Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: In April 1907, only two years after his first race, he won the Boston Marathon in a record time of 2 hours, 24 minutes and 24 seconds, and the victory brought him international fame.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph A: it gives the month and year of the Boston win and his exact time. But it never gives his birth year or his age. So we cannot tell from the passage whether he was a teenager.
Tips: A date for the race is not an age. Look for a birth year or a number of years old, and you will not find one.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Notice that paragraph A dates the Boston race to April 1907 and says he had raced for two years. But it never says how old he was.
- B: Paragraph B explains how he trained and why he was criticised. His age is not part of it.
- C: The third paragraph starts in 1908 with the Olympics and later races. It gives no age for the Boston win.
- D: Notice that paragraph D has the year he died, 1949. But no birth year, so his age in 1907 cannot be worked out.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: His coaches did not approve of this pattern, and later, when he raced for money, the sports press often labelled him lazy.
Why this is correct: Paragraph B describes his mix of hard workouts and 'active rest'. Then it says his coaches did not approve of this pattern. Coaches are the people who trained him, and not approving means they objected.
Tips: Paragraph A also has a person who guided him. Check which paragraph says someone disliked his way of training.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Look at paragraph A: it names Bill Davis, who first got him interested in racing. But no one there complains about his training.
- C: The third paragraph reports the Olympic collapse and later races. It does not say who disliked his preparation.
- D: Notice that paragraph D is about his army service, his later work and honours, with no coaches in it.
- E: Look at paragraph B. It reports the coaches' view directly: they did not approve of his pattern of hard work and rest.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: He started the marathon as one of the favourites, but while running in second place he collapsed from exhaustion about six miles from the finish.
Why this is correct: In paragraph C, the writer says that at the 1908 Olympic Games he collapsed from exhaustion about six miles from the finish. Exhaustion means being far too tired, and falling six miles short means he did not finish.
Tips: Find his time at the Olympics. Ask whether he reached the end of that run, and what stopped him.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A is about races he won, in Hamilton and Boston, and nothing there goes wrong.
- B: The second paragraph talks about rest days and being called lazy, but it does not describe him failing in a race.
- D: Notice that paragraph D tells of danger in the war and wounds, not of a race he could not complete.
- E: The Olympic marathon of 1908 is in Paragraph C, which says he collapsed from exhaustion before the finish.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: He served in France with the 107th Pioneer Battalion as a dispatch runner, carrying messages on foot, and he was wounded twice.
Why this is correct: Paragraph D says he served in France as a dispatch runner, carrying messages on foot. Messages carry information, and doing it on foot means he ran with them for the army.
Tips: Running appears in every paragraph. Find the one where the running is done for soldiers, not for prizes.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A is about running in races before 1908, not running for the army.
- B: Look at paragraph B: it describes his training methods, which have nothing to do with war work.
- C: The third paragraph covers his racing as an amateur and a professional up to 1912. The war comes later.
- E: His army job, dispatch runner, is named in Paragraph D, which adds that he carried messages on foot.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: In April 1907, only two years after his first race, he won the Boston Marathon in a record time of 2 hours, 24 minutes and 24 seconds, and the victory brought him international fame.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph A says he won the Boston Marathon in a record time. A record time is the best time ever run on that course, so it was faster than all earlier times.
Tips: The statement is about a win in Boston that set a record. Check which race he won there, and whether his time beat every earlier one.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: Look at paragraph B: it says his race times improved after he left his managers. That is a different point from a record in Boston.
- C: Notice that paragraph C has a world record, but it is for 15 miles in 1912, not for the Boston race.
- D: Paragraph D is about the war, his work in Toronto and later honours, with no race times.
- E: The first paragraph says the 1907 Boston win came in a record time, which means no one had run it faster before.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: After the war he worked for the City of Toronto and later returned to the Six Nations reserve, where he died in 1949.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph D says that after the war he worked for the City of Toronto. So his employer was the city itself. The words 'after the war' match 'when the fighting ended'.
Tips: Several cities are named in the passage. Look for the one that gave him a job after the war.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: In paragraph A, the writer mentions Hamilton, but only as the place of a race he won in 1906, not a job.
- B: Paragraph B is about his contract with managers, which was racing business, not work for a city.
- C: Look at paragraph C: it says he earned a living from sport before the war. It has no job with a city.
- E: The fourth paragraph names his employer after the war, the City of Toronto, before telling of his return to Six Nations.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: In April 1907, only two years after his first race, he won the Boston Marathon in a record time of 2 hours, 24 minutes and 24 seconds, and the victory brought him international fame.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph A says he won the Boston Marathon in April 1907, only two years after his first race. Two years is a short time, so he had not been competing for long.
Tips: Work out how long he had been competing before Boston. Look for a short gap between when he started and that win.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: Look at paragraph B: it describes his training habits, not how long he had been racing before Boston.
- C: Notice that paragraph C begins after Boston, with the 1908 Olympics. It does not look back at his early years.
- D: Paragraph D covers 1916 and after, far from the start of his racing.
- E: The short gap between his first race and Boston, only two years, is stated in Paragraph A.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: Later that year he met Dorando Pietri of Italy at Madison Square Garden in New York, in front of a packed house, and won.
Why this is correct: The third paragraph says he met Dorando Pietri of Italy at Madison Square Garden in New York. It was in front of a packed house, and he won. A packed house is a crowded arena, and Pietri was his Italian rival.
Tips: The statement gives three clues: New York, an Italian and a big crowd. Look for the place that has all three.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Notice that paragraph A mentions a runner from his own reserve, Bill Davis, but no race in New York.
- B: In paragraph B, the writer mentions racing for money but names no rival and no arena.
- D: Paragraph D is set in France during the war and in Toronto afterwards, not in New York.
- E: Look at paragraph C: it names the arena, Madison Square Garden, the Italian runner Pietri and the full crowd.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: Today, planning hard, easy and recovery days is a normal part of training.
Why this is correct: The second paragraph explains that he mixed hard days with rest. Then it says that today planning hard, easy and recovery days is normal in training. So his way is now common.
Tips: Two places reach the present. Choose the one about how athletes get ready, not the one about an award.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Notice that paragraph A describes how he started racing as a young man, not how people train today.
- C: Look at paragraph C: it tells of races and records up to 1912. It does not talk about training methods now.
- D: Notice that paragraph D also reaches the present, with an award still given today. But that is an honour, not a training method.
- E: The last sentence of Paragraph B links his mix of hard and easy days to what is normal in training today.
