The purpose of the reading comprehension questions is to measure the ability to read with understanding, insight, and discrimination. This type of question explores your ability to analyze a written passage from several perspectives, including the ability to recognize both explicitly stated elements in the passage and assumptions underlying statements or arguments in the passage as well as the implications of those statements or arguments. Because the written passage upon which reading comprehension questions are based presents a sustained discussion of a particular topic, there is ample context for analyzing a variety of relationships; for example, the function of a word in relation to a larger segment of the passage, the relationships among the various ideas in the passage, or the relation of the author to his or her topic or to the audience.
There are six types of reading comprehension questions. These types focus on (1) the main idea or primary purpose of the passage; (2) information explicitly stated in the passage; (3) information or ideas implied or suggested by the author; (4) possible applications of the author’s ideas to other situations, including the identification of situations or processes analogous to those described in the passage; (5) the author’s logic, reasoning, or persuasive techniques; and (6) the tone of the passage or the author’s attitude as it is revealed in the language used.
Some reading comprehension questions ask a question like the following: “Which of the following hypothetical situations most closely resembles the situation described in the passage?” Such questions are followed by a series of answer choices that are not explicitly connected to the content of the reading passage but instead present situations or scenarios from other realms, one of which parallels something in the passage in a salient way. You are asked to identify the one answer choice that is most clearly analogous to the situation presented in the passage.
In each edition of the General Test, there are three or more reading comprehension passages, each providing the basis for answering two or more questions. The passages are drawn from different subject matter areas, including the humanities, the social sciences, the biological sciences, and the physical sciences.
Some approaches that may be helpful in answering reading comprehension questions:
- Since reading passages are drawn from many different disciplines and sources, you should not expect to be familiar with the material in all the passages. However, you should not be discouraged by encountering material with which you are not familiar; questions are to be answered on the basis of the information provided in the passage, and you are not expected to rely on outside knowledge, which you may or may not have, of a particular topic.
- Whatever strategy you choose, you should analyze the passage carefully before answering the questions. As with any kind of close and thoughtful reading, you should be sensitive to clues that will help you understand less explicit aspects of the passage. Try to separate main ideas from supporting ideas or evidence; try also to separate the author’s own ideas or attitudes from information he or she is simply presenting. It is important to note transitions from one idea to the next and to examine the relationships among the different ideas or parts of the passage. For example, are they contrasting? Are they complementary? You should consider both the points the author makes and the conclusions he or she draws and also how and why those points are made or conclusions drawn.
- Read each question carefully and be certain that you understand exactly what is being asked.
- Always read all the answer choices before selecting the best answer.
- The best answer is the one that most accurately and most completely answers the question being posed. Be careful not to pick an answer choice simply because it is a true statement; be careful also not to be misled by answer choices that are only partially true or only partially satisfy the problem posed in the question.
- Answer the questions on the basis of the information provided in the passage and do not rely on outside knowledge. Your own views or opinions may sometimes conflict with the views expressed or the information provided in the passage; be sure that you work within the context provided by the passage. You should not expect to agree with everything you encounter in reading passages.
Directions: The passage is followed by questions based on its content. After reading the passage, choose the best answer to each question. Answer all questions following the passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage.
Picture-taking is a technique both for annexing the
objective world and for expressing the singular self.
Photographs depict objective realities that already exist,
though only the camera can disclose them. And they
(5) depict an individual photographer’s temperament, dis-
covering itself through the camera’s cropping of reality.
That is, photography has two antithetical ideals: in the
first, photography is about the world, and the photogra-
pher is a mere observer who counts for little; but in the
(10) second, photography is the instrument of intrepid,
questing subjectivity and the photographer is all.
These conflicting ideals arise from a fundamental
uneasiness on the part of both photographers and view-
ers of photographs toward the aggressive component in
(15) “taking” a picture. Accordingly, the ideal of a photogra-
pher as observer is attractive because it implicitly denies
that picture-taking is an aggressive act. The issue, of
course, is not so clear-cut. What photographers do can-
not be characterized as simply predatory or as simply,
(20) and essentially, benevolent. As a consequence, one ideal of
picture-taking or the other is always being rediscovered
and championed.
