Reading Part 1 — Text Transformations (Cross-Text Multiple Matching) for the CPE Exam

Common failure modes

These are the patterns that cause most candidates to lose marks on this topic. Recognising them in advance is half the work.

• !Confusing what one author states with what another author implies
• !Identifying surface-level topic agreement instead of stance agreement
• !Misidentifying which author is making a claim vs questioning one

Study tips

• 1Read each text for stance first, not content — note whether the author is positive, negative, neutral, or nuanced.
• 2Mark stance explicitly before answering: underline evaluative language (unfortunately, crucially, alarmingly).
• 3Practice comparing editorial pieces on the same topic from different publications.

Sample CPE Reading Part 1 — Text Transformations (Cross-Text Multiple Matching) questions

These sample items mirror the format and difficulty of real CPE questions. Practice with thousands more on the free Koydo question bank.

1. 1

   Text A says: "The reform, while well-intentioned, has done little to address the root causes." Text B says: "However admirable the goals of the policy, its implementation has been largely ineffective." Which statement about these texts is true?

   • ABoth authors support the reform enthusiastically
   • BBoth authors question the reform's effectiveness while acknowledging its intentionsCorrect
   • CText A supports the reform; Text B opposes it
   • DBoth authors reject the reform's intentions
   Why this answer?

   Both texts use concessive structures ("while well-intentioned" / "however admirable the goals") to acknowledge the positive intention before criticising the outcome. This parallelism — acknowledging intent while questioning effectiveness — places them in agreement on the core evaluation.