Text comprehension and analysis
The first block of the Llengua Catalana i Literatura II paper presents a text of roughly 500–700 words - usually an article d'opinió from the Catalan-language press or a short humanistic essay - followed by four to six questions worth about three points in total. What is measured is precision, not speed: can you state the thesis with your own words, explain a phrase as it functions inside the argument, classify the text and justify the classification with features?
What the questions actually ask
- Resumeix el text / Quina n'és la idea principal? - reformulate the thesis, not the topic.
- Explica el significat de… en aquest context - a paraphrase that preserves the argumentative role of the phrase.
- A quin tipus de text pertany? Justifica-ho - argumentative, expository, narrative or descriptive, plus the journalistic subgenre.
- Quina funció del llenguatge hi predomina? - referential, emotive, conative, metalinguistic, poetic or phatic.
- Indica el significat dels mots subratllats - lexical meaning, in context.
Method
Read twice: first for gist, then paragraph by paragraph, noting in the margin the function of each block (thesis, argument, example, counter-argument, conclusion). Underline the connectors - però, en canvi, així mateix, d'una banda, en conseqüència - because the argumentative skeleton hangs on them. Separate topic from thesis. Answer with your own syntax and quote at most a short fragment as an anchor.
Worked example
Suppose the text argues that tourist pressure has turned housing into a financial asset and demands limits on purchases by non-residents. Question: Quina és la tesi? A weak answer - Parla del turisme i de l'habitatge - gives only the topic. A strong answer: L'autor sosté que la pressió turística ha convertit l'habitatge en un bé d'inversió, cosa que expulsa la població resident, i per això reclama limitar la compravenda a no residents. The reasoning: the answer names the claim, its consequence and the proposal, which is what a thesis is in an argumentative text.
For aquesta bombolla no és un fenomen natural, a dictionary gloss fails. Explain that the rise in prices is presented as the result of political and investment decisions rather than spontaneous market forces - the polemical edge is the meaning.
Traps that cost marks
Literal copying, flagged as no reformulat; offering the topic as the thesis; summarising paragraph by paragraph and dropping the conclusion; ignoring length instructions such as en dues línies; naming a text type without two justifying features (first person, evaluative adjectives, explicit arguments).