Lesson 28 of 42 · Reading comprehension
Finding explicit information in a passage
Locate the sentence a detail question depends on, match its meaning rather than its words, and catch the qualifiers that make an option wrong.
About 18 minutes
In this lesson
- Locate the sentence or sentences an explicit-information question depends on.
- Match an option to the text by meaning, and reject options that overstate, relocate or misattribute it.
- Report figures from a passage with the right unit, period and quantity.
The idea
What an explicit question asks
An explicit-information question asks what the passage actually says. Its stem usually contains a signal such as "according to the passage", "the passage states that" or "which of the following is mentioned". The answer sits in one or two sentences of the text, so the job is not to reason beyond the passage but to find those sentences and read them precisely.
That sounds easy, and that is exactly why these questions cost marks: readers answer from their memory of the passage rather than from the passage. Bocconi describes its reading passages as involving economic topics such as GDP, the deficit or inflation, and says they may contain numbers and data. A half-remembered figure or a misplaced qualifier is enough to pick the wrong option.
Locate, then compare
Work in two separate moves.
- Locate. Take one or two key words from the stem (a name, a date, a figure, a technical term) and find where the passage deals with them. Read that sentence and the sentences either side of it.
- Compare. Hold each option against the sentence you found, word by word. An option is right only if everything in it is supported; one unsupported word makes it wrong.
Do not compare the options with each other first. Comparing options tells you which one sounds most likely; comparing them with the text tells you which one is stated.
Expect paraphrase
The right option rarely copies the passage. "Exports fell for the third year running" may appear as "exports had declined in each of the previous three years". Wrong options, by contrast, often reuse the passage's exact words in a combination the passage never made. Treat a string of familiar words as a reason to check more carefully, not as evidence.
Qualifiers carry the meaning
Small words decide whether an option matches.
| In the passage | An option that overstates it |
|---|---|
| some, several, many | most, all, the majority |
| may, can, could | will, always, must |
| tends to, is often | invariably |
| contributed to | caused, was the reason for |
| in the region | in the country |
It works the other way too: if the passage says "all", an option saying "some" is still true, because all includes some. Whether it is the best answer depends on what the stem asks, so read the stem again before you choose.
Whose claim is it?
Economic passages often report several views: the government's, critics', a central bank's, the author's own. "According to the passage" covers everything the passage states, but "according to the shopkeepers" asks only for that group's view. A common wrong option takes a claim the passage attributes to one party and presents it as established fact, or gives it to the wrong party. When you locate the sentence, note who is speaking.
Figures stated in the text
When a passage gives figures, an explicit question may simply ask you to report them correctly. Check three things:
- The unit: euros, percent, percentage points, thousands.
- The period: which year, which quarter, before or after a change.
- The thing measured: exports or imports, prices or the inflation rate, cars or buses.
An option with the right number attached to the wrong thing is one of the most common distractors there is.
A routine for every explicit question
- Read the stem and name the target: who, what, when.
- Locate the sentence; read one sentence before it and one after.
- Strike every option that adds, strengthens, relocates or reassigns anything.
- Choose the option the text states, even if another option seems more interesting or more important.
This routine is slower than answering from memory by a few seconds per question, and it is the reason careful readers rarely lose marks on explicit questions.
Worked examples
Example 1: Who says what caused the rise?
In 2023 the port authority of Corvale cut docking fees for container ships by a quarter. Over the following year, container traffic through the port rose by 12%. Local business groups credited the fee cut. The port authority's own annual report, however, attributes most of the increase to the reopening of a rail link to the interior, completed the same year.
According to the port authority's report, what caused most of the rise in container traffic?
Name the target: the cause of most of the traffic rise, according to the port authority's report. The stem names a speaker, so only that speaker's view counts.
Locate: two sentences give causes. "Local business groups credited the fee cut" is one party's view; "The port authority's own annual report ... attributes most of the increase to the reopening of a rail link" is the other.
Compare: the report's answer is the rail link. The fee cut is mentioned, and it is the authority's own policy, which makes it tempting, but the passage gives that explanation to the business groups.
Answer
The reopening of the rail link to the interior. "The fee cut" is the tempting wrong answer: it is in the passage, but it is the business groups' explanation, not the report's.
Example 2: Many, some and most
Many small exporters in the region invoice their customers in euros, and some of them also buy insurance against exchange-rate movements.
