statement can be soon eliminated by using the same paragraph that we
analysed for the previous option: an “r” sound does not mean that a colour is
“red”. The cause-effect relationship described in the article works in the
opposite way, as we said (words for red often have “r” sounds ).
Exercise 18
Representation in film and television is something that so many people
have been striving for decades now. There’s still work to be done within
the industry to ensure that diverse experiences are being portrayed on
screen, but Hollywood has made strides in recent years. The deaf
community is such a group that has experienced an increase in visibility
over the years, which has been a true joy to witness. Viewers have gotten
to see some incredible movie and TV characters played by deaf actors,
plenty of stellar performances. Looking back at one of these truly
fantastic characters, it’s honestly hard not to think about Sarah Norman
from Randa Haines’ 1986 romance, Children of a Lesser God , and the
person who brought the character to life on screen – Marlee Matlin, then
aged 21. This film was actually the actress’ first movie role, and it earned
her an Oscar for Best Actress, making her the first deaf performer to
even win an Academy Award. ( Cinema Blend )
A) Many people have been striving for decades to play good characters in
film and television, although this is harder for deaf actors.
B) The deaf community has raised its visibility in film over time, which
allowed viewers to enjoy amazing characters played by deaf actresses,
like the Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin.
C) Randa Haines was the character played by Marlee Matlin in the film
Children of a Lesser God .
D) Marlee Matlin was the first deaf performer to win an Academy Award,
and the youngest winner in the Best Actress category.
Solution :
Option D: Marlee Matlin was the first deaf performer to win an Academy
Award , and the youngest winner in the Best Actress category.
Good fans of cinema or this actress’ followers will probably know that this
assertion is completely true. However, when we drafted this statement, we
wanted to draw your attention again about not using outside knowledge to
evaluate the options: you must always stick to the information provided in the
text.
So let us study this option with our usual care.
The word ‘first’ is a necessary term in the passage in order to confirm this
statement. It appears twice in the last sentence:
This film was actually the actress’ first movie role, and it earned her an Oscar
for Best Actress , making her the first deaf performer to even win an Academy
Award .
We also need to check the name of the actress, which is in the previous
sentence, accompanied by her age (this is potentially useful to verify if she
was the youngest winner): Marlee Matlin , then aged 21 .
The initial part of the statement is correct, as Marlee Matlin was the first deaf
performer to win an Academy Award. But, in the rest of the article, there is
no confirmation on the second part: we cannot know, by the information
provided, whether she was the youngest winner in the Best Actress category
or not.
This is a ‘cannot say’ statement, according to the data from the passage, so
we must refuse this option.
We offer our readers an additional tip here. Note that, in several exercises,
when we look for the information associated to option D in the passage, the
relevant sentences are many times located at the final part of the article. In a
similar way, the data corresponding to option A is quite often placed at the
beginning of the text.
This is because many test designers have a natural tendency towards the
progressive creation of the four options by extracting information along the
passage in a structured way, and also with the target of avoiding
concentrating all data required to solve the question in one or two paragraphs
and facilitating too much the candidates’ task.
So, when you decide carrying out your analysis of the options from D to A, it
could be helpful to scan the article in a ‘reverse way’, that is, starting with the
final sentences, in order to speed up your search; while you should better
keep the natural way – starting from the beginning of the passage, when you
perform your analysis from A to D.
Option C: Randa Haines was the character played by Marlee Matlin in
the film Children of a Lesser God .
The name of the actress easily guides us to the lines that we should study:
Looking back at one of these truly fantastic characters , it’s honestly hard not
to think about Sarah Norman from Randa Haines’ 1986 romance, Children
of a Lesser God , and the person who brought the character to life on screen
Marlee Matlin , then aged 21.
So it is clear that Sarah Norman was the character played by Marlee Matlin,
and not Ronda Haines (Ms Haines was the director of the film). This answer
option is wrong.
Option B: The deaf community has raised its visibility in film over time,
which allowed viewers to enjoy amazing characters played by deaf
actresses , like the Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin .
‘Deaf community’ and/or ‘visibility’ conduct the candidate to the third and
fourth sentences of the text:
The deaf community is such a group that has experienced an increase in
visibility over the years, which has been a true joy to witness. Viewers have
gotten to see some incredible movie and TV characters played by deaf actors
plenty of stellar performances.
When we put this information together with the data already seen about
