Developing Reading Comprehension Skills

OVERVIEW
• Finding main ideas and supporting details
• Skimming for specific information
• Making inferences
• Understanding advertisements
• How thoughts are related
• Understanding contemporary reading passages
• Reading history textbooks
• Summing it up

FINDING MAIN IDEAS AND SUPPORTING DETAILS

The most valuable reading comprehension skill is probably the ability to
determine the most important thing an author is saying. Read the following
paragraph to see if you can distinguish between essential and
nonessential information and between the main idea and the supporting
details.
Sample Reading Passage 1
Left-handed people suffer more from stress than their right-handed peers,
according to a study of 1,100 adults by University of Michigan researchers.
As a result, they smoke and drink more. Fifty-five percent of the lefties
smoked, whereas fewer than half of the righties smoked. Furthermore, the
lefties consumed more alcohol per year than their right-handed
counterparts.
The main idea is
_______________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
__________________________
Notice that in this paragraph, it was the first sentence that told you the
main idea. This sentence, called a “topic sentence,” usually appears at the
beginning. Sometimes, however, the paragraph’s main idea is expressed
in the last sentence, and sometimes readers must determine the main idea
of a paragraph by summarizing the author’s message themselves.

Answer
The main idea of the passage is that left-handed people suffer more
from stress than right-handed people.
Directions: Underline the main idea and circle the supporting details as you
read the paragraph below. Then write them in note form in the space
provided.
Sample Reading Passage 2
You ought to know what to do to help a person who is choking. First, you
stand behind the choking victim and put your arms around his or her waist.
Second, you make a fist and place the thumb side against the person’s
stomach just above the navel, but below the ribs. Third, grasp your fist with
your other hand and press into the victim’s abdomen with a quick upward
thrust. Repeat this action if necessary.
Main idea:
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________
Supporting details:
(A) ______________________________________________________
(B) ______________________________________________________
(C)__________________________________________________
(D)__________________________________________________

Answer
Main idea: You should know how to help a person who is choking.
Supporting details:
(A) Stand behind the victim and put your arms around his or her waist.
(B) Make a fist and place the thumb side against the person’s stomach.
(C) Grasp your fist with your other hand and press into the abdo- men
with a quick upward thrust.
(D) Repeat if necessary.

Now, read the following paragraph to determine what the main

idea means to a passage.

Sample Reading Passage 3

What’s the best way for you, as an employer, to deliver bad news to an
employee? First of all, you have to break the news yourself, face to face
with the recipient. You can’t write memos to tell people they will not get
raises this year or that they have made an error or are not performing
as well as expected. You have to show them how you feel about the
matter and that you are personally sorry and sympathize with them. If
you indicate that you are ready to listen to their reactions to your bad
 news, you will undoubtedly save yourself from their wrath. Above all,
you must be ready for an emotional reaction from the recipient of bad
news. Give people time to digest your news and to control the emotion
they invariably feel. Although it is never easy to break bad news, if you
follow these steps, you will at least soften the blow.
1. The author’s main idea is that
(A) bad news is hard to impart
(B) all employers have to criticize their employees
(C) there are ways of softening the impact of bad news
(D) people respond emotionally to bad news

2. Where is the main idea expressed?

(A) In the first sentence
(B) In the last sentence
(C) In the middle of the paragraph
(D) Nowhere

3. The main idea is supported by

(A) examples of employers giving bad news
(B) a list of reasons for having to break bad news
(C) sympathy for both the employer and employee
(D) instructions on how to soften the blow of bad news

In addition to finding the main idea and supporting details in a reading

passage, it is also important to understand an author’s intent or purpose.
When you read critically, you must:
• Understand what the author is saying
• Distinguish fact from opinion
• Determine the author’s attitude toward the topic

Read the paragraphs that follow. Then answer the questions about the
author’s intent and attitude.

Sample Reading Passage 4

Yogurt has as much nutritional value as a glass of milk, yet dieters and
health food fanatics claim that yogurt will prolong your life and reduce your
girth. Their claims are backed by reports that yogurt eaters over the years
have lived longer and healthier lives than non-yogurt eaters. However,
what proof is there that rural life and its ensuing greater physical activity
rather than consumption of yogurt are not the cause of these people’s
longevity?
1. The author’s intent is to show that
(A) yogurt is good for your health
(B) eating yogurt will prolong your life
(C) yogurt is the same as milk
(D) there is no proof that yogurt increases longevity

2. The paragraph advises the reader that

(A) yogurt will help a person to live to be 100
(B) the author has little faith in yogurt lovers’ claims
(C) yogurt may be harmful to dieters and health food lovers
(D) people in rural areas eat a lot of yogurt

Sample Reading Passage 5

Most of us believe that the death of a spouse often leads to the premature
death of the bereft partner. After twelve years of study involving 4,000
widows and widowers, Johns Hopkins University researchers have
perceived that it is the husbands, and not the wives, whose lives are
shortened by the loss of their spouses. However, the study indicates that
widowers who remarry enjoy greater longevity than men the same age
who continue to live with their first wives.
1. The main idea is that
(A) men live longer than their wives
(B) widowers live longer than single men
(C) remarriage after a spouse’s death prolongs men’s lives
(D) the death of a spouse shortens the life of the surviving partner

2. The author’s intent is to

(A) discuss a medical discovery
(B) make a conjecture regarding death
(C) correct a generally held misconception
(D) advise widowers to live alone