Reading - Extended Written and Visual French
Reading is the external standard that tests understanding of a variety of extended written and visual French texts. Expect articles, blogs, reviews, advertisements, short stories and opinion pieces. The texts are longer and demand more inference than at Level 2. Write answers in English unless instructed otherwise. You are assessed on understanding, not on translating every sentence.
Core rules
Skim first for the text type, purpose and audience: a blog review and a formal notice use different language. Then scan for the detail each question needs. Pay attention to grammar clues: tense locates events in time; pronouns such as y, en, qui, que and dont show what refers to what; negation changes the meaning; connectors such as bien que, cependant, donc and afin de show concession, contrast, consequence and purpose. Distinguish fact from opinion.
Worked example
Text: Bien que le projet soit ambitieux, plusieurs habitants craignent que les travaux ne perturbent le quartier pendant des mois. Question: What is the residents' attitude to the project? Reasoning: Bien que introduces a concession: the project is ambitious. Craignent que means they fear. The subjunctive soit and ne perturbent are grammatical signals, not negatives to translate literally. The attitude is therefore cautious or worried, not enthusiastic. A good answer says residents accept that the project is ambitious but fear months of disruption. A weak answer says they support it because ambitieux looks positive.
Traps
Word-matching an option to one familiar word; false friends such as actuellement (currently, not actually), assister à (to attend, not to assist) and éventuellement (possibly, not eventually); missing who does what; ignoring negation; and translating idioms literally. Always check the sentence around the word.