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V 2. Primary Purpose… " RC "

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Behind Every Reading

2.2 Comprehension Passage is a Simple
Story.

Must Know: #
Behind every Reading Comprehension
passage is a simple story. One of our
most important jobs while reading a
passage is to find that simple story!

Must Know: #
The more simply we can summarize a
passage, the better we’ll understand it,
and the better we’ll perform on the
questions that follow.

Basic Ingredients Found in GMAT

2.3
Reading Comprehension Passages

Must Know: #
Shorter RC passages tend to present
one theory, opinion, or point of view,
whereas longer passages tend to
present multiple theories or viewpoints.
We must pay attention to any theories,
opinions, or viewpoints we encounter.

Must Know: #
In RC passages, be on the lookout for
the “myth structure,” which is common.
Pay close attention to what the author
believes the myth is and what he or she
feels is more accurate.

Must Know: #
GMAT Reading Comprehension
passages are modeled after scholarly
articles, and because in scholarly
writing authors always present evidence
to support their claims, theories, and
points of view, a second common
ingredient in passages is supporting
evidence.

Must Know: #
When an author takes a point of view or
proposes a theory in an RC passage,
expect that he or she will give us
evidence supporting that position. Also
expect to learn about evidence that
supports opposing theories.

Must Know: #
We don’t want to attempt to memorize
the details of the evidence provided in
an RC passage. Instead, we want to
understand it from a big picture point of
view. We use evidence to enhance our
comprehension.

Must Know: #
Many RC passages introduce a theory,
provide some evidence for that theory,
make the claim that that theory is
somehow incomplete, inaccurate, or just
plain outdated, and then present some
reasons why.

Must Know: #
Some RC passages simply describe
topics, such as natural phenomena,
technological innovations, or historical
developments, without mentioning or
stating any strong opinions about the
topics.

Must Know: #
In RC passages somewhat or mostly
made up of explanatory information our
job will be to understand the logic of
what’s explained while avoiding getting
bogged down in details.

An Effective Recipe to Find the

2.4
Simple Story

Must Know: #
When we create a simple story, we must
take care not to make it too broad. The
simple story should contain the
appropriate level of detail.

Must Know: #
When we create a simple story, we must
take the words of the author and
rephrase them into our own words.

Must Know: #
The simple story of an RC passage must
always be concise.

Must Know: #
By practicing generating concise simple
stories, we’re also practicing to develop
skill in reading in a way that creates
solid understanding.

Must Know: #
For all intents and purposes, the simple
story of a passage is its main idea. One
of our primary tasks from this point
forward is to determine the main idea
(simple story) of each passage we read.

2.5 Primary Purpose Questions

Must Know: #
The primary purpose of a passage is
the reason why the author took the time
to write the passage.

Must Know: #
Most RC passages are accompanied by
Primary Purpose questions, which ask
about the primary purpose of a
passage.

Must Know: #
Learn to recognize the common and
predictable language used by Primary
Purpose questions.

Always Identify the Author’s Primary

2.6
Purpose for Writing the Passage.

Must Know: #
The author’s primary purpose for writing
a passage is to express the main idea,
which is nothing more than the simple
story of the passage.

Must Know: #
We can set ourselves up to understand
a passage’s primary purpose by
understanding its main idea (simple
story).

Must Know: #
Whenever we think “primary purpose,”
we should think “main idea,” because
without knowing a passage’s main idea,
we’ll struggle to determine the author’s
primary purpose, because he or she
writes to express her main idea.

Must Know: #
When identifying the primary purpose,
or main idea, we want to look at the “big
picture,” figuratively and literally.

Must Know: #
The main idea of an RC passage is
often centered on cause-and-effect
claims, problems and solutions, and
opposing viewpoints.

Must Know: #
We will not identify the primary purpose
of a passage by considering one
sentence or paragraph of the passage.
Rather, we’ll understand the primary
purpose by comprehending the
passage as a whole, holistically and in
totality.

Leading Sentences of Paragraphs

2.7 May State the Passage’s Important
Points

Must Know: #
In many cases, by considering the first
one or two sentences of the first
paragraph and the first sentences of
any paragraphs that follow the first
paragraph, we can bring the primary
purpose of the passage into focus.

Seek Out Opinions to find the

2.8
Important Points of a Passage

Must Know: #
Since opinions of the author or of others
mentioned by the passage are
generally strongly connected to main
points of a passage, we can often
identify main points by finding opinions.

Must Know: #
One way we can find opinions in a
passage is to look for statements that
include opinion markers.

