Source Text Comprehension and Accuracy
Reading for propositional content
Source comprehension is not word matching. A candidate must reconstruct the proposition: who does what to whom, under which conditions, with what modality, and with what scope for negation, quantifiers, and modifiers. Begin by parsing the main clause, then attach every subordinate clause, participle, and prepositional phrase to its correct head. Check pronoun and determiner reference, because a translated pronoun with the wrong antecedent changes the facts. Treat ambiguous source passages as ambiguous: preserve the ambiguity or make a defensible choice, and never silently resolve it in a way that adds information.
Common traps
Familiar-looking cognates and idioms are frequent traps; so are numbers, units, dates, and proper nouns. A single omitted qualifier - 'approved leave' reduced to 'leave' - can invert a policy. Watch negation scope: 'must not operate near water' is not 'must operate not near water.' Also watch punctuation-driven meaning, such as a nonrestrictive clause that describes rather than restricts. Accuracy means no omissions, no additions, and no shifts in emphasis.
Worked example
Source: 'All employees must submit their timesheets by Friday unless they are on approved leave.' A careless target text says 'Employees must submit timesheets by Friday unless they are on leave.' The omission of 'all' and 'approved' broadens the exception and weakens the obligation. A faithful version keeps the universal quantifier, the deadline, and the restricted exception. Rule of thumb: after drafting, back-translate the target sentence into plain source language and compare proposition by proposition; any difference in who, when, whether, or how much is an accuracy error.