READING

Your ability to understand written English is tested in Paper 1. The paper contains four parts. There is a total of 35 questions.

Each of the four parts has a different reading task:

PART 2: Answer seven or eight multiple-choice questions on a text.
PART 3: Fill six or seven gaps in a text with either individual sentences or whole paragraphs which have been removed.

(You will study Parts 1 and 4 in Unit 11, Lesson 4).

REMEMBER:
There may be some unfamiliar words in the texts. The questions, however, will require a knowledge only of the vocabulary which a typical First Certificate candidate should know; so you should be able to answer them even if you don't understand every word.

Let's see an example and do a very short practice Part 2 now. Follow the advice given in Steps 1-to-3 to help you do your best:

READING - PART 2

You are going to read a newspaper article about a house with ghosts. For questions 1-to-2, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

STEP 1
Read through the text carefully to understand as much as you can. If you don't know certain words or phrases, don't worry. You may understand them better later on, or they may not be important for answering the questions.

London is famous for its ghosts, with thousands of reported sightings over the centuries. The paranormal is not choosy where it shows itself – theatres, pubs, churchyards, commercial buildings, council houses, even Vine Street Police Station, public toilets and the underground.

Says Tom Perrott, chairman of the members-only Ghost Club and a member of The Society for Psychical Research (SPR): "It's generally thought these things only happen in romantic moonlit ruins or ancient halls hung with rows of antlers, but experiences in modern buildings are equally frequent."

Marcel Seymour is an investigator with The Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP). He says: "People claiming to have paranormal experiences are far more numerous than anyone would think. Most of them are level-headed, reasonable types."

STEP 2
Look at the multiple-choice questions, which could be in the form of either a question or an incomplete sentence. Don't look at the four possible answers (A-D) yet.
Decide where in the text the answer is. If the question is about a detail, this will be easier; if the question is more general – about a whole paragraph or even the whole text – then you will have to think about the overall content.
Read again carefully the part of the text where you think the answer is. Then answer the question or finish the incomplete sentence in your mind.

Now, let's read the two questions:

a)

Where, according to the article, do paranormal experiences take place?                    

A.    in places connected with death
B.    in historical places
C.    in lonely places
D.    in all sorts of places

b)

Marcel Seymour thinks that the majority of people who have paranormal experiences are ...

A.    imaginative.
B.    sensible.
C.    mentally disturbed.
D.    religious.

STEP 3
Now look at the four possible answers (A-D) in both questions. Which is closest to your own answer? To help you make the right choice, cross out the answers that you know are not right.

Now, let's see the correct answers:

The CORRECT ANSWER for the first question is ...

D.    in all sorts of places

because the article states: "... It's generally thought these things only happen in romantic moonlit ruins..., but experiences in modern buildings are equally frequent".

The CORRECT ANSWER for the second question is ...

B.    sensible.

because the article states: "... Most of them are level-headed, reasonable types". Also the adjective level-headed means sensible ("sensato" in Spanish).

READING - PART 3

On the next page, you will be able to do a real activity for Part 3. You are going to read a newspaper article in which five paragraphs have been removed.

But, before going on to the next page, read carefully and follow the advice given in Steps 1-to-3 below to help you do your best.

STEP 1
Read through STEP 1 above again. Also, notice the gaps where the five paragraphs have been removed.

STEP 2
Remember:
1) each paragraph should have one main topic.
2) the topic of one paragraph should lead to the topic of the next.
Read each paragraph again and decide what its topic is. Try to guess from the sentences that come before and after the gap what the missing paragraph is about. Now look for a paragraph with a suitable topic. There may be more than one which seems to fit, but only one really belongs.
Use these clues to help you:
a) topic; b) vocabulary; c) text construction, including pronouns, articles, and linking words.
Work through the text. But don't get stuck on a paragraph that you find difficult: you can come back to it later.

STEP 3
Read over the completed text to see that it makes sense. Pay attention to the topic of each paragraph and the connection from one paragraph to the next.