Reading Comprehension - Unseen Passages
Reading Comprehension opens the RBSE Senior Secondary English Compulsory paper. It tests two unseen passages - typically one factual or discursive and one literary or reflective - through literal questions, inference questions, vocabulary items, note-making and a summary. No outside knowledge is rewarded; every answer must be traceable to the passage.
Core rules
- Read the questions before the passage so you know which lines to slow down on.
- Answer in your own words; lift only technical terms and key phrases.
- Note-making: give the passage a title, use headings and indented sub-headings, keep points telegraphic (noun phrases, not full sentences), use standard abbreviations, and add a key at the end.
- Summary: roughly one-third of the passage, third person, present tense, no examples and no quotations.
- For 'find the word which means…', supply one word only, matching the part of speech used in the passage.
Worked example
Passage line: 'The village pond, once full till March, now dries by December; the wells have been deepened twice in a decade.' Question: What does the line suggest about water in the village? Weak answer: 'The pond dries in December.' Answer: 'Groundwater is falling - the pond empties three months earlier than before, and wells must be deepened repeatedly to reach water.' Reasoning: the verb 'suggest' signals inference. Two facts (earlier drying, repeated deepening) must be linked; the weak answer merely repeats half the sentence.
Traps
Copying whole clauses instead of compressing; omitting the abbreviation key in note-making; writing the summary in the first person or as a list; answering a 'why' question with a 'what'; offering two or three words for a one-word vocabulary item; giving your own opinion where the question asks for the writer's.