N5 内容理解（短文）: Short Passages, Full Points
The Reading section begins with 内容理解・短文 — comprehension of short passages of about 80 characters (2 passages, 1 question each). Eighty characters is three or four sentences: a note left on a desk, a diary line, a short message about study, life or work. The texts are written specifically for learners (kanji above N5 carries furigana), so every question is winnable with N5 knowledge — if you read with method instead of hope. This chapter teaches the method, then walks two exam-style passages together.
1. What the Questions Actually Ask
N5 short-passage questions come in a small set of shapes. Recognize the shape before hunting the answer:
| Question shape | Example | Where the answer hides |
|---|---|---|
| Why?（どうして〜か） | どうして学校を休みましたか。 | After a から／ので in the text |
| What will/did X do?（何をしますか） | 田中さんはこれから何をしますか。 | The verb phrases — check tense & who |
| What matches the text?（正しいものはどれか） | ただしいものはどれですか。 | Each option must be checked against one sentence |
| What does the writer want? | この人は何がしたいですか。 | 〜たいです／〜つもりです phrases |
| Reference（それは何か） | 「それ」は何ですか。 | The previous sentence (your 文章の文法 skill!) |
2. The 4-Step Method for Short Passages
- Read the question FIRST. With only ~80 characters of text, the question tells you exactly what to fish for (a reason? an action? a time?). Load the target before reading.
- Read the whole text once, normally. No skimming needed at this length — but read to the very end. N5 texts routinely put the decisive sentence last (…でも、雨だったので、行きませんでした).
- Locate the evidence sentence — the one sentence that answers the question. Underline it mentally. If you can't point at evidence, you're guessing.
- Eliminate options against the evidence. Wrong options at N5 are usually (a) something the text mentions but that doesn't answer this question, (b) the right content with wrong who/when, or (c) a near-copy with one word flipped (行きます↔行きません).
3. Worked Passage 1: The Note
リンさん
きょうの午後、会社の人が来ます。会議の部屋をそうじしてください。それから、つくえの上にコーヒーとおかしを置いてください。コップは台所にあります。
田中
Question: リンさんは、はじめに何をしますか。
① コーヒーを買います ② 部屋をそうじします ③ コップを洗います ④ おかしを食べます
Walkthrough: the question asks what Lin does first（はじめに）. The instructions come in order: そうじしてください → それから、コーヒーとおかしを置いてください. それから marks the second action, so the first is cleaning. Answer ②. Traps: ① confuses "place coffee" with "buy coffee" (the text never says buy); ③ invents washing from the word コップ; ④ is absurd but tempts skimmers who saw おかし. Notice the workhorse skills: てください spotting, それから sequencing — grammar chapters paying rent.
4. Worked Passage 2: The Diary
きのうは友だちとプールへ行くつもりでした。でも、朝から頭が痛かったので、行きませんでした。一日中うちで寝ていました。夜は少し元気になりました。今度の土曜日にプールへ行きたいです。
Question: どうしてプールへ行きませんでしたか。
① 雨が降ったから ② 頭が痛かったから ③ 友だちが来なかったから ④ 土曜日じゃなかったから
Walkthrough: どうして asks for the reason → scan for から/ので → 頭が痛かったので、行きませんでした. Answer ②. The other options recycle vocabulary from typical pool stories (rain, friends, Saturday) but have no evidence sentence. One more trap in this text worth savoring: 行くつもりでした = "planned to go" — the plan existed, the going didn't. つもりでした (past intention) versus 行きました is exactly the kind of one-word tense difference that flips a right answer to wrong.
5. The Micro-Skills That Decide Points
- Negatives at the end: Japanese verbs reveal positive/negative at the very last syllable (行きました／行きませんでした). Never answer from the middle of a sentence.
- でも／しかし reversals: whatever came before a "but" is usually the trap; whatever comes after is usually the truth.
- Intent vs fact: 〜つもりです（plan）, 〜たいです（wish）, 〜ました（fact）. Questions distinguish them ruthlessly.
- Time scope: きのう／きょう／これから — match the question's time to the text's time words before comparing content.
- Who does what: in notes/instructions, the reader does てください actions; the writer does します/ます actions. Mixing them up is the classic note-passage error.
6. Building Reading Speed (Without Losing Accuracy)
- Budget: ~3 minutes per short passage including its question. The read-question-first habit alone saves half a minute.
- Practice daily with any 3-4 sentence Japanese text (graded readers, this course's example passages): read once, then ask yourself だれ？いつ？どこ？何をした？どうして？ — the five hooks every N5 question hangs on.
- Don't translate word-by-word into your head — chunk by particles: [きのう][友だちと][プールへ][行くつもりでした]. Chunk-reading is the single biggest speed unlock at this level.
Summary & Key Takeaways
- 短文 = ~80-character notes/diaries/messages, 2 passages × 1 question; every answer has one evidence sentence.
- Method: question first → full read → locate evidence → eliminate against it.
- Question shapes: どうして (find から/ので), what-first (track それから), intent vs fact (つもり/たい vs ました), reference (そ-series), true-statement matching.
- Traps live in: sentence-final negatives, でも reversals, wrong who/when, and one-word flips of the evidence.
- Read in particle chunks, and always read to the last character — N5 saves its verdicts for the end.