Reading: Building Meaning from Text
What the reading questions test
Reading questions reward careful comprehension, not speed-reading. You need to locate information, infer ideas the text implies but does not state, follow an author's attitude, understand vocabulary in context, and see how a passage is organised. Practise asking: what is the main idea, what supports it, and what does the writer want me to believe?
Concepts to master
- Main idea vs detail: the main idea covers the whole passage; details support one point.
- Inference: combine clues with general knowledge to reach a conclusion the text strongly supports.
- Vocabulary in context: a familiar word may carry an unusual meaning. Substitute your choice back into the sentence to test it.
- Tone and purpose: is the writer informing, persuading, warning, or amusing? Look at adjectives and punctuation for signals.
- Text structure: compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and chronological order all shape where answers hide.
Traps to watch
Answers that are true in real life but not stated in the passage are wrong. Options that repeat the passage's exact words are often distractors when the question asks for meaning. Absolute words such as always, never, and all usually signal an overreach. Partly correct options are the hardest trap: two clauses, one right and one wrong.
Worked example
A passage says a council planted trees along a street and later recorded cooler summer temperatures there. A question asks what the council's action achieved. The best answer is that the trees reduced local heat, not that the council cares about the environment. The second idea may be true, but it is an inference about motive, not a result described in the text.
Rule of thumb
For every option, ask: Can I point to the words that prove this? If not, it is probably a trap.