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C1 Advanced Reading Social & culture 53 minutes 21 questions

Whose Priorities Shape a Changing City

About this practice test

Read a feature article, a consultation report, and six stakeholder submissions about waterfront renewal, public participation, transport, housing, heritage, business, and climate resilience.

What you’ll practice

Finding detail

Locate specific information and evidence.

Interpreting ideas

Connect main points and inferences.

Evaluating arguments

Assess claims, evidence, and limitations.

What to expect: 21 questions with explanations to review after submission.

Study the questions and tasks

Work through the material below, or start the interactive practice above to complete an attempt. Try the exercises before opening any answer or transcript sections, then use them to review your work.

Practice level
C1. Try this level if you can follow the instructions and understand most of the language; choose an earlier level if you need more support.
Question formats
Single choice, Multiple choice, True / False / Not Given, Fill in the blank (text), Matching

How to approach this practice

Read the passage for its main idea, then return to the relevant sentence or paragraph for each question. Base answers on the passage.

Between Tide and Tax Base

At the eastern edge of Port Alton, cranes still work beside cafes with names chosen by branding consultants. This spring the city unveiled its Esplanade Quarter scheme: taller apartment blocks, a public promenade, and a cleaner shoreline. The mayor called it a chance to "return the water to the people", though in the room that day the phrase seemed to mean at least three different things: cheaper homes, safer streets in winter storms, and a livelier district after dark. I came expecting a simple fight between developers and preservationists. Instead, the argument was less about whether the harbour should change than about which public should benefit first. Lena Ortiz, the council planner, laid out the plan without the usual salesmanship. The first phase would raise the quays, widen drains, and set the new buildings back from the edge. It would also add around 900 homes, some of them capped below market rate, and a continuous strip of park and cycle path. On paper, the scheme looked like a compromise no one could fully celebrate. For Halden Properties, the land was underused and too valuable to remain a rusting service yard. For Marta Vuk, who runs the fish market two streets inland, the project risked pushing working activity farther from the water. Yet even she admitted that higher insurance bills and rougher tides had already made the old arrangement harder to defend. The sharpest fight centred on a brick warehouse built in 1912. The heritage group wanted the whole building kept, including the iron gantry and faded loading signs. Halden argued that preserving every part would lock the site into a costly museum logic. What made the warehouse harder to dismiss, however, was its own usefulness: the structure was sound, and the deep floor plates could take offices, workshops, or studios without major rebuilding. The city therefore proposed keeping the façade and crane rail while replacing the damaged rear wall. That compromise satisfied almost nobody in the pure form each side preferred, but it exposed a more interesting truth. In renewal debates, "saving history" is often not a matter of reverence alone; sometimes it is the most practical way to make new money look less predatory. Public meetings confirmed that the hardest objections were rarely abstract. Parents asked for a primary school site. Bus users wanted the route extended before construction closed the narrow streets. Teenagers complained, with some justice, that every official drawing showed a promenade but never a place to sit without buying coffee. These comments did not produce harmony, but they shifted the terms of debate. The question was no longer whether the waterfront should serve the city, but which everyday city: commuters, residents, visitors, or the people who work there before dawn. That distinction matters, because the same square metre can be counted as civic space, transport space, or commercial frontage depending on who is speaking. Environmental specialists added another layer of caution. A raised edge and planted riverbank could absorb storm surges better than the current concrete lip, yet such benefits arrive slowly and are difficult to market beside the visible appeal of towers and rent receipts. The mayor needed the tax income from new residents to help fund a school elsewhere in the district, and the finance committee would not approve the bond issue unless the waterfront remained publicly accessible. So the renewal moved forward not because the city had solved the conflict, but because each camp could point to a different gain and call it a public one. That may sound like compromise in the cheerful sense. More honestly, it is an agreement to share inconvenience for long enough to reach the next election. By the time I left the harbour, the slogan about giving the water back sounded less like a promise than a question. To whom, exactly, should it be given, and on what terms? The answer, at least here, is that a waterfront is never merely a line between land and sea. It is a ledger of priorities, and whoever writes the first entries often decides who gets to call the result common sense.

