Reading Comprehension
Reading Comprehension in this paper tests whether you can reconstruct a writer's argument, not whether you can locate matching words. Passages are typically discursive - journalism, popular science, commentary - and questions target inference, writer's stance, the function of a paragraph, and the meaning of a phrase in context. A large share of lost marks comes from candidates who answer a true statement instead of the statement the question asks for.
What is actually being tested
- Cohesion: reference (this, such, the former), substitution and ellipsis, and lexical chains. Track what a pronoun points to before choosing.
- Stance and hedging: modals and semi-modals (may, tends to, is bound to), adverbs (largely, arguably), and concession (although, while, admittedly) signal how committed the writer is.
- Function: a sentence may illustrate, concede, qualify, or rebut. Ask what work it does, not only what it says.
- Scope: watch quantifiers (some, most, all) and negation. An option that strengthens 'some' to 'all' is wrong however plausible.
Worked example
Read this sentence: Although the committee's report acknowledged that remote work had cut commuting emissions, it cautioned that the net effect depended on home energy sources - a caveat that journalists largely dropped.
Question: What is the writer's attitude to the press coverage? A. The coverage exaggerated the emissions findings. B. The coverage omitted an important qualification. C. The writer rejects the committee's emissions estimate. D. The writer believes journalists misrepresented the report's data.
Reasoning: the main clause after although carries the writer's point; although concedes the emissions finding rather than disputing it, so C fails. Largely dropped signals omission, not distortion of data, so B is right and D overstates. A confuses what the report said with what the coverage did. The writer's target is the coverage's selectivity.
Traps that cost marks
- Matching a word in the passage to a word in an option; the correct option is usually a paraphrase.
- Confusing the view reported (the committee's) with the view endorsed (the writer's).
- Treating a concession clause as the main claim.
- Reading largely as never, or cautioned as denied.
- Choosing an answer that is true of the passage but does not answer the question's focus (attitude, function, reason).
- Ignoring the line reference: the question asks about that sentence, not the whole passage.