Communication Ability - Reading Comprehension and Composition: Passages, Jumbles and Coherence
Reading comprehension
Read the passage once for structure: what is the author's claim, what evidence supports it, and where does the passage turn (however, yet)? Questions fall into types - main idea, specific detail, inference, tone or purpose, and vocabulary in context. Detail answers must be traceable to a stated line; inference answers must follow necessarily, not merely plausibly. Tone words are usually adjectives: critical, neutral, appreciative, ironic, sceptical.
Para jumbles
Find the opening sentence: it introduces a noun without pronouns and without a connector such as therefore, however or moreover. Then chain sentences by pronoun reference (it, they), demonstratives (this view) and connectors. A concluding sentence often carries thus or a recommendation. Eliminate options whose first sentence cannot open a paragraph rather than building the whole order.
Paragraph coherence
In composition questions, the odd sentence is the one whose subject no neighbour takes up, or which introduces a new topic. Cohesion is carried by repeated key nouns, consistent tense and a consistent point of view.
Worked example
Sentences: (A) The first trial showed a calibration error. (B) The experiment was therefore repeated. (C) The second run produced consistent readings. The connector therefore in B needs a cause before it, so B follows A, and C reports the outcome of the repeat. Order: A–B–C.
Traps
- Choosing an option that is true in the world but not stated in the passage.
- Confusing the author's view with a view the author reports and rejects.
- Starting a jumble with a sentence that begins 'This is why…'.
- Ignoring extreme words such as always or never, which usually mark a wrong inference.