Short version (about 45 minutes). Text (invented, 150 words): Libraries without books? The new central library in Oslo has more seats than shelves. Visitors can borrow a sewing machine, a 3D printer or a rehearsal room, and the building is open until 10 p.m. seven days a week. Critics called it „a community centre with a book problem". But visitor numbers have tripled compared with the old building, and book lending has risen too — by 15 per cent. The director, Knut Skansen, explains: „People come for the space and leave with a book." In Britain, by contrast, almost 800 public libraries have closed since 2010, mostly because councils had to save money. Where libraries survived, they often did so by copying Oslo: fewer shelves, more sofas, longer hours. The lesson, says Skansen, is simple: „A library is not a warehouse. It is a place."
1Answer in a few words or a short sentence.
Find the key word from the question in the text.
a)Name three things you can borrow or use in the Oslo library.
b)What did critics say about the building?
c)What happened to visitor numbers and book lending?
d)Why have British libraries closed?
e)What do surviving British libraries have in common with Oslo?
2True, false or not in the text?
not in the text = the text says nothing about it.
a)The library closes at 10 p.m. on Sundays.
b)Book lending has fallen because of the new concept.
c)Knut Skansen is the director.
d)Oslo's library is the largest in Europe.
3Explain the quote in your own words: „A library is not a warehouse. It is a place."
What is a warehouse for? What is a place for?
a)Two or three sentences.
Short version (about 45 minutes). Text (invented, 150 words): Libraries without books? The new central library in Oslo has more seats than shelves. Visitors can borrow a sewing machine, a 3D printer or a rehearsal room, and the building is open until 10 p.m. seven days a week. Critics called it „a community centre with a book problem". But visitor numbers have tripled compared with the old building, and book lending has risen too — by 15 per cent. The director, Knut Skansen, explains: „People come for the space and leave with a book." In Britain, by contrast, almost 800 public libraries have closed since 2010, mostly because councils had to save money. Where libraries survived, they often did so by copying Oslo: fewer shelves, more sofas, longer hours. The lesson, says Skansen, is simple: „A library is not a warehouse. It is a place."
1Answer in a few words or a short sentence.
Find the key word from the question in the text.
a)Name three things you can borrow or use in the Oslo library.(text)
b)What did critics say about the building?A sewing machine, a 3D printer, a rehearsal room.
c)What happened to visitor numbers and book lending?It is „a community centre with a book problem".
d)Why have British libraries closed?Visitor numbers tripled; book lending rose by 15 per cent.
e)What do surviving British libraries have in common with Oslo?Because councils had to save money.
2True, false or not in the text?
not in the text = the text says nothing about it.
a)The library closes at 10 p.m. on Sundays.true (open until 10 p.m. seven days a week)
b)Book lending has fallen because of the new concept.false (it has risen)
c)Knut Skansen is the director.true
d)Oslo's library is the largest in Europe.not in the text
3Explain the quote in your own words: „A library is not a warehouse. It is a place."
What is a warehouse for? What is a place for?
a)Two or three sentences.A warehouse only stores things; a place is somewhere people want to be and spend time. Skansen means that a library's purpose is to bring people together, and the books follow from that.
Text (invented, non-fictional, 260 words): The Quiet Revolution of the Repair Café. On a grey Saturday in Leeds, thirty people queue in a church hall with broken toasters, torn jeans and a laptop that „just died". None of them will pay a penny. The Repair Café movement, which began in Amsterdam in 2009, now counts more than 3,000 groups worldwide, and Britain has become one of its fastest-growing markets — if „market" is the right word for something that refuses to sell anything. Volunteers, many of them retired engineers and seamstresses, fix what they can and, more importantly, show visitors how. „People arrive ashamed that they can't change a fuse," says organiser Dee Whitfield. „They leave knowing they can." The movement's critics call it a nostalgic gesture that cannot compete with cheap replacement goods; a new kettle costs less than the bus fare to the café. Whitfield does not disagree. „We're not going to save the planet with soldering irons," she admits. „But we change how people look at their things — and at themselves." Governments have started to notice. Since 2021, EU rules oblige manufacturers to supply spare parts for washing machines and televisions for up to ten years, and France now prints a „repairability score" on electronic goods. Britain, post-Brexit, has followed only partially. For the moment, then, the revolution remains a quiet one: a church hall, a queue, a toaster that works again. Whether it grows louder depends on whether the shame Whitfield describes turns into something more useful — anger.
