Recovering the Scope of a Researcher’s Claim
About this practice test
An analytical passage examines how a carefully bounded classroom study of annotation can be broadened or distorted when its sample, conditions, and outcomes are omitted.
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
- Fill in the blank (text)
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.
Recovering the Scope of a Researcher’s Claim
At an autumn seminar for secondary teachers, a slide on annotation drew laughter because a local newsletter had reduced a subtle paper to the slogan that highlighters make children learn faster. One teacher had already repeated that summary at dinner, and another had used it to argue for buying coloured pens for all departments. Yet the paper itself, by Dr. Leena Moradi of North Vale University, was less theatrical. It was an attempt to recover the scope of a claim: not whether annotation was magical, but when, for whom, and with what safeguards it seemed to matter. Moradi studied twelve urban schools in one district, all of them serving mixed-attainment Year 9 history classes. The schools already used the same curriculum maps and the same digital textbook platform. This mattered because she was not testing annotation against chaos; she was testing it against ordinary practice in a relatively stable system. Her question was whether a brief routine, folded into existing lessons, could sharpen how students handled evidence. The routine itself was deliberately modest. Teachers asked pupils to highlight a claim in the source, write one margin question, and then compare their notes in pairs. Once a week, the teacher gave weekly feedback on a sample of those questions and asked pupils to revise one paragraph. There was no new app, no extra lesson, and no reward points. In the control classes, teachers kept the same reading texts but used their usual note-taking method. Moradi later remarked that she was interested in a procedure, not a spectacle. The results were also narrower than the headline suggested. Students in the annotation group did better on a delayed test of source evaluation, especially when they had to explain why one document was more reliable than another. But the same group did not show a meaningful advantage in factual recall, and the gains on writing fluency were small enough to be treated cautiously. In other words, annotation seemed to help one kind of reading judgement more than memory or style. That distinction was central to Moradi's argument. She wrote that the effect was strongest in classes where teachers followed the routine faithfully and weaker where the tasks were rushed or treated as a one-off novelty. She also noted that the intervention worked because pupils were already used to reading digitally and discussing sources in pairs. A class that lacked those habits might respond differently. The paper therefore did not present annotation as a universal remedy, but as a tool whose usefulness depended on existing classroom conditions. The careful wording of the discussion section mattered. Moradi used phrases such as our findings suggest and under the conditions studied rather than the more triumphant language that appears in press releases. She even warned that the results should not be stretched beyond secondary history, because that was the subject area she had actually observed. Readers who looked only at the abstract could easily miss those limits. The abstract was honest, but compressed; its caution had to be reconstructed from the methods and discussion. The problem began when a local newspaper retold the study. The reporter lifted the verb improved from the results and removed the clauses that kept it tied to one task, one age group, and one subject. By the next morning, a blog had translated the same paper into a promise that annotation would lift all grades if schools bought enough coloured pens. That version was easy to repeat, because it felt like a practical tip rather than a qualified claim. Recovering the scope of the claim means reading against that drift. First, one has to notice the sample: twelve urban schools, not the whole system. Second, one has to notice the level and subject: Year 9 history, not primary literacy, science, or revision classes preparing for exams. Third, one has to notice the outcome: source evaluation, not every aspect of learning. Finally, one has to notice the conditions: the routine was embedded in existing lessons, and the teachers were already using digital texts and pair discussion. Remove those details and the claim changes shape. The passage is useful because it shows how a narrow finding can be made to look broad without a single false sentence being added. The newspaper did not invent Moradi's work, but it changed its scope by omitting what made the work specific. That is why a careful reader cannot stop at the headline or even at the abstract. A defensible interpretation asks not only what was found, but what was ruled in and what was left outside the frame. In Moradi's case, what was ruled in was a classroom routine; what was left outside was almost everything else. For teachers, the lesson is not that research should be distrusted. It is that research should be translated with its boundaries intact. A sound claim may be less dramatic than the summary that follows it, yet it is often more useful. Moradi's paper says something valuable precisely because it is limited: within one district, in one year group, using one type of source work, annotation improved one kind of reading performance. That is enough to inform practice. It is not enough to justify slogans.
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Question 1 · 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. Moradi compared annotation with ___ rather than an unstructured baseline.
Return to the passage, recording or visualCheck answers and explanations
- Blank 1
- ordinary practice
Moradi compared the routine with ordinary practice in a relatively stable system, not with an unstructured baseline. The answer is therefore 'ordinary practice'.
she was not testing annotation against chaos; she was testing it against ordinary practice in a relatively stable system
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Question 2 · 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. The schools already used the same digital textbook ___.
