Reading comprehension
What this domain tests
C2 reading involves long, dense texts - academic articles, essays, reports, literary prose - where meaning is carried by syntax and cohesion as much as by vocabulary. You must identify the writer's purpose and tone, follow an argument across paragraphs, resolve reference words (this, such an approach, the former), and infer meaning of unfamiliar lexis from context.
Concepts to master
- Cohesion: pronouns and demonstratives point back (or forward) to specific noun phrases; track them.
- Function of sentences: does a sentence illustrate, qualify, or contradict the previous claim?
- Register and stance: irony, hedging, and evaluative adjectives reveal attitude.
- Gist versus detail: some items ask for the main idea, others for a precise paraphrase.
Traps
Distractors frequently lift a phrase from the passage and attach it to the wrong claim, or state something true in general but not stated in the text. Another trap is the over-inference: an option that is a reasonable real-world conclusion but goes beyond what the writer commits to. Extreme wording (always, never, proves) often signals a wrong option in an opinion text.
Rule of thumb
For each question, locate the relevant lines, then paraphrase them in your own words before reading the options. Match your paraphrase to an option rather than matching keywords. For reference questions, substitute the candidate noun phrase back into the sentence and check it reads coherently.
Worked example
Passage: "Such reservations, though rarely voiced in public, underpinned much of the committee's reluctance." Question: What does Such reservations refer to? Return to the previous sentence, find the plural noun describing doubts or objections, and substitute it: the reservations are those doubts. The phrase though rarely voiced is a qualifier, not the referent.