Resin is a plant secretion that hardens when exposed to air; fossilize

4. The author of the passage refers to Pliny most probably in order to
"AlthoughPliny in the first century recognized that amber was produced from “marrow discharged by trees,” amber has been widely misunderstood to be a semiprecious gem and has even been described in mineralogy textbooks"
(A) give an example of how the nature of amber has been misunderstood in the past
(D) point out an exception to a generalization about the history of people's understanding of amber

I don’t understand why it could D

D is the fact behind the story ,but it’s not what the author wanna say ... the author wanna use this example ( fact ) to show “ how the nature of amber has been misunderstood in the past”

Posted from my mobile device




Business was slow this morning ..we only had one customer

When we mention the “one customer “ , we don’t intend to say that it’s an exception.. we intend to use the example to show how slow the business was ...

Taking your example, a 1:1 comparison would actually need to be worded like this:

"Business was slow this morning, although we only had one customer.

As you can see, that key word "although" (which is used to introduce Pliny's role in the sentence) basically reverses the logic of your example.

That's because the author isn't bringing in an example (Pliny's correct recognition of where amber comes from) to explain or illustrate a trend (amber has been widely misunderstood).

Rather, the author is bringing in an example to contrast one case vis-a-vis the trend. The author mentions Pliny's correct understanding of amber in order to point out an exception to the broader, mistaken generalizations about amber. Choice (D) captures this best.

I hope this helps!

Thanks Charles. I found that a lot of the tips mentioned were actually covered in one of your more detailed videos I viewed on youtube, so cheers.

I've concluded that no one RC reading method works for everyone. I've tried both the Economist's method, Empower's and the methods mentioned in the RC sticky thread. I'm a perfectionist, which is a detriment in this test, so If I read the whole passage it'll kill my time and this has been made evident in my last 3 practice CATs (V38 scores, but consistently having to rush through 1 passage and somehow always getting 5 RC wrong). I'll continue to flex my style and take in the tips. At the end of the day RC is something I practice the least, so I think I need to hold myself accountable in that regard.[/quote]
Thank you for the kind words! Glad to hear that the videos are helping. (And sorry for my ludicrously slow response. I sorta switched continents during the holidays, and life is just starting to return to normal...)

And you’re 100% correct: no single reading method – or note-taking method – will ever work for everybody. Whenever a test-prep company tries to sell you some magical, rigid note-taking system that will turn you into a 99th-percentile verbal scorer, please run in the other direction, and double-check to make sure that you still have your wallet.

The reality is that improving your reading skills is HARD, and everybody’s minds work in different ways. Sure, there are general principles that apply to everybody on RC, but those principles are incredibly broad: basically, read for purpose and structure, work hard to avoid misreading, and don’t fall in love with an answer choice before you’ve found reasons to eliminate four other options. Beyond that, success comes from lots of practice, lots of self-reflection, and plenty of time spent learning what works best for YOU.

So I like the way you’re thinking about this! More practice is good, but perfectionism probably isn’t a good thing. Ideally, when you read an RC passage, you’re trying to understand only as much as you really need to understand. If you absorb TOO many details, you’ll waste time – and you might even miss the broader ideas in the passage.

So maybe you need to learn to let go a bit, and figure out how much to dial back the intensity of your reading? Just a thought.

I hope this helps, and enjoy the journey of self-discovery that is the GMAT verbal section… [/quote]





thank you GMATNinja, its really an encouragement to students difficulty tackle with RC section, especially I'm from Taiwan, my
native language is Chinese,i really had to work harder in improving my English RC skill

Everyone,

Don't you think that the correct answer: 'point out an exception to a generalization about the history of people’s understanding of amber' is actually having a wrong meaning? As we discussed above, the exception we have here is 'to the misunderstanding', but the answer is: 'to a generalization about the history of people's understanding', so it's actually not what we are talking about. Because 'a generalization about history' is something like 'people did not understand amber until 1900s', and 'an exception to a generalization' is like 'people actually knew amber in 1850s'. Pliny did not make any generalization about history, he made an understanding about amber. So I am confused. Please help me with this. I know I am wrong but I don't know why I am wrong. I got the correct answer but I really can not convince myself when I read the answer. So do I understand 'an exception to' incorrectly? Thank you!

As a reminder, here's what the author wrote:


This one sentence tells us two things:

• Amber has been widely misunderstood to be a semiprecious gem.
• Although amber has been widely misunderstood in this way, Pliny recognized that amber was produced from "marrow discharged by trees."

It doesn't seem like you've had any trouble with the reading here — but to be clear, Pliny is the EXCEPTION, while the GENERALIZATION is that amber has been widely misunderstood.

Now, when looking at the answer choice, it seems like you're getting hung up over the difference between "understanding" and "misunderstanding." However, these two words are not necessarily logical opposites, and they can be used in multiple ways. If I'm right about this, then it might help to better understand the usage.

• If I say, "People understood the plague to be a punishment from God," what I mean is that people thought the plague was a punishment from God. If I believe that God punishes people with plagues, then I might consider their understanding to be correct. If I don't believe in God at all, then I might consider their understanding to be mistaken. This sentence doesn't tell you what I believe about the plague; it only tells you how these people thought of the plague.
• If I say "People misunderstood the plague to be a punishment from God"... well, I still mean that people thought the plague was a punishment from God. In addition, I'm explicitly saying, as the author, that their understanding was mistaken.

