CDS English · Reading Comprehension
What a phrase, image or sentence means here
Some questions quote words from the passage and ask what they mean. The answer is the plain meaning those words have in this passage, not a dictionary meaning and not the picture taken literally.
Why this matters
These questions quote the passage, so they look easy. The trap is that every option also borrows the passage's words. The marks go to the reader who goes back to the lines around the quote and says the meaning in plain words before reading the options.
Concept 1 of 3: What a phrase points back to
Words like it, this, these and such have no meaning of their own. They point back to something the writer has already said. Find that earlier thing and put it in place of the pointing word. The sentence must still make sense.
Definition
The terms:
- Pointing word: it, this, that, these, those, such, they, the former, the latter.
- Referent: the earlier words that the pointing word stands for.
The method:
- Go to the quoted words in the passage. Read the start of the same sentence and the sentence before it. The referent is usually close.
- Match the number: these and those point to two or more things; it and this usually point to one.
- Test each candidate: put it in place of the pointing word and read the sentence. Keep the one that makes sense.
- Check the edges. The referent includes everything the writer grouped together, and nothing the writer says is still missing or comes later.
- the former = the first of two things named; the latter = the second.
Worked example
'The old fort stands on a hill above the river. Every monsoon the river rises, but it has never reached the gate.' In the second sentence, 'it' refers to (a) the old fort (b) the hill (c) the river (d) the monsoon
Practice this conceptself-check · 4 quick reps
The same idea in a real exam question:
CDS · 2017 · CDS (II) 2017 — English · Q63Hard
Example 1 · Reading Comprehension · Meaning of a Phrase or Image
Directions: In this section you have few short passages. After each passage, you will find some items based on the passage. First, read a passage and answer the items based on it. You are required to select your answers based on the contents of the passage and opinion of the author only.
Passage
According to the civil laws of most countries obedience is no longer the duty of a wife; every woman has the political right to vote; but these liberties remain theoretical as long as she does not have economic freedom. A woman supported by a man is not liberated from the male. It is through gainful employment that woman has travelled most of the distance that separated her from the male; and nothing else can guarantee her liberty in practice.
I once heard a maidservant declare, while cleaning the stone floor of a hotel lobby, “I never asked anybody for anything; I succeeded all by myself.” She was as proud of her self-sufficiency as a Rockefeller, Ford or Birla.
However, the mere combination of the right to vote and a job does not mean complete liberation : working, today, is not a liberty.
A recent study of women workers in a car factory shows that they would prefer to stay in the home rather than work in the factory. The majority of women do not escape from the traditional feminine world. Their jobs at the factory do not relieve them of housekeeping burdens; they get from neither society nor their husbands, the assistance they need to become in concrete fact the equals of men.
"These liberties" in the first paragraph refer to
Taking the nearest noun without testing it
The noun just before a pointing word is often not the referent. Put each candidate in place of the pointing word and read the sentence. Only one makes sense.
Adding what the writer says is still missing
When a passage lists what people have and then says what they still lack, a word like these covers only the first group. An option that adds the missing thing looks complete but is wrong.
Concept 2 of 3: Turn the image into plain words
Writers use pictures in words. 'The classroom was a zoo' does not mean there were animals in it. It means the class was noisy and wild. The question asks for the plain meaning of the picture. Never take it literally.
Definition
The terms:
- Metaphor: says one thing is another to show a quality: 'his arms were iron' = very strong.
- Simile: a comparison with like or as: 'as busy as a bee'.
- Analogy: a longer comparison, where one case (often an animal or an object) explains another (often people).
The method:
- Ask what quality the picture carries: iron is strong and hard; a zoo is noisy and wild.
- Say the sentence again in plain words with that quality.
- In an analogy, match the parts: who stands for whom, and what the action stands for. The answer is about the second case, not the first.
- Strike options that read the picture literally (real metal, real animals) and options that change the quality.
- Check the mood of the lines around it. An image in a tired, sad passage carries a tired, sad quality.
Worked example
'The captain's words were a lamp in that dark night; the men stopped arguing and began to plan.' 'The captain's words were a lamp' means (a) the captain carried a lamp (b) his words showed the men a way forward (c) his words were very loud (d) the night was not really dark
Practice this conceptself-check · 4 quick reps
The same idea in a real exam question:
CDS · 2017 · CDS (I) 2017 — English · Q91Moderate
Example 2 · Reading Comprehension · Meaning of a Phrase or Image
Directions: In this section, you have six short passages. After each passage, you will find some questions based on the passage. First, read a passage and answer the questions based on it. You are required to select your answers based on the contents of the passage and opinion of the author only.
