Many baseball enthusiasts are aware of the story of how Abner Doubleda

Question

Many baseball enthusiasts are aware of the story of how Abner Doubleday invented the game of baseball with some friends in 1839 and introduced it to a nation during the Civil War. However, most baseball historians now agree that this story is a convenient fiction, propagated by Albert Spalding, a player, manager, owner, and one of the first manufacturers of sporting equipment. Spalding’s desire to distinguish baseball, which so keenly mirrored American interests and pursuits, from similar games played in England, such as cricket and rounders, led Spalding to seek out a purely colonial origin to the sport. Spalding’s entire basis for the foundation of baseball history lay in a hand-written letter from 1907 that he said came from a man who claimed to have gone to school with Doubleday and attributed the invention to him. Despite the speculative and dubious claims of the letter, Spalding and other members of his commission were quick to adopt the narrative as gospel and began to market their sport to the masses as a truly American pursuit.    1 
 1. Which of the following statements is suggested by the passage?

A. Abner Doubleday did invent the game of baseball.
B. Claiming baseball to be invented by an American would help Spalding sell more sporting equipment.
C. Baseball is not truly an American sport.
D. Many people in Spalding’s day wanted to believe baseball was invented by an American.
E. The other members of Spalding’s commission knew that the letter about Abner Doubleday was probably fraudulent.

2 
 2. Which of the following statements is true based on the passage?

A. Abner Doubleday was not a real person.
B. Albert Spalding had a lot of influence over the business of baseball.
C. Baseball has a lot in common with the game of cricket.

3  
  3. Select the sentence in the passage in which the author states that there was only one piece of evidence supporting the view that baseball originated with Abner Doubleday.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

OE

1. Which of the following statements is suggested by the passage?

Analyze the question stem. 
The key phrase is “suggested by,” which indicates this is an Inference question. The correct answer is not explicitly stated in the text but can be discerned by an accurate reading of the text.

Research the relevant section in the text. 
This Inference question does not point to a particular statement in the passage, so you cannot research a particular sentence or section of the passage before approaching the answer choices. However, you can review your Passage Map so you have a firm grasp of the big picture of the passage; answer choices that contradict this or lie outside the scope of the passage can be eliminated. If any choices remain, you’ll need to check each one against the information provided in the text until you find one that is fully supported.

Make a prediction. 
Because of the open-ended nature of the question, you cannot formulate a precise prediction. However, your review of the Passage Map shows that because Spalding wanted to market baseball to Americans, he spread the story about an American, Doubleday, inventing it, even though Spalding had little evidence of this. Look for an answer choice that aligns with this main thrust of the passage, and look to eliminate choices that do not align.

Evaluate the answer choices. 
Eliminate  choice (A)  because it contradicts the main thrust of the passage, which is that  “most baseball historians,”  and the author, agree that Doubleday did not invent baseball. This was just a story that Spalding made up.

Choice (B)  might require some research. Spalding did make sporting equipment, and he was an avid promoter of baseball. However, he had a number of connections to baseball, and nowhere is it implied that he wanted to expand the fan base for the sport to increase sales of equipment.

Choice (C)  is Outside the Scope; the passage says that evidence for Doubleday’s inventing baseball is very weak, but it never discusses who did invent the sport.

Choice (E)  can be researched in the last sentence, which mentions that  “other members of   commission”  promoted the story about Doubleday. However, the passage never says whether they believed the story or were skeptical of it.

The correct answer is  choice (D) , which is supported by evidence in the passage. Spalding and his commission were eager to spread a story about an American inventor because they knew it would help market the sport to Americans.
 
  Answer: D

Sajjad1994 · Answer

OE

2. Which of the following statements is true based on the passage?

Analyze the question stem. 
The phrase  “based on the passage”  means this is an Inference question. As with all GRE Inference questions, while the correct answer(s) won’t be directly stated in the passage, it or they must be true given what is stated in the passage.

Research the relevant text in the passage. 
This is another open-ended Inference question. Again, use your Passage Map to refresh your memory of the key ideas of the passage—any choice that contradicts these or is a 180, wanders Outside the Scope, or is too Extreme can be eliminated immediately. Be prepared to research any remaining choices in the appropriate place in the text.

Make a prediction. 
While a precise prediction is not possible, having read the passage strategically and already answered one open-ended Inference question about it, you have a strong sense of what kinds of statements would and would not be supported by the text.

Evaluate the answer choices. 
 Choice (A)  is Outside the Scope of the passage, which only concerns whether Doubleday invented baseball; it does not discuss whether he existed at all.

Choice (B)  can reasonably be inferred. According to the second sentence, Spalding was a baseball player, manager, and owner, and according to the last sentence, he was a member of a commission that promoted the sport. In addition, he is believed responsible for perpetuating a widely believed myth about the origins of baseball. Thus, he was certainly influential in the game, and  (B)  is correct.

Choice (C)  is supported by the third sentence, in the middle of the passage, which describes cricket as a game  “similar”  to baseball. The similarity of the games was a reason Spalding was so eager to differentiate baseball by inventing an American origin story.

Answer: B,C

Sajjad1994 · Answer

OE

3. Select the sentence in the passage in which the author states that there was only one piece of evidence supporting the view that baseball originated with Abner Doubleday.

Analyze the question stem. 
A key to choosing the correct answer to select-in-passage questions is to read the question very carefully. A rushed reading might focus on words like  “Abner Doubleday”  and  “baseball,”  and the test taker might think,  “The whole passage is about that. How do I figure out which sentence to pick?”  The words pointing you to the one and only sentence that fits the bill are  “there was only one piece of evidence”  for the Doubleday story. Only one sentence discusses the evidence for this origin myth.

Research the relevant text in the passage. 
From your Passage Map, you know that the evidence was a letter.

Make a prediction. 
You will look for the sentence that mentions the letter and says it was the only basis for the story.

Evaluate the answer choices. 
You might recall that the passage begins by presenting background information and introducing the topic, that the story about Doubleday was largely the creation of Spalding. Only later does the passage discuss how Spalding came up with the story. So begin your scan for the correct sentence at the end of the passage. You’ll quickly find the fourth sentence:  Spalding’s entire basis for the foundation of baseball history lay in a handwritten letter from 1907 that he said came from a man who claimed to have gone to school with Doubleday and attributed the invention to him.  That fits the criteria of the question perfectly.

Many baseball enthusiasts are aware of the story of how Abner Doubleda

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