Reading Comprehension - Information Retrieval
Information-retrieval items present practical material: a poster, a timetable, a price table, a menu, or an email paired with a schedule. You must combine two or three pieces of printed information to answer one question. The English is usually easy; the difficulty is in the conditions.
Read the conditions, not the decoration
- Opening days and hours, and closed days.
- Price bands by age or status (adult, student, child, free).
- What visitors must bring or do: indoor shoes, a signature, a reservation.
- Deadlines and "only for" notes, often printed at the bottom.
- Small print with except, not, free of charge, per person.
Worked example
Pool poster: Open 9:00–17:00. Closed Mondays. Adults 500 yen; students 250 yen; children under 6 free. "Visitors under 12 must bring a parent's signature." Question: Kenji, a 13-year-old student, goes with his 5-year-old brother on Tuesday. How much do they pay in total? Reasoning: Tuesday is not Monday, so the pool is open. Kenji is a student: 250 yen. His brother is under 6: free, so no signature rule applies to him. Kenji is over 12, so no signature is needed. Total: 250 yen.
Traps
- Answering from one line of the poster and ignoring a second condition.
- Forgetting to check the day of the week.
- Mixing the age bands, especially "under 6" versus "12 and under".
- Time arithmetic across a closing time or a last-entry deadline.
- Missing a note placed below the table rather than inside it.