Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English Language A · specification 4EA1 · Component 1 | Section A: Non-fiction Reading · Free · no account needed
Reading comprehension: selecting and interpreting (AO1) (4EA1 specification)
The short-answer questions that open Section A, where the whole skill is choosing the right piece of the text and saying what it implies.
Specification coverage
Component 1, Section A — short-answer questions
Assessment objectives: AO1. Suggested learning time: 40 minutes.
Required knowledge
- AO1 is worth 15% of the qualification
- Section A is 45 marks and mixes short- and long-answer questions
- The anthology text and the unseen extract are both printed in the paper
Required skills
- Select information, ideas and perspectives accurately
- Interpret implication as well as explicit statement
- Answer in proportion to the marks available
How it is examined
- One-mark retrieval questions
- Two- and three-mark questions asking what a passage suggests
- Longer questions asking what a writer's attitude is
Common mistakes
- Copying a long section of the text as an answer. Selection is the skill being tested.
- Answering an inference question with a quotation and nothing else.
- Writing more than the marks justify.
This page maps the specification. To learn the content, open the anthology texts — completely free.