Text Analysis and Reading Comprehension
What to master
Text analysis requires identifying the theme (what the text is about), the idea (what the author wants to say), the structure (introduction, main part, conclusion), and the functional-semantic type: narration, description or reasoning. Know means of cohesion - lexical repetition, pronouns, synonyms, conjunctions, word order and paragraph links. Also distinguish fact from opinion, main from secondary information, and the author’s position from the narrator’s voice.
Traps
The theme is not the idea: a text may be about a journey but argue that travel teaches tolerance. Do not mistake an example for the main claim. In cohesion questions, a pronoun may refer to a distant noun, not the nearest one. In reasoning, the thesis and conclusion must be separated. Watch for contextual synonyms and antonyms that organize the text. Answers that are true in general but not supported by the text are distractors.
Worked example
If a paragraph begins «Однако путешествия не всегда полезны», however signals contrast with the previous claim and introduces a qualification. The author’s idea is likely nuanced, not simply «travel is useful». Rule of thumb: locate the topic sentence, then track connectors such as однако, следовательно, во-первых.
Rule of thumb
Answer only from the text: find the sentence that supports your choice and check its logical function.