Reading Comprehension (Longer Passages and Information Retrieval)
This domain covers two different jobs. The first is a longer narrative or expository passage, where questions ask for the main idea, a paragraph's role, or which option agrees with the text. The second is information retrieval: two or three notices, a timetable, a flyer or an email exchange that you must cross-check against a set of conditions to choose one correct item.
Rules that hold
- Read the questions before the passage so you know which lines to weigh.
- For agreement items, find the line that proves or disproves each option and mark it. An option that is true but does not answer the question is still wrong.
- For retrieval items, build a short condition list from the question - day, cost, age limit, closing time - then delete candidates one condition at a time.
- Watch for conditions hidden in small print: students only, members and one guest, closed on the third Monday.
- Numbers often need one step of arithmetic: a two-hour workshop starting at 13:30 ends at 15:30, so a 15:00 bus is impossible.
Worked example
A question asks for a Saturday workshop that is free and lasts under two hours. Notice A: Saturday, ¥500, 90 minutes. Notice B: Saturday, free, 2 hours 30 minutes. Notice C: Sunday, free, 60 minutes. Reasoning: A fails the price condition, B fails the length condition, C fails the day condition, so none of the obvious three works and you must re-check whether a fourth notice exists on the page. Answering is elimination, not impression.
Traps that cost marks
Choosing an option because it repeats a word from the passage; missing a condition because it is printed in parentheses; doing the arithmetic in your head and dropping the half hour; and treating your own background knowledge as evidence.