Reading Part C: Passages and Authentic Materials
What this section tests
You read longer passages-articles, stories, letters, emails, notices, advertisements, and other authentic-style texts-and answer comprehension questions. Items ask for main idea, purpose, specific details, inference, tone, author attitude, vocabulary in context, and organizational structure.
Concepts to master
Identify the text type and its purpose immediately: a notice informs or warns, an ad persuades, an email may request or confirm, an article may explain or evaluate. Distinguish stated information from inference. Notice stance markers: heureusement, malheureusement, à mon avis, il est regrettable que, on peut craindre que. Understand organizational signals: d'une part… d'autre part, en conclusion, par exemple. For vocabulary-in-context questions, substitute each option into the sentence and check the surrounding logic.
Traps
A true statement may be present in the passage but not answer the question asked. Extreme options-toujours, jamais, tous, aucun-are often unsupported. Inference questions punish answers that go beyond the text. In notices, watch for conditional or restrictive wording: en raison de, sauf, réservé à, à partir de. Do not choose an option merely because it contains familiar vocabulary.
Worked example
A notice says: En raison de travaux, l'accès au parking sera interdit du 3 au 10 mai. The correct inference is that the parking is unavailable during those dates because of construction-not that the parking is permanently closed. The dates and cause are explicit; permanence is not.
Rule of thumb
For every answer, find the line or lines that support it. If you cannot point to textual evidence, the option is probably a distractor-especially if it sounds plausible in real life.