Question 5: Set Texts at CAE

There are two set texts for question 5 on the CAE writing paper. They are:

Lucky Jim (LJ)

by Kingsley Amis

The Pelican Brief (TPB) by John Grisham

We are going to offer some support for you if you're reading one of the texts starting in December.

If you're interested in trying this question on the exam, we recommend you to start reading the book or (for TPB) watch the film soon.

Getting the books

They're available in Spain from Casa del Libro and Fnac. You could order a copy online from www.amazon.co.uk for just under €6. (you could save some money by ordering more than one copy with another student to cut the delivery cost!).

We have a copy of TPB in the office in Las Rozas.

Getting TPB on DVD

At Fnac online it's €5.95 at the moment and in El Corte Ingles €8.95. We think you'd need to watch the film several times to get to know the story well enough for the exam.

You can also borrow the DVD from our office.

What you need to know

The exam questions are not be about the literary content or quality of the writing – you need to know about the details of the text:

• Basics: where is it set? when is it set? What kind of story is it?
  
• The characters: what are they like, their motivations, their personalities how they seem to feel about each other, and so on.
  
• the story, how and why things happen, who does what (and how the characters are affected by it, for example
• Essential for any book-related question: you must be confident in using vocabulary associated with books and writers!

One advantage of the set text option is that you can guarantee there will be some form of review in the exam. Remember though that it will generally focus on one of the areas above, and not be a general review of the whole story,

Keep an eye on the Set Texts label top right for more later this month.