GRE Verbal Reasoning: Reading Comprehension

The reading comprehension questions include one-answer multiple choice, one-or-more answer multiple choice, and select-in passage question types.

One-answer types are your run-of-the-mill multiple choice questions. The one-or-more questions require you to select all the possible answers. Note: you will not receive credit for partially correct answers but you will not receive negative marks for giving incorrect ones. So your best bet is to guess on all questions.

Select-in passage questions require you to select a certain sentence in the passage itself; clicking on any part of the sentence will highlight it.

Tips and Tricks for Reading Comprehension:

1. You may encounter a passage with content that you have never heard of before. Do not worry! All the questions are based on the information in the passage. You can always come back to the passage if it’s particularly challenging.

2. Any GRE answers that are politically incorrect will likely be wrong. GRE passages will not offend any race or religion.

3. Mark important ideas and keywords. Doing so will help you remember the important ideas when answering all the questions.

4. Everyone has his or her own method. You can either answer the questions as you read through the passage or you can read the passage and then answer the questions.Further strategies are discussed in the course itself.

Example:

	Growing up in Atlanta during the heyday of the city's
	baseball team, the Atlanta Braves, gave me a unique
	perspective of America's national pastime. Witnessing
	the team and the city win a World Series title in 1996
Line 5	forever connected my destiny with that of professional
	baseball; wherever I might be after that point in time,
	I will always remember the joy and emotion that I was
	filled with on that day.
	There are some who denigrate the sport because it does
10	not appear to incorporate a traditional sporting skill
	set, but it is baseball's unique nature that makes it
	remarkable. Instead of requiring athletes to run for
	extended lengths of time, like so many traditional
	forms of sport, baseball is an exercise in skill and
15	power, one that combines the precision of sports like
	golf or archery with the pure brawn of sports like
	weightlifting or the Olympic hammer throw. It is this
	distinct characteristic of combination that gives
	baseball its intrigue and singularity.
20	And to those critics who belittle the athletes
	themselves, I must ask, "Have you ever played baseball
	at a competitive level?" While the players themselves
	make their jobs look incredibly easy, it is only
	because they have both been born with incredible gifts
25	AND trained for entire lifetimes to develop their
	skills. Five minutes spent competing against baseball's
	best would convince any naysayer of the sport's true
	legitimacy.

Q. Which of the following best describes the tone of the author of the passage?

Correct Answer: A

Solution:

The passage begins with an anecdote which establishes the author's personal connection. The next two paragraphs describe his position on the issue at hand (why baseball should be considered a sport). Therefore, the best choice is A, personal and opinionated.

Answer choice B is incorrect because proportionally, the author only spends a tiny amount of the passage telling a story (the first two sentences). The entire rest of the passage is an argument.

Answer choice C is wrong because this author definitely takes a one-sided stand in support of baseball's validity.

Answer choice D is incorrect because the author is far from ambivalent here; he even describes the reason behind his strong personal connection.

Answer choice E is incorrect for the same reason that C is incorrect.