Short vs. Long
The next four chapters look at Short and Long Passages. Any general rules laid out in these chapters should be taken to apply only to Short and Long Passages. Argument Structure Passages will be discussed later in this book.
Short and Long Passages are quite similar in both their overall content and their associated question types. However, there are a few important differences between the two:
1. Length. Long passages aren't just slightly longer than short passages. They're significantly longer. A long passage can be as much as three times as long as a short passage. This means you'll need to take far more time not only to read and outline the passage, but also to answer specific questions that require you to search through the passage for an answer. Keep this in mind when you're pacing yourself on the test. Only one of your Verbal sections should have a long passage. If you struggle to finish your Verbal sections in the time alotted, you might consider searching out and dealing with the long passage first. Just remember, long passages generally have four associated questions, and the last thing you want to do is miss all of them because you didn't pace yourself well.
2. Number of questions. Again, long passages will generally, but not always, have four associated questions. Short passages will usually have between one and three. Obviously, the more questions associated with a passage, the more essential it is that you grasp the passage.
3. Complexity of detail. Because of the length disparity between short and long passages, you should expect far more detail in a long passage. Generally, the first paragraph will be some kind of introduction, and the next two to three paragraphs will be full of dense details requiring significant unpacking. It may take multiple reads to fully understand these details, or you may skip some complex detail entirely.
4. Complexity of argument. Because long passages tend to be 3–4 paragraphs, it's possible to create complex arguments. It's possible to begin by positing an old theory, then twisting to reveal a new theory, then twisting again to present problems with the new theory. Your outline for long passages should reflect this increased complexity. In a 1–2 paragraph short passage, there is usually only room for one twist.
Components of Passages
Reading Comprehension passages cover a wide range of topics and are structured in many different ways. However, all passages are made up of certain components. By understanding and looking for these components, you can more easily grasp the meaning and structure of the passage.
Any Reading Comprehension passage has four possible components:
Here, these components are considered in turn.
The Point
The Point is the most important message of the passage. In other words, the author has written the passage in order to convey the Point, even if nothing else gets through to the reader. The Point explains why the passage is interesting, at least in the author's opinion.
Every passage, long or short, contains a Point. Perhaps surprisingly, the Point is sometimes made explicit in a single sentence. In the “Pro-Drop Languages” passage from last chapter, the Point is the hypothesis put forward in the fourth paragraph:
It seems safe to conjecture that languages whose verbs inflect unambiguously for person and number permit pronoun dropping, if only under certain circumstances, in order to accelerate communication without loss of meaning.
The author wants you to remember this Point. Of course, the author also wants you to understand how pro-drop languages work in general, how some pro-drop languages do not inflect their verbs, and so forth. But the most important message is this hypothesis, which is also the most important claim that the author puts forward.
How does the Point relate to the simple story of the passage, as discussed in Chapter 1? Very simply, the Point is the crux of the simple story. After all, the Point is the most important message that the author wants to convey. You can also relate the Point to the Content/Judgment framework. The Point contains the most important Judgment made by the author about the central Content of the passage. Thus, a crucial task for you as a reader is to find the Point!
Where is the Point in the passage? It can be almost anywhere. The way to find the Point is to ask, “What is the most important message that the author is trying to convey in this passage?” Occasionally, the Point is at the very beginning of the passage; often, the first paragraph sets up a situation and the second paragraph contains a “twist” that constitutes the Point.
The Point may be any kind of important message, but across sample passages, there are a few common varieties that sometimes overlap:
(a) Resolution: resolves an issue or a problem
(b) Answer: answers a question (similar to Resolution)
(c) New Idea: describes a surprising new idea, theory, or research result
(d) Reason: explains an observation
During the GRE, you will not have to classify the Point as one of the preceding types. Rather, this list is meant to help you identify and understand the Point as you read a variety of passages.
Notice that the Point is related to a passage's purpose. The point is what the author wants to convey. The purpose of a passage is generally to convey that Point. However, the purpose can often be described more broadly or abstractly as well. For instance, the purpose of the “Pro-Drop Languages” passage is to describe how languages may be categorized as pro-drop and as verb-inflecting, and to discuss the complex relationship between these two types of languages.
Also note that the Point may not make a lot of sense on its own. For instance, in order to understand and be convinced that languages whose verbs inflect unambiguously for person and number permit pronoun dropping, you need to understand the rest of the “Pro-Drop Languages” passage.
