Module 7 Reading & Tips & Practice

🧠 Task 1: Multiple Choice Cloze (Precision & Tone)

• Collocation Mastery: In Question 1, "heralded" is the preferred choice because it suggests an announcement made with great acclaim. While "touted" implies aggressive promotion (often used in business/tech), "heralded" fits the glamorous but hollow narrative of stardom.

• Lexical Depth: In Question 7, look for the verb that describes a loss of status. "Consigned" is a high-level verb meaning to place something in a lower, often forgotten, position (e.g., consigned to history or consigned to a commodity).

• Prepositional Triggers: In Question 6, the verb "venturing" is specifically paired with the preposition "on" in this context to describe embarking on a risky or unknown course of action.

  
  

📖 Task 2: Long Reading (Metaphor & Synthesis)

• The "Shifting Sands" Metaphor: When Evelyn describes influencers building a legacy on "shifting sands," she is criticizing the transience and lack of foundation in modern digital fame. In C2 exams, look for the answer choice that focuses on the "superficial" or "temporary" nature of the subject.

• Character Logic: Leo’s mention of the "Panopticon of Fame" is a sophisticated reference to total surveillance. Students should understand that this implies the celebrity is always being "watched" by the public, leading to a loss of private agency.

• Synonym Recognition: If the text uses a word like "Zenith," the question or answer might use "Peak" or "Acme." Avoid choosing an answer just because it repeats a word from the text; look for the paraphrase.

  
  

✍️ Task 3: Open Cloze (Advanced Syntax)

This task tests grammatical architecture, particularly inversions and fixed expressions.

• Fixed Negative Inversions: Question 2 uses "Hardly had..." which requires the correlative "than" later in the sentence. Question 8 uses "On no account," which triggers an inversion (On no account should the mental health...).

• The Inverted Conditional: Question 5 ("Should") replaces "If."

  • Standard: If a celebrity were to acknowledge...

  • Proficiency: Should a celebrity acknowledge... (Used to express a hypothetical possibility).

• Fixed Prepositional Phrases: Students must memorize chunks like "at the cost of," "in light of," and "riddled with."

  
  

📑 Task 4: Structural Synthesis (Headings)

• Identify "Ontological" Shifts: Paragraph C mentions "Parasocial Ontology." Remind students that Ontologyrefers to the nature of being. If the text describes how fans treat a stranger like a "personal friend," it is changing the nature of the relationship—hence, an ontological shift.

• The "Threshold" Concept: Paragraph B discusses a "scrutiny threshold." This is a recurring C2 theme: the idea that there is a specific "tipping point" beyond which a situation changes fundamentally (in this case, the loss of normal development).

• The Power of Metonymy: Paragraph D mentions "Digital Paparazzi." Students must recognize that the "paparazzi" are no longer just professional photographers, but the entire digital public using smartphones and data to track celebrities.