Chapter 5

Long Passages

Long passages consist of approximately 450–475 words spread over three to five paragraphs and 75 to 85 lines on the computer screen. Most likely, you will see one long passage per GRE exam (one Verbal section will have a long passage, and one will not). Each long passage will likely have four questions.

Long passages present much the same challenge as short passages, but with increased length and complexity. Further, because there are multiple associated questions, it is not typically advisable to guess on the entire passage. However, the individual questions associated with long passages will not be any harder, on average, than questions for shorter passages.

As discussed in the case of short passages, what really makes the difference between an easy, or “friendly,” passage and a difficult, or “unfriendly,” one is your background (How much do you like this topic? What do you already know about this topic?), as well as your status on the exam at that moment (Are you ahead of pace or lagging behind? How are you feeling about how you are doing? How is your energy level, your focus, your processing speed?).

If the long passage turns out to be friendly, then simply read it and take any notes you like (indeed, it is a good habit to take light notes every time).

On the other hand, when the passage is unfriendly (as, in fact, the majority of long passages are likely to be), you need to know what to read and what not to read, and you need a robust note-taking process, in order to get through the passage actively, rapidly, and effectively. Also, remember that a passage that looks friendly at first glance may turn ugly in the middle. Concentrate on the main ideas and continue to take light notes.

The note-taking process is largely the same for long passages as for short ones, except that you will pay a bit more attention to the first paragraph of a long passage. As with short passages, the note-taking process serves two main purposes:

  1. It provides a general structure and overall understanding without getting you bogged down in details.
  2. It promotes an efficient first reading that still gives you enough time to answer questions.

Headline Notes

The creation of your notes has several key elements:

1. The first paragraph of a long passage sets the basic context and gives shape to the text. As such, you'll start out reading more slowly and carefully.

Unlike most short passages, long passages often have a first paragraph that is substantially more important than the other paragraphs, setting the tone and (typically) describing what the rest of the passage will be about. As a result, take a little more time to summarize the first paragraph, making sure that you thoroughly understand the main idea as well as any big surprises or contrasting ideas.

As with short passages, you must decide how frequently you stop to take notes: after each sentence, after a couple of sentences, or after the entire paragraph. Base your decision on how well you are grasping the content and purpose of the text, as well as the length of the paragraph at issue. The more difficult the passage, the more frequently you should stop to process what you have read. (Note: if something is too detailed, however, don't get bogged down; start skimming and looking only for “big” ideas.)

2. Note the main point of each remaining paragraph. As you get further into a long passage, you will be able to pick up speed and pay less attention to detail. Continue to read for main ideas and contrasts or surprises; save the detail for later.

Pay special attention to the first one or two sentences of the paragraph; this is where you'll discover the purpose of the paragraph. Once you've grasped that purpose, read the remaining sentences quickly. If you see any other “big” ideas, or any significant contrasts (“However,…”), pay attention and jot down a note. You can mostly ignore any details or examples that go along with the main idea. If you are asked a question about this detail, you will come back to reread these sentences at that point.

In fact, it is actually counterproductive to try to absorb many details during your initial read-through, since doing so takes you away from the main goal of grasping the overall point and the major ideas presented in the passage. You wouldn't want to depend on your memory when answering detail questions anyway; check for proof in the passage.

Be on the lookout for big surprises or important results. Sometimes, the GRE buries such surprises or results within the body of a later paragraph, and you don't want to miss these!

Focus on constructing the simple story and you will read with the appropriate level of attention: not too close, not too far away, but just right.

3. Once you have finished the passage, identify the Point. In a long passage, you will most likely encounter the point during the first paragraph, as the vast majority of long passages reference the main idea right at the beginning. You can't be 100% sure, though, until you have finished reading the passage. When you're at the end, make sure that you've noted the point before you start looking at any answer choices. A solid understanding of the main idea is crucial to your success on RC.

Using Your Notes

The purpose of your notes is twofold: to help you grasp the main ideas and to know where to look for certain details. If you've done your job well, you'll be able to answer all General questions without referring to the passage and you may not even need to refer to your notes.

