GRE - Info NOT Content - Verbal Reasoning Flashcards
Verbal Reasoning Intro/abilities assessed
The Verbal Reasoning measure of the GRE® revised General Test assesses your ability to analyze and evaluate written material and synthesize information obtained from it, analyze relationships among component parts of sentences and recognize relationships among words and concepts.
Verbal Reasoning questions appear in several formats, each of which is discussed in detail below. About half of the measure requires you to read passages and answer questions on those passages. The other half requires you to read, interpret and complete existing sentences, groups of sentences or paragraphs.
Verbal reasoning question types are:
Reading Comprehension
Text Completion and
Sentence Equivalence
Reading Comprehension questions are designed to test a wide range of abilities that are required in order to read and understand the kinds of prose commonly encountered in graduate school. Those abilities include:
understanding the meaning of individual words and sentences
understanding the meaning of paragraphs and larger bodies of text
distinguishing between minor and major points
summarizing a passage
drawing conclusions from the information provided
reasoning from incomplete data to infer missing information
understanding the structure of a text in terms of how the parts relate to one another
identifying the author’s assumptions and perspective
analyzing a text and reaching conclusions about it
identifying strengths and weaknesses of a position
developing and considering alternative explanations
What does reading and understanding a piece of text require?
it requires active engagement with the text, asking questions, formulating and evaluating hypotheses and reflecting on the relationship of the particular text to other texts and information.
About the questions in the reading comprehension section:
about half of the questions on the test will be based on passages, and the number of questions based on a given passage can range from one to six. Questions can cover any of the topics listed above, from the meaning of a particular word to assessing evidence that might support or weaken points made in the passage. Many, but not all, of the questions are standard multiple-choice questions, in which you are required to select a single correct answer; others ask you to select multiple correct answers; and still others ask you to select a sentence from the passage.
General advice for the reading comprehension section:
Reading passages are drawn from many different disciplines and sources, so you may encounter material with which you are not familiar. Do not be discouraged if you encounter unfamiliar material; all the questions can be answered on the basis of the information provided in the passage. However, if you encounter a passage that seems particularly hard or unfamiliar, you may want to save it for last.
Read and analyze the passage carefully before trying to answer any of the questions, and pay attention to clues that help you understand less explicit aspects of the passage.
Try to distinguish main ideas from supporting ideas or evidence.
Try to distinguish ideas that the author is advancing from those he or she is merely reporting.
Try to distinguish ideas that the author is strongly committed to from those he or she advances as hypothetical or speculative.
Try to identify the main transitions from one idea to the next.
Try to identify the relationship between different ideas. For example:
Are they contrasting? Are they consistent?
Does one support the other?
Does one spell the other out in greater detail?
Does one apply the other to a particular circumstance?
Read each question carefully and be certain that you understand exactly what is being asked.
Answer each question on the basis of the information provided in the passage and do not rely on outside knowledge. Sometimes your own views or opinions may conflict with those presented in a passage; if this happens, take special care to work within the context provided by the passage. You should not expect to agree with everything you encounter in the reading passages.
Reading Comprehension Question Type: Multiple-choice — Select One Answer Choice
Description
These are traditional multiple-choice questions with five answer choices, of which you must select one.
Tips for Answering
Read all the answer choices before making your selection, even if you think you know the correct answer in advance.
The correct answer is the one that most accurately and most completely answers the question posed; be careful not to be misled by answer choices that are only partially true or that only partially answer the question. Also, be careful not to pick an answer choice simply because it is a true statement.
When the question asks about the meaning of a word in the passage, be sure the answer choice you select correctly represents the way the word is being used in the passage. Many words have different meanings when used in different contexts.
Reading Comprehension Question Type: Multiple-choice — Select One or More Answer Choices
Description
These questions provide three answer choices and ask you to select all that are correct; one, two or all three of the answer choices may be correct. To gain credit for these questions, you must select all the correct answers, and only those; there is no credit for partially correct answers.
