Reading comprehension - Compreensão escrita
Reading comprehension asks you to handle authentic-style Portuguese texts - notices, adverts, emails, web pages, short articles - and to show you can find detail, follow an argument, identify purpose and work out what pronouns refer to.
Detail versus gist
- For detail questions, locate the key word (a name, a figure, a date) and read the whole sentence around it: the answer often sits in the clause after 'mas', 'embora' or 'no entanto'.
- For gist or purpose questions, read the first and last sentence of each paragraph; headings usually paraphrase these.
- Reference questions ('A que se refere «isto»?') require you to look back to the previous sentence, not forward.
False friends that decide marks
- actual = current, not 'actual'; eventual = possible; parentes = relatives; livraria = bookshop (biblioteca = library); assistir = to attend; realizar = to carry out; pretender = to intend; emprestar = to lend.
- Watch PT/BR lexical splits: autocarro/ônibus, casa de banho/banheiro, telemóvel/celular.
Worked example
Text: 'A Maria chegou atrasada porque o autocarro avariou. Por isso, perdeu a reunião.' Question: Why did she miss the meeting? Answer: the bus broke down. Reasoning: 'porque' introduces the cause and 'por isso' the consequence. 'She arrived late' is also in the text, but it is not the reason asked for.
Traps
- Choosing a statement that is true in the real world but not supported by the text.
- Matching a word from the question to a sentence and stopping there.
- Ignoring negatives: nunca, nem, deixar de, sem.
- True/False items that require quoted evidence; a bare T/F without the supporting phrase often scores half.