Full video

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in this video i'm going to give you lots

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of tips

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millions of tips on how to get the best

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possible score in the reading part of

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the

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cambridge exams so we're looking at the

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first certificate the cambridge advanced

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and the cambridge proficiency

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i should always remember to call them by

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their new names which is the b2

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first c1 advanced and the c2 proficiency

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this video is part of a series of videos

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that i'm making

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to help people with the the cambridge

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exams so i recommend you watch my

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previous videos

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and that you subscribe to this channel

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so you don't miss

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future videos that i'm going to be

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making about the cambridge exam

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and other subjects i talk about that may

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help you with your english

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so let's do this now before we look at

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the individual parts of the reading

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paper

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i want to give you five important

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general tips which are really worth

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emphasizing

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the first one you will know if you

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watched my previous video

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on how to get the best score in the use

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of english

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is that you need to leave yourself as

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much time as possible

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for the reading part of this paper as

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you know now the use of english and

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reading are in the same paper

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so time management is extremely

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important

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so you need to do the use of english in

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maximum 30 minutes preferably 25

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if possible to leave yourself as much

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time one hour at least for the reading

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there's a lot of reading to do the

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second tip

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is start with part five

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again when you receive the exam paper

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you'll see parts one two three

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four five six seven eight if it's the

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advanced i recommend you start with part

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five which is really the reading paper

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and then do the use of english which are

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parts one two three and four

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at the end in fact i would recommend

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you do it in this order so five six

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seven eight if you're doing the advanced

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the first and proficiency don't have

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four parts of the reading

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and then you go back and do it four

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three two

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one for the use of english why

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you may be asking well it's possible you

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will run out of time

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time is very limited in this paper so

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it's better to finish on the multiple

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choice in the use of english you can do

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that quickly

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if you're running out of time and you

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have a lot of text

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to read it's very difficult to do that

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quickly the third

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general tip i'll give you is that you

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have to prepare by reading

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i know many people don't read much these

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days but

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it doesn't necessarily have to be books

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big books just read anything and

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everything

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articles that you're interested in on

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the internet magazines

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anything but you need to get a habit of

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reading

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it's really the best way to prepare

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number four is

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you need to realize that there will be

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vocabulary you don't know

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in the reading part of the exam and

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that's fine don't worry

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that's deliberate they don't expect you

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to understand every word

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it's not a test of your vocabulary

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necessary necessarily

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it's a test of your comprehension so

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don't panic

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if you don't understand all the words

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that's normal and the last quick tip

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is in each part of the reading paper

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it's very important to read the

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instructions

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because they will often give you a lot

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of information

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in each part the instructions start you

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are going to read about

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etc etc and that's that's preparing you

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for what you're going to read so

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this case it's important to read that

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and the title pay attention to the title

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of the text

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again it prepares you for what you're

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going to read it gives you an idea

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okay let's go into some detail on how to

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do each part of the reading

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so the first part of the reading is part

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five of the exam

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and it's multiple choice and as you can

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see there is a lot of text

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so i would recommend that you read the

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text relatively quickly but at the same

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time try to

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absorb what you are reading so it's a

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bit that's where the practice comes in

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handy

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really uh read as much as possible so

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you get the habit

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of reading more quickly but

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understanding what you're reading and

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absorbing

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the the idea of the text now the

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question order in this part coincides

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with the paragraph so the first question

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often relates to the first paragraph the

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second question to the second paragraph

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etc maybe there'll be an extra paragraph

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with no question but it goes in that

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order

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except sometimes the last question

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question

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six which is often just a general

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comprehension question about the the

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text overall

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these questions will be trying to trick

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you they'll be trying to

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they'll make you think you know an

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answer but it's not really the correct

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answer

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but you've seen a word that looks like a

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synonym to the word in the

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in one of the options but be very very

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careful you need to

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to always think twice and check your

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answers

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so that's the way you need to think when

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you're when you're doing this part of

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the exam

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you need to find the exact answer not

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just something which

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sounds right or could be right no you

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need to identify words and phrases

