You can directly test the highlighting by passing the highlight parameters.
e.g. hl=true&hl.fl=name,features
Also, you can configure the highlight defaults within you request handler in solrconfig.xml e.g.
<requestHandler name="/browse" class="solr.SearchHandler">
<lst name="defaults">
................
<!-- Highlighting defaults -->
<str name="hl">on</str>
<str name="hl.fl">content features title name</str>
<str name="hl.encoder">html</str>
<str name="hl.simple.pre"><b></str>
<str name="hl.simple.post"></b></str>
<str name="f.title.hl.fragsize">0</str>
<str name="f.title.hl.alternateField">title</str>
<str name="f.name.hl.fragsize">0</str>
<str name="f.name.hl.alternateField">name</str>
<str name="f.content.hl.snippets">3</str>
<str name="f.content.hl.fragsize">200</str>
<str name="f.content.hl.alternateField">content</str>
<str name="f.content.hl.maxAlternateFieldLength">750</str>
</lst>
</requestHandler>
You can use boolean operators and search on individual fields.
q=type:furniture AND location:office
If the values are fixed, it is better to use Filter Queries for Performance.
fq=type:furniture AND location:office