Marlee Matlin and her Oscar for Best Actress, we can conclude that option B
is correct.
Option A: Many people have been striving for decades to play good
characters in film and television, although this is harder for deaf actors.
The initial lines of the articles, which we had not analysed yet, correspond to
the assertion presented in this option:
Representation in film and television is something that so many people have
been striving for decades now. There’s still work to be done within the industry
to ensure that diverse experiences are being portrayed on screen, but
Hollywood has made strides in recent years.
About the situation of the deaf actors, we already saw that the ‘deaf
community is such a group that has experienced an increase in visibility over
the years’, although nothing is said about how hard it is for them to strive to
play good characters.
So the first phrase of the statement is true (‘[m]any people have been striving
for decades to play good characters in film and television’), but the second
one is not: we cannot prove that this is harder for deaf actors only with the
data extracted from the text. We have to dismiss this option.
Exercise 19
Japan has one of the oldest national anthems in the world. ‘Kimigayo’ is
the country’s single-verse national anthem, based on the words of a
classical Japanese waka poem written by an unknown author during
Japan’s Heian period (794–1185). As well as being one of the oldest
known national anthems, it is also the world’s shortest, standing at just a
single verse. The melody for the Japanese national anthem today uses
music composed by court composers Yoshiisa Oku and Akimori
Hayashi, arranged by the German composer Franz Eckert in 1880. The
title of the anthem is usually translated as ‘His Imperial Majesty’s
Reign’ and the short hymn really is about the worship of Japan’s
emperor, wishing their reign to be a long and prosperous one. As a
result, it’s shrouded in controversy. Many in Japan and other Asian
countries raise an eyebrow at the song’s association with militarism, and
the virtual worship of the emperor encouraged by its lyrics. ( Classic fm )
A) Japan has not only the second oldest national anthem, but also the
world’s shortest, standing at just a single verse.
B) All Japanese people unreservedly support the lyrics of their national
anthem.
C) Japan had the oldest national anthem in the world until its melody was
arranged by a German composer in 1880.
D) ‘Kimigayo’, the title of the anthem, is usually translated as ‘His Imperial
Majesty’s Reign’.
Solution :
Option D: ‘Kimigayo’ , the title of the anthem , is usually translated as
‘His Imperial Majesty’s Reign ’.
Normally, as we saw in previous exercises, a word as ‘Kimigayo’ would be a
good keyword for your text scanning, because it is expected to be uncommon
and not repeated (as it happens in this article, in fact).
Nonetheless, when we read the first two lines to corroborate the title of the
anthem (‘ Kimigayo’ is the country’s single-verse national anthem ), we can
observe that the topic of the article is precisely this, the national anthem of
Japan. So we can reasonably think that this word could probably appear more
often in this case, and we can try other keywords, such as ‘translated’ or
‘Imperial Majesty’, to locate the information that we need.
One way or another, we smoothly get to the fifth sentence of the passage:
The title of the anthem is usually translated as ‘His Imperial Majesty’s Reign
[…].
This accurately matches the statement, so option D is right. Now we only
need to have a quick look to the other options in order to discard a potential
mistake.
Option C: Japan had the oldest national anthem in the world until its
melody was arranged by a German composer in 1880 .
According to the first lines that we already read, the article is unambiguous:
Japan has one of the oldest national anthems in the world .
This is stated in present , so the anthem is still considered one of the oldest in
the world, regardless the arrangements made in the melody. We have to
discard this option .
Option B: All Japanese people unreservedly support the lyrics of their
national anthem .
The final part of the article says:
As a result, it’s shrouded in controversy . Many in Japan and other Asian
countries raise an eyebrow at the song’s association with militarism , and the
virtual worship of the emperor encouraged by its lyrics .
Therefore, on the contrary of the assertion in this option, not everybody in
Japan supports the lyrics of their anthem; we must eliminate it too.
Option A: Japan has not only the second oldest national anthem , but also
the world’s shortest , standing at just a single verse .
This statement provides additional information (‘the second oldest national
anthem’) that it is not supported by the article, which just declared:
As well as being one of the oldest known national anthems , it is also the
world’s shortest , standing at just a single verse .
We do not know how to rank Kimigayo among the oldest national anthems
(whether second, third, fourth, or somewhere else), so we must also delete
this option.
Exercise 20
Guinness World Records – originally the Guinness Book of Records –
the ultimate authority on record-breaking achievements, started out as
an idea for a book of facts to solve arguments in pubs. The idea came
about in the early 1950’s when Sir Hugh Beaver (1890- 1967), Managing
Director of the Guinness Brewery, attended a shooting party in County
