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🇺🇸 Duolingo English Test (DET) · flashcards
Duolingo English Test (DET) Reading Skills Flashcards
50 question-and-answer cards covering Reading Skills as it is examined in Duolingo English Test (DET). 24 of them are printed below, taken from across the deck — no signup, no paywall on the preview.
24 sample cards from the Reading Skills deck
Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.
What is scanning?
Reading quickly to locate specific information (a name, date, number, or keyword) without reading the whole text.
When should you skim versus scan a DET reading passage?
Skim to identify the main idea or title; scan to find the specific supporting text for 'Highlight the Answer' or detail questions.
What is an inference in reading?
A conclusion drawn from evidence and reasoning in the text rather than from information stated explicitly.
How do you answer an implied-meaning (inference) question correctly?
Base the conclusion strictly on clues in the text plus logic; avoid choices that go beyond the evidence or contradict the passage.
What are cohesion devices?
Words and phrases that link sentences and ideas together, such as conjunctions, pronouns, and transition words (e.g., 'however', 'therefore', 'this').
What is reference in cohesion, and give an example?
Using a word to point back to something mentioned earlier; e.g., the pronoun 'it' or 'they' referring to a previously named noun.
What does the transition word 'however' signal?
A contrast or contradiction with the preceding statement.
What does the transition word 'therefore' signal?
A result or logical conclusion that follows from the preceding statement.
What does the transition word 'furthermore' (or 'moreover') signal?
Addition of further supporting information consistent with the preceding statement.
How do you manage an unfamiliar word in a DET passage?
Use context clues, word parts (prefix/root/suffix), and the overall sentence meaning to infer its likely meaning instead of stopping.
What is a context clue?
Information in the surrounding text (definition, example, synonym, antonym, or general sense) that helps you guess an unknown word's meaning.
Which prefix means 'not' or 'opposite', and give an example?
'un-' (e.g., 'unhappy'), 'in-/im-' (e.g., 'incorrect', 'impossible'), or 'dis-' (e.g., 'disagree').
What does the prefix 're-' typically mean?
'Again' or 'back' (e.g., 'rewrite' = write again, 'return' = go back).
What does the suffix '-ly' usually indicate about a word?
It typically forms an adverb from an adjective (e.g., 'quick' becomes 'quickly').
In the 'Read and Complete' task, why should you read the whole sentence before filling a gap?
The full sentence provides grammatical and meaning context that determines which word fits the partial letters shown.
What grammatical cue helps choose between a verb's tenses in a gap?
Time markers and the tense of surrounding verbs (e.g., 'yesterday' signals past tense, 'now' signals present).
What is the gist of a passage?
Its overall, general meaning or main message, obtained by skimming rather than detailed reading.
Why are articles ('a', 'an', 'the') useful grammatical cues in cloze tasks?
They signal that a noun follows and indicate definiteness ('the' = specific/known) or first mention ('a/an' = nonspecific), guiding word choice.
What part of speech must a gap usually be if it follows an article and an adjective?
A noun (e.g., 'the large ___' expects a noun).
How do you avoid picking a 'distractor' answer in DET multiple-choice reading items?
Eliminate options that are grammatically wrong, contradict the text, or are only partly true; choose the option fully supported by the passage.
What does it mean that a correct DET 'Highlight the Answer' selection must be 'directly supported'?
The highlighted text itself must explicitly state or contain the answer, not merely relate to the topic generally.
When two words both fit a gap grammatically, what decides the correct one?
Meaning and collocation: choose the word that makes the most natural and contextually accurate sense with its neighbors.
Why can word-part analysis confirm a word is fake in 'Read and Select'?
If a root or affix combination violates English morphology (e.g., an impossible prefix-root pairing), the word is not a valid English word.
What reading approach combines speed and comprehension for DET passages?
First skim for the main idea, then scan back to the specific lines needed for detail or highlight questions, minimizing full re-reading.
What this deck covers
The Reading Skills deck follows the Duolingo English Test (DET) Reading Skills syllabus — 4 chapters and 14 topics — so questions land on material that is genuinely examinable rather than trivia around it. That works out to roughly 12.5 cards per chapter.
Answers are written to be recallable, not just readable — averaging about 111 characters, which is long enough to carry the reasoning and short enough to say out loud.
A deck like this earns its keep on the second and third pass. Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then use the cards to find the specific facts that have not stuck.
Reading Skills flashcards FAQ
How many Reading Skills flashcards are in this Duolingo English Test (DET) deck?
50 cards. This page previews 24 of them, sampled evenly across the deck so you can judge the difficulty before installing anything.
Are these Duolingo English Test (DET) flashcards free?
Yes. The preview here is free to read with no signup, and the full 50-card deck is free inside the Examius app.
What do the Reading Skills cards cover?
They follow the Duolingo English Test (DET) Reading Skills syllabus — 4 chapters and 14 topics — so the questions track what is actually examinable.
How should I use these flashcards?
Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then drill the deck. Examius schedules each card with spaced repetition, so cards you keep missing come back sooner and ones you know drift further apart.