Reading Comprehension: Main Idea, Details, and Inference
Core skills
Reading Comprehension asks you to identify the main idea, locate supporting details, make inferences, determine the author’s purpose or tone, interpret vocabulary in context, and understand passage organization. Read actively: track the topic, the author’s claim, and the evidence offered. Pay attention to transition words such as however, therefore, and for example, because they signal shifts in logic.
Common traps
An option may be true according to the passage but fail to answer the specific question. Extreme words such as always, never, and only often signal wrong choices. Do not confuse an inference with a directly stated detail; an inference must follow from the text without going beyond it. For vocabulary-in-context, the common meaning of a word may be wrong. For tone, separate the author’s attitude from the topic’s seriousness.
Rule of thumb
Answer with evidence from the passage, not from personal knowledge. For main-idea questions, ask what most of the paragraph or passage is doing. For inference questions, choose the smallest reasonable step beyond what is stated.
Worked example
If a passage says a town built new bike lanes and later reports that downtown traffic decreased, you may infer that the lanes may have contributed to the decrease. You may not conclude that the lanes definitely caused it unless the passage states causation.