Introduction

"Comprehension" means the ability to understand. The understanding here does refer to a superficial one but an in-depth understanding. Thoughts are often so engrossed in the puzzle of words. At times, it is difficult to follow the flow of thought at first glance. A proper comprehension of a passage thus requires a good command of the English language, quick reading capability, strong vocabulary, hawk-like observation power, quick understanding of the central idea, ability, etc. Comprehension tests an individuals ability to the core. This is the prime reason, comprehensions are now a key part of aptitude majority of test.



Format of Reading Comprehension Passage

In general, the comprehension part involves one reading passage taken from published material. The published material could be extracted from newspapers, journals, books, etc. At the end of the passage, a series of questions about the content of the passage are asked.

The reading passages are drawn from several areas viz.

  • Sciences
  • Nepalese and world politics
  • Literature
  • Art 
  • Music
  • Philosophy, etc.

The questions generally tries to:

  1. test the ability of a reader to comprehend directly visible information in the passage.
  2. test the ability of a reader to comprehend implications and draw inferences from a passage.
  3. test the ability of a reader to identify and evaluate the author's purpose, style, and arguments.
  4. test the ability of a reader to recognize the central idea associated with the passage.
  5. test the vocabulary strength of a reader, etc.

Ways to approach a passage

  • Read the question first: Why read the question before the passage? Because it saves time to know what you are reading for!
  • Make sure you understand the question: What kind of information will you need to gather when you read? Will you be looking for facts? Or will you be using the passage to come up with your own answer?
  • Read the passage: Read the passage as quickly as you can. Look for the answer as you read. When you find it, take notice of it, but- and this is important- don't stop reading yet! Read to the end. That way you can be sure that your answer is the best, most complete answer possible. If you are reading the passage in order to provide a written response, read more carefully. Make sure you understand everything.
  • Providing the answer: Feel free to look back at the passage to double-check your answer.

Reading comprehension strategy

  1. Plan and monitor: controlling one's mental activities; it is met cognitive in nature, centering about reader's awareness and control of their comprehension. When engaged with this strategy, youth are taught planning skills- how to make predictions. They are also taught how to clarify ideas by using fix-up strategies and how to clarify vocabulary by using context clues and other word-level fix-up strategies.
  2. Determine importance: identifying essential ideas and information. This is the ability to separate the wheat from the chaff in text. Youth are taught how to identify stated and implied main ideas, how to summarize texts, and how to note the personal revalance of ideas and information.
  3. Ask questions: interrogating texts for a variety of purposes.such as checking one's understanding, querying the author among his or her writing, and discerning relationships among odeas and information within a text.
  4. Make inferences: linking parts of texts that authors did not links explicitly. Using what one already knows to form links across sentences and paragraphs. Often knownas "reading between the lines."
  5. Make connections: using what is known to enrich authors meaning; taking what has been learned from one's own life experiences, other texts, and cultural and global matters to deepen understandings of what the author presents. Otherwise known as "reading beyond the lines."
  6. Synthesize: putting together ideas from multiple sources; deciding how ideas go together in a way that is new; figuring out how what one is reading and learning fits together in a way not thought of before. Youth are taught how to draw conclusions, from generalizations, and make comparisons across texts.
  7. Visualize: forming sensory and emotional images of textual contents, especially visual images. This strategy also includes an aspect specifically for teens who don't consider one is having an emotional response while reading and to identify what the author did to invoke that response.
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