French reading: the writer's attitude

Where opinion hides

• Evaluative adverbs — *malheureusement, heureusement, curieusement, étonnamment*.
• The conditional used for unverified claims — *le gouvernement aurait décidé* means it is reported, not confirmed.
• Reporting verbs — *prétendre* and *affirmer* carry doubt; *constater* does not.
• Quotation marks around a word, which signal distance from it.
• Subjunctive after an opinion — *il est regrettable que*, *je doute que*.

The conditional one matters most. A sentence in the conditional is the writer declining to vouch for a claim, and a question asking whether the writer believes it has its answer there.

Reported and held views

1. Ask whose view each paragraph presents.
2. Look for the writer stepping in — an evaluative adverb or a first-person comment.
3. A text presenting both sides without choosing has expressed no view, and a question claiming it prefers one is answered by that.
4. Quote the marker when justification is required.

This is the single biggest step from B1 to B2 in the reading paper, and it is a vocabulary of attitude rather than a reading technique. It can be learned as a list.