TYPES OF QUESTIONS
There are four different types of questions that measure reading comprehension. These four are the following: Vocabulary, Literal Comprehension, Inferential Comprehension, and Analysis.
Inferential comprehension questions measure interpretation. These items require you to “read between the lines” or even “beyond the lines.” Making an inference requires the reader to combine prior knowledge and experience with passage information. Making an inference requires using information that is explicit in a passage, determining which ideas are relevant to answering a particular question, and combining those ideas to create something unique, something that is implied by the information at hand.
Item
types:
1) Identification
of the main idea of the passage or paragraph.
Typical wording:
This
passage deals primarily with . . .
The primary purpose of this passage is to
describe . . .
The main idea of this passage is that . . .
2) Use of the passage information to draw conclusions, make generalizations, summarize ideas, identify implied comparison or time relationships, and to generalize the author’s beliefs.
Sample Stems:
Which of the following
conclusions about the environment is supported by the passage?
Which word
would the author most likely use to describe his subject?
The author implies
that the 1950s and the 1990s differ in what way?
3) Application of one or more ideas from a passage to a situation not specifically mentioned in the passage.
Sample Stems:
How would
a manager use contingency management to supervise employees?
While the writer
focuses on women, what are the harmful effects of backlash on men?
4) Identification of the meaning of figurative language.
Typical Item Stem:
The
phrase “as the flowers wept” means that . . .
Analysis items are concerned with how a passage is written, with the choices a writer makes as he or she constructs meaning. Analysis items require the reader to make inferences about an author’s purpose and the style or structure of a passage.
1) Identification
of the style, tone, point of view, and literary
devices.
Typical Item
Stems:
The attitude of the author toward his subject can best be described as . .
.
How does
the author organize his
discussion?
The language used by the author in the final paragraph is . .
.
Which of
the following statements is a fact rather than an opinion?
2) Identification of the author’s purpose.
3)
Identification of the functional relation between words, sentences, and
paragraphs in a passage.
Typical Item Stems:
The ideas in the
last paragraph support the author’s idea that . . .
Which sentence provides a
logical conclusion to the passage?
Vocabulary items involve identifying the meanings of words as they are used in the passages. Readers must rely on context clues, a general understanding of the passage, or knowledge of common Greek or Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes. There may be words in the vocabulary items you have never seen before. You will have to depend on meaning clues in the passage. These clues may surround the underlined word in the form of formal definition, definition by example, description, comparison, contrast, synonym, antonym, and modifiers.
Item Types
1) Literal definition. Use your knowledge of the word OR context clues.
Typical Item
Stems:
The underlined word _____________________ means . .
.
____________________, underlined in the passage, means . . .
2) Understood definition. Use clues or modifiers to decide how the word is used.
Typical Item Stems:
As used in the passage,
__________________ means . .
.
As used
in the passage, __________________ refers to . . .
Literal comprehension items measure locating and recognizing information that is presented in a very straightforward fashion. Literal items cover facts and details and relationships between ideas(such as comparison, contrast, sequence of events, or cause and effect) that are stated directly in the passage. If you try to find a “trick” in these questions, you will waste time.
Item Types
1) Recognition of details or facts contained in the passage.
2) Identification of the order of events explicitly stated in the passage(clues—“in the first place,” “subsequently,” or “thereafter”)
3) Identification of similarities and/or differences among events, characters, actions, or ideas explicitly stated in the passage. (clues—“consequently,” “hence,” or “therefore”)
4) Identification of the reason(s) and/or outcome(s) of events, actions, or decisions explicitly stated in the passage.
5) Recognition of the referent(a single word or group of words) for which a word or group of words is substituted. Personal pronouns(“he,” “they,” “it”) and demonstrative pronouns(“the latter,” “this decision”) are included.