Some suggestions for doing the english readingcomprehension test effectively in the national examination for GCSE and the entrance exam

Students are habituated to solve simple and direct passages in theirschool days, but when it comes to competitive exams as national examinationfor GCSE and the entrance exam to universit

PART A: INTRODUCTION

I Rationale for the study

In the trend of global integration, English is considered as an internationallanguage It is the major language of intercommunication, internationalcommerce, business, science, culture and so on In Vietnam, the economic open-door policy pursued by the Government has increased the demand for usingEnglish Therefore , there has been a positive trend of teaching and learningEnglish across the country English is also introduced to the educationalcurriculum from primary education (optional) to tertiary education (compulsory)

In recent years, Lam Kinh high school as well as the other high schools

in rural and mountainous areas , teaching and learning English has been takeninto consideration In the process of teaching and learning English, readingcomprehension skill is by far the most important of the four macro-skills It can

be said that reading comprehension skill becomes very important and essentialfor language learners that all important exams such as the national ExaminationFor GCSE , the entrance exam to university… are focusing on testing readingcomprehension skill of learners

However, teaching and learning reading comprehension at Lam KinhHigh School is not very effective and is still far from satisfactory for variousreasons Students are habituated to solve simple and direct passages in theirschool days, but when it comes to competitive exams as national examinationfor GCSE and the entrance exam to university) the task becomes difficult Being unable to understand the vocabulary (meaning of words) and concept ofthe passage, getting used to the habit of word-by-word reading; focusingexcessively on details rather than main ideas; poor vocabulary and limitedbackground knowledge are the obstacles that make students embarrassed andworried about the reading comprehension test As a result they may fail tosolve it or ignore it all

In order to help the students build up passion for reading, have strategiesfor comprehending the reading text well, develop effectively reading habitoutside classroom so that student can improve their reading skill and can get

high marks in examinations , I choose the topic of study: “Some suggestions for doing the English readingcomprehension test effectively in the national examination for GCSE and the entrance exam to university.

II Aims of the study

The aims of the study are to investigate some effective techniques andstrategies in solving the reading comprehension in examinations for GCSE andthe entrance exam to university Some main purposes covering the study aresummarized as follow:

+ To understand the theoretical background of reading comprehension: ……

+ To investigate some techniques and strategies for reading comprehension.+ To help English teachers, especially teachers of English at upper secondaryschools to find out effective techniques to deal with reading comprehension withthe hope of helping them in teaching English

III Subject of the study

This study has been carried out to search for a better and more effectiveways and strategies for reading comprehension in order to help students to gainsuccess in national examination for GCSE and the entrance exam to university

IV Methods of the study

To achieve the aims mentioned above , a detailed study is used Thetheoretical background of the study presented in my study comes from documents

on the internet and many published books written by different authors on language

teaching The statistics and data collected for the study come from the students andthe English teachers at Lam Kinh upper secondary school by making observationthrough reading comprehension lessons in the classroom and through tests andexams Through theoretical and practical experience in leaning environment at LamKinh high school, I myself build up the topic

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

I Theoretical background

1 Definitions of reading comprehension

Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading Reading comprehensionskill plays a very important role in teaching and learning reading a foreignlanguage It has the nature of communication, in which reading activity acts as ameans of communication between the writer and the reader

Reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extractingthe required information from it as efficiently as possible That means readingcomprehension is an activity which aims at decoding the meaning of wordcombination in the text in the most efficient way

To sum up, reading becomes meaningless without comprehension sinceonly reading comprehension can appreciate how much readers understand thetext Therefore, how to help students have effective reading comprehensionmethods is considered to be the most important part in reading teaching

2.Types of reading

According to purposes, reading is categorized into four types: skimming,scanning, extensive and intensive reading

2.1 Skimming

If the task of the reader is merely to get an overall idea of the passage, he

is most likely to use the strategy called skimming This strategy enables thereader to say what kind of text it is and what kind of information it contains.Thus, the learner can expect what the passage is about and, consequently, he can

activate appropriate schemata Skimming is also helpful in deciding whether atext is relevant for particular reader’s purposes, as the reader can quicklyestimate the relevance of the text by skimming it Since this technique providesthe reader with the main ideas of the text, it affords a logical framework fordetails to be fitted into it during more intensive reading What is significant toadd, during skimming the reader does not pay attention to details and can skipnew words providing the text can still be understood.

