GCSE Spanish: Reading and Vocabulary

Ten short Spanish passages, two from each of the themes every board's reading paper is built on: family and celebrations, your town and a holiday that went wrong, school rules and subject choices, a Saturday job and work experience, and the environment and charity.

Each passage is printed in full and followed by four English readings. The wrong ones are wrong for reasons that exist in the Spanish. A brother described as "desordenado" is untidy, not tidy. A hope introduced by "espero que abran" is something that has not happened, not something that has. A cinema "cerrado por reformas" is closed for refurbishment, not demolished. Teachers who are "comprensivos" about exams are supportive even in a school whose rules are "muy severas" — the trap being to let the strictness colour everything else in the passage. Each explanation quotes the two or three Spanish words the answer turns on and translates them.

The twelve flashcards are all false friends, which cost more marks in a reading paper than any amount of grammar. Éxito is success, not an exit. Largo is long, not large. Sensible is sensitive, not sensible. Realizar is to carry out, not to realise. Asistir is to attend, not to assist. Pretender is to intend, not to pretend. Actualmente is currently, not actually. Each one is a word students meet in a passage and translate straight into the English word it looks like.

Every person, place and situation here was invented for this set. Exam board specifications, past papers and mark schemes are copyright material and nothing is taken from them.

Zestly is an independent study tool. It is not affiliated with any exam board and it is not an exam centre.

• Read a short Spanish passage and choose the English statement that matches it
• Separate what has happened from what is only hoped for, using the tense and the trigger
• Notice a negative or a qualifying word and let it change the reading rather than skating over it
• Hold two opposing statements in one passage apart, rather than letting the first colour the second
• Recognise the false friends that most often mislead in a reading paper, including éxito, largo, sensible, realizar, asistir and pretender

Vivo en un pueblo pequeño donde no hay mucho que hacer para los jóvenes. El año pasado, intenté ir al cine local, pero estaba cerrado por reformas. Espero que abran un centro deportivo pronto porque ahora solo podemos jugar en el parque. — one of ten passages written for this set.