Choosing from a list: three generations under one roof
You can test each option in a list against the passage and choose the two or three the question asks for.
The passage here is about homes shared by three generations: grandparents, parents and children under one roof.
Its questions are multiple choice with more than one answer: Choose TWO letters, A-E, or three from a longer list. Several of the wrong options are also in the passage, used for a different point.
Warm-up
Kamal's two reasons
Read the short text and choose the pair.
Read thisKamal volunteers at a community garden on Saturday mornings. He says he joined to meet people after moving to the town, and he stays because he likes working outdoors. His wife thinks the free vegetables are the real reason, but he laughs at the idea.
Which TWO reasons does Kamal give for volunteering?
How it works
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
- 1Which TWO causes of the growth in shared family homes does the writer mention?
- Athe rising cost of housing
- Ba return to traditional values
- Cthe high cost of childcare
- Dhomes being built for larger families
- Epeople living longer
A set can also ask for THREE letters from a longer list, A-G. The instruction always says how many.
The method
- 1Read the question for its limits
How many letters, what kind of thing, about whom, and when. Causes of the growth rules out causes of anything else.
- 2Find the right part of the passage
Use the question's topic to find the paragraph or two that deal with it. The options may come in any order.
- 3Test every option
Ask three things of each one. Is it in the passage? Does the writer say it is true? Does it answer this question? A right answer gets three yeses.
- 4Choose as many letters as the question asks
Two for TWO, three for THREE. On screen you click that many options, and the order does not matter.
Where the wrong options come from
The idea is in the passage, but the writer doubts it or rejects it.
True of parents when the question asks about grandparents, or true of the past when it asks about now.
The passage says the reverse: less, where the option says more.
Something that may be true in the world, which the passage never says.
The passage
Under one roof
A In many parts of the world, grandparents, parents and children have long lived together. In others, the shared family home became much less common during the twentieth century. As people moved to cities for work, young couples set up homes of their own, and new houses and flats were designed with smaller families in mind. In some countries, pensions also made it possible for older people to live on their own. By the end of the century, three generations under one roof had come to seem old-fashioned there.
B That picture is now changing. In a number of countries, more people live in households of three or more generations than did a few decades ago. Housing experts point first to money. In many cities, the cost of buying or renting a home has risen much faster than wages, and young adults who cannot afford a place of their own are staying with their parents for longer, sometimes after they have children themselves. The price of childcare is the second factor. When a grandparent lives in the house and can collect children from school or look after a baby, parents can return to work without spending a large part of their pay on a nursery.
C It is sometimes said that people have become more family-minded, and that the shared home marks a return to traditional values. There is little evidence for this. When a housing charity in Porthaven interviewed forty families who had recently moved in together, most spoke first about money, and only a handful mentioned tradition. For many, sharing a home was a practical decision, and one they had never expected to make.
D For older people, the benefits can be considerable. A grandparent who lives with family is rarely alone for long, so loneliness, a serious problem for many people who live by themselves in later life, becomes much less likely. Many grandparents also say that they feel useful: they cook, help with homework and are part of their grandchildren's daily lives. Whether sharing a home also makes older people healthier is harder to say, because families who choose to live together may differ in other ways from those who do not.
E The younger generations gain as well. Parents have help with the children, and the children grow up knowing their grandparents well. Because bills are shared, the household as a whole often spends less on heating, food and internet than two separate homes would.
F Living together is not always easy, however. Most houses were built for one family, with a single kitchen and one living room, so there is often not enough space. Adults of different generations can find it hard to get any time alone. Arguments about how the children should be brought up are common too: a grandmother may expect a six-year-old to be in bed by eight, while his parents are happy for him to stay up later.
G Advisers who work with such families suggest agreeing a few things before anyone moves in: how the bills will be divided, which rooms are private, and what will happen if the arrangement does not work out. Families who talk about these questions early, they say, have a much better chance of staying happy under one roof.
Watch me do one
I'll do Questions 1 and 2. The question asks for causes of the growth in shared homes, so the causes have to be about now.
That picture is now changing opens paragraph B, so I start there. The writer says experts point first to money: homes cost more, and wages have not kept up. That is A.