Wexford. There, he and his hosts argued about the fastest game bird in
Europe and failed to find an answer in any reference book. In 1954,
recalling his shooting party argument, Sir Hugh had the idea for a
Guinness promotion based on the idea of settling pub arguments and
invited the twins Norris (1925-2004) and Ross McWhirter (1925-75) who
were fact-finding researchers from Fleet Street to compile a book of facts
and figures. After an initial research phase, work began on writing the
book, which took 13 and a half 90-hour weeks, including weekends and
bank holidays. Little did the McWhirters know that taking shape was a
book that would go on to become an all-time best seller. ( Guinness World
Records )
A) The Guinness Book of Records started out as an idea for a book to solve
arguments in pubs then frequented by journalists and researchers from
Fleet Street.
B) The McWhirter twins worked on the book for 13.5 weeks, 90 hours per
business week, plus weekends and bank holidays.
C) Ross McWhirter outlived his twin brother by almost 30 years.
D) Writing the book took the McWhirters around 1200 hours in total.
Solution :
When we have a look at the answer options, we detect that options D and C
are shorter, so, once again, we will start checking options from D to A.
Option D: Writing the book took the McWhirters around 1200 hours in
total .
Note that the relevant information to check option D is again at the final part
of the article. We can locate it by the term ‘hour’:
After an initial research phase, work began on writing the book , which took
13 and a half 90-hour weeks , including weekends and bank holidays. Little
did the McWhirters know that taking shape was a book that would go on to
become an all-time best seller.
We will need a bit of numerical reasoning – linked to verbal skills – in this
exercise.
According to the passage, writing the book took 13.5 weeks, employing 90-
hours per week.
So, to calculate the total number of hours employed in this task, we have to
multiply both figures:
13.5 weeks * 90 hours/weeks
You can verify that, with this operation, you will obtain a figure measured in
hours (your target):
13.5 weeks * 90 hours/weeks = ???? hours
We have to face the obstacle of (most likely) not having a calculator available
in our verbal reasoning test. And of course we recommend that you never use
calculators in your practice of verbal exercises.
So we need to perform some mental calculations, or at least estimations, to
solve the operation above: 13.5 * 90 .
In principle, to avoid working with decimals , we can eliminate the 0.5 and
simply estimate 13 * 90.
This operation could be done without difficulty with your pen and paper,
which are always allowed for all reasoning tests [3] . This way, you could
multiply 13 * 9 and then add a zero to your result.
Still, we want to simplify even more your calculations in order to ensure that
all candidates, no matter how hard they find arithmetic, are able to mentally
solve their exercises.
Our advice is to round figures when possible by using multiples of 10 .
So we can break down the previous multiplication, 13 * 90, into two parts:
10 * 90, and
3 * 90
We can do this because of the basic properties of multiplications, but, even if
you do not remember them since your school days, you can deduce this
through the particular exercise: for example, we can suppose that the authors
of the Guinness book were first working for 10 weeks, 90 hours per week,
and then other 3 weeks, 90 hours per week too. The total amount of time has
to match the initial problem, that is, (10 + 3) * 90.
Using this little ‘shortcut’, we have simplified a lot our calculation, which can
be performed now mentally and in a few seconds:
10 * 90 = 900
3 * 90 = 270 (you can do 3 * 9 and then add a zero)
Total time of work: 900 + 270 = 1170 hours
(This addition is equivalent to 900 + 200 + 70, if you need to see it more
clearly) .
Finally, this result (1170 hours) is close enough to the statement in option D
(around 1200 hours), and we can select it as the correct answer.
If you still have some available time in your exam, you can be more precise
and add to your result the half week (0.5) that we skipped before to avoid
working with decimals.
You only need to reason this way: if the authors worked for 90 hours per
week, for how long did they work in half a week?
Obviously, 45 hours (that is, 90/2).
Then, we are ready to put the icing on the cake; we add these 45 hours to our
previous result and get the exact total time it took these authors to write the
book:
1170 + 45 = 1215 hours
(This is equivalent to 1170 + 40 + 5).
This final result is even closer to the answer option that we have selected.
Note that, despite our long, detailed explanation of this procedure to simplify
figures and calculations, you would not need more than 30 or 40 seconds to
carry out the simple operations presented here, if you use our tips and
shortcuts.
We remind you that our two books on numerical reasoning are at your
disposal to help you improve and practise your skills in this field.
Option C: Ross McWhirter outlived his twin brother by almost 30 years .
With the aim of assessing this statement, we must check the death dates of
both brothers. This information is noticeably provided by the text: ‘the twins
Norris (1925-2004 ) and Ross McWhirter (1925-75 )’ .
Thus, Ross McWhirter did not outlive his twin brother; in fact, he died first,
in 1975. It was Norris who outlived Ross by almost 30 years (more precisely,
