Reading Comprehension: Answer the Question Asked
What this section tests
Reading Comprehension is 36 questions in 35 minutes at the Middle and Upper levels, built around roughly six passages: fiction, nonfiction, science, social studies, and occasionally poetry. Questions ask for main idea, supporting detail, inference, vocabulary in context, tone, purpose, and organization.
Core rules
- Read for structure first: what is the passage about, and what is the author doing with it - describing, arguing, narrating, comparing?
- Main idea = topic + the author's point about the topic. A detail is not a main idea, however true it is.
- Detail questions are retrieval tasks. Locate the line, then choose the paraphrase; the right answer rarely repeats the passage's exact words.
- Inference answers must follow from the text by one small step. If you needed outside knowledge to get there, the choice is wrong.
- Vocabulary in context: reread the sentence, substitute each choice, and keep the one that preserves the passage's meaning.
Worked example
"The city's decision to remove the old trolley tracks surprised few residents. For years the rails had sat unused, rusting between cracks in the asphalt, while planners debated the cost of restoration."
The main idea is that removal was expected because the tracks had long been out of service. "Residents opposed the removal" is a tempting wrong choice: plausible in real life, but unsupported here. "Surprised few" is the signal.
Traps
- Choosing a true statement that does not answer the question asked.
- Extreme wording - always, never, all, none - is usually wrong unless the passage says so.
- Confusing the author's view with a view the author quotes or criticizes.
- On EXCEPT and NOT questions, forgetting to reverse the task and eliminate the three supported choices.