The passage looks to be a part of literary piece and it is written in past tense

Chapter 6
Testing Reading Skills
Many testers find it easy to test reading skills. They can select a few passages and then prepare some testing items based on them. Many examiners believe that marking is relatively easy since it does not involve their judgment.
However, testing of reading skills is challenging. To test writing, it is possible to ask students to write. But the task of reading tester involves setting of reading activities which will result in behavior that will demonstrate the learner’s reading competence.
This chapter presents details as to how to approach this task.

1. 
   Sub-skills of Reading
   

In reading tests, the tester assumes that there are several underlying skills which are necessary for developing reading abilities. The tester’s task is to set activities which will help to assess these sub-skills. The following are some of the sub-skills of reading.

1. 
   Ability to extract specific information from a text
   
2. 
   Ability to get the main idea of a text/Identifying writer’s intention
   
3. 
   Identifying referents of pronouns
   
4. 
   Identifying main idea and supporting details
   
5. 
   Inferring meanings of unfamiliar words
   
6. 
   Understanding relations between parts of texts
   
7. 
   Knowledge of grammar and vocabulary
   

The tester should decide which of these should be tested in a test item. They should be chosen according to the weight given in the syllabus. Many testers find it easy to prepare test items which assess candidate’s ability to extract information from a text. Therefore, the other sub-skills are likely to be given less attention. Such tests lack content validity.

2. 
   Preparing a Test Specification
   

When the tester decides which sub-skills should be tested in what proportion, his next task is to prepare a test specification, recording these essential elements according to the syllabus. He should take down the sub-skills to be tested and their appropriate proportion as given in the syllabus.
The test specification should also include the following details apart from the details of sub-skills:

1. 
   Topics: According to the syllabus, a representative sample of topics/themes can be chosen.
   
2. 
   Types of Texts to be used: Different types may include advertisements, news items, stories, poems, notices, letters etc. It is advisable to include authentic texts. Many testers seem to select texts at random. However, the tester should consider what types of texts have been included in the syllabus. In this way a wide range of text types can be used in a test paper.
   
3. 
   Number of Questions: How many questions to be used in each text and altogether how many questions to be included.
   
4. 
   Techniques: Which testing technique to be used in each question.
   
5. 
   Rubric: Clear instructions as to how to answer the question – whether underline or circle the answer in the case of MCQs.
   
6. 
   Number of marks: For each part, how many marks to be given and whether the total number of marks is proportionate to the weight given to the reading skill in the syllabus.
   
7. 
   Time allocated: For each main question, approximate time to be used by the average candidate.
   

3.