The reading B test has several common question types that are important to practice. One common question type, which usually asks about the final paragraph, is shown below.

“What is the principal recommendation of paragraph 7?”

As we have discussed in previous posts, it is always important to practice the common question types in Reading B because they make up about half of the exam. With recommendation questions, it is always important to choose the answer that is a recommendation – this sounds obvious, but there are a few tricks to look out for. For something to be a “recommendation”, it needs to use words like “should” or “must” in the text – if the sentence doesn’t have this, then it usually a statement, not a recommendation. Let’s look at a sample question.

“For healthy women with no family history of breast cancer, weighing up the relative benefits and harms of breast screening can be difficult. “Whether you think that the possible benefit is worth the risks I think varies between people,” says Barratt. “For an individual, the most likely outcome of going to screening is absolutely nothing will happen at all – no benefit and no harm,” she says. Women should be given enough information to make an informed decision about whether the small chance of a very large benefit – having your life saved – outweighs the risk of being over-diagnosed and false positives. A 2012 study found that few women were aware of over-diagnosis in breast cancer screening. Evaluation of breast screening in light of evolving evidence is also essential, according to Nickson. “The cost effectiveness and the health benefits of large programs should always be continuously reviewed and evaluated. You don’t just set the ship off and let it go.”

What is the main recommendation proposed by this paragraph?
a) breast cancer screening should be a difficult choice for healthy women
b) women with no family history of breast cancer should not be screened
c) breast cancer experts should reach a consensus on the best approach to screening and treatment
d) women should be aware of the relative risks and benefits of breast cancer screening

There are a few tricks here that are common to these question types. Note that all the answers themselves are phrased as recommendations (using “should”), but the statements they correspond to in the text are not all phrased as recommendations. This is the first common trick in recommendation questions. Answers A and B are wrong, because the corresponding statements in the text do not use the word “should”, and so they are not recommendations. The second trick is that the question asks for the “main” recommendation; answers C and D are both given as recommendations in the paragraph, but answer C is only really mentioned briefly at the end, and is not the main topic talked about in this paragraph. Answer C is thus not as good an answer as D, because D is the main topic covered in this paragraph and so the main recommendation.

As we’ve said, getting good at recognising and dealing with the common question types is an important skill for Reading B. If you get a “main/principal recommendation” question, make sure you pick something that is a recommendation, and is the focus of the paragraph.