![\"Manhattan](\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/10\/gmatprep-reading-comprehension-history-passage-part-1-stacey-koprince.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding!\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Some people really like history-based Reading Comprehension passages\u2014and others find them pretty boring. Either way, you\u2019ll probably have at least one historical passage, so let\u2019s talk about how to tackle these.<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with this: If you get a topic that you think is boring, pretend you\u2019re reading for a friend who actually likes this topic. In fact, I go into the test already having certain friends in mind who I know like topics that I really don\u2019t like. So I think of them when I get one of those passages\u2014and that helps me pay more attention so that I can \u201ctell\u201d my friend about this passage I know they\u2019ll like.<\/span><\/p>\n Next, the passage I\u2019ve selected for you comes from the free questions that come with the GMATPrep\u00ae software. It\u2019s got 5 questions, not just 3 or 4 as the real test will, so I\u2019m not going to give them all to you at once. We\u2019ll do the passage and one question today and then talk about the other questions in subsequent installments.<\/span><\/p>\n And let\u2019s talk about timing. In general, give yourself approximately 2 to 3 minutes to read (on the shorter end if you\u2019re a faster reader and\/or like the topic; on the longer end if you\u2019re a slower reader and\/or hate this topic). <\/span><\/p>\n Give yourself about 1 to 2 minutes depending on how detailed the question is. In this case, the first question I\u2019m giving you is a pretty general question, so I\u2019d say to aim for just 1 minute. Total, then, give yourself about 3 to 4 minutes to read the passage and answer the first question.<\/span><\/p>\n Ready? Go!<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTwo recent publications offer different assessments of the career of the famous British nurse Florence Nightingale. A book by Anne Summers seeks to debunk the idealizations and present a reality at odds with Nightingale’s heroic reputation. According to Summers, Nightingale\u2019s importance during the Crimean War has been exaggerated: not until near the war\u2019s end did she become supervisor of the female nurses. Additionally, Summers writes that the contribution of the nurses to the relief of the wounded was at best marginal. The prevailing problems of military medicine were caused by army organizational practices, and the addition of a few nurses to the medical staff could be no more than symbolic. Nightingale\u2019s place in the national pantheon, Summers asserts, is largely due to the propagandistic efforts of contemporary newspaper reporters.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBy contrast, the editors of the new volume of Nightingale\u2019s letters view Nightingale as a person who significantly influenced not only her own age but also subsequent generations. They highlight her ongoing efforts to reform sanitary conditions after the war. For example, when she learned that peacetime living conditions in British barracks were so horrible that the death rate of enlisted men far exceeded that of neighboring civilian populations, she succeeded in persuading the government to establish a Royal Commission on the Health of the Army. She used sums raised through public contributions to found a nurse’s training hospital in London. Even in administrative matters, the editors assert, her practical intelligence was formidable: as recently as 1947 the British Army’s medical services were still using the cost-accounting system she devised in the 1860s.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI believe that the evidence of her letters supports continued respect for Nightingale\u2019s brilliance and creativity. When counseling a village schoolmaster to encourage children to use their faculties of observation, she sounds like a modern educator. Her insistence on classifying the problems of the needy in order to devise appropriate treatments is similar to the approach of modern social workers. In sum, although Nightingale may not have achieved all of her goals during the Crimean War, her breadth of vision and ability to realize ambitious projects have earned her an eminent place among the ranks of social pioneers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn the last paragraph, the author is primarily concerned with<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(A) summarizing the arguments about Nightingale presented in the first two paragraphs<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(B) refuting the view of Nightingale\u2019s career presented in the preceding paragraph<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(C) analyzing the weaknesses of the evidence presented elsewhere in the passage<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(D) citing evidence to support a view of Nightingale\u2019s career<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(E) correcting a factual error occurring in one of the works under review\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n What did you think? What does your Passage Map look like? What\u2019s the basic story (or Simple Story) here?<\/span><\/p>\n This is my Map:<\/span><\/p>\n What\u2019s the story? Summers thinks FN wasn\u2019t so great and provides reasons why. The \u201ceditors\u201d (whoever they are) disagree\u2014they think FN had a great impact both in her time and in future times. And the author agrees with the second opinion: FN had a big impact both in her own time and later (though, the author acknowledges, Summers may have a small point and maybe some of FN\u2019s achievements were exaggerated).<\/span><\/p>\n The passage told me up front that these two publications have different points of view, so I numbered them as I went. That helps me to keep them clear\/separate from each other. (By the way, the (ex) stuff I have up there is my little shorthand for \u201cthe passage gives some examples here to support this point.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n Interestingly, the author gives her own opinion very clearly\u2014even using \u201cI\u201d in the passage. That doesn\u2019t often happen on the GMAT. She agrees with #2 overall, though she acknowledges that #1 may have some valid points.