New National Education Association President Calls for a Less Partisan Focus in Education

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 central purpose?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. To criticize unions for entering public policy debates
   2. To outline Moss’s leadership direction and its unresolved tensions
   3. To catalogue educators’ specific workplace difficulties
   4. To compare rival political parties’ education platforms
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   To outline Moss’s leadership direction and its unresolved tensions

   It outlines Moss’s proposed direction and the unresolved tensions surrounding it.

   For now, Moss’s stated approach is one of focus and distinction: acknowledge the profession’s challenges, identify the organization’s next steps, and encourage educators to keep their work from being reduced to party politics.

2. Question 2 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What can reasonably be inferred from the article’s discussion of partisanship?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. Moss intends to end the union’s public advocacy
   2. Moss considers all political discussion professionally inappropriate
   3. Moss may preserve advocacy while reducing party identification
   4. Moss has already established precise operational boundaries
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   Moss may preserve advocacy while reducing party identification

   The proposed shift concerns political identification, not civic disengagement.

   Seeking distance from partisanship does not necessarily mean withdrawing from public debate.

3. Question 3 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   In paragraph three, what does “that distinction” refer to?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. The difference between educators and policymakers
   2. The separation of advocacy from party allegiance
   3. The contrast between unions and communities
   4. The division between current and former presidents
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   The separation of advocacy from party allegiance

   It refers to separating professional advocacy from allegiance to a political party.

   It can instead suggest an effort to distinguish professional advocacy from party allegiance, although the precise boundaries of that distinction remain open to interpretation.

4. Question 4 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   Why does the article emphasize that the challenges are unspecified?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. To suggest educators face no serious pressures
   2. To signal that the account’s evidence has limits
   3. To defend the union against unnamed critics
   4. To predict which reforms Moss will implement
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   To signal that the account’s evidence has limits

   It prevents readers from treating a broad description as a detailed account.

   That restraint matters: educators may face several kinds of pressure, and describing them accurately requires more detail than is provided here.

5. Question 5 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   How is the article organized overall?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. Biography, chronology, rebuttal, and conclusion
   2. Proposal, contextual tension, limitations, and future implications
   3. Statistics, personal testimony, legislation, and forecast
   4. Criticism, historical comparison, recommendation, and verdict
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   Proposal, contextual tension, limitations, and future implications

   It moves from Moss’s proposal through its implications toward future questions.

   Her presidency begins, then, with two connected questions.

6. Question 6 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What relationship does the article establish between public influence and institutional tension?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. Public influence eliminates the need for member representation
   2. Institutional size makes political debate irrelevant
   3. Public influence creates competing representational obligations
   4. Political debate prevents unions from addressing workplace conditions
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   Public influence creates competing representational obligations

   A larger public role intensifies the need to balance representation and neutrality.

   A teachers union must represent its members’ interests, yet education is also closely connected to public policy, community expectations, and political debate.

7. Question 7 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   What does the phrase “identifiable starting point” imply about Moss’s approach?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. It is already fully implemented
   2. It offers direction without settled outcomes
   3. It rejects organizational experimentation
   4. It depends on immediate legislative approval
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   It offers direction without settled outcomes

   The direction is clear enough to define a beginning, not a completed policy.

   The approach gives her leadership an identifiable starting point, while leaving its practical consequences to be developed over time.

8. Question 8 · Single choice

   Choose one answer.

   Why does the article describe Moss’s position as occupying a “delicate space”?

   Return to the passage, recording or visual
   1. The union lacks any recognized public authority
   2. Education policy is unrelated to working conditions
   3. The union must advocate amid politically charged expectations
   4. Educators have unanimously rejected public engagement
   Check answers and explanations

   Answer

   The union must advocate amid politically charged expectations

   She must reconcile member advocacy with education’s inherently political context.

   Moss’s comments place that role in a delicate space.

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.