Reading comprehension: locating evidence, not impressions
What is really being tested
Reading items fall into five families: main idea, specific detail, inference, vocabulary in context, and writer's purpose or tone. Each has a different evidence standard. Main-idea items need a scope that covers the whole passage, not one vivid paragraph. Detail items need a single line. Inference items need a conclusion that is forced by the text, not merely plausible. Vocabulary items need the meaning the word carries in that sentence, which is often not its most common dictionary sense.
Traps
The commonest wrong answers are: (1) true statements that do not answer the question asked; (2) options that echo a word from the passage but distort the relationship around it; (3) over-general options using absolutes such as all, never, only, prove; (4) over-inference, where the reader supplies outside knowledge the text never states; (5) scope errors, where a detail is offered as the main idea or the reverse. Watch contrast markers (however, although, yet): examiners love to place the real claim after the concession.
Method and worked example
Read the questions first, then the passage once at normal speed for gist, then answer by returning to the text. For each option ask: which sentence licenses this? If you cannot point to one, eliminate it.
Worked example: the passage says 'Few critics have denied the novel's ambition; almost none has called it successful.' Asked for the writer's attitude, an option reading 'the novel is ambitious but flawed' is supported - few denied the ambition, almost none called it successful. An option reading 'critics have ignored the novel' is not: critics clearly discussed it. Rule of thumb: the correct answer is a paraphrase that keeps the direction of the original - concession, contrast, degree.