Title: CPE reading practice

Lesson plan: CPE - reading practice

Time 50 minutes
Level Advanced
Materials Photocopiable worksheet and LDOCE
Aim To help students prepare for CPE - reading

Warmer

Get students to think about different types of fiction (romance, crime, romantic, historical, etc.), and ask them
their favourites. Let them discuss these in pairs. Ask them to give examples of crime writers and novels.
Exercise 1

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

Paragraph 1
a) handsome price
handsome adj 3 a handsome profit/sum/fee, etc.
a large amount of money: he sold the stocks and
made a handsome profit for himself.
Paragraph 2
d) well-to-do
well-to-do adj 1 rich and with a high social
position: well-to-do families 2 the well-to-do
people who are rich
Paragraphs 3 & 4
g) assiduity
assiduous adj formal very careful to make sure
that something is done properly or completely: an
assiduous collector of folk songs–– assiduously adv
––assiduity n [U]
b) embarked upon
embark v [I,T] embark on/upon sth phr v [T] to
start something, especially something new and
difficult that will take a long time: In the 1950s
China embarked on a major program of
industrialization
e) all and sundry
sundry adj [only before noun] formal 1 all and
sundry everyone, not just a few carefully chosen
people: In the 80s the economy was booming and
banks dished out loans to all and sundry.
h) patronized
patronize v [T] 2 formal to use or visit a shop,
restaurant, etc. tourists who patronize the shopping
and recreational facilities
c) struggling
struggle 1 v [I] 1 to try extremely hard to achieve
something, even though it is very difficult and
you have lots of problems: struggle to do sth She’s
struggling to bring up a family on a very low income
f) acumen
acumen n [U] the ability to think
quickly and make good judgements:
business/political/financial , etc. acumen The firm’s
success is due to the director’s ingnuity and
business acumen.
i) humdrum
humdrum adj boring and ordinary, and having
very little variety or interest: humdrum
existence/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.

Exercise 2
This exercise tests students’ general comprehension of each paragraph and checks that they have fully
understood 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).

Further activities

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

Source: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

© Pearson PHOTOCOPIABLE
Title: CPE reading practice

Photocopiable worksheet: CPE - reading practice

Exercise 1

Read the following passages, then do the exercise below.

Paragraph 1
His widow carried on the shop and enlarged it in an ambitious way. She had continued to prosper. Then she had
sold the business at a handsome price and embarked upon matrimony for the second time - with Mr Spenlow, a
middle-aged jeweller who had inherited a small and struggling business.
Paragraph 2
Mrs Spenlow was a well-to-do woman. The profits from her florist’s establishment she had invested - ‘under
spirit guidance’, as she explained to all and sundry. The spirits had advised her with unexpected acumen.
Paragraphs 3 & 4
When, however, she arrived at St Mary Mead, she had relapsed into a period of orthodox Church-of-England
beliefs. She was a good deal at the vicarage, and attended church services with assiduity. She patronized the
village 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. Use
LDOCE to help you.
Paragraph 1
a) a large amount of money
b) to start something
c) trying very hard to achieve something
Paragraph 2
d) rich, often with a high social position
e) everyone
f) the ability to think quickly and make good judgements

Paragraphs 3 & 4
g) doing something carefully, properly and completely
h) to use or visit shops
i) boring and ordinary

Exercise 2

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.

Source: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

© Pearson PHOTOCOPIABLE