Questions tagged [reading-comprehension]

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True, false, or not given: there are three main kinds of identity theft

Please, reason before looking on the answer or my arguments so you don't become biased. I'm studying for a test and there is this passage (content taken from British Council study material): ...
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7 votes
3 answers
906 views

Meaning of 'make hay' in this context

This is an article published in the Fox News: In raising the subject of Hunter Biden, the liberal comedian Colbert claimed to Joe Biden that "the people who want to make hay in Washington are ...
SHIN JaeGuk's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
178 views

Comprehension of 'he doesn't say NOT after everything'

Bunky and I frequently watch TV program called Future Ratboy. I'm Future Ratboy and Bunky is his annoying sidekick, Not Bird, except Bunky's not a bird and he doesn't say 'NOT' after everything. I ...
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3 votes
2 answers
2k views

Help to understand "It drives Mum mad" in this passage

“What does your dad do at the Ministry of Magic, anyway?” “He works in the most boring department,” said Ron. “The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office.” “The what?” “It's all to do with ...
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3 votes
2 answers
1k views

What does "pas de deux" mean in this context?

The pas de deux of immune tolerance. Recently, I read an article with the title written above and this article is about immune rejection in the case of organ transplantation, its mechanisms that ...
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3 votes
1 answer
111 views

Give T/F/NG for the 'Stepwells' Reading

STEPWELLS A millennium ago, stepwells were fundamental to life in the driest parts of India. Richard Cox travelled to north-western India to document these spectacular monuments from a bygone era ...
my goddess Zendaya's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
278 views

Right answer from comprehension

From the passage I have to answer the following question: According to the passage, which of the following was an important source of revenue in medieval France? Cheese Wool Olive oil ...
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3 votes
2 answers
264 views

Help to understand this paragraph

Everything has broken right for England at this World Cup. It sauntered through a top-heavy group with Belgium, conveniently dropping its final game against the Red Devils in a barely-contested 1-0 ...
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2 votes
3 answers
1k views

Help to understand the quip "If there were only so much freedom of expression in Iran"

Ten minutes into his speech, he was heckled by a protester, who shouted about the Trump administration "kidnapping children." The protester continued to shout, but she was drowned out by audience ...
dan's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
1k views

Does the following excerpt say that most animals are active during the daytime?

"This can take many forms. Marine life, for example, is influenced by tidal patterns. Animals tend to be active or inactive depending on the position of the sun or moon. Numerous creatures, humans ...
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2 votes
1 answer
181 views

Advertisement for boating holidays

Sail through England! Narrowboat Holiday UK offers canal boats for hire for family boating holidays. Envision weekend and midweek breaks on the canals and waterways of the Yorkshire Dales, sail ...
my goddess Zendaya's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
91 views

Meaning of 'runic dot plots'

Another Federal Open Market Committee statement, another Jerome Powell press conference, another round of runic dot plots, another bout of hyperventilation as markets and the press attempt to make ...
SHIN JaeGuk's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
106 views

How can I help a first grader identify which sound each vowel makes in order to read it?

I am a non-native English speaker. I live in the USA and have a first grader child who is learning how to read in English. While he definitely has a lot of words he can identify and read (mainly the ...
XOpenDisplay's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
100 views

meaning of "nutritional tangents"

I'm reading The Fermented Man by Derek Dillinger. The author has this one-year plan of eating only fermented food, such as yogurt and bread. As a result, his options become extremely limited. Then he ...
fermented reader's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
1k views

Help to understand sentence from this Yahoo news article

First, some context: Before the closing credits roll, Rachel and Nick have just overcome the numerous hurdles placed in their way by his snooty Singapore-based friends and family en route to him ...
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1 vote
2 answers
272 views

How to understand "They were starving him" in this context?