Which statement does the sentence support?
- Most small exporters in the region insure against exchange-rate movements.
- At least some small exporters in the region that invoice in euros also insure against exchange-rate movements.
- Small exporters in the region that do not invoice in euros never insure against exchange-rate movements.
Find what "some of them" refers to: "them" is the many small exporters who invoice in euros. So the sentence says that some exporters who invoice in euros also insure.
Statement 1 turns "some" into "most", and also drops the restriction to exporters who invoice in euros. It overstates the text.
Statement 3 makes a claim about exporters who do not invoice in euros. The sentence says nothing about them, so "never" is unsupported.
Statement 2 restates the sentence with "at least some", which is exactly what "some" means.
Answer
Only statement 2 is supported. Statement 1 is the usual trap: "many" and "some" sound like "most", but neither means more than half.
Example 3: Reporting a figure correctly
Household debt in Merania rose from 80% of disposable income in 2019 to 92% in 2024, while the share of that debt carrying a fixed interest rate fell from 60% to 45%.
According to the passage, by how much did household debt as a share of disposable income rise between 2019 and 2024?
Name the quantity: debt as a share of disposable income, not the fixed-rate share, which is the other pair of figures in the sentence.
Read the two values: 80% in 2019 and 92% in 2024.
The quantity is itself a percentage, so the natural answer is a difference in percentage points: points. As a percentage change of the ratio, that is , or 15%.
Answer
It rose by 12 percentage points (equivalently, the ratio rose by 15% of its 2019 level). An option of "15 percentage points" would be the fall in the fixed-rate share (60 to 45), attached to the wrong quantity.
Common traps
The familiar-words option
An option that repeats a phrase from the passage feels safe, but wrong options are often built from the passage's own words placed in a new combination. Judge an option by what it claims, not by how familiar it sounds; the right option is usually a paraphrase.
The stronger version
The passage says "some", "may" or "contributed to"; the option says "most", "will" or "caused". Readers skim past the difference because the topic matches. Underline the qualifier in the passage and check that the option's qualifier is no stronger.
Right number, wrong thing
Passages with figures give several numbers in the same sentence. An option may quote a real figure from the passage but attach it to the wrong quantity, year or group. Before accepting a number, confirm what it measures and when.
A view treated as a fact
When a passage reports what critics, supporters or a ministry say, an option may present that view as something the passage establishes, or give it to a different party. Note the speaker of every claim you rely on.
Check yourself
Answer each question before you open its answer.
Question 1: Where the revenue goes
Reading comprehension
In 2019 the city of Valmora introduced a charge on private cars entering its historic centre on weekdays. The charge was set at €5 a day, and the revenue was assigned by law to the city's bus network. In the first year, the number of cars entering the centre fell by 18%, and average bus journey times through the centre fell by about a tenth, because buses were no longer held up in traffic.
Shopkeepers in the centre had predicted that the charge would drive customers to out-of-town retail parks. The city's own survey, published two years later, found that footfall in the centre was roughly unchanged, but that the mix of visitors had shifted: fewer came by car, and more came by bus or by bicycle. The shopkeepers' association disputed the survey, arguing that it counted people passing through the centre rather than people buying there.
The council has since proposed raising the charge to €8. Supporters say the higher charge would pay for new bus routes; opponents say it would fall most heavily on tradespeople who need a vehicle for their work and cannot switch to public transport.
According to the passage, what was the revenue from the €5 charge required to fund?
- A.Road maintenance in the historic centre
- B.The city's bus network
- C.New bus routes
- D.Compensation for shopkeepers in the centre
Show the answer
Answer: B. The city's bus network
Working
The first paragraph states that "the revenue was assigned by law to the city's bus network". That is the only place the passage says where the revenue must go. New bus routes belong to the later proposal to raise the charge, and are claimed only by its supporters.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. The passage never mentions road maintenance; it says the revenue was assigned to the bus network.
- C. New routes are what supporters say a higher €8 charge would pay for. That is a proposal, not where the existing revenue is required to go.
- D. Shopkeepers appear only as critics of the charge; no compensation is mentioned.
What carries over
Match the stem to the right moment in the passage: what is required now is not the same as what is proposed.