To sum up, skimming is a very useful reading comprehension skill forstudents, and it is advisable to apply at the first stage of teaching reading withthe hope that it can help them to have an overview of what they are reading.Moreover, it will be easier for them to deal with the other tasks that followed

2.2 Scanning

Scanning is also one of two most valuable reading strategies However,scanning is far more limited than skimming since it only means retrieving whatinformation is relevant to our purpose Scanning occurs when a reader goesthrough a text very quickly in order to find a particular point of information

when scanning, we only try to locate specific information and often we

do not even follow the linearity of the passage to do so We simply let our eyeswander over the text until we find what we are looking for, whether it is a name,

a date, or a less specific piece of information”

In short, the key to scanning is to decide exactly what kind ofinformation we can look for and where to find it The purpose of scanning is toextract certain specific information without reading through the whole text

2.3 Intensive reading

Intensive reading is a slow reading of a text aimed to explain everyunknown word, grammar structure and style It also very often involvestranslation of the read passage As the main emphasis is on features of the text,rather than on its semantic context, the reader’s interest in the story may bereduced The objective of intensive reading is to achieve a full understanding ofthe text not only of what it means but also of how the meaning is produced thus

it is made use of when the reader encounters a more difficult foreign languagetext Intensive reading is reading for accuracy which is essential to the students’comprehension

Overview, purpose, questions, reading, summarize, test, and understanding are the seven procedures that cover the method, for very effective reading for detailed comprehension and long retention reader’s knowledge

2.4 Extensive reading

Extensive reading is a fluency activity, mainly involving generalunderstanding It provides valuable reinforcement of the language alreadypresented and practiced in the class as well as giving students useful practice ininferring meaning from the context of the text Extensive reading is used to

pleasure, as well as business books Use extensive reading skills to improve ourgeneral knowledge of business procedures Getting students to read extensively

is the easiest and most effective way of improving their reading skills

Reading is necessary to every learner and undeniably an important skill

in comparison with others In addition, it is notable that intensive and extensivereading should not be seen as in being opposition but need to be paid equalattention for the sake of the students For second or foreign language learners,both intensive and extensive reading are of great importance as they act as ameans to gain knowledge

3.The importance of reading in foreign language learning and in important examinations

In the process of teaching and learning a second or foreign language, theteaching and learning of reading are always received much attention, since it isregarded as one of the most important major skills First of all, reading helpsstudents learn to think in English, enlarge their English vocabulary, improvetheir writing Richard (1993:4) claimed that “reading may help to increaseknowledge of the target language through exposure to new vocabulary andgrammatical structures” There is a close relationship between reading andvocabulary knowledge, because while reading, the readers know most of thewords in the text already, and they can also determine the meaning of many ofthe unfamiliar words from the contexts Therefore, the best way to acquire alarge vocabulary is to read It is understandable that anyone who has a largevocabulary is usually a good reader Besides, Richard (1993: 4) also stated that

“reading in the new language is also an important way to learn about the targetculture”, which means that reading provides the students with a wide range ofinteresting information, helps them understand the ways of life, behaviors,thoughts and other aspects of the native people and it is also a good way to findout about new ideas, facts and experiences Therefore, they can mastervocabulary, grammar and the background knowledge or cross-cultural problemsthat they encounter In other words, reading is very important to the foreignlanguage learners because it widens their knowledge of language and life Itseems to be the most important skill to the students of English since their mainpurpose is to understand the written texts

In the English test of the entrance university examination, readingsection for general or specific information ( except for cloze test) is veryimportant This part accounts for 25% with 2 reading passages So candidateswho want to get good marks should study this part carefully

II Practical background

1.Background of the study

1.1 Description of the English syllabus at upper secondary schools

At upper secondary schools, there are three levels of English: English 10,

11 and English 12 In the past the textbooks used here are the three-year-courseones, the seven- year-course books have been used lately English is now acompulsory subject in schools Students have English lessons during the firstterm and second term of the school year

The textbooks chosen are English 10, 11, 12 by Nha Xuat Ban Giao Duc.Each consists of 16 lessons which have been covered through out the schoolyear with mid-term and term tests in between Each lesson is divided into 5periods with the aim of giving the students basic knowledge of English andpractice four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing skill By using thistextbook, we can develop our students’ communicative competence and ourstudents can learn real things from daily life The textbooks also developstudents’ reading and writing skill At the end of each term, students have anexam for four skills

