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Reading Comprehension (Section 3)

Five passages of 300 to 600 words, five questions each, built on ERB's six strands: main idea, supporting ideas, inference, vocabulary, organization and tone.

18 topics · 66 questions

Each topic is a path, not a menu: work down it in order and every question builds on the one above. Click any of them to watch the answer draw itself.

How the Reading Section Is Built

  1. How it worksHow do five pieces of 300 to 600 words each end up carrying exactly five questions apiece?
  2. Worked exampleFind how many minutes each piece gets when five of them must fit inside 25 minutes.
  3. Going furtherWhat happens when you meet a piece about a subject you have never heard of before?
Your turneasy1 of 3
The Reading Comprehension section gives five passages of about 509 words each, five questions apiece, inside 25 minutes. Why is the section built out of five short pieces instead of one long one?

Reading the Passage the First Time

  1. How it worksHow do you read once for the big idea and leave the small facts to be looked up later?
  2. Worked exampleShow me a first read of a short piece about honeybees that keeps only the point in your head.
  3. Common mistakeWhy doesn't knowing every single word matter as much as knowing what the writer is saying?
  4. Going furtherWhat changes about that first read when you are given a story instead of a report?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A student skips a 509 word passage and goes straight to its five questions, planning to hunt each answer down. Why does that usually cost points?

Main Idea

  1. How it worksHow does a main idea sit as the biggest circle with each paragraph as a smaller circle inside?
  2. Common mistakeWhy isn't the topic of a piece of writing the same thing as its main idea?
  3. Worked exampleWalk me through finding the main idea of a short piece about why four-leaf clovers are rare.
  4. Going furtherWhat happens to a main idea when the writer never says it out loud in any one sentence?
Your turneasy1 of 3
1 Sea otters live in cold water and carry no thick layer of fat to 2 hold their heat in. What they have instead is the densest fur of 3 any animal, about 9 hundred thousand hairs in a square inch. An 4 otter spends hours a day combing that fur with its paws, and the 5 combing traps a blanket of air against its skin. An otter whose 6 coat turns dirty or matted will chill within a day. Which sentence states the main idea?

Main Idea Traps: Too Small, Too Big, Beside The Point

  1. How it worksHow do circles inside circles show an answer as too narrow, too wide, or exactly the right size?
  2. Worked exampleShow me why clovers are hard to find is too small for a piece about clovers and luck.
  3. Going furtherWhat happens when two answers are both the right size and you have to split them apart?
  4. Common mistakeWhy isn't the first sentence always the spot where a main idea is hiding?
Your turneasy1 of 3
1 Clover usually grows three leaves. A fourth appears when one 2 plant carries a rare change in its growing tip, and only about 3 4 stems in ten thousand ever show one. People have carried the 4 four-leaf kind for luck since Roman times, and growers now raise 5 whole beds of a strain that makes them often. Which answer is the main idea rather than a detail?

Supporting Ideas

  1. How it worksHow does an outline build itself, claim then evidence then evidence, while a piece is read?
  2. Worked exampleWalk me through finding which fact a writer gives to back up the claim that bats are not blind.
  3. Common mistakeWhy doesn't an answer count as supported just because it sounds sensible?
Your turneasy1 of 3
1 People say bats are blind, but no bat is. The 809 species that 2 hunt insects at night see about as well as a mouse, and they 3 hunt with sound because sound works in the dark. A bat calls, 4 listens for the echo, and reads the delay as distance. Fruit 5 bats, which feed by day, have the largest eyes of any bat. According to the passage, what shows that bats are not blind?

Using the Line Numbers to Go Back

  1. How it worksHow do you jump back to a numbered line and read the two lines on either side of it?
  2. Going furtherWhat happens when an answer needs two spots that sit far apart instead of one line?
  3. Worked exampleShow me how to check a claim about line 12 without rereading everything from the top.
Your turneasy1 of 3
Line numbers run down the left edge of every passage, and a question asks what a word in line 19 most nearly means. What do those numbers buy you?

Inference

  1. How it worksHow do solid boxes of stated facts let you draw one dotted box just past their edge?
  2. Worked exampleWalk me through working out that a girl is nervous from: she checked the clock four times.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't a guess that jumps two steps past the facts an inference any more?
  4. Going furtherWhat happens when two different conclusions both sit one step beyond the very same facts?
Your turneasy1 of 3
1 Nadia set her bag by the door at 7 o'clock, though the bus 2 would not come until eight. She checked the clock four times 3 while she ate, and twice more while she pulled on her coat. 4 At the window she watched the corner where the bus turns in, 5 and counted the cars that were not it. The passage never says how Nadia feels. What can you conclude?

Inference: Comparing and Contrasting

  1. How it worksHow do you build a two column chart for two characters and hunt for the row they share?
  2. Worked exampleShow me how to find the one thing two collectors share when only their habits are described.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't a difference between two characters an answer to what they have in common?
  4. Going furtherWhat changes when two things are alike in every way except for one single detail?
Your turneasy1 of 3
1 Dev keeps his stamps in albums sorted by country, and he spends 2 4 hours most Saturdays at the shop on Bridge Street hunting 3 for the gaps in his pages. Priya keeps her shells in a shoebox 4 she has never sorted, but she walks the same beach every weekend 5 and can tell you where each shell was lying when she found it. What do Dev and Priya have in common?

