Literacy: reading and viewing
Reading a passage closely
Answer questions on an extract — what it states, what it implies, and what its words mean there.
A comprehension paper asks three quite different things and rarely tells you which is which. Some questions want a fact you can point at. Some want something the passage never says outright but has made certain. And some want the meaning a word has taken on in this sentence, which may not be the meaning it has in a dictionary.
Stated or implied
Stated means the words are on the page and you could underline them. Implied means the passage has put the fact beyond doubt without writing it: corridor lights already off implies somebody else has gone. Both are safe answers. What is never safe is an answer the passage merely allows.
Read the sentence, not the dictionary
A fine thread is thin; a fine performance is excellent. The word has not changed, but the sentence around it has chosen which of its meanings is at work. Cover the word, read what is left, and ask what would have to fill the gap.
Details that do the arguing
Writers rarely state a feeling. They give you a gesture instead — hands that will not keep still, a book held a little tighter, a sky checked twice. When a detail seems oddly specific, it is usually there to say something the sentence does not.
Fact and opinion
A fact can be checked: the ferry leaves at six. An opinion cannot, however widely it is shared: the ferry is the slowest way to travel. Words like best, worst and ridiculously are the giveaway — they measure against a standard somebody has chosen.
Worked example
Read: "Ravi read the note twice, folded it into a small square and put it in his pocket without a word." What does this tell you?
List what is stated: he read it twice, he folded it small, he pocketed it, he said nothing.
Separating the stated from everything else stops you arguing with the passage.
Try it together
Let us work through one short extract together.
The extract is: The shop had been in the family for sixty years. The owner turned the key, looked once at the empty shelves and did not look back. Each answer is one word.
1.Write the one word from the extract that tells you the shop had nothing left to sell.
Have a go
Read: "The clerk glanced at the clock, then at the crowd still waiting, and sighed." What does the sigh suggest?
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.