Reading Comprehension Flashcards
Identify the subject and paraphrase:
My guess is that disciplines that are populated by smart, well-educated people who are good readers but are nevertheless characterized by crummy, turgid, verbose, abstruse, abstract, solecism-ridden prose, are usually part of a discipline where the vector of meaning—as a way to get information or opinion from me to you—versus writing, as a form of dress or speech or style that signals that “I am a member of this group,” gets thrown off.
Method: Jump over the modifiers
Disciplines that are populated by smart people known for shitty prose are usually part of a discipline where the vector of meaning versus writing gets thrown off.
The main point’s relation to the rest of the passage is that of…
Support.
The rest of the passage must all be intended as support for the main point.
Ask this: “Does the entire passage support the main point sentence?”
Author’s stance:
A passage without a strong stance lacks the author’s presence. True or false?
False.
The “author’s stance” of a passage is not binary.
Think of it as the tone of the author. An author can have a relatively neutral stance but still have an opinion nonetheless.
Confirmation Process:
How many avenues of confirmation are there?
Two.
The option must both:
1. Contain no incorrect or out of scope info
2. FIT THE QUESTION STEM
Confirmation Process:
Does it matter where or when a piece of info is mentioned or does it only matter whether it was mentioned in the passage at all?
Where and when the info is referenced matters a lot.
Context dictates the intention by which that information has been used by the author.
Context is relevant to proximity. WHERE the info is mentioned in a passage is incredibly important.
Is it possible for an option to be incorrect due to strong depiction of tone?
Yes.
Remember questions on inferences are asking for what can be “reasonably inferred?”
The tone used in the options, therefore, really matter.
An option saying “it is easier to study adult emotions” is not at all the same as an option that says “studies of adult emotions are infallible.”
“Resolve” =
Present a solution.
It is not the same as simply presenting both sides of a debate. It needs to provide a solution or a winner.
The content of a passage is the same as its purpose/intent. True or false?
Not necessarily true.
EX: “The high sum of the maintenance fee is unthinkable.”
The actual content of the sentence is simply saying the maintenance fee is expensive.
BUT depending on WHERE the sentence appears in the passage, its role could be that of discrediting an opposing stance or providing reason why an alternative cause is not at fault.
Analogy Questions:
How to evaluate whether the option is describing a situation comparable to that of the passage?
The PURPOSE and ACTION must be the same across two analogies in order for them to be comparable.
But the categories or the topics need not be the same.