Sampling the City: Who Took Part in the Consultation

The consultation on the city's transport and public-space plan was designed by analysts at the civic office, led by Mara Ilyan, after open meetings in 2023 had drawn a familiar audience. Rather than invite whoever happened to notice the posters, the team built a stratified household sample of 1,200 addresses from council tax records. They deliberately oversampled two outer districts and a block of streets around temporary housing, because those areas had been underheard in earlier exercises. Every selected household received a paper questionnaire and a unique code for the online version; households with a listed mobile number also got a text reminder. In the three neighbourhoods with the highest share of recent arrivals, the cover letter was translated into Polish, Urdu, and Somali. Participation was possible in several ways. Residents could return the survey online, post the paper form, or telephone a trained interviewer, who could book an interpreter if needed. The office also placed six kiosks in libraries and markets and sent outreach workers to two evening events. These were useful for hearing from people who would not normally open a mailed survey, but the report kept them separate from the household sample, because the visitors were self-selected and often already interested in local change. By the deadline, 447 of the 1,200 sampled households had replied, a response rate of 37.3 per cent. Another 149 responses came from the kiosks and events. The simplest pattern was social rather than political: older owner-occupiers answered most often, while young renters responded least. Women were slightly more likely to use the paper form, and men were slightly more likely to complete the online version, though the difference was too small to matter once the data were weighted. The translated letters seemed to help in the target districts, but only modestly, because several residents said they still preferred English for anything that looked official. Because the original sample overrepresented streets with stable mailing addresses, the analysts applied weights for age, district, and housing tenure. They did not weight by commute mode or party preference, since no reliable benchmark existed for either measure. The report also refused to merge the outreach responses mechanically into the main tables. Instead, it presented them beside the sampled returns and described them as a useful signal of concerns, not as proof that the same concerns were shared equally across the city. That caution mattered. The report noted that a person who stops at a market kiosk is already more available, or more curious, than the average resident, and that this changes what the results can legitimately claim. It also said that the city had reached few people in shared accommodation, despite a late evening session at the youth centre and a reminder campaign through housing officers. Mara Ilyan therefore argued that the consultation should be read as a map of priorities, not as a census of opinion. Her point was not that the consultation was weak, but that its strength depended on the question being asked. It was good enough to show which districts felt overlooked, which age groups were least engaged, and where transport worries cut across housing tenure. It was not good enough to estimate support to the nearest percentage point for the whole city, because some residents took part through channels that could not be treated as random. For that reason, the final briefing used careful language: it spoke of patterns, differences, and likely directions, while avoiding any claim that the sample had captured every voice.

Six Voices in the Development Plan

Paragraph 1The city council asked for short submissions from six people before voting on a new development framework. None of the writers rejects change entirely, but each draws a different line around what counts as progress. Their priorities overlap at times, yet the reasons behind them do not.

Paragraph 2Laila Mensah, who drives an early bus route and represents part of the transport staff, begins with a blunt warning: people will forgive fewer beautifying schemes than they will forgive a late bus. She is not against new streets or tidier stations, but she argues that reliability is the first public luxury. In her view, money spent on a showcase boulevard should first fix broken timetables, unsafe shelters, and the narrow junction where buses crawl behind private cars. A city that cannot move its workers, she writes, is decorating a room with the door locked.

Paragraph 3Tomas Bell, curator of the Riverside Archive and a lifelong resident of the old quarter, writes in a more measured tone. He accepts that empty warehouses cannot all be preserved as they are, yet he resists the idea that preservation means freezing a district into nostalgia. What he wants is adaptive reuse: studios, repair workshops, and small exhibition spaces inside buildings with their brick faces left visible. If every wall is replaced, he says, the city will still stand, but it will have forgotten how it became itself. His concern is not only sentiment; he warns that a polished replica of history can attract visitors while quietly expelling the people who still know the streets.

Paragraph 4Mina Okafor, speaking for a housing cooperative, frames the debate in practical terms. She says the city repeats the same mistake whenever it promises jobs first and homes later. Nurses, school assistants, and cleaners may welcome new offices nearby, but they cannot commute from far suburbs at 6 a.m. forever. Mina supports inclusionary housing near transit, yet she distrusts quotas if they merely let the market offload the burden onto one corner of the plan. That is why she proposes a land trust as well. Without some ground taken out of speculation, she writes, affordable homes are only a temporary gesture.

