專業技術人員以英語為工具，主要通過閱讀獲取相關學科和專業的信息，因此，全國專業技術職稱英語等級考試也主要是考閱讀理解。從考試題型來看，主要是多項選擇題。該題型在職稱英語等級考試中占15題，45分(占總分的45%)。另外，全國專業技術職稱英語等級考試中還采用了閱讀判斷、概括大意與完成句子、補全短文和選擇填空等題型，它們實質上也是考核閱讀能力的題型。由此可見，為了通過全國專業技術職稱英語等級考試，必須掌握最基本的閱讀技能，努力提高閱讀理解能力。

　　☆ 了解闡述主旨的事實和細節

　　為了準確理解每篇文章或每段文章的中心思想，我們必須要找到與中心思想有關的事實和細節。一個好的作者必然會引用事實、或分析原因、或對比事物間的關系等以論證自己的論點。常用以提問這類事實和細節的問題有兩種。一種是要求找出文章中的重要事實或細節，這些常與wh0，when，where，which或why有關。另一種問題是辨認哪些細節在文章中沒被提及。這些問題常有except，not(mentioned/true)，least等。例如：

　　1. What causes ?

　　2. Some people do sth. because__________

　　3. Sb. is … because ________.

　　4. Why does the author mention ...?

　　5. Which of the following best characterizes the main feature of...?

　　6. Where in the passage does the author describe...?

　　7. Which of the following does the author want to illustrate in discussing ...?

　　8. What time does the writer think is ?

　　9. What does the author pay least attention to?

　　10. Which of the following is not a result of _______?

　　11. All of the following may be ... except ________.

　　12. Which of the following is not mentioned?

　　13. Which of the following statements is true ?

　　14. The author states all of the items listed except_______.

　　為了正確回答這一類題目，讀者往往要采用各種閱讀方法和解題技巧，也就是綜合解題法。在通讀全文、掌握文章的中心大意的基礎上，首先要仔細看懂問題，明確問的是什么，然后按照題意進行尋讀，找到正確答案的根據。外語學習網

　　例1

　　Ours has become a society of employees. A hundred years or so ago only one out of every five Americans at work was employed, i.e., worked for somebody else. Today only one out of five is not employed but working for himself. And when fifty years ago "being employed" meant working as a factory laborer or as a farmhand, the employee of today is increasingly a middle-class person with a substantial formal education, holding a professional or management job requiring intellectual and technical skills. Indeed, two things have characterized American society during these last fifty years: middle-class and upper-class employees have been the fastest-growing groups in our working population -growing so fast that the industrial worker, that oldest child of the Industrial Revolution, has been losing in numerical importance despite the expansion of industrial production.

　　Yet you will find little if anything written on what it is to be an employee. You can find a great deal of very dubious advice on how to get a job or how to get a promotion. You can also find a good deal of work in a chosen field, whether it will be the mechanist's trade or bookkeeping. Every one of these trades requires different skills, sets different standards, and requires a different preparation. Yet they all have employeeship in common. And increasingly, especially in the large business or in government, employeeship is more important to success than the special professional knowledge or skill. Certainly more people fail because they do not know the requirements of being an employee than because they do not adequately possess the skills of their trade; the higher you climb the ladder, the more you get into administrative or executive work, the greater the emphasis on ability to work within the organization rather than on technical abilities or professional knowledge.