Passage – 1
When Jonathan (the seagull) came, it was well after dark, and he floated in moonlight on the surface of the ocean. His wings were ragged bars of lead, but the weight of failure was even heavier on his back. He wished, feebly, that the weight would be just enough to drag him gently down to the bottom, and end it all. But soon he came back to normal. He pushed wearily away from the dark water and flew towards the land, grateful for what he had learned about work-saving low-altitude flying.
'His wings were ragged bars of lead' means that
Reading the picture literally
An option that keeps the real objects of the image (real metal, real rags, real animals) is almost always wrong. The writer chose the picture for one quality. Name that quality.
Answering about the first half of an analogy
In a passage that compares how a dog treats a frightened person with how people treat each other, the question is about people. A saying about dogs, such as 'barking dogs seldom bite', talks about the wrong half.
Concept 3 of 3: Restate the sentence from the lines around it
Some questions quote a whole sentence and ask what it means, or how. The sentence often sums up an idea that the lines around it spell out. The next sentence is the most useful: writers often explain a sentence right after they write it.
Definition
The terms:
- Restate: say the same meaning in your own simple words.
- Defined term: a name the passage itself explains, such as 'the X hypothesis argues that...'.
The method:
- Find the quoted sentence. Read one sentence before it and two after it.
- Find its key word and see what the passage shows that word to mean here.
- Restate the sentence in plain words before you look at the options.
- Pick the option that says the same thing in different words. The right answer rarely copies the passage.
- Strike the option that states the view the passage argues against, and the one that adds a cause the passage does not give.
- If the passage defines a term, the answer is that definition in plain words.
Worked example
'Courage is not the absence of fear. The bravest soldiers I knew were often afraid; they acted in spite of it.' 'Courage is not the absence of fear' means (a) brave people feel no fear (b) a brave person can feel fear and still act (c) fear makes people brave (d) soldiers are never afraid
Practice this conceptself-check · 4 quick reps
The same idea in a real exam question:
CDS · 2017 · CDS (II) 2017 — English · Q67Moderate
Example 3 · Reading Comprehension · Meaning of a Phrase or Image
Directions: In this section you have few short passages. After each passage, you will find some items based on the passage. First, read a passage and answer the items based on it. You are required to select your answers based on the contents of the passage and opinion of the author only.
Passage
Poverty is a complex problem. It is far more than an economical condition. We measure it usually in terms of income but forget that poverty embraces a whole range of circumstances, including lack of access to information and to basic services like nutritional diet, health care and education. It results into a loss of cultural identity and destroys traditional knowledge. Poor people become marginalised and suffer from exploitation and loss of human dignity.
Which of the following sentences comes close to the meaning of the sentence, "Poverty embraces a whole range of circumstances."
Stopping at the quoted sentence
The explanation is often in the next line. In one passage, a sentence about farmers who own no land was explained by the very next sentence: they lacked the money to buy it. Students who read only the quote chose a guess instead.
Picking the view the passage rejects
When a passage says something is more than X, an option saying it is only X is the opposite of the passage. It uses the passage's words, which is why it tempts.
Choosing the option with the most passage words
Wrong options often copy phrases from the passage and change the meaning. The right one usually says the same idea in new words.
Summary — formulas & gotchas at a glance
A revision cheat-sheet for the formulas and gotchas above. Click any concept name to jump back to its full explanation.
Watch out for (7)
- Taking the nearest noun without testing it→ What a phrase points back to
- Adding what the writer says is still missing→ What a phrase points back to
- Reading the picture literally→ Turn the image into plain words
- Answering about the first half of an analogy→ Turn the image into plain words
- Stopping at the quoted sentence→ Restate the sentence from the lines around it
- Picking the view the passage rejects→ Restate the sentence from the lines around it
- Choosing the option with the most passage words→ Restate the sentence from the lines around it
Test yourself on Reading Comprehension
25 past CDS questions from this chapter, timed at 25 minutes and marked the way the exam marks it. You see your score and every answer the moment you finish. Free to start.