A Sceptical Defence of Institutional Memory
About this practice test
An argumentative essay presents a sceptical view of institutional memory, considering how organisations can preserve practical knowledge while challenging inherited customs, injustice and obsolete habits.
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:
12 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
- C2. 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
- Yes / No / Not Given
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.
A Sceptical Defence of Institutional Memory
Institutional memory is usually praised as if it were a sacred archive: a cabinet of files, a veteran’s anecdote, a database with a conscience. I am not convinced by that romance. Memory at work is often invoked whenever a company wants to sound mature, as though age alone could guarantee judgment. Yet the phrase means little unless it describes a habit of using the past, not merely storing it. A place can own years of paperwork and still be ignorant of itself. What matters is whether the past can be made useful in the present. A hospital that forgets why it changed its triage rule will repeat the same mistake; a university that discards the reasons behind a curriculum will drift into fashion. In that sense, memory is a practical tool. It can save time, prevent panic, and keep people from re-learning what was already learnt at cost. But it is a tool, not a shrine. The fact that something happened before does not mean it should be honoured forever; it means it should be understood well enough to decide whether it still deserves a place. That distinction matters because memory can harden into a crust. The longest-serving employee is not always the wisest, and an office with a thousand stories can still make the same mistake in a new accent. Some organisations confuse familiarity with insight. They keep the same forms, the same slogans, the same ceremony of consultation, and then wonder why no one notices when the risks have changed. A habit may survive because it is safe, or because no one has the energy to challenge it. In practice, memory lives less in the archive than in routine acts: who is called first when a deadline collapses, how a complaint is rephrased so that the right person will listen, which corner of the warehouse leaks every winter, or which warning on a machine means stop now rather than later. None of this looks heroic, and much of it is never written down. Yet this unrecorded knowledge is often what lets an institution behave as if it were coherent rather than merely occupied. The fashionable cure for organisational drift is to replace everyone, digitise everything, and call the institution renewed. But turnover has a cost. Once the receptionist, the foreman, or the senior nurse leaves, the quiet knowledge of who answers the phone, how long a supplier can be delayed, and what a machine sounds like before failure goes with them. A glossy system may tell you what should happen; it cannot always tell you what actually happens when the schedule is impossible. Still, I would not preserve every custom simply because it is old. Some rules survive only because they are familiar to those who benefit from them. An institution can remember its own injustice as readily as its own excellence. When that happens, memory becomes an alibi. The trick is not to worship continuity but to sift it. Useful memory should carry evidence of error, not only of pride. That is why memory must be edited, challenged, and taught. Editing sounds destructive only to people who imagine the past as a sealed museum. In reality, selection is unavoidable. If no one interprets what was kept, the records become noise; if no one explains what was lost, the silence becomes misleading. A good manager does not merely inherit precedent but asks which precedents deserve to survive. The question is not whether the organisation remembers, but what kind of remembering it practises. Here mentoring matters more than ceremony. A brief conversation between experienced and new staff can transmit judgement that no manual captures. But mentoring is not a sentimental belief that age knows best; it works only when the old are willing to admit where they were mistaken and the new are willing to hear it without flattery or contempt. The useful lesson is often not 'copy me', but 'notice what I had to learn the hard way'. At the same time, memory cannot be an excuse to delay every change. There are institutions that say 'we have always done it this way' and mistake inertia for principle. Such places are not wise; they are brittle. Their loyalty to habit becomes a form of self-protection, especially for those who fear having to explain themselves again. Forgetting, in moderation, can be a civic act. It clears out what is dead, so that what remains can breathe. So my defence of institutional memory is sceptical by design. I do not want more memory in the abstract; I want better discrimination about what should be carried forward. The past should be available, but not sovereign. The best institution is neither amnesiac nor embalmed. It remembers enough to avoid repeating old injuries, enough to hand on practical skill, and enough to let obsolete custom fall away without drama. Institutional memory is not a museum display but a working habit.
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Question 1 · Yes / No / Not Given
Decide whether the statement agrees with the writer’s or speaker’s view. Choose Not Given when the view is not stated.
The writer believes that an archive alone is insufficient to create institutional memory.
Return to the passage, recording or visual- Yes
- No
- Not Given
Check answers and explanations
- Answer
- Yes
Yes. The writer says that an organisation may possess years of paperwork yet remain ignorant of itself, showing that stored records alone are insufficient.
A place can own years of paperwork and still be ignorant of itself
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Question 2 · Yes / No / Not Given
Decide whether the statement agrees with the writer’s or speaker’s view. Choose Not Given when the view is not stated.
The writer believes institutional memory must be questioned and taught rather than merely stored.
Return to the passage, recording or visual- Yes
- No
- Not Given
Check answers and explanations
- Answer
- Yes
Yes. The writer explicitly says memory must be edited, challenged, and taught. That goes beyond storage and shows a preference for active, critical transmission.
That is why memory must be edited, challenged, and taught
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Question 3 · Yes / No / Not Given
Decide whether the statement agrees with the writer’s or speaker’s view. Choose Not Given when the view is not stated.
The writer believes that remembering past mistakes helps an institution avoid repeating them.
