The Berkeley Reading Tests Project has selected as its principal object of study standardized tests of reading comprehension. The interest is in the assessment of such tests, with respect to their performance as measures of the reading comprehension abilities of school children. A serious study of the assessment of reading comprehension requires an understanding of the process of reading comprehension itself, and such an understanding requires in turn an understanding of general language interpreting abilities. This study is aimed at (1) the practical goal of evaluating and improving the existing technology for assessing reading comprehension in American schools; (2) the goal of increasing the knowledge of the reading process itself, and thus perhaps contributing to the improvement of the reading curriculum; and (3) the scientific goal of understanding language as a peculiarly human ability. (PN)