Which Level Am I? A Two-Minute Spanish Reading Test

Click every sentence you understood

Ten passages from the books on this site, easiest first. Read each one, tap the sentences you followed, and skip the ones you did not. Nothing is recorded and there is no clock.

1. A1Antes del Amanecer

   • Solo tengo una hora.
   • Una hora para vivir.
   • Voy por la tierra.

2. A1El Pastel de Cumpleaños

   • Mi madre no sabe hacer comida.
   • Hoy, todos tenemos miedo.
   • Es el día de mi padre.

3. A1Cien Años de Amor

   • Ella no sabe su nombre.
   • Él no sabe el de él.
   • Cien años así.

4. A2El Sacrificio de Padre

   • El agua está subiendo.
   • Y mi padre no sabe nadar.
   • Miro sus ojos.

5. A2La Alergia a los Gatos

   • Soy muy alérgico a los gatos.
   • Cuando veo un gato, mis ojos se ponen rojos.
   • Mi nariz empieza a correr.

6. A2Siempre Miércoles

   • Miércoles número doscientos.
   • Abro los ojos.
   • Son las siete de la mañana.

7. B1Siete Kilómetros Bajo el Mar

   • Mi padre construyó esta máquina para llegar al fondo del mundo.
   • Murió en su taller, a seis metros del mar, con grasa en las manos y la boca abierta en una expresión que el doctor llamó «sorpresa cardíaca».
   • Yo la llamo otra cosa.

8. B1Los Superhéroes del Equipo B

   • La mañana en que Norberto Mora salvó la ciudad —o, para ser más exactos, la mañana en que fue la única persona lo suficientemente tonta como para intentarlo— empezó con una carta informándole de que su licencia de superhéroe estaba bajo revisión.
   • Estaba en la Oficina de Registro de Héroes, discutiendo con una funcionaria que llevaba trabajando ahí más años que Norberto llevaba vivo.
   • La placa de su escritorio decía «Señora Gutiérrez».

9. B2Los Setenta y Dos del Andes

   • El as de espadas flotó un segundo en el aire antes de que la gravedad decidiera que ya no nos pertenecía.
   • Santiago estaba repartiendo, y hacía trampa, como siempre.
   • El avión se sacudía de una forma que había dejado de parecerse a turbulencia hacía diez minutos.

10. B2El Ángel y el Demonio

    • Rafael había pasado cuatrocientos años perfeccionando su arroz, y no iba a permitir que el fin del mundo lo arruinara.
    • Cada mañana, a las cinco y cuarenta y dos minutos exactos, cruzaba las puertas del Mercado de Maravillas con la determinación silenciosa de quien lleva siglos repitiendo el mismo ritual.
    • Los vendedores de pescado lo saludaban antes de que apareciera —oían sus zapatos en el mármol, siempre el mismo paso, siempre la misma cadencia.

What this is

A placement test usually asks you to conjugate something. This one asks whether you understood a sentence, because that is the question that decides what you can read, and reading is what moves a level.

The passages are the openings of real stories from the four shelves on this site, easiest first: three at the first level, three at the second, two at each of the last two. Nothing is written for the test, so clearing a level here means you have just read three openings from that shelf.

The walk stops at the first level you do not clear, and the answer is the level below it. Understanding four long sentences at the top while missing a third of the easy ones is not a level, it is two lucky cognates, and a shelf chosen that way is a book you put down on page three.

How to use it

1. Read each passage onceDo not look anything up and do not read it twice. The question is what you catch at reading speed, which is the only speed that matters in a book.
2. Tap the sentences you understoodThe whole sentence is the button. Skip the ones you only half caught, because half a sentence is what makes a shelf too hard without it being obvious.
3. Start on the shelf it namesFour sentences in five is the bar at every level. The result is a link, and the shelf behind it is where a story reads as a story instead of a puzzle.

What each shelf asks of you

The four levels are described here in speech acts rather than grammar, because what a level is for is what it lets you do. The word counts are what the books on each shelf run to.

Questions

What to remember

• Ten passages, three sentences each, about two minutes. Four sentences in five clears a level.
• The answer is the last level with nothing missing under it, so a hole at A2 outranks a pass at B2.
• The passages are real openings from the four shelves, so clearing a level means you read that shelf.
• Nothing is recorded. No account, no timer, no score, and nothing leaves the browser.
• If a shelf feels like work rather than a story, drop one level. Reading moves a level; grinding does not.
• Roughly 98 per cent word coverage is where a reader picks up new words from the story itself, which is usually one shelf easier than the one he would have picked.
• Worked through: nine of nine at the first level, seven of nine at the second and five of six at the third answers the FIRST level, because seven in nine is 78 per cent and the bar is 80.

Where the numbers and the words come from

• Common European Framework of Reference, self-assessment grid, Council of EuropeWhat A1, A2, B1 and B2 actually describe, which is what a reader can do rather than what he has been taught.
• Hu and Nation, Unknown vocabulary density and reading comprehension, Reading in a Foreign Language, 2000The study behind the 98 per cent coverage figure, and behind the advice to read one shelf easier than feels impressive.
• Guide to Extensive Reading, Extensive Reading FoundationWhy the shelf where you understand almost everything is the one that teaches, and why a dictionary in the hand slows that down.