Must Know: #
Opinions of people mentioned by
passages are generally connected to
passage main points.

Must Know: #
For the purpose of identifying main
points, it’s helpful to note that many
passages will involve some kind of
contrast between different ideas or
opinions.

Strong Language Often Indicates a

2.9
Main Point of a Passage.

Must Know: #
We must always be on the lookout for
the use of strong language because the
use of strong language will provide us
with valuables clues as to what the main
point of a passage is.

Conclusions Stated by a Passage

2.10 are Always Connected to the
Primary Purpose

Must Know: #
In reading an RC passage, we should
always pay attention to conclusions
stated by the author because these
conclusions are always clues alerting us
to the primary purpose of the passage.

A Conclusion Stated by a Passage’s

2.11
Last Sentence May Be its Main Point

Must Know: #
Generally, a conclusion stated by the
last sentence of a passage will either be
the main point of the entire passage or
be strongly connected to the primary
purpose of the passage.

Discussions of Causes and Effects

2.12 are Generally Connected to the
Primary Purpose of a Passage

Must Know: #
Cause-and-effect relationships often
take center stage in the primary
purpose of a passage.

Must Know: #
By noticing discussions of causes and
effects, we can identify important points
of a passage and thus provide
ourselves with strong clues about the
primary purpose of a passage.

Must Know: #
Causation markers signal that a
passage is discussing a cause-and-
effect relationship that’s probably
related to an important point of the
passage.

Rhetorical Questions Introduce

2.13
Important Points of Passages.

Must Know: #
When an author asks a rhetorical
question, he or she asks a question for
the sole purpose of telling us the
answer.

Must Know: #
Generally, when an author asks a
rhetorical question, that question is
strongly connected to the primary
purpose of the passage.

The Correct Answer Often Presents

2.14 the Primary Purpose in an
Unexpected Way

Must Know: #
To help ensure that we don’t rule out
correct answers to primary purpose
questions, we must train to become
comfortable seeing answers that are
written in ways that are different from
what we might expect to see, yet at the
same time accurately depict a
passage’s primary purpose.

By Using Passages that Don’t have

2.15 Completely Obvious Primary
Purposes

Must Know: #
When we’re dealing with a passage
whose primary purpose or main point is
not immediately clear, we can make
progress toward identifying the primary
purpose by finding important points in
the passage.

Must Know: #
If we’re not sure what the primary
purpose of a passage is, we can at least
find the important points of the passage.
Then armed with this information, we
can go to the answer choices and find
the one that best fits the important
points of the passage.

Primary Purpose Trap 1: Too Narrow

2.17
Answer Choices

Must Know: #
The correct answer to a Primary
Purpose question must capture the
primary purpose of the entire passage.

Must Know: #
Too Narrow trap choices in Primary
Purpose questions are incorrect
because what they describe is too
narrow to reflect the primary purpose of
the passage as a whole.

Must Know: #
To avoid choosing a Too Narrow trap
choice, when we answer a Primary
Purpose question, we have to keep in
mind that the correct answer must
describe the primary purpose of the
entire passage, and we must carefully
determine whether a choice we’re
considering covers all of the passage or
just part of it.

Primary Purpose Trap 2: Something

2.18 Mentioned Frequently yet not the
Primary Purpose

Must Know: #
Sometimes, an incorrect answer in a
Primary Purpose question will
encompass a concept or concepts that
are mentioned frequently in the
passage, yet do not constitute the
author’s main idea.

Must Know: #
The fact that a concept or idea is
mentioned frequently in a passage
does not mean that the Primary Purpose
of the passage is to discuss that
concept or idea.

Must Know: #
These Mentioned Frequently trap
choices can be seductive because
when something is mentioned
frequently in a passage, it can be easy
to get the impression that the point of
the passage is to discuss that thing.

Must Know: #
To avoid choosing a Mentioned
Frequently trap choice, we can home in
on and consider main points, opinions,
contrasts, and conclusions stated in the
passage, rather than whatever simply
appears frequently in the passage.

Primary Purpose Trap 3: An Answer

2.19
Choice that Uses the Wrong Verb

Must Know: #
Since the primary purpose of a passage
is to do something, a key part of virtually
all Primary Purpose answer choices is a
verb.

Must Know: #
The verbs in Primary Purpose answer
choices tend to define what the choices
express.

Must Know: #
We can often tell an incorrect Primary
Purpose answer choice from a correct
one by considering the verbs used in
the choices because, often, a Primary
Purpose answer choice will be a clearly
incorrect Wrong Verb choice because it
uses the wrong verb.