1.2 Description of the students at upper secondary schools

Most of students of Lam Kinh high school have already learned Englishfor at least four years at lower secondary school but many of them are at the lowlevel of English proficiency Another fact is that most of the students are fromrural areas in Tho Xuan district Consequently, individual differences in learningstyles, identities, attitudes, motivation, etc are unavoidable and may cause theteachers some problems during their teaching In addition, their lack ofawareness on the importance of English as well as motivation makes them notinterested in learning English Although most of them have already learntEnglish for at least four years at lower secondary school, their knowledge ofEnglish is still poor and limited Some students can even hardly say a completesentence in the target language

1.3 Description of the teachers at upper secondary schools

At Lam Kinh High School, there are totally 6 teachers of English,including me, aged from 30 to 40 Half of us graduated from HongDucUniversity in Thanh Hoa province and none of us have been to any Englishspeaking countries The number of female teachers formed the majority (5female teachers and only one male teacher) All of us are enthusiastic with theircareer and had at least eight years experienced in teaching English

However, in terms of methodology, the teachers in our school usuallyemploy the traditional methods of teaching especially Grammar-translationmethod They often apply this method in teaching English In other words, theyfocus on analyzing the grammar rules, not on the acquisition of language skills.They spend most of the classroom time explaining new words, analyzinggrammar structures and translating texts into Vietnamese Students often listenand take notes passively This leads to low motivation in students and createsvery few chances for them to improve their communicative competence

1.4 Description of physical setting

In most upper secondary schools, English teaching and learning activitiesare mostly carried out inside the classrooms which are designed for lecturelessons with the only classroom equipment: a blackboard, tables and a desk Theonly type of teaching aid that the English group has is some cassette recordersand pictures In term of class size, the number of students in an English class isquite large, from 40 to 50 This large number causes a great deal of difficultiesfor the teaching and learning activities The materials for reference and self-study are not available for teachers and students at schools In the school library,there are only some English books that are not really helpful for teachers andstudents

2.Difficulties

2.1.Teachers’ difficulties when teaching reading

When asking the teachers about the problems they were facing with in teachingreading, the majority admitted that the most difficult issue was the students’limitation of vocabulary and grammatical structures

Moreover,despite the fact that the teachers at LK school are well aware of thetechniques and strategies for reading comprehension skill, some of them find itdifficult to use them in their teaching because of many reasons The biggest one

is that they are deeply affected by old teaching methods They said that afterquite a long time applying these methods, they become absorbed to them and it

is very difficult for them to change In the reading lesson , before doing thetask, teacher often provide students with all of the new words and then translatethe text in to Vietnamses.This makes students become passive in learning

2.2 Students’Difficulties

2.2.1 Passive learning style

The students are still deeply affected by the old and passive learningmethods such as Translation or Audio-lingual Method and the learningenvironment at lower secondary school where reading was not fully taken intoconsideration They only learn what the teacher supply in the classroom Theyare accustomed to the habit of word-by-word reading and doing simple and shortreading comprehension exercises

2.2.2 Lack of knowledge for comprehension

The information from the data collected clearly shows that students’limitation of vocabulary and grammatical structures, their lack of appropriatereading strategies and their background knowledge are students’ maindifficulties, which influence their motivation for reading as well as theirunderstanding Not only the students but also the teachers faced many problemswhen dealing with reading lessons Students had very limited vocabulary, andwere too dependent on teachers, peers dictionaries New words have affected thestudents’ process of reading

Background knowledge is found to be a less challenge than vocabulary.Students found that they did not know anything in some aspects Therefore, theyhad many difficulties when reading a strange topic With many demonstrationsthat those who possess rich prior knowledge about the topic of a reading oftenunderstand the reading better than the others with low prior knowledge.Students’ lack of appropriate reading strategies is another problem, the teachershad to face.

