Reading Comprehension (Longer Passages, Information Transfer)
What this domain tests
Longer Miyagi reading passages include explanations, narratives, and school reports. Information-transfer tasks ask you to complete a table, chart, or summary using details from the passage. You must locate categories, paraphrase, and keep the answer within the word limit.
Core rules
- Read the table headings before the passage. They tell you what to scan for: problem, action, result, date, person, number.
- Match by meaning, not by identical words. Cut down on can become reduce; took part in can become joined.
- Keep the column logic: a cause goes under reason, an effect under result.
- Copy only the needed phrase; do not copy a full sentence unless the task requires one.
- Check numbers and units: by 60% means a decrease of 60%, while to 60% means the final figure is 60%.
- Use the passage order to check that you have not skipped a category.
Worked example
Passage: “Last year, our school used 1,200 plastic bottles at the festival. This year, the student council asked students to bring reusable bottles. As a result, plastic waste fell by 60 percent.” Table: Problem | Action | Result Reasoning: The problem is the 1,200 plastic bottles. The action is asking students to bring reusable bottles. The result is a 60% fall in plastic waste. Do not write “1,200” as the result; it belongs under the problem.
Traps that cost marks
- Putting information in the wrong column because you matched a word, not the function.
- Writing 60% when the table asks for the action.
- Exceeding the word limit and losing the mark.
- Missing a contrast: however, although, and but often change the correct category.
- Copying a pronoun such as it without its noun, making the note unclear.