Paragraph 5Idris Karam, who runs a grocery on Market Square, sounds less ideological and more tactical. He does not want cars banished all day, because his deliveries arrive before dawn and his elderly customers still depend on short stops. At the same time, he is tired of a square that empties after sunset. He therefore backs pedestrian access, but only with timed loading windows and lighting that makes evening use feel safe rather than theatrical. If the street belongs to everyone, he argues, the trick is to arrange the hour, not to declare a winner.

Paragraph 6Eva Strand, a civil engineer who has also campaigned for river restoration, is the only one who writes almost entirely in terms of pressure and risk. She calls flood barriers, tree planting, and permeable pavements boring investments, then immediately defends them as the kind that keep budgets from being swallowed later by emergency repairs. Her submission insists that parks are not decorative extras in a warmer climate. They absorb heat, slow water, and make dense neighbourhoods liveable. A city that treats shade as optional, she warns, will pay for it in broken roads and rising insurance.

Paragraph 7Rafael Duarte, who directs a small business incubator, ends the set with a note of caution that is easy to misread as enthusiasm. He does want simpler permits, stronger broadband, and shared workrooms, because entrepreneurs lose momentum in administrative clutter. But he also says a branded innovation district means little if the area has no school places, no clinics, and no buses after dark. In his view, a city should not build a glossy island for a few talented people while the rest of the neighbourhood carries the cost. Growth that cannot be lived in, he concludes, is only a more expensive way of being exclusive.

  1. Question 1 · Single choice

    Choose one answer.

    What is the writer mainly suggesting about the Esplanade Quarter scheme?

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. Which public interest should come first.
    2. It exists mainly to attract cruise passengers and luxury tourists.
    3. It is blocked because the shoreline cannot be rebuilt safely.
    4. It is already accepted because it solves most local problems.
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    Which public interest should come first.

    The passage presents the renewal as a dispute over priorities, not a settled plan. The writer says it is "less about whether the harbour should change than about which public should benefit first", so the key issue is who gains first, not whether change is possible.

    the argument was less about whether the harbour should change than about which public should benefit first
    It is a ledger of priorities

  2. Question 2 · Single choice

    Choose one answer.

    Why does Lena Ortiz present flood protection and new homes together?

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. To argue that history should be removed completely.
    2. To suggest the public promenade is only decorative.
    3. To prove the harbour will become privately owned.
    4. To address housing and practical risks together.
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    To address housing and practical risks together.

    She links environmental repair with housing supply because the scheme is meant to answer more than one pressure at once. The passage says the first phase would "raise the quays, widen drains" and also add homes, so the project is framed as practical rather than purely symbolic.

    The first phase would raise the quays, widen drains, and set the new buildings back from the edge. It would also add around 900 homes
    the scheme looked like a compromise no one could fully celebrate

  3. Question 3 · Single choice

    Choose one answer.

    Why does the writer mention that the warehouse "was sound" and had "deep floor plates"?

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. To prove the warehouse is too old for any new purpose.
    2. To show the building could be reused.
    3. To show the heritage group cares only about loading signs.
    4. To explain why the city wants to demolish the whole site.
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    To show the building could be reused.

    Those details show that preservation could serve reuse, not just nostalgia. The warehouse is structurally useful and adaptable, which weakens the idea that keeping it would merely freeze the site in the past.

    the structure was sound, and the deep floor plates could take offices, workshops, or studios without major rebuilding
    sometimes it is the most practical way to make new money look less predatory

  4. Question 4 · Single choice

    Choose one answer.

    How does the writer seem to view the mayor's slogan "return the water to the people"?

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. As an appealing phrase that hides different and competing meanings.
    2. As a clear plan that everyone already understands the same way.
    3. As a slogan the writer dismisses as meaningless and dishonest.
    4. As a technical term used only by the finance committee.
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    As an appealing phrase that hides different and competing meanings.

    The writer treats the slogan as attractive but ambiguous. The passage says it seemed to mean "at least three different things" and later sounds "less like a promise than a question", so the writer is not simply endorsing or rejecting it.

    the phrase seemed to mean at least three different things
    the slogan about giving the water back sounded less like a promise than a question

  5. Question 5 · Single choice

    Choose one answer.

    What did the public meetings mainly reveal about local concerns?

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. Most residents wanted the waterfront left exactly as it was.
    2. The main concern was the colour of the new apartment blocks.
    3. People focused on everyday access and services.
    4. Only business owners were interested in the scheme.
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    People focused on everyday access and services.

