Untimed · Open book
A map that helps
AI-generated practice material for this project, reviewed by Codex AI. Explanatory scenarios and fiction are invented, not reports of real organizations or events.
A map cannot show every detail of a place equally clearly. Someone drawing a map must decide what its reader needs to find. A walking map of a small town might emphasize footpaths, crossings, and entrances. A delivery map of the same streets might emphasize loading areas instead. Neither map is a complete picture, and neither needs to be. Its usefulness depends on the task it supports.
Consider an imagined visitor arriving at a community garden. The entrance has a map showing several paths, a water tap, a tool shed, and a meeting area. At first, the map also includes every tree and flower bed. The drawing looks impressive, but the labels overlap. A newcomer searching for the meeting area has to work through details that do not help with that immediate goal.
The garden group revises the map. They keep the main paths and important destinations, then use a smaller separate panel for plant information. They also add a clear mark showing where the reader is standing. This gives the visitor a starting point from which to understand the other locations. Familiar symbols are explained in a short key rather than left for everyone to guess.
To check the revision, the group asks a new visitor to find the meeting area without additional directions. They watch where the person hesitates and ask what caused the confusion. This small exercise does not prove that the map will work for everyone. It does, however, reveal a problem that the map's makers may have overlooked because they already know the garden. Good simplification preserves the information needed for a task while moving less urgent detail out of the way.
Read. Reflect. Try the questions.
Untimed, open-book practice. No reading speed is measured.
Explained answer key
Open-book practice: check these explanations when you are ready.
1. What problem did the original garden map have?
Its labels overlapped
The many details made the labels overlap.
In the passage: “the labels overlap”
2. Where was the plant information moved?
To a smaller separate panel
The revision keeps plant information in its own panel.
In the passage: “use a smaller separate panel for plant information”
3. Which statement best summarizes the passage?
A useful map selects information around its reader’s task
The examples focus on selecting information for a particular purpose.
In the passage: “Its usefulness depends on the task it supports”
4. Why might a new visitor notice a problem the makers missed?
The makers already know how to get around
Familiarity can make a missing or confusing direction less noticeable to the makers.
In the passage: “they already know the garden”
5. What does “key” mean in this passage?
An explanation of symbols
The key explains what the symbols represent.
In the passage: “Familiar symbols are explained in a short key”