Reading Comprehension (Unseen Passages)
What the unseen passage tests
Reading Comprehension (Unseen Passages) checks whether you can read a fresh passage and answer without outside knowledge. The paper usually mixes short-answer questions, true/false or fill-in items, word meanings, and a title question. The examiner is testing retrieval, inference, and language control, not your opinion.
Core rules
- Read the questions first, then the passage once at normal speed. Mark paragraph numbers.
- Answer in the tense and person the question uses. If it asks 'Why did the writer...', begin 'Because...' or 'The writer... because...'.
- For 'in your own words', change the structure, not the fact. Keep key nouns and verbs.
- Vocabulary items: use the context sentence. 'Rare' may mean 'uncommon', not 'valuable', depending on the sentence.
- True/false items often turn on one negative or one number. Underline it.
- A title must cover the whole passage, not one paragraph.
Worked example
Passage: 'In many small towns the weekly haat still survives. Farmers arrive before dawn, spread cloth on the ground, and sell vegetables, ropes, and cheap cloth. By noon the ground is empty again. For the villagers the haat is not only a market; it is a school where news, prices, and marriages are discussed.'
Question: Why does the writer call the haat 'a school'? Reasoning: The literal answer 'because it teaches' is weak. The passage says news, prices, and marriages are discussed there. So the haat is a place of learning and information exchange. Answer: 'Because villagers exchange news, learn prices, and discuss marriages there.'
Traps
Copying a whole sentence when two marks need a precise phrase; ignoring 'own words'; over-inferring beyond the text; confusing 'the writer says' with 'I think'; leaving a true/false blank.
Key points
- Read questions before the passage.
- Answer precisely and in your own words when asked.
- Use context for vocabulary.
- A title must cover the whole passage.
- Watch negatives and numbers.