Master the Gre 2010 - Part 38

Comprehension OVERVIEW • Key facts about GRE Reading Comprehension • Interactive reading: The key to reading comprehension • The 7-step plan • Interactive reading strategies • Question t

SUMMING IT UP

• The GRE Verbal Reasoning section contains two types of Sentence Completions:

single-blank and dual-blank You are required to complete the entire sentence by

selecting the best pair among five choices

• Your Verbal Reasoning section might also contain a more complex Text

Completion test item, a brief passage with either two or three blanks Your job is

to select the best among three choices for each blank You complete each blank

independently of the other(s), and you must complete all blanks correctly to

receive credit for a correct response

• Sentence and Text Completions test your ability to understand the intended

meaning of a sentence or paragraph, your ability to distinguish between a

sen-tence or paragraph that makes sense and one that lacks sense, your ability to

recognize and distinguish between proper and improper word usage and idiom,

your ability to recognize and distinguish between clear and unclear written

expression, and your vocabulary

• The emphasis on vocabulary is not as strong with Sentence and Text Completions

as with Analogies and Antonyms

• Follow and review the five basic steps for handling GRE Sentence Completions

and the four basic steps for handling GRE Text Completions outlined in this

chapter Apply them to this book’s Practice Tests; then review them again just

before exam day

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Comprehension

OVERVIEW

• Key facts about GRE Reading Comprehension

• Interactive reading: The key to reading comprehension

• The 7-step plan

• Interactive reading strategies

• Question types

• GRE test designers’ top 10 wrong-answer ploys

• Summing it up

In this chapter, you’ll focus initially on reading and understanding GRE

Reading Comprehension passages Specifically, you’ll learn the following:

• Why it’s important to read the passages “interactively”

• A step-by-step approach to reading and comprehending passages

• Techniques for reading the passages more effectively and efficiently

Later in the chapter, you’ll shift your focus to the questions themselves In

particular, you’ll learn how to recognize and handle all the question types that

appear most frequently on the GRE For each question type, you’ll learn how

the test makers design wrong answer choices, and how to recognize them

when you see them

At the end of the chapter, you’ll review key strategies and tips for success in

GRE Reading Comprehension

KEY FACTS ABOUT GRE READING COMPREHENSION

You last looked at GRE Reading Comprehension in Chapter 2 and in this book’s

Diagnostic Test Here’s a quick review of key facts about this question type

Where: The 30-minute Verbal Reasoning section, mixed in with other

question types

How Many: Approximately 8 questions, based on 2–4 passages (2–4

ques-tions per passage)

.

355

What’s Tested:

• Your ability to read carefully and accurately

• Your ability to determine the relationships among the various parts of the passage

• Your ability to draw reasonable inferences from the material in the passage

Specific Abilities Measured: GRE Reading Comprehension questions measure the

following specific abilities:

• Recognizing the main point or concern of the passage

• Recalling specific information from the passage

• Making reasonable inferences from specific information in the passage

• Recognizing the contextual purpose, function, or meaning of specific passage information

• Recognizing the structure and methods an author employs to convey the ideas in the passage

• Applying the ideas presented in the passage to new situations

Directions: During the computerized GRE, test directions similar to the following

will appear on your screen prior to each set of Reading Comprehension questions:

Directions: The questions accompanying the following passage are based on the

passage’s content After reading the passage, choose the best answer to each question Answer all the questions on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage

Other Key Facts:

• Passages are condensed, edited excerpts from larger works in the biological sciences, social sciences, and humanities

• Prior knowledge of a passage’s subject matter is not important; all questions are answerable based solely on the passage’s information

• Passages appear on the left side of your computer screen; questions based on the passage appear (one at a time) on the right side

• You’ll need to scroll vertically to read an entire passage on the computer screen

• Passages range from approximately 175 words (15–20 lines on the computer screen) to 450 words (45–50 lines)

• Expect to see at least one short passage and at least one long passage on your exam

• Questions about information appearing early in a passage do not necessarily come before other questions

PART V: Verbal Reasoning 356

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INTERACTIVE READING: THE KEY TO READING

COMPREHENSION

If you’re like most GRE test takers, you’ll experience at least one of the following

problems as you tackle the Reading Comprehension part of the GRE, at least to some

degree:

