Reading Comprehension
Reading Comprehension asks you to work with narratives, expository passages, and practical texts such as emails, notices, and charts. Questions test main idea, detail, inference, pronoun reference, vocabulary in context, and the writer's purpose. The passage and questions are in English; some items require combining a short text with a graph or table.
Core rules and concepts
- Skim first for structure: title, first and last sentences of paragraphs, and any headings. Then scan for the specific detail each question names.
- Treat connectives as signposts: however signals contrast, therefore signals conclusion, for example signals support.
- For reference questions, substitute the candidate noun into the sentence and check grammar and meaning.
- For inference, choose the option that must be true from the text, not the one that is merely plausible.
- In graph-text items, match the label and unit before comparing values; the text often explains the reason behind the graph.
Worked example
Passage: "Mika joined the volunteer club because she wanted to help international students. At first she was nervous about speaking English, but after three months she began to enjoy the weekly meetings." Question: Why did Mika join the volunteer club? Options: A) To practice English. B) To help international students. C) To make Japanese friends. Reasoning: The sentence with "because" states the reason directly: "she wanted to help international students." A is a later result, not the stated reason. C is not mentioned.
Traps that cost marks
- Choosing an option that repeats words from the passage but answers a different question.
- Ignoring NOT or EXCEPT in the question stem.
- Over-inferring: adding information the passage does not support.
- Misreading time order (before/after) and then choosing the wrong event.