Reading: Main Ideas, Evidence, and Inference
What the Reading domain tests
Reading questions ask you to build meaning from a passage and then prove your answer with the text. The core concepts are main idea and theme, supporting detail, author's purpose and tone, text structure, vocabulary in context, and inference. You should be able to separate a passage's central claim from its supporting examples, recognize how an author organizes information (compare-contrast, cause-effect, chronological, problem-solution), and distinguish what the text states directly from what it only implies.
Traps to watch for
- True but unsupported. An answer choice may state a real fact that the passage never mentions. Correct answers are always defensible from the text.
- Too broad or too narrow. Main-idea distractors often capture one detail or overgeneralize beyond the passage's scope.
- Extreme wording. Words like always, never, and proves usually signal a wrong inference answer unless the passage is equally absolute.
- Context-blind vocabulary. A familiar word may carry an unusual meaning in the passage; reread the surrounding sentence before choosing.
- Tone confusion. Sarcasm, cautious optimism, and neutrality are easy to misread. Look for evaluative adjectives and qualifiers.
Rule of thumb: locate the evidence first
Before choosing, find the sentence or sentences that would justify your answer. If you cannot point to them, the choice is probably wrong. For inference questions, prefer the mildest answer the evidence supports.
Worked example
A passage says a city's bike-lane pilot "reduced reported collisions along two corridors, though officials caution that the sample is small." Question: What is the author's attitude? The qualifier though officials caution signals measured support, not triumph. An answer claiming the author "proves bike lanes are safe everywhere" overreaches; "cautiously positive" fits the evidence.