Types of Questions: Understanding (Scottish Highers English): Revision Notes
Types of Questions: Understanding
Understanding questions assess what you have grasped from your reading. These questions test whether you have understood the writer's key points and can express this understanding in your own words. Examiners expect you to demonstrate comprehension by identifying what the writer states directly and what they suggest 'between the lines'.
The phrase 'between the lines' refers to implied meanings that aren't explicitly stated. You need to understand both what the writer says directly and what they suggest indirectly.
What understanding questions ask you to do
Understanding questions typically ask you to identify something the writer has discussed. This might be a reason, feeling, purpose, claim or fear. Questions may also ask you to explain in your own words, or to show in what ways two people or things are different or similar, making the relationship between them clear.
The essential requirement for all understanding questions is that you must answer in your own words. Copying words or expressions from the text loses marks. This is because you cannot demonstrate understanding until you can express a concept in your own terms.
This practice of copying directly from the text is called 'lifting' and will result in lost marks.
Using your own words
When rephrasing content from a passage, avoid attempting a word-for-word 'translation' of the idea. This approach rarely works because you do not have a word that means exactly the same as the original for every term. Explaining the idea in your own way proves more effective than searching for approximate synonyms.
Worked Example: Rephrasing Complex Ideas
Original text: "In the last few years, we've moved from an information-scarce economy to one driven by an information glut."
Rather than seeking alternative adjectives and nouns for information-scarce economy or information glut, express the idea differently:
Good rephrasing: "Once, our commercial world didn't have enough data to work with. Nowadays, it seems we have too much."
This approach restructures the entire sentence rather than simply replacing individual words.
What to change and what to keep
You need not change everything in your answer. Proper nouns (names of people, places) and common nouns with no obvious alternatives (such as tripod, breathalyser, leopard) should remain as they are. Common sense dictates these terms stay unchanged.
However, you must rephrase verbs, adverbs, adjectives and all figurative language in your own words. For instance, if the passage states "prices have rocketed", you should write "prices have increased sharply" or "costs have risen dramatically".
Tracking down the answer
A two-stage approach helps you answer understanding questions effectively:
Two-Stage Approach to Understanding Questions
Stage 1: Locate the Information Highlight or underline the words or phrases where the answer can be found. This focuses your attention on the required information. Marking the relevant text also helps you avoid unintentional copying when you come to write your answer.
Stage 2: Rephrase in Your Own Words Work out how to rephrase the key idea in your own way. You might not follow the sequence of words in the original. Instead, look for another starting point entirely. Restructuring the sentence often helps you avoid lifting language from the text.
Summarising information
Your understanding of a passage is incomplete unless you can confidently summarise its key points. Once again, you must do this in your own words. You can retain technical terms, proper nouns and common nouns with no alternatives, but avoid copying other expressions.
The skill required here involves reducing the identified passage to its essential message. You must cut out interesting but non-essential detail. This means knowing what to remove.
What to leave out when summarising
Remove the following elements from your summary:
- Figurative language such as metaphors and similes
- Examples that illustrate but do not form part of the main point
- Lists of items or details
- Detailed statistical information beyond what is necessary
- Comparisons used to clarify rather than to make the main point
After removing these elements, summarise what remains in your own words as briefly as possible. Check the question itself for guidance on what needs to be summarised.
For example: "Summarise key points the writer makes about living in Venice."
Approach to summarising
Effective Summarising Process
- Read the text to identify key points
- Note these points down in your own words
- Organise your notes into a coherent text of your own
This process ensures you have understood the passage and can express its essential message clearly.
Inference-making
We make inferences constantly in daily life. When we see an ambulance outside a shop, we infer that someone has fallen ill. This process works similarly with written texts. In texts, we make inferences when we 'read between the lines', looking for verbal information which the author suggests but does not state outright.
Inference-making questions belong among understanding questions because they test what you have understood from the text. However, they share something with analysis questions because you need textual evidence to support what you have inferred.
Worked Example: Making Inferences from Text
Consider this text: "Oh," cried Rachel, "the tree is so beautiful. I love the new coloured lights. And just look at the star Carol bought for the top. Leave the curtains open so everyone can see it!"
What we can infer: Without mentioning Christmas directly, textual evidence reveals the period is Christmas and the tree is a Christmas tree. The coloured lights and star for the top indicate this, as does the tree's position in the window, typical of Christmas trees.
We have inferred the period without being told directly. We can also infer that Rachel feels proud of her tree because she wants the curtains left open for others to see.
Types of inferences
You may be expected to identify various types of inferences:
- Inferences about factual information (such as the Christmas example above)
- Inferences about a person's feelings or emotions (Rachel's pride in her tree)
- Inferences about the author's attitude towards a topic or person
- Inferences about the meanings of specific words by examining their context
How to detect inferences
Inferences can often be detected from:
- Factual clues in the text (in the example: coloured lights, stars, window position, open curtains)
- Word-choice connotations - the associations and suggestions carried by particular words
- Imagery connotations - the implications of metaphors, similes and other figurative language
You can often work out the meaning of a difficult word by examining its context.
Worked Example: Inferring Word Meanings from Context
Text: "We argued all day with her but she was deaf to our arguments, remaining totally intransigent."
The context suggests she could not be moved by the arguments. Therefore, intransigent means unshakeable, unyielding or stubborn.
Key Points to Remember
- Understanding questions test your comprehension and your ability to express ideas in your own words
- Rephrase verbs, adverbs, adjectives and figurative language, but keep proper nouns and technical terms unchanged
- Use a two-stage approach: first identify where the answer is, then rephrase it in your own way
- When summarising, remove figurative language, examples, lists, detailed statistics and comparisons
- Inference-making requires you to 'read between the lines' and support your understanding with textual evidence
- The wider your vocabulary, the easier you will find it to express ideas in your own words