What's tested - Gap-filling
The reading paper has four parts: four different texts and three different types of comprehension task (multiple matching, gapped text, multiple choice).The texts come form a variety of sources, e.g. newspapers, magazines,brochures and journals, and may deal with a range of general interesttopics. You will need a high level of vocabulary to understand thetexts so it is important that you read English language newspapersand/or magazines. The texts never come from fiction books so whilereading fiction may improve your general level of vocabulary, it maynot be the type of vocabulary that you will see in examination texts.
Gapped-text task
Part 2 of the Reading Paper tests your ability to recognise the way a text is structured. you are required to read a gapped text on one page and then choose which extracts on the second page fit each gap. There is only one possible answer for each gap.
TIPS
- Read the gapped text first to understand the general idea of the content, meaning and structure.
- If the text is a narrative, look for tenses, words or phrases that indicate time (e.g shortly after this, from my previous experience, it was the first time I had...) and linkers that show cause and effect (and it was for that reason, in order not to repeat that mistake, it was largely due to that advice that...).
- If the text presents an argument or discussion, you can look for cause and effect, phrases or linkers that show agreement or contrast (Many people would go along with that / However, scientists discovered that this was not the case / Nevertheless, researchers continued to maintain...).
- It is also useful to look for repeated names, dates and pronouns: At last one of the archaeologists found what seemed to be a clue. It was this (clue) that gave them (the archaeologists) hope.
- Don't just read the first and last line of each extract. Often the clues or connecting ideas are in the middle of the extract.