An important result of the coexistence of these two
ideals is a recurrent ambivalence toward photography’s
(25) means. Whatever the claims that photography might
make to be a form of personal expression on a par with
painting, its originality is inextricably linked to the pow-
ers of a machine. The steady growth of these powers has
made possible the extraordinary informativeness and
(30) imaginative formal beauty of many photographs, like
Harold Edgerton’s high-speed photographs of a bullet
hitting its target or of the swirls and eddies of a tennis
stroke. But as cameras become more sophisticated, more
automated, some photographers are tempted to disarm
(35) themselves or to suggest that they are not really armed,
preferring to submit themselves to the limits imposed by
premodern camera technology because a cruder, less
high-powered machine is thought to give more interest-
ing or emotive results, to leave more room for creative
(40) accident. For example, it has been virtually a point of
honor for many photographers, including Walker Evans
and Cartier-Bresson, to refuse to use modern equipment.
These photographers have come to doubt the value of the
camera as an instrument of “fast seeing.” Cartier-Bresson,
(45) in fact, claims that the modern camera may see too fast.
This ambivalence toward photographic means determines
trends in taste. The cult of the future (of faster and
faster seeing) alternates over time with the wish to return
to a purer past — when images had a handmade quality.
(50) This nostalgia for some pristine state of the photographic
enterprise is currently widespread and underlies the
present-day enthusiasm for daguerreotypes and the work
of forgotten nineteenth-century provincial photographers.
Photographers and viewers of photographs, it seems, need
(55) periodically to resist their own knowingness.
7. According to the passage, the two antithetical ideals of photography differ primarily in the
(A) value that each places on the beauty of the finished product
(B) emphasis that each places on the emotional impact of the finished product
(C) degree of technical knowledge that each requires of the photographer
(D) extent of the power that each requires of the photographer’s equipment
(E) way in which each defines the role of the photographer
The best answer to this question is (E). Photography’s two ideals are presented in lines 7-11. The main emphasis in the description of these two ideals is on the relationship of the photographer to the enterprise of photography, with the photographer described in the one as a passive observer and in the other as an active questioner. (E) identifies this key feature in the description of the two ideals — the way in which each ideal conceives or defines the role of the photographer in photography. (A) through (D) present aspects of photography that are mentioned in the passage, but none of these choices represents a primary difference between the two ideals of photography.
8. According to the passage, interest among photographers in each of photography’s two ideals can best be described as
(A) rapidly changing
(B) cyclically recurring
(C) steadily growing
(D) unimportant to the viewers of photographs
(E) unrelated to changes in technology
This question requires one to look for comments in the passage about the nature of photographers’ interest in the two ideals of photography. While the whole passage is, in a sense, about the response of photographers to these ideals, there are elements in the passage that comment specifically on this issue. Lines 20-22 tell us that the two ideals alternate in terms of their perceived relevance and value, that each ideal has periods of popularity and of neglect. These lines support (B). Lines 23-25 tell us that the two ideals affect attitudes toward “photography’s means,” that is, the technology of the camera; (E), therefore, cannot be the best answer. In lines 46-49, attitudes toward photographic means (which result from the two ideals) are said to alternate over time; these lines provide further support for (B). (A) can be eliminated because, although the passage tells us that the interest of photographers in each of the ideals fluctuates over time, it nowhere indicates that this fluctuation or change is rapid. Nor does the passage say anywhere that interest in these ideals is growing; the passage does state that the powers of the camera are steadily growing (line 28), but this does not mean that interest in the two ideals is growing. Thus (C) can be eliminated. (D) can be eliminated because the passage nowhere states that reactions to the ideals are either important or unimportant to viewers’ concerns. Thus (B) is the best answer.
