My son is six months old and most of the things that he does don’t make sense to me. Sure, I’ve come to understand that certain cries mean certain things- I’m hungry, I’m tired, my diaper is wet, etc.-but that’s only a small part of his communication. I’m not sure if there’s some kind of internal baby logic that my adult brain no longer remembers how to interpret or if his actions are just arbitrary. In any case, but that doesn’t stop me from trying to figure out what he’s thinking.
My task with my son is a lot more difficult than your task with reading comprehension, but the job is the same. When I look at my son and see him thrashing his arms with his eyes wide and a surprised expression on his face, what’s important to me as a parent isn’t what he looks like, but rather what he’s thinking and what’s causing him to feel that way. The same can be said for the reading comprehension passages that you’ll face on your test.
It really isn’t very important what an 1829 locomotive looked like, or how fast it could go, because if for some reason you are asked about those facts you can easily refer back to the passage and find the answer. What is important is why the author chose to include those details. If the author is discussing the 1829 locomotive in order to show what a breakthrough it was at the time, we can understand facts about appearance and speed as merely reinforcing this concept of a fantastic new invention. If, on the other hand, the author is discussing the 1829 locomotive in order to discuss its shortcomings, we can understand facts about appearance and speed as examples of how that locomotive fell short of what today we would consider a reasonable standard. The author’s intention is paramount. The exact same facts can have many very different meanings depending on the author’s goal.
So, practically what does this mean for you? First of all, it should change the way that you read a passage. Instead of reading to find out what the author said, you should instead be reading for why the author said what he said. Why questions test you at a deeper level, and thus are more helpful for the test maker in evaluating your skill level. That’s why they tend to be much more common.
So, maybe you are the type of person who would pick up a magazine article on the 1829 locomotive or maybe you’re not. Regardless, if you see that kind of an article on your test, remember that your goal is not to learn about the 1829 locomotive. Your goal is to figure out why the author is discussing this topic and how he’s going about doing that. If you make your first priority understanding the author’s point of view rather than simply what the author is saying, you’ll be well on your way to a higher score.
Good luck and keep practicing!