Comprehension: Reading for Meaning and Inference
What this domain tests
Comprehension items check whether you can locate explicit information, identify main idea versus supporting detail, trace argument structure, interpret vocabulary in context, recognise writer's attitude, and draw inferences that the text supports but does not state. You must also distinguish fact from opinion and recognise the function of a sentence within a paragraph (example, concession, rebuttal, conclusion).
Concepts to master
Understand skimming (gist) versus scanning (specific detail) and when each is appropriate. Learn to spot signposting: firstly, by contrast, admittedly, the evidence suggests. Recognise hedging (tends to, in most cases) and boosting (clearly, undoubtedly) as markers of the writer's confidence. Practise anaphoric reference - tracking what this, they, such measures point back to. Practise paraphrase recognition, since correct options rarely reuse the text's exact words.
Traps
- Choosing an option that is true in the real world but not stated or implied in the passage.
- Selecting an option that repeats the passage's wording but reverses or distorts the meaning.
- Over-inferring: an inference must be tightly supported, not a guess.
- Missing negation and qualifiers (not all, rarely, except).
- Ignoring the question stem's limits - "in the second paragraph" means only that paragraph.
Rule of thumb
Use locate–paraphrase–verify: find the relevant lines, restate them in your own words, then check the option against your paraphrase, not against your memory of the passage.
Worked example: Passage: "While the trial reduced waiting times, its cost per patient was nearly double that of standard care." Question: What does the writer imply? A correct inference is that the writer sees the trial's value as questionable on cost grounds - supported by the concessive while plus the cost detail. An option saying the trial "failed" over-infers; the text concedes a benefit.