Need some help with GED reading comprehension? Will on this page, you're going to learn the strategies you need to score higher and pass GED RLA faster! 

Click here to watch this video on GED reading comprehension for fiction passages on Youtube

1. The Standard Approach: Read the passage the full way through and then answer the questions
   
   
2. Seek and Destroy Method: Don’t read the full passage. Read a question and skim the passage until you find the answer. Repeat. This is good if you’re running out of time, but it won’t work for all questions.
   
   
3. Try to understand the story and don’t worry about the remembering the details!
   
   
4. Look back at the passage as much as you need to to get the right answer.
   
   
5. Try not to spend too much time on any one question
   
   
6. Some students like to use the next button to skim the questions first before they read the passages
   
   
7. Always guess, never leave anything blank!

-It can be hard to take in all of the information at once while reading a fiction passage. 

-By focusing on these four things as you read, it’ll help you better understand the information by processing it in smaller, more manageable chunks. 

The setting helps you picture where the story is taking place (i.e. on a farm, in a city, etc.) and also when (what time period, etc.).

The setting often changes throughout the story. Not keeping track of the setting is a key reason why test-takers struggle. Try to figure out the setting as fast as you can. This will give you a clearer mental picture of what's happening.

Having trouble keeping track of the characters is a major reason test-takers struggle with reading comprehension!

For each character that’s introduced, note the following:

1. Age

2. Where the person’s from

3. Relationship to other characters

4. Relative, friend, acquaintance, enemy, etc. 

5. Good, bad, neutral?

6. Any unique description

7. What the person is like

You probably won’t have time to write all of this out on the test! But I recommend doing this while practicing until you can do it in your head. 

Strategically, if you try to nail down the setting and the characters, understand the conflict will be much easier. Ideally, it'll jump out at you. The conflict is the main problem or problems that the main character(s) must face. 

What is the theme? The theme is the message that the writer wants to communicate to the reader. It's usually a general statement about life. The author may state the them directly, or leave you to infer it.  

1. It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer. 

2. A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the high of romantic felicity--but that would be asking too much of fate!

3. Still, I will proudly declare that there is something unusual about it. Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long unattended? 

4. John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage. John is practical to the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures. 

5. John is a physician, and perhaps--(I would not want to say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind--) perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster. 

1. Based on the excerpt, where does the story take place?

2. Which statement can the reader infer about John? 

A. He was nervous about moving into the mansion

B. He grew up in a large family 

C. He behaves as if he knows everything

D He is a good listener

3. How would you describe the conflict in this example?

1. The great pullman was whirling onward with such dignity of motion that a glance from the window seemed simply to prove that the plains of Texas were pouring eastward. 

2. Vast flats of green grass, dull-hued spaces of mesquite and cactus, little groups of frame houses, woods of light and tender trees, all were sweeping into the east, sweeping over the horizon, a precipice. 

4.Based on the excerpt, where does the story take place? 

.1. "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily Telegraph, "It is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped this truth that in these little records of our cases which you have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much to the many causes celebres and sensational trials in which I have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made my special province." 

2.       "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my records." 

 3. "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a disputatious rather than a meditative mood—"You have erred perhaps in attempting to put color and life into each of your statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is really the only notable feature about the thing." 

4.    "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my friend's singular character. 

5.  "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. 

6. "If I claim full justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing—a thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of lectures into a series of tales." 

 7. It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at Baker Street. 

8. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of dun-colored houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. 

9. Our gas was lit and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for the table had not been cleared yet. 

1. "TOM!" No answer.

2. "TOM!" No answer. "What's gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!" No answer.

3. The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them. 

4. She seldom or never looked THROUGH them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for "style," not service—she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well. 

7. Based on the excerpt, which of the following would the old lady value the most while shopping for a new car?

1. Getting the best deal on her purchase

2. How well the car will drive in the snow

3. What the neighbors will think of the car

4. Fuel efficiency 

​Click here to leave site and watch this GED Reading Comprehension Practice Test on YouTube 

Our story starts in the summer of 1860, in the busy city of Baltimore. At that time, babies were usually born at home, not in hospitals. But young Mr. and Mrs. Roger Button had different ideas. They wanted their first baby to arrive in a hospital. Was this one of the reasons for the strange history that I am going to tell you? I can only describe what happened. Then you can decide. 

1. When and where is the story set? 

2. What is the point of view of the story? 

A. 1st person

B. 2nd person

C. 3rd person

3. How many characters were introduced in this paragraph? Please give a number and list them.

The Roger Buttons were important people in Baltimore society. They knew every good family in town, and everyone knew them. This was their first baby, so Mr. Button was naturally nervous. He was hoping for a boy so he could send him to Yale College in Connecticut. Mr. Roger Button was a student at Yale when he was a young man. Of course, he wanted his son to follow him there. 

4. What does this paragraph tell us about Roger Button? Please list at least 3 ideas. There are no right or wrong answers!

The great day arrived. Mr. Button hurried to the hospital one morning in September for news of his wife and baby. When he was close to the Maryland Private Hospital, he saw the family doctor on the front steps. There was a serious look on the doctor's face and this worried Mr. Button.