• Your concentration is poor, perhaps because you’re unfamiliar with or

uninter-ested in the topic, or maybe because you feel test anxiety

• You read slowly, so you have trouble finishing the Verbal Reasoning section

within the time allotted

• To answer each question, you need to search the passage several times to find the

information you need

• You have trouble narrowing down the answer choices to one that’s clearly

the best

Believe it or not, all of these problems stem from the same habit, which we’ll call

passive reading This means that you simply read the passage from start to finish,

giving equal time and attention to every sentence, without thought as to what

particular information might be key in answering the questions You might call this

approach the “osmosis strategy,” since you’re hoping to absorb what you need to know

by allowing your eyes to gaze at the words as you read

The likely result of this habit, however, is that all you’ll remember are some scattered

facts and ideas that help you respond correctly to some questions The passive reading

habit won’t help you answer questions that measure your ability to understand the

ideas in the passage rather than to simply recall information Understanding a

passage well enough to answer all the questions requires a highly active frame of

mind in which you constantly “interact” with the text as you read, asking yourself

these three key questions:

• What is the passage’s central idea (or thesis) and the author’s overall concern or

purpose?

• How does each part of the passage relate to the main idea and author’s overall

purpose?

• What is the author’s line of reasoning, or so-called train of thought?

Interactive reading is the key to handling GRE Reading Comprehension—and that’s

what the first portion of this chapter is primarily about

NOTE

The interactive reading techniques you’ll learn early in this chapter apply to any reading passage, regardless of topic or length, and they’ll help you handle any question type the test might deal you.

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THE 7-STEP PLAN

Let’s apply these principles with a step-by-step approach We’ll use the following passage, which is about 170 words long—typical of some of the shorter reading passages you’ll encounter on the actual GRE We’re also going to let you peek at the first question stem (not the answer choices, just the question itself) You’ll find out why shortly

Passage 1

Renowned photographer Cartier-Bresson has expressed his passion for por-trait photography by characterizing it as a duel without rules, a delicate rape Such metaphors contrast sharply with Richard Avedon’s conception of a sitting While Cartier-Bresson reveals himself as an interloper and oppor-tunist, Avedon confesses, perhaps uncomfortably, to a role as diagnostician and (by implication) psychic healer Both photographers, however, agree that the fundamental dynamic in this process lies squarely in the hands of the artist

A quite different paradigm has its roots not in confrontation or consultation but in active collaboration between the artist and sitter In William Hazlitt’s essay entitled “On Sitting for One’s Picture” (1823), Hazlitt described a “bond

of connection” between painter and sitter that is most like the relationship between two lovers Hazlitt fleshes out his thesis by recalling the career of Sir Joshua Reynolds According to Hazlitt, Reynolds’s sitters were meant to enjoy

an atmosphere that was both comfortable for them and conducive to the enterprise of the portrait painter, who was simultaneously their host and their contractual employee

1 The passage’s author quotes Cariter-Bresson to (A)

(B) (C) (D) (E)

——-First, let’s focus on the interactive reading process, which boils down to the following

7 steps:

Step 1: Read the First Question and Answer Choices Before

Reading the Passage

Try to anticipate what the passage is about and the sort of information you should be looking for to answer the first question

Step 2: Read the Passage with a Possible Thesis in Mind

Begin reading the passage, actively thinking about a possible thesis (central idea) and how the author attempts to support that thesis Keep an eye out for information that will be useful in answering the first question

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TIP

If you see a highlighted word

or phrase in a reading

passage, expect a question

focusing on it The

computer-based GRE employs

highlighting to help you find

specific passage

information quickly.