1Comprehension: Answer in your own words.
Abitur operator „explain": give the information from the text and make the connections clear. Own words, no long quotes.
a)Explain what a Repair Café is and what makes it different from a repair shop.
b)What, according to Whitfield, is the real effect of the cafés? Distinguish it from what critics expect.
c)How have governments reacted, and how does Britain compare?
d)Explain the last sentence: what does the author mean by the contrast between shame and anger?
2Analysis: Language and structure.
Point – quote – explanation. Look at word choice (revolution, gesture, quiet), irony and the position of the critics in the text.
a)The author opens with a scene rather than a definition. What is the effect?
b)Examine the author's attitude towards the movement. Is the text neutral, sympathetic or critical? Give two pieces of evidence.
c)What is the function of the phrase „if „market" is the right word"?
3Vocabulary in context: Explain the meaning of the phrase as it is used in the text.
Paraphrase in a short sentence; then say what it refers to in the text.
a)„a nostalgic gesture"
b)„has followed only partially"
c)„the revolution remains a quiet one"
Text (invented, non-fictional, 260 words): The Quiet Revolution of the Repair Café. On a grey Saturday in Leeds, thirty people queue in a church hall with broken toasters, torn jeans and a laptop that „just died". None of them will pay a penny. The Repair Café movement, which began in Amsterdam in 2009, now counts more than 3,000 groups worldwide, and Britain has become one of its fastest-growing markets — if „market" is the right word for something that refuses to sell anything. Volunteers, many of them retired engineers and seamstresses, fix what they can and, more importantly, show visitors how. „People arrive ashamed that they can't change a fuse," says organiser Dee Whitfield. „They leave knowing they can." The movement's critics call it a nostalgic gesture that cannot compete with cheap replacement goods; a new kettle costs less than the bus fare to the café. Whitfield does not disagree. „We're not going to save the planet with soldering irons," she admits. „But we change how people look at their things — and at themselves." Governments have started to notice. Since 2021, EU rules oblige manufacturers to supply spare parts for washing machines and televisions for up to ten years, and France now prints a „repairability score" on electronic goods. Britain, post-Brexit, has followed only partially. For the moment, then, the revolution remains a quiet one: a church hall, a queue, a toaster that works again. Whether it grows louder depends on whether the shame Whitfield describes turns into something more useful — anger.
1Comprehension: Answer in your own words.
Abitur operator „explain": give the information from the text and make the connections clear. Own words, no long quotes.
a)Explain what a Repair Café is and what makes it different from a repair shop.(text)
b)What, according to Whitfield, is the real effect of the cafés? Distinguish it from what critics expect.A meeting where volunteers repair visitors' broken things for free and teach them how to do it; unlike a shop it doesn't sell or charge, and its aim is learning rather than the repair itself.
c)How have governments reacted, and how does Britain compare?Critics measure the cafés by their economic or ecological effect and find them too small; Whitfield sees the effect in a changed attitude — people lose their sense of helplessness and see their possessions differently.
d)Explain the last sentence: what does the author mean by the contrast between shame and anger?The EU obliges manufacturers to provide spare parts for up to ten years, France labels products with a repairability score; Britain has adopted only some of these rules since leaving the EU.
2Analysis: Language and structure.