    The meetings showed that people cared about practical daily life, not only about appearance or heritage. Parents, bus users, and teenagers all raised concrete access issues, which shifted the debate toward who would use the place and how.

    Parents asked for a primary school site. Bus users wanted the route extended
    The question was no longer whether the waterfront should serve the city, but which everyday city

  6. Question 6 · Single choice

    Choose one answer.

    What condition had to be met before the finance committee would approve the bond issue?

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. The heritage group had to accept demolition of the warehouse.
    2. The project had to keep the waterfront publicly accessible.
    3. The promenade had to be closed until election day.
    4. The developer had to pay all school costs upfront.
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    The project had to keep the waterfront publicly accessible.

    Approval depended on keeping the site open to the public. The passage states this directly, so the condition was not about demolition, elections, or who paid the school bill.

    the finance committee would not approve the bond issue unless the waterfront remained publicly accessible

  7. Question 7 · Multiple choice

    Choose all the correct answers.

    Choose TWO features that the writer describes as helping to open the waterfront to the public.

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. widen drains
    2. a continuous strip of park and cycle path
    3. a public promenade
    4. taller apartment blocks
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    a continuous strip of park and cycle path; a public promenade

    The passage explicitly presents a public promenade and a continuous strip of park and cycle path as access features. The other options are about drainage or housing and do not directly describe opening the waterfront to the public.

    a public promenade
    a continuous strip of park and cycle path

    widen drains: This improves infrastructure, not public access.

    a continuous strip of park and cycle path: Correct: this is another public-facing access feature.

    a public promenade: Correct: this is named as public access along the waterfront.

    taller apartment blocks: These add housing, not waterfront access.

  8. Question 8 · True / False / Not Given

    Decide whether the statement agrees with the information. Choose Not Given when the text or recording does not provide the information.

    The team analysed the outreach kiosks together with the main household sample.

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. True
    2. False
    3. Not Given
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    False

    False. The passage says the report 'kept them separate from the household sample'. That directly contradicts the statement that they were analysed together as one sample.

    the report kept them separate from the household sample

  9. Question 9 · True / False / Not Given

    Decide whether the statement agrees with the information. Choose Not Given when the text or recording does not provide the information.

    The main household sample was drawn from council tax records.

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. True
    2. False
    3. Not Given
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    True

    True. The passage says the team built 'a stratified household sample of 1,200 addresses from council tax records'. The sample source is stated directly, so there is no need to infer it from the outreach methods.

    a stratified household sample of 1,200 addresses from council tax records

  10. Question 10 · True / False / Not Given

    Decide whether the statement agrees with the information. Choose Not Given when the text or recording does not provide the information.

    The briefing gives the exact number of residents in shared accommodation who took part.

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. True
    2. False
    3. Not Given
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    Not Given

    Not Given. The passage says the city had reached 'few people in shared accommodation', but it does not give an exact number. A precise count is therefore absent, not confirmed.

    It also said that the city had reached few people in shared accommodation

  11. Question 11 · True / False / Not Given

    Decide whether the statement agrees with the information. Choose Not Given when the text or recording does not provide the information.

    Older owner-occupiers answered more often than young renters.

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. True
    2. False
    3. Not Given
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    True

    True. The passage states that 'older owner-occupiers answered most often, while young renters responded least'. This is a direct summary of the participation pattern described in the report.

    older owner-occupiers answered most often, while young renters responded least

  12. Question 12 · True / False / Not Given

    Decide whether the statement agrees with the information. Choose Not Given when the text or recording does not provide the information.

    The report compares the consultation results with the outcome of the last mayoral election.

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. True
    2. False
    3. Not Given
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    Not Given

    Not Given. The passage discusses sampling, weighting, and the limits of the results, but it never mentions any mayoral election or any comparison with election outcomes. The nearest context is about what the results can legitimately claim, not about elections.

    this changes what the results can legitimately claim
    while avoiding any claim that the sample had captured every voice

  13. Question 13 · True / False / Not Given

    Decide whether the statement agrees with the information. Choose Not Given when the text or recording does not provide the information.

    The report applied weighting only for district.

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. True
    2. False
    3. Not Given
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    False

    False. The passage says the analysts applied weights 'for age, district, and housing tenure'. District was one factor, but not the only one, so the statement is contradicted.

    the analysts applied weights for age, district, and housing tenure

  14. Question 14 · Fill in the blank (text)

    Complete each blank with the missing word or phrase.

    Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage. Mara Ilyan argued that the consultation should be read as a map of priorities, not as a ___.

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    Check answers and explanations
    Blank 1
    census of opinion

    The missing words are 'census of opinion'. The passage uses that exact phrase to show that the consultation is meant to reveal priorities, not provide a complete count of every view.

    Mara Ilyan therefore argued that the consultation should be read as a map of priorities, not as a census of opinion

  15. Question 15 · Matching

    Match each item to the correct choice.

    Match each stakeholder with the priority they most clearly express. Choose the correct letter.

    Return to the passage, recording or visual

    Answer choices

    • Protect affordable homes from speculation
    • Freeze the old quarter as a museum district
    • Link business growth to schools and clinics
    • Use adaptive reuse to keep older buildings meaningful
    • Balance pedestrian access with delivery windows
    • Treat flood defence and shade as essential infrastructure
    • Improve bus reliability before showcase projects

    Items

    • The bus-route representative
    • The archive curator
    • The housing cooperative speaker
    • The Market Square shop owner
    • The river-restoration engineer
    • The incubator director
    Check answers and explanations
    1. The bus-route representative
    Improve bus reliability before showcase projects
    2. The archive curator
    Use adaptive reuse to keep older buildings meaningful
    3. The housing cooperative speaker
    Protect affordable homes from speculation
    4. The Market Square shop owner
    Balance pedestrian access with delivery windows
    5. The river-restoration engineer
    Treat flood defence and shade as essential infrastructure
    6. The incubator director
    Link business growth to schools and clinics

    Match 1: G — Laila Mensah puts bus reliability before showcase projects, citing broken timetables and unsafe shelters. Match 2: D — Tomas Bell supports adaptive reuse, keeping older buildings useful while retaining their brick faces. Match 3: A — Mina Okafor wants affordable housing protected from speculation through a land trust. Match 4: E — Idris Karam supports pedestrian access alongside timed delivery windows. Match 5: F — Eva Strand treats flood defence, trees, and shade as essential infrastructure. Match 6: C — Rafael Duarte links business growth with schools, clinics, and buses so development serves the wider neighbourhood.

    None of the writers rejects change entirely, but each draws a different line around what counts as progress
    reliability is the first public luxury
    Without some ground taken out of speculation

  16. Question 16 · Single choice

    Choose one answer.

    Why does Laila call reliability "the first public luxury"?

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. She wants to replace private cars with a premium bus service.
    2. She thinks transport should be fixed before the city spends on visible improvements.
    3. She argues that delays are caused mainly by bad weather.
    4. She believes bus passengers prefer more comfortable seats to shorter journeys.
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    She thinks transport should be fixed before the city spends on visible improvements.

    Laila argues that practical transport should come before visible improvements. She wants timetables, shelters, and junctions fixed before money goes to a showcase boulevard. The other options misread her point by turning it into comfort, luxury vehicles, or weather-related delay.

    money spent on a showcase boulevard should first fix broken timetables, unsafe shelters, and the narrow junction where buses crawl behind private cars
    A city that cannot move its workers, she writes, is decorating a room with the door locked

    She wants to replace private cars with a premium bus service.: She criticises cars blocking buses, but not a premium service.

    She thinks transport should be fixed before the city spends on visible improvements.: Correct: she puts reliable movement ahead of beautifying projects.

    She argues that delays are caused mainly by bad weather.: Weather is not mentioned; the problem is timetables, shelters, and junctions.

    She believes bus passengers prefer more comfortable seats to shorter journeys.: The passage never compares comfort with journey length.

  17. Question 17 · Single choice

    Choose one answer.

    What concern underlies Tomas's support for adaptive reuse?

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. He thinks brick buildings are too unsafe to repair at all.
    2. He believes visitors will only come if warehouses are demolished.
    3. He fears redevelopment could erase local memory and life.
    4. He wants the old quarter to become a protected museum with no new functions.
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    He fears redevelopment could erase local memory and life.

    Tomas wants older buildings to keep working in new ways, because he thinks a polished imitation can erase memory and push out long-term residents. He is not calling for a museum district or total demolition; he is trying to protect continuity through reuse.

    What he wants is adaptive reuse: studios, repair workshops, and small exhibition spaces inside buildings with their brick faces left visible
    a polished replica of history can attract visitors while quietly expelling the people who still know the streets

  18. Question 18 · Single choice

    Choose one answer.