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Step 3: Choose a Tentative Answer

When you think you’ve learned enough to take a stab at the first question, choose a

tentative answer You probably won’t have to read very far to take at least a reasoned

guess at the first question But don’t confirm your selection yet

Step 4: Read the Remainder of the Passage, Formulating an Outline

as You Go

As you read, try to accomplish the following:

• separate main ideas from supporting ideas and examples;

• determine the basic structure of the passage (e.g., chronology of events;

classifi-cation of ideas or things; comparison between two or more ideas, events, or

things);

• determine the author’s opinion or position on the subject

Make notes on your scratch paper as needed to see the “flow” of the passage and to

keep the passage’s details straight in your mind

Step 5: Sum Up the Passage and Formulate a Brief Thesis Statement

Take a few seconds to review your outline, then express the author’s main point in your

own words, keeping it to one sentence Jot down the sentence on your scratch paper

Your thesis statement should reflect the author’s opinion or position (e.g., critical,

supportive, neutral) toward the ideas presented in the passage

Step 6: Confirm Your Selection for the First Question

Eliminate any answer choice that is inconsistent with your thesis statement, that

doesn’t respond to the question, or that doesn’t make sense to you

Step 7: Move On to the Remaining Questions

Make sure you consider all five answer choices for each question

Now let’s walk through Passage 1, applying this seven-step approach

Step 1: The first question tells you very little about the passage All you know is that

in the passage the author will quote someone named “Cartier-Bresson” to make a

point

Step 2: The first few sentences help you predict the passage’s content Based on these

sentences, it appears that the author will compare and contrast different views of the

portraiture experience At this point, you don’t know whether the rest of the passage

will involve the views of any artist other than Cartier-Bresson and Richard Avedon,

nor do you know whether the author has any opinion on the subject Still, be on the

lookout for answers to these unknowns during step 4

Step 3: Try answering Question 1 based on what you’ve read so far To do so, of course,

you’ll need to read the answer choices, so here they are, along with the question stem

again:

ALERT!

Don’t expect to apply the steps you’ll learn here to your actual exam without first practicing them You’ll need to try them out first during the Practice Tests later in this book before you’ll feel completely comfortable with them.

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1 The passage’s author quotes Cartier-Bresson to (A) call into question Cartier-Bresson’s motives during portraiture encounters (B) show that perspectives of the portraiture encounter vary widely among

artists

(C) support the claim that portrait sittings are collaborative encounters (D) show that portraiture encounters are more comfortable for artists than for

sitters

(E) distinguish sitting for a photographic portrait from sitting for a painted

portrait

In the passage’s second sentence, the author points out that Cartier-Bresson’s con-ception is quite different from that of Avedon Choice (A) seems pretty far-fetched Answer choices (B) and (E) appear to be viable choices, at least based on the first few sentences But whether the author’s purpose in quoting Cartier-Bresson is better reflected by choice (B) or choice (E) remains to be seen You’ll have to read further to find out In any event, you can probably eliminate choices (C) and (D), since neither one seems consistent with the Cartier-Bresson quotation So it’s our guess that the correct answer is either choice (B) or choice (E) But don’t confirm a selection yet; go to step 4

Step 4: Your goal at this point is to formulate an informal outline of the passage as

you read from start to finish You might want to jot down some key words and phrases

to help you see how the ideas flow and to keep the four individuals discussed in the passage straight in your mind Here’s a good outline of the passage:

Paragraph 1 Contrast:

— CB: confrontation (rape)

— Avedon: diagnosis (consultation)

— BUT agree artist is key Paragraph 2

3rd view: Hazlitt (writer)

— collaboration (like lovers)

— e.g Reynolds

Step 5: Now let’s sum up the passage based on the outline you formulated in step 4.

It’s a good idea to jot it down Notice that the “thesis” is neutral; the author does not side with any viewpoint presented in the passage

PART V: Verbal Reasoning 360

TIP

Make outlines and summaries

as brief as possible Don’t write

complete sentences; just jot

down key words.

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Thesis: Portraiture is a social experience, but artists

disagree about their role in it.

Step 6: Believe it or not, you’ve already done most of the work you need to do to

answer questions about this passage Just for the record, though, let’s return to

question 1 Recall that we’d guessed tentatively that the correct answer is either

choice (B) or (E) Read the five choices again, and you’ll see that we were correct

Choice (B) provides the better answer to the question than choice (E), doesn’t it?

Cartier-Bresson’s conception, as expressed in the highlighted sentence, is one of three

the author describes in the passage, which is a survey of varying perspectives on the

portraiture encounter Notice also that choice (B) is consistent with our thesis

statement The correct answer is (B).

