Practice Test: Reading – Part 6 | C1 Advanced (CAE)
In Part 6, you read four short texts and then answer four questions. The questions focus on opinions expressed in the texts and you may be asked to identify opinions that are the same or different across the texts.
C1 Advanced (CAE) Reading – Part 6: Test
The Architecture of Happiness
Four reviewers comment on philosopher Alain De Botton’s book
A
Alain de Botton is a brave and highly intelligent writer who writes about complex subjects, clarifying the arcane for the layman. Now, with typical self-assurance, he has turned to the subject of architecture. The essential theme of his book is how architecture influences mood and behaviour. It is not about the specifically architectural characteristics of space and design, but much more about the emotions that architecture inspires in the users of buildings. Yet architects do not normally talk nowadays very much about emotion and beauty. They talk about design and function. De Botton’s message, then, is fairly simple but worthwhile precisely because it is simple, readable and timely. His commendable aim is to encourage architects, and society more generally, to pay more attention to the psychological consequences of design in architecture: architecture should be treated as something that affects all our lives, our happiness and well-being.
B
Alain de Botton raises important, previously unasked, questions concerning the quest for beauty in architecture, or its rejection or denial. Yet one is left with the feeling that he needed the help and support of earlier authors on the subject to walk him across the daunting threshold of architecture itself. And he is given to making extraordinary claims: ‘Architecture is perplexing … in how inconsistent is its capacity to generate the happiness on which its claim to our attention is founded.’ If architecture’s capacity to generate happiness is inconsistent, this might be because happiness has rarely been something architects think about. De Botton never once discusses the importance of such dull, yet determining, matters as finance or planning laws, much less inventions such as the lift or reinforced concrete. He appears to believe that architects are still masters of their art, when increasingly they are cogs in a global machine for building in which beauty, and how de Botton feels about it, are increasingly beside the point.
C
In The Architecture of Happiness, Alain de Botton has a great time making bold and amusing judgements about architecture, with lavish and imaginative references, but anyone in search of privileged insights into the substance of building design should be warned that he is not looking at drain schedules or pipe runs. He worries away, as many architects do, at how inert material things can convey meaning and alter consciousness. Although he is a rigorous thinker, most of de Botton’s revelations, such as the contradictions in Le Corbusier’s theory and practice, are not particularly new. However, this is an engaging and intelligent book on architecture and something everyone, professionals within the field in particular, should read.
D
Do we want our buildings merely to shelter us, or do we also want them to speak to us? Can the right sort of architecture even improve our character? Music mirrors the dynamics of our emotional lives. Mightn’t architecture work the same way? De Botton thinks so, and in The Architecture of Happiness he makes the most of this theme on his jolly trip through the world of architecture. De Botton certainly writes with conviction and, while focusing on happiness can be a lovely way to make sense of architectural beauty, it probably won’t be of much help in resolving conflicts of taste.
Which reviewer
- has a different opinion from the others on the confidence with which de Botton discusses architecture?
- shares reviewer A’s opinion whether architects should take note of de Botton’s ideas?
- expresses a similar view to reviewer B regarding the extent to which architects share de Botton’s concerns?
- has a different view to reviewer C on the originality of some of de Botton’s ideas?
C1 Advanced (CAE) Reading – Part 6: Tips
Read as wide range of texts as possible
Read newspapers, magazines, novels, academic texts etc. In particular, read texts that offer different opinions on the same subject. This might be reviews of a book or film or the comments following blog posts. As you read, underline the keywords or phrases that highlight the author’s views and how they differ from other writers.
C1 Advanced (CAE) Reading – Part 6: Strategy
- Read the question, title and the subtitle carefully. What is the central theme of the four texts?
- Quickly read the four texts to see what each one is about.
- Read the four questions and identify the key information to focus on. Underline the key words in the questions.
- Read each text more carefully to locate a reference to each of the four questions.
- Identify the opinion that each writer has on each question and compare it to that of the other writers.
