Compreensão da leitura: Paper 1 Section B and the reading half of Paper 3

A Section B contains four questions on three texts: Q2, four multiple-choice items on a short news text; Q3, two open-response questions on a historical text, one of which asks o que quer dizer o autor com a expressão…; Q4, a three-mark question on an extended literary passage asking about a character's motivation; Q5, a summary question asking you to state the two main arguments of an opinion piece. Plan the order and the timing.

1. 01Classify before deciding anything

   Q2 is four retrieval or near-retrieval items, fast, and probably worth four marks. Q3's first part is retrieval and its second is inference — o que quer dizer o autor com a expressão is always an inference question and needs the surrounding paragraph. Q4 is inference on the longest text. Q5 is summary, which means it requires the whole opinion piece read for position rather than for content. That classification alone tells you Q2 is the cheapest and Q4 the most expensive.

2. 02Decide the order, and justify it

   A defensible order is Q2, then Q3, then Q5, then Q4. Q2 first because multiple-choice marks are the fastest in the paper and securing them early removes the risk of losing them to the clock. Q3 second because its text is short and its inference part is local. Q5 third because a summary question can be answered from one focused read of an opinion piece, which is a shorter task than a literary extended passage. Q4 last because it is the longest text and the deepest inference, and because leaving it last means that if the clock beats you, it beats you on the question where a partial answer is most likely to still earn something.

3. 03Allocate the minutes and set the checkpoint

   Roughly: eight minutes for Q2, ten for Q3, ten for Q5, fifteen for Q4, and two spare. Set the checkpoint at twenty-two minutes, at which point Q2 and Q3 should be finished. If they are not, abandon whatever is unfinished and move to Q5, because an unfinished retrieval question and an unattempted summary question are worth less together than a finished summary and a partial retrieval.

4. 04Handle the o que quer dizer question properly when you reach it

   This question type asks what an author means by a phrase, and it is never answered by translating the phrase. It is answered by saying what claim the phrase makes in its context, in your own Portuguese. The routine is: read the sentence before and the sentence after; identify what the phrase is contrasted with or what it is explaining; then write com esta expressão, o autor quer dizer que … followed by a proposition. A candidate who writes a synonym has not answered the question.

5. 05Keep the summary question about position, not content

   Q5 asks for the two main arguments of an opinion piece, which means positions and their supporting reasons, not a précis of the article. The efficient method is to read the piece once looking only for its thesis sentence and its main concession, which in Portuguese opinion writing are usually marked — the thesis after a colon or a não é X mas Y, the concession after é certo que, é verdade que or embora. Two sentences, each naming a position and one supporting reason, will normally secure the marks; a paragraph summarising the article will not.

Result: Order: Q2 (8 min) — Q3 (10 min) — Q5 (10 min) — Q4 (15 min), with a checkpoint at 22 minutes after Q2 and Q3. Rationale: multiple-choice items are the cheapest marks and are secured first; the inference question on the longest text is left last, because it is where a partial answer retains the most value if the clock runs out. The o que quer dizer question is answered with a proposition in your own Portuguese, never with a synonym; the summary question is answered with positions and reasons, never with a précis.

Work through this the way you would in Paper 1 Section B. Verificou-se que a maioria das autarquias que aderiram ao programa nos primeiros dois anos, e que dispunham já de serviços próprios de apoio ao imigrante, conseguiu integrar as novas medidas sem custos adicionais significativos, ao passo que aquelas que partiram do zero enfrentaram dificuldades de recrutamento que ainda hoje não se encontram totalmente resolvidas.

1. 01Recognise the register from the first three words

   Verificou-se que is an impersonal reflexive in the pretérito perfeito — it was found that — and it announces institutional or report register immediately. That tells you what to expect for the rest of the sentence: nominalisations, subordinate clauses, hedged findings and no first person. A reader who registers this in the first three words is already reading correctly, and one who tries to find a subject for verificou will stall.

2. 02Find the main verb of the subordinate clause, which is a long way in

   Strip the modification and the skeleton is: a maioria das autarquias … conseguiu integrar as novas medidas sem custos adicionais significativos. That is the claim; everything between autarquias and conseguiu is a pair of relative clauses describing which councils are meant. Conseguiu is singular because a maioria takes a singular verb in careful Portuguese. Finding this skeleton first, before translating anything, is the whole skill the sentence is teaching.

3. 03Take the two relative clauses in turn

   Que aderiram ao programa nos primeiros dois anos, and que dispunham já de serviços próprios de apoio ao imigrante. Both que refer to autarquias. Aderir a is to join or sign up to, with the preposition. Dispor de is to have available, a verb that takes de and that cannot be guessed from English. The imperfect dispunham marks a state that already obtained; já reinforces it. So the councils in question are those that joined early and already had their own support services.

