47
LI Huijie
lengths, but each under 500 words, followed by questions or incomplete statements testtakers
are expected to answer or complete.
The twelve specific literal and critical compression skills needed to master are
identified as follows (The CLAST website, 2007):
Literal comprehension skills are divided into three areas.
1) Recognize the main idea/ideas in a passage
2) Identify supporting details
3) Determine meanings of words on the basis of context clues
Critical comprehension skills are divided into nine areas.
1) Recognize the author’s purpose
2) Identify the author’s overall organization pattern
3) Distinguish between statements of fact and statements of opinion
4) Detect bias in the passage or by the author
5) Recognize the author’s tone
6) Recognize explicit and implicit relationships within sentences
7) Recognize explicit and implicit relationships between sentences
8) Recognize valid/invalid arguments
9) Draw logical inferences and conclusions