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A2 Key – Exam 1 – Reading and Writing

Cambridge a2 key (ket) – exam 1 – reading and writing, part 1 – questions 1 to 6, for each question, choose the correct answer..

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Hello Mr. Matthews, Sorry I missed our class today. Can you please send me the homework? I will do it this evening. Thanks, Henry

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Cambridge A2 Key Reading and Writing

There are seven parts in the reading and writing section of the Cambridge English A2 Key exam. You will have 60 minutes to complete this section. Parts 1 to 5 focus on your reading skills. You should complete this part of the exam in around 40 minutes. Parts 6 and 7 will assess your writing skills. Here is a description of each part:

Reading Part 1: Read six short real-world texts with multiple-choice questions. There are six short texts like text messages, notices, signs, ads, etc. and one question with three choices for each text. This part has a maximum of 6 marks.

Reading Part 2: Three short texts and seven matching questions. There are three short texts and seven questions. You must match each question to one of the texts. This part has a maximum of 7 marks.

Reading Part 3: One long text with five multiple-choice questions. There are three choices for each question. This part has a maximum of 5 marks.

Reading Part 4: One short text with six multiple-choice questions. There is a factual text and six vocabulary questions with three options each. You must choose the correct word for each gap.This part has a maximum of 6 marks.

Reading Part 5: A short email (and sometimes the email reply too) with six gaps. You must fill in each gap with one word. This part tests vocabulary and grammar. The words you need to use for the gaps are vocabulary and grammar words. This part has a maximum of 6 marks.

Writing Part 6: Write a short email or note of 25 words or more. You need to write an email using some information or ideas that you can see in the question instructions. This part has a maximum of 15 marks.

Writing Part 7: Write a short story of 35 words or more based on three pictures. There are three pictures and you need to write a story using those pictures as inspiration. The story should be around 35 words. This part has a maximum of 15 marks.  

General Tips for the Reading part of the A2 Key

Understand the format of the exam.

Familiarize yourself with the types of questions, number of questions and time limit for each section of the test. Practise using exam samples like the ones provided on our website or other published materials. 

Get regular reading practice

Practice reading a variety of materials, such as online articles, fiction and non-fiction books to enhance your comprehension and speed. It’s important that you find materials that are appropriate for your level. You should be able to understand most of the words in the texts you read.

Work on your vocabulary

Learn new words and expressions regularly, and practice using them in context.

Use past papers

Use previous years’ papers to practise and get a feel for the types of questions you can expect in the exam.

Underline and analyse the keywords

The first thing you need to do when reading a text is to read the questions and underline the most important words. Then, analyse those words and decide which are the correct answer.  

General Tips for the Writing part of the A2 Key

Practice writing essays.

Familiarize yourself with the types of writing tasks required in the exam, such as an informal email or a story.

Get feedback

Ask someone to check your writing and give you constructive feedback, this can help you identify areas for improvement.

Prepare a plan for the writing task

Before writing your essay, you should consider the information you want to include and how to organise it. Think about the structure and content of your writing before you start, and make sure to stick to the word limit.

Learn to manage your time

Make sure you allocate enough time to read and understand the task and to plan and write your answer, leaving time to review and edit your work. Practise writing some compositions and time yourself to make sure you can finish the tasks within the time limits.  

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Vocabulary, grammar, skills development and practice tests for the KET exam

• Reading and Writing Part 9 Practice Test

KET Reading and Writing Part 9 Practice Test

Questions 56

Write an email to Martin and answer the questions. Write 25-35 words.

In Part 9 there will be three things you need to write about. For example, in this question it was: Did many people go? Did you get some nice presents? Was it a good party? Make sure you answer all three questions.

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KS1 / KS2 English: How to write a discussion text

BBC Teach > Primary Resources > KS1 English / KS2 English > The Facts About Non-Fiction

Video summary

Newsround presenter Leah Boleto explains how discursive writing requires an understanding of the difference between facts and opinions, and how to use connecting phrases and statistics.

Leah outlines how to research in different ways to find supporting evidence, such as statistics, which will justify your arguments.

She also demonstrates how to summarise information and write a closing statement.

This short film is from the BBC series, The Facts About Non-Fiction.

Teacher Notes

Ask pupils as a group to come up with arguments ‘for’ and ‘against’ wearing a school uniform.

They can then watch this short film and check if they predicted the same reasons as Leah.

Set them the challenge of writing their own discussion piece on a topic using all the techniques outlined by Leah.

You could also use the detailed explanation of writing in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person as part of a grammar lesson about pronouns.

This short film will be relevant for teaching English at KS1 and KS2 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and 1st and 2nd Level in Scotland.

More from The Facts About Non-Fiction:

How to write clear instructions

Stefan Gates explains how writing a set of instructions requires use of simple, precise language, and an understanding of chronological order and imperative verbs.

How to write a persuasive text

Actors Shannon Flynn and Richard Wisker talk about using emotive language, the difference between facts and opinions, and how to use evidence to support persuasive writing.

How to write a recount

Michael Rosen explains how writing a recount requires an understanding of chronological order or sequencing, and how to structure a piece of writing.

How to write a non-chronological report

BBC journalist Sonali Shah explains how writing non-chronological reports requires an understanding of the planning, writing and drafting process.

How to write an explanation

Chris Packham explains how writing an explanation requires an understanding of chronological order or sequencing, how to use technical language and how to write succinctly.

How Does Writing Fit Into the ‘Science of Reading’?

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In one sense, the national conversation about what it will take to make sure all children become strong readers has been wildly successful: States are passing legislation supporting evidence-based teaching approaches , and school districts are rushing to supply training. Publishers are under pressure to drop older materials . And for the first time in years, an instructional issue—reading—is headlining education media coverage.

In the middle of all that, though, the focus on the “science of reading” has elided its twin component in literacy instruction: writing.

Writing is intrinsically important for all students to learn—after all, it is the primary way beyond speech that humans communicate. But more than that, research suggests that teaching students to write in an integrated fashion with reading is not only efficient, it’s effective.