Step 7: Here are two more questions based on Passage 1 As you read the analysis of

both questions, notice the qualitative difference (from best to worst) among the

answer choices

2 Based on the information in the passage, it can be inferred that the

portraiture experience as viewed by Avedon can be characterized as

(A) a collaboration

(B) a mutual accommodation

(C) a confrontation

(D) an uncomfortable encounter

(E) a consultation

The correct answer is (E) If you wrote the outline on the previous page, you’ll

see that you already answered this question But for the record, let’s analyze the

question and the answer choices In the first sentence of the second paragraph,

the author distinguishes a “quite different paradigm” (that is, the case of

Rey-nolds) from the conceptions of Cartier-Bresson and Avedon in that the Reynolds

paradigm “has its roots not in confrontation or consultation but in active

collabo-ration between artist and sitter.” The first paragraph makes clear that

Cartier-Bresson conceives the encounter as “confrontational”; thus, you can reasonably

infer that the author characterizes an Avedon sitting as a “consultation.”

Choices (C) and (D) are the worst among the five choices Choice (C) confuses the

passage’s information The quotation in the first paragraph makes it clear that

Cartier-Bresson (not Avedon) conceives the encounter as “confrontational.”

Choice (D) also confuses the passage’s information According to the passage,

Avedon confesses “uncomfortably” to his role as diagnostician and psychic healer

It does not necessarily follow, however, that Avedon finds his encounters with his

sitters to be uncomfortable

Choice (B) is a viable choice, since the term “mutual accommodation,” though not

in the passage, is not altogether inconsistent with Avedon’s view However, the

term suggests a relationship in which artist and painter allow for the other’s

needs or desires Such a description is closer to Hazlitt’s analogy of two lovers

than to Avedon’s view of the artist as diagnostician and psychic healer

TIP

You can count on several GRE reading questions to include the phrase “It can be inferred that.” What this means is that you must read between the lines to determine what the author implies but does not say explicitly.

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Choice (A) has merit, yet it is not as good a response as choice (B) or (E) Admittedly, the idea of “a collaboration” is not in strong opposition to the idea

of “a consultation.” However, the author explicitly ascribes this characterization

to the Reynolds paradigm, not to Avedon’s view Thus, choice (A) confuses the passage’s information

Now, let’s try a third question based on Passage 1:

3 Which of the following best expresses the passage’s central idea?

(A) The success of a portrait depends largely on the relationship between

artist and subject

(B) Portraits often provide special insight into the artist’s social relationships (C) The social aspect of portraiture sitting plays an important part in the

sitting’s outcome

(D) Photographers and painters differ in their views regarding their role in

portrait photography

(E) The paintings of Reynolds provide a record of his success in achieving a

social bond with his sitters

The correct answer is (C) This is a tough question Our thesis statement from

step 5 doesn’t quite match any of the choices Nevertheless, there must be one

best choice among the five listed Let’s examine each one.

Choice (A) has merit In fact, except for choice (C), choice (A) would be the best choice because it embraces the passage as a whole and properly focuses on the author’s primary concern with exploring the relationship between the artist and the sitter However, the passage does not discuss how or whether this relationship results in a “successful” portrait; thus, choice (A) distorts the passage’s information

Choice (C) is the best of the five choices The author seems concerned with emphasizing that a portrait sitting is a social encounter—not just an artistic exercise—and that artists consider their relationship with their sitters sig-nificant

Choice (D) has merit in that the author does claim that the Reynolds paradigm (described in the second paragraph) is “quite different” from the two paradigms that the first paragraph discusses The latter does indeed involve a painter (Reynolds) whereas the other two paradigms involve photographers (Cartier-Bresson and Avedon) However, the author does not generalize from this fact that a portrait artist’s approach or view depends on whether the artist is a painter or a photographer Thus, choice (D) is a bit off focus and calls for an unwarranted generalization

Choices (B) and (E) are the worst among the five choices Choice (B) distorts the information in the passage and departs from the topic Although the passage does support the notion that a portrait might reveal something about the relationship between the artist and the sitter, the author neither states nor implies that a portrait reveals anything about the artist’s other relationships Moreover, nowhere in the passage does the author compare portraiture with other art forms

PART V: Verbal Reasoning 362

TIP

Regardless of the particular

question, you can eliminate

any answer choice that is

inconsistent with an

appropriate thesis statement.

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