As for Specific questions, you will need to re-read the details in the passage. If you don't happen to remember where something was mentioned, use your notes as a guide—this is precisely why you created them! Also, note that if you can answer a detailed question using just your notes, then you wrote too much down. You will never be asked about every aspect of the passage, so don't waste time taking notes on every last detail when you'll never need most of the information.

Timing for Long Passages

As with short passages, you have 1.5 minutes per question, total, including time to read the passage, take notes, and answer all of the questions. Typically, each long passage has four questions associated with it, so you'll have roughly 6 minutes to do everything.

Out of this 6-minute period, spend approximately 2–3 minutes reading and generating your Skeletal Sketch. Then spend about 45 seconds per General question, and between 45–60 seconds per Specific question.

Repeated practice will be key, as will analyzing your process. Study the model given at the end of this chapter, and do the Problem Sets. After finishing a particular passage-and-questions set, ask yourself:

Common Structures of Long Passages

Long passages often have more of a narrative, or sequence of events, to their simple story than short passages do. As a result, it's useful to create an executive summary of the story.

Here are a couple of executive summaries of some long passages on the GRE. (Of course, there can be many others! These are only two examples.)

1. A Theory

Introduction: an area of scientific or historical research.

A theory about that area of research exists.

Here is support for that theory.

(Possibly) Here are implications of that theory.

Point: the theory itself exists / is valid OR an assertion about the theory is made, e.g., Theory X can now be tested. In the latter case, support for the assertion is given.

2. A Couple of Theories

Introduction: a phenomenon in some area of scientific or historical research.

Here are a couple of theories about that phenomenon.

Here is support (possibly positive and negative) for each of those theories.

Point: Theory X is best or they all fall short or more research is needed.

Model Long Passage: Electroconvulsive Therapy

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a controversial psychiatric treatment involving the induction of a seizure in a patient via the passage of electricity through the brain. While beneficial effects of electrically induced seizures are evident and predictable in most patients, a unified mechanism of action has not yet been established and remains the subject of numerous investigations. According to most, though not all, published studies, ECT has been shown to be effective against several conditions, such as severe depression, mania, and some acute psychotic states, that are resistant to other treatments, although, like many other medical procedures, ECT has its risks.

Since the inception of ECT in 1938, the public has held a strongly negative conception of the procedure. Initially, doctors employed unmodified ECT. Patients were rendered instantly unconscious by the electrical current, but the strength of the muscle contractions from induced, uncontrolled motor seizures often led to compression fractures of the spine or damage to the teeth. In addition to the effect this physical trauma had on public sentiment, graphic examples of abuse were documented in nonfiction or loosely fictional books and movies, such as Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which portrayed ECT as punitive, cruel, overused, and violative of patients’ legal rights. Indeed, the alternative term “electroshock” has a negative connotation, tainted by these depictions in the media.

In comparison with its earlier incarnation, modern ECT is virtually unrecognizable. The treatment is modified by the muscle relaxant succinylcholine, which renders muscle contractions virtually nonexistent. Additionally, patients are given a general anesthetic. Thus, the patient is asleep and fully unaware during the procedure, and the only outward sign of a seizure may be the rhythmic movement of the patient's hand or foot. ECT is generally used in severely depressed patients for whom psychotherapy and medication prove ineffective. It may also be considered when there is an imminent risk of suicide, since antidepressants often require several weeks to show results. Exactly how ECT exerts its influence on behavior is not known, but repeated applications affect several important neurotransmitters in the brain, including serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine.

The consensus view of the scientific and medical community is that ECT has been proven effective, but the procedure remains controversial. Though decades-old studies showing brain cell death have been refuted in recent research, many patients do report retrograde amnesia (of events prior to treatment) and/or anterograde amnesia (of events during or shortly after treatment). Patients have also reported that their short-term memories continue to be affected for months after ECT, though some doctors argue that this memory malfunction may reflect the type of amnesia sometimes associated with severe depression. A recent neuropsychological study at Duke University documents a significant decline in performance on memory tests, ironically accompanied at times by self-reports of improved memory function; however, the researchers recommended only that these potential detriments be weighed against the potential benefits of ECT in any particular case.