Inference: What Happens Next

  1. How it worksHow does a pattern in what already happened point an arrow straight at the next event?
  2. Worked exampleWalk me through predicting what a boy does next after he packs a net and heads for the pond.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't the most exciting thing that could happen next the answer a test wants?
Your turneasy1 of 3
1 Tomas filled a jar with water, folded the net under his arm and 2 checked that the lid had holes punched through it. He had waited 3 7 days for the rain to stop. The pond at the end of the lane 4 was still high, and the frogs had been loud all week. What does Tomas most likely do next?

Vocabulary: Most Nearly Means

  1. How it worksHow does a sentence turn a dial until only one meaning of a word is left standing?
  2. Worked exampleWalk me through why imposter most nearly means fake when it sits beside the word artificial.
  3. Going furtherWhat happens when the word being asked about is one you have honestly never seen?
  4. Common mistakeWhy isn't the dictionary's very first meaning the answer when a sentence points elsewhere?
Your turneasy1 of 3
1 The guide told them the river was shallow, and the class waded 2 across with the water at their knees. On the far bank they dried 3 their feet and ate the 16 sandwiches they had carried over. In line 1, shallow most nearly means

Vocabulary: When the Everyday Meaning Is The Trap

  1. How it worksHow do you test a choice by dropping it back in where the original word used to be?
  2. Worked exampleShow me why cool does not mean cold in: she stayed cool while the fire alarm rang.
  3. Common mistakeWhy doesn't a choice being a real meaning of the word make it the right answer?
Your turneasy1 of 3
1 The alarm rang through the building and 14 classes filed out 2 into the yard. Mr Adeyemi stayed cool, counting heads at the 3 gate and sending a runner back for the register. In line 2, cool most nearly means

Organization and Logic: How a Piece Is Put Together

  1. How it worksHow does an outline build on screen, block by block, as writing is read from top to bottom?
  2. Worked exampleWalk me through the shape of a piece that asks a question, gives three answers and picks one.
  3. Going furtherWhat happens to that shape when a writer jumps backward in time partway through?
  4. Common mistakeWhy isn't the longest paragraph always the most important part of what you read?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A passage of 509 words tells how a lighthouse came to be built: the wrecks that came first, then the money raised, then the building, then the years since. Why that order?

Organization and Logic: Order, Pattern and Summary

  1. How it worksHow do you lay events on a timeline when a writer uses words like later, meanwhile and finally?
  2. Worked exampleShow me how to squeeze four paragraphs about a storm into one honest sentence.
  3. Going furtherWhat changes when writing is built on a problem and its solution instead of a time order?
Your turneasy1 of 3
1 The tide was out when they set the nets. Later the wind turned, 2 and meanwhile the 10 boats still at sea began making for the 3 harbour. By the time the nets were hauled the first squall had 4 crossed the bay, and finally the rain came. Which event came last?

Tone, Mood and Point of View

  1. How it worksHow does one swapped word turn a tone dial from cheerful all the way around to gloomy?
  2. Common mistakeWhy isn't a sad event happening the same thing as a sad tone?
  3. Worked exampleWalk me through the tone of: the old house sagged under a gray and dripping sky.
  4. Going furtherWhat changes when a story is told by someone inside it instead of someone watching from outside?
Your turneasy1 of 3
1 The old house sagged under a gray and dripping sky. 7 of its 2 windows were boarded over, and the gate hung from one hinge 3 above a path the grass had taken back. What is the tone of these lines?

Figurative Language: Images, Irony and Personification

  1. How it worksHow does an object grow a face and start moving the moment a writer uses personification?
  2. Worked exampleShow me the irony in a fire station burning down while its crew is out running a fire drill.
  3. Going furtherWhat happens when a writer paints a place you can smell and hear, not only see?
  4. Ties togetherHow does a tone change the instant a writer gives the weather feelings of its own?
Your turneasy1 of 3
1 The wind shoved the door open and walked through the kitchen, 2 knocking 5 cups off the shelf and slamming out again. What is the writer doing with the wind in these lines?

Genres: Story, Report, Argument and Picture

  1. How it worksHow do narrative, expository, persuasive and descriptive writing each ask a different job of you?
  2. Common mistakeWhy isn't writing that is stuffed with facts automatically a report rather than an argument?
  3. Worked exampleWalk me through spotting that a piece about school uniforms is trying to persuade you.
  4. Going furtherWhat changes about the questions when the subject is science instead of history?
Your turneasy1 of 3
1 Every school should require uniforms. Families spend less over 2 a year, mornings run smoother, and in the 30 schools that have 3 tried it, teachers reported fewer arguments about clothes. What kind of writing is this?

The Answer Has To Come From What You Read

  1. How it worksHow do you check a tempting answer by hunting for the exact line that actually says it?
  2. Worked exampleShow me how a true fact about the moon can still be a wrong answer about a moon article.
  3. Going furtherWhat happens when you read something you are completely sure is wrong?
  4. Common mistakeWhy doesn't an answer being true in real life make it a supported answer?
Your turneasy1 of 3
1 The moon keeps one face turned toward us because its spin and 2 its orbit both take the same 28 days. The far side went unseen 3 until a spacecraft photographed it. Which answer is true in real life and still wrong here?

Five Passages, Twenty-Five Minutes

  1. How it worksHow does a time budget shrink as you spend it, one piece of writing at a time, across 25 minutes?
  2. Worked exampleFind how much time is left for four more pieces if the first one swallowed nine minutes.
  3. Common mistakeWhy doesn't rereading something three times make its questions any easier to answer?
  4. Ties togetherHow do the six kinds of reading questions change the order you should answer them in?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Reading Comprehension gives 25 minutes for five passages of five questions each. A student wants 3 extra minutes for the last passage. Where do they have to come from?

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