Reading Comprehension (Comprensione scritta)
What the section tests
Reading tasks check global understanding (main idea, purpose, audience) and detailed understanding (specific facts, reference words, inference). Texts may include notices, adverts, emails, short articles, instructions and simple literary or journalistic passages.
Concepts to master
- Text types and their conventions: avviso (short, imperative), annuncio (abbreviations like zona centro, no perditempo), e-mail formale (saluti, richiesta, chiusura), ricetta/istruzioni (imperative, aggiungere, mescolare).
- Cohesion: pronouns and adverbs that point back - questo, quello, ne, ci, vi, lì, allora, perciò.
- Word formation: prefixes and suffixes that change meaning - ri- (again), dis- (undo), -zione, -mente, -ista, -eria.
- False friends: attualmente (currently), eventualmente (if necessary), fattoria (farm), morbido (soft), parente (relative).
- Scanning skills: finding a date, a condition, a price, an opening hour.
Typical traps
- A distractor paraphrases a sentence but reverses a condition (gratuito vs a pagamento, solo soci vs aperto a tutti).
- The question asks for the purpose of the text while options describe its content.
- Reference words (ne, ci) point to something other than the nearest noun.
- Absolute words (sempre, mai, tutti, nessuno) make an option too strong to be correct.
- Numbers and dates are close but not identical (e.g. dal 3 al 15 vs fino al 3).
Rule of thumb
Read the questions first, then scan the text for the relevant paragraph; underline the exact phrase that supports your choice. If no single sentence proves an option, it is probably wrong. For global questions, check the title, the first and last lines.
Worked example
Notice: “Corso serale di fotografia. Iscrizioni entro il 10 marzo. Posti limitati; priorità ai residenti.” Question: who has an advantage in enrolling? The phrase priorità ai residenti answers it; an option saying solo per residenti is too strong and therefore wrong.