Now let's consider "understanding" and "misunderstanding" as nouns:

• If I say, "The chief's understanding of this crisis is deeply flawed," what I mean is that the way the Chief thinks about this crisis is deeply flawed.
• Now, it would be inappropriate me to say, "The chief's misunderstanding of the crisis is deeply flawed," because that's a double negative. More proper usage would be, "The chief deeply misunderstands this crisis," or "The chief has a deep misunderstanding of the crisis."

Choice (D) says, "The author of the passage refers to Pliny most probably in order to point out an exception to a generalization about the history of people's understanding of amber."

In other words, the author most probably refers to Pliny because Pliny's understanding of amber (i.e., his thinking about amber) is an exception to a generalization about the history of people's understanding about amber (i.e. their thinking about amber). Pliny knew that amber was produced from something inside of trees in the first century, although the general understanding of people's thoughts regarding amber is that they thought it was a gem.

(Unrelated: in my personal opinion, Amber is definitely a gem. If you know me personally, you'll get the joke.)

I hope this helps!

What should be the target time for passages like these (length, difficulty level etc) ? Is under 10 minutes (everything included) a good benchmark ?

VeritasKarishma

please explain question 3 option E why it's incorrect

and Question 4 option A

Hi Guys,

Would it correct to say that Q2,3 and 4, would all classify as inference questions?

AndrewN GMATNinja VeritasPrepHailey AjiteshArun generis CrackVerbalGMAT chetan2u VeritasKarishma

Can you explain as to how is option A correct in the Q-3 mentioned below

Hello, warrior1991. I understand the confusion. Many times in these author-refers-to questions, we look for overarching reasons, a context surrounding the detail in question. In this case, however, the appositive phrase restricts the information that follows and more or less defines the term gum. Have a look at the passage again, toward the end of paragraph one:



Choice (E) would look better if the question were asking about gum instead of bacterial infections. In fact, we could then skip over the appositive phrase and be left with the following:

Resin is often confused with gum... and with sap...

Keep in mind, though, that it is not bacterial infections that are leading to any confusion. Nobody is questioning the nature of gum. Again, that information is given as fact, no different from the second appositive phrase that defines the term sap. Hence, we cannot say that the mention of bacterial infections exemplifies how confusion has arisen with regard to the nature of resin. Instead, we understand that the appositive phrase mentioning bacterial infections tells us what gum does in a plant, nothing more. Choice (A) is the harder of the two answers to argue against, so that is the one we need to pick.

I hope that makes sense. Thank you for bringing the question to my attention.

- Andrew

AndrewN

Thank you for responding. I have no doubt in option E. It is incorrect because of the reasons you mentioned above.

My question is regarding option A. Gum is produced in plants in response to bacterial infections.

I am still not able to infer:-
"how bacterial infections" relation in the passage is linked to option A(describe the physiological function that gum performs in plants)

Hello again, warrior1991. In my earlier post, I had attempted to answer your question about (A), but perhaps I did a poor job, dedicating too much attention to (E). In the phrase in question, in response to does indeed describe or outline a function. If I were to write, White blood cells, or leukocytes, are produced in response to foreign bodies that enter the bloodstream, you should be able to deduce that leukocytes are formed as some sort of defense against such foreign bodies. Even though the description is rather terse, I cannot say that it is not a description at all, nor that, in my sentence, "foreign bodies" did not lead me to my conclusion.

I hope that proves a little better than my last effort. If not, then we can go ahead and get into round three. (I do like a challenge.)

- Andrew

ohhh!! I get you now. Thanks for explaining it . For me, this was a tough question to crack.
Thanks yet again AndrewN.

GMATNinja , anyone, please explain why in question 3, option A is the correct one and not option E?
The author refers to “bacterial infections” (see line 11) most likely in order to

(A) describe the physiological function that gum performs in plants

(B) demonstrate that sap is not the only substance that is transported through a plant's tissues

(C) explain how modern chemical analysis has been used to clarify the function of resin

(D) show that gum cannot serve as an effective defense against herbivores

(E) give an example of how confusion has arisen with regard to the nature of resin

I feel that E is simply NOT incorrect, so seriously, how can the exam makers disapprove of this option?
My logic is this: if it were not for the confusion, the author would not have even mentioned gums (and saps). Yes, it says in black and white what the function gum performs is, I agree. But come on, the author wasn't likely to refer to it just because he was like "Oh! I want you to know the function of gum because it is soo cool". He referred to the function of gum because people had been mistaken with regard to the function of resin (they though it was similar to gum and saps).

It's just so annoying.

Thanks in advance

AndrewN GMATNinja VeritasPrepHailey AjiteshArun generis CrackVerbalGMAT chetan2u VeritasKarishma

Anyone, please?

The author mentions 'gum' and 'sap' to indicate the confusion around the term 'resin'.
He mentions 'bacterial infections' to give the function of gum.
Given the options, there is no doubt that (A) is correct. Even if (E) may be related in a roundabout way, (A) is the right on target answer.
Let this be your takeaway from this official question.

Hello, HWPO. I have written on choice (E) in response to another member, in this post. Please let me know if that post and the subsequent post I wrote about (A) do not clarify the matter.

Thank you for thinking to ask me.

- Andrew