Reading Comprehension: Short Passages (短文読解)
What this domain tests
Short-passage reading in the Tochigi paper uses notices, e-mails, school announcements, and brief dialogues. The test asks for practical understanding: who wrote the text, what the reader must do, when something happens, and what a pronoun or blank refers to. The Japanese study term is 短文読解.
Core rules and concepts
- Identify the text type first. A notice gives conditions; an e-mail gives a request and a reason; a dialogue gives a decision.
- Scan for the keyword in the question, then read the sentence around it, not the whole text again.
- Treat time expressions as a chain: by Thursday, until Friday, from 4 p.m. These are common answer points.
- For pronoun questions, look back to the nearest suitable noun that fits the meaning.
- For blank-completion, test the sentence's function: reason, contrast, example, or result.
Worked example
Notice: 'The art room will be open until 5 p.m. on Friday. Students who wish to use it must write their names on the list by Thursday.' Question: What must students do by Thursday?
Reasoning: 'By Thursday' is the deadline for the action 'write their names on the list.' 'Until 5 p.m. on Friday' describes the opening time, not the deadline. The answer is: write their names on the list.
Traps that cost marks
- Mixing up 'by' and 'until': by means no later than; until means continuing up to.
- Choosing an option that is true in the text but does not answer the question.
- Over-reading a short notice and inventing a condition that is not printed.
- Ignoring a negative: 'No food or drink' is not 'food is sold here.'
Exam habit
Underline the question word: who, what, when, where, why, how. Then find exactly one sentence that supplies it.