10.3Reading practice 5: a workplace text
- 1 reading text
- 10 marked questions
Section 2 of the Reading paper is about work: staff handbooks, contracts, training material, company policies. The language is more careful than in Section 1, and the questions reward slow reading. Allow 18 minutes for the text and questions below.
All permanent employees are entitled to 25 days of paid annual leave in each leave year, which runs from 1 January to 31 December. Employees who join part way through the year receive a proportion of this entitlement based on the number of complete months they will work before 31 December.
Part-time employees receive the same entitlement calculated in hours rather than days. An employee working three days a week, for example, receives fifteen days of leave, not twenty-five.
Requests for leave should be submitted through the staff portal at least three weeks before the first day of absence. Requests made with less notice will still be considered, but the department cannot guarantee that they will be approved. Your line manager will normally respond within five working days. If you have not received a response after ten working days, contact the Human Resources team directly rather than resubmitting the request, as duplicate requests create confusion in the system.
A maximum of five days of unused leave may be carried over into the following year, and these days must be taken before 31 March. Any remaining days are lost. Employees cannot be paid in place of untaken leave except when they leave the company, in which case outstanding days are paid at the normal daily rate.
During the two weeks before the end of the financial year, leave is not normally granted to staff in the Finance and Payroll departments. Staff in other departments are not affected by this restriction, although managers may limit the number of people absent at the same time within any one team.
Sick leave is recorded separately and does not reduce your annual leave entitlement. If you fall ill while on annual leave and provide a medical certificate, the days concerned may be reclassified as sick leave and returned to your annual entitlement.
Questions 21 to 26
Completion6 questionsQuestions 21 to 26. Complete the sentences below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
The leave year begins on .................. .
An employee who works three days per week is entitled to .................. days of leave.
Leave requests should be made at least .................. before the absence begins.
If there is no reply after ten working days, staff should contact .................. .
Carried-over leave must be used before .................. .
Leave that is not taken can only be paid when an employee .................. .
Questions 27 to 30
Completion4 questionsQuestions 27 to 30. Answer the questions below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
How many days of leave may be carried into the next year?
Which two departments have restrictions before the end of the financial year?
What must an employee provide if they are ill during annual leave?
Who may limit how many people in a team are absent at once?
Notice what this text does
Almost every rule in it has an exception attached, and the exception is usually in the second half of the sentence. This is typical of Section 2. Students who read the first half of a sentence and move on will get most of these questions wrong. Read to the full stop, every time.