Literary Narrative Passages · Strategy summary

Literary Narrative Passages: strategy summary

  1. Read for the arc: what the main character wants, what stands in the way, and what is different at the end.
  2. Check pronouns and time words to tell who is narrating and whether an adult is looking back on childhood.
  3. Flashbacks are signaled by phrases like the night before and by had verbs; follow the shift.
  4. Infer feelings from action, dialogue, and detail, and keep each inference one short step from the text.
  5. For an image, ask what is true of the picture, then carry that quality back to the real person, sound, or moment.
  6. Make sure the choice fits the exact paragraph the stem names, not just the story in general.
  7. Locate before you answer: reread the lines, predict in your own words, then match.