Noticing Whether Verbs in Primary

2.20 Purpose Questions are
Argumentative or Descriptive

Must Know: #
Noticing whether a verb in a Primary
Purpose answer choice is
argumentative or descriptive is often a
great starting point for determining
whether that choice matches the
primary purpose of the passage.

Must Know: #
In considering Primary Purpose answer
choices, we have to consider
argumentative verbs and descriptive
verbs in the contexts of the choices in
which they appear, because sometimes
a descriptive verb can be used in an
argumentative choice.

Primary Purpose Trap 4: Distortion

2.21
of the Primary Purpose

Must Know: #
 Some Primary Purpose incorrect
choices present a distortion of the
Primary Purpose, or main idea; they say
something close to the author’s primary
purpose, except they are off by just
enough to fail to describe it accurately.

Must Know: #
To avoid choosing a Distortion trap
choice, when answering a Primary
Purpose question, pay attention to each
part of the choice and check to see
whether nouns and modifiers in choices
match the passage.

Primary Purpose Trap 5: Stretch

2.22
Choices

Must Know: #
Stretch choices say something that
resembles the primary purpose of the
passage but goes too far to be correct.
In other words, these choices stretch
what the passage says.

Must Know: #
Stretch trap choices can be seductive
because, even though Stretch choices
take things too far to be correct, they do
take things in the same direction the
passage takes them.

Must Know: #
To avoid choosing a Stretch trap choice,
we can notice extreme markers or
strong language in a choice and
carefully compare the choice with what
the passage says about the same topic
to see whether the choice matches the
primary purpose or goes beyond what
the passage says.

Primary Purpose Trap 6: Opposite

2.23
Choices

Must Know: #
Some incorrect choices in Primary
Purpose questions will say something
that is in some way the opposite of what
is correct.

Must Know: #
Opposite trap choices in Primary
Purpose questions trap people for one
simple reason: they come close to
describing the primary purpose of the
passage.

Must Know: #
When we’re taking the GMAT and under
time pressure, we have to be careful
not to lose track of what’s correct and
choose an Opposite trap choice.

Must Know: #
To avoid choosing an Opposite choice
when answering a Primary Purpose
question, compare the direction in
which the choice takes things with the
direction in which the passage takes
things.

Primary Purpose Trap 7: Half-Right

2.24
Choices

Must Know: #
The GMAT can make a Primary Purpose
incorrect choice tricky by making part of
the choice correct or close to correct.
An answer choice that is half-right is 100
percent wrong.

Must Know: #
When answering RC questions, we must
read the choices in their entirety. This
idea may seem obvious, but it’s very
common for a test-taker to choose a
Half-Right RC choice simply because
the test-taker didn’t read the entire
choice.

Must Know: #
To avoid choosing a Half-Right trap
choice, check the entire choice against
the passage before selecting it as
correct. By making sure that the entire
choice – every verb, noun, and modifier
– and not just part of the choice,
matches the passage, we can avoid
being tempted into choosing a Half-
Right trap choice.

Using Structural Markers to

2.25
Enhance Understanding

Must Know: #
Structural markers can help us
understand the logic of a passage, the
function of different elements of the
passage, the relationships between
ideas and facts, and the intention or
viewpoint of the author.

Must Know: #
Markers can help us to navigate and
understand both simple and
complicated Reading Comprehension
passages.

Must Know: #
We can use contrast markers as clues
when we are seeking to determine
what the primary purpose of a passage
is.

Must Know: #
Since contrast markers often mark
transitions between views or ideas,
contrast markers are often extremely
useful when we’re seeking to analyze
the structure of a passage.

Must Know: #
Since opinions are often important parts
of RC passages, noticing that opinions
are being expressed or mentioned can
help us to understand a passage and
identify its primary purpose.

Must Know: #
Conclusions are important parts of
passages. So, since conclusion markers
introduce conclusions, noticing
conclusion markers can be very helpful
to us as we seek to understand a
passage, its primary purpose, and its
structure.

Must Know: #
Support markers can be useful to us
because, by noticing the use of support
markers, we can discern relationships
between sentences. After all, a
sentence that uses a support marker
will generally provide support for or
expand upon something stated by
another sentence that appears before
or after the sentence that uses a
support marker.

Must Know: #
Often, the later sentences that support
an opinion or conclusion begin with
additional point markers. In other words,
the second, third, or fourth sentence
that provides support for an opinion or
conclusion may begin with an additional
point marker.

