Read the following article from a website.
When nurses in Brandon invited the five candidates in their provincial riding to a forum on health care last week, they sent the questions two weeks ahead. The forum drew about two hundred people to a church hall on a weeknight. Each candidate was asked when the local emergency room would be open around the clock again, how many nurses they would hire and what that would cost. According to the nurses’ group, only one candidate gave a number in answer to any of the three questions.
Kezia Jarvis, an emergency nurse who helped organize the forum, says the silence was hard to watch. “Patients already know the gaps. Some of them sit in our waiting room for nine hours,” Jarvis said. “When a candidate calls health care a top priority and then starts talking about something else, it feels like an insult to those patients.”
Lucan Hargreaves, a campaign adviser who has worked for two parties, says the candidates were doing exactly what they are trained to do. “A specific number is a gift to your opponents. They will print it on a flyer and attack it for a month,” Hargreaves said. He explains that candidates are coached to praise the public system and then move on to safer topics such as roads. “It is not cowardice. It is arithmetic about votes,” he added.
Mateo Iglesias, a health economist who teaches at a college in Winnipeg, says he sees a deeper reason. “Health care in this province is shared by three levels of government, two hospital boards and a dozen unions,” Iglesias said. “A local candidate honestly cannot promise a date for something that many people control,” Iglesias added. Cyprian Haverkamp, a first-time candidate who attended the forum, says he understands the caution. “If I promise a date and miss it by one week, that is the only thing anyone will remember about me,” Haverkamp said. Jarvis is not persuaded. “I would rather hear an honest guess than a polite speech,” she said.
Using the drop-down menu (▾), choose the best option according to the information given on the website.
Paragraph three mainly presents 2..
Mateo Iglesias’s argument would likely be supported by 3..
The reporter presents the issue as 4..
Cyprian Haverkamp fears that missing a promised date would lead to 5..
The following is a comment by a visitor to the website page. Complete the comment by choosing the best option to fill in each blank.
AI explanationShows the answer. Tap to open.
Correct Answer: why politicians avoid clear answers on medical services
Why this is correct: Most candidates gave no clear answers at the forum. The rest of the article gives reasons why they stayed vague.
Passage Reference: Each candidate was asked when the local emergency room would be open around the clock again
Tips: Check each option against what Jarvis, Hargreaves, Iglesias and Haverkamp say. Choose the option that each section of the article helps to explain.
Why the other options are wrong:
- a plan to close a hospital in the riding: The emergency room is not open all night, but nobody plans to close a hospital.
- a strike by nurses at an emergency room: The nurses held a forum. They did not go on strike.
- a new law on campaign spending: Campaign money is not discussed in the article.
Correct Answer: a campaign adviser’s defence of the candidates
Passage Reference: says the candidates were doing exactly what they are trained to do ... It is not cowardice.
Why this is correct: Paragraph three belongs to Hargreaves, a campaign adviser. He says the candidates were doing what they are trained to do, and that it is not cowardice.
Tips: Read “Paragraph three” once more and name its job in a few plain words of your own. Keep only the choice that does that same job.
Why the other options are wrong:
- a nurse’s frustration with the answers: Jarvis, the nurse, speaks in paragraph two. Paragraph three does not mention her.
- the questions sent to each candidate: The questions are set out in paragraph one, before anyone is quoted.
- an economist’s view of who controls care: Iglesias, the economist, gives his view in paragraph four, not paragraph three.
Correct Answer: a chart of all the groups that run hospitals
Passage Reference: A local candidate honestly cannot promise a date for something that many people control
Why this is correct: Iglesias says health care is shared by governments, hospital boards and unions. A chart of all of them would back up his point that a local candidate cannot promise a date.
Tips: Go through every sentence Iglesias says. For each option, ask whether that fact would strengthen his argument or belongs to another speaker instead.
Why the other options are wrong:
- hospital records showing very long waits for patients: Long waits are part of Jarvis’s complaint. They do not show who controls health care.