2.3.Objectives factors

2.3.1 Large-sized classes

All classes at Lam Kinh school consists of more than 45 students, so that

it is very difficult for teachers to control the class and to put an eye on everystudent During the time working only good and talkative students make use ofthe chances to raise their voice, shy and less able students can not be givenenough care, attention and encouragement

2.3.2 Lack of reference books and teaching aids

In the school library, reference books are not available There are onlysome reference books for reading comprehension exercises Teachers must self-prepare for their lesson without school’s helping

II Some suggestions for doing reading comprehension tasks effectively 1.Preparation for the national examination for GCSE

- To do well in the exam , students should prepare the followings:

1.1 Topics for practicing:

Generally, the assignment can place on any topic in our life But thereadings that students normally encounter in the national high school examsgenerally fall into the topic related to the themes in the textbooks and someburning ones such as :You and me; Family and friends; Education (system ofeducation …) and language ; Community (People, Nature, environment,environment pollution, population…), Recreation; Places and events; SocialIssues; Health; Food

To do the test for reading comprehension well, Students should take thetime to read texts or documents in English on these topic in English as much

as possible Youshould spend at least 10-15 'reading texts from the readingpart

in the textbook, then the lessons of self-training, reference books, magazines , onthe Internet…

1.2.Enrich the vocabulary and background knowledge

Students often find reading tasks are difficult and boring because of theirlimitation of vocabulary grammatical structures and lack of background knowledge

Background knowledge and good vocabulary minimize the difficulties inthe process of reading, creating confidence - a psychological factors essential for

learning to read and makes you understand the reading comprehension mucheasier.

Teachers should guide students to read more books and related materials

in English on many different topics about expanding knowledge base on issues

of science and technology, socio-economic, technological literature arts, events

Keep a notebook, Note down the new words you learned today and revisethem periodically

Learn by heart all the words that appear frequently in the passage

practiced, NOT the difficult and unfamiliar words

2 Identifying the types of questions

Understand and become familiar with the types of questions allows you tosave time when analyzing and understanding the meaning of the types ofquestions , so that you have more time to read the answers to each question andfind the correct answer of all In this analysis, I ‘ll guide students how torecognize all types of questions in reading comprehension tasks by explainingand giving examples

2.1 Main idea/ main topic/ main purpose questions;

These ask sts to identify an answer choice that correctly summarizes theauthor’s main idea, the subject of the main passage, or the author’s reason forwriting the passage

The questions are often like these:‘’ What is the main idea of the

passage?’’/‘’What is the passage primarily about?’’

2.2: Factual questions

-These ask sts to locate and identify answers to questions about specific

information and detailed in the passage

- The questions are :

“ According to the passage where did…?”/“According to the author why did…?”/

“ Which of the following is true , according to the passage? ‘’

2.3Negative questions:

These ask students which of the answer choice s is not mentioned in the passage

“ Which of the following is NOT true about… ? “ /“ All of the following are true EXCEPT ….”

2.4 Scanning questions:

- These ask students to find the place in the passage that some topics are mentioned

- Example: “ Where in the passage does the author first discuss….? “

2 5: Inference questions;

- These ask students to draw conclusions based on the information in the passageExample: “ The author implies that which of the following is true? “”

“ Which of the following can be inferred from the passage? ‘

2.6: Vocabulary – in- context questions:

- These ask students to identify the meaning of word or phrase as used in the passage

Example: “ The word ‘ -‘ in line 10 is closest in meaning to…………? “

2 7: Reference questions;

These ask students to identify the Noun to which a pronoun or other expression refers

Example: “ The word ‘ they’ in line 5 refers to……….? “

“ In line 15 , the word ‘ it ‘ refers to….? “

3 Strategies for answering each type of questions successfully( How to answer each type of question successfully)

These are the best tactics for answering each type of questions:

3 1: For overview questions: Main idea/ main topic questions;

After almost every passage , the first question is about the main idea, main topic or main purpose of a passage Main idea questions ask you to

identify the most important thought in the passage

Sample questions:

+ What is the main idea of the passage ?

+ The primary idea of the passage is……… ?

+ Which of the following best summarizes the author’s idea?

It is relatively easy to find the main ideas by studying the topic sentences,which are most probably found at the beginning of each paragraph

Don’t answer the initial overview questions about a passage until you haveanswered the other questions The process of answering the detailed questions maygive you a clearer idea of the main idea, topic , or purpose of the passage

The correct answers for main idea/ main topic/ main purpose questionscorrectly summarize the main points of the passage; they must be more generalthan any of the supporting ideas or details, but not so general that they includeideas outside the scope of the passage

Distracters for this type of question have one of these characteristics :

+ They are too specific

+ They are too general

+ They are incorrect according to the passage

+ They are irrelevant (unrelated ) to the main idea of the passage.