Must Know: #
Like other support markers, additional
point markers can be very useful to us
when we are looking for information
within a passage because they indicate
how sentences are connected.

Must Know: #
The sentences in a Reading
Comprehension passage never exist in
isolation; each sentence has a
connection to the sentences that
precede it and to those that follow it.

Must Know: #
Often, to correctly answer RC questions,
we’ll need to “look above” the target
sentence and reread the sentence or
sentences that precede it.

Must Know: #
The most common “look above
markers”:
this X, these X, those X, such X, for
example, also

Must Know: #
A rhetorical question marker is a very
useful clue because, almost always,
when an author poses a rhetorical
question, the answer that follows the
question in the passage will be a key
point that is strongly connected to the
primary purpose of the passage.

Must Know: #
A myth marker can be a useful clue,
because the presence of a myth marker
often indicates that one of the main
ideas of the passage will soon be
presented.

Must Know: #
One reason why noticing that
statements express extreme meanings
is useful in Reading Comprehension is
that noticing that statements express
extreme meanings can help us to
determine whether RC answer choices
match what passages say.

Must Know: #
Qualifier markers are words that qualify
what a sentence conveys.

Must Know: #
Since the use of a qualifier marker
causes a sentence to express a specific
meaning, noticing qualifier markers can
help us to choose RC correct answers.

Must Know: #
We must make sure to consider markers
in the broader context of the passage,
because some markers or keywords
can be used in multiple ways. In other
words, once we notice a marker, we
have to develop understanding of
what’s going on around the marker.

2.26 Structure Questions

Must Know: #
RC Structure questions, ask about the
structure, or organization, of a passage,
a paragraph, or about the logical
connection between two paragraphs.

Must Know: #
Learn to recognize the common and
predictable language used by Structure
RC questions.

Must Know: #
When we say “passage structure,” we’re
simply referring to the way in which an
author has organized and developed
his or her essay.

Must Know: #
Familiarize yourself with the common
ways in which RC passages proceed to
set yourself up to readily recognize the
structure of a passage.

Must Know: #
After we’re done reading a passage, we
should have a strong understanding of
the main idea (the simple story), the
author’s primary purpose for writing it,
and the way in which the passage is
structured.

A Map for Understanding the

2.27
Structure of a Passage

Must Know: #
When seeking to understand the
organization of a passage or paragraph,
it’s often a game-changer to ask, “Why
has the author taken the time to include
this sentence or this paragraph?”

Must Know: #
The organization of a passage is
defined by the purposes of the
sentences and paragraphs that
compose it. Similarly, the structure of a
paragraph is defined by the purposes of
the sentences that it contains.

Must Know: #
We can tell what the structure of a
passage or paragraph is by determining
what each sentence and paragraph
does.

Must Know: #
We can understand a passage’s
structure by evaluating each sentence
and each paragraph and determining
what role each sentence or paragraph
plays in the passage.

Must Know: #
Structural markers, especially contrast
markers, opinion markers, conclusion
markers, support markers, rhetorical
question markers, and myth markers
can help us to identify the purposes of
sentences and paragraphs and, thus,
the organization of the passage.

Structure Trap 1: An Answer Choice

2.28
that Uses the Wrong Verb

Must Know: #
Answer choices in Structure questions
can be incorrect because they use the
wrong verbs. Structure choices often
have multiple verbs for us to pay
attention to.

Must Know: #
The path to avoiding choosing a Wrong
Verb choice in a Structure question is to
check each verb in the choice against
the passage. If one of the verbs in a
choice does not match how the
passage proceeds, the choice is
incorrect.

Structure Trap Answer Choice 2:

2.29
The Distortion Trap

Must Know: #
Distortion trap choices in Structure
questions somehow twist or
misrepresent the organization of the
passage.

Must Know: #
To avoid choosing a Distortion choice in
a Structure question, consider all
aspects of the choice – verbs, nouns,
and modifiers – to determine whether
the choice accurately describes the
organization of the passage.

Structure Trap 3: The Stretch

2.30
Choice

Must Know: #
Stretch choices typically use extreme
markers or strong language to say
something that goes beyond what the
passage does.

Must Know: #
In Stretch choices in Structure
questions, the part of the choice that
goes too far, in other words, the part
that’s “stretched,” is generally a part that
comes after a verb.

Must Know: #
The way to avoid choosing a Stretch
answer choice in a Structure question is
to carefully verify each answer against
what we know about the passage.

