Reading Comprehension of Italian Texts
Reading comprehension presents authentic Italian texts - press articles, interviews, literary extracts, adverts, tables - and asks you to extract, interpret and summarise. Questions usually combine multiple choice, true/false with justification, short answers, vocabulary in context and a brief summary. The paper tests reading strategies, not word-for-word translation.
Three passes
- Skim: title, subheadings, first and last paragraph, any lead-in - predict the topic and the writer's stance.
- Scan: locate names, figures and dates for detail questions.
- Read closely around the likely answer: read the sentence before and after, because negation and concession often sit there.
Signposts to follow
- Contrast: tuttavia, invece, d'altra parte, benché + congiuntivo, nonostante.
- Cause and consequence: poiché, dal momento che, pertanto, di conseguenza, quindi.
- Reformulation: vale a dire, in altre parole, ossia.
- Authorial distance: secondo l'autore, a parere di, stando a - these mark opinion, not fact.
Worked example
Text: «Il provvedimento, benché accolto con favore dalle opposizioni, ha suscitato non poche perplessità tra i sindacati.» Question: What is the trade unions' attitude? Reasoning: benché introduces a concession, so the first clause reports someone else's reaction, not theirs. Non poche is a litotes meaning "many", so the unions are sceptical, not favourable. A candidate who matches the word favore to sindacati gets it wrong: the answer depends on syntax, not on vocabulary recognition.
Traps
- Answering from general knowledge rather than from the text.
- Missing negation: non... affatto, nemmeno, nessuno.
- False friends: attualmente, eventuale, morbido, fattoria, salire.
- Exceeding the stated word limit in short answers, which can invalidate the mark.
- Confusing the author's own opinion with a view he or she is merely quoting.