Point – quote – explanation. Look at word choice (revolution, gesture, quiet), irony and the position of the critics in the text.
a)The author opens with a scene rather than a definition. What is the effect?The concrete scene (grey Saturday, toasters, torn jeans) makes the abstract topic vivid and human; the reader is in the queue before learning any facts.
b)Examine the author's attitude towards the movement. Is the text neutral, sympathetic or critical? Give two pieces of evidence.Sympathetic but not uncritical: the author gives the critics one sentence and lets Whitfield answer them at length; words like „quiet revolution" and „more importantly, show visitors how" signal approval, but „For the moment … remains a quiet one" keeps some distance.
c)What is the function of the phrase „if „market" is the right word"?It draws attention to the paradox of a „market" that gives things away, with a touch of irony towards economic language — and it shows the author reflecting on his own words.
3Vocabulary in context: Explain the meaning of the phrase as it is used in the text.
Paraphrase in a short sentence; then say what it refers to in the text.
a)„a nostalgic gesture"A symbolic act that looks back to a past when things were repaired, without changing anything real today; the critics' view of the cafés.
b)„has followed only partially"Britain has adopted some, but not all, of the EU rules; the author hints at a lack of ambition after Brexit.
c)„the revolution remains a quiet one"The movement is small and local, not yet a large political change; „quiet" contrasts with the loud „anger" the author hopes for.
Long version (about 90 minutes, like the Abitur reading task). Text (invented, 330 words): The End of the Anonymous City. For most of the twentieth century, the great promise of the city was anonymity. You could arrive from a village where everyone knew your grandmother's sins and become, within a week, nobody in particular: a face on a platform, a name on a doorbell. Sociologists called it the „stranger society" and worried about loneliness; migrants, misfits and the merely ambitious called it freedom. That promise is quietly expiring. Not because cities have shrunk — they have never been larger — but because the technologies that run them have made the stranger legible. Your travel card knows your route, your phone knows your gait, the camera above the shop door knows your face and, increasingly, your mood. The anonymous crowd has become a dataset in which every point has a name. Defenders of these systems point to their benefits, and the benefits are real: crimes solved, traffic managed, lost children found in minutes. They also point out, correctly, that the village was never private either. The difference, however, lies in who was watching. The village watched itself; the watching was mutual, and it came with a name and a face you could confront. The city is watched by systems that have no face, and by companies whose interest in you is not moral but commercial. You cannot argue with an algorithm at the garden fence. What is lost is subtle. It is not, in most cases, liberty in the dramatic sense — the state does not come for you. It is the smaller freedom to be unremarkable: to try on an identity, to be seen without being recorded, to have a bad day that leaves no trace. Cities were the places where people reinvented themselves. A city that remembers everything makes reinvention a lie you can be caught in. We may decide the trade is worth it. But we should at least notice that a trade is being made.
1Comprehension.
Operators: outline = main points in order; explain = information plus connections; summarise = brief, own words.
a)Outline the „promise" of the city as the author describes it and explain who valued it and why.
b)Explain how, according to the author, the anonymous crowd has changed and what has caused the change.
c)Summarise the defenders' position and the author's two-step reply to it.
d)Explain what the author means by „the smaller freedom to be unremarkable" and why he considers its loss significant.
2Analysis.
Point – quote – effect. Note personification (the card „knows"), climax, concession („We may decide …").
a)Analyse how the author uses the contrast between village and city to develop his argument.
b)Examine the effect of the list „Your travel card knows your route, your phone knows your gait, the camera … knows your face and, increasingly, your mood."
c)Analyse the function of the final two sentences for the author's position and tone.
3Evaluation: „You cannot argue with an algorithm at the garden fence." Discuss whether this criticism is convincing, referring to your knowledge of digital surveillance and privacy debates.
Weigh the author's point against one substantial counter-argument; conclude.
a)150 to 180 words.
