Chapter 1.3: Reading comprehension
Belle:
40
Sorry, Sir, but, although that sounds amazing and congratulations to your niece, I don’t think it is really me. I can’t say I relish the whole shopping experience because I find shops, department stores and malls a bit claustrophobic, especially when I get caught up in crowds of shoppers pushing and shoving. It just doesn’t interest me, I’m afraid. Though, now I’m talking it out with you, I would say my people and communication skills are among my strong points.
LE
35
Mr Forti: (becoming frustrated) Remind me, Belle, what your favourite subject is again. Belle:
45
Oh, Sir, I absolutely adore English. You do know, don’t you, that I am in the Debating Society, the Book Circle and the Drama Club too? And I’m getting excellent feedback from my information technology teacher too. She thinks that my PowerPoint presentation is first rate and she wants me to show it at Speech Day.
Mr Forti: (triumphantly) I’ve got it! What would you say to a career in Belle:
?
Phew, what a good idea! Thank goodness you suggested that, Sir. I was beginning to .
M P
Cambridge International AL General Paper 8001/23 Insert Passage 2, November 2015
Words and phrases in context
EXAM-STYLE QUESTIONS 1
Answer the comprehension questions 1–6.
1 How would you describe Belle’s tone in line 2. Why do you think this is? Explain. [2] 2 Explain why Belle’s tone changes in line 15. Justify your response by using evidence from the text for support. [3] 3 Review lines 29–34:
A
a Why do you think Mr Forti is ‘looking mildly irritated’? Explain using your own words. [2]
b Despite his mild irritation, how would you describe Mr Forti’s tone in this segment? Justify your answer. [2]
4 Using your own words, explain how Belle’s tone changes from the beginning of her conversation with Mr Forti to the end. [4]
S
5 Think critically: what career do you think Mr Forti suggests for Belle at the end of the extract? Justify your answer. [6] 6 Does a university degree still have value? Argue your case. You may use knowledge outside the exercise. [6] Total marks: 25
Another key skill for reading comprehension is the ability to work out the meaning of words you don’t know using information from the context in which they appear. Consider the following simple sentence. As is stands, the meaning of the word impecunious may be difficult to work out: Parker lived an impecunious lifestyle.
Now read the word within its wider context. Using the surrounding information, can you work out what impecunious means? Before his rise to literary stardom, Lance Parker had seen his fair share of suffering. After the death of his only parent, he became a runaway teen at 15, spending many a night in shelters and halfway homes. In this impecunious lifestyle that he never intended, Parker struggled to find food and safety on a daily basis. He had very few possessions, which he kept in a white, plastic garbage bag, but one thing Parker was never seen without was a one-subject, spiral notebook. It was always folded in half, carefully tucked in his back pocket, unless he was furiously scrawling away on its pages. Most of his work was born in these dollar-store journals. Today, he’s published 14 novels, four of which reached the top of the best-seller list.
Original material © Cambridge University Press 2018
53