Answers and Discussion
- Where is the text taken from?
The extract comes from a company’s half-year statement. Many companies make their financial statements available on the internet. It is important to give students exposure to authentic financial documents to familiarise them with typical style and register.
- What does the text deal with?
It deals with a company’s review of its financial statements. It explains the purpose of the review and how it relates to the Listing Rules of the Financial Services Authority. The Financial English associated with financial authorities and regulations is an important area of vocabulary for students to know.
- Which part of speech is tested in Question 1?
The options A-D are all verbs. Different parts of speech may be covered across the six questions, including adjectives, verbs, nouns and adverbs.
- What is tested in Question 3?
The noun 'scope'. The term 'less in scope' is used to compare the content of a review with that of an audit. Phrases like this are commonly used in company financial reports and reporting standards documents and students should record the ones they come across in a vocabulary notebook.
- Which question tests both lexis and grammar?
The answer to Question 5 is restricted by the grammatical context. This may apply to other questions and students should also consider whether a particular grammatical pattern follows a certain verb, adjective or preposition.
- How long did it take you to complete the task?
Probably about 2-3 minutes? It is difficult to specify how long candidates should spend on any one part, but as a rough guide, they should aim to spend about 25-30 minutes on the first three parts of the Test of Reading, as the remaining three parts require more reading time.