Reading Comprehension of Authentic English Texts
Reading comprehension opens the Castilla-La Mancha PAU English paper and is the block where technique pays fastest. The text is authentic and unadapted - a press article, opinion column, popular-science piece or short literary extract of roughly 400–600 words - and the questions test global understanding, specific detail, inference, the meaning of words in context and textual reference. Nothing outside the text is needed or wanted: your own opinion, general knowledge and real-world "common sense" are distractors, not evidence.
Question types and what each rewards
- True/False with justification. The mark is usually split: one point for the decision, one for a correct justification. The justification must be a literal fragment of the text that proves your answer. A paraphrase, a translation or "because the text says so" earns nothing even when the decision is right.
- Multiple choice. Three options typically: one correct, one that repeats text vocabulary but reverses or distorts the relation, and one that is plausible in the real world but absent from the text. Choose the option that paraphrases a sentence without adding or deleting information.
- Reference. "What does it / this / they / the former refer to?" Answer with the noun phrase itself, not a full sentence: "the new tax", "local councils".
- Vocabulary in context. Give a synonym that fits the sentence, not the dictionary's first sense. Charged means "accused", not "billed", in charged with fraud.
- Inference and attitude. Signalled by hedges and evaluative adjectives (tends to, arguably, disappointing, welcome) and by contrast connectors (although, while, yet). The main clause, not the concessive clause, usually carries the writer's position.
Worked example
Text: "Although the scheme was widely praised when it was launched, take-up has been disappointing, and critics now argue that its cost cannot be justified." Statement: The scheme has been a success. → False. Justification: "take-up has been disappointing". Reasoning: Although makes widely praised a concession; the writer's assessment sits in the main clause and in the evaluative word disappointing. Quoting it was launched would prove nothing about success, so that fragment earns no mark.
Traps that cost marks
- Answering the statement from general knowledge rather than from the sentence.
- Quoting two or three unrelated fragments - examiners want one coherent piece of evidence.
- Missing negation and quantifiers: few, hardly, not all, rarely invert the meaning of an otherwise familiar sentence.
- Confusing must (obligation, certainty) with should (advice), and is expected to with will.
- Ignoring topic sentences: most answers sit in the paragraph whose topic sentence matches the question's topic.