By Melissa & Emily & Lucy
Understanding Questions
 Most understanding questions begin with the word
“Explain”
 Other words that may be used are “Give” , “What”,
“Refer/Refering” and “According to”
YOU MUST USE YOUR OWN
WORDS AS FAR AS POSSIBLE!
 If the writer has used the best words, don’t just repeat
it because you can’t rephrase it as well as they have
written it. You must try and use your own words even if
they are simple words, as blatant lifts will be given NO
MARKS!
3 Types of Understanding
Questions
 1)Summary – A summary question will often ask you to
“Explain briefly..” several points.
 2) Context – A context question will ask how the
language surrounding a word or expression helps you
understand the meaning of it.
 3) Link – A link question will ask you to show how a
sentence provides a link between two ideas.
How to go about answering the 3
different types of understanding
questions.
 Summary - To answer a summary question it is best to use bullet
points so the marker can see clearly where marks should be
allocated.
 Context – To answer a context question start by explaining the
word or expression in your own words. Then you must find one
or two quotations from the surrounding text and explain how
they help you to understand the meaning of the word or
expression.
 Link – There is four different parts to answering a link question .
The first part is to find a quote which sums up the idea in the
first sentence. Then you must summarise this in your own
words. The third part is to find a quote from the same sentence
which sums up the following idea. And finally you must then
summarise this idea in your own words
Examples for the 3 different types
of questions & answers
 Summary
In a world changing faster now than ever before, the dispossessed and the ambitious are
flooding into cities swollen out of all recognition. Poor cities are struggling to cope.
Rich cities are reconfiguring themselves at breakneck speed. China has created an
industrial powerhouse from what were fishing villages in the 1970s. Lagos and Dhaka
attract a thousand new arrivals every day. In Britain, central London’s population has
started to grow again after 50 years of decline.
Q- Explain which groups of people are being attracted to cities (2010 Q1)
A - There must be some attempt to use own words. Lifts: 0.
Gloss on the following two terms for 1+1:
“the dispossessed” people who are homeless, displaced, driven from
their own land, alienated from their own society,
poor people, people with few possessions
“the ambitious” people with a strong desire to succeed, to get on in
life, to better themselves, to make money
(undeveloped variants of “ambitious” – eg “people
with ambitions”: 0)
Examples for the 3 different types
of questions & answers
 Context
What felt radical when Dublin, Barcelona and Glasgow embarked on the city
makeover path in the late 1980s and early 1990s, now feels derivative and is
delivering
diminishing returns.
Q - What does the writer mean by the words “radical” (line 13) and
“derivative” (line 14) in his discussion of city development? (2010 Q
11)
A–
gloss on “radical” for 1 mark – eg original, drastic, far-reaching,
fundamentally different, …
gloss on “derivative” for 1 mark – eg unoriginal, imitative, copied, …
Examples for the 3 different types
of questions & answers
 Link (Passage)
And when I hear politicians—most of them comfortably off—trying to deny
enlightenment and pleasure to “working class” people, I reach for my
megaphone.
Maybe Tommy Tattoo and his mates do use cheap flights to the sunshine as an
extension of their binge-drinking opportunities, but for thousands of people
whose
parents would never have ventured beyond Blackpool or Rothesay, air travel has
been a social revelation.
So, before we all give the eco-lobby’s anti-flying agenda the unconditional
benefit of
the doubt, can we just review their strategy as a whole?
Remember, it is not just air travel that the green tax lobby is trying to control: it
is a
restriction on any mobility.
Examples for the 3 different types
of questions & answers
Q - Referring to specific words and/or phrases, show how the sentence “So, before
… as a whole?” (lines 13-14) performs a linking function in the writer’s
argument. (2009 Q2)
AFour elements are required:
1 “eco-lobby’s anti-flying agenda” …
2 … refers back to the restrictive air travel proposals discussed in the
opening two paragraphs;
3 “their strategy as a whole”/“can we just review”
4 … leads into the discussion of the eco-lobby’s proposed restrictions on
travel as a whole/on energy use in general
Answers which do not follow the requirement to refer to “specific
words and/or
phrases” cannot score more than 1 mark.