Analyzing the Data Reporting the Research Results

40 43. … A. for B. from C. since D. during 44. … A. come B. came C. comes D. coming 45. … A. park B. store C. job D. room I went to Germany with my family … 43 a school holiday a few years ago. It was getting dark, so we were looking for a hotel. Then we … 44 upon two hotels next each other with … 45 opening. We just randomly chose one and settled of the night. Figure 4.1 A Filling-Gap Text Taken from English UN 2012 Figure 4.1 corresponded to the two characteristics of selective reading. First, the task was constructed by using a brief paragraph as the stimulus Brown, 2004, p. 189. The paragraph in Figure 4.1 was considered as a brief because it consisted of only 4 sentences. Moreover, the paragraph was considered as the stimulus because it gave instructions to the test takers about the tasks to do. In other words, it stimulated the test takers to be able to answer the following questions. Second, Figure 4.1 constituted a task which needed brief responses. It is supported by Brown 2004, p. 189 that brief responses were intended in selective reading. To answer the questions, the test takers only needed to choose one correct word from four choices. They did not need to write a phrase which 41 consisted of three words or even sentences. Thus, the filling-gap text represented two characteristics of selective reading as Brown 2004 states. Moreover, Figure 4.1 represented the materials which were assessed in filling-gap texts. First, there were two questions which assessed English vocabulary items. They were questions number 43 and 45. Question number 43 assessed the use of preposition during since it could be used to show period of time “During”. Furthermore, the preposition during in the reading passage was to show the period of time when the author stared herhis holiday until the end of herhis holiday. Next, question number 45 assessed the vocabulary item in the context. It assessed the meaning of an English word room since the correct answer was a noun which represented something opened in the hotels. Room means a part of the inside of a building that is separated from other parts by walls, floor and ceiling “Room”. Second, question number 44 assessed the test takers’ knowledge about English tenses. It assessed the use of the simple past tense since the reading passage indicated the author’s experience which happened in the past. As Azar states 1999, p. 27, the simple past tense expresses events which began and end in the past. Because it assessed the simple past tense, the test takers were expected to know the past form of the verb come which the answer was came “Come”. The verb came is one of the examples of the irregular verb used in the simple past tense “Come”. As a result, filling-gap texts integrated the test takers’ knowledge about the forms of English language.