Model Headline Notes: Electroconvulsive Therapy

  1. ECT controv. psych. treat: Electr. into brain → seizure
    —Beneficial, but mech not understood
    ** Effective for some conditions; has risks
  2. Since 1938, public dislikes ECT
  3. Modern ECT totally diff
  4. ECT effective but still controv    ← Point

Notice that the first paragraph includes the most detail, as this sets the context for everything to come.

The remaining notes are much more concise, consisting only of a brief summary of the main idea of each body paragraph. Note that for each of the body paragraphs, the main idea is found in the first one or two sentences of the paragraph. This is often the case.

The Point of the passage is contained in the first sentence of the last paragraph: ECT has proven effective, but it remains controversial. This is the most important message that the author wants to convey. Of course, you need the rest of the passage to supply context (e.g., to explain what ECT is in the first place). In fact, the last sentence of the first paragraph is very similar to the Point, and nicely foreshadows the overall message.

Notice that the summary here does not exactly fit one of the patterns mentioned earlier. The summary here might best be expressed as “A Judgment about a Method”: Here is a method. It is effective but controversial.

Problem Set

1. Read the following passage and take notes in 2–3 minutes. Afterward, using the sample given, critique your notes by identifying ways in which they succeed, as well as ways in which they could be improved.

Passage: Ether’s Existence

In 1887, an ingenious experiment performed by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley severely undermined classical physics by failing to confirm the existence of “ether,” a ghostly massless medium that was thought to permeate the universe. Although the implications of this experimental failure were not completely evident for many years, they ultimately paved the way for Einstein's special theory of relativity.

Prior to the Michelson–Morley experiment, nineteenth-century physics conceived of light as a wave of electric and magnetic fields. These fields were governed by Maxwell's equations, which predicted that these waves would propagate at a particular speed c. The existence of ether was hypothesized in part to explain the propagation of light waves, which was believed to be impossible through empty space. Moreover, the ether provided the theoretical baseline for the speed of light predicted by Maxwell's equations: light was to travel at speed c relative to the ether. Physical objects, such as planets, were also thought to glide frictionlessly through the unmoving ether.

The Michelson–Morley experiment relied on the concept that the Earth, which orbits the Sun, would be in motion relative to the fixed ether. Just as a person on a motorcycle experiences a “wind” caused by the cycle's motion relative to the air, the Earth would experience an “ethereal wind” caused by its motion through the ether. Such a wind would affect our measurements of the speed of light. If the speed of light is fixed with respect to the ether, but the earth is moving through the ether, then to an observer on Earth light must appear to move faster in a “downwind” direction than in an “upwind” direction.

In 1887 there were no clocks sufficiently precise to detect the speed differences that would result from an ethereal wind. Michelson and Morley surmounted this problem by using the wavelike properties of light itself to test for such speed differences. In their apparatus, known as an interferometer, a single beam of light is split in half. Mirrors guide each half of the beam along a separate trajectory before ultimately reuniting the two half-beams into a single beam. If one half-beam has moved more slowly than the other, the reunited beams will be out of phase with each other. In other words, peaks of the slower half-beam will not coincide exactly with peaks of the faster half-beam, resulting in an interference pattern in the reunited beam. However, this interference pattern failed to appear. No matter how they positioned the arms of the interferometer in relation to the theoretical ethereal wind, Michelson and Morley detected only a tiny degree of interference in the reunited light beam—far less than what was expected based on the motion of the Earth. This null result helped demolish the ether construct and replace it, in the end, with a far stranger view of time and space.

2. What is the Point of this passage? Justify your choice.

3. Identify the other components of the passage, if present: Background, Support, and Implications. Again, justify your assignments.

