{"id":23564,"date":"2014-04-14T07:00:35","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T14:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/how-to-beat-gmat-reading-comprehension-part-ii\/"},"modified":"2014-04-14T07:00:35","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T14:00:35","slug":"how-to-beat-gmat-reading-comprehension-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/how-to-beat-gmat-reading-comprehension-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Beat GMAT Reading Comprehension \u2013 Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/gmat.kaptest.com\/2014\/04\/14\/gmat-reading-comprehension-part-ii\/\" title=\"GMAT hadrosaur\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"GMAT hadrosaur\" src=\"https:\/\/gmat.kaptest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/GMAT-hadrosaur.jpg\" alt=\"How to Beat GMAT Reading Comprehension - Part II\" width=\"200\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><span>As I mentioned in my <a href=\"https:\/\/gmat.kaptest.com\/2014\/04\/11\/gmat-reading-comprehension\/#sthash.GMYSBfsq.dpbs\" target=\"_blank\">previous exploration of GMAT Reading Comprehension<\/a>, most of the questions focus on the author\u2019s\u00a0<\/span><i>purpose<\/i><span>, so if you can at least identify her main idea as you slog through the passage, the author will guide you to the right answer in three out of four of those main question types:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The correct answer to a\u00a0<b>Global<\/b>\u00a0question is essentially a statement of the author\u2019s purpose<\/li>\n<li>The right answer choice to\u00a0<b>Inference<\/b>\u00a0questions, even though these can seem completely speculative, will\u00a0<i>never<\/i>\u00a0contradict the author\u2019s purpose, and is often directly informed by that purpose.<\/li>\n<li><b>Logic<\/b>\u00a0questions look for an answer that addresses\u00a0<i>why<\/i>\u00a0our author has included a detail or a paragraph in her passage; the\u00a0<i>why<\/i>\u00a0is that that detail or paragraph always serves her purpose.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><span><strong>Common GMAT Reading Comprehension Trap Answers<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>Now comes the fun part: beating the test designers at their own game.\u00a0 They think they\u2019re so sly and so slick, they make up their tricks and they make \u2018em up quick.\u00a0 But, guess what?\u00a0 Nearly every time you see any one of those main question types, lurking among the answer choices is a particular kind of \u201ctrap\u201d answer specific to that question type, and if you train yourself to recognize those traps, you\u2019ll never be fooled by them.\u00a0 Let\u2019s be specific.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Global<\/b>\u00a0questions always have trap answer choices that will bring up some detail that the author discusses, but that detail is not important enough to be the main idea, in other words, the trap answer is\u00a0<i>too narrow.<\/i>\u00a0 For example, the passage may put forth the concept that dinosaurs went extinct as a result of their inherent stupidity (a completely spurious notion, of course, since we all know how highly intelligent dinosaurs are\u2014especially the large purple hadrosauruses who populate children\u2019s television).\u00a0 The author supports her point by citing the tendency of hadrosaurus mothers to step on their own eggs.\u00a0 An obvious trap answer would declare that the point of the passage is dinosaurs went extinct because they trod on their own nests:\u00a0\u00a0<i>too narrow.<\/i><\/li>\n<li>The trap answers for\u00a0<b>Detail<\/b>\u00a0questions will use the mockingbird\u2019s trick.\u00a0 The traps will take words and concepts drawn from the text, they will sort of sound like the passage, but things get jazzed up in the translation, and concepts will veer off in some direction the passage never takes.\u00a0 For example, it will acknowledge that the hadrosaur mothers certainly stepped on their eggs, but they did so because the mothers were sick and tired of their stupid children\u2019s TV shows and just weren\u2019t going to take it anymore, which was very likely true, but the passage wisely avoided such an idea for fear of angering the hadrosaur mothers even further.\u00a0 (Have you ever seen a hadrosaur mother whose moral standing has been impugned?\u00a0 It is not a pretty sight.\u00a0 Consider yourself warned.)<\/li>\n<li><b>Inference<\/b><b>\u00a0<\/b>trap answers go off in directions the author never intended, put words into her mouth, or make absolute, hyperbolic statements.\u00a0 \u201cYes,\u201d the trap answer will spout, \u201chadrosaurs made horrible mothers, but the parasaurolophuses were the worst of all:\u00a0 they smoked cigarettes while treading on their nests, forsooth!\u201d\u00a0 Everyone knows that parasaurolophuses preferred pipe tobacco. The goofy trap answer is irrelevant, extreme in nature, and to be avoided with the same avidity as dinosaur tobacco (understandably, since the lack of opposable thumbs renders the proper curing of tobacco leaves nearly impossible).<\/li>\n<li>Finally,\u00a0<b>logic<\/b>\u00a0questions want answer choices that state\u00a0<i>why<\/i>\u00a0the author includes the business about the hadrosaurus mothers.\u00a0 The trap answer will go into the specifics of infanticide vs. children\u2019s TV shows, rather than point out that the egg-crushing behavior was an example of how\u00a0<i>stoopid<\/i><i>\u00a0<\/i>dinosaurs were.\u00a0 However, let me be clear that it is even more foolish to call a hadrosaurus stupid to her face, or she will forget all about her fury over the TV show, and stomp on you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As you learn to recognize these patterns, GMAT Reading Comprehension questions will become increasingly transparent, and though RC may never be a joyful experience, at least you can experience the joy of beating the GMAT at its own game.\u00a0 \u266a\u266b\u00a0<i>I love the GMAT.\u00a0 The GMAT loves me.\u00a0 We\u2019re a happy family\u2026<\/i><i>\u266b\u266a<\/i><\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/gmat.kaptest.com\/2014\/04\/14\/gmat-reading-comprehension-part-ii\/\">How to Beat GMAT Reading Comprehension &#8211; Part II<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/gmat.kaptest.com\">Kaplan GMAT Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I mentioned in my previous exploration of GMAT Reading Comprehension, most of the questions focus on the author\u2019s\u00a0purpose, so if you can at least identify her main idea as&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,558,243,940],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gmat","category-kaplan-blog","category-blog","category-gmat-prep-gmat","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}