-If you are not sure of the answer for one of these questions, go back andquickly scan the passage You can usually infer the main idea, main topic or

main purpose of the entire passage from an understanding of the main ideas ofthe paragraph that make up the passage and the relationship between them.

Example : The passage:

Basketball was invented in 1891 by a physical education instructor inSpringfield, Massachusetts, by the name of James Naismith Because of terribleweather in winter, his physical education students were indoors rather thanoutdoors They really did not like the idea of boring, repetitive exercises andpreferred the excitement and challenge of a game Naismith figured out a teamsport that could be played indoors on a gymnasium floor, that involved a lot ofrunning, that kept all team members involved, and that did not allow the tacklingand physical contact of American style football

Question and answer:

1 What is the topic of this passage?

A The life of James Naismith B The history of sports

C Physical education and exercise D The origin of basketball

=>The first sentence of this passage states that basketball was invented, so theinvention of basketball is probably the topic A quick check of the rest of thesentences in the passage confirms that the topic is, in fact, the beginnings of thesport of basketball Now you should check each of the answers to determinewhich one comes closest to the topic that you have determined Answer A.mentions James Naismith but not basketball, so it is not the topic Answer B istoo general; it mentions sports but does not mention basketball Answer C isalso too general; it mentions physical education but does not mention basketball.The best answer is therefore answer D.: the origin of basketball means that theway that basketball was invented is going to be discussed

The following chart outlines the key information that you should remember about main idea questions:

MAIN IDEA QUESTIONS

How to identify

the question

What is the topic of the passage? What is the main idea of the passage? What is the author's main point in the passage?

Which of the following would be the best title?

4 Eliminate any definitely wrong answers and choose the best

answer from the remaining choices.

3 2: Factual questions

Factual questions ask about explicit facts and details given in the passage.They often contain one of the WH- question words : who, what, when, where,why, how much and so on

Factual questions often begin with the phrases : “ According to thepassage,…” or “ According to the author,…” When you see these phrases, youknow that the information needed to answer the question is directly statedsomewhere in the passage( unlike answers for inference questions)

To answer the factual questions , you have to locate and identify theinformation that the question asks about If you are not sure from your 1st

reading where to look for specific answers, use the following scanningtechniques:

+ Focus on one or two key words as you read the stem of each question Lockthese words in your mind

+ Scan the passage looking for the key words or their synonyms Look only forthese words Do NOT try to read every word of the passage

+ It may help to use the eraser end of your pencil as a pointer to focus yourattention Don’t read the passage completely – just look for these words

+ When you find the key words in the passage, carefully read the sentence inwhich they occur You may have to read the sentence preceding or followingthat sentence as well

+ Compare the information you read with the four answer choices

The order of detail questions about a passage almost always followsthe order in which ideas are presented in the passage In other words, theinformation you need to answer the first detail question will usually come nearthe beginning of the passage; the information for the 2nd will follow that, and so

on Knowing this should help you n locate the information you need

Correct answers for detail questions are seldom the same , word for word,

as information in the passage; they often contain synonyms and use differentgrammatical structures

Example:

Flutes have been around for quite some time, in all sorts of shapes and sizes and

made from a variety of materials The oldest known flutes are, about 20,000years old, they were made from hollowed-out bones with holes cut in them Inaddition to bone, older flutes were often constructed from bamboo or hollowed-out wood

Today flutes are generally made of metal, and in addition to the holes theyhave a complicated system of keys, levers, and pads The instrument

belonging to well-known flautist James Galway is not just made of any metal,

it is made of gold

Question and answer:

1.According to the passage, the oldest flutes…

A had holes cut in them B were made of metal

C were made 200,000 years ago D had a complicated set of levers and

pads => Since this question asks about the oldest flutes, you should see that

this question is answered in the second sentence The passage states that

the oldest known flutes were bones with holes cut in them, so the best answer is

answer A Answers B and D are true about today's flutes but not about the oldest flutes, so they are incorrect Answer C is an incorrect number; the oldest flutes are 20,000 years old, not 200,000 years old

The following chart outlines the key information that you should remember about stated detail

questions:

FACTUAL QUESTIONS(STATED DETAIL QUESTIONS)

How to identify

the question

According to the passage…/It is stated in the passage /The

passage indicates that… /Which of the following is true ?

