Reading Comprehension of Unseen Passages
Reading Comprehension of Unseen Passages tests what you can do with a text you have never seen - a narrative, an expository piece, a persuasive article or a functional text such as a notice or advertisement. The examiner is checking retrieval, inference and the ability to answer in the exact form demanded. Prior knowledge counts for nothing; the passage is the only authority.
What the questions actually ask
- Factual retrieval: "What did the writer do when...?" - answer briefly, from the text.
- Inference: "Why do you think...?" - a claim plus a reason drawn from the passage.
- Vocabulary in context: "Find a word that means..." - copy the exact form printed in the passage.
- Table completion, true/false with reason, sequencing events, and "Suggest a suitable title".
Method
- Read the questions first so the passage is read with a purpose.
- Skim once for gist and tone; then scan for the location of each answer.
- Match length to marks: a word or phrase for a short item, a full sentence where reasoning is asked.
- For a title, compress the central idea into three to six words; never copy the opening line.
Worked example
Passage line: "Although the town had built three new wells, the women still walked two kilometres to the river." Question: Why did the women continue to walk to the river? Reasoning: "Although" signals contrast, so the wells did not solve the problem. The answer must say the wells were inadequate, broken or unused - not that the town had no water. An answer such as "because they enjoyed walking" invents a cause the passage never gives.
Traps
Writing a paragraph where a phrase is expected; giving "True" without the supporting reason; choosing an approximate synonym instead of the exact word from the passage; missing negatives such as "not", "hardly" and "rarely".