4. 04Handle the contrastive second half

   Ao passo que aquelas que partiram do zero enfrentaram dificuldades de recrutamento. Ao passo que is whereas, one of the contrastive connectives worth having. Aquelas refers back to autarquias and is a demonstrative pronoun standing alone, not a determiner. Partir do zero is to start from scratch. Enfrentar is to face. The structure is a clean comparison: those with existing services managed; those without faced difficulties.

5. 05Parse the final relative and its negation

   Dificuldades de recrutamento que ainda hoje não se encontram totalmente resolvidas. The que refers to dificuldades. Encontrar-se plus a participle is a common formal alternative to estar — they are not to be found fully resolved, that is, they remain unresolved. Ainda hoje is even today. Note that the negation não sits before the reflexive clitic se because the clause is negative, and note that totalmente qualifies the resolution rather than denying it entirely — the difficulties are partly resolved. A comprehension question asking se o problema está resolvido must be answered with that qualification intact, and a candidate who reads não … resolvidas without totalmente will overstate the text.

Result: It was found that most of the councils that joined the programme in its first two years, and that already had their own immigrant support services, managed to integrate the new measures without significant additional cost, whereas those that started from scratch faced recruitment difficulties that even today are not fully resolved.

The text reads: A decisão de manter a edição em papel, apesar da queda das vendas, foi justificada pela direção com o argumento de que os leitores mais antigos continuam a preferir o formato impresso e representam ainda uma parte substancial das receitas. The question: Porque é que o jornal manteve a edição em papel? Justifique. (3 marks)

1. 01Identify the category the question demands

   Porque é que wants a cause, and justifique wants a pointer at the text. So the answer needs a reason, expressed with a causal connective, plus a clause naming the text as the source. Three marks suggests two reasons plus the justification, and the text conveniently supplies exactly two: reader preference and revenue. A candidate who supplies only the first has answered half a three-mark question.

2. 02Draft version one, by nominal-to-verbal conversion

   O jornal manteve a edição impressa porque os leitores mais velhos continuam a preferi-la e porque essa preferência ainda gera uma parte importante das receitas. What changed: mais antigos became mais velhos, representam uma parte substancial das receitas became gera uma parte importante das receitas — a noun-heavy construction turned into a verb — and o formato impresso became a clitic la attached to preferir. Four content words differ from the original and the proposition is intact.

3. 03Draft version two, by changing the voice

   Segundo o texto, a manutenção da edição em papel foi justificada pela preferência dos leitores mais antigos e pelo peso que continuam a ter nas receitas do jornal. Here the reformulation goes the other way, turning the verb manter into the noun a manutenção and using two agentive por phrases. Pelo peso que continuam a ter is a genuinely different way of saying representam uma parte substancial. This version also opens with segundo o texto, which discharges the justifique instruction cleanly.

4. 04Draft version three, with a personal infinitive

   O texto explica que a direção decidiu manter o papel por os leitores mais antigos continuarem a preferir esse formato e por ainda contribuírem significativamente para as receitas. Por plus the inflected infinitive continuarem and contribuírem is the causal construction Appendix 2 lists, and it renders because they still prefer without a que clause. This is the most grammatically ambitious version and would attract range credit anywhere it appeared, though in a three-mark comprehension answer accuracy matters more than ambition.

5. 05Choose, and say why

   For a three-mark Section B answer, version two is the best choice: it opens with segundo o texto, which visibly discharges justifique; it contains both reasons distinctly; and its grammar is reformulated without being risky. Version three is the most impressive and the most likely to contain an error under time pressure, which is a bad trade in a points-based question where the marks are for content. Version one is fine and slightly closer to the original. The general principle is worth stating: reformulate as much as you can do accurately, and no more.

Result: Segundo o texto, a manutenção da edição em papel foi justificada pela preferência dos leitores mais antigos por esse formato e pelo peso que continuam a ter nas receitas do jornal. A direção invocou esses dois motivos apesar da quebra registada nas vendas.

The text reads: O programa foi apresentado, com alguma pompa, como a solução definitiva para um problema que já tinha sido definitivamente resolvido por dois programas anteriores. Não deixa de ser curioso que o balanço dos anteriores nunca tenha sido publicado. Terá havido, presume-se, boas razões. The question: Qual é a atitude do autor em relação ao programa? Justifique com elementos do texto. (4 marks)

1. 01Find the first trigger: an evaluative adverbial phrase

   Com alguma pompa. Pompa is ceremony or pomp, and alguma softens it into something drier than outright mockery; the phrase evaluates the presentation rather than the programme. That is trigger one, and it establishes that the author is not writing neutrally. Note that the phrase is set off by commas, which in Portuguese as in English marks it as the writer's aside rather than part of the reported claim.

2. 02Find the second trigger: the repeated definitivamente

   A solução definitiva para um problema que já tinha sido definitivamente resolvido por dois programas anteriores. The repetition is the joke: if two previous programmes definitively solved it, a third definitive solution is a contradiction. This is irony by structure rather than by vocabulary, and it is trigger two. The pluperfect tinha sido resolvido places the earlier claims before the current one, which is what makes the contradiction visible.