2004 – 1975 = 29 years). This option is wrong.
Option B: The McWhirter twins worked on the book for 13.5 weeks , 90
hours per business week , plus weekends and bank holidays .
According to the data that we already analysed, this option is adding some
information not supported by the text. It says ‘business week’ and it assumes
that the twins worked additional hours during weekends and bank holidays.
As we explained in our initial recommendations, we are not allowed to make
assumptions or add external information to answer these verbal exercises. So
we cannot accept this alternative either.
Option A: The Guinness Book of Records started out as an idea for a book
to solve arguments in pubs then frequented by journalists and researchers
from Fleet Street .
The validity of the first assertion in this option can be confirmed literally in
the first lines of the article:
Guinness World Records – originally the Guinness Book of Records – the
ultimate authority on record-breaking achievements, started out as an idea for
a book of facts to solve arguments in pubs .
Then, we have to verify if pubs were frequented at that time by journalists
and researchers from Fleet Street.
Note that this place in London is well-known worldwide because most British
national newspapers operated from here for centuries, and its pubs were
frequented by journalists, so the term ‘Fleet Street’ remains a metonym (a
concept used to refer to another closely associated) for the British national
press. This is, of course, common knowledge, so using this term here could
be a ‘trap’ for the candidate, if this link between concepts is not included in
the passage too. We proceed to scan the text to look for this term:
In 1954 , […] Sir Hugh had the idea for a Guinness promotion based on the
idea of settling pub arguments and invited the twins Norris (1925-2004) and
Ross McWhirter (1925-75) who were fact-finding researchers from Fleet
Street to compile a book of facts and figures.
Thus, the only reference to Fleet Street is made about the origin of the
McWhirters, and we cannot use the external knowledge on this famous street
to affirm that its pubs were then (in 1954) frequented by journalists and
researchers, even if this is completely true, as it is.
For this reason, we must discard this option too.
Interestingly, we, ‘verbal reasoners’, are also ‘fact-finders’ (like the
McWhirter twins!), but – fortunately for us – our search scope is limited to
the lines of the articles that we have to scan and analyse: we can only accept
facts that are fully proven by the passage.
By the way, you can see that, along this book, we have set more ‘D correct
answers’ than the average, as a little gift to our most creative readers and,
especially, to those ones who acquired this second volume to deepen and
progress in solving techniques and new shortcuts for verbal reasoning tests.
Still, we consider that analysing the options in the natural or reverse order
will not have an additional advantage in your exam and it is just a matter of
personal choice, unless one of them is shorter and can be assessed faster , as
we have described and practised in our book.
6. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
In this last chapter, we are going to summarise our method and strategies to
solve verbal reasoning questions, and bring together all the tips and
recommendations that we have presented throughout our two books in this
field.
We propose this systematic method to deal with these exercises:
1) Read the first sentence of the text passage, to get an outline of the
topic, and especially if you are going to check the answer options from A
to D.
2) Read the standard question, to verify if it asks you for the correct or
incorrect answer.
3) Read the answer options, taking mental notes of their keywords. You
can do this separately for each option and proceed to step 4 (our
recommendation for most candidates) or with the four options in a row.
Analysing them from A to D, or from D to A, is a matter of personal
preference, unless one of them is shorter; in that case, we recommend
starting with that option, because it can be assessed faster.
4) Check the answer options against the information provided by the
passage, using the scanning technique, to eliminate the ones that cannot
be proven by using only that information.
5) Select the response option fully supported by the text.
Next, after combining our experience and practice throughout our two books,
we suggest some strategies and recommendations that will be helpful to
improve your performance in these tests.
We have classified them into two groups :
a) Practical tips:
- Be cautious with insufficient information or ‘cannot say’
statements; never use outside knowledge and do not make
assumptions .
- In line with the previous, be careful with topics that are familiar to
you , because of your studies or professional experience.
- Highlight the keywords that take the meaning of a statement to an
extreme point, that is to say, not admitting any exceptions : e.g.,
“always”, ”never”, “all”, “none”… For this reason, they are more
likely to be incorrect and are frequently used as pitfalls.
- Pay attention to keywords that limit the scope of the information
provided in the text passage, for example: particular, specific,
various, certain… To select the right answer, you should avoid
making generalisations on a larger group that the one specified in the
text.
- Be alert to similar, but not exact, expressions and meanings, as well