Tips for Answering
Evaluate each answer choice separately on its own merits; when evaluating one answer choice, do not take the others into account.
A correct answer choice accurately and completely answers the question posed; be careful not to be misled by answer choices that are only partially true or that only partially answer the question. Also, be careful not to pick an answer choice simply because it is a true statement.
Do not be disturbed if you think all three answer choices are correct, since questions of this type can have up to three correct answer choices.
Reading Comprehension Question Type: Select-in-Passage
Description
These questions ask you to click on the sentence in the passage that meets a certain description. To answer the question, choose one of the sentences and click on it; clicking anywhere on a sentence will highlight it. In longer passages, the question will usually apply to only one or two specified paragraphs, marked by an arrow ( Right facing arrow ); clicking on a sentence elsewhere in the passage will not highlight it.
Tips for Answering
Evaluate each of the relevant sentences in the passage separately before selecting your answer. Do not evaluate any sentences that are outside the paragraphs under consideration.
A correct answer choice must accurately match the description given in the question; do not select a sentence if any part of the description does not apply to it. However, note that the question need not fully describe all aspects of the sentence.
Reading Comprehension Questions
Sample Questions
Questions 1 to 3 are based on this passage.
Reviving the practice of using elements of popular music in classical composition, an approach that had been in hibernation in the United States during the 1960s, composer Philip Glass (born 1937) embraced the ethos of popular music in his compositions. Glass based two symphonies on music by rock musicians David Bowie and Brian Eno, but the symphonies’ sound is distinctively his. Popular elements do not appear out of place in Glass’s classical music, which from its early days has shared certain harmonies and rhythms with rock music. Yet this use of popular elements has not made Glass a composer of popular music. His music is not a version of popular music packaged to attract classical listeners; it is high art for listeners steeped in rock rather than the classics.
Select only one answer choice.
- The passage addresses which of the following issues related to Glass’s use of popular elements in his classical compositions?
A. How it is regarded by listeners who prefer rock to the classics
B. How it has affected the commercial success of Glass’s music
C. Whether it has contributed to a revival of interest among other composers in using popular elements in their compositions
D. Whether it has had a detrimental effect on Glass’s reputation as a composer of classical music
E. Whether it has caused certain of Glass’s works to be derivative in quality
Question 1: One of the important points that the passage makes is that when Glass uses popular elements in his music, the result is very much his own creation (it is “distinctively his”). In other words, the music is far from being derivative. Thus one issue that the passage addresses is the one referred to in answer Choice E — it answers it in the negative. The passage does not discuss the impact of Glass’s use of popular elements on listeners, on the commercial success of his music, on other composers or on Glass’s reputation, so none of Choices A through D is correct. The correct answer is Choice E.
Consider each of the three choices separately and select all that apply.
- The passage suggests that Glass’s work displays which of the following qualities?
A. A return to the use of popular music in classical compositions
B. An attempt to elevate rock music to an artistic status more closely approximating that of classical music
C. A long-standing tendency to incorporate elements from two apparently disparate musical styles
Question 2: To answer this question, it is important to assess each answer choice independently. Since the passage says that Glass revived the use of popular music in classical compositions, answer Choice A is clearly correct. On the other hand, the passage also denies that Glass composes popular music or packages it in a way to elevate its status, so answer Choice B is incorrect. Finally, since Glass’s style has always mixed elements of rock with classical elements, answer Choice C is correct. Thus the correct answer is Choice A and Choice C. - Select the sentence that distinguishes two ways of integrating rock and classical music.
Question 3: Almost every sentence in the passage refers to incorporating rock music in classical compositions, but only the last sentence distinguishes two ways of doing so. It distinguishes between writing rock music in a way that will make it attractive to classical listeners and writing classical music that will be attractive to listeners familiar with rock. Thus the correct answer is the last sentence of the passage.
