Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension covers short passages, dialogues, and practical texts such as notices, schedules, emails, and menus. The paper tests main idea, specific detail, inference, pronoun reference, and writer’s purpose. Practical texts reward careful matching; short passages reward paragraph-level thinking.
Read with a job
Read the question stem before the text. For a detail question, scan for the same idea, not necessarily the same word. For a main-idea question, find the sentence that covers the whole paragraph. For an inference question, choose only what the text supports; “probably” answers need evidence.
Practical texts
Check headings, dates, prices, conditions, and small print. Notice who the text is for: students, parents, customers. A notice may say “Closed Monday; books due Monday are due Wednesday.” The key is the exception line.
Worked example
Text: “The library will be closed on Monday for inventory. Books that are due on Monday will be due on Wednesday.” Question: You have a book due Monday. When should you return it? Reasoning: the closure is Monday, but the second sentence gives the rule for books due that day. “Due on Wednesday” is the new deadline. Answer: Wednesday. Monday is a trap because it appears twice.
Traps
Matching one word and ignoring the question; choosing a true statement that does not answer the question; confusing “closed” with “due”; missing “not” or “except”; using outside knowledge instead of the text. For dialogue, track who says what: the final speaker often answers the question.