GUIDELINES FOR READING COMPREHENSION responses to the comprehension questions depend on your ability to make sense of the formation provided in a passage or experiences presented in a poem. The passages of prose and the selections of poems vary in style and content. Read the passage carefully. Every word is important. Read for details, Read the questions and answers carefully. Each answer can be found in the selection directly or deduced from it. +) The details or evidence in the selection must support your answer or justify your choice Compare each alternative response with the details of the selection, then eliminate the wrong, answers. Rule out choices that don’t answer the question or that the information in the selection contradicts ©) Check your choice of the right answer against the evidence in the passage or poem. Words, phrases and sentences can prove that your answer is correct or support your choice The passages and poems contain numbered lines. If the question refers to a particular line or lines, return to the line or lines before attempting the question, 8) Do not leave a selection (passage, poem or advertisement) before you have completed it. If you have to return to it because you have left out a difficult item, you should skim through the selection again. ®) After you have completed the test and you have some time left, check your work again, particularly items you were not sure about or you may have omitted. Focus on key words and phrases in questions According to the passage/poem/advertisement... According to the writer/author... These phrases commit you to understanding what the author has presented or what is contained specifically in the selection. You must not use personal experiences or opinions. Remember the answers must come from the passage or poem. BEST The word BEST requires you to select the most appropriate or acceptable response. A response may seem to fit, but it is not necessarily the best answer. Your ability to compare the choices or alternatives and to discriminate among them is vital. -235-MAINLY, CHIEFLY, PRIMARILY These words require you to look for what is essential - the most important, the central explanation or reason, the key element, feature or idea or viewpoint. EXCEPT This word asks you to select what does not relate to or belong with the other choices. It may be an incorrect word, idea or feature. IMPLY The word ‘imply’ refers to what the author suggests or does not state directly. The details of the selection suggest; they do not give the answer obviously or explicitly. In reading between the lines we discern the author's implied meaning, INFER The word ‘infer’ relates to the reader’s conclusion or deduction based on the evidence (facts examples, statistical information, expert opinion) given in the selection. It is what the reader draws from the selection based on the information given in the piece. -236-