Reading: Multiple Choice, Single Answer · Part 2: Reading

Plainness

69 students marked "I sat this"Added 10 Apr 2020Question #080119

Choose the one correct answer.

Now that doesn't mean that plainness is the only good style, or that you should become a slave to spare, unadorned writing. Formality and ornateness have their place, and incompetent hands complexity can carry us on a dizzying, breathtaking journey. But most students, most of the time, should strive to be sensibly simple, to develop a baseline style of short words, active verbs, and relatively simple sentences conveying clear actions or identities. It's faster, it makes arguments easier to follow, it increases the chances a busy reader will bother to pay attention, and it lets you focus more attention on your moments of rhetorical flourish, which I do not advise abandoning altogether (see the upcoming section on rhetoric).

According to the text, what is correct about plainness?

  1. APlainness sometimes makes it harder for readers to follow and to understand the arguments.
  2. BPlainness is the only good style, so we should abandon formality and ornateness.
  3. CPlainness means that students should aim to develop a baseline style of short words, active verbs and relatively simple sentences conveying clear actions or identities.
  4. DIf students focus on plainness, then they cannot pay any attention on rhetorical flourish.
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Reading: Multiple Choice, Single Answer format (Pearson)

Pearson's name: Multiple Choice, Single Answer

PromptText up to 110 words
Time to answerNot set per question (Part 2 lasts 23–30 minutes)
Skills assessedReading

How it is scored

  • Scored as either correct or incorrect.

Source: Pearson, PTE Academic & UKVI test format, Part 2: Reading, checked 9 October 2026.