Yet writing is often underplayed in the elementary grades. Too often, it is separated from schools’ reading block. Writing is not assessed as frequently as reading, and principals, worried about reading-exam scores, direct teachers to focus on one often at the expense of the other. Finally, beyond the English/language arts block, kids often aren’t asked to do much writing in early grades.

“Sometimes, in an early-literacy classroom, you’ll hear a teacher say, ‘It’s time to pick up your pencils,’” said Wiley Blevins, an author and literacy consultant who provides training in schools. “But your pencils should be in your hand almost the entire morning.”

Strikingly, many of the critiques that reading researchers have made against the “balanced literacy” approach that has held sway in schools for decades could equally apply to writing instruction: Foundational writing skills—like phonics and language structure—have not generally been taught systematically or explicitly.

And like the “find the main idea” strategies commonly taught in reading comprehension, writing instruction has tended to focus on content-neutral tasks, rather than deepening students’ connections to the content they learn.

Education Week wants to bring more attention to these connections in the stories that make up this special collection . But first, we want to delve deeper into the case for including writing in every step of the elementary curriculum.

Why has writing been missing from the reading conversation?

Much like the body of knowledge on how children learn to read words, it is also settled science that reading and writing draw on shared knowledge, even though they have traditionally been segmented in instruction.

“The body of research is substantial in both number of studies and quality of studies. There’s no question that reading and writing share a lot of real estate, they depend on a lot of the same knowledge and skills,” said Timothy Shanahan, an emeritus professor of education at the University of Illinois Chicago. “Pick your spot: text structure, vocabulary, sound-symbol relationships, ‘world knowledge.’”

The reasons for the bifurcation in reading and writing are legion. One is that the two fields have typically been studied separately. (Researchers studying writing usually didn’t examine whether a writing intervention, for instance, also aided students’ reading abilities—and vice versa.)

Some scholars also finger the dominance of the federally commissioned National Reading Panel report, which in 2000 outlined key instructional components of learning to read. The review didn’t examine the connection of writing to reading.

Looking even further back yields insights, too. Penmanship and spelling were historically the only parts of writing that were taught, and when writing reappeared in the latter half of the 20th century, it tended to focus on “process writing,” emphasizing personal experience and story generation over other genres. Only when the Common Core State Standards appeared in 2010 did the emphasis shift to writing about nonfiction texts and across subjects—the idea that students should be writing about what they’ve learned.

And finally, teaching writing is hard. Few studies document what preparation teachers receive to teach writing, but in surveys, many teachers say they received little training in their college education courses. That’s probably why only a little over half of teachers, in one 2016 survey, said that they enjoyed teaching writing.

Writing should begin in the early grades

These factors all work against what is probably the most important conclusion from the research over the last few decades: Students in the early-elementary grades need lots of varied opportunities to write.

“Students need support in their writing,” said Dana Robertson, an associate professor of reading and literacy education at the school of education at Virginia Tech who also studies how instructional change takes root in schools. “They need to be taught explicitly the skills and strategies of writing and they need to see the connections of reading, writing, and knowledge development.”

While research supports some fundamental tenets of writing instruction—that it should be structured, for instance, and involve drafting and revising—it hasn’t yet pointed to a specific teaching recipe that works best.

One of the challenges, the researchers note, is that while reading curricula have improved over the years, they still don’t typically provide many supports for students—or teachers, for that matter—for writing. Teachers often have to supplement with additions that don’t always mesh well with their core, grade-level content instruction.

“We have a lot of activities in writing we know are good,” Shanahan said. “We don’t really have a yearlong elementary-school-level curriculum in writing. That just doesn’t exist the way it does in reading.”

Nevertheless, practitioners like Blevins work writing into every reading lesson, even in the earliest grades. And all the components that make up a solid reading program can be enhanced through writing activities.

4 Key Things to Know About How Reading and Writing Interlock

Want a quick summary of what research tells us about the instructional connections between reading and writing?

1. Reading and writing are intimately connected.

Research on the connections began in the early 1980s and has grown more robust with time.

Among the newest and most important additions are three research syntheses conducted by Steve Graham, a professor at the University of Arizona, and his research partners. One of them examined whether writing instruction also led to improvements in students’ reading ability; a second examined the inverse question. Both found significant positive effects for reading and writing.

A third meta-analysis gets one step closer to classroom instruction. Graham and partners examined 47 studies of instructional programs that balanced both reading and writing—no program could feature more than 60 percent of one or the other. The results showed generally positive effects on both reading and writing measures.

2. Writing matters even at the earliest grades, when students are learning to read.

Studies show that the prewriting students do in early education carries meaningful signals about their decoding, spelling, and reading comprehension later on. Reading experts say that students should be supported in writing almost as soon as they begin reading, and evidence suggests that both spelling and handwriting are connected to the ability to connect speech to print and to oral language development.

3. Like reading, writing must be taught explicitly.

Writing is a complex task that demands much of students’ cognitive resources. Researchers generally agree that writing must be explicitly taught—rather than left up to students to “figure out” the rules on their own.

There isn’t as much research about how precisely to do this. One 2019 review, in fact, found significant overlap among the dozen writing programs studied, and concluded that all showed signs of boosting learning. Debates abound about the amount of structure students need and in what sequence, such as whether they need to master sentence construction before moving onto paragraphs and lengthier texts.

But in general, students should be guided on how to construct sentences and paragraphs, and they should have access to models and exemplars, the research suggests. They also need to understand the iterative nature of writing, including how to draft and revise.

A number of different writing frameworks incorporating various degrees of structure and modeling are available, though most of them have not been studied empirically.

4. Writing can help students learn content—and make sense of it.

Much of reading comprehension depends on helping students absorb “world knowledge”—think arts, ancient cultures, literature, and science—so that they can make sense of increasingly sophisticated texts and ideas as their reading improves. Writing can enhance students’ content learning, too, and should be emphasized rather than taking a back seat to the more commonly taught stories and personal reflections.

