TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR READING COMPREHENSION

 

TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR READING COMPREHENSION

Reading is fun, relaxing, and helps you increase your knowledge and boost your vocabulary, writing, and grammar.

TURN THE READING INTO A RITUAL:

1.       Make it a habit.

2.       Make time for your reading.

3.       Read daily.

4.       Look for a quiet place to read.

5.       Avoid distractions at all costs.

 TIME TO READ:

1.       Choose reading material in line with your interest (don´t waste your time reading something you find boring) and according to your English level. If you don´t know it, you can find out here, click Macmillan Readers Level Test 

2.       Skimming technique: read to get a general idea about the text, don´t worry about what you don´t understand.

3.       Scanning technique: read to search for specific information.

4.       Once you have read, go back and look up the words you don´t understand.

 WHAT TO READ: here are some useful links

    Graded readers:    english-e-reader.net and esl-bits.net

    News in levels:     newsinlevels, enewsdispatch. and breakingnewsenglish.

   Spanish newspapers English edition: spainenglish and english.elpais.com

   Newspapers: the guardian, theconversation., and bbc news

- 

 

APTIS READING PART 3: TIPS AND EXERCISES

 Part 3 Opinion Matching

You will read a text of four paragraphs that gives four different people's opinion on a common topic. You will have to match the people to the seven statements provided. Because there are seven statements, three people will be used twice. 

TIPS:

- Read the paragraphs one by one.

- Pay attention to the key facts about each person.

- Study the questions and identify the keywords. 

- Paraphrase and understand the same thing written differently.

- Match the questions.

EXERCISES:

Exercise 1         Exercise 2         Exercise 3         Exercise 4         

Exercise 5         Exercise 6

APTIS READING PART 2: TIPS AND EXERCISES

 Part 2: Text cohesion 

There are two different texts, each one contains six sentences, but only the first sentence is in its correct place. You have to put the other five sentences in each text into the correct order to make a complete text. 

TIPS:

- Read the text and pay attention to any sequencing or referencing words or phrases.

- Choose the sentence for the beginning of the story.

- Think about the sequence of the events.

- Choose the rest of the sentences.

- Read the sentences and make sure they´re in the correct order.

EXERCISES:

Click on the links below and do the exercises: 

Exercise 1         Exercise 2          Exercise 3          Exercise 4             Exercise 5 

Exercise 6         Exercise 7          Exercise 8           Exercise 9             Exercise 10

Exercise 11        Exercise 12

APTIS READING PART 1: TIPS AND EXERCISES

 

Part 1: Sentence comprehension

You will read a short text in the form of a note or an email. There are five free-standing sentences to complete. The first one is given as an example. You have to choose a word (there is a choice of three) to complete each sentence.

TIPS:

-          Read each sentence with all the options carefully.

-          Look at the words before and after the space.

-          Decide the type of word that is missing (adverb, noun, verb, …)

-          Decide if the missing word is part of a fixed phrase or a collocation, or a phrasal verb.

-          Eliminate the incorrect answers before making a selection.

-          Once you have filled in all the gaps, reread it to check.

EXERCISES:

Click on the links below and do the exercises:  

exercise 1  (there are more exercises available)    

exercise 2         exercise 3         exercise 4        exercise 5          exercise 6        

exercise 7         exercise 8         exercise 9         exercise 10

APTIS GENERAL READING EXERCISES

3. Reading: 35 minutes ( PART 2 HAS CHANGED, AND PART 3 IS NEW)

Click on the links below to practise exercises for each of these readings and click on the bottom to check your answers.

PART 1: SENTENCE COMPREHENSION

EXERCISE 1     EXERCISE 2     EXERCISE 3     EXERCISE 4     EXERCISE 5     EXERCISE 6 

EXERCISE 7     EXERCISE 8     EXERCISE 9     EXERCISE 10     EXERCISE 11    EXERCISE 12

EXERCISE 13     EXERCISE 14     EXERCISE 15     EXERCISE 16     EXERCISE 17 

EXERCISE 18   

PART 2: TEXT COHESION

EXERCISE 1     EXERCISE 2     EXERCISE 3     EXERCISE 4     EXERCISE 5     EXERCISE 6   

EXERCISE 7     EXERCISE 8     EXERCISE 9     EXERCISE 10     EXERCISE 11    EXERCISE 12

EXERCISE 13     EXERCISE 14   


PART 3: OPINION MATCHING

EXERCISE 1     EXERCISE 2     EXERCISE 3     EXERCISE 4     EXERCISE 5     EXERCISE 6

EXERCISE 7     EXERCISE 8     EXERCISE 9    EXERCISE 10     EXERCISE 11    EXERCISE 12

EXERCISE 13     EXERCISE 14     EXERCISE 15     EXERCISE 16     EXERCISE 17   

EXERCISE 18     EXERCISE 19


PART 4: LONG TEXT COMPREHENSION

READING 1     READING 2     READING 3     READING 4     READING 5     READING 6

READING 7     READING 8     READING 9     READING 10   READING 11     READING 12

READING 13     READING 14     READING 15     READING 16     READING 17

READING 18     READING 19

ENGLISH AUDIOBOOKS FOR CHILDREN

Children´s audiobooks are a wonderful learning tool because while they´re following a story through an audiobook, they are picking up new vocabulary, learning about sentence structure, improving pronunciation and listening skills.

