HUGE Tip for any English Reading Comprehension Exam and Examples!

Hi all, I’ll still write my weekly Tech Highlights blurb later this week, but first I thought I’d share a little tip for English reading comprehension exams. Alas, I’m too late to help the Grade 12s of this year, but maybe other people can benefit. It looks like a wall of text, but I’ve seen people boost their average by anywhere from 10-25% using this!

I learned this little tip in my English class at Sir Winston Churchill High School, and it seems crazy at first, but bear with me. Get ready to throw your copy of The Key out the window, you won’t need it anymore.

It is possible to complete a reading comprehension exam without reading most, if any at all, of the given texts.

*flips desk*

Crazy right? Not so much. As a class we tried to write an exam with all the passages removed. The average score was around 90 percent! See a reading comprehension exam, especially in English, is testing two things. Your ability to read the text and read the question! And for a proper question, the

answer is already included in the question! For instance:

Q: What color is that green car?

A: That car is green!

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Okay that example is a bit crude I admit, so instead I’ll use this past diploma question (from 1998):

22. Mrs. Levi’s observation “The future is the most expensive luxury in the world, Mr. Kemper” (lines 117 to 119) reflects her

A) Practical nature

B) Pessimistic nature

C) Pretentious behavior

D) Predictable behavior

We know the key to the answer is in the question, so start by analyzing the question, highlighting is never a bad idea.

Mrs. Levi’s observation “The future is the most expensive luxury in the world, Mr. Kemper” (lines 117 to 119) reflects her…

From her statement, we can determine that Mrs. Levi quite literally cannot afford to think of the future, meaning that she spends her time doing what she can in the present. Without even looking at the answers, we can tell right away the Mrs. Levi is not a whimsical person, but rather is down to business and mostly sensible. Now take a look at the answers:

A) Practical nature

This choice is a strong contender for the answer, by thinking in the present and calling the future an expensive luxury, it is very likely that she is a practical individual. Let’s hang on to this answer for now and see what other choices we have.

B) Pessimistic nature

This is a good distracter, but nothing in her quote can directly allow us to infer that she is pessimistic. She may not necessarily show optimism towards the future, but the emphasis of the passage is that she is focused on the present. This is likely not the answer.

C) Pretentious behavior

Nothing in the passage would lead one to believe that she is being pretentious. If she was pretentious, she could have said something like “I don’t have time to deal with the future Mr. Kemper, I’m important right here and right now”. A bit of a crude example, but this is likely not the answer.

D) Predictable behavior

Definitely not this one, nothing really indicates that she is predictable.

So from our inferences, we have determined that the answer is likely A. And looking at the answer key, indeed it is!

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Let’s try a few more, this one is a bit tougher:

42. Dan’s ability to “escape continuous punishment” (line 111) appears to be a result of his:

A) Hard work at school

B) Prepossessing charm

C) Fear of consequences at home

D) Friends being willing to take the blame

Once again, look at the question

Dan’s ability to “escape continuous punishment” (line 111) appears to be a result of his:

So we know that he has some sort of ability or trait that allows him to escape continuous punishment. It should also be noted that he is already being punished (continuous punishment).

A) Hard work at school

Probably not this one, the question implies that he is already being punished. Working hard at school means that he probably wouldn’t even get into trouble in the first place.

B) Prepossessing charm

This one is a strong contender. Having high levels of charm means that Dan would be able to work his way out of being punished. If you’ve ever seen Ferris Bueller’s Day off, you would understand what this means. Let’s keep this one aside

C) Fear of consequences at home

Huge distracter, what you have to keep in mind is that he is already being punished. If he was afraid of consequences at home, he wouldn’t want to get into trouble in the first place. This one is out.

D) Friends being willing to take the blame

Another big distracter, but once again it comes down to the fact that he is already being punished. If his friends took the blame, he probably wouldn’t be in that much trouble. So this one is probably out

From this analysis, we can say with reasonable certainty that the answer is B), and according to the answer key, it is!

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Okay last one, see if you can answer it before we analyze it

47. Describing Fortune as “skittish” (line 46) means that she is

A) Fancy

B) Erratic

C) Fond of favors

D) Dangerous to pursue

Take a look at the question, fortune is skittish. You don’t have access to a dictionary, but you should know that skittish means lively and unpredictable. Even if you don’t know what it means, you can break the rule, go back, and obtain some context.

A) Fancy

Nope! That’s not what skittish means!

B) Erratic

Probably this one. Erratic is basically a synonym to skittish

C) Fond of favors

Though fortune may be lively, this makes no sense since we’ve already determined that fortune is skittish

D) Dangerous to pursue

Good distracter if you don’t know what skittish means, but ultimately this is incorrect.

The answer is B! Erratic!

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That’s it! That’s the huge gigantic secret that’s been staring you in the face the last 12 years. Spread it around!

Good luck!