Comprehension: Answering Only from the Printed Passage
Comprehension in JAMB Use of English presents one or more prose passages followed by questions testing main idea, stated detail, valid inference, the writer's tone or purpose, pronoun reference, and the meaning of a word or phrase as used in the passage. Every correct option must be defensible from the printed text alone; outside knowledge, however true, earns nothing.
What the questions actually ask
- Main idea / best title: the option that covers the whole passage, not one paragraph.
- Detail: the answer is stated verbatim or in close paraphrase; re-read the line reference.
- Inference: the answer follows necessarily from the text, not merely plausibly.
- Tone/attitude: watch adjectives, adverbs and concessive words such as although, yet, unfortunately.
- Reference: a pronoun agrees in number and person with its antecedent - usually the nearest grammatically possible noun phrase.
- Vocabulary in context: the sense that fits the sentence, not the dictionary's first meaning.
Worked example
Passage: Although the state has built more roads in the last decade, traffic in the capital has worsened, largely because the number of vehicles has tripled. Question: What does the writer imply? Answer: building roads has not by itself solved congestion. Reasoning: Although sets up a contrast between expected and actual result, and largely because names the dominant cause - the growth in vehicles.
Traps that cost marks
- Options that are true in real life but never stated in the passage.
- Absolute wording (all, never, only, always) that overstates a qualified passage.
- Confusing 'the writer implies' with 'the writer states'.
- Distractors that recycle the passage's own words but reverse its logic.
- For reference questions, choosing the passage's topic instead of the grammatical antecedent.