Reading Comprehension Flashcards
7 cards from real CLT practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Reading Comprehension flashcards as text
A passage describes a character who 'smiled with his lips but not his eyes.' What technique is the author using, and what does it convey?
Answer: Physical detail to imply concealed emotion or insincerity
Observing a disconnect between facial features is a realistic detail technique that signals hidden feeling—here, likely falseness or sorrow beneath apparent cheerfulness.
When an author uses a series of rhetorical questions without answering them, the most likely purpose is to:
Answer: Invite the reader to supply obvious answers, building momentum toward a conclusion
Rhetorical questions answered implicitly by the reader create persuasive energy; the reader becomes an active participant agreeing with the author's direction.
In classical rhetoric, an argument 'ad hominem' is considered a fallacy because it:
Answer: Attacks the person making the argument rather than the argument itself
Ad hominem (Latin: 'to the man') is a fallacy because discrediting a speaker's character does not logically refute the claims they make.
A passage uses the phrase 'the twilight of the old order.' The word 'twilight' here most likely functions as:
Answer: A metaphor for gradual decline and ending
Twilight as metaphor for decline is common in classical and political prose, evoking the fading of light as an analogy for the fading of an era.
A text's tone can best be described as the author's:
Answer: Attitude toward the subject or audience as revealed through word choice
Tone is the emotional coloring of a text, inferred from diction, syntax, and rhetorical choices rather than from structure or content alone.
Which type of context clue is used in the following sentence: 'The senator's oration, unlike her brief remarks last week, was so lengthy that many in the gallery fell asleep'?
Answer: Contrast context clue
The word 'unlike' signals a contrast between 'oration' (implied to be long) and 'brief remarks,' helping readers infer 'oration' means an extended formal speech.
A passage argues from the particular to the general—observing several specific cases and then drawing a broad conclusion. This form of reasoning is called:
Answer: Inductive reasoning
Inductive reasoning moves from specific observations to a general conclusion, as opposed to deductive reasoning, which starts from general principles.