    Why does Mina add a land trust to her housing proposal?

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. To move nurses and school assistants farther from the centre.
    2. To replace all inclusionary housing quotas with cash payments.
    3. To protect housing from market speculation.
    4. To make sure the city can charge more rent near transit.
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    To protect housing from market speculation.

    Mina thinks quotas alone may leave the deeper market problem untouched. A land trust would remove some land from speculation, which makes affordable homes less temporary and less dependent on developer goodwill. The wrong options either invent goals she does not mention or reverse her argument.

    she distrusts quotas if they merely let the market offload the burden onto one corner of the plan
    Without some ground taken out of speculation, she writes, affordable homes are only a temporary gesture

  19. Question 19 · Single choice

    Choose one answer.

    Which arrangement best matches Idris's view of Market Square?

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. Pedestrian use is welcome, but deliveries and safe evening access also need to be organised.
    2. Cars should dominate the square so shops can receive easier access.
    3. The square should close after dark because evening visitors are a nuisance.
    4. The square should be car-free at all times, even for deliveries.
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    Pedestrian use is welcome, but deliveries and safe evening access also need to be organised.

    Idris wants the square to remain usable for shops and deliveries while also becoming pleasant and safe for pedestrians in the evening. He does not want total car bans or car dominance; he wants a timed balance. The correct option captures that compromise.

    He does not want cars banished all day, because his deliveries arrive before dawn and his elderly customers still depend on short stops
    He therefore backs pedestrian access, but only with timed loading windows and lighting that makes evening use feel safe rather than theatrical

    Pedestrian use is welcome, but deliveries and safe evening access also need to be organised.: Correct: this is the balance he argues for.

    Cars should dominate the square so shops can receive easier access.: He does not want car dominance; he wants a balance with pedestrians.

    The square should close after dark because evening visitors are a nuisance.: He wants the evening to feel safe and usable, not closed.

    The square should be car-free at all times, even for deliveries.: Contradicted: he specifically keeps space for early deliveries and short stops.

  20. Question 20 · Single choice

    Choose one answer.

    What is Eva's main point about flood barriers, trees and permeable pavements?

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. They are expensive but unnecessary if the city builds more roads.
    2. They should be delayed until storms become less severe.
    3. They are attractive extras that matter most in wealthy districts.
    4. They prevent damage and support liveable neighbourhoods.
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    They prevent damage and support liveable neighbourhoods.

    Eva treats green and flood-related measures as practical protections that save money and keep dense districts liveable. She explicitly rejects the idea that they are merely decorative. The correct option combines both the preventive and liveability aspects of her argument.

    She calls flood barriers, tree planting, and permeable pavements boring investments, then immediately defends them as the kind that keep budgets from being swallowed later by emergency repairs
    They absorb heat, slow water, and make dense neighbourhoods liveable

  21. Question 21 · Single choice

    Choose one answer.

    What does Rafael imply about a city that creates an innovation district without schools, clinics or buses?

    Return to the passage, recording or visual
    1. It will automatically solve administrative delays.
    2. It may serve a narrow group at the neighbourhood's expense.
    3. It should avoid shared workrooms because they slow down start-ups.
    4. It will attract only people who already live nearby.
    Check answers and explanations
    Answer
    It may serve a narrow group at the neighbourhood's expense.

    Rafael warns that a shiny business zone without basic services may look successful but function for only a narrow group. He is not rejecting innovation; he is arguing that real growth has to be lived in by the wider neighbourhood. The other options miss that warning.

    a city should not build a glossy island for a few talented people while the rest of the neighbourhood carries the cost
    Growth that cannot be lived in, he concludes, is only a more expensive way of being exclusive

What to review next

Find the words that support each answer. For a mistake, compare the question with the evidence and identify the detail or inference you missed.

A focused practice result shows how you did on these tasks. Use several activities across skills to decide what to study next; one practice score does not certify an overall CEFR level.

Before you practise: a worked example

Look for evidence in the text. Separate what the writer says from what you already know about the topic.

The library normally closes at six, but on Fridays it stays open until eight. When does it close on Friday?

The answer is eight. But introduces an exception to the normal closing time, so the first time mentioned is not the answer.

This teaching example is separate from the scored questions. After your test, compare any mistakes with the explanation and revisit the topic before trying again.

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