Return to the passage, recording or visualCheck answers and explanations
- Blank 1
- platform
The revised sentence now asks for the thing that completed the phrase 'digital textbook'. The passage says the schools used the same digital textbook platform, so 'platform' is the only answer that fits the grammar and the meaning here.
The schools already used the same curriculum maps and the same digital textbook platform
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Question 3 · 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. The routine asked pupils to highlight a claim, write one margin question, and then ___ in pairs.
Return to the passage, recording or visualCheck answers and explanations
- Blank 1
- compare their notes
The passage says pupils were asked to 'compare their notes in pairs'. Because the blank follows 'and then', the infinitive phrase 'compare their notes' fits the sentence; 'compared their notes' would be grammatically wrong in this position.
Teachers asked pupils to highlight a claim in the source, write one margin question, and then compare their notes in pairs
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Question 4 · 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. The delayed test showed a gain in judging how dependable documents were, or in other words, in ___.
Return to the passage, recording or visualCheck answers and explanations
- Blank 1
- source evaluation
The passage identifies the relevant improvement as source evaluation, especially judging why one document was more reliable than another. The result did not extend equally to recall or writing fluency.
Students in the annotation group did better on a delayed test of source evaluation, especially when they had to explain why one document was more reliable than another
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Question 5 · 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. The same group did not show a meaningful advantage in ___.
Return to the passage, recording or visualCheck answers and explanations
- Blank 1
- factual recall
The passage directly says there was no meaningful advantage in 'factual recall'. This is the area the results did not extend to, unlike source evaluation.
the same group did not show a meaningful advantage in factual recall
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Question 6 · 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. Once a week, the teacher gave ___ on a sample of those questions.
Return to the passage, recording or visualCheck answers and explanations
- Blank 1
- feedback / weekly feedback
The routine included teacher feedback once a week, but the prompt already supplies that timing. The answer is therefore 'feedback'; 'weekly feedback' repeats information already given and is not retained as an alternative.
Once a week, the teacher gave weekly feedback on a sample of those questions and asked pupils to revise one paragraph
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Question 7 · 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. The effect was weaker where the tasks were rushed or treated as a ___.
Return to the passage, recording or visualCheck answers and explanations
- Blank 1
- one-off novelty
The passage says the effect was weaker where tasks were 'treated as a one-off novelty'. That phrase captures the limited, non-routine use that weakened the effect; 'faithfully' describes the stronger condition, not this one.
weaker where the tasks were rushed or treated as a one-off novelty
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Question 8 · 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. The intervention worked because pupils were already used to reading digitally and discussing sources in ___.
Return to the passage, recording or visualCheck answers and explanations
- Blank 1
- pairs
The passage says pupils were already used to 'discussing sources in pairs'. The blank asks for the collaboration pattern, so 'pairs' is the correct completion.
the intervention worked because pupils were already used to reading digitally and discussing sources in pairs
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Question 9 · 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. Moradi restricted her conclusion to the ___.
Return to the passage, recording or visualCheck answers and explanations
- Blank 1
- conditions studied
The phrase 'under the conditions studied' limits the conclusion to the circumstances investigated, rather than making a general claim about annotation.
Moradi used phrases such as our findings suggest and under the conditions studied rather than the more triumphant language that appears in press releases
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Question 10 · 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. The newspaper made the finding appear broader by detaching it from one task, one age group and one ___.
Return to the passage, recording or visualCheck answers and explanations
- Blank 1
- subject
The passage says the reporter removed the clauses tying the result to one task, one age group and one subject. Removing that final limitation made the finding seem applicable more widely.
The reporter lifted the verb improved from the results and removed the clauses that kept it tied to one task, one age group, and one subject
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Question 11 · 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. The passage contrasts what was ruled in—a classroom routine—with what was left outside: almost ___.
Return to the passage, recording or visualCheck answers and explanations
- Blank 1
- everything else
The conclusion distinguishes the specific routine that was studied from the much larger range of applications that was not examined. The source describes that excluded range as 'almost everything else'.
In Moradi's case, what was ruled in was a classroom routine; what was left outside was almost everything else
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Question 12 · 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. Although a sound research claim may be less dramatic than its popular summary, its limitation can make it more ___.
Return to the passage, recording or visualCheck answers and explanations
- Blank 1
- useful
The final paragraph argues that a carefully bounded claim is more useful for practice than a dramatic but overextended summary. 'Useful' completes the sentence.
A sound claim may be less dramatic than the summary that follows it, yet it is often more useful
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.