Reading and Comprehension
Reading and Comprehension
This domain tests how well you extract and interpret meaning from written texts: short stories, notices, reports, letters, and informational passages. Expect items on main idea, supporting detail, sequence, cause and effect, inference, vocabulary in context, fact versus opinion, and the writer's purpose. You need to move between skimming for gist and scanning for exact information.
Core rules and concepts
- Main idea: ask what the whole text is mostly about, not what one sentence says. It is often stated in the first or last sentence, but can be implied.
- Supporting details answer who, what, when, where, why, how. They must relate back to the main idea.
- Inference: combine clues with general knowledge. If a passage says "Mara checked the sky and took an umbrella", infer that rain is likely.
- Vocabulary in context: substitute each option into the sentence and check that the whole sentence still makes sense.
- Fact/opinion: facts can be checked; opinions contain judgement words such as best, should, beautiful, unfair.
Worked example
Passage: "The school garden was once a patch of dry soil. Students carried water in buckets for three weeks. By August, beans covered the fence." Question: What is the main idea? Reasoning: the dry soil and watering are details; the change to beans covering the fence shows the garden succeeded through effort. Answer: students revived the garden through steady work. The trap is choosing "students carried water" because it is true but too narrow.
Traps that cost marks
- Selecting a true statement that does not answer the question.
- Choosing an extreme option with always, never, all, or only when the text is cautious.
- Using your own opinion instead of evidence in the passage.
- Confusing cause with effect: the rain caused the flood, not the reverse.