as adjectives and adverbs like “some”/”any”, “hardly”/”mostly”,
“not many”/”quite a few”, “sometimes”/”often”,
“partially”/”completely” and others.
- Avoid pitfalls on over-specification (provision of additional
information not confirmed in the passage), even if the added data
seems logical according to common knowledge.
- Look at the answer options with ‘fresh eyes’ , that is, not expecting
that they always match your own conclusions from the text passage:
they can focus on a specific aspect or idea of the text, or omit some
apparently relevant information, and still be fully correct statements
by themselves.
- Do not presume a cause-and-effect relationship just because two
facts are presented in chronological order.
- Do not forget to check the standard question : even though the vast
majority of EPSO verbal reasoning tests ask you to select the correct
or true answer. In the opposite case, the incorrect answer will be the
one that is fully disproven by the information in the text passage.
- To use the scanning technique, look for specific and precise

keywords that are not very repeated in the text, and, if possible,
essential : their absence will automatically imply that the statement
is wrong.
- Reading the first lines of the passage sometimes allows you to

directly assess the first and/or the second answer options .
- After finding your right answer to the exercise , have a quick look at
the other options , unless you are running out of time at the exam:
sometimes more than one interpretation is possible, or the precision
of a statement could be improved by others.
- The more restrictions are added to a response option (statement), the