Return to the passage, recording or visual- Yes
- No
- Not Given
Check answers and explanations
- Answer
- Yes
Yes. The passage says that if a hospital forgets why it changed its rule, it will repeat the same mistake, so remembering past error has a practical function. The writer treats memory as a tool for avoiding repetition, not as sentiment.
A hospital that forgets why it changed its triage rule will repeat the same mistake
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Question 4 · Yes / No / Not Given
Decide whether the statement agrees with the writer’s or speaker’s view. Choose Not Given when the view is not stated.
The writer believes obsolete customs should be preserved simply because they are familiar.
Return to the passage, recording or visual- Yes
- No
- Not Given
Check answers and explanations
- Answer
- No
No. The writer explicitly rejects preserving every custom just because it is old and says obsolete custom should be allowed to fall away. This contradicts the statement; it is not merely an unstated records-retention policy.
Still, I would not preserve every custom simply because it is old
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Question 5 · Yes / No / Not Given
Decide whether the statement agrees with the writer’s or speaker’s view. Choose Not Given when the view is not stated.
The writer believes that younger staff are naturally better than older staff.
Return to the passage, recording or visual- Yes
- No
- Not Given
Check answers and explanations
- Answer
- Not Given
Not Given. The writer rejects the idea that seniority automatically equals wisdom, but that is not the same as saying younger staff are naturally better. The passage never makes a positive claim about youth being superior.
The longest-serving employee is not always the wisest
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Question 6 · Yes / No / Not Given
Decide whether the statement agrees with the writer’s or speaker’s view. Choose Not Given when the view is not stated.
The writer believes length of service guarantees superior judgement.
Return to the passage, recording or visual- Yes
- No
- Not Given
Check answers and explanations
- Answer
- No
No. The writer rejects the idea that length of service guarantees superior judgement, stating that the longest-serving employee is not always the wisest.
The longest-serving employee is not always the wisest
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Question 7 · Yes / No / Not Given
Decide whether the statement agrees with the writer’s or speaker’s view. Choose Not Given when the view is not stated.
The writer believes front-line employees know less about procedures than senior managers.
Return to the passage, recording or visual- Yes
- No
- Not Given
Check answers and explanations
- Answer
- Not Given
Not Given. The passage gives examples of practical knowledge held by people such as the receptionist, the foreman, and the senior nurse, but it never compares their knowledge with senior managers’ knowledge. The writer values practical knowledge, yet no direct hierarchy of who knows less is stated.
Once the receptionist, the foreman, or the senior nurse leaves, the quiet knowledge of who answers the phone
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Question 8 · Yes / No / Not Given
Decide whether the statement agrees with the writer’s or speaker’s view. Choose Not Given when the view is not stated.
The writer believes mentoring is more useful than written records in every situation.
Return to the passage, recording or visual- Yes
- No
- Not Given
Check answers and explanations
- Answer
- Not Given
Not Given. The writer clearly values mentoring, but he never says it is better than written records in every situation. In fact, the passage suggests that both records and human judgement have roles, so the universal claim goes beyond what is stated.
A brief conversation between experienced and new staff can transmit judgement that no manual captures
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Question 9 · Yes / No / Not Given
Decide whether the statement agrees with the writer’s or speaker’s view. Choose Not Given when the view is not stated.
The writer believes institutional memory should be kept in a single central database.
Return to the passage, recording or visual- Yes
- No
- Not Given
Check answers and explanations
- Answer
- Not Given
Not Given. The passage criticises the idea that memory is simply storage, but it never says it should be placed in one central database or makes any such recommendation. The nearest context stresses that paperwork alone is not enough, which is different from specifying a database solution.
A place can own years of paperwork and still be ignorant of itself
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Question 10 · Yes / No / Not Given
Decide whether the statement agrees with the writer’s or speaker’s view. Choose Not Given when the view is not stated.
The writer believes digitising everything removes the need for experienced staff.
Return to the passage, recording or visual- Yes
- No
- Not Given
Check answers and explanations
- Answer
- No
No. The passage says that digitising everything is a fashionable cure, but it also says turnover has a cost and that experienced people carry knowledge a system cannot fully replace. So digitisation is not presented as a substitute for staff knowledge.
The fashionable cure for organisational drift is to replace everyone, digitise everything, and call the institution renewed. But turnover has a cost
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Question 11 · Yes / No / Not Given
Decide whether the statement agrees with the writer’s or speaker’s view. Choose Not Given when the view is not stated.
The writer believes written manuals can fully replace mentoring in a workplace.
Return to the passage, recording or visual- Yes
- No
- Not Given
Check answers and explanations
- Answer
- No
No. The writer says that a brief conversation between experienced and new staff can transmit judgement that no manual captures. That means manuals are useful, but they cannot fully replace mentoring.
A brief conversation between experienced and new staff can transmit judgement that no manual captures
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Question 12 · Yes / No / Not Given
Decide whether the statement agrees with the writer’s or speaker’s view. Choose Not Given when the view is not stated.
The writer believes forgetting can sometimes benefit an institution.
Return to the passage, recording or visual- Yes
- No
- Not Given
Check answers and explanations
- Answer
- Yes
Yes. The writer presents limited forgetting as useful when it removes dead or obsolete habits, allowing the institution to change.
Forgetting, in moderation, can be a civic act
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.