Graham and colleagues conducted another meta-analysis of nearly 60 studies looking at this idea of “writing to learn” in mathematics, science, and social studies. The studies included a mix of higher-order assignments, like analyses and argumentative writing, and lower-level ones, like summarizing and explaining. The study found that across all three disciplines, writing about the content improved student learning.

If students are doing work on phonemic awareness—the ability to recognize sounds—they shouldn’t merely manipulate sounds orally; they can put them on the page using letters. If students are learning how to decode, they can also encode—record written letters and words while they say the sounds out loud.

And students can write as they begin learning about language structure. When Blevins’ students are mainly working with decodable texts with controlled vocabularies, writing can support their knowledge about how texts and narratives work: how sentences are put together and how they can be pulled apart and reconstructed. Teachers can prompt them in these tasks, asking them to rephrase a sentence as a question, split up two sentences, or combine them.

“Young kids are writing these mile-long sentences that become second nature. We set a higher bar, and they are fully capable of doing it. We can demystify a bit some of that complex text if we develop early on how to talk about sentences—how they’re created, how they’re joined,” Blevins said. “There are all these things you can do that are helpful to develop an understanding of how sentences work and to get lots of practice.”

As students progress through the elementary grades, this structured work grows more sophisticated. They need to be taught both sentence and paragraph structure , and they need to learn how different writing purposes and genres—narrative, persuasive, analytical—demand different approaches. Most of all, the research indicates, students need opportunities to write at length often.

Using writing to support students’ exploration of content

Reading is far more than foundational skills, of course. It means introducing students to rich content and the specialized vocabulary in each discipline and then ensuring that they read, discuss, analyze, and write about those ideas. The work to systematically build students’ knowledge begins in the early grades and progresses throughout their K-12 experience.

Here again, available evidence suggests that writing can be a useful tool to help students explore, deepen, and draw connections in this content. With the proper supports, writing can be a method for students to retell and analyze what they’ve learned in discussions of content and literature throughout the school day —in addition to their creative writing.

This “writing to learn” approach need not wait for students to master foundational skills. In the K-2 grades especially, much content is learned through teacher read-alouds and conversation that include more complex vocabulary and ideas than the texts students are capable of reading. But that should not preclude students from writing about this content, experts say.

“We do a read-aloud or a media piece and we write about what we learned. It’s just a part of how you’re responding, or sharing, what you’ve learned across texts; it’s not a separate thing from reading,” Blevins said. “If I am doing read-alouds on a concept—on animal habitats, for example—my decodable texts will be on animals. And students are able to include some of these more sophisticated ideas and language in their writing, because we’ve elevated the conversations around these texts.”

In this set of stories , Education Week examines the connections between elementary-level reading and writing in three areas— encoding , language and text structure , and content-area learning . But there are so many more examples.

Please write us to share yours when you’ve finished.

Want to read more about the research that informed this story? Here’s a bibliography to start you off.

Berninger V. W., Abbott, R. D., Abbott, S. P., Graham S., & Richards T. (2002). Writing and reading: Connections between language by hand and language by eye. J ournal of Learning Disabilities. Special Issue: The Language of Written Language, 35(1), 39–56 Berninger, Virginia, Robert D. Abbott, Janine Jones, Beverly J. Wolf, Laura Gould, Marci Anderson-Younstrom, Shirley Shimada, Kenn Apel. (2006) “Early development of language by hand: composing, reading, listening, and speaking connections; three letter-writing modes; and fast mapping in spelling.” Developmental Neuropsychology, 29(1), pp. 61-92 Cabell, Sonia Q, Laura S. Tortorelli, and Hope K. Gerde (2013). “How Do I Write…? Scaffolding Preschoolers’ Early Writing Skills.” The Reading Teacher, 66(8), pp. 650-659. Gerde, H.K., Bingham, G.E. & Wasik, B.A. (2012). “Writing in Early Childhood Classrooms: Guidance for Best Practices.” Early Childhood Education Journal 40, 351–359 (2012) Gilbert, Jennifer, and Steve Graham. (2010). “Teaching Writing to Elementary Students in Grades 4–6: A National Survey.” The Elementary School Journal 110(44) Graham, Steve, et al. (2017). “Effectiveness of Literacy Programs Balancing Reading and Writing Instruction: A Meta-Analysis.” Reading Research Quarterly, 53(3) pp. 279–304 Graham, Steve, and Michael Hebert. (2011). “Writing to Read: A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Writing and Writing Instruction on Reading.” Harvard Educational Review (2011) 81(4): 710–744. Graham, Steve. (2020). “The Sciences of Reading and Writing Must Become More Fully Integrated.” Reading Research Quarterly, 55(S1) pp. S35–S44 Graham, Steve, Sharlene A. Kiuhara, and Meade MacKay. (2020).”The Effects of Writing on Learning in Science, Social Studies, and Mathematics: A Meta-Analysis.” Review of Educational Research April 2020, Vol 90, No. 2, pp. 179–226 Shanahan, Timothy. “History of Writing and Reading Connections.” in Shanahan, Timothy. (2016). “Relationships between reading and writing development.” In C. MacArthur, S. Graham, & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Handbook of writing research (2nd ed., pp. 194–207). New York, NY: Guilford. Slavin, Robert, Lake, C., Inns, A., Baye, A., Dachet, D., & Haslam, J. (2019). “A quantitative synthesis of research on writing approaches in grades 2 to 12.” London: Education Endowment Foundation. Troia, Gary. (2014). Evidence-based practices for writing instruction (Document No. IC-5). Retrieved from University of Florida, Collaboration for Effective Educator, Development, Accountability, and Reform Center website: http://ceedar.education.ufl.edu/tools/innovation-configuration/ Troia, Gary, and Steve Graham. (2016).“Common Core Writing and Language Standards and Aligned State Assessments: A National Survey of Teacher Beliefs and Attitudes.” Reading and Writing 29(9).