“I don’t blame you, dear,” she assured Harry, tipping eight or nine sausages onto his plate. “Arthur and I have been worried about you, too. Just last night we were saying we’d come and ...
dan's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
61 views

meaning of "image-searching is strictly for those who want to get sacked"

I’m reading The Greedy Queen by Annie Gray. In the introduction, she introduces Queen Victoria as: Myths about Queen Victoria are plentiful, and largely unproven or taken out of context, from the ...
Victoria fan's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
221 views

reading comprehension: meaning of "assume a little extra buffer of paranoia built in"

I'm reading The Fermented Man by Derek Dellinger. He talks about U.S. government's regulations about cheese making. For example, cheese can be sold to the public only if it's been aged a minimum of ...
fermented reader's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
85 views

Why does this sentence have to be inserted in C?

The passage below is part of an article about evolution of birds. And I had to choose where the sentence: “Furthermore, migration allows birds to avoid climates that are too hot or too cold during ...
user102902's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
125 views

Am I reading this wrong? Or is my understanding anachronical?

I started reading this short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, What to Do About It, published in 1933. And the story starts with a character trying to free a wheel from a tirelock: [...] he continued ...
calm-tedesco's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
41 views

Help to understand this exchange from comment of Yahoo article

A: I don't agree with Omarosa on much, but 'difficult to watch' is as spot on as it gets B: " . . . spot on . . . ", one of the most annoying phrases in the English language. I saw this ...
dan's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
3k views

A GRE reading (verbal reasoning) question

Reading material(Source): Because the subject matter was so personal, the work of several prominent mid-twentieth century poets has been termed "confessional” poetry. But confession is a bad ...
No One's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
715 views

Meaning of a paragraph about a literary heritage

Passage to analyze: Tillie Olsen's fiction and essays have been widely and rightly acknowledged as major contributions to American literature. Her work has been particularly valued by contemporary ...
user2378's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
49 views

IELTS reading: For which course is the following statement true?

For which of the two courses below is the following statement true? The course will provide advice on how to overcome difficult conditions. Two courses: Focus On Landscapes This course is designed ...
tvk's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
205 views

IELTS Reading True/False/Not given question

I'm studying for my IELTS test but I'm having a hard time with some T/F/NG questions. For example, in the text "New York Late-starters String Orchestra" we have the question: Rehearsals ...
Roser's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
227 views

What does 'get ahold of' means?

I searched the meaning of the word get ahold of something which showed: If you get ahold of someone or something you manage to contact, find, or get them. But in the below paragraph the meaning ...
hr08's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
162 views

”what should be long past his bedtime“ meaning in this context?

Dan Rather @DanRather This is apparently what the President of the United States feels the need to share with the world at what should be long past his bedtime? It's a disgrace. It's racist. And ...
dan's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
2k views

A controversial GRE reading question(Buell’ study of village sketches...)

Source Buell’s study of village sketches (a type of fiction popular in the United States in the 1830s and 1840s) provides a valuable summary of sketches that portray the community as homogeneous ...
No One's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
393 views

The meaning of 'someone is many things'

The following sentence is from the article of the Wall Street Jounral. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten is many things, though some Republicans hope that this midterm she’s ...
SHIN JaeGuk's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
36 views

In the last century there has been progress in what doctors have been able to do with

this sentence is a bit ambiguous for me. In the last century there has been great progress in what doctors have been able to do with modern surgery and new medications. There are two possible ...
Amir Irani's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
32 views

meaning of "as soon a revolution as to"

I’m reading The Greedy Queen by Annie Gray. The author quotes a court lady’s diary entry about the unfailing daily routine at Queen Victoria’s court, such as breakfast at a quarter to ten, tea at five ...
Victoria fan's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
65 views

meaning of "in some future state alone it can be quenched"

I’m reading The Greedy Queen by Annie Gray. The author mentions that various royal princes came to visit Queen Victoria as potential marriage partners when she turned seventeen. And Victoria ...
Victoria fan's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
272 views

meaning of “come eleven a.m. or so”

I'm reading The Fermented Man by Derek Dillinger. The author talks about his reaction towards sugary sweets after one year of eating very simply. It turns out the average amount of sugar most ...
fermented reader's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

Is Sherlock Holmes good to study English? [closed]

