Reading Comprehension Questions

(E) slightly 10. Explanation 11. The word that fills the blank has to characterize how the land grades into the ice in a way that explains how you can walk off the coast and over the sea without knowing it. The word that does that is \grades imperceptibly into the ice, you might well not know that you had left the land. Describing the shift from land to ice as permanent, irregular or precarious would not help to explain how you would fail to know, while describing it as slight would suggest that there was hardly any grading from one to the other, the opposite of what is needed. 12. Thus the correct answer is choice B (imperceptibly).

Sentence Equivalence Questions

Like Text Completion questions, Sentence Equivalence questions test the ability to reach a conclusion about how a passage should be completed on the basis of partial information, but to a greater extent they focus on the meaning of the completed whole. Sentence

Equivalence questions consist of a single sentence with just one blank, and they ask you to find two choices that lead to a complete, coherent sentence while producing sentences that mean the same thing. Question Structure

? Consists of:

o a single sentence o one blank

o six answer choices

? Requires you to select two of the answer choices; no credit for partially

correct answers.

Tips for Answering

Do not simply look among the answer choices for two words that mean the same thing. This can be misleading for two reasons. First, the answer choices may contain pairs of words that mean the same thing but do not fit coherently into the sentence. Second, the pair of words that do constitute the correct answer may not mean exactly the same thing, since all that matters is that the resultant sentences mean the same thing.

? Read the sentence to get an overall sense of it.

? Identify words or phrases that seem particularly significant, either because

they emphasize the structure of the sentence (words like although or

moreover) or because they are central to understanding what the sentence is about.

? Try to fill in the blank with a word that seems appropriate to you and then

see if two similar words are offered among the answer choices. If you find some word that is similar to what you are expecting but cannot find a second one, do not become fixated on your interpretation; instead, see whether there are other words among the answer choices that can be used to fill the blank coherently.

? When you have selected your pair of answer choices, check to make sure

that each one produces a sentence that is logically, grammatically and stylistically coherent, and that the two sentences mean the same thing.

Sentence Equivalence Sample Questions

Select the two answer choices that, when used to complete the sentence, fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole and produce completed sentences that are alike in meaning.

1. Although it does contain some pioneering ideas, one would hardly

characterize the work as __________.

A. orthodox B. eccentric C. original D. trifling E. conventional F. innovative Explanation

The word \pioneering ideas, but apparently it is not overall a pioneering work. Thus the two words that could fill the blank appropriately are \

\very similar in meaning, but neither one completes the sentence sensibly. Thus the correct answer is choice C (original) and choice F (innovative).

2. It was her view that the country's problems had been _______ by foreign

technocrats, so that to ask for such assistance again would be counterproductive.

A. ameliorated B. ascertained C. diagnosed D. exacerbated E. overlooked F. worsened Explanation

The sentence relates a piece of reasoning, as indicated by the presence of \counterproductive because of the effects such technocrats have had

already. This means that the technocrats must have bad effects; i.e., they must have \Thus the correct answer is choice D (exacerbated) and choice F (worsened).