With the use of verbal report strategies, a study was conducted to examine (1) the types of comprehension strategies readers use to process familiar and less familiar texts and (2) the differential use of think aloud strategies by average and below average readers. Subjects were 15 tenth grade male students in upstate New York. Two weeks prior to testing, students were given a 50-item completion test assessing their knowledge of American football and rugby union. After two practice sessions were completed, subjects were told to begin reading the test passage on football and rugby and to stop when they came to a pause signal. At this point, they were asked to briefly summarize what they had read so far and to state what they were thinking or doing as they read to comprehend that portion of text. They were also asked specific probe questions to identify the use of problem solving strategies. Findings indicated that the more knowledge subjects had about a topic, the more they evaluated what they were reading, drew inferences, and made direct comparisons between familiar and less familiar passages. Students with below average comprehension ability evidenced a greater number of errors in recalling the content of the passages, made fewer evaluative comments, and drew fewer inferences while reading less familiar passages than their average classmates. (A copy of one text passage is appended.) (HOD)