Long version (about 90 minutes, like the Abitur reading task). Text (invented, 330 words): The End of the Anonymous City. For most of the twentieth century, the great promise of the city was anonymity. You could arrive from a village where everyone knew your grandmother's sins and become, within a week, nobody in particular: a face on a platform, a name on a doorbell. Sociologists called it the „stranger society" and worried about loneliness; migrants, misfits and the merely ambitious called it freedom. That promise is quietly expiring. Not because cities have shrunk — they have never been larger — but because the technologies that run them have made the stranger legible. Your travel card knows your route, your phone knows your gait, the camera above the shop door knows your face and, increasingly, your mood. The anonymous crowd has become a dataset in which every point has a name. Defenders of these systems point to their benefits, and the benefits are real: crimes solved, traffic managed, lost children found in minutes. They also point out, correctly, that the village was never private either. The difference, however, lies in who was watching. The village watched itself; the watching was mutual, and it came with a name and a face you could confront. The city is watched by systems that have no face, and by companies whose interest in you is not moral but commercial. You cannot argue with an algorithm at the garden fence. What is lost is subtle. It is not, in most cases, liberty in the dramatic sense — the state does not come for you. It is the smaller freedom to be unremarkable: to try on an identity, to be seen without being recorded, to have a bad day that leaves no trace. Cities were the places where people reinvented themselves. A city that remembers everything makes reinvention a lie you can be caught in. We may decide the trade is worth it. But we should at least notice that a trade is being made.
1Comprehension.
Operators: outline = main points in order; explain = information plus connections; summarise = brief, own words.
a)Outline the „promise" of the city as the author describes it and explain who valued it and why.(text)
b)Explain how, according to the author, the anonymous crowd has changed and what has caused the change.Cities offered anonymity: newcomers could leave their known past behind and become „nobody in particular". Migrants, outsiders and ambitious people valued this as freedom, while sociologists saw the danger of loneliness.
c)Summarise the defenders' position and the author's two-step reply to it.The crowd has become „a dataset in which every point has a name": travel cards, phones and cameras record routes, movement, faces and even moods, so strangers have become identifiable — not because cities changed size, but because their technologies did.
d)Explain what the author means by „the smaller freedom to be unremarkable" and why he considers its loss significant.Defenders stress real benefits (crime, traffic, lost children) and argue that the village had no privacy either. The author concedes both points but replies that the village's watching was mutual and personal and could be confronted, whereas the city is watched by faceless systems with commercial motives.
2Analysis.
Point – quote – effect. Note personification (the card „knows"), climax, concession („We may decide …").
a)Analyse how the author uses the contrast between village and city to develop his argument.The village stands for known, mutual surveillance, the city for freedom; the author first uses the contrast to define the promise, then reverses it: the new city watches more than the village ever did, but without the village's reciprocity — the contrast becomes the measure of what is lost.
b)Examine the effect of the list „Your travel card knows your route, your phone knows your gait, the camera … knows your face and, increasingly, your mood."The parallel structure with personified objects („knows") makes surveillance sound intimate and inevitable; the list rises from the harmless (route) to the intimate (mood), a climax that ends on the most disturbing item, „increasingly" suggesting it continues.
c)Analyse the function of the final two sentences for the author's position and tone.The concession „We may decide the trade is worth it" shows a measured, non-alarmist tone and pre-empts the accusation of exaggeration; the final short sentence turns the essay into an appeal for awareness rather than a demand, which makes the position harder to dismiss.
3Evaluation: „You cannot argue with an algorithm at the garden fence." Discuss whether this criticism is convincing, referring to your knowledge of digital surveillance and privacy debates.
Weigh the author's point against one substantial counter-argument; conclude.
a)150 to 180 words.Own text. Check: the author's point (systems are faceless, commercial, unaccountable) taken seriously; a counter-argument (e.g. data-protection law, transparency requirements, the possibility of regulation and appeal); a conclusion with a criterion, 150 to 180 words.
The operators
outline = main points in order, no details. explain = information plus the connections. describe = features without interpretation. summarise = brief, own words. analyse = how and why, with evidence. comment / assess / discuss = your reasoned judgement. Read the operator first; it decides the form of your answer.
Comprehension answers
Own words where possible, complete sentences, no copying of whole passages. Answer only what is asked; a good answer to the wrong question earns nothing.
Reading the author
Attitude shows in word choice (revolution vs. gesture), in how much space each side gets, in irony and in the final sentence. Quote the words, then name the attitude.