Two sentences later: The price of childcare is the second factor. That is C, in other words.
Before I write A and C, I test the other three. B, traditional values, is in paragraph C, but the next sentence is There is little evidence for this. The writer rejects it.
D is the opposite of paragraph A, where new homes were designed for smaller families, and that was in the past. E, people living longer, may be true, but this passage never says it.
So I choose A and C. Four of the five options had some link to the passage, and only two answered the question.
Practice with Elita5 questions
Two more sets on the same passage. You test single options first, then answer whole sets.
Found it. Is it right?
You have found the idea of one option in the passage.
What else must be true before you choose it?
Questions 3 and 4: one option
The question is Which TWO benefits for older people does the writer mention? Read paragraph E and decide about this option.
Read thisThe younger generations gain as well. Parents have help with the children, and the children grow up knowing their grandparents well. Because bills are shared, the household as a whole often spends less on heating, food and internet than two separate homes would.
Option: help with looking after children
Questions 3 and 4: another option
Same question. Read paragraph D and decide about this option.
Read thisFor older people, the benefits can be considerable. A grandparent who lives with family is rarely alone for long, so loneliness, a serious problem for many people who live by themselves in later life, becomes much less likely. Many grandparents also say that they feel useful: they cook, help with homework and are part of their grandchildren's daily lives. Whether sharing a home also makes older people healthier is harder to say, because families who choose to live together may differ in other ways from those who do not.
Option: better health
Questions 3 and 4
Now the whole set. Read paragraphs D and E and choose the pair.
Read this(D) For older people, the benefits can be considerable. A grandparent who lives with family is rarely alone for long, so loneliness, a serious problem for many people who live by themselves in later life, becomes much less likely. Many grandparents also say that they feel useful: they cook, help with homework and are part of their grandchildren's daily lives. Whether sharing a home also makes older people healthier is harder to say, because families who choose to live together may differ in other ways from those who do not. (E) The younger generations gain as well. Parents have help with the children, and the children grow up knowing their grandparents well. Because bills are shared, the household as a whole often spends less on heating, food and internet than two separate homes would.
Which TWO benefits for older people does the writer mention?
Questions 5-7
In the exam, this set would list seven options and ask for THREE. Here each option is already a group of three. Read paragraphs D to F and choose the right group.
Read this(D) For older people, the benefits can be considerable. A grandparent who lives with family is rarely alone for long, so loneliness, a serious problem for many people who live by themselves in later life, becomes much less likely. Many grandparents also say that they feel useful: they cook, help with homework and are part of their grandchildren's daily lives. Whether sharing a home also makes older people healthier is harder to say, because families who choose to live together may differ in other ways from those who do not. (E) The younger generations gain as well. Parents have help with the children, and the children grow up knowing their grandparents well. Because bills are shared, the household as a whole often spends less on heating, food and internet than two separate homes would. (F) Living together is not always easy, however. Most houses were built for one family, with a single kitchen and one living room, so there is often not enough space. Adults of different generations can find it hard to get any time alone. Arguments about how the children should be brought up are common too: a grandmother may expect a six-year-old to be in bed by eight, while his parents are happy for him to stay up later.
Which THREE difficulties of sharing a home does the writer mention?
Words to keep
Living in the same home. Three generations live under one roof in my uncle's house.
A small number of people or things. Only a handful of the families mentioned tradition.
Looking after children while their parents work, often for pay. Grandparents give free childcare in many families.
Raise children and teach them how to behave. Parents and grandparents do not always agree on how to bring up children.
Large or important enough to notice. The benefits for older people can be considerable.
Of a plan or an arrangement: succeed. Families should agree what happens if living together does not work out.
Before you go
Read the question for its limits: how many letters, what kind of thing, about whom, and when.
Test every option against the passage, even after two of them look right.
An option that appears in the passage may still be wrong: the writer may reject it, or say it about someone else.
Choose as many letters as the question asks for. The order does not matter.
Next: In the listening lesson, a student talks through his survey on volunteering with his tutor, and you choose two answers from five as they talk.