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which really answer the question okay

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let's go on to the next part of the the

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reading

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okay this is part six in the

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cambridge advanced the the c1 advanced

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but it doesn't exist in the first

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certificate the b1 first

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the b2 first or the proficiency

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so if you're doing if you're preparing

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for those exams then you can skip to the

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next part

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and in this part you will see four texts

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from four different

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writers on the same topic and you need

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to compare

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their opinions okay so read the text

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relatively quickly as before

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but then read the questions very

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carefully

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because the questions here are equally

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as important as the text

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and they can be confusing so it's very

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important to understand the

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the questions as well as possible and

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you may need to read the text a number

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of times

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because you're going to be

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cross-referencing what the different

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writers have said to find the answer and

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that's fine just keep going back

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to to each paragraph and try to really

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get an idea of what

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the opinion of each writer is so now

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part seven

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or part six for the first and

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proficiency

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now here you have a long text with six

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paragraphs removed seven in the

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proficiency seven paragraphs

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are removed in the proficiency and you

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need to put those paragraphs

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into the correct gaps but there is one

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extra paragraph which makes this a lot

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more difficult

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of course so what's the best way to do

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this part well

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again i recommend you read the whole

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text and then read

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all the paragraphs the extra paragraphs

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and then go back

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and look at the text in more detail but

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focusing on the last line

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of the previous paragraph to the gap and

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the first line to the following

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paragraph to the gap

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and look for key words which can help

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you

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find the best paragraph to fill the gap

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and then read the text that part of the

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text again with the last line of the

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previous

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paragraph and the first line of the

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following paragraph and just check

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it all makes sense grammatically and

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logically

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chronologically that it all flows now

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when i mention the key words what kind

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of key words

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well often pronouns if you see the

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pronoun

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he she it they etc

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then those pronouns are referring to

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something or somebody

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so you need to check in the paragraph

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what are they referring to or who are

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they referring to

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and then you can see that it flows

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naturally that it all makes sense

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but other key words could be linking

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words like however

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therefore as a consequence words like

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before

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after later all of those words can give

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you a lot of clues of

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you know where the paragraphs fit into

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the the rest of the text

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this this part of the exam benefits from

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a lot of practice

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as all of the all of the the exam really

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but this part in particular the more you

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practice the more you get this habit of

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identifying

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which words are more important which are

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the key words

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now let's look at part eight or part

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seven for the first and

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proficiency and this is multiple

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matching so here you need to match

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four to six short texts to

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ten questions and there are two options

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for the

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method you want to use to to answer this

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part of the exam

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you can read the 10 questions first

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and then look at the texts which is what

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cambridge want you to do that's why they

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put the questions first

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but you can also read the text first and

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then go back to look at the questions

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you need to practice and find what's

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best for you because different

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students in my experience have different

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preferences

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and it really depends on on the student

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so here you need to look for

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synonyms because you're trying to

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identify

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similar ideas in the text but they know

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it may not be literal synonyms they may

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not be

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synonyms by a definition of the word

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maybe synonyms in the context

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also look out for negatives sometimes in

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the question there'll be a negative

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and it's not clear in the text if it's a

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negative or positive because

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the word that makes it negative may come

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earlier in the sentence

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so it's really focusing and paying

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attention now as i said

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the key words are very important here

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the synonyms

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in some cases you may not know the key

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words um

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and that's a problem because they're key

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words they're important but try not to

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worry you need to use

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your common sense use the context and to

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make an

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educated guess you've probably been

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studying english for a long time now so

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you should have some kind of instinct

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you should be able to

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to guess what the meaning of some words

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are from

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the context and from your your common

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sense so

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again don't panic stay focused all

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through this

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part of the exam it's very important to

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be to be focused

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all the time okay as always let me know

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in the comments if you have any extra

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tips that you can share with people

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because

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i think it's great to to help each other

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because you have

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experience that i don't have of actually

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preparing as

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as a student for these exams so yeah

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thank you for joining me again and i'll

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see you very soon for

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another video bye