A version of this article appeared in the January 25, 2023 edition of Education Week as How Does Writing Fit Into the ‘Science of Reading’?

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I prompted AI to summarize Google's 45-page book about how to write the best AI prompts. Here are the key takeaways.

• Google  handed out free guides on how to write successful AI prompts for Gemini at Google I/O.
• The booklet covers best practices for Google Workspace and gives examples for various professions.
• Some tips include drafting 21-word prompts that include persona, task, context, and format.

Google handed out booklets about how to write successful AI prompts at its big summer developer conference, Google I / O .

But you're still in luck even if you weren't one of the developers or press in attendance — Google has a free PDF version available for download on its website.

The guide breaks down how to best write AI prompts for Gemini for the company's Google Workspace apps, which include Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Meet, and Google Slides.

But there are some great takeaways in general for writing AI prompts.

It lists some helpful tips, like how the most successful AI prompts average around 21 words, and users should refrain from making them too long or too short. The guide also went over the four key points to hit in every prompt to receive the most useful responses.

The guide showcases how different roles can use Gemini to improve productivity. For example, an HR manager might use Gemini to create a script for an onboarding presentation, while a sales representative may use it to create an elevator pitch for a client.

Related stories

While the digital version is only 45 pages long, we uploaded the booklet to Google's Gemini to see the biggest takeaways (yes, we prompted AI to summarize a book about AI prompts).

Here's what it said in response.

Gemini for Google Workspace: A Guide for Busy Professionals

This guide is a comprehensive resource for anyone who wants to learn more about using Gemini for Google Workspace to improve their productivity and creativity. It covers a variety of use cases for different roles (Recruiter, HR Manager, Marketing Manager, Project Manager, Sales Manager) and provides specific prompts and examples to help them leverage Gemini's capabilities.

Key Takeaways

• Gemini for Google Workspace integrates with various Google Workspace apps (Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet) to assist with tasks like writing, organizing, summarizing information, creating visuals, and more.
• Effective prompts for Gemini should include Persona (who you are), Task (what you want to achieve), Context (background information), and Format (desired output style).
• Gemini can be used across various departments to improve productivity and streamline workflows.

Additional Tips

• Level Up Your Prompt Writing: The guide offers additional tips to help you improve your prompt writing skills. These include breaking down complex tasks into smaller prompts, using constraints to generate specific results, and tailoring your prompts to the desired tone and audience.
• Stay Up-to-Date: The guide recommends checking workspace.google.com and workspace.google.com/blog for the latest information on Gemini for Google Workspace.

Overall, this guide is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to learn more about using Gemini for Google Workspace to enhance their work within the Google ecosystem.

On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company's advertising practices.

Watch: AI expert explains how to incorporate generative AI into your business strategy

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Exam English ✓

• Reading and writing
• Key for Schools

Free Practice Tests for learners of English

This page will help you practise for the A2 Key English Test (from Cambridge English ). This is the format of the sixth part of the reading and writing section. You write a short email or note of 25 words or more. This part has a maximum of 15 marks available.

A2 Key (KET) Writing part 1: write an email based on notes

You want to buy some clothes in an English city. Write an email to your English friend, George. In your email, - Ask George where to buy cheap clothes - Ask George how to get there - Ask what time the stores stay open.

Write 25 words or more.

Reading & Writing test 1

• Part 1: short messages
• Part 2: text matching
• Part 3: text with multiple choice
• Part 4: text with m/c gaps
• Part 5: text with gaps
• Part 6: write an email
• Part 7: write picture story
• Reading and writing, test 2

2021 © Exam English Ltd. ALL Rights Reserved. Home | Terms of Use | Privacy policy Cookie preferences. -->

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Trump Leads in 5 Key States, as Young and Nonwhite Voters Express Discontent With Biden

A new set of Times/Siena polls, including one with The Philadelphia Inquirer, reveal an erosion of support for the president among young and nonwhite voters upset about the economy and Gaza.

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April 28 to May 9

If the 2024 presidential election

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If the 2024 presidential election were held today, who would you vote for if the candidates were Joe Biden and Donald Trump ?

By Nate Cohn

Donald J. Trump leads President Biden in five crucial battleground states, a new set of polls shows , as a yearning for change and discontent over the economy and the war in Gaza among young, Black and Hispanic voters threaten to unravel the president’s Democratic coalition.

The surveys by The New York Times, Siena College and The Philadelphia Inquirer found that Mr. Trump was ahead among registered voters in a head-to-head matchup against Mr. Biden in five of six key states: Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania. Mr. Biden led among registered voters in only one battleground state, Wisconsin.

[You can find the full results of the polls, including the exact questions that were asked, here . You can see answers to common questions about our polling process here .]

The race was closer among likely voters. Mr. Trump led in five states as well, but Mr. Biden edged ahead in Michigan while trailing only narrowly in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. While Mr. Biden won all six of those states in 2020, victories in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin would be enough for him to win re-election, provided he won everywhere else he did four years ago.

The results were similar in a hypothetical matchup that included minor-party candidates and the independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who won an average of 10 percent of the vote across the six states and drew roughly equally from the two major-party candidates.

The findings are mostly unchanged since the last series of Times/Siena polls in battleground states in November. Since then, the stock market has gained 25 percent, Mr. Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan has started, and the Biden campaign has unleashed tens of millions of dollars in advertisements across the battleground states.

The polls offer little indication that any of these developments have helped Mr. Biden, hurt Mr. Trump or quelled the electorate’s discontent. Instead, the surveys show that the cost of living, immigration, Israel’s war in Gaza and a desire for change continue to be a drag on the president’s standing. While Mr. Biden benefited from a burst of momentum in the wake of his State of the Union address in March, he continues to trail in the average of national and battleground state polls.

How support for the candidates differ

between registered and likely voters

The findings reveal widespread dissatisfaction with the state of the country and serious doubts about Mr. Biden’s ability to deliver major improvements to American life. A majority of voters still desire the return to normalcy promised by Mr. Biden in the last campaign, but voters in battleground states remain particularly anxious, unsettled and itching for change. Nearly 70 percent of voters say that the country’s political and economic systems need major changes — or even to be torn down entirely.

