Reading Comprehension of Prose Passages
Reading comprehension presents a short prose passage - narrative, letter or description - followed by questions on main idea, detail, inference and contextual meaning.
Working method
- Skim once for topic and tone; do not halt at unknown words.
- Mark names, numbers, places and repeated words; they anchor most questions.
- Locate the exact sentence a question refers to. Correct options usually paraphrase it.
- For 'what does the writer suggest' items, weigh the closing sentence, where Persian prose commonly states its point.
Question types
- Main idea: read the first and last sentences together.
- Detail: match keywords, but check negation (نه، هرگز، هیچ) and quantifiers (همه، برخی، هیچکس).
- Inference: the answer is implied, so reject any option that adds facts absent from the passage.
- Contextual meaning: substitute each option into the sentence and test grammar as well as sense.
Worked example
Passage: «علی هر روز پیش از طلوع آفتاب از خانه بیرون میرفت. او میخواست پیش از گرم شدن هوا به مزرعه برسد.» Question: why did Ali leave so early? The second sentence supplies purpose (میخواست … برسد), so 'to reach the field before the heat' is the answer. طلوع آفتاب is supporting detail, not the reason. The safe inference is that midday heat made field work difficult - nothing about his family or income is stated, so such options are wrong.
Traps that cost marks
Picking a true statement that the passage never makes; overlooking a final نه that reverses the clause; confusing look-alike words such as خبر 'news' and خیر 'goodness'; answering from general knowledge instead of the text.