5. What is the narrator most likely referring to in the first sentence?

6. What inference can you make from the last sentence in the paragraph? 

A. The baby was born healthy and Mrs. Button is doing well

B. There’s something wrong with the baby or Mrs. Button

C. Mr. Button succeeded at a new business venture

D. The doctor is retiring. 

He ran toward the doctor. 

"Doctor Keene!" he called. "Oh, Doctor Keene!" 

The doctor heard him, and turned around. He saw Mr. Button, and a ____ look came over his face. 

"What happened?" asked Mr. Button. "What was it? How is she? A boy? What…?"

“Talk sense!" said the doctor, a little angrily.

"Is the child born?" asked Mr. Button. Doctor Keene didn't answer immediately. "Yes," he said slowly. "A strange birth."

7. In the 1st sentence, who ran toward the doctor? 

8. Which word best fits the blank above? 

A. Normal

B. Curious 

C. Professional

D. Sick

"Is my wife all right?" 

“Yes”

"Is it a boy or a girl?" 

"Go and see," replied Doctor Keene. He still seemed strangely angry. "Terrible! One more case like this will finish me in medicine."

9. When buying a new car, which of the following would Doctor Keene most likely consider, based on the information in the passage?

A. The cost

B. How well the car would perform in the winter 

C. How impressive the car would seem to others 

D. How durable the car is

"What's the matter? Is there a ____ with the baby?" asked Mr. Button. "Go and see them," said Doctor Keene. ''And then get yourself another doctor. I brought you into the world, young man, and I've looked after your ____ for forty years, but this is the end! I don't want to see you or any of your relatives ever again! Goodbye!"

10. Which word best fits in the first blank?

A. Cost

B. Timing

C. Problem

D. Place

11: Which word best fits in the second blank?

A. dog

B. baby 

C. airplane 

D. family 

And without another word, he turned and walked away. Mr. Button stood there on the sidewalk, feeling very worried and afraid. "Something terrible has happened," he thought. Now, he didn't want to go into the hospital. But he walked slowly up the steps and through the entrance doors. 

A nurse was sitting behind a desk. 

"Good morning," she said, smiling. 

"Good morning. I-I am Mr. Roger Button." 

A look of fear came over the girl's face. She stood up, clearly planning to run away. Then she calmed herself and sat down again. 

"I want to see my child," said Mr. Button. 

The nurse gave a little scream. "Oh, of course! Upstairs! Go upstairs!" she said quickly.

12. What is the setting of this part of the story? 

She pointed to the stairs and Mr. Button turned away from the desk. He went upstairs and found another nurse. She was carrying a large metal bowl. 

"I'm Mr. Button, " he began nervously. "I want to see my ... " 

Clank! The nurse dropped the _____. It fell down the stairs, one step at a time, and landed with a loud noise at the bottom.

13. Which word was Mr. Button was likely going to say to finish his sentence?

A. Desk

B. Doctor

C. Baby

D. Wife

14. Which word most likely belongs in the blank?

A. Desk

B. Baby

C. Bowl

D. I give up

"I want to see my child!" Mr. Button shouted. 

"All right, Mr. Button," the nurse agreed in a quiet voice. ''All right. But it's terrible! We're all feeling-well, nobody will want to use the hospital again after this…”

"Hurry!" Mr. Button cried. "I can't wait any longer."

"Come this way, Mr. Button.”

15. In addition to the baby, Mr. and Mrs. Button, and the narrator, how many other characters have been introduced at this point in the story? Please list them.

16. Which of the following best summarizes the main conflict in the story up until this point? 

A. Mr. Button is struggling to afford the costs of childcare

B. Mr. Button’s doctor refuses to see him in the future

C. Mr. Button’s wife had a baby and there is a problem with the baby.

17. Based on the information given so far, which type of character is Mr. Button?

A. A main character 

B. A supporting character

18. Based on the information given so far, which type of character are the nurses?

A. main characters

B. supporting characters

19. What do you think is wrong with the baby? There are no right or wrong answers!

Mr. Button followed the nurse. There was a sound of babies crying. This grew louder until they stopped outside a room. The nurse pushed the door open and they went in. Around the walls were white _____, each one with a name tied to the top. 

"Well," said Mr. Button, "which is mine?" 

"There!" said the nurse.

20. Which word best fits in the blank?

A. Chairs

B. Cribs

C. Ribbons

D. Cans

Mr. Button's eyes followed her pointing finger. And this is what he saw. An old man of about seventy years old sat in one of the cribs. His hair was almost white, and he had a long, gray beard: His feet hung over one end of the crib, and his head and arms hung over the other. He was wearing only a large, white blanket. He looked at Mr. Button with a question in his eyes. 

"Am I crazy?" Mr. Button shouted angrily at the nurse. "Is this some terrible hospital joke?

"It doesn't seem like a joke to us," said the nurse angrily. "And I don't know if you're crazy or not. But there's no mistake. That is your child."

21. Please summarize the last 3 paragraphs in your own words.

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