Studying Reading Comprehension with The 5 lb. Book
I’ve got an interesting* Reading Comp question for you from our new 5 lb. Book of GRE Practice Problems.
*Well, it’s interesting if you like standardized tests, Reading Comprehension, and astronomy. : )
Let’s try it out! Normally, you’d see several questions associated with an entire passage but I’m only giving you one of the paragraphs and one question. Give yourself up to about two minutes total to read the information and answer the question.
In 1604 in Padua, Italy, a supernova became visible, appearing as a star so bright that it was visible in daylight for more than a year. Galileo, who lectured at the university, gave several lectures widely attended by the public. The lectures not only sought to explain the origin of the star (some posited that perhaps it was merely vapour near the earth), but seriously undermined the views of many philosophers that the heavens were unchangeable. This idea was foundational to a worldview underpinned by a central and all-important Earth, with celestial bodies merely rotating around it.
The author mentions which of the following as a result of the supernova of 1604?
(A) The supernova created and dispersed the heavy elements out of which the earth and everything on it is made.
(B) Galileo explained the origin of the supernova.
(C) The public was interested in hearing lectures about the phenomenon.
(D) Galileo’s lectures were opposed by philosophers.
(E) Those who thought the supernova was vapour were proved wrong.
© ManhattanPrep, 2013
Just an FYI: the full passage consists of two paragraphs, so you might have taken about 2 minutes or so to read the whole passage. Three questions go along with the entire passage; expect to spend about a minute to a minute and a half on each, depending upon the specific question type.
Italics represent quotes from the passage or questions.
Let’s dive in! The paragraph tells us about an event that happened in 1604: a really bright star appeared; Galileo tried to explain it; some previous views of others were undermined by Galileo’s views; those previous views were foundational to the idea that everything revolved around Earth.
The question asks what the author mentions, so this is a lookup detail question; the answer will appear directly in the passage somewhere. Specifically, what happened as a result of the supernova in 1604?
Two things to note: first, ordinarily, you’d have to figure out which paragraph was relevant; in this case, I only gave you the one paragraph. Turns out, the 1604 time marker only appears once in the passage, so you’d have found it easily yourself under normal conditions.
Second, after the first sentence of the paragraph, everything else happened as a result of the supernova “ so the answer must be one of those varied events. Start checking the answer choices against the paragraph.
(A) The supernova created and dispersed the heavy elements out of which the earth and everything on it is made.
This is the only answer choice on which I gave you an advantage by not showing you the first paragraph, which mentions heavy elements. Even if you had read it, though, the heavy element information is not tied to the 1604 event. (Also, don’t forget to use a bit of common sense here: a supernova in 1604 couldn’t have created the earth “ the earth must already have existed then if Galileo was lecturing on the supernova! J) Eliminate A.
(B) Galileo explained the origin of the supernova.
Galileo did give those lectures and he did undermine the views of those philosophers so he must have explained how the supernova started, right?
Maybe. Always verify using the actual text. The relevant sentence says Galileo’s lecture sought to explain the origin of the supernova. When you seek to explain something, do you always succeed? I know I don’t. Trying to explain something and actually coming up with the proper explanation are not necessarily the same thing. This answer is very close but it’s probably not good enough. Leave this choice in for now, but be prepared to eliminate if you find something better.
(C) The public was interested in hearing lectures about the phenomenon.
Hmm, what does the text say? Galileo gave lectures about the phenomenon and those lectures were widely attended by the public. Yes, for whatever reasons, the public did display an interest in attending these lectures.
C is better, so cross off answer B. Answer C is probably correct, but let’s just check the two remaining answers.
(D) Galileo’s lectures were opposed by philosophers.
Hmm. The passage does say that Galileo’s lectures seriously undermined the views of many philosophers. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the philosophers weren’t too happy about that “ but the passage does not explicitly say this. The question specifically asks about something the author mentions in the passage. The correct answer cannot be something that I just imagine to be true “ even if that thing is likely. Eliminate D.
(E) Those who thought the supernova was vapour were proved wrong.
The passage doesn’t say this either. Again, I could suppose that this might be true but the passage doesn’t explicitly say so.
I can also use the same reasoning I used to eliminate B: trying to explain something is not the same as actually explaining it, let alone proving it, so the passage can’t be saying that Galileo was able to prove other views wrong. Eliminate E.
The correct answer is C.
Key Takeaways for Reading Comprehension Lookup Detail Questions
(1) Use clues in the wording of the question stem in order to know where to look. In this case, the date 1604 was mentioned only once in the passage, providing a great clue as to which paragraph to use.
(2) For specific detail questions, the correct answer will be something that is explicitly stated in the passage. Don’t infer anything that might be likely but isn’t actually in the passage!
(3) The most tempting wrong answers will often be closely tied to something that is in the passage but the answer choice doesn’t get the wording quite right. In this example, answer B said that Galileo did explain the origin of the phenomenon, while the passage stated only that he tried to explain it.
© ManhattanPrep, 2013