comprehension

A comprehension is a test of how well you understood what you read. A passage, and then questions about it.

That classroom sense is very British — a reading comprehension, a comprehension exercise — and it is the one most learners meet first. The wider meaning is simply understanding, and it turns up in beyond comprehension, meaning impossible to understand or to believe. Listening comprehension is the same exercise done with sound. The verb comprehend is more formal than understand and a good deal rarer.