Angie Papple Johnston - 2022 / 2023 ASVAB For Dummies

TABLE 5-1Military Line Scores That Use the Paragraph Comprehension Score

Chapter 2has more information about military line scores. See Appendix Afor more information on the scores you need to get the job you want.

When you get to the Paragraph Comprehension subtest, you have several passages to read. Most passages are only one paragraph long, and rarely are they longer than two paragraphs. Each passage contains between 50 and 200 words. (Look at it this way: At least you won’t be required to read War and Peace !)

The ASVAB test authors may ask you to answer only one question about a given reading passage, or they may ask you to answer as many as five questions about one passage. Unfortunately, this subtest doesn’t consist of the most interesting passages you’ll ever read. (You won’t find paragraphs from your favorite sci-fi novel here.) It’s important that you set your attention span dial to the maximum setting.

In order to understand what you read — which is what the Paragraph Comprehension subtest is all about — you need to develop several abilities, which I cover later in this chapter:

Finding the main idea or argument that the author is making

Remembering specific details about the reading

Drawing conclusions from what you’ve read

Understanding relationships between ideas

Paraphrasing or summarizing what you’ve read

The Paragraph Comprehension questions on the ASVAB usually take one of four forms:

Finding specific information

Recognizing the main idea

Determining word meaning in context

Drawing an implication from a stated idea

Each type of question asks you to perform a different kind of analysis of the reading passage. If a passage has more than one question associated with it, chances are each question falls under a different category. The following sections spell out the differences among these four types of questions.

This type of Paragraph Comprehension question asks you to pick out (you guessed it) specific information from a passage. Sounds easy, right? Take a look at the following passage, which clearly states the answer to the question that directly follows it:

An industry trade association found that more than 13,000 martial arts schools exist in the United States with nearly 6 million active members. Of the 13,000 schools, nearly 7,000 offered tae kwon do lessons.

According to this passage, how many people actively participated in martial arts lessons?

(A) 13,000

(B) 7,000

(C) 6 million

(D) It can’t be determined.

The correct answer is Choice (C).

At times, the information that a question asks about isn’t directly stated in the question, but you can infer the information from the text. Remember, in the military, the only easy day was yesterday.

When questions are phrased in the negative, you may be confused about what the question is asking. (This is especially true when the information being sought isn’t directly stated in the passage.) Misreading a negative question is also easy. Research has shown that people often skip over a negative word, such as not, when they read. Questions on the Paragraph Comprehension portion of the ASVAB are sometimes stated in the negative. When you see a negative word, an alarm should go off in your head to remind you to read the question more carefully.

Sometimes the Paragraph Comprehension questions ask you to identify the main point of a passage. The main point can be directly stated, or it can be implied.

If you’re not sure what the main point of a paragraph is, reread the first sentence and the last sentence. Chances are one of these two sentences contains the main point. (Flip to “What’s the big idea? Determining the main idea in a paragraph” later in this chapter for more information on identifying main ideas.)

Sometimes the Paragraph Comprehension subtest asks you to determine the meaning of a word when it’s used in a passage. The correct definition that the question is looking for can be the most common meaning of the word, or it can be a less well-known meaning. In either case, you have to read the passage, make sure you understand how the word is being used, and select the answer option that’s closest in meaning to the word as it’s used in the passage. Consider this example:

In the 18th century, it was common for sailors to be pressed into service in Britain. Young men found near seaports could be kidnapped, drugged, or otherwise hauled aboard a ship and made to work doing menial chores. They weren’t paid for their service, and they were given just enough food to keep them alive.

In this passage, pressed means

(A) hired.

(B) ironed.

(C) enticed.

(D) forced.

The descriptions of the conditions these sailors found themselves in should help you decide that they weren’t hired or enticed; ironed is one meaning of the word pressed, but it isn’t correct in this context. The correct answer is Choice (D). Here’s another example:

Since the 1980s, computers have become an indispensable part of American business. Computers can be used for thousands of applications, from word processing and running spreadsheets to keeping one’s checkbook updated.

In this passage, applications means

(A) functions.

(B) sizes.

(C) requests.

(D) types.

Try putting the answer choices in this sentence: “Computers can be used for thousands of applications.” You can see that functions is closest in meaning to applications, although in a different context, some of the other answer choices may be correct. The correct answer is Choice (A).

Some Paragraph Comprehension questions ask you to draw an inference from a stated idea. This simply means that you may need to draw a conclusion from what you’ve read. This conclusion should always be based on the reading, not your own particular opinions about a subject.

The conclusion — which may be called an inference or implication — must be reasonably based on what the passage says. You have to use good judgment when deciding which conclusions can be logically drawn from what you’ve read. Give it a shot: