Literacy and Reading Comprehension
Literacy and Reading Comprehension checks how well you read a short passage - a notice, letter, report, story or set of instructions - and answer questions about it. It tests finding stated detail, working out word meaning from context, identifying the main idea, drawing a supported inference, and recognising purpose and sequence.
Skills the questions test
- Literal detail: scan for names, numbers and dates; the answer is written in the text.
- Vocabulary in context: substitute each option into the sentence and keep the one that preserves the meaning.
- Inference: the answer is not stated outright but must be proved by evidence in the passage.
- Main idea: test each option against the whole passage, not against one sentence.
- Purpose: to inform, instruct, persuade or entertain - decided by the shape of the whole text.
- Sequence: follow signal words such as first, after, then, finally.
Worked example
Passage: 'On Abaiang the school garden kept failing. The soil is sandy and salty, and seedlings wilted soon after planting. The students now raise seedlings in old tin cans filled with compost and transplant them when they are strong.' Question: Why do the students use tin cans? Reasoning: The text says the soil is sandy and salty and that seedlings wilted after planting, so the cans shield young plants from that soil until they are strong enough. The answer is a supported inference. 'Because they had no pots' would be a guess with no evidence in the passage.
Traps that cost marks
Choosing an option that is true in real life but not stated or implied in the passage; matching a word copied from the text instead of matching the meaning; reading 'some' as 'all'; giving a personal opinion where the question asks what the writer says.