Jennifer Land shares the secret to Reading Comprehension.
One of the most important steps of analyzing a GMAT Reading Comprehension passage is also one of the easiest to overlook: identifying the purpose of the passage. Recognizing WHY the passage was written is more important than understanding WHAT was written; details only matter if you are asked about them, but reading with a purpose—namely, to find the purpose—matters on nearly every question type.
Identifying the purpose of a GMAT passage
At Kaplan, we use the term purpose as something of an umbrella label for the author’s intent and position, as well as the main idea of the passage. These things all fold together and can be summed up using a purpose verb.
You can use the purpose verb to immediately rule out answer choices that fall beyond the author’s intent or position; if a passage is neutral, only a neutral verb is appropriate. Was the author’s intent to describe, explain, or discuss? Those purpose verbs work well when the author remains neutral, and if that’s the case, an opinionated verb such as criticize or advocate in an answer choice is grounds for dismissal.
Beware author neutrality
Frequently, a passage includes a description of a theory or theories. Sometimes there is disagreement among the supporters of the various theories. Check out this example:
P1: The researchers believed blah blah blah because blah blah blah.…
P2: Critics initially dismissed the theory, arguing blah blah blah. …
P3: Eventually the researchers amended their theory. …
It seems one group of researchers proposed a theory, others presented a challenge, and the original researchers revised their idea. What’s missing here? THE AUTHOR’S OPINION. We do not know what the author thinks; we only know a little bit about the actions or beliefs of the groups of people described. Without the author’s personal opinion, we do not know whether the author agrees with anything presented in the passage.
Purpose verbs are key to Reading Comprehension
A neutral (unopinionated) passage requires a neutral purpose verb. Wrong answer choices to a global question, or to a question that requires you to identify an idea the author would agree or disagree with, will include words indicating argument, criticism, or agreement. However, if the author does not indicate an opinion, you cannot assume one.
Properly recognizing an author’s neutrality is essential to answering these questions correctly on Test Day. Pay attention to the verbs in answer choices when you practice. Look for wrong answers that attribute an opinion to a neutral author; spotting these on Test Day means not falling for them, and that means POINTS!
Want to check your Reading Comprehension performance? Sign up for a free GMAT practice test and review to see how you would score on Test Day.
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