Reading Passage Literal Questions

Questions that test whether you understood what the passage was saying on a literal, concrete level.

• Reading Comprehension

• Inference

• Identifying and Interpreting Figurative Langauge

• Literary Techniques

The following example is what type of question?
Which of the following is true of Mrs. Ramsay’s attitude toward Charles Tansley throughout the passage?
(A) It changes from bemused tolerance to passionate longing.
(B) It vacillates between liking and disliking.
(C) It becomes increasingly mocking.
(D) It changes suddenly from contempt to pity.
(E) It alternates between admiration and indifference.

• Literary Technique
• Identifying and Interpreting Figurative Language
• Structure
• Reading Comprehension

These questions ask why the author uses particular words, phrases, or structures. Essentially, what purpose do such choices serve in a literary sense? What effect is created? These questions often include words like “serves chiefly to,” “effect,” “evoke,” and “in order to.”

• Grammar

• Structure

• Literary Technique

• Character Analysis

The following example is what type of question?
According to the passage, why does Satan not enter the garden by the gate? (A) The gate is protected by God.
(B) The gate is hidden by overgrown shrubbery.
(C) He is too large to fit through the gate.
(D) He is contemptuous of proper procedures.
(E) He fears an encounter with other creatures.

• Literary Technique

• Character Analysis

• Overall Passage Question

• Structure

The majority of the reading questions will be about the information in the passage and not about an infographic.

• True

• False

The SAT Reading tests your ability to find factual information in a passage but also your capacity to understand how arguments are constructed.

• False

• True

Literal comprehension questions:

• questions ask you to identify what the passage suggests or indirectly states.

• ask you to identify what the passage directly states.

Supporting evidence questions:

• Ask you to identify the rhetorical role (e.g., support, refute, criticize) that various information plays within the passage.

• Both literal comprehension and inference questions will frequently be followed by which require you to identify the specific lines in the passage that provide the answer to the previous question.

You will have to answer questions about ____ different types of passages.

• 5

• 6

• 3

• 4

Select the passage types that you will find on the SAT Reading section:

• Classic / Contemporary Fiction

• Social science (social studies)

• Historical documents

• Natural Sciences

• Economics