Read an Academic Passage — skim, scan, and point at the line
What the academic passage asks
- A short academic text of the kind you might read at university, with questions about its meaning.
- It is written for a general reader, not a specialist. You are never expected to know the subject.
- The information needed to answer is in the passage. For an inference, show which words make your conclusion reasonable.
Outside knowledge may be brilliant; it still needs a ticket from the passage.
Skim, then scan
- Skim briefly: what is this about, how many parts are there, and where does the argument turn?
- Then answer, and scan back for each fact. You are looking up, not re-reading.
- A paragraph's opening can signal its main point. Check the rest, especially if a contrast word changes direction.
A question asks which paragraph explains a cause. What do you compare it against?
The opening is a useful starting point, but read further if the paragraph changes direction. Match the question to the paragraph's actual main point.
Words in context, and word parts
- A vocabulary question asks what a word means in this passage, not in general.
- Use word parts as clues: prefixes such as un- or re- and suffixes such as -tion or -able can narrow the possibilities. The sentence still decides the meaning.
- The passage will say the same thing in different words on purpose. A synonym is the normal case, not a trick.
A vocabulary question is asking for the word's usual dictionary meaning.
It asks what the word means in THIS passage. Answer from the sentence, not from memory.
Inference is still evidence
- An inference question asks what the passage lets you conclude, not what it states.
- The right answer is always supported by a line. The wrong ones are true in general but not supported here.
- Test each option with: which sentence makes this necessary? No sentence, no answer.
Two options are both plausible. How do you choose?
Wrong options in this task are usually true in general and unsupported here. 'Which sentence makes this necessary?' separates them every time.
How to practise
- Read one academic page a day without a dictionary, then look up only the words that blocked you.
- Practise taking meaning directly from the English sentence. Translating every sentence adds an extra step and leaves less time for checking evidence.
- Task description and approximate section timing checked on 23 September 2026: ETS Reading section, ETS test content.
Translating each sentence into Chinese as you read is a safe way to be accurate.
Translating every sentence adds a step and can leave less time to check the relevant line. Practise understanding the English sentence directly, then verify answers in the text.