Verbal Reasoning Text Completion Intro
Skilled readers do not simply absorb the information presented on the page; instead, they maintain a constant attitude of interpretation and evaluation, reasoning from what they have read so far to create a picture of the whole and revising that picture as they go. Text Completion questions test this ability by omitting crucial words from short passages and asking the test taker to use the remaining information in the passage as a basis for selecting words or short phrases to fill the blanks and create a coherent, meaningful whole.
Verbal reasoning text completion sentence structure
Question Structure:
Passage composed of one to five sentences
One to three blanks
Three answer choices per blank (five answer choices in the case of a single blank)
The answer choices for different blanks function independently; i.e., selecting one answer choice for one blank does not affect what answer choices you can select for another blank
Single correct answer, consisting of one choice for each blank; no credit for partially correct answers
Tips for Answering Verbal reasoning text completion questions
Do not merely try to consider each possible combination of answers; doing so will take too long and is open to error. Instead, try to analyze the passage in the following way:
Read through the passage to get an overall sense of it.
Identify words or phrases that seem particularly significant, either because they emphasize the structure of the passage (words like although or moreover) or because they are central to understanding what the passage is about.
Try to fill in the blanks with words or phrases that seem to complete the sentence, then see if similar words are offered among the answer choices.
Do not assume that the first blank is the one that should be filled first; perhaps one of the other blanks is easier to fill first. Select your choice for that blank, and then see whether you can complete another blank. If none of the choices for the other blank seem to make sense, go back and reconsider your first selection.
When you have made your selection for each blank, check to make sure the passage is logically, grammatically and stylistically coherent.
Text completion sample 1:
For each blank select one entry from the corresponding column of choices.
Fill all blanks in the way that best completes the text.
It is refreshing to read a book about our planet by an author who does not allow facts to be (i)__________ by politics: well aware of the political disputes about the effects of human activities on climate and biodiversity, this author does not permit them to (ii)__________ his comprehensive description of what we know about our biosphere. He emphasizes the enormous gaps in our knowledge, the sparseness of our observations, and the (iii)__________, calling attention to the many aspects of planetary evolution that must be better understood before we can accurately diagnose the condition of our planet.
Blank (i)
(A) overshadowed
(B) invalidated
(C) illuminated
Blank (ii)
(D) enhance
(E) obscure
(F) underscore
Blank (iii)
(G) plausibility of our hypotheses
(H) certainty of our entitlement
(I) superficiality of our theories
Explanation
The overall tone of the passage is clearly complimentary. To understand what the author of the book is being complimented on, it is useful to focus on the second blank. Here, we must determine what word would indicate something that the author is praised for not permitting. The only answer choice that fits the case is “obscure,” since enhancing and underscoring are generally good things to do, not things one should refrain from doing. Choosing “obscure” clarifies the choice for the first blank; the only choice that fits well with “obscure” is “overshadowed.” Notice that trying to fill blank (i) without filling blank (ii) first is hard — each choice has at least some initial plausibility. Since the third blank requires a phrase that matches “enormous gaps” and “sparseness of our observations,” the best choice is “superficiality of our theories.”
Thus the correct answer is Choice A (overshadowed), Choice E (obscure) and Choice I (superficiality of our theories).
Text completion sample 2:
Vain and prone to violence, Caravaggio could not handle success: the more his (i)__________ as an artist increased, the more (ii)__________ his life became.
Blank (i)
(A) temperance
(B) notoriety
(C) eminence
Blank (ii)
(D) tumultuous
(E) providential
(F) dispassionate
Explanation
In this sentence, what follows the colon must explain or spell out what precedes it. So, roughly, what the second part must say is that as Caravaggio became more successful, his life got more out of control. When one looks for words to fill the blanks, it becomes clear that “tumultuous” is the best fit for blank (ii), since neither of the other choices suggests being out of control. And for blank (i), the best choice is “eminence,” since to increase in eminence is a consequence of becoming more successful. It is true that Caravaggio might also increase in notoriety, but an increase in notoriety as an artist is not as clear a sign of success as an increase in eminence.
Thus the correct answer is Choice C (eminence) and Choice D (tumultuous).
