Title: CPE reading practice

© Pearson PHOTOCOPIABLE

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Time 50 minutes

Level Advanced

Materials Photocopiable worksheet and LDOCE

Aim To help students prepare for CPE - reading

Lesson plan: CPE - reading practice

Warmer

Exercise 1

a) handsome pricehandsome adj 3 a handsome profit/sum/fee, etc.a large amount of money: he sold the stocks andmade a handsome profit for himself.

b) embarked uponembark v [I,T] embark on/upon sth phr v [T] tostart something, especially something new anddifficult that will take a long time: In the 1950sChina embarked on a major program ofindustrialization

c) strugglingstruggle 1 v [I] 1 to try extremely hard to achievesomething, even though it is very difficult andyou have lots of problems: struggle to do sth She’sstruggling to bring up a family on a very low income

d) well-to-dowell-to-do adj 1 rich and with a high socialposition: well-to-do families 2 the well-to-dopeople who are rich

f) acumenacumen n [U] the ability to think quickly and make good judgements:business/political/financial , etc. acumen The firm’ssuccess is due to the director’s ingnuity and business acumen.

e) all and sundrysundry adj [only before noun] formal 1 all andsundry everyone, not just a few carefully chosenpeople: In the 80s the economy was booming andbanks dished out loans to all and sundry.

g) assiduityassiduous adj formal very careful to make surethat something is done properly or completely: anassiduous collector of folk songs–– assiduously adv––assiduity n [U]

h) patronizedpatronize v [T] 2 formal to use or visit a shop,restaurant, etc. tourists who patronize the shoppingand recreational facilities

i) humdrumhumdrum adj boring and ordinary, and havingvery little variety or interest: humdrumexistence/job a humdrum office job

Encourage students to record new words and to write down whether they are verbs, nouns or adjectives, etc.together with example sentences from LDOCE.

This exercise tests students’ general comprehension of each paragraph and checks that they have fullyunderstood some of the new vocabulary in exercise 1. They should use LDOCE to help them.

Answers:a) True - he had inherited a ‘struggling business’.b) False - she had explained the success of her business ‘to all and sundry’.c) False - there is no evidence in the passage of this attitude (explain the other meaning of patronizing if necessary).

For homework, or in class if there’s time, students find their own excerpts from a selection of readers. Ask themto write a similar exercise to the one above so they can think of it from the exam point of view. What kind ofwords are being tested?To write their exercises, students pick between 8 and 10 words from the passage and use the dictionarydefinitions to describe the words they’ve picked. They write these descriptions under the passage (which they’vecopied out). When they come into class (or in class) they exchange exercises with their partners and try to pickthe correct words from the passage according to the definitions.

Further activities

Get students to think about different types of fiction (romance, crime, romantic, historical, etc.), and ask themtheir favourites. Let them discuss these in pairs. Ask them to give examples of crime writers and novels.

Give students time to read the passage and use LDOCE to look up any unknown words. The exercise is atypical CPE reading exam exercise. Encourage the students to check their answers in LDOCE.

Paragraphs 3 & 4

Paragraph 2

Paragraph 1

Exercise 2

Source: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

Title: CPE reading practice

© Pearson PHOTOCOPIABLE

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Photocopiable worksheet: CPE - reading practice

Read the following passages, then do the exercise below.

Paragraph 1His widow carried on the shop and enlarged it in an ambitious way. She had continued to prosper. Then she hadsold the business at a handsome price and embarked upon matrimony for the second time - with Mr Spenlow, amiddle-aged jeweller who had inherited a small and struggling business.

Paragraph 2Mrs Spenlow was a well-to-do woman. The profits from her florist’s establishment she had invested - ‘underspirit guidance’, as she explained to all and sundry. The spirits had advised her with unexpected acumen.

Paragraphs 3 & 4When, however, she arrived at St Mary Mead, she had relapsed into a period of orthodox Church-of-Englandbeliefs. She was a good deal at the vicarage, and attended church services with assiduity. She patronized thevillage shops, took an interest in the local happenings, and played village bridge.

A humdrum, everyday life. And - suddenly - murder.

(p 107-108 Best Detective Stories of Agatha Christie - Longman Fiction)

Find a word or phrase in the text which, in context, is similar in meaning to the following definitions. UseLDOCE to help you.

Paragraph 1a) a large amount of moneyb) to start somethingc) trying very hard to achieve something

Paragraph 2d) rich, often with a high social positione) everyonef) the ability to think quickly and make good judgements

Paragraphs 3 & 4g) doing something carefully, properly and completelyh) to use or visit shopsi) boring and ordinary

Now say whether the following statements are true or false, using the above passage.

a) Mr Spenlow’s business interests were less successful than his wife’s.b) Mrs Spenlow liked to keep all her ideas to herself.c) She was rather patronizing towards her fellow villagers.

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Source: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English