Where to find

the question The answers to the questions are found in order in the passage.

How to answer

the question

1 Choose a key word in the question

2 Skim in the appropriate part of the passage for the key word

3.3: Negative questions:(unstated detail questions)

These questions ask you to determine which of the four choices is notgiven in the passage These questions contain the words NOT, EXCEPT orLEAST ( which are always capitalized)

Sample questions: Which of the following is NOT true about… ? According to the passage , all of the following are true EXCEPT Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

Scan the passage to find the answers that are correct or are mentioned inthe passage Sometimes the three distractors are clustered in one or twosentences; sometimes they are scattered through out the passage The correctanswer of course is the one that does not appear

Negative questions often take more time than other questions Therefore you may want to guess or come back to these questions if you have time

Sample Item:

The Florida Keys are a beautiful chain of almost 1,000 coral and limestone islands These islands form an arc that heads first southwest and then west from the mainland U.S Highway 1, called the Overseas Highway, connects the main islands in the chain On this highway, it is necessary to cross forty-two bridges over the ocean to cover the 159 miles from Miami, on the mainland, to Key West, the farthest island on the highway and the southernmost city in the United States

Question and answer:

Which of the following is NOT mentioned about the Florida Keys?

A The Florida Keys are a chain of islands

B The Florida Keys contain coral and limestone

C The Florida Keys are in the shape of an arc

D The Florida Keys are not all inhabited This question asks for the one answer that is not mentioned about the Florida Keys The passage states that the Florida Keys are a chain (answer A) with coral and limestone (answer B) in the shape of an arc (answer C), so these answers are not correct The best answer is therefore answer D The passage does not mention whether or not the keys are all inhabited. The following chart outlines the key information that you should remember about Negative questions:( “unstated” detail questions): NEGATIVE QUESTIONS( “UNSTATED” DETAIL QUESTIONS) How to identify the question Which of the following is NOT stated./ NOT mentioned/ NOT discussed?

Which of the following is Which of the following is Which of the following is NOT true about… ?

According to the passage , all of the following are true EXCEPT……

Where to find the question The answers to these questions are found in order in the passage How to answer the question 1 Choose a key word in the question

2 Scan the appropriate place in the passage for the key word (or related idea)

3 Read the sentence that contains the key word or idea carefully

4 Look for answers that are definitely true according to the passage Eliminate those answers

5 Choose the answer that is not true or not discussed in the passage

3.4: Scanning questions:

-These questions ask you to find where in the passage some particularinformation and transition is located They are easy to identify: the answers areusually line numbers They are usually easy to answer , too Scanning questionsare often the last questions in a set of questions about a passage Use the sametechniques for scanning given about detail questions Sample questions:

+ In what line does the author shift his focus to…?

+ Where in the passage does the author first discuss……… ?

+ A description of ……… can be found in…………?

Example: The passage:

The words "capital" and "capitol" are confused in spelling and in meaning

by a lot of people who try to use them Both their spellings and their meaningsare quite closely related A "capital" is the location of the center of government,while a "capitol" is the actual building where the government officials meet.Thus, in the United States, for example, the Capitol building is located in

Washington, D.C., which is the capital city of the United States.

Question and answer:

Where in the passage does the author define the word "capital"?

A Lines 1-2 B Lines 3-4 C Line 5 D Line 6

To answer this question, you should skim for the word capital and then

look for its meaning A capital is the location of the center of government, andthis definition is given in the third line Answer B is therefore the best answer tothis question

The following chart outlines the key information that you should

remember when you are trying to determine where in the passage something

is found:

SCANNING QUESTIONS How to identify

1 Choose a key word or idea in the question

2 Skim the appropriate past(s) of the passage looking for the key word or idea

3 Choose the answer that contains the key word or idea

3.5 Inference questions( Implied detail questions)

In this type of question, you will be asked to answer a multiple choicequestion about a reading passage by drawing a conclusion from a specific detail

or details in the passage Inference questions may be phrased in a number of

ways Many of these questions contain some form of the words infer or imply