The skill to get a perfect score in the reading comprehension section of Literature

Literature is the only essay subject in the high school graduation exam. The structure of the exam consists of two parts: reading comprehension and writing. In which, the reading comprehension section accounts for 3/10 points. Students should note the following to be able to get a perfect score in this section.

Follow References Literature class in 2022 of the Ministry of Education and Training, corpus for reading comprehension for a poem excerpt by poet Luu Quang Vu, then asked to answer four questions set up in a matrix: recognition, information understand and apply (lower form).

From 2015 up to now, poetic material has often been used for verses and poems by some familiar authors, students have been acquainted at high school such as: Tran Dang Khoa (2015); Luu Quang Vu (2016); Nguyen Duy (2018); Vu Quan Phuong (2019).

The recognition question (sentence 1) usually asks about poetic form, it can also ask about images and words. In terms of poetic form, students grasp some basic poetic forms: five-, seven-, and eight-letter verse (also known as free verse); free verse form; hexagonal verse… by counting the number of words in each verse to answer.

If the question requires identifying words and images, students only need to answer correctly, fully, without writing long words. The recognition question accounts for 0.5 points, which is easy to get points, but many students still do it wrong because they do not master the poetic form, leading to guesswork to answer. Or they write lengthy (even misspelled) words, images, points will be deducted, points will be lost depending on the error level.

Sentence 2 is also at the cognitive level, available in the text, students only need to correctly identify the content and problem and write it down to meet the requirements. If students give long answers, it is both inaccurate and wasted time.

Sentence 3, the level of comprehension, requires students to understand the content, the art (often using metaphors) of the verse (the poem), and need to apply both knowledge and thinking to be able to do the test. good. The test can also ask for knowledge related to Vietnamese, that is to identify and state the effectiveness of a certain rhetorical device, so students must firmly grasp some familiar rhetoric such as: comparison, metaphor, personification, alliteration, list…

I take the example of sentence 3 of the 2022 reference exam above. To get a full point in this question, students need to decipher rhetoric through words and pictures and answer 3-5 sentences to fully express their ideas.

We see, the image “in the page of poetry”, metaphor (river) source of inspiration for literature. Similarly, “making a village…” means that the river creates life and life; “Creating the colors of the clothes, the colors of the trees, the Vietnamese language”, the river brings the beautiful cultural values ​​of the Vietnamese people.

Many students lose marks for writing only one short sentence (lack of ideas) or one long sentence (easy to write confusingly). You need to answer to the point, straight to the point, avoid writing around and rambling.

In sentence 4, the application level is low, ask students to draw a meaningful message or lesson from the text, or they can also ask if they agree with certain ideas or not.

For example, the reference question asks: “What do the following two lines of poetry mean to you? (MORE)My shirt has the red color of the Red River / Endless suffering and joy)”.

Similar to question 3, students need to answer fully, avoid writing too short or too long. Students can refer to the answer of teacher Nguyen Van Lu (Vinh Phuc): “The meaning of the two lines of poetry helps us to understand that the red river alluvium enriches the soil and the alluvial banks of the fertile plain. , the color of red blood also evokes the rich nutrition of the alluvium of the Red River, meaning two verses that help us understand spiritual and cultural values ​​(endless suffering and joy). is a witness to history, both a pride of the country and a pride of the wet rice civilization of the Red River”.

In addition, in order to get a perfect score in the reading comprehension section, students must avoid the situation of reading the question and answering at the same time. You need to read the entire text to understand the content. Next, they read 4 questions in turn and finally answer the questions in order, avoiding messy answers – reversing the order of the sentences, the examiner is difficult to mark.

Besides, students need to know how to allocate time properly. The reading comprehension section should only take about 15 minutes. If they spend a lot of time on this part, they will not have enough time when they move on to the writing section (social discussion, literary argument).

In addition, students must firmly grasp the knowledge related to reading comprehension and need to practice skills through exercises, they will improve day by day, because of “literary review and martial arts”.

You can try the reading comprehension part through exercises compiled by teacher Phan The Hoai, Binh Hung Hoa High School, Ho Chi Minh City:

Read the following excerpt:

Call mom, once a week is fine.
Just call and play, ask how your mother is…
At my mother’s house, outside the door, it’s freezing cold,
My door is bustling with spring…

Come visit, mom is always welcome,
I know how busy you are…
I know a lot, so just a little bit,
I want you to know I’m waiting for you…

If you come back, I’ll make tea, bake cakes,
I remember you when you were a child, why did you like to eat…
Understand for me, now my mother is sad,
If my child has forgotten me completely…

Come visit me, I don’t need gifts,
Everything is enough… Mother’s love is deep…
If the mother is still alive, the child will still be young,
Understanding this, it is not until the following days…

Call your mother, while the autumn is not over yet,
The day of your life, my child, passes quickly…
Tomorrow, early, in case you want to call,
Snow covered the sky… Never seen anyone say…

(Tanya Alelasjitsuk, Hong Thanh Quang) Translate)

Make requests:

Question 1. Identify the poetic form of the text.

Question 2. Indicate the opposite image between “mother’s house” and “child’s house” in the first stanza.

Sentence 3. Point out and state the effect of structural alliteration in the poem.

Question 4. What does the last stanza mean to you?

Phan The Hoai
Teacher of Literature, Binh Hung Hoa High School, Ho Chi Minh City