Only a sliver of Mr. Biden’s supporters — just 13 percent — believe that the president would bring major changes in his second term, while even many of those who dislike Mr. Trump grudgingly acknowledge that he would shake up an unsatisfying status quo.

The sense that Mr. Biden would do little to improve the nation’s fortunes has helped erode his standing among young, Black and Hispanic voters, who usually represent the foundation of any Democratic path to the presidency. The Times/Siena polls found that the three groups wanted fundamental changes to American society, not just a return to normalcy, and few believed that Mr. Biden would make even minor changes that would be good for the country.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden are essentially tied among 18-to-29-year-olds and Hispanic voters, even though each group gave Mr. Biden more than 60 percent of their vote in 2020. Mr. Trump also wins more than 20 percent of Black voters — a tally that would be the highest level of Black support for any Republican presidential candidate since the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The polls suggest that Mr. Trump’s strength among young and nonwhite voters has at least temporarily upended the electoral map, with Mr. Trump surging to a significant lead in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada — relatively diverse Sun Belt states where Black and Hispanic voters propelled Mr. Biden to signature victories in the 2020 election.

Mr. Biden nonetheless remains within striking distance. He has maintained most of his support among older and white voters, who are much less likely to demand fundamental changes to the system and far likelier to say that democracy is the most important issue for their vote. As a result, Mr. Biden is more competitive in the three relatively white Northern swing states: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The economy and the cost of living, however, remain the most important issues for one-quarter of voters — and a significant drag on Mr. Biden’s prospects. More than half of voters still believe that the economy is “poor,” down merely a single percentage point since November despite cooling inflation, an end to rate hikes and significant stock market gains.

Nearly 40 percent of Mr. Trump’s supporters said that the economy or the cost of living was the most important issue in the election, among them Jennifer Wright, a registered nurse in Sterling Heights, Mich. She supported Mr. Trump in 2016 and 2020, and to her the election comes down to one question: “Who is the best candidate who is going to help me be in a financial situation to retire?”

“Even me, as a registered nurse, I’m buying Kroger brand or store brand. I’m not buying Jif. We’ve all had to cut back,” she said.

The Biden administration’s insistence that the economy is faring well has fallen flat for many voters, including Jacob Sprague, 32, who works as a systems engineer in Reno, Nev. He says that he voted for Mr. Biden in 2020 but will not be doing so this time.

“It is concerning to me when I keep seeing press come out of the White House where they keep saying the economy is good,” Mr. Sprague said. “That’s really weird because I’m paying more on taxes and more on groceries and more on housing and more on fuel. So that doesn’t feel good.”

With less than six months to go until the election, there is still time for an improving economy to lift Mr. Biden’s standing. Historically, polls at this early stage have not been necessarily indicative of the outcome, and Mr. Trump’s breakthrough among traditionally Democratic young, Black and Hispanic voters may not rest on a solid foundation. His strength is concentrated among irregular, disengaged voters who do not pay close attention to politics and may not yet be tuned into the race. They may be prone to shift their views as the race gets underway.

In a finding that will frustrate Democrats, even as it presents opportunity for Mr. Biden, nearly 20 percent of voters blame him more than they do Mr. Trump for the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade. They may be the kind of voters that the Biden campaign hopes to persuade as the campaign heats up.

The polls showed that abortion loomed as one of Mr. Trump’s biggest vulnerabilities. On average, 64 percent of voters in battleground states said that abortion should be always or mostly legal, including 44 percent of Mr. Trump’s own supporters.

In recent weeks, the Biden campaign has sought to emphasize Mr. Trump’s support for the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. For now, though, voters preferred Mr. Biden over Mr. Trump to handle the issue of abortion by 11 points, 49 to 38 percent.

A bigger challenge for Mr. Biden than disengaged voters may ultimately be the disaffected and the disillusioned — those who desire fundamental changes to American society, or who believe that the political and economic systems need to be torn down altogether. Not long ago, these anti-system voters might have been reliably Democratic, but Mr. Trump’s anti-establishment populist brand of conservatism has flipped the usual political dynamic.

Seventy percent of voters believe that Mr. Trump will either bring major changes to the political or economic system or tear down the systems altogether, compared with 24 percent who expect the same from Mr. Biden. And while many voters express deep reservations about Mr. Trump personally, 43 percent of voters believe that he will bring good changes to the country, compared with 35 percent who think the changes will be bad.

Most Americans think the system

needs to change …

Which comes closest to your view about

the political and economic system in America,

even if none are exactly right?

The system needs ...

... no changes 2%

Don’t know/

declined to say 2%

… and they think that Donald Trump

would bring more change …

If [this candidate] won the election, do you think

nothing would change, there would be minor

changes to how things work, there would be

major changes to how things work, or he would

tear down the system completely?

would change

Minor changes

declined to say 4%

… but they are split on whether that

change would be good or bad.

Do you think the changes that [this candidate]

would make would be good for the country

or bad for the country, or neither good nor bad?

or very good

or very bad

declined to say 5%

Most Americans think the system needs to change …

Which comes closest to your view about the political and economic

system in America, even if none are exactly right?

... major changes

... minor changes

… and they think that Donald Trump would bring more change …

If [this candidate] won the election, do you think nothing would change,

there would be minor changes to how things work, there would be major

changes to how things work, or he would tear down the system completely?

… but they are split on whether that change would be good or bad.

Do you think the changes that [this candidate] would make would be good

for the country or bad for the country, or neither good nor bad?

Mr. Trump fares especially well among those who believe that the political and economic systems ought to be torn down, a group that represents about 15 percent of registered voters. He leads among these anti-system voters by 32 points, and the tear-it-down voters are especially likely to have defected from the president. In contrast, Mr. Biden retains nearly all of his 2020 supporters who believe only minor changes are necessary.