Occasionally, the Point is spread across two sentences, or it may be less than explicit. However, most passages have a clear Point within a single sentence.
Note that passages do not always make impassioned arguments or take strong positions, so the Point of a passage might be less of a claim and more of a main message about the topic. The author may simply wish to inform the reader of this fact, rather than convince the reader of a debatable position.
Simply looking for the Point as you read will make you a more active reader. You will find that your comprehension of each passage will improve as a result.
Background, Support, and Implications
The other components all relate to the Point in some way:
1. The Background is information you need to understand the Point. The context and the basic facts about the topic are given in the Background. This component may be brief.
2. The Support consists of assertions and opinions for the Point. The Support might include concessions to the other side of the argument. This component is always present and often constitutes a substantial portion of the passage.
The Background and the Support may be intertwined. It is never important to determine whether a particular sentence is Background or Support. A sentence can provide background information and support the Point at the same time.
3. The Implications result from the Point. In other words, the author now assumes that you are convinced of the Point and so begins to enumerate the consequences. Implications are not always present, but when they are, they tend to be important.
Although you do not have to separate Background and Support in every case, you should understand what you are reading in terms of the four components:
Foreshadowing
Some part of the Background or the Support may also function as foreshadowing. Foreshadowing sets up the Point. It often does so by standing in contrast to the Point:
| Foreshadowing | Point | |
| Problem……………….. | leads to ………. | Resolution |
| Question………………. | leads to ………. | Answer |
| Old Idea……………….. | leads to ………. | New Idea |
| Observation………….. | leads to ………. | Reason or New Idea |
Note that just as you will never have to classify the Point on the GRE, you will not have to classify the foreshadowing. This is only meant to help you identify and understand the relationships between any foreshadowing and the Point.
Foreshadowing is not always present. Do not rely on foreshadowing to identify the Point. However, if foreshadowing is present, it can help you to find the Point more quickly and easily.
Problem Set
Answer the questions below by referring to the following passage.
Passage: Rock Flour
Although organic agriculture may seem to be the wave of the future, some experts believe that the next stage in agricultural development requires the widespread adoption of something very inorganic: fertilizer made from powdered rocks, also known as rock flour. The biochemical processes of life depend not only on elements commonly associated with living organisms, such as oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon (the fundamental element of organic chemistry), but also on many other elements in the periodic table. Specifically, plants need the so-called big six nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, sulfur, and magnesium. In modern industrial agriculture, these nutrients are commonly supplied by traditional chemical fertilizers. However, these fertilizers omit trace elements, such as iron, molybdenum and manganese, that are components of essential plant enzymes and pigments. For instance, the green pigment chlorophyll, which turns sunlight into energy that plants can use, requires iron. As crops are harvested, the necessary trace elements are not replaced and become depleted in the soil. Eventually, crop yields diminish, despite the application or even over-application of traditional fertilizers. Rock flour, produced in abundance by quarry and mining operations, may be able to replenish trace elements cheaply and increase crop yields dramatically.
It may also be possible to restore forest health through the application of rock flour. Near Asheville, North Carolina, as part of a greenhouse study, hundreds of red spruce and Fraser fir trees were planted in depleted mountain soils that were remineralized with rock flour to varying degrees. Rock-dusted trees not only grew significantly faster than controls, at rates correlating with the application amount, but also manifested improved resistance to disease, demonstrated by increased survival rates. Preliminary field trials have also indicated that remineralization helps alleviate the deleterious effects of acid rain, which drains key nutrients from forest soils.
Not all rock flour would be suitable for use as fertilizer. Certain chemical elements, such as lead and cadmium, are poisonous to humans; thus, applying rock flour containing significant amounts of such elements to farmland would be inappropriate, even if the crops themselves do not accumulate the poisons, because human contact could result directly or indirectly (e.g., via soil runoff into water supplies). However, most rock flour produced by quarries seems safe for use. After all, glaciers have been creating natural rock flour for thousands of years as they advance and retreat, grinding up the ground underneath. Glacial runoff carries this rock flour into rivers; downstream, the resulting alluvial deposits are extremely fertile. If the use of man-made rock flour is incorporated into agricultural practices, it may be possible to make open plains as rich as alluvial soils. Such increases in agricultural productivity will be necessary to feed an ever more crowded world.
1. What is the Point of this passage? Justify your choice. Categorize the Point: (a) Resolution, (b) Answer, (c) New Idea, or (d) Reason. (The Point may fall into more than one category.)
