EnglishPrepository

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Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension CEFR B2 Topic: The modern revival of handwritten letters in a digital age

The Quiet Return of the Handwritten Letter

What this tests: reading for detail, opinion, attitude, purpose and what the writer implies.

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Instructions

Read the text and answer the questions. Choose the correct option (A, B, C or D) for each question.

In an age of instant messaging and disappearing stories, it seems strange that something as slow and old-fashioned as the handwritten letter is making a quiet comeback. Over the past decade, several postal services in Europe and North America have reported a modest but steady rise in personal correspondence, reversing a decline that had lasted for more than twenty years. Stationery shops that once struggled to survive are now expanding, and a handful of subscription boxes promise customers a "slow correspondence kit" complete with paper, ink and stamps.

Part of the explanation lies in simple fatigue. Many people spend their working days answering emails and their evenings scrolling through notifications, and a letter offers something screens cannot: a pause. Psychologists who study attention have pointed out that writing by hand forces the brain to slow down, because the hand cannot keep pace with the speed of thought the way a keyboard can. This, they argue, encourages more deliberate, reflective language — the opposite of the clipped abbreviations typical of text messages.

There is also a sentimental dimension. A letter is a physical object that can be kept, reread and eventually inherited, whereas a text message usually vanishes into the depths of a phone's memory. Several people interviewed for a recent newspaper feature admitted that they still owned letters from grandparents who had died decades earlier, and that rereading them felt like hearing a familiar voice again. No one, they said, kept old text messages with the same affection.

None of this means that letters are about to replace digital communication; the numbers, while encouraging to stationery manufacturers, remain tiny compared with the billions of messages sent every day. What seems to be happening instead is a kind of conscious balancing act: people are not abandoning their phones, but they are deliberately choosing to write occasional letters as a way of resisting the relentless speed of everyday communication. For a birthday, a thank-you or simply to stay in touch with a distant friend, a letter has become less a necessity than a small, considered gesture — proof, perhaps, that slowness itself can be a kind of luxury.

1. According to the text, what have several postal services reported in recent years?

A — A steady increase in business correspondence over the last decade B — A decline in stationery sales despite growing interest in letters C — A small increase in personal letters following years of decline D — A sharp rise in letters that has overtaken digital messaging

2. What does the comparison between handwriting and typing in paragraph two imply about typing?

A — Typing demands more concentration, which slows the writer down B — Typing moves more slowly than handwriting, despite appearances C — Typing proceeds exactly as fast as a person's thoughts D — Typing encourages more thoughtful, reflective sentences than handwriting does

3. What is the writer's overall attitude towards the revival of letter writing?

A — Mildly positive, viewing letters as meaningful but still a marginal practice B — Skeptical, doubting that the rise in letter writing will continue much longer C — Neutral, simply reporting the statistics without expressing any personal opinion D — Enthusiastic, confident that letters will become the main way people communicate

4. In the phrase "that rereading them felt like hearing a familiar voice again," what does "them" refer to?

A — Newspaper features written about communication habits B — Old letters kept from grandparents who had died C — Old text messages that people had saved D — Stationery kits bought through subscription boxes

5. Why does the writer mention expanding stationery shops and subscription boxes?

A — To argue that fewer people now rely on digital communication at all B — To show that letter writing has become a costly pursuit for most people C — To support the claim that letter writing is becoming more popular D — To suggest that stationery shops are now more profitable than postal services

6. According to the final paragraph, how do people now typically view letter writing?

A — As a thoughtful act done now and then, rather than a duty B — As the primary way people now stay in touch with distant friends C — As a custom kept alive mainly by stationery manufacturers D — As an expected duty for birthdays and thank-you messages

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🎬 Video walkthrough

This exercise read aloud, sentence by sentence: a pause to answer each question, the hint after the pause, then the answer and why. It gives the answers — try the exercise first.

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