Reading: Working With Five Text Types
Aptis General Reading is built around a sequence of short tasks, each tied to a different text type. Expect informal messages, short factual notices, longer articles, and a gap-fill or ordering-style task. The concepts you must control are: gist (the main idea), detail (a specific fact), inference (what the writer implies), reference (what a pronoun points to), and cohesion (how sentences link through connectors and logical flow).
Traps to watch for
- Paraphrase, not repetition. Correct answers usually restate the text in different words. An option that copies the exact wording of the passage is often a distractor.
- True but irrelevant. An option can be factually true of the text yet not answer the question asked. Re-read the question stem before choosing.
- Partial matches. In gap-fill tasks, a word may fit grammatically but break the meaning or the cohesion of the sentence around it.
- Time pressure. Do not stall on one item; flag it and return.
Rule of thumb
Match the question type to a reading strategy. For gist questions, read the first and last sentence of each paragraph. For detail questions, scan for a keyword or its synonym, then read the whole sentence around it. For inference, ask what must be true given the evidence, not what is merely possible.
Worked example. Text: “The museum has extended its opening hours, though staff numbers have not increased.” Question: What does this suggest? An option saying “staff are unhappy” is an unsupported inference. An option saying “visitors can now come later in the day” follows directly from “extended hours.” Choose the option the text forces, not the one it merely allows.