2. Identify the other components of the passage, if present: Background, Support, and Implications. Again, justify your assignments.
3. If there is foreshadowing, categorize it: (a) Problem, (b) Question, (d) Old Idea, or (d) Observation. (Like the Point, foreshadowing may fall into more than one category.)
4. What is the simple story of this passage?
Solutions
1. The Point of this passage is contained in the first sentence of the first paragraph: Some experts believe that the next stage in agricultural development requires the widespread adoption of something very inorganic: fertilizer made from powdered rocks, also known as “rock flour.” This is the most important message that the author intends to convey.
Two other candidates for the Point say nearly the same thing, as they extol the potential benefits of rock flour. In fact, these other sentences are perhaps even more emphatic than the Point itself, but they are slightly narrower in scope.
(a) Last sentence, first paragraph: Rock flour…may be able to replenish trace elements cheaply and increase crop yields dramatically. This sentence explains how rock flour may be able to help you achieve the next stage in agricultural development. Thus, this sentence is Support for the Point.
(b) Second to last sentence, third paragraph: If the use of man-made rock flour is incorporated into agricultural practices, it may be possible to make open plains as rich as alluvial soils. This sentence practically restates the Point in concrete terms. However, those concrete terms (open plains, alluvial soils) are more specific than the Point. Thus, this sentence should also be classified as Support for the Point.
Categorization of the Point
The Point is a New Idea: a new type of fertilizer that may seem surprising initially. Alternatively, the Point can be considered the Resolution to a Problem (the depletion of trace elements essential for plant growth). As was mentioned in the text, it is not important for you to determine whether the Point is a New Idea or a Resolution; it could be both. These categories are only there to help you recognize and understand the Point.
2. The other parts of the passage can be labeled thus:
| Background: | First paragraph | |
| First clause, first sentence: | Although organic agriculture…future, | |
| Second sentence: | The biochemical processes…periodic table. | |
| Third sentence: | Specifically,…magnesium. | |
| Fourth sentence: | In modern…traditional chemical fertilizers. |
These sentences give information, but they do not delineate the problem that must be solved.
| Support: | First paragraph | |
| Fifth sentence: | However, these fertilizers omit…pigments. | |
| all the way through to | ||
| Third paragraph | ||
| Second to last sentence: | If the use…alluvial soils. |
This Support begins from the However, which introduces the problem. The rest of that paragraph explains the problem that rock flour solves.
Note that the Support includes the qualifications and concessions in the first half of the second paragraph.
| Implications: | Second paragraph | |
| Last sentence: | Such increases…more crowded world. |
This sentence tells you the result of the Point. That is, if you accept the Point, then with the resulting increases in agricultural productivity, you may able to feed the world!
3. The first clause of the first sentence (Although organic agriculture may seem to be the wave of the future) is foreshadowing. This foreshadowing sets up the Point by telling you what may seem to be the solution (implying that something else is the solution). Note that this foreshadowing is immediately followed by the Point itself. This juxtaposition is not unusual.
The category of foreshadowing is Old Idea (the old “new idea” of organic agriculture, as the author implies). Thus, you can now see that the Point is really New Idea: an idea that may solve a problem, of course, but you do not learn about that problem in the foreshadowing.
That is not the only foreshadowing in this passage. For example, the middle of the first paragraph contains foreshadowing: In modern industrial agriculture, these nutrients are commonly supplied by traditional chemical fertilizers. However…The word However foreshadows the idea that some nutrients are not commonly supplied by traditional fertilizers.
4. As you saw in the last chapter, the simple story of the passage can be expressed in at least three different styles:
Full Sentences
| (1) | Some think the future of agriculture depends on rock flour (= powdered rock).
|
| (2) | Rock flour might also help forests. |
| (3) | Some rock flour is bad, even poisonous. |
| But most would be fine. | |
| Glaciers make natural rock flour, which is good for the soil. | |
| If you use rock flour, maybe you can feed the world. |
Text It to Me
| (1) | Agricult. future = rock flour (= powder). Gives plants missing trace elems. |
| (2) | Rock flour = good for forests. |
| (3) | Some flour = bad. But glaciers make it & it's good. Might feed the world. |
Table of Contents
| (1) | Rock Flour as Future of Agriculture |
| (2) | Rock Flour Helps Forests |
| (3) | Concerns; Reassuring Glaciers |