These change voters are not necessarily demanding a more ideologically progressive agenda. In the last Times/Siena poll of the same states, 11 percent of registered voters thought that Mr. Biden was not progressive or liberal enough. And while many liberal or progressive voters want major changes, relatively few of those voters are defecting from Mr. Biden.

Instead, Mr. Biden’s losses are concentrated among moderate and conservative Democratic-leaning voters, who nonetheless think that the system needs major changes or to be torn down altogether. Mr. Trump wins just 2 percent of Mr. Biden’s “very liberal” 2020 voters who think the system at least needs major changes, compared with 16 percent of those who are moderate or conservative.

One exception is Israel’s war in Gaza, an issue on which most of Mr. Biden’s challenge appears to come from his left. Around 13 percent of the voters who say they voted for Mr. Biden last time, but do not plan to do so again, said that his foreign policy or the war in Gaza was the most important issue to their vote. Just 17 percent of those voters reported sympathizing with Israel over the Palestinians.

Gerard Willingham, 30, works as a web administrator and lives in Riverdale, Ga. He voted for Mr. Biden in 2020, but he plans to vote for a third-party candidate in November because of the president’s response to the conflict in Gaza, the issue about which he cares most right now.

“I think it’s made quite a bit of difference in that it made me more heavily than in the past push toward voting for a third party, even if I feel that the candidates almost 100 percent won’t win,” Mr. Willingham said. “It’s starting to reach into my moral conscience, I guess.”

Mr. Trump’s trial in Manhattan, on charges that he falsified business records related to a hush-money payment to cover up an affair with the adult film star Stormy Daniels, was already underway when the polls began in late April. However, the survey offered little indication that the trial had damaged the former president’s political fortunes, at least so far. Just 29 percent of voters in battleground states said that they were paying “a lot” of attention to Mr. Trump’s legal woes, and 35 percent thought that the trial was likely to end in a conviction.

Alyce McFadden contributed reporting.

Here are the key things to know about how these polls were conducted:

We spoke with 4,097 registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin from April 28 to May 9, 2024.

Our polls are conducted by telephone, using live interviewers, in both English and Spanish. Nearly 95 percent of respondents were contacted on a cellphone for this poll. You can see the exact questions that were asked and the order in which they were asked here .

Voters are selected for the survey from a list of registered voters. The list contains information on the demographic characteristics of every registered voter, allowing us to make sure we reach the right number of voters of each party, race and region. For this set of polls, we placed nearly 500,000 calls to about 410,000 voters.

To further ensure that the results reflect the entire voting population, not just those willing to take a poll, we give more weight to respondents from demographic groups underrepresented among survey respondents, like people without a college degree. You can see more information about the characteristics of our respondents and the weighted sample on the methodology page , under “Composition of the Sample.”

When the states are joined together, the margin of sampling error among registered voters is plus or minus 1.8 percentage points. Each state poll has a margin of error ranging from plus or minus 3.6 points in Pennsylvania to plus or minus 4.6 points in Georgia. In theory, this means that the results should reflect the views of the overall population most of the time, though many other challenges create additional sources of error. When computing the difference between two values — such as a candidate’s lead in a race — the margin of error is twice as large.

You can see full results and a detailed methodology here . If you want to read more about how and why we conduct our polls, you can see answers to frequently asked questions and submit your own questions here .

The New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena College poll of Pennsylvania was funded by a grant from The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. The poll was designed and conducted independently from the institute.

Nate Cohn is The Times’s chief political analyst. He covers elections, public opinion, demographics and polling. More about Nate Cohn

6 ways to use Microsoft Copilot for end-of-school-year tasks

May 14, 2024.

By Microsoft Education Team

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The end of the school year is a hectic time for educators everywhere. Between reviewing content, completing assessments, and maintaining classroom management, it’s easy to feel the pressure of too many responsibilities and not enough time to accomplish everything.

Whether closing out the academic year in the northern hemisphere or preparing for the next one in the southern hemisphere, Microsoft Copilot offers innovative and efficient ways to complete many of the tasks that occupy these transitional times of year. From drafting student feedback to composing newsletters and offering planning suggestions for events, Copilot adapts to whatever task it’s asked. To get started, all you need is a basic understanding of how to access and use Copilot.

Start using Copilot for your end-of-school-year tasks

You can learn how to use Copilot by visiting Meet your AI assistant for education: Microsoft Copilot .

When you’re ready to get started, go to copilot.microsoft.com or download the iOS or Android mobile app.

Writing prompts for the end of the school year

Prompting Copilot to generate content requires practice. Including specific information in your prompt helps produce more relevant responses.

An effective Copilot prompt:

• Asks the tool to take on a role called a persona .
• Provides an objective  that tells the tool what to do or produce.
• Defines the audience  who will be using whatever Copilot generates.
• Includes context  that gives the tool background information.
• Sets boundaries  that limit or constrain responses.

Elements of a Good Prompt infographic which includes tips for writing prompts that produce more relevant responses.

Throughout this post, you’ll find sample prompts that include these components. We recommend borrowing inspiration from them and adjusting to make them fit your own classroom, or you can copy and paste the examples without modifications if you are just beginning.

Now let’s learn how Copilot can help you complete six common end-of-school-year tasks.

1. Craft student feedback at the end of the school year

Copilot can help you write end-of-school-year feedback in a style and tone that all students can understand. Simply craft a prompt that includes the subject area and details about the feedback you want to provide, and Copilot can draft a constructive, supportive statement written specifically for students. For example:

You are a fourth-grade teacher who is writing feedback on a student’s current reading skills. The student uses details to explain what text means but is unable to draw inferences in fiction. The student can identify in-text examples that illustrate a given theme but is unable to independently produce a theme without guidance. Write a short statement that explains this feedback to a student. Include a description about why using details is important and 1-2 ways to develop this skill. The paragraph should be written with plain text so that a fourth-grade student will understand.

