How to Limit Rat Numbers? Train Humans

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

Single choice

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.

1. Question 1 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What is the article’s principal argument?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. Poison should be abandoned immediately in every urban setting.
   2. Resident education can complement familiar measures that appear insufficient.
   3. Residents are responsible for eliminating all urban rat populations.
   4. Back alleys are the primary cause of persistent rat numbers.
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   Resident education can complement familiar measures that appear insufficient.

   The article presents resident education as a complementary response to ineffective poison-based control.

   The story’s broader lesson is modest but consequential: when a familiar control measure appears insufficient, changing public understanding can become part of the intervention.

2. Question 2 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   Why does the article describe education as an encounter?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. To emphasize direct engagement with the problem’s setting
   2. To suggest residents receive formal scientific training
   3. To show that back alleys are safer than expected
   4. To imply that information is generally unreliable
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   To emphasize direct engagement with the problem’s setting

   Residents observe the problem’s physical setting rather than receiving detached information.

   The expeditions give the program a practical dimension: education is not presented merely as information delivered from a distance, but as an encounter with the places where the problem is visible.

3. Question 3 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What can be inferred about the initiative’s stated level of certainty?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. Its success has already been conclusively demonstrated.
   2. Its effectiveness remains deliberately qualified and uncertain.
   3. Its lessons have been independently evaluated nationwide.
   4. Its organizers reject all conventional control measures.
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   Its effectiveness remains deliberately qualified and uncertain.

   The article explicitly withholds any guarantee that education will solve the problem.

   Education cannot be described, on the available information, as a guaranteed solution.

4. Question 4 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What does “That act of illumination” refer to?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. Publishing the source’s account of the program
   2. Taking residents into back alleys to observe rats
   3. Installing brighter lighting throughout Washington
   4. Explaining how poison affects local ecosystems
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   Taking residents into back alleys to observe rats

   The phrase refers to showing residents the problem in its actual setting.

   Residents are not simply told that rats remain a problem; they are shown the problem in its setting.

5. Question 5 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   How is the article organized overall?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. Chronologically, from the program’s founding to its expansion
   2. Comparatively, between two competing cities’ policies
   3. Argumentatively, from conventional limits to educational implications
   4. Procedurally, through detailed instructions for residents
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   Argumentatively, from conventional limits to educational implications

   It moves from failed conventional control to educational rationale, limits, and broader significance.

   The approach also draws a distinction between treating a symptom and examining the wider situation.

6. Question 6 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   Which detail most directly explains why residents are included?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. Residents requested formal employment with the city.
   2. Poison has failed to prevent rats from thriving.
   3. Back alleys require specialized environmental equipment.
   4. The source recommends replacing all municipal services.
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   Poison has failed to prevent rats from thriving.

   Persistent rats despite poison motivate involving people who live alongside the problem.

   If the problem persists despite that approach, the people living alongside it may need to become part of the response.

7. Question 7 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What contrast underlies the article’s treatment of poison?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. Private action versus governmental regulation
   2. Animal behavior versus human psychology
   3. Symptom treatment versus wider situational understanding
   4. Scientific expertise versus neighborhood tradition
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   Symptom treatment versus wider situational understanding

   Poison addresses the immediate symptom, whereas education examines surrounding conditions.

   The approach also draws a distinction between treating a symptom and examining the wider situation.

8. Question 8 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   Why does the article call the broader lesson “modest but consequential”?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. It promises a complete solution through a minor adjustment.
   2. It presents a restrained idea with potentially meaningful consequences.
   3. It dismisses education as politically insignificant.
   4. It claims the program has transformed national policy.
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   It presents a restrained idea with potentially meaningful consequences.

   The proposed shift is limited in scope but potentially significant in how problems are addressed.

   The story’s broader lesson is modest but consequential: when a familiar control measure appears insufficient, changing public understanding can become part of the intervention.

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.