Every Leseverstehen Teil 2 question hides the same instruction: find the paragraph where the author wears this particular mask. The text gives you five paragraphs (a–e). The questions hand you six adjectives or verb phrases describing an authorial stance — belehrend, polemisch, selbstironisch, kritisch, profilierend — and your job is to match mask to mask.

The trouble is that two paragraphs can be about the same topic (say, the author’s friends) but only one of them carries the right posture. Topic is a decoy. Posture is the evidence.

This case file is the profiler’s notebook. Twenty-five stance adjectives, organised by family, each with a signature tell, a model sentence, and the kind of paragraph in which it lives. Memorise these and the matching task in Teil 2 stops being a puzzle and starts being a recognition exercise.

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Part 1 · The Teacher Family

These adjectives describe an author who has stepped out of the story and started instructing the reader. The signature is the direct address (Sie, du, man), the imperative mood, or a sweeping general truth. The author is no longer reporting — they are telling you what to do or how the world works.

№	Adjective	Meaning · Signature Tell
1	belehrend	instructive, lecturing · imperatives, “Sie sollten…”
2	dozierend	academic-lecturing · long explanations, professorial tone
3	moralisierend	moralising · “man sollte”, judgements of right and wrong
4	ratgebend	advisory · “Ich rate Ihnen…”, “Mein Tipp lautet…”
5	appellierend	appealing, urging · “Wir müssen…”, calls to action

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Part 2 · The Attack Family

This family describes the author with a weapon drawn. They are no longer observing — they are striking. The tells are insult-nouns (Pack, Subjekte, Idioten), sweeping generalisations, and the absence of any balancing clause. Note the spectrum: kritisch is measured, polemisch is aggressive, sarkastisch is bitter, zynisch is world-weary.

№	Adjective	Meaning · Signature Tell
6	kritisch	critical · faults something but with reasoning
7	polemisch	polemical · aggressive, sweeping attacks, insult-nouns
8	sarkastisch	sarcastic · bitter mockery, saying opposite of meant
9	zynisch	cynical · world-weary contempt, “everyone is selfish”
10	ironisch	ironic · subtle, not bitter; meaning sits behind the words
11	spöttisch	mocking, derisive · playful ridicule, often of others

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Part 3 · The Mirror Family

Here the author turns the weapon — or the mirror — on themselves. The tells are first-person constructions paired with diminishing words: höchstens (at most), kaum (barely), nicht einmal (not even). The author has built themselves up only to puncture the image. This is the family where Q9 Selbstironie lives.

№	Adjective	Meaning · Signature Tell
12	selbstironisch	self-ironic · deflates own grand claims, gentle
13	selbstkritisch	self-critical · names own faults, more serious
14	bekennend	confessional · “Ich gestehe…”, “Ich muss zugeben…”
15	resignierend	resigned · giving up, “es nützt nichts mehr”

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Part 4 · The Self-Promotion Family

The opposite of the Mirror family: the author building themselves up, taking centre stage, claiming achievement. Direct opposite of selbstironisch. The tell is positive self-evaluation without irony, often using stolz, zufrieden, erfolgreich, and lists of accomplishments.

№	Adjective / phrase	Meaning · Signature Tell
16	sich profilieren wollen	to want to make oneself stand out, raise profile
17	selbstbewusst	self-confident · assertive claims about self
18	selbstgefällig	self-satisfied, smug · positive without doubt
19	prahlend / angeberisch	boastful · exaggerated self-praise

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Part 5 · The Reflection Family

The author looking back, drawing conclusions, or planning ahead. The tells are temporal: im Rückblick, am Ende, nächstes Jahr, in Zukunft. This family covers Q11 (Lehren ziehen) and its neighbours.

№	Adjective / phrase	Meaning · Signature Tell
20	nachdenklich / reflektierend	thoughtful, reflective · weighing things up
21	Lehren ziehen	drawing lessons · “nächstes Mal will ich…”
22	Bilanz ziehen	taking stock · summary at the end
23	versöhnlich	conciliatory · making peace with the situation
24	optimistisch / hoffnungsvoll	optimistic, hopeful · future-positive
25	pessimistisch	pessimistic · future-negative, dark outlook

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Part 6 · The Tonal Witnesses

One more family — descriptive adjectives that telc loves to use for question stems but that do not slot neatly into the previous four families. Keep them in your peripheral vision.

Adjective	Meaning	Signature
sachlich	factual, neutral	no emotion, just data
nüchtern	sober, dispassionate	cool tone, no embellishment
emotional	emotional	exclamations, intensifiers
pathetisch	grandiose, melodramatic	heroic vocabulary, big claims
humorvoll	humorous	jokes, playful turns of phrase
distanziert	detached	third person, generalising statements
provokant	provocative	deliberate counter-claims to common views
unterhaltend	entertaining	anecdotes, vivid storytelling

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The Profiler’s Method

When you face a Teil 2 question, run this three-step routine:

Step 1 · Identify the family. Is the question word from the Teacher, Attack, Mirror, Self-Promotion, or Reflection family? Belehrend = Teacher. Polemisch = Attack. Selbstironisch = Mirror. Profilieren = Self-Promotion. Lehren ziehen = Reflection.

Step 2 · Hunt the signature tell. Each family has its own fingerprints:

• Teacher → imperatives, Sie sollten, second-person address
• Attack → insult-nouns, sweeping so ein…, no balancing clause
• Mirror → first-person + diminishing words (höchstens, kaum, nicht einmal)
• Self-Promotion → first-person + boosting words (stolz, ambitioniert, immer)
• Reflection → temporal markers (nächstes Jahr, im Rückblick, am Ende)

Step 3 · Confirm by contrast. Two paragraphs may share a topic but only one carries the right posture. If both paragraphs A and B mention the author’s friends, ask: which one insults them (polemisch) and which one merely describes them (sachlich)? Posture, not topic.

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Detective Series · The Profiler’s Notebook · For C1 Reading