Reading Practice: Inference and Gap-Fill - Celebrity Culture

What a text lets you conclude

You already know the vocabulary for this topic and how to compare things in French. This module is about a different skill, and it is the one reading papers actually test. A reading question rarely asks what a text says. It asks what the text lets you work out. Those are different jobs. If a question asks what somebody does for a living, the answer may be sitting in the text as a sentence, and you only have to find it. But if a question asks how somebody feels about their life, or whether they enjoy something, the text will often not say so anywhere. You have to assemble the answer from what it does say. That is inference, and there is a reliable way to do it. The answer is always built from particular words on the page, so a good answer can point at them. If you cannot say which words your conclusion rests on, you have guessed rather than inferred, and in an exam that is where marks are lost. Small words do most of the work: a "mais", a "ne... jamais", a comparison. This module gives you two short texts and asks you to work outwards from them.

Read about Léa

Here is the first text. Read it twice before going on: once for the general sense, and once slowly, noticing the small words. Everything later in this module refers back to it. Voici Léa. Elle est artiste et elle chante avec un groupe. Les médias suivent le groupe partout. Léa écrit les paroles de ses chansons. Elle ne parle jamais de politique. Beaucoup de gens adorent le groupe, mais Léa est souvent fatiguée. Notice on your second reading that the text never says Léa is famous, never says she wants privacy, and never says fame is difficult. And yet you can work all three out from it. That is what the questions will ask for.

Words that carry a hint

These are not new topic words. They are the small French words that do the inference work, and spotting them is most of the skill.

What the text does not say

The text never says whether Léa enjoys being well known. What does it most support?

• That fame has a cost for her, because the text sets the group being adored against Léa being often tired
• That she hates being an artist and wants to stop
• That she finds fame entirely enjoyable
• Nothing at all, since the text never mentions how she feels

Find the phrase that shows it

A question asks how you know that Léa keeps her private opinions to herself. Select the phrase from the text that supports it.

• Elle est artiste et elle chante avec un groupe
• Elle ne parle jamais de politique
• Léa écrit les paroles de ses chansons
• Beaucoup de gens adorent le groupe

Which two can you conclude

Select the TWO things the text about Léa genuinely supports.

• The group is well known, because the media follow it everywhere
• Léa is not only a singer, because she writes the words of her songs herself
• Léa is the most successful artist in the country
• Léa dislikes the other members of the group

Complete the second text

A second text, about Marc. Each missing word can be worked out from the sense of the sentence. Marc _____ une équipe de football. Il regarde les _____ de sport à la télévision. Son équipe gagne souvent des _____. Les _____ parlent beaucoup de son équipe. Marc adore la musique aussi, et son _____ préféré écrit ses propres paroles.

Stated, or implied

The same text, sorted two ways. The left column can be answered by pointing at a sentence. The right column cannot, and those are the questions worth practising.

Match each line to what it implies

Justify an inference properly

Here is a question of the kind you will meet, answered twice, so you can see what separates the versions. The question: does Léa find fame easy? Give a reason. A weak answer: "No, she finds it hard." That may well be right, but it points at nothing, and a marker cannot tell whether it was read or guessed. A strong answer: "No. The text says that many people adore the group, but that Léa is often tired. The word mais sets those against each other, which suggests that being well known costs her something." Look at what the second version does. It gives the conclusion first, so the marker knows immediately what is being claimed. It then quotes or paraphrases the specific words the conclusion rests on. And it names the signal, in this case the contrast carried by mais. Three parts: conclusion, evidence, and how the evidence supports it. Two more things worth noticing. The strong answer does not overreach: it says fame costs her something, not that she wants to give up, because the text will not carry that. And it is written in English, which is what a reading paper asks for unless the question says otherwise. Your French is being tested by your understanding, not by the language you answer in. One more thing, for the questions that do ask for French. The connective that joins a conclusion to its evidence is parce que, and the frame is worth learning as a whole: Le groupe est très connu parce que les médias le suivent partout. Conclusion first, then parce que, then the evidence. The next activity asks you to build exactly that sentence.

The order to answer in

Put the steps of answering an inference question into the order that works best under time pressure.

• Read the question first, so you know what you are reading the text for
• Read the whole text once for general sense, without stopping at unknown words
• Find the sentence or phrase that relates to the question
• Look for the small signal words nearby, such as mais, ne... jamais or souvent
• Write the conclusion, then the words it rests on, then how they support it

Build the French sentence

Assemble the justification frame from the last card: a conclusion, then the evidence.

A reading question under time

You are in a reading paper with less time than you would like. Work through the decisions.

• There are three words in the text you do not know. What do you do?
• The question asks how someone feels, and the text never says. What now?
• You have a conclusion but are not sure it is right. How do you write it?
• A gap-fill has a word missing and you cannot recall the vocabulary. What helps most?

Answer and justify

Answer these questions on the text about Léa, in English. For each one, give your conclusion and then the French words it rests on.

• Is the group well known? Give the words that show it
• What does Léa do besides singing? Give the words that show it
• Does she share her opinions on every subject? Give the words that show it
• Does she find being well known easy? Give the words that show it, and name the signal word
• For one of your answers, explain why a stronger conclusion would go beyond the evidence