NB G4 English Reading common mistakes
NB G4 English Reading · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Selects an answer that repeats words from the passage even though it answers a different question-for example, choosing what a character did when the question asks why the character did it.
The student scans for matching words instead of reading the question's task and checking whether the choice actually answers it.
What to do instead
Underline the task word (why, what caused, which detail) before reading the choices, and reject any choice that is true but does not answer that task.
Treats the first or last sentence of a paragraph as the main idea, or selects a vivid supporting detail, without checking whether the choice summarizes the whole paragraph.
Main ideas are often implied, while supporting details are more concrete and memorable; students equate 'important-sounding' with 'main idea.'
What to do instead
Cover the choices, state the paragraph's point in one sentence, then match; test each choice with 'Does this cover the whole paragraph or only one part?'
Leaves an inference question blank or chooses 'the passage does not say' whenever the answer is not stated word-for-word.
The student believes reading means locating literal text and has not practiced combining textual clues with background knowledge.
What to do instead
Use a two-column 'clues from the text / what I already know' chart and practice the formula clues + knowledge = inference; require at least one clue before choosing.
Reads only the body paragraphs and skips headings, captions, bold words, diagrams, and labels, then misses answers that appear only in those features.
Text features look like decoration, and students read linearly from top to bottom under time pressure.
What to do instead
Preview every feature first, turn each heading into a question, and explicitly match caption or diagram content to the question being asked.
Confuses the narrator with the author or with a character, or labels a first-person story as third person because a character speaks in dialogue.
Students treat any 'I' in the text as evidence without tracking who is speaking in narration versus quoted dialogue.
What to do instead
Circle pronouns in narration only, ask 'Who is telling the story?', and separate the narrator's words from characters' words paragraph by paragraph.
Chooses sequence when the passage compares two ideas, or chooses cause-and-effect when it lists steps, because one signal word was noticed and the rest were ignored.
Students rely on a single keyword and do not map the organization of the whole passage.
What to do instead
Highlight all signal words and draw a simple map (T-chart, boxes and arrows, or numbered steps) before matching the map to the structure choice.
Says two texts are 'the same because both are about dogs' and stops there, missing that one explains how dogs help people while the other tells a story about a lost dog.
A shared topic is easy to spot; comparing how each text treats that topic requires holding both texts in mind at once.
What to do instead
Compare on fixed dimensions-main idea, author's purpose, key evidence, and one important difference-and fill a two-column chart before answering.
Selects a quotation that mentions the topic but does not support the claim, or offers a personal opinion as evidence.
The student matches keywords rather than testing the logical link between the evidence and the claim.
What to do instead
For each quotation, write one sentence: 'This supports the claim because...' If the sentence cannot be completed, the evidence is not relevant.
Chooses the first or most familiar meaning of a multiple-meaning word (for example, 'bank' as a money place) without checking which meaning fits the sentence.
Students recall the most common definition or the first dictionary entry and stop there.
What to do instead
Substitute each candidate meaning into the sentence and read it aloud; only the meaning that makes sense in context is correct.
Guesses an unknown word from its sound or from a similar-looking word and ignores clues in the surrounding sentences.
Unfamiliar words trigger a guess-and-go strategy, and students have not been taught clue types such as definition, example, and contrast.
What to do instead
Read the sentence before and after the word, name the clue type, and state the meaning in their own words before checking the answer choices.