DSE-ENG-P1-B1 · READING NOTES

Part B1 notes · The Pier Shelf

乙部一筆記

Part B1 is the easier section and is worth 42 marks. You answer it instead of Part B2, not as well as Part B2. In a live HKDSE, Parts A and B1 cannot be awarded above Level 4. This practice paper records raw marks only. Texts 2, 3 and 4 are a notice, a profile and three comments. Text 2 is the notice.

乙部一只可選做，不能和乙部二同時作答。正式考試裡，甲部加乙部一最高是第 4 級。先讀筆記，再回到試卷。

乙部一筆記 PDF 甲部筆記

Text 2 · the notice告示

The Pier Shelf opens on 1 April at Sai Wan Ho Ferry Pier. A user may take one book and leave one book. No card is needed.
It is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, including public holidays. A statement that it is closed on public holidays is False.
Books must be clean and complete. Textbooks, magazines and library books are not accepted. Any two of those three kinds answer the question. Wet or torn books are removed.
Volunteers check the shelf at 8 p.m. Help is by email to pier.shelf@example.com. The first briefing is on 20 March at 4 p.m. in the pier office. The floor of that office is Not Given.
Children under 12 should come with an adult. The District Council is paying this year. Next year’s funding has not been confirmed, so a statement that the Council has already promised next year is False.

Text 3 · Mrs Chan陳太太

She is 70 and used to teach Primary 3. She started the shelf after she saw books left on the seats of the ferry. She lives ten minutes’ walk from the pier and walks there every morning.
She bought the first shelf with her own money. It cost $600. Her grandson, a university student, built a small roof so rain would not soak the books. He took no money.
Last month 140 books were taken and 126 were left. She worries that if people only take, the shelf will be empty by summer.
She writes the numbers in a red exercise book and does not put them online. Her reason is that she is not making a report. She is just watching.

Text 4 · three comments三則留言

Alex took a cookbook and left a novel. The shelf was tidy. He will come back after work on Thursdays. He is the comment writer who avoids Mrs Chan’s problem, because he left a book when he took one.
Ben left three textbooks and later found them gone. The notice does say textbooks are not accepted. Ben thinks someone threw them away and that this is wasteful. His guess is his view. Do not mark it as a fact the notice has proved.
Chris’s daughter is 10. They went together, and she finished a story before the ferry. Chris asks for a small stool. The only seat Chris mentions is the floor.

How to take the marks怎樣取分

Most B1 marks are retrieval. Copy the date, the time, the place and the number. Do not round 140 and 126 into “about the same”.
A two-mark “how much and who paid” question needs both halves: $600, and Mrs Chan’s own money.
True / False / Not Given on Text 2: holidays F, email T, second floor NG, next year’s funding F.
Summary words, copied from Texts 2–3: April, leave, rain, red.
The last short question asks for a condition besides the kind of book. The notice also requires books to be clean and complete.

Traps容易失分

Do not write that Mrs Chan’s grandson is a Primary 3 pupil. She used to teach that level. He is a university student.
Do not write that Alex left a cookbook. He took the cookbook and left a novel.
The roof keeps out rain. It was not built by the District Council, and the grandson was not paid.
“Someone threw the textbooks away” is Ben’s conclusion. The text supports that textbooks are not accepted and that his were gone. It does not show who removed them.