Structure Trap Answer Choice 4:

2.31
The Opposite Answer

Must Know: #
To avoid choosing opposite trap
choices in Structure questions, we must
pay attention to the direction in which
each part of the choice takes things and
determine whether the corresponding
portion of the passage takes things in
the same direction.

Structure Trap 5: The Half-Right

2.32
Answer Choice

Must Know: #
To avoid choosing Half-Right choices in
Structure questions, read every choice
in its entirety and carefully compare
each part of the choice with the
corresponding part of the passage.

2.33 Specific Purpose Questions

Must Know: #
Specific Purpose questions ask to
identify the specific purpose of a piece
of the passage, such as a sentence or
something mentioned by the author.

Specific Purpose Questions About

2.34
a Sentence in the Passage

Must Know: #
Some Specific Purpose questions will
ask us to determine the specific
purpose, or function, of a sentence in
the passage.

Must Know: #
Learn to recognize the common and
predictable language used by Specific
Purpose questions about a sentence.

Strategy for a Specific Purpose

2.35
Question about a Sentence

Must Know: #
Memorize the strategy for answering a
Specific Purpose question about a
sentence.

Specific Purpose Questions About

2.36 Something Mentioned in the
Passage

Must Know: #
Some Specific Purpose questions ask
us to identify the Specific Purpose of
something mentioned by the author of
the passage.

Must Know: #
Learn to recognize the common and
predictable language used by Specific
Purpose questions about a sentence.
 Strategy for a Specific Purpose
2.37 Question about Something
Mentioned in the Passage

Must Know: #
Memorize the strategy for answering a
Specific Purpose question about
something mentioned by the author.

Author’s Opinion and Tone

2.38
Questions

Must Know: #
Author’s opinion questions ask us to
choose an answer choice that best
captures an opinion, belief, or attitude of
the author’s.

Must Know: #
Learn to recognize the common and
predictable language used by Author’s
Opinion and Tone questions.

Must Know: #
The author’s tone is the predominant
attitude that he or she displays toward
the subject matter in her passage.

Must Know: #
As we read a passage, we must always
seek to identify the author's tone,
because the author’s tone is always
indicative of the central message that
he or she is attempting to communicate
to the reader.

Must Know: #
The author’s opinion and tone are
expressed via the words and details he
or she uses. So, we can determine the
tone of the author’s message by paying
close attention to these words and
details, which we can call “tone clues.”

Must Know: #
RC passages will typically be written
with in a reserved, professional,
measured, well-reasoned tone and
present opinions in balanced ways.

Must Know: #
In RC passages, authors include
counter arguments and alternative
points of view, the inclusion of which
provides the author with enhanced
credibility derived from the author’s
having considered facts, considerations,
and points of view that run counter to
his or her own.

In Reading a Reading
2.39 Comprehension Passage, We Must
Keep All Viewpoints Straight.

Must Know: #
In reading an RC passage with multiple
people and viewpoints, we must ensure
that we keep these people and their
viewpoints straight. It’s all too easy to
mix up who believes what.

Must Know: #
Often, one of the challenges we’ll face
in reading an RC passage is that of
ensuring that we don’t confuse the
views of people discussed by the
passage with the those of the author or
vice versa.

Approaches for Maximizing

2.40
Passage Comprehension

Must Know: #
Read at a pace that allows for full
comprehension. Our goal is to develop
a high level of comprehension without
having to reread the entire passage.

Must Know: #
From the very first sentence of a
passage, we must check in with
ourselves word by word, sentence by
sentence, and paragraph by paragraph.
If and only if we have a solid
understanding of what we’re reading,
can we continue reading.

Must Know: #
Whereas we DO need to read at a pace
that allows for full comprehension of the
passage and its main points, we DO
NOT need to read at a pace that allows
for fully capturing every single detail of
the passage.

Must Know: #
When reading a passage, make a movie
in your head about what you’re reading.
When we create imagery in our minds,
we’ll position ourselves to develop a
much stronger understanding of what
we’re reading.

Must Know: #
When deciding how much to write when
taking notes on Reading
Comprehension passages, remember
that the goal is to write just enough to
help in gaining a deep understanding of
the passage but not so much that you
burn time unnecessarily.

Must Know: #
Don’t spend time reading the first
question before reading the passage
associated with it.

Must Know: #
We will not need to know technical
terms associated with topics or
academic fields in order to effectively
handle RC passages.

Must Know: #
If we see in an RC passage a word
whose meaning we don’t know, the
move is to do our best to use context
clues to understand the meaning of the
word and, thus, to understand what the
passage says.

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