Reading Comprehension - An Inroduction
4. Types of Questions
1. THE MAIN IDEA OR THEME BASED QUESTIONS:
In this type of questions the passage will be followed by a question with certain statements which may or may not be the central idea of the given passage, you have to choose the statement that will best qualify as the central idea discussed in the passage. The question can also ask for the most suitable title for the passage. Which will also correspond to the central theme in the passage. Another form in which this type of question can by asked is 'which of the following statement is best supported by the passage'. In this question you may be given statements more than one of which can be inferred from the passage but only one statement will be best supported by the passage, which will be the central theme of the passage.
2. VIEW OF THE AUTHOR TYPE OF QUESTIONS:
The second types of questions are the View of the Author type of questions regarding the main point discussed in the passage. In this type of questions, the questions will test your understanding of the author's view and opinion stated in passage about the central and even subordinate issue. The question may be about a specific point that author makes or a general stand that author takes. It can question you about writer's attitude towards the central idea whether or not he agrees with it, the question can also be about more than one opinion of the author, the following are the examples of this type of questions.
3. CHOOSING THE CORRECT OR WRONG STATEMENT ON THE BASIS OF THE GIVEN PASSAGE:
This type of question demands the students to derive conclusions and inferences from the given passage. This type of question will have four statements and of the four options you be asked to choose the correct or the incorrect statement in the context of the passage.
4. SUPPORTING IDEA QUESTION:
These types of questions are aimed at measuring a student's capacity to distinguish the main idea from the supporting idea. Also, this type of a question will test your ability to differentiate ideas. That is implicitly stated in a passage from the ideas that are implied by the author. These types of questions usually focus on a specific paragraph and their meaning as a contribution to the whole passage. The question may ask you about facts mentioned in the passage or ideas stated or implied in the passage. It may even demand you to draw conclusion from a specific passage.
5. INFERENCE BASED QUESTION:
By inference, it is meant reaching a logical conclusion after analysis. In questions such as these, the answer would not be available directly in the passage.
6. STYLE AND TONE QUESTIONS:
These questions are about the language of the passage and mostly aimed at testing your language skills. The different type of style and Tone questions are
- Synonym and Antonym questions: In these you may be given a word from the passage and asked for a synonym or antonym of the given world.
- Meanings of words and phrases: In this type of question you can be given a word or phrase from the passage and asked to replace them with most suitable word.
- Tone of the passage: This type of question asks about the tone of the passage, i.e. what is the style of writing of the passage. The following can be some examples of different tones and style of writing a passage.