DSE攻略
The DSE English Exam Paper 1 (Reading) consists of two parts. Students are given 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete the compulsory Part A and they can choose to attempt either Part B1, the easier section or Part B2, the more difficult section.
In Paper 1, questions are often asked to test candidates’ ability to interpret the writer’s tone and attitude in a text. The English Language Curriculum and Assessment Guide (Secondary 4 – 6) suggests that in order to be an effective reader, learners should be able to recognise ‘the tone, mood and intention of the writer and his or her attitude to the theme or topic’.
Summary cloze (撮要填充) is a common question type in Paper 1. It is a reading comprehension task in which some words are omitted (刪去) from a paragraph and candidates are required to fill in the blanks with the information from the original text.
Every year, the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority publishes a comprehensive report on the DSE English Language examination. The marking schemes and examiner’s comments on candidates’ performance provide useful information for both teachers and students regarding the assessment requirements and how to excel in the papers.
In the last article, we have reviewed the format of Paper 2, identified some questions to think about when we plan our writing, and learnt how to succeed in the paper based on the three marking criteria: content, language and organisation.
The Listening and Integrated Skills paper is a component that carries the heaviest weighting (30%) in the English subject mark. The paper consists of two parts. Part A is compulsory and it includes 4 theme-based tasks. For Part B, candidates are required to attempt either Section 1 (easier) or Section 2 (more difficult). Let’s focus on Part A this time.