You can always refine your prompt if the response is not what you expected. Simply include something like, “Re-write this feedback in Spanish” without selecting New topic , and Copilot will continue where you left off. Give it a try.

2. Write end-of-school-year reflections

Educators often write end-of-school-year newsletters for families, update class blogs with a final post, and draft reflections on school year goals. Copilot can assist with all these tasks and can help you create personalized, engaging visuals for your content. For example, you can use the following prompt to produce a summer newsletter for families.

You are the science department leader for a middle school in New York City. Draft a summer newsletter for families that includes an introduction that talks about the past year and 5 sections: Science Books for Young Adults, Science at Home, Science Summer Camps, Science Events in NYC, and NY Science Museums. Only include information that can be linked to a website to learn more. The newsletter should be written in plain text using an informal tone.

You can also share your experiences, memorable moments, and insights from the school year and Copilot will help you find creative ways to share this information with colleagues, families, and students.

3. Organize classroom materials at the end of the school year

The last few weeks of a school year includes packing up classrooms for the summer, collecting books and devices, and organizing materials for the next year. Copilot can create checklists or reminders for end-of-school-year tasks like these and offer suggestions that you might not even consider. For example:

You are a high school media specialist who checks out technology to administrators and educators. Write a checklist of the 3 most important things to do before returning each of the following devices: document camera, tablet, digital projector, games, and wires. Make each device a section heading and use bulleted lists for the content. Write the checklists so that the content is easily understood by people with varying levels of technological expertise.

Another way to use Copilot when you are organizing classroom materials is to ask for suggestions for efficient ways to declutter and prepare your classroom for the next school year.

4. Plan an end-of-school-year celebration

Many schools celebrate major milestones like the start of summer or moving from lower grades to higher grades with a party or ceremony. Copilot can be your personal planner and assist with brainstorming ideas for end-of-school-year events, awards ceremonies, or virtual gatherings. It can even suggest ways to be more inclusive in areas you might not have considered, like food options in the prompt below.

You are a guidance counselor in charge of helping rising eighth-grade students transition from middle school to high school. Draft a letter to middle school teachers that shares the biggest differences between middle school and high school. Include paragraphs on class schedules, touring the high school, meeting educators, extracurricular activities, and summer reading books. The letter should be written in a formal, conversational tone.

Whether you are creating invitations, planning activities, or drafting speeches, Copilot can be your creative collaborator.

5. Develop transition materials at the end of the school year

When students enter elementary school or move to middle or high school, everyone involved in the transition needs to know how to prepare for this change. Students need to know what to expect, families need to know how to support their children, and current educators need to provide relevant information. Copilot can help create transition materials so that everyone stays informed using a prompt like this example:

You can also use Copilot to write welcome letters, tips for success, or information about what to expect in the upcoming year.

6. Streamline parent communication at the end of the school year

Copilot can help you create templates for parent-teacher conferences at the end of the school year, as well as student progress updates, and letters to families. For example, you can ask Copilot to create a message to families about signing up for conferences with the following prompt.

You are a high school math teacher who teaches introductory algebra. Write a letter to families about parent-teacher conferences. Include an introductory paragraph that thanks families for their ongoing support and paragraphs about what will happen during the conferences, why conferences are important, who should attend, and how to prepare for the meeting. Conclude the letter with a paragraph about how to sign up for a conference slot. Write the letter using an approachable, informal tone.

Microsoft Copilot is a versatile AI tool for educators that adapts to your specific needs. To learn more about Microsoft’s AI solutions and resources, check out Smart learning: AI resources every educator should know and the  AI for educators learning path on Microsoft Learn. Most importantly, enjoy the end of the school year with your students and the time you saved by using Copilot. 

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FACT SHEET: Biden- ⁠ Harris Administration Unveils Critical Steps to Protect Workers from Risks of Artificial Intelligence

Since taking office, President Biden, Vice President Harris, and the entire Biden-Harris Administration have moved with urgency to harness the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to spur innovation and advance opportunity, while also taking action to ensure workers share in these gains. As part of these efforts, President Biden’s landmark Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence directed the Department of Labor to establish a set of key principles that protect workers and ensure they have a seat at the table in determining how these technologies are developed and used. The Biden-Harris Administration is today unveiling these principles and announcing that technology companies Microsoft and Indeed have committed to adopt these principles as appropriate to their workplace.

Pursuant to President Biden’s landmark Executive Order, the following principles apply to the development and deployment of AI systems in the workplace:

• Centering Worker Empowerment : Workers and their representatives, especially those from underserved communities, should be informed of and have genuine input in the design, development, testing, training, use, and oversight of AI systems for use in the workplace.
• Ethically Developing AI : AI systems should be designed, developed, and trained in a way that protects workers.
• Establishing AI Governance and Human Oversight : Organizations should have clear governance systems, procedures, human oversight, and evaluation processes for AI systems for use in the workplace.
• Ensuring Transparency in AI Use : Employers should be transparent with workers and job seekers about the AI systems that are being used in the workplace.
• Protecting Labor and Employment Rights : AI systems should not violate or undermine workers’ right to organize, health and safety rights, wage and hour rights, and anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation protections.
• Using AI to Enable Workers: AI systems should assist, complement, and enable workers, and improve job quality.
• Supporting Workers Impacted by AI : Employers should support or upskill workers during job transitions related to AI.
• Ensuring Responsible Use of Worker Data: Workers’ data collected, used, or created by AI systems should be limited in scope and location, used only to support legitimate business aims, and protected and handled responsibly.

These principles should be considered during the whole lifecycle of AI – from design to development, testing, training, deployment and use, oversight, and auditing. The principles are applicable to all sectors and intended to be mutually reinforcing, though not all principles will apply to the same extent in every industry or workplace. The principles are not intended to be an exhaustive list but instead a guiding framework for businesses. AI developers and employers should review and customize the best practices based on their own context and with input from workers. The Administration welcomes additional commitments from other technology companies who wish to adopt these principles.

