MATSEC IM Spanish - Reading
Reading tests comprehension of written Spanish at intermediate level: notices, emails, articles, advertisements and short literary extracts. Questions ask for the main idea, specific detail, inference, the writer's attitude, or the meaning of a word in context. You need to read selectively, not translate every sentence.
Core reading rules
- Skim first for gist: title, first and last sentences, repeated words.
- Scan for the detail the question asks for: names, dates, prices, places.
- Use discourse markers to follow the argument: sin embargo, además, por lo tanto, ya que.
- Watch false friends: embarazada = pregnant, not embarrassed; actual = current; largo = long; socio = member.
- Track pronouns: lo, la, le, su often refer back to an earlier noun.
- Note negation and modality: no se permite, se ruega, quizá, deberías.
Worked example
Text: Se ruega a los socios que no utilicen el móvil en la sala de lectura. Question: What are members asked to do? Reasoning: se ruega is a polite request, not a strict legal ban; socios means members; no utilicen is negative subjunctive after se ruega que; sala de lectura is the reading room. The answer is that members are asked not to use their mobile phones in the reading room. Choosing “members must never use phones in the building” is wrong because it ignores sala de lectura and overstates se ruega.
Traps that cost marks
- Matching a word in the question to the same word in the text without checking meaning.
- Missing a negative: no siempre, nunca, nadie.
- Confusing por and para, or ser and estar, in a key sentence.
- Choosing an option that is true in general but not stated in the text.