harder it is to prove that option .
- The less absolute or extreme a statement is, the more likely it is to

be correct .
- If you decide carrying out your analysis of the options from D to A ,
it could be helpful to scan the article in a ‘reverse way’, that is,
starting with the final sentences .
- Remember that, in certain questions, you will be required to apply

some numerical reasoning too . But do not be afraid of this, as
numbers always provide a greater degree of confidence in answering
any question.
b) General recommendations:
- Be aware of time management : if we must solve 20 questions in 35

minutes, then we have 1 minute and 45 seconds per question. We
can check how our progress is going; for example, we should have
responded the question number 10 having at least 17 minutes and 30
seconds remaining before the end of the exam. I strongly recommend
not getting stuck in a complicated question, and learning to mentally
distribute your time per question. Ideally, we can set the goal of
answering at a rate of 1 minute and 30 seconds per question, to leave
some slack time for especially complicated or longer questions.
- Always answer all questions : remember that there is no negative
marking for incorrect answers in this test, so it is a must to answer all
the questions, even if we had only a few seconds left and were
forced to do it randomly for our last responses, trying to choose the
most likely and reasonable ones (i.e., the less restrictive and extreme
ones).
- Practise as much as you can , by using different materials and
sources, sticking to the time, and simulating exam conditions as far
as possible.
- Read a lot about a wide variety of themes, and especially unfamiliar
matters to you, in order to increase your reading speed and enlarge
your specific vocabulary.
- Summarise articles and news in two or three sentences to train your
brain in extracting the main ideas of text passages with a similar
length to the ones in verbal reasoning tests. Then double-check that
you were precise and grasped their full meaning, not incurring in
generalisations or other mistakes.
- Most of the articles selected by EPSO for verbal reasoning tests are
really interesting to read, and it is often thrilling to expand your
knowledge about new topics or recent discoveries. So, even
considering the time restrictions and stress of the exam, try to relax a
little and enjoy the reading ! The more you immerse yourself in its
content, the better you will interpret its meaning and draw the right
conclusions.
APPRECIATION TO THE READER
I would like to thank you for the confidence in acquiring this book, and
transmit again my best wishes for all selective procedures that you may try in
the future.
It is important to remember that a candidate for open competitions is similar
to a long-distance runner: you have to maintain the effort and concentration
to train and practise for several months, or even years, while waiting for the
publication of the call you are interested in, the date of your tests or the
invitation for your interview. It is not convenient to give up if you do not pass
on the first try, since the know-how gained is of great help in the next attempt
or in other similar competitions, as my own experience shows.
I recommend the acquisition of the books that I have published in this same
collection, intended to improve numerical and abstract reasoning skills, if you
feel that you can progress in those fields, as well as my books for several
CAST profiles and for different tests and interviews in EPSO competitions.
I would ask you to please make all the comments and suggestions that you
wish through the Amazon website, and I would appreciate that you evaluated
my work there too, which will help me to continue publishing future editions
and updates of these manuals, in addition to new guides to other competitions
and calls.
Finally, please do not hesitate to contact me on social networks (I use my full
name on Facebook and LinkedIn), if you ever need additional advice.
[1]
We recommend our books on numerical reasoning in case you wish to improve your skills in this
essential field:
How to succeed in EPSO numerical reasoning tests: https://www.amazon.es/succeed-EPSO-numerical-
reasoning-tests/dp/1096623943 .
How to succeed in EPSO numerical reasoning tests, volume 2 : ( https://www.amazon.es/succeed-
EPSO-numerical-reasoning-tests/dp/1679061488 ).
[2]
This is different from some strategies that we explained in our books for numerical and abstract
reasoning tests, e.g., distributing some right items over several options is hard to avoid if the test
designer wants to keep them ‘attractive’ to the candidate.
[3]
You should check any potential change in future competitions by carefully reading the respective
Notice of Competition.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

He is an economist and official at the public administration in Spain, having

3.1. Overview on EPSO verbal tests

- Highlight the keywords that take the meaning of a statement to a

- Be alert to similar, but not exact, expressions and meanings, as well

- Be aware of time management : if we must solve 20 questions in 35

175 socioeconomically disadvantaged students;

- Be alert to similar, but not exact, expressions and meanings, as well

- To use the scanning technique, look for specific and precise

- Reading the first lines of the passage sometimes allows you to

- The more restrictions are added to a response option (statement), the

- The less absolute or extreme a statement is, the more likely it is to

- Remember that, in certain questions, you will be required to apply

- Be aware of time management : if we must solve 20 questions in 35

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