3. 03Find the third trigger: the litotes

   Não deixa de ser curioso que o balanço dos anteriores nunca tenha sido publicado. Não deixa de ser is litotes and means it is decidedly, not it is somewhat. The subjunctive tenha sido follows the evaluative impersonal expression. The content is an absence — no evaluation of the previous programmes was published — and pointing at an absence is a characteristic inferential move. That is trigger three.

4. 04Find the fourth trigger: the supposition and the impersonal

   Terá havido, presume-se, boas razões. Terá havido is the future perfect used as a supposition about the past — there will presumably have been, that is, there were probably. Presume-se is an impersonal reflexive that distances the writer from the presumption. Together they are the driest possible way of declining to accept an explanation, and the sentence means something close to the opposite of what it says. This is trigger four and the strongest of them.

5. 05Grade the answer to the strength of the evidence

   Four triggers, all ironic, none scathing: the author is sceptical rather than hostile, and the answer should say so at that strength. O autor mantém uma atitude irónica e cética. Note that a four-mark question wants the attitude plus evidence, so name at least two triggers explicitly. Do not write o autor odeia o programa, which the text does not support; do not write o autor é neutro, which four ironic devices refute.

Result: O autor adota uma atitude irónica e cética em relação ao programa, sem o atacar diretamente. Isso é visível na forma como descreve a apresentação, feita com alguma pompa, e sobretudo na repetição de definitiva e definitivamente, que põe em evidência a contradição de apresentar como solução final aquilo que dois programas anteriores já teriam resolvido. A ironia acentua-se quando refere, por litotes, que não deixa de ser curioso que nunca tenha sido publicado um balanço desses programas, e quando encerra com terá havido, presume-se, boas razões — uma suposição que sugere precisamente o contrário.

The text: É certo que o encerramento de escolas com pouquíssimos alunos tem uma lógica orçamental difícil de contestar. Mas a contabilidade não é a única forma de avaliar uma decisão pública. Quando uma aldeia perde a escola, perde também a razão pela qual uma família jovem escolheria fixar-se ali; e o custo dessa perda não aparece em nenhuma folha de despesa, porque é um custo diferido e disperso. O problema não está, portanto, na aritmética, mas naquilo que a aritmética não consegue medir.

1. 01Find the concession, which is the first sentence

   É certo que o encerramento … tem uma lógica orçamental difícil de contestar. É certo que is the standard Portuguese concession opener, and difícil de contestar concedes strength to the opposing view. Marking this first is valuable in two ways: it tells you the writer is arguing against a position they respect, and it tells you that a recording arguing the budgetary case is not straightforwardly in conflict with this text, because the text has already granted it.

2. 02Find the pivot, which is the second sentence

   Mas a contabilidade não é a única forma de avaliar uma decisão pública. Mas after é certo que is the pivot, and this sentence states the position in general form: accounting is not the only criterion. That is the thesis, and it is the sentence a 5(b) summary should be built around. Notice that it does not deny the concession — it relocates the argument, which is a different and stronger move.

3. 03Extract the supporting reason and its structure

   Quando uma aldeia perde a escola, perde também a razão pela qual uma família jovem escolheria fixar-se ali. Quando plus present indicative for a general truth; escolheria is conditional, because it is a hypothetical family. Pela qual is por + a qual, the heavy relative after a preposition. Fixar-se is to settle. The reason is a causal chain: no school, no reason for young families, no village — the same chain the recording in the listening topic made, which is worth noticing for 5(c).

4. 04Notice what the text raises that a budgetary source would not

   O custo dessa perda não aparece em nenhuma folha de despesa, porque é um custo diferido e disperso. Um custo diferido is a deferred cost and disperso is dispersed or diffuse — two precise economic adjectives that do the text's real analytical work. This is the third comparative annotation: the text raises the concept of costs that accounting does not capture, which a source arguing from the budget will very probably not address at all. That is exactly the material 5(c) needs.

5. 05Write 5(b) around the position, in three sentences

   No texto, o autor reconhece que o encerramento de escolas muito pequenas tem uma justificação orçamental sólida. Sustenta, porém, que a contabilidade não é o único critério válido para avaliar uma decisão pública. Argumenta que a perda da escola retira à aldeia a razão que levaria uma família jovem a fixar-se nela, e que esse custo, por ser diferido e disperso, não é captado por nenhuma folha de despesa. Three reporting verbs marking concession, position and reason; the technical adjectives preserved because they are the text's argument; and nothing summarised that is not a point of view.

Result: No texto, o autor reconhece que o encerramento de escolas com muito poucos alunos tem uma justificação orçamental sólida. Sustenta, porém, que a contabilidade não é o único critério válido para avaliar uma decisão pública. Argumenta que a perda da escola retira à aldeia a razão que levaria uma família jovem a fixar-se nela, e que esse custo, por ser diferido e disperso, não é captado por nenhuma folha de despesa.