Reading Comprehension Detailed Analysis and Practice

Author: Wang Moxi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-09-01
Features: Reading comprehension is a crucial component of the National Postgraduate Entrance English Examination. Together with English-Chinese translation, it accounts for 50% of the total score. Achieving a high score in this section is key to passing the exam. Reading comprehension ability involves both accuracy and speed. Accuracy not only refers to understanding the language of the material being read, such as unfamiliar words and phrases and sentence structures, but also to accurately extracting information from the reading material. We often encounter situations where the sentences or paragraphs we read contain no difficult words or phrases, nor complex sentence structures, yet we still feel "lost": We might also face issues where, after finishing the article, we don’t know what it mainly discusses or fail to determine the author’s purpose in writing it, or whether their arguments are valid or not. This indicates that understanding the language does not necessarily mean accurately extracting information. Additionally, if we view reading as a communicative skill for acquiring information, reading speed is also very important. Especially now, as we have entered the "information age," the vast amount of language information we can access makes the ability to obtain useful information quickly through high-speed reading undeniablely significant. Pursuing a master’s degree is an advanced stage of a student’s academic journey. Clearly, the requirements for language proficiency to enter this stage are high. Therefore, the reading comprehension section of the postgraduate entrance English exam is quite challenging, demanding both high accuracy and speed from the examinees. It has the following characteristics: 1. From the English examination syllabus (for non-English majors) and sample questions, it can be seen that the material tested is derived from academic original works or foreign periodicals that have undergone little change, covering a wide range of topics, including all types except pure literature. The genres include expository, narrative, and argumentative texts. This indicates that the test...