四类文章的阅读策略：ACT READING STRATEGIES

The prose fictionpassage is a full 180 degrees from the natural science passage. First of all,instead of cold, hard fact, you're reading fiction. This passage will bespeckled with hints and suggestions about characters' emotions, motives, andpersonalities. Here are our strategies:

Unlike the naturalscience passage, which will be chock-full of questions that ask you to findfacts and details, the most important parts of the prose fiction passageprobably won't be clearly spelled out right there on the page. There will besome referring skills questions that ask you to remember details from thestory, but the real meat of the prose fiction passage is interpretation. Questions will ask you why the author used a certainkind of language to communicate a certain thing, what the relationship isbetween the characters, what may have happened right before the passage in theoriginal source, what may happen after the passage, or how the characters feelabout the events taking place in the passage. See our section onReasoning Questions for more information.

As you probably could have guessed, the prose fiction passage will bea narrative, or a passage that tells a story. Although the passage mightcontain some factual or factual-sounding information, you won't encounter apurely explanatory or argumentative passage in this section. If you lovereading novels and short stories, you probably won't have much trouble withthis passage. If you're more a fan of nonfiction, or if you're not into readingfor pleasure, try smiling while you read—it actually helps! Remember thatauthors want to entertain their audience, and it might help this section sailby faster and more enjoyably.

Think of yourself as aliterary detective, asking questions like, "What's really going onhere?" and "What does he actually mean?" Think about thecharacters' moods, their emotions, their desires, and their personalities. Arethey nervous? Sad? Aggressive? Sometimes there will be clear hints in thepassage, and sometimes you'll have to do some mental digging before you figureout how x situation makes y character feel. A good writer doesn't usually comeright out and say, "Chris was angry because Erin forgot to buy groceries,"or "Erin was sad because Chris was angry with her." Instead, Chrismight snap, snarl, or grumble, and Erin might sniff, pout, or cry. Using thoseemotional clues, it's much easier to figure out how Chris and Erin are feeling.

We've been stressingit throughout this study guide, but if you're really interested in history,psychology, political science, or something else that falls into this category,you might want to think about doing this section of the test first. Since the ACT doesn'tpenalize you for skipping questions, it makes sense to do the sections you're most confident inbefore all the others. That way, you don't risk not having time for them afteryou've slogged through the sections that are harder for you. We've includedsome specific strategies to tackle this section. Read on:

Remember, this issocial science we're talking here, meaning you are most likely going to bereading something about theinteractions of individuals or groups of people. This section is all aboutrelationships: between people, between concepts, between dates, between events.Relationships are typically full of problems, right? Look for conflict,disagreement, social issues, diseases, wars, and all of that not-so-fun stuffthat can occur when people come together. You might not have to wrestle withthe highly technical language you could see in the natural science section, butyou will still need to underline, circle, or draw stars—whatever it takes toclearly mark important arguments and terms.

If you need to referback to the passage, you don't want to comb through it for three or fourminutes, searching for that little detail you know is in there. If you mark theimportant stuff clearly on the first read-through, you'll make your life awhole lot easier.

Don't forget that,unlike biology or physics, social sciences such as history and political scienceare not always 100% objective. Even though you can be fairly certain that apassage written by a sociologist will be more scientific and thereforeimpersonal and analytical, an essay by a former slave about the Civil War might have a different opinion. Look for cluesthat suggest the author's beliefs, attitude, or agenda. Sometimes this won't beobvious or important, but sometimes it will be, so be aware.

Lots of questions inthis section will ask you to choose the main purpose, point, or idea of thepassage. If someone asked you, “Hey, what was that passage about?” you'd wantto be able to say, “Oh, it was about ___.” The answer to this question willprobably be broad, and show up in every paragraph, rather than be narrow andspecific.

If someone asked you,"Hey man, do you like Humanities?" you'd probably say, "Uh, no,what is that?" What if someone said, "Do you like dance? How aboutpiano? Mark Twain?"?"You might have a different answer, and all of these subjects fall under the humanities umbrella. Are you into literature, drama,music, or whatever's being discussed in the humanities passage? If so, answerthe questions in this section first, before you conquer the other sections. Ifnot, leave this section for last, and knock off the other ones first.

Since a humanitiespassage, unlike prose fiction, can sometimes contain a lot of facts anddetails, it is important to keep track of these important tidbits. Circle,underline, or otherwise markimportant concepts, arguments, and terms. And read between the lines, just as you would in the prose fictionsection. That's how you'll catch the author's intentions or attitude toward thetopic, as well as the main idea of the passage.

Though some humanitieswriters are clear and concise, others like to try to dazzle us with big, flashywords that can range from super-technical literary or art jargon to obscurewords you have never seen before in your life. These types of writers also tendto bury symbols, images, and meanings in the text, so expect a lot of reasoningskills questions in the humanities passage.

Maybe you're a totalbiology nerd who's been reading Science and Nature since you were in middle school. In that case,you'll probably have no problem figuring out the type of language usually usedin the natural science passage. The passage will be in English, of course, butit will be in what we at Shmoop like to call science-y language (that's atechnical term). If you're bursting with confidence when you flip the page andsee the natural science section, do this section first. No sense wasting yourtime sweating over the other sections and losing valuable time to shine.

Maybe you have anhonest-to-goodness phobia of science class, or maybe you're simply not a fan.If that’s the case, you should probably do this section last, after you've hada chance to flex your muscles on the sections that appeal to you more.

Or circle them, draw a star in the margin, or write"IMPORTANT." A big part of the natural science passage isunderstanding tricky scientific language, and unless you're already an experton the topic, you're going to have to refer back to the passage again andagain. Make it easy for yourself by marking the heck out of the passage.

If two ideas ortheories are being compared, make sure youknow the difference between them. It sounds obvious, but this is areally common question in the natural science section. Understanding thedifferences between two ideas means being clear on what Theory A and Theory Bboth mean. Another opportunity for underlining, circling, and drawing stars!

Science writers aresometimes purposely dispassionate. That is, they maintain an analytical,impersonal tone and do not get emotionally involved in the subject matter. Labreports, research findings, or discussions about natural phenomena are notusually punctuated with gems like "along with being a keystone species oftheir habitat, salmon are just really awesome fish, in my opinion." Onenotable exception is when the scientist is trying to alert the reader to aproblem, such as global warming or pollution—in this case he or she may be moreopinionated or emphatic when discussing the harmful effects of these factors ona given ecosystem.