Reading comprehension
Reading comprehension tests your ability to understand short Maltese texts - notices, adverts, emails, letters, timetables and simple articles - and to locate details, follow sequence, infer meaning and recognise the writer's purpose. You do not need to understand every word; you need to match each question to the relevant line.
Reading strategy
- Preview the questions first, then scan for names, numbers, dates and cognates.
- Watch attached particles: prepositions and possessives fuse with pronouns (fih “in him/it”, tiegħu “his”), and the article assimilates (is-suq, iċ-ċentru, id-dar).
- Negation is usually discontinuous: ma ... x (ma marrx “he did not go”) or mhux (mhux hawn “not here”). Circle it before choosing.
- Sequence words: qabel (before), wara (after), imbagħad (then), waqt (during), sal- (until).
Worked example
Text: “Il-Ħadd li ġej, il-familja Borg se tmur Marsaxlokk. Huma se jieklu fit-trattorija ħdejn il-baħar, imbagħad jimxu sal-port u jixtru ftit ħut frisk.” Question: What does the family do immediately after eating? Reasoning: imbagħad marks the next action. The next verbs are jimxu sal-port (walk to the port) and jixtru ... ħut frisk (buy fresh fish). Answer: They walk to the port and buy fresh fish.
Traps
- Translating Italian-looking words by guesswork instead of using the sentence context.
- Ignoring mhux or the final -x of negation.
- Confusing qabel and wara; they reverse the order of events.
- Overlooking the definite article inside a preposition: fil- = fi + il-.