Read in Daily Life — notices, emails, and the small words · Lire dans la vie quotidienne — affiches, courriels et petits mots
A damaged camera may have a different return desk
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A notice can change its return point on Saturday and still send damaged items somewhere else. Read dates and exceptions together before acting.
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Emails, notices, timetables and other short practical texts. A question may ask for the main idea, a key detail or an implied meaning. Sometimes that means deciding what the reader should do.
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These are short, so students read them too fast and answer from memory of a similar text.
In a notice, the word ‘except’ is small enough to hide and powerful enough to ruin your plan.
The answer hides in small words
- A date, a room number, a price. And especially: except, unless · sauf si, only, from Monday, after 6pm.
- Mark these words as you read. They can change who a rule applies to or when it starts.
A notice says: 'The library is open daily from 8am, except Sundays.' It is Sunday morning. Is the library open?
'Except Sundays' removes Sunday from the opening-hours rule. Check each exception against the person or day in the question.
Register tells you what is meant
- Polite does not mean compulsory. You may wish to consider offers a suggestion; you must submit states a requirement. Do not turn the first into the second.
- It would be helpful if you could is a request, but its urgency depends on the surrounding message. Read the whole sentence and its context. A notice may be direct (Students must, No access), while an email may be more personal. Neither style changes the literal condition in a date or deadline.
Your tutor writes: 'You may wish to consider submitting a draft before the deadline.' What does the wording establish?
'May wish to consider' is a suggestion. It might be wise to send a draft, but the sentence does not make it compulsory. Compare 'you must submit'.
A method that fits the clock
- Read the question first — you are looking for one thing, so know what it is.
- Read the text once, marking dates, numbers and exception words.
- Answer. Check the relevant line and any linked exception. Re-read more when the question needs relationships across the text.
For one question asking the cancellation deadline in a short notice, which first step helps focus your search?
Read what the question requests, then locate the deadline and linked conditions. Other questions may require the main idea or several connected sentences; question-first is a useful method, not a universal rule.
How to practise
- Read one real practical text a day in English: a university notice, an airline email, a timetable.
- Ask: What is the text mainly for? Which detail would change my action? What does the writer imply? Task types checked on 23 September 2026: ETS Reading section.
Practising only academic passages prepares you for the whole Reading section.
ETS lists Complete the Words, Read in Daily Life and Read an Academic Passage. Practise the short everyday texts as well as academic ones.
A condition can change your destination
- Original notice: “Camera returns go to Desk A until Friday. From Saturday, use Desk B, except damaged cameras, which must go to the technician.” A damaged camera on Saturday goes to the technician.
- A working camera returned on Friday goes to Desk A. A working camera returned on Saturday goes to Desk B. Trace date and condition together before choosing.
- Repeated words do not prove an option right or wrong. An answer that says Desk B can still fail because it ignores the damaged-camera exception.
- Read the purpose, date, condition and required action as one rule.
- Try the transfer checks below before returning to the explanation. These are original self-checks, with no official score conversion.
Match the three distinctions from the worked case.
A working camera returned on Friday goes to Desk A. A working camera returned on Saturday goes to Desk B. Trace date and condition together before choosing.
Where does a damaged camera returned on Saturday go in this notice?
Original notice: “Camera returns go to Desk A until Friday. From Saturday, use Desk B, except damaged cameras, which must go to the technician.” A damaged camera on Saturday goes to the technician. A working camera returned on Friday goes to Desk A. A working camera returned on Saturday goes to Desk B. Trace date and condition together before choosing.
Complete the worked-case label: Working camera on Friday → ____. Use the phrase in the diagram.
Read the purpose, date, condition and required action as one rule.