C1 Advanced Exam Guide: Reading Comprehension Multiple Choice
Reading & Use of English Paper
Overview
Context: Part 5 of the Reading & Use of English paper consists of one comprehensive text, sourced from various genres including fiction. The text is accompanied by six questions, each with four multiple-choice options.
Task: Candidates engage in detailed analysis of the text, interpreting opinions, attitudes, and viewpoints, and distinguishing between nuanced differences in these areas. The task also involves deducing meanings, interpreting the text for inference and style, and understanding text organisation features like comparison and lexical reference. The final question may require interpreting the overall text, such as the writer's purpose or attitude.
Objective: To assess the ability to understand a long text in depth, including its finer points and organisational aspects.
Scoring & Marks: The six questions are worth twelve points, so two points for each. There are 78 points available for the whole Reading & Use of English paper.
How to Approach
- Broad Source Familiarity: Encourage familiarity with a wide range of sources, topics, and lexical fields to prepare for the varied nature of texts.
- Close Reading and Analysis: Practise reading texts quickly for an overall impression, followed by a detailed analysis to understand nuances and prevent misunderstandings.
- Question Analysis: Read each question carefully, underlining the text segment that answers it. This helps in choosing the most accurate option rather than one based on superficial understanding or personal bias.
- Sentence Completion Attention: Give careful consideration of questions in the form of incomplete sentences, ensuring the entire sentence aligns with the text.
- Text Structure Understanding: Practise recognising and understanding text organisation features, differentiating between main ideas, examples, and abstract vs. concrete arguments.
Assessment Focus
This section tests the understanding of detailed content, including opinions, attitudes, and text organisation. It assesses the ability to interpret the text comprehensively.
Tips
- Develop skills in quickly identifying key information and themes in texts.
- Focus on understanding and evaluating attitudes and opinions expressed in texts.
- Engage in activities that involve analysing and discussing texts, focusing on extracting and understanding underlying messages and themes.
- Practise summarising texts, highlighting key opinions, attitudes, and organisational features, to reinforce understanding of text structures.
How It Looks
Student Suggestion
"Whenever I read anything, I asked myself questions that helped me in this part of the exam, such as 'What is the writer saying?', 'What is his or her opinion here?'" - Isabella Rossi
