CRITICAL READING SKILLS
So far, you’ve learned a method by which to approach all Reading passages and questions. Additionally, you’ve been introduced to
seven strategies that should help you work through the passages efficiently. Now, it’s time to look a little more closely at the skills
you’ll need to employ in this section of the test—summarizing, researching, and inferencing. (OK, inferencing is not exactly a real
word, but you get the gist.) Practicing these skills will make you a more effective SHSAT reader.
Summarizing
For the purposes of the SHSAT, summarizing means capturing in a single phrase what the entire passage is about. You can expect to
get a question following each passage that deals with the passage as a whole. Wrong answers will include choices that deal with
only one paragraph or some other subset of the passage. You need to recognize the choice that encompasses the passage as a whole.
If you’ve thought about the Big Picture ahead of time, you’re more likely to home in on the correct answer.
Which choice sums up the entire passage?The four brightest moons of Jupiter were the first
objects in the solar system discovered with the use of
the telescope. Their proven existence played a central
role in Galileo’s famous argument in support of the
( 5 ) Copernican model of the solar system, in which the
planets are described as revolving around the Sun.
For several hundred years after their discovery
by Galileo in 1610, scientific understanding of
these moons increased fairly slowly. Observers on
( 10 )earth succeeded in measuring their approximate
diameters, their relative densities, and eventually
some of their light-reflecting characteristics. However,
the spectacular close-up photographs sent back by
the 1979 Voyager missions forever changed our
( 15 )impressions of these bodies.2. Which of the following best tells what this passage is about?F. Galileo’s invention of the telescope
G. the discovery of the Galilean moons
H. scientific knowledge about Jupiter’s four brightest moons
J. the Copernican model of the solar system
K. the early history of astronomy