DET Highlight the Answer: Match the Question’s Scope

A passage says, “Because the original seeds had absorbed moisture, the researchers dried them for two days before storage.” The question asks, “Why did the researchers dry the seeds?”

Highlighting the researchers dried them repeats the action but omits the reason. Highlighting the entire sentence includes the answer but also unrelated duration and sequence. The precise answer is because the original seeds had absorbed moisture.

This guide focuses on one narrow decision in the current Duolingo English Test Highlight the Answer task: match the selected span to the question’s scope and boundaries. For the broader set of Interactive Reading skills, use DET Interactive Reading: connect ideas across the passage.

Duolingo’s official Interactive Reading description says you answer by highlighting text in the passage. The answer is already present; the work is to locate and select it accurately. Visit the DET vocabulary practice hub and Exam English hub for connected practice. All items here are original.

Scope before selection

The question word defines the kind of information required:

• who → a person, group, or organization;
• what → an object, event, action, definition, or result;
• why → a reason, purpose, or cause;
• when → a time, period, or sequence point;
• where → a location;
• how → a method or process;
• how many / how much → a quantity or degree;
• which → the member of a stated set that meets a condition.

Before touching the passage, restate the target: “I need the cause,” “I need the second location,” or “I need the amount after the change.” That prevents a nearby keyword from pulling your selection toward the wrong fact.

The smallest complete span

A strong selection is complete but not padded. It includes every word needed to answer and excludes material answering a different question.

Passage:

In 2018, the archive moved its most fragile maps to a climate-controlled room on the second floor.

Question: Where were the fragile maps moved?

• Too short: room — which room?
• Complete: a climate-controlled room on the second floor
• Too broad: In 2018, the archive moved its most fragile maps to a climate-controlled room on the second floor — includes when, actor, and action.

Do not reduce every location to the shortest noun. Modifiers may identify the exact place.

Why: reason, purpose, or trigger?

Questions with why may ask for different relations.

To prevent mold, staff lowered the storage room’s humidity.

Why did staff lower the humidity? To prevent mold is a purpose.

Staff lowered the humidity because mold had appeared on two boxes.

Why did staff lower it? because mold had appeared on two boxes is a cause or trigger.

Both answer why, but do not highlight the resulting action itself. Words such as because, since, so that, to, and in order to often mark the boundary, though the relation matters more than the marker.

How: method, not result

Passage:

The biologists estimated the turtle population by photographing shell patterns and matching them across visits. This method identified returning animals without attaching tags.

Question: How did the biologists estimate the population?

Answer: by photographing shell patterns and matching them across visits.

The next sentence states a benefit of the method, not the method itself. Keyword matching might attract you to “This method,” but the phrase does not tell how anything was done.

Quantities need their conditions

Passage:

The original filter removed 60 percent of fine particles. After a second layer was added, removal rose to 84 percent.

Question: How much did the revised filter remove?

Answer: 84 percent.

Question: By how many percentage points did removal rise?

The passage gives the inputs, but not the calculated phrase “24 percentage points.” In a highlight task, do not select a number that answers a different quantitative question. The first question asks for the revised level; it does not ask for the change.

Modifiers can be essential:

Nearly one third of weekday visitors arrived before noon.

For “What proportion of weekday visitors arrived before noon?” select Nearly one third, not merely one third, because nearly changes the quantity.

Pronouns and paraphrases

The question may name something that the answer sentence expresses with a pronoun or a related phrase.

The council tested permeable pavement in the market square. It allowed rainwater to enter the soil instead of flowing directly into drains.

Question: What did the permeable pavement allow rainwater to do?

Answer: enter the soil instead of flowing directly into drains.

The passage’s It refers to the pavement. You do not need the word pavement inside the selected answer because the question supplies the subject. The predicate completes the requested proposition.

Worked passage

Read the passage once, then inspect four scope decisions.

A community theater noticed that many returned costumes had missing labels. Volunteers therefore spent hours identifying garments before each production. To reduce that work, the theater photographed every costume, assigned it a washable numbered tag, and linked the number to a digital record. The team completed the catalog in six weekends. During the next production, volunteers located most requested items in under three minutes.

1. Why did volunteers spend hours identifying garments?

Answer: many returned costumes had missing labels. This is the stated cause. “Before each production” answers when.