Question 2: What the survey found
Reading comprehension
In 2019 the city of Valmora introduced a charge on private cars entering its historic centre on weekdays. The charge was set at €5 a day, and the revenue was assigned by law to the city's bus network. In the first year, the number of cars entering the centre fell by 18%, and average bus journey times through the centre fell by about a tenth, because buses were no longer held up in traffic.
Shopkeepers in the centre had predicted that the charge would drive customers to out-of-town retail parks. The city's own survey, published two years later, found that footfall in the centre was roughly unchanged, but that the mix of visitors had shifted: fewer came by car, and more came by bus or by bicycle. The shopkeepers' association disputed the survey, arguing that it counted people passing through the centre rather than people buying there.
The council has since proposed raising the charge to €8. Supporters say the higher charge would pay for new bus routes; opponents say it would fall most heavily on tradespeople who need a vehicle for their work and cannot switch to public transport.
Which of the following is stated in the passage?
- A.The charge caused footfall in the centre to fall.
- B.Bus journey times through the centre fell by 18%.
- C.The shopkeepers' association accepted the survey's finding that footfall was unchanged.
- D.According to the city's survey, fewer visitors arrived in the centre by car.
Show the answer
Answer: D. According to the city's survey, fewer visitors arrived in the centre by car.
Working
The second paragraph reports the survey: footfall roughly unchanged, but "fewer came by car, and more came by bus or by bicycle". The option about visitors arriving by car paraphrases that, and attributes it correctly to the survey. The 18% figure belongs to cars, not bus journey times, and the association disputed rather than accepted the survey.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. This is what the shopkeepers predicted; the city's survey found footfall roughly unchanged.
- B. 18% is the fall in the number of cars entering the centre. Bus journey times fell by about a tenth.
- C. The association disputed the survey, arguing that it counted people passing through rather than people buying.
What carries over
Check each figure against the quantity it measures, and each claim against the party that makes it.
Question 3: The opponents of the higher charge
Reading comprehension
In 2019 the city of Valmora introduced a charge on private cars entering its historic centre on weekdays. The charge was set at €5 a day, and the revenue was assigned by law to the city's bus network. In the first year, the number of cars entering the centre fell by 18%, and average bus journey times through the centre fell by about a tenth, because buses were no longer held up in traffic.
Shopkeepers in the centre had predicted that the charge would drive customers to out-of-town retail parks. The city's own survey, published two years later, found that footfall in the centre was roughly unchanged, but that the mix of visitors had shifted: fewer came by car, and more came by bus or by bicycle. The shopkeepers' association disputed the survey, arguing that it counted people passing through the centre rather than people buying there.
The council has since proposed raising the charge to €8. Supporters say the higher charge would pay for new bus routes; opponents say it would fall most heavily on tradespeople who need a vehicle for their work and cannot switch to public transport.
According to the passage, opponents of raising the charge to €8 argue that the higher charge would
- A.leave less money for new bus routes
- B.drive shoppers to out-of-town retail parks
- C.weigh most on people who need a vehicle for their work and have no public-transport alternative
- D.fail to reduce the number of cars entering the centre
Show the answer
Answer: C. weigh most on people who need a vehicle for their work and have no public-transport alternative
Working
The last sentence says opponents believe the €8 charge "would fall most heavily on tradespeople who need a vehicle for their work and cannot switch to public transport". The option about people who need a vehicle for their work and have no public-transport alternative is a paraphrase of that. The other options either belong to other parties or are not in the passage.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. The passage gives the opposite view to supporters, who say the higher charge would pay for new routes; opponents argue about who would pay.
- B. This was the shopkeepers' prediction about the original charge, before it was introduced, not the opponents' argument against the rise.
- D. No one in the passage makes this argument, and the passage reports that car numbers fell by 18% under the original charge.
What carries over
When the stem names a group, the answer is that group’s claim, usually paraphrased.
Key points
Locate the sentence first, then compare each option with it word by word.
The right option usually paraphrases; familiar words in a new combination are a warning sign.
Check qualifiers: "some" is not "most", "may" is not "will", "contributed to" is not "caused".
For every claim, note who makes it; for every figure, note its unit, period and quantity.
All questions here are original and written for UniExamer; none comes from the test maker.
Written by the UniExamer team with AI assistance. Every worked example and check question was re-solved by an independent checker before publication. No subject expert has reviewed this lesson yet. If you find a mistake, write to support@uniexamer.com.