Canary PAU English flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Skimming

Reading quickly for gist: the title, first sentence of each paragraph and the conclusion. Used to answer main-idea and purpose questions before detailed scanning begins.

Scanning

Moving the eyes rapidly over a text to locate a specific word, number or name without reading every word. Used for detail questions with a clear key term.

Distractor option

An answer choice that looks plausible but is not supported by the passage, often true in general knowledge or copied from a different paragraph. Eliminated by locating textual evidence.

Inference question

A question asking what the text implies rather than states. The answer follows logically from two or more stated facts and must not require outside knowledge.

Author's purpose

The reason the writer produced the text: to inform, persuade, warn, entertain or compare. Determined by overall structure and stance, not by a single sentence.

Tone versus mood

Tone is the writer's attitude towards the subject, shown by word choice. Mood is the feeling the text creates in the reader. Exam items usually ask about tone.

Cohesive devices

Words that link ideas across sentences: pronouns (this, they), synonyms, and connectors (however, therefore). Tracking them helps resolve reference questions.

True/False with justification

A task requiring a true or false verdict plus the exact words from the text that prove it. The quotation must match the verdict, or credit is lost.

Gapped text

A passage with sentences removed and offered out of order. The correct sentence fits both the pronoun references before it and the logic after it.

Lexical synonymy in options

Correct answers often paraphrase the text rather than repeat it. Matching exact words between passage and option is a warning sign, not proof.

Present perfect

Have/has + past participle. Used for past actions with present relevance or time still unfinished (so far, this year), never with a finished past time expression.

Past simple

Verb form for completed actions at a definite past time, used with markers such as yesterday, last year, in 2019, two days ago.

Second conditional

If + past simple, would + infinitive. Expresses hypothetical or unlikely present situations: If I had more time, I would travel.

Third conditional

If + past perfect, would have + past participle. Expresses unreal past situations and their imagined results: If she had studied, she would have passed.

Reported speech backshift

When the reporting verb is past, tenses move back one step: present to past, past to past perfect, will to would, can to could.

Passive voice formation

Be in the same tense as the active verb + past participle. The object becomes the subject: They cancelled the flight becomes The flight was cancelled.

Defining relative clause

Gives essential information identifying the noun, takes no commas, and may use that: The book that I bought was expensive.

Non-defining relative clause

Adds extra, non-essential information between commas and never uses that: My brother, who lives in Paris, is a chef.

Gerund after verbs

Certain verbs take -ing: enjoy, avoid, mind, suggest, look forward to, be used to. Others take to + infinitive: want, decide, hope, manage.

Phrasal verb particle shift

The particle changes meaning: give up (quit), give in (surrender), give away (reveal), turn up (arrive), turn down (reject).

Preposition collocations

Fixed verb or adjective plus preposition pairs: depend on, interested in, good at, responsible for, capable of, succeed in, insist on.

Word formation suffixes

Endings that change word class: -tion, -ment, -ness, -ity make nouns; -able, -ive, -ous, -ful make adjectives; -ly makes adverbs; -ise, -ify make verbs.

Contrast linkers

Although and even though precede a clause; despite and in spite of precede a noun or -ing form; however starts a new sentence with a comma.

Modals of deduction

Must be shows certainty, might or could be shows possibility, can't be shows impossibility. Mustn't be expresses prohibition, not deduction.

Quantifier agreement

Many, few and a number of take plural countable nouns and plural verbs. Much, little and the amount of take uncountable nouns and singular verbs.

Essay thesis statement

One or two sentences in the introduction naming the position the essay will defend. It must answer the exact question asked, not merely announce the topic.

Topic sentence

The first sentence of a body paragraph, stating the single idea that paragraph develops. Everything after it explains, illustrates or qualifies that idea.

Concession and rebuttal

Acknowledging the opposing view (While it is true that...) then answering it (However...). Demonstrates balanced argument and raises the coherence score.

Formal register

Avoiding contractions, slang, exclamation marks and rhetorical questions in academic writing, and preferring full forms such as do not and it is.

Cohesion versus coherence

Cohesion is surface linking through connectors and referencing words. Coherence is the logical order of ideas. Both are assessed separately in writing scales.

Paraphrasing the prompt

Restating the question in your own words in the introduction. Copied phrases are usually excluded from the word count and show limited lexical range.

Word count discipline

Staying within the required range: under-length answers lose task-response marks, while padding with repetition reduces quality. Cut redundancy, not content.