Duration: 90 minutesModule: General Training ReadingFocus: Note, table and sentence completion · word limits as a scoring rule · essential vs desirable in job adverts
Objectives
Apply the four completion rules: count the words, copy exactly, match the grammar, and read which instruction you were given.
Explain why a correct answer written in three words scores zero when two were allowed.
Handle hyphenated items and unnecessary articles in gapped sentences.
Read job advertisements for conditions — essential versus desirable, must versus may.
Recognise the small function words that carry the mark in workplace texts.
0:00 – 0:10
Review: Where Did Last Night's Marks Go?
Hands up for each error category from last night's homework: ran out of time · could not find it · found it but misread it · wrong word or word form. We are going to spend today on the fourth one, because it is the category where you lose marks on questions you had actually answered correctly.
A mark you have already earned, thrown away
A candidate reads "Choose ONE WORD ONLY", finds the right place in the text, understands it perfectly, and writes two words. That answer scores zero. Not half a mark — zero. Across a paper, this single habit is worth two to four bands' worth of raw marks for some candidates.
0:10 – 0:35
Completion Tasks and the Word Limit
Note completion, table completion, sentence completion, form completion, flow-chart completion. Five names, one skill. You take words from the text and you obey the instruction exactly.
The four rules
Rule
What it means
What goes wrong
1. Count the words
"NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS" means two is the ceiling. One is fine. Three is zero.
Writing the whole phrase because it sounds more complete.
2. Copy exactly
Spelling must match the text. You are not being asked to paraphrase — you are being asked to transfer.
Correcting the text's spelling, or writing from memory instead of copying.
3. Match the grammar of the gap
Read the sentence with your answer in it. Does it work? Singular or plural? Verb form?
Writing machine where the gap needs machines.
4. A number counts as a word
"ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER" is a different instruction from "ONE WORD ONLY". Read which one you were given.
Writing "Rs 2,500" where only one word was allowed.
Hyphens and articles
A hyphenated item — full-time, self-service — counts as one word. Articles are usually not needed: if the gap follows "the", do not write "the" again. When in doubt, read the completed sentence aloud in your head; your ear catches the doubled article faster than your eye does.
Word-limit judgement
Text: "Applications close at midnight on 30 June. Late applications are considered only in exceptional circumstances and must be supported by a written explanation from the applicant's line manager."
Instruction: NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text.
Late applications are only accepted in ______________.
A late application needs a written explanation from the applicant's ______________.
exceptional circumstances — exactly two words. "only in exceptional circumstances" would be four and scores zero.
line manager — two words. "the applicant's line manager" is four; "manager" alone is acceptable to some markers but risky, because the text specifies which manager.
Notice that in both cases the safe answer and the complete-sounding answer are different answers. Train yourself to write the smallest phrase that fills the gap correctly.
0:35 – 1:00
Crossing into Section 2: The Job Advertisement
Section 2 is "workplace survival" — the documents you would meet applying for and holding down a job. The first text is usually a pair of job advertisements, and the questions turn on conditions: who may apply, what is essential, what is merely desirable.
The words that carry the marks
In workplace texts, the meaning sits in small function words. Essential vs desirable. Must vs may. All vs most. Unless, except, provided that, subject to, only if. A question will very often hinge on exactly one of these, and a candidate reading for gist will sail straight past it.
Essential or desirable?
Text: "Applicants must hold a current driving licence. Experience of stock control is essential. A qualification in logistics is desirable but not required. Candidates who do not have the right to work in the country will not be considered."
An applicant without a logistics qualification can still apply.
Stock-control experience is optional.
Applicants must be able to drive.
The company will sponsor work permits for suitable candidates.
TRUE — "desirable but not required".
FALSE — it is "essential", which is the opposite of optional.
TRUE — a current driving licence is required. Note this is an inference from "must hold a licence", and a safe one.
NOT GIVEN — the text says candidates without the right to work are not considered. It says nothing about sponsorship. Tempting to reason "so they must not sponsor" — but that is your logic, not the text's.
1:00 – 1:30
End-of-Class Drill — Completion Under Time
Twelve questions, fifteen minutes, and the word limit is enforced. Before you start, say the instruction out loud: one word only means one word only.
Vocabulary from today
Tap a word to reveal its meaning. These are the terms General Training texts use again and again.
only if there is space or capacity at the time.
already part of the price, with nothing more to pay.
an extra amount added to the standard price.
at the normal, published price.
if you ask for it; not automatic.
you must tell them a day beforehand.
allowed. Smoking is not permitted.
in a job advert: essential means you must have it; desirable means it helps but you can apply without it.
Wrap-up
Wrap-Up & Homework
Today's single takeaway: the instruction line above a completion task is part of the question, and breaking it is the cheapest way there is to lose a mark you had already earned.
Tonight you get your first full Section 2 text — a pair of job advertisements — with completion and matching questions mixed together.