Κατανόηση γραπτού λόγου (Reading Comprehension): main idea, cohesion and paraphrase at B2
What this section tests
Κατανόηση γραπτού λόγου at B2 checks whether you can extract meaning from Greek texts written for a general adult audience: press articles, interviews, notices, advertisements, instruction leaflets, short literary extracts and personal or semi-formal emails. You are not asked to translate. The tasks ask you to locate specific information, identify the main idea of a paragraph, follow the logic that links sentences, and infer the writer's purpose or attitude. Typical item formats are multiple choice, matching headings or statements to paragraphs, true/false with justification, and completing a table from several short notices.
Core rules and concepts
- Read the questions before the text, but never hunt for identical wording. Correct answers are paraphrases: a notice saying δεν επιτρέπεται το κάπνισμα becomes απαγορεύεται να καπνίζεις.
- Cohesion is tested deliberately. Trace pronouns (ο οποίος, αυτός, του, τους) back to their referent, and mark contrast (ωστόσο, αν και, μολονότι, ενώ) against consequence (επομένως, γι' αυτό, ώστε).
- Watch quantifiers and scope: μόνο, εκτός από, τουλάχιστον, σπάνια, ούτε … ούτε, κάτω/άνω των. Most wrong options fail on one such word.
- Genre shapes language: an αγγελία is compressed and impersonal, a letter to a friend is emotional, a leaflet gives orders (Να …, Μην …).
Worked example
Text: «Η είσοδος είναι δωρεάν για παιδιά κάτω των 12 ετών· οι συνοδοί πληρώνουν μειωμένο εισιτήριο.» Question: does a father pay full price when he takes his 10-year-old son? Reasoning: κάτω των 12 covers the child, so the child enters free; the second clause «οι συνοδοί πληρώνουν μειωμένο» concerns the adult, and μειωμένο means reduced, not full. Answer: no, he pays a reduced ticket. An option saying «και οι δύο μπαίνουν δωρεάν» is built from the first clause alone and ignores the second.
Traps that cost marks
Choosing an option because it repeats a word from the text; overlooking a negative in the question stem (Ποιο ΔΕΝ αναφέρεται); mistaking one supporting example for the main claim of a paragraph; treating a heading that describes the paragraph's function as if it had to repeat its content; spending so long on one long article that the matching task is left blank.