The novel was first published over 100 years ago. Its English might be quite different than it is now. The question is this: Will reading it help me to improve my English?
jack bang's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
74 views

SAT Reading Question Practice Test #6 [duplicate]

Harouni of course became familiar with this ubiquitous man, who not only accompanied him on his tours of inspection, but morning and night could be found standing on the master bed rewiring the ...
G.B's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
741 views

A Comprehension question

The techniques employed by science fiction writers are meant to draw the reader into a world where extraordinary events can occur and unexpected scenarios draw a striking comparison to events which ...
Shorouq Hamed's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
81 views

Help to understand: “The apology was not offered to the right,”

Bee later apologized for “using an expletive” to describe the first daughter. “It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it,” she said. The wording of the ...
dan's user avatar
  • 13k
0 votes
2 answers
137 views

Reading task from English State Exam in Russia

I'm not sure whether it is appropriate to ask questions like the following one on StackExchange, but you are my only hope. Here's an abstract of reading task and a question taken from 2019 Russian ...
Vladimir Nazarenko's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
175 views

Help to understand this question from reading comprehension in my GRE textbook

The organizers of tomorrow's outdoor concert announced that it will go on tomorrow on schedule unless bad weather is forecast or too few advance tickets are sold. If the concert is canceled, refunds ...
dan's user avatar
  • 13k
0 votes
2 answers
78 views

Understood subject of an infinitive

What a shame (it is) to be wasting our time like that. It's a sentence in my textbook without context, illustrating the possibility of dropping "it is". I imagine this sentence is said in a ...
ForOU's user avatar
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0 votes
2 answers
44 views

What is this sentence in the context is referring to?

When I read one text about 'River pollution' there was one sentence and I couldn't find what this is referring to. The biofilms are able to break down the pesticides that contaminate aquatic ...
Edb's user avatar
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0 votes
2 answers
49 views

What is this "Weighty stuff indeed" referring to in the paragraph?

When I read one reading passage, there was one sentence... In 2006, AgroParisTech also created the Ecology and Sustainable Development Network, bringing together all the heritage conservation ...
Edb's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
31 views

Comprehension of just getting to the bit where

We were in the playground acting out Vending Machine Mum the other day and just getting to the bit where she's making my bed while I'm completely not helping at all. This is some in cartoon. I want ...
HK Lee's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
121 views

What "Did I do this" refers to?

There was an unearthly quality to the atmosphere inside the Frieze New York art fair, like the air in a plane—still but pressurized, with an unsettling hum—when the fiction writer Ottessa Moshfegh ...
user5036's user avatar
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0 votes
2 answers
49 views

Help to understand "a source told Page Six of the company Trump launched in 2007"

“It’s just never recovered since she stepped away from the company,” a source told Page Six of the company Trump launched in 2007, and other sources told the same site that the company will be ...
dan's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
52 views

Brochure: Holiday Cruises

Holiday Cruises Travel in style on our popular Caribbean Cruise. Ten nights Choose from three departure dates: March 4, March 23, April 5 The cruise departs from Fort Lauderdale, Florida Ports of ...
my goddess Zendaya's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
160 views

Swallows bring spring

I recently read one article named as I mentioned above. That article is about birds and scientists are using them as means of measuring the climate change and impacts that it engenders. I didn't ...
Edb's user avatar
  • 57
0 votes
1 answer
40 views

Which is correct, C or D based on the following paragraphs [closed]

Holland’s 16th-century hymn “Het Wilhelmus” is widely considered the world’s oldest national anthem, followed by the U.K.’s “God Save the King/Queen”—also a hymn, popularized in the 1740s. As ...
Carol's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
19 views

What is the meaning of (out of) in the first clause of this sentence [closed]

We decided to get a Coke 'out of' the machine,but it was out of order.
faisal amir's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
120 views

Struggling understanding IELTS reading comprehension answer key

I need some help with explaining this IELTS reading exercise. The question from the exercise is: Rocket as war weapons were first invented or used by ________? The options are: a. The Chinese b. ...
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