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Cambridge A2 Key (KET): Reading and Writing Part 7

Reading and Writing Part 7

In this article, you are going to find out how to do Part 7 of the A2 Key Reading and Writing exam paper. You will see a typical task and I’m also going to give you useful information about common problems and great strategies that you can use to save time and get great marks.

Before we get started, I recommend looking at another article on teacherphill.com which talks about A2 Key in general. There are also a listening and speaking test in the exam and it would be a good idea to learn more about those two as well. If you wan to know more, just follow the link below.

>>> Learn more about Cambridge A2 Key <<<

What do you have to do in Part 7?

Picture story – You get three pictures and you have to write a short story about those pictures. Your story should be around 35 words long.

As you can see, the task is very direct. Look at the pictures and write your story.

Part 7 is one of the two writing tasks in the exam together with Part 6 . You have to show that you can turn a visual idea into words and use good vocabulary and grammar.

Always remember that you need to write your final story on an extra answer sheet which you get at the beginning of the test. It is OK to make notes or write a draft on the question paper, but your final answer must go onto this answer sheet.

In Reading and Writing, there are seven parts and each part looks different and you need to do something different in each one of them. I have written an article that gives you an overview of A2 Key Reading and Writing and you can have a look by clicking the link below.

>>> Get an overview of A2 Key Reading and Writing <<<

What is difficult about Part 7?

In every part of Reading and Writing, there are some things that can be very difficult for candidates or cause problems. I’m not going to show you the ones that I often see with my own students and after that, we will examine a few possible solutions.

Time trouble

Writing a story can take time, but the problem is that in Reading and Writing, you don’t have a lot of it. With its seven parts and only 60 minutes to complete them, it is very easy to run out of time and make mistakes.

You have to know exactly how the different tasks work, what you have to do and how you can save time so you can work your way through the test relaxed and with focus.

Not fully completing the task

It can happen very quickly that someone starts to write their story in Part 7 and they might write a lot about one of the photos and the last, but then they notice that there is only a little or no information about the last picture in their text.

It is really important to look at the images carefully and use all three to get ideas for your story, but in the next section about tips and strategies I’m going to tell you what you can do to avoid this mistake very easily.

Language problems

For a lot of students at this level, finding the right words and grammatical structures to write a nice little story can be difficult.

When you prepare for the exam, you should not only practise the different tasks, but also improve your language skills.

Tips and strategies for Part 7

As I said before, you need to understand how you can prepare well for A2 Key and what you can do in the exam to save time and get high marks at the same time.

In this section, we are going to find out the best to do all of these things.

General tips

If I could give just one tip to my students, I would tell them to read and listen to a little bit of English every day. It doesn’t have to be two hours, but just 5-10 minutes can be very helpful. With a regular practice, you can quickly improve your grammar and vocabulary and there are so many amazing resources online that it is super easy to start.

I always recommend graded readers because the language in those stories is perfect for your level and you can find books that you can understand and enjoy and also podcasts because they can help you a lot with your listening skills and you hear a lot of vocabulary and grammar in a short time.

For some people, studying alone is not the best way to learn so I suggest taking English classes in a school near you. Cambridge English preparation centres are everywhere in the world and you can check HERE to find one that is close to you.

Follow a plan

This tip is probably the most important one for Reading and Writing Part 7. Knowing what to do in this task is very important for you because it can help you save time and do it correctly.

For Part 7, a plan might look like this:

Find key vocabulary

Make a plan, write a draft, write your story on the answer sheet.

The first step in Part 7 is always to look at the three pictures and to think about vocabulary that we can connect to the images.

You can see here that I wrote down a few words that we could use to describe the different pictures. You don’t have to write down as many words as I did, but you should look for two or three words per image. These words are important for the next steps.

The first step helped us to get a few ideas for our story and with those, we can make a plan so we know the structure of the text.

Every good story has a beginning, a middle part and an ending. There are three parts and three pictures so we can use the first image as the beginning, the second one as the middle and the third picture as the end.

• Beginning: man got up and yawned, favourite pyjamas
• Middle: was very hungry, opened the fridge, fridge empty, man was sad
• End: had to go to a cafe, bought breakfast

This is all you need to do. Put your ideas into this structure and you are ready to start.

Before you write your final text onto the extra answer sheet, you should first write a draft. A draft is like a first try and you can make changes and correct mistakes before you write your final story.

With the ideas from the last step, a draft might look like this:

Breakfast problems Phill got up very late and yawned. He was wearing his favourite pyjama because it was his birthday. He was very hungry and opened the fridge, but it was empty and Phill felt sad. In the end, he had to go to a cafe and buy some food. He bought eggs on toast and ate his breakfast alone. What a birthday!

There are a few things I would like to discuss here. First of all, it is always nice to give your story a title (Breakfast problems).

Secondly, you should use past verb forms (past simple, past continuous, past perfect) when you tell a story because most stories are in the past.

And last but not least, try to use some linking words to connect your ideas, for example, but, and, because, so, in the end, etc.).

When you finish your draft, you should check it for mistakes (spelling, grammar) and if your story has title and if you used some linking words. As soon as you are happy with it, move to the last step.

The last step is to transfer your story onto the extra answer sheet. I made this extra point because the examiner will only look at the answer sheet. They don’t care about your draft or any of your notes so make sure that you transfer your story.

Remember that you don’t have to check your spelling and language again because you already do that when you finish your draft. As soon as you have transferred your story, go to the next task in the exam.

In this article, you learned everything you need to write a good story in A2 Key Reading and Writing Part 7. We looked at a typical task, possible problems and the best tips and strategies to do the task quickly and with high marks.

With all this information, you can now start practising. Look for pictures on the internet and think about how you can describe them. Write down a few words and then one or two sentences to say what you can see there. After some time, this will become really easy for you and you won’t have a problem in the exam.

I hope this article helps.

Lots of love,

Teacher Phill 🙂

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Thank you Teacher Phil.

thanks for help.useful ideas,tips.

I’m happy you find my post useful. 🙂

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