Auf einen Blick / At a glance

Free Abitur English practice pack: summarise a text on tradition and change in modern Britain, practising exam-style summary writing.

Niveau / Level
B2–C1 (GER/CEFR)
Für / For
Abitur
Fertigkeiten / Skills
Leseverstehen / Reading, Schreiben / Writing
Schwerpunkt / Focus
Writing summaries
Aufgaben / Tasks
5
Kosten / Cost
kostenlos, ohne Anmeldung / free, no sign-up

Mehr in diesem Kurs / More from this course

📘 Reference Guide: Writing Summaries
Present tense — summaries of written texts are written in the simple present, even if the article uses the past.
Example: "The article explains that..." (not "explained")
Reporting verbs — use verbs like states, argues, suggests, claims, points out instead of "says".
Example: "The writer argues that ambition has changed shape."
Objectivity — summaries report the writer's ideas, not your own opinion.
Example: Avoid "I think..." or "In my opinion..."
Umbrella sentences — group several specific details under one general statement.
Example: Instead of listing three examples, write: "The article gives several examples of this trend."
Conciseness — cut examples, repetition, and rhetorical flourishes; keep only the core content.

Exercise 1 · Identify Key Points

Read the article. Classify each sentence below as a Main Idea, a Supporting Detail, or Irrelevant for a summary.

💡 Prüfungstipp / Exam tip: Check every sentence you write for a reporting verb like "explains", "argues" or "shows" — a summary sentence with none is usually the original text lightly reworded, which loses marks.

Crown and Change: What Does It Mean to Be British Now?

Adapted from a UK current-affairs feature

Walk down any high street in Britain and you will find the old and the new standing shoulder to shoulder: a parish church beside a halal butcher, a red telephone box beside a bubble-tea shop. Is this clash of old and new a crisis of identity, or simply what identity has always looked like?

Take the town of Wrexham. Sixteen-year-old Priya Chowdhury sings in the Welsh-language school choir on Mondays and celebrates Diwali with her grandmother on Fridays, and sees no contradiction whatsoever in either. For her generation, Britishness is not inherited whole; it is assembled, piece by piece, from whatever fits.

The numbers tell a similar story. The 2024 British Social Attitudes report found that only 14% of 18- to 34-year-olds hold a mainly ethnic view of what makes someone British, compared with 26% of those aged 65 and over. The monolithic idea of what it means to be British is, for younger generations, quietly dissolving.

Yet the old symbols have not vanished — they have simply been asked to share the stage. The monarchy still draws crowds; the Highland games still sell out; the Sunday roast still anchors a million kitchens. Tradition, it turns out, is not a museum piece gathering dust — it is a living, breathing negotiation, rewritten by every generation that inherits it.

Perhaps the real story of modern Britain is not a battle between tradition and change at all. It is a nation slowly discovering that it can hold the crown in one hand and the future in the other.

Exercise 2 · Umbrella Sentences

For each set of specific details, choose the best "umbrella sentence" that summarises them as one general statement.

📄 Read the article again

Walk down any high street in Britain and you will find the old and the new standing shoulder to shoulder: a parish church beside a halal butcher, a red telephone box beside a bubble-tea shop.

Take the town of Wrexham. Sixteen-year-old Priya Chowdhury sings in the Welsh-language school choir on Mondays and celebrates Diwali with her grandmother on Fridays, and sees no contradiction whatsoever in either.

The 2024 British Social Attitudes report found that only 14% of 18- to 34-year-olds hold a mainly ethnic view of what makes someone British, compared with 26% of those aged 65 and over.

The monarchy still draws crowds; the Highland games still sell out; the Sunday roast still anchors a million kitchens.

It is a nation slowly discovering that it can hold the crown in one hand and the future in the other.

Exercise 3 · Correct the Tenses

Choose the grammatically correct version for a summary. Remember: summaries use the simple present tense.

Exercise 4 · Formal vs Informal

Choose the more formal, objective option suitable for an academic summary.

Exercise 5 · Write a Full Summary

Write a full summary of the article (100–120 words) in your own words, using the present tense and a formal, objective style.

📄 Read the article again

Walk down any high street in Britain and you will find the old and the new standing shoulder to shoulder: a parish church beside a halal butcher, a red telephone box beside a bubble-tea shop. Is this clash of old and new a crisis of identity, or simply what identity has always looked like?

Take the town of Wrexham. Sixteen-year-old Priya Chowdhury sings in the Welsh-language school choir on Mondays and celebrates Diwali with her grandmother on Fridays, and sees no contradiction whatsoever in either. For her generation, Britishness is not inherited whole; it is assembled, piece by piece, from whatever fits.

The numbers tell a similar story. The 2024 British Social Attitudes report found that only 14% of 18- to 34-year-olds hold a mainly ethnic view of what makes someone British, compared with 26% of those aged 65 and over.

Yet the old symbols have not vanished — they have simply been asked to share the stage. The monarchy still draws crowds; the Highland games still sell out; the Sunday roast still anchors a million kitchens.

Perhaps the real story of modern Britain is not a battle between tradition and change at all. It is a nation slowly discovering that it can hold the crown in one hand and the future in the other.

0 words

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