ALPT B2 flashcards
ALPT B2 · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Gist question
- A listening or reading item asking for the main idea or overall purpose of a passage rather than a single stated detail.
- Distractor correction pattern
- A listening tactic where a speaker first states a number or fact and later revises it; the revised value is the correct answer.
- Signpost phrase
- A discourse marker such as however, frankly, or the thing is that signals a shift in argument and often precedes the tested information.
- Negative polarity trap
- An option that paraphrases a negative statement as a positive one, reversing the speaker's meaning and therefore being incorrect.
- Speaker attitude item
- A question asking how the speaker feels about a topic, answered from evaluative words and intonation rather than from stated facts.
- Backchannel
- A short response such as mm-hm, right, or sure that shows the listener is following without taking over the speaking turn.
- Turn-taking marker
- A phrase like well, actually, or I see what you mean but that signals a change of stance or a bid for the floor.
- Hedging language
- Qualifying expressions such as tend to, more or less, or it depends that soften claims and show upper-intermediate spoken range.
- Politeness downgrader
- A softening device such as I was wondering if or would you mind that makes a request less direct and more socially appropriate.
- Repair phrase
- An expression like what I mean is or let me put that differently used to restate a message after a breakdown in communication.
- Claim-reason-example
- A three-part structure for opinion tasks: state a position, support it with one reason, then illustrate with a concrete example.
- Qualified agreement
- Agreeing while adding a limitation, typically with true, although, which shows interaction rather than simple assent.
- Main idea versus detail
- A main-idea option must cover the whole text; an option true of only one paragraph is a detail and cannot be the answer.
- Referent resolution
- The rule that a pronoun such as it or they refers to the nearest preceding noun phrase agreeing with it in number.
- EXCEPT question
- An item where three options are supported by the passage and one is not; each option must be checked against the text.
- Verbatim distractor
- An option copied word for word from the passage that usually restates rather than answers, making it a common wrong choice.
- Inference item
- A reading question requiring one logical step beyond the text; the answer is implied but never stated directly.
- Author's purpose verbs
- The small set of labels used for purpose questions: to inform, to persuade, to compare, to criticize, and to explain.
- Contextual substitution
- A technique for vocabulary items where each option is inserted into the sentence and only the logically consistent one is kept.
- Keyword scanning
- Locating a stem keyword in the passage and reading the two surrounding sentences, since answers rarely extend further.
- Third conditional
- A structure of if plus past perfect followed by would have plus past participle, describing an unreal past situation and its imagined result.
- Mixed conditional
- A structure of if plus past perfect followed by would plus base verb, linking a past cause to a present consequence.
- Reported speech backshift
- Moving a verb one tense back and adjusting time and place words, as when now becomes then and tomorrow becomes the next day.
- Passive with modal
- The pattern modal plus be plus past participle, as in must be submitted, used for present or future passive obligation.
- Gerund after preposition
- The rule that a verb following a preposition takes the -ing form, as in interested in learning or good at solving.
- Used to versus be used to
- Used to plus base verb marks a past habit; be used to plus gerund means being accustomed to something.
- Uncountable nouns
- Nouns such as advice, information, furniture, and research that take no plural -s and no article a, but combine with a piece of.
- Contrast linker
- A conjunction such as whereas or although that signals opposition between two clauses rather than a cause or conclusion.
- Condition linker
- A connector such as provided that or unless that introduces a condition on which the main clause depends.
- Verb plus gerund pattern
- Verbs like enjoy, avoid, and suggest take an -ing complement, while decide, manage, and refuse take a to-infinitive.
- Modal plus past participle
- The perfect modal pattern modal plus have plus past participle, used to speculate about past events, as in should have left.
- Comparative correlative
- The structure the plus comparative, the plus comparative, expressing that one change varies with another, as in the more the better.