2. How did the theater reduce the identification work?

Answer: photographed every costume, assigned it a washable numbered tag, and linked the number to a digital record. All three coordinated actions form the method. Selecting only the tag would omit two parts of the stated system.

3. How long did catalog creation take?

Answer: six weekends. Include the unit.

4. What happened during the next production?

Answer: volunteers located most requested items in under three minutes. The time frame is already in the question, so the answer is the result within it.

Controlled practice 1: boundary choices

Passage:

Although the northern trail is shorter, park staff recommend the western trail after heavy rain because its stone surface drains more quickly.

1. Which trail do staff recommend after heavy rain?
2. Why do they recommend that trail?
3. When do they recommend it?

Answers:

1. the western trail — the requested member of the two-trail set.
2. because its stone surface drains more quickly — the complete reason.
3. after heavy rain — the condition defining when the recommendation applies.

Do not include “Although the northern trail is shorter” in any answer. It provides contrast but does not answer these questions.

Controlled practice 2: nearby distractors

Passage:

In the first month, the clinic sent appointment reminders by email. Because several patients lacked regular internet access, it added optional text messages in June. Missed appointments then fell from 18 percent to 12 percent by August.

1. Why did the clinic add text messages?
2. When were text messages added?
3. What was the missed-appointment rate by August?
4. How did the clinic initially send reminders?

Answers and rationales:

1. Because several patients lacked regular internet access. This gives the reason, not the later outcome.
2. in June. By August belongs to the measured outcome.
3. 12 percent. Eighteen percent is the starting value.
4. by email. “In the first month” supplies timing, but the question asks for method.

Controlled practice 3: include necessary qualifiers

Passage:

The new timetable shortened the average weekday journey by approximately nine minutes, but weekend travel times did not change.

Choose the better span for each question.

1. How much shorter was the average weekday journey?
   • A. nine minutes
   • B. approximately nine minutes
2. Which journeys became shorter?
   • A. the average weekday journey
   • B. weekend travel times

Answers: 1-B, 2-A. Approximately prevents false precision. The weekday qualifier separates the changed journeys from the unchanged weekend journeys.

When a clause is the answer

Not every answer is a noun phrase. A question may require a complete clause.

The committee delayed the launch until independent reviewers confirmed that the safety issue had been resolved.

Question: What had to happen before the launch?

Answer: independent reviewers confirmed that the safety issue had been resolved.

Selecting only the safety issue names a topic, not the required event. Selecting only had been resolved omits who confirmed it, which is part of the condition as written.

A disciplined selection routine

1. Convert the question into a target type.
2. Find the sentence that contains that information, including paraphrases.
3. Identify the grammatical unit that answers: noun phrase, prepositional phrase, infinitive, or clause.
4. Expand until the answer is complete.
5. Trim timing, contrast, examples, or consequences the question did not request.
6. Read question plus selection as one proposition.

For “Why was the launch delayed?” combine mentally: “The launch was delayed until independent reviewers...” If the result does not answer why, revise the boundary.

Common mistakes

• Selecting the sentence that repeats the question’s vocabulary but answers a different question.
• Highlighting the action when the question asks for its cause.
• Omitting approximation, negation, comparison, or another meaning-changing modifier.
• Selecting an entire sentence when one phrase completely answers.
• Cutting a coordinated method after its first step.
• Confusing a starting quantity, final quantity, and amount of change.
• Adding an inference that is not explicitly stated in the passage.

Final mixed check

Passage:

The orchard originally relied on daily visual inspections for damaged fruit. In July, managers installed small cameras above three sorting lines so that defects could be detected earlier. The cameras did not replace workers; instead, they flagged fruit for closer human inspection. By September, the average inspection delay had fallen by roughly four hours.

1. Why were cameras installed? so that defects could be detected earlier
2. Where were they installed? above three sorting lines
3. What did cameras prompt workers to do? closer human inspection
4. By how much did the average delay fall? roughly four hours

Each answer preserves the question’s scope. The last keeps roughly; the third does not claim that cameras made the final decision.

For fresh passage questions and precise feedback, try Lyra Practice.

Sources

• Interactive Reading — Duolingo English Test
• Test Structure — Duolingo English Test Help Center

Related

• DET Interactive Reading: connect ideas across the passage
• DET Read and Complete word families
• DET Fill in the Blanks vocabulary in context
• DET Read and Select vocabulary

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