Reading Comprehension: Meaning Over Matching Words
What is really being tested
Reading tasks ask you to do something with a text, not to translate it. Expect three levels of meaning: the gist of the whole passage, specific details, and implied meaning. Genres vary widely - notices, adverts, emails, instructions, news items, opinion columns - and so do task types: multiple-choice, matching statements or headings to paragraphs, true/false with justification, gap-fill and short answer.
Concepts to master
Skimming (fast, whole-text gist) and scanning (hunting a date, name or figure). Cohesion: pronouns and demonstratives (this, the former, they) that point back to earlier nouns. Discourse connectors - however, therefore, whereas, in addition - which signal contrast, cause and sequence. Paraphrase: options are written in different words from the text, so synonymy and word-family shifts matter more than repeated vocabulary. Genre and register tell you who is writing to whom and constrain the likely answer.
Traps
An option that copies words straight from the text is often wrong; it is a lexical lure. Watch negation (not, hardly, unless), absolutes (always, never, all, only) that overstate a cautious text, and true-but-irrelevant statements that are accurate yet do not answer the question asked. Beware over-inference: if the answer needs two speculative steps, it is usually not the answer.
Rule of thumb
Predict the answer in your own words before you read the options, then choose the option closest in meaning, not in vocabulary. Find the proof sentence and read the sentence before and after it.
Worked example: "Although the council approved the budget in June, the works will not begin before spring." Asked when work starts, "The council approved the budget" is true but irrelevant; the answered detail is "not before spring", signalled by although and will not.