Listening to stories read aloud helps to boost reading comprehension and of course, fosters imagination. So, let´s read

Here there are some links to audiobooks for children:

1) Original stories, fairytales, classic authors, myths and world stories Here

2) Short kids stories to watch: here and here

3) Short stories with read-along text: here

4) Wonderful boo reading videos on youtube by professional actors and famous people: here

5) Listen to interactive stories and play: here

APTIS GENERAL READING PART 1,2 3 AND 4

Below you will find links to reading practice materials to help you succeed.

Part 1 Sentence comprehension
Choose words to complete sentences
 3-option multiple choice.
Exercises: 1 2  3  4  5  6  7  8

Part 2 Text cohesion
Put sentences into correct order to make a story
7 sentences jumbled up.
Exercises:  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15

Part 3 Short test comprehension
Choose the best word from a list to make a sentence
10 options and 7 empty spaces.
Exercises: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7

Part 4 long text comprehension
Match headings to paragraphs
7 paragraphs and 8 headings.
Exercises: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7

APTIS GENERAL: READING PART 3 GAP-FILLING

You have to fill in the gaps using the words given. Follow these tips to get a gook mark:

1. read the text and pay attention to the words before and after the gaps.
2. begin with the words you know.
3. read the text to see what it sounds like.

Here are some exercises:

exercise 1                    exercise 6                          exercise 11             

exercise 2                    exercise 7                          exercise 12

exercise 3                    exercise 8                          exercise 13

exercise 4                    exercise 9

exercise 5                    exercise 10

APTIS GENERAL READING PART GAP-FILLING

You have to complete the text by choosing the correct word from a list to fill in the gaps.
First, read the text before and after the gap, then choose the correct one.
Here there are some exercises to practice:
EXERCISE 1     EXERCISE 2     EXERCISE 3     EXERCISE 4 

EXERCISE 5     EXERCISE 6     EXERCISE 7   

APTIS GENERAL READING PART 2: SEQUENCING

• In this part, there are seven sentences which belong to a single story that has been jumbled up. There is only one way that the sentences go together to form the story, and your task is to click on the sentences and drag them to the correct position in the story. There are clues in each sentence that show how it links to other sentences.  
• Here are some exercises to practice: 
• EXERCISE 1   EXERCISE 2    EXERCISE 3    EXERCISE 4   
• EXERCISE 5   EXERCISE 6    EXERCISE 7    EXERCISE 8    
• EXERCISE 9   EXERCISE 10  EXERCISE 11

READING: A2 / B1 / B2 AND C1

Are you sitting a test in a near future? Do you need to improve your reading skills?
Here you will find an excellent link to do it, choose your level: elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced. Then, click on the link with the exercise you want to do it.
Here there is the link: Reading exercises 

IMPROVE YOUR READING AND LISTENING

Do you need to improve your reading comprehension, your listening skills or your vocabulary? Have you ever used audiobooks? 

Dr Stephen Krashen said, "Scientific research tells that most of our fluency – our ability to use a language – comes from what we read and hear. Reading and listening have the power to improve vocabulary, grammar, reading comprehension (understanding), writing, spelling, TOEFL scores, and more."

Audiobooks can help you to improve your English, so it's time to try it. Choose a book which has the appropriate level for you and read for pleasure. 

Here are some links to audiobooks:

- English graded audiobooks

- English ebooks (graded readers ebooks)

- classic audiobooks 

- audiobooks

- novellas

- short stories

- intermediate

- advanced

- audiobooks and ebooks

READING B1

Here are some links to help you for reading exams. There are five types of exercises: signs, details, matching, gist and gap. First click on a number, then click the bottoms above to choose different kinds of exercises and finally click home when finishing.

Exercises:           
                              1 / 2 / 3 / 4  / 5 /  6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 /
                             11 / 12  /13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 

VIDEO BOOKS

Have you ever thought about using video books with subtitles to improve your listening, grammar and vocabulary English skills?

You have some links here:

https://agendaweb.org/listening/video-books.html

https://agendaweb.org/listening/video-books2.html

https://agendaweb.org/listening/video-books3.html

MORE AUDIBOOKS

On listening to some words while reading, you can improve your diction and you can understand English better.

Here you have more links to classic audio books:

https://agendaweb.org/listening/audio-books.html

https://agendaweb.org/listening/audio-books/2.html

https://agendaweb.org/listening/audio-books/3.html

https://agendaweb.org/listening/audio-books/4.html

https://agendaweb.org/listening/audio-books/5.html

https://agendaweb.org/listening/audio-books/6.html

https://agendaweb.org/listening/audio-books/7.html

https://agendaweb.org/listening/audio-books/8.html

LET´S READ PART 2: AUDIOBOOKS

If you need to imrpove your listening skills, you can try listening without the book in order to understand or gist the general idea of the page or the chapter. I'm pretty sure that listening to an audiobook and following through a real book can help improve your English language.

Here you have more links to audiobooks:

https://agendaweb.org/listening/audio-books-mp3.html

https://agendaweb.org/listening/audio-books-mp3-2.html

https://agendaweb.org/listening/audio-books-mp3-4.html

https://agendaweb.org/listening/audio-books-mp3-5.html

https://agendaweb.org/listening/audiobooks.html

https://agendaweb.org/listening/audiobooks-2.html

LET’S READ

Have you ever tried to use audiobooks to improve your English?

They are a great resource for ESL students. If you listen and read at the same time, you’ll improve your reading comprehension skills and of course you’ll learn how to pronounce words in English.

Choose books that are easy to understand so that you can get involved in the story and about a subject you like or you’re familiar with.

My favourite website is: http://english-e-books.net/