Reading Comprehension
What this section tests
Reading Comprehension asks you to read a short passage and answer questions about its main idea, supporting details, vocabulary in context, inferences, the author's purpose or tone, and the logical relationships between ideas.
Concepts to master
- Main idea vs. detail: the main idea is the point the whole passage supports; details illustrate it. A good main-idea answer covers the entire passage, not one paragraph.
- Explicit vs. implied: some answers are stated directly; others require a small, supported inference. An inference must follow from the text, not from outside knowledge.
- Vocabulary in context: a word's meaning depends on surrounding sentences. Substitute each answer choice back into the sentence and see which preserves the meaning.
- Author's purpose and tone: ask why the author wrote this - to inform, persuade, explain, or entertain - and whether the attitude is neutral, critical, or approving.
- Reference and transitions: track what pronouns refer to and how words like however, therefore, in contrast signal relationships.
Traps
- Too broad or too narrow: wrong main-idea choices often overgeneralize or capture only one detail.
- True but irrelevant: a choice may state a fact from the passage that does not answer the question asked.
- Extreme wording: options using always, never, all, only are often unsupported unless the passage says so.
- Outside knowledge: do not choose an answer because it is true in real life; it must be supported by the passage.
Rule of thumb
Read the question first, then locate the relevant lines and predict an answer in your own words before looking at the choices. Match your prediction to the closest option and reject anything the passage does not support.
Example: If a passage says a bridge "cut commute times and drew new businesses downtown," the best main idea is that the bridge benefited the town economically - not that bridges are always popular, which overreaches.