<\/span><\/p>\n At this point, I hadn\u2019t seen any of the questions yet, but I was still guessing that at least one of the questions was going to get at the difference of opinion between Summers and the \u201ceditors.\u201d I also suspected that some trap answers were going to try to get me to mix up what each one thinks or mix up which one the author agrees with. So I made sure that I had very clear notes on that information.<\/span><\/p>\n Okay, let\u2019s tackle that question. What kind of question is it?<\/span><\/p>\n This is a somewhat less common question type but it falls under the category of main idea or primary purpose. Instead of asking for the primary purpose of the entire passage, though, it asks for just the primary purpose of the final paragraph.<\/span><\/p>\n So what is the primary purpose of that paragraph? Why did the author include it?<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s where she gave her opinion. She generally agreed with #2 (even giving some additional examples to support this view), though she acknowledged that #1 may have a point. So the correct answer should go along with this idea\u2014she agreed with the side presented in the second paragraph. <\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s check the answers. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(A) summarizing the arguments about Nightingale presented in the first two paragraphs\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This choice is very neutral, but paragraph 3 is not neutral. She doesn\u2019t just summarize some stuff\u2014she definitely agrees with the second view and even provides new examples to support that view. (I would guess that this one is a trap answer for someone who thinks that this is a regular Primary Purpose question\u2014the passage overall is about these two different arguments, but the third paragraph does not just summarize them.)<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(B) refuting the view of Nightingale\u2019s career presented in the preceding paragraph\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Whoops, wrong paragraph. The \u201cpreceding\u201d paragraph is the second one, but she agrees with the second paragraph. You could say she refutes the view presented in the <\/span>first<\/span><\/i> paragraph\u2014but not the <\/span>second<\/span><\/i> one.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(C) analyzing the weaknesses of the evidence presented elsewhere in the passage\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She doesn\u2019t dive into the other evidence presented earlier. Rather, she provides new evidence to support one of the points of view. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(D) citing evidence to support a view of Nightingale\u2019s career\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Yes! This is it. She does cite new evidence and she does support one particular view (the one presented in the second paragraph).<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(E) correcting a factual error occurring in one of the works under review\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She doesn\u2019t say that any of the earlier info is wrong. Rather, she provides additional evidence to further support the view that Nightingale did actually have a significant, positive impact on the world. This one isn\u2019t it either.<\/span><\/p>\n The correct answer is (D).<\/span><\/p>\n (1) Map the passage. Make sure to delineate each paragraph and represent the main message (but not all of the details) in your map. Pay particular attention to any contrasts or changes of direction (sometimes called <\/span>twists<\/span><\/i>) in the passage.<\/span><\/p>\n (2) As you make your Map, articulate the Simple Story to yourself\u2014and keep it very big picture. What will you tell your friend afterwards? You wouldn\u2019t get into all of the specific details; you\u2019d mostly just tell her the main ideas\/simple story.<\/span><\/p>\n (3) Main Idea questions might sometimes ask you about just one paragraph instead of the entire passage. When this happens, make sure you focus in on just that one paragraph.<\/span><\/p>\n Ready for more? Let’s move on to Part 2<\/a>.<\/strong>\u00a0?<\/span><\/p>\n Can\u2019t get enough of Stacey\u2019s GMAT mastery? Attend the first session of one of\u00a0her upcoming GMAT courses<\/a>\u00a0absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding!\u00a0Check out our upcoming courses here. Some people really like history-based Reading Comprehension passages\u2014and others find them pretty boring. Either way, you\u2019ll probably have at least one historical passage, so let\u2019s talk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[873,929,874,52871,930,2,25,9,10],"tags":[389,53178],"yst_prominent_words":[54643,54644,54645,54639,54646,54648,54637,54635,54647,54636,54650,54642,53775,54651,54640,54649,54638,54633,54634,54641],"class_list":["post-14816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-current-studiers","category-gmat-prep","category-gmat-resources","category-gmat-strategies","category-gmat-study-guide","category-how-to-study","category-reading-comprehension","category-taking-the-gmat","category-verbal-on-gmat","tag-gmatprep","tag-history-passage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14816"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14903,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14816\/revisions\/14903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14816"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"Manhattan](\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/10\/sk-416-image-1.png\")
<\/p>\nKey Takeaways for Reading Comprehension<\/b><\/h4>\n
* GMATPrep\u00ae questions courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC.<\/span><\/h5>\n
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\n![\"stacey-koprince\"](\"https:\/\/cdn2.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2015\/06\/stacey-koprince-150x150.png\")
<\/a>Stacey Koprince<\/a>\u00a0is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California.<\/strong>\u00a0Stacey has been teaching the GMAT, GRE, and LSAT \u00a0for more than 15 years and is one of the most well-known instructors in the industry. Stacey loves to teach and is absolutely fascinated by standardized tests.\u00a0Check out Stacey\u2019s upcoming GMAT courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"