- flyers that attacked a rival party’s spending plan: Attack flyers belong to Hargreaves’s point about numbers. Iglesias does not talk about campaigns.
- a poll showing that voters care most about roads: Roads come up only as a safe topic in Hargreaves’s part. A poll about roads would not help Iglesias.
Correct Answer: a puzzle that people explain in different ways
Passage Reference: says the candidates were doing exactly what they are trained to do ... says he sees a deeper reason
Why this is correct: The reporter sets out different explanations for the silence. Hargreaves points to training, and the reporter says Iglesias sees a deeper reason.
Tips: Leave the quoted words aside and read only the reporter’s own sentences. Ask what picture of the story those sentences give, then test each option against it.
Why the other options are wrong:
- a scandal that shows the candidates are cowards: The reporter never calls the candidates cowards. Hargreaves even says, “It is not cowardice.”
- a small event that few voters noticed: The forum filled a church hall on a weeknight. The reporter does not treat it as a small event.
- a problem the nurses have already fixed: Nothing has been fixed. The article reports gaps that patients still face.
Correct Answer: people forgetting everything else about him
Passage Reference: that is the only thing anyone will remember about me
Why this is correct: Haverkamp says a missed date would be the only thing anyone remembers about him. So people would forget everything else he did.
Tips: Find where Haverkamp talks about missing a promise, and read that sentence slowly. Keep the outcome that his own words point to, and drop outcomes another speaker describes.
Why the other options are wrong:
- the nurses leaving him off the next forum: Haverkamp does not mention future forums. He talks about how people would remember him.
- his opponents printing it on their flyers: Flyers come from Hargreaves’s quotes about specific numbers. Haverkamp does not mention his opponents.
- his party choosing a different candidate: Haverkamp says nothing about his party or about losing his place as a candidate.
Correct Answer: two weeks
Passage Reference: they sent the questions two weeks ahead
Why this is correct: The nurses sent the questions two weeks ahead of the forum.
Tips: Find when the nurses gave the candidates their questions, and compare it with the other times in the article.
Why the other options are wrong:
- two days: Two days is not in the article.
- one month: A month comes up in Hargreaves’s point about attacks. It is not when the questions were sent.
- one week: One week is Haverkamp’s example of a missed date.
Correct Answer: one
Passage Reference: only one candidate gave a number
Why this is correct: Only one candidate gave a number in answer to any of the three questions.
Tips: Find the sentence that reports how the candidates did. Count only those who gave a figure.
Why the other options are wrong:
- two: Two is not the number given in the article.
- three: Three is the number of questions, not the number of candidates who answered.
- four: Four is not in the article.
Correct Answer: nine hours
Passage Reference: Some of them sit in our waiting room for nine hours
Why this is correct: Jarvis says some patients sit in the waiting room for nine hours.
Tips: The commenter is repeating the nurse’s point about patients. Find how long she says people wait to be seen.
Why the other options are wrong:
- eight hours: Eight hours is not in the article.
- ten hours: Ten hours is not in the article.
- six hours: Six hours is not in the article.
Correct Answer: two
Passage Reference: a campaign adviser who has worked for two parties
Why this is correct: Hargreaves is a campaign adviser who has worked for two parties.
Tips: The commenter means the campaign adviser. Check the description of his work history.
Why the other options are wrong:
- three: Hargreaves has worked for fewer parties than three.
- four: Four is not the number in the article.
- five: Five is the number of candidates, not parties.
Correct Answer: Winnipeg
Passage Reference: a health economist who teaches at a college in Winnipeg
Why this is correct: Iglesias is a health economist who teaches at a college in Winnipeg.
Tips: This blank is about the economist. Find how the article introduces him and where he works.
Why the other options are wrong:
- Brandon: Brandon is where the forum took place, not where Iglesias teaches.
- Regina: Regina is not mentioned in the article.
- Calgary: Calgary is not mentioned in the article.
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