4. What is the executive summary of this passage?

5. Select the sentence in the final two paragraphs that explains why Michelson and Morley had to depend on interference patterns to test their theory.

6. Which of the following would the author of the passage be likely to agree with? Indicate all that apply.

images Michelson and Morley's experiment failed to produce meaningful results.

images The lack of precise stopwatches did not significantly impact Michelson and Morley's eventual results.

images 20th century physics would not necessarily have progressed as quickly as it did without Michelson and Morley's experiment.

7. Read the following passage and take notes in 2–3 minutes. Afterward, using the sample given, critique your notes by identifying ways in which they succeed, as well as ways in which they could be improved.

Passage: Prescription Errors

In Europe, medical prescriptions were historically written in Latin, for many centuries the universal medium of communication among the educated. A prescription for eye drops written in Amsterdam could be filled in Paris, because the abbreviation OS meant “left eye” in both places. With the disappearance of Latin as a lingua franca, however, abbreviations such as OS can easily be confused with AS (“left ear”) or per os (“by mouth”), even by trained professionals. Such misinterpretations of medical instructions can be fatal. In the early 1990s, two infants died in separate but identical tragedies: they were each administered 5 milligrams of morphine, rather than 0.5 milligrams, as the dosage was written without an initial zero. The naked decimal (.5) was subsequently misread.

The personal and economic costs of misinterpreted medical prescriptions and instructions are hard to quantify. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that misinterpretations are prevalent. While mistakes will always happen in any human endeavor, medical professionals, hospital administrators, and policymakers should continually work to drive the prescription error rate to zero, taking simple corrective steps and also pushing for additional investments.

Certain measures are widely agreed upon, even if some are difficult to enforce, given the decentralization of the country's healthcare system. For instance, the American Medical Association and other professional organizations have publicly advocated against the use of Latin abbreviations and other relics of historical pharmacology. As a result, incidents in which qd (“every day”), qid (“four times a day”), and qod (“every other day”) have been mixed up seem to be on the decline. Other measures have been taken by regulators who oversee potential areas of confusion, such as drug names. For instance, the FDA asked a manufacturer to change the name of Levoxine, a thyroid medication, to Levoxyl, so that confusion with Lanoxin, a heart failure drug, would be reduced. Likewise, in 1990 the antacid Losec was renamed Prilosec at the FDA's behest to differentiate it from Lasix, a diuretic. Unfortunately, since 1992 there have been at least a dozen reports of accidental switches between Prilosec and Prozac, an antidepressant. As more drugs reach the market, drug-name “traffic control” will only become more complicated.

Other measures are controversial or require significant investment and consensus-building. For instance, putting the patient's condition on the prescription would allow double-checking but also reduce patient privacy; thus, this step continues to be debated. Computerized prescriber order entry (CPOE) systems seem to fix the infamous problem of illegible handwriting, but many CPOE systems permit naked decimals and other dangerous practices. Moreover, since fallible humans must still enter and retrieve the data, any technological fixes must be accompanied by substantial training. Ultimately, a multi-pronged approach is needed to address the issue.

8. What is the Point of this passage? Justify your choice.

9. Identify the other components of the passage, if present: Background, Support, and Implications. Again, justify your assignments. What is the executive summary of this passage?

10. Select the sentence in the middle two paragraphs that provides a reason why prescription errors could become more common in the future.

11. Based on the passage, which of the following could help reduce the number of prescription errors?

images A reduction in the use of anachronistic terminology

images A law forcing drug companies to name their products in ways that make confusion with preexisting drugs less likely

images Better training for nurses and nurse practitioners who enter prescriptions into databases

Solutions

1. Ether's Existence—Notes

  1. 1887, M+M experim. undermined class. physics    ← Point
    → No ether (ghostly medium thru-out univ)
    —not apparent right away, but led to Einstein's rel.
  2. Before: light = wave of fields
  3. M+M used Earth's motion in ether (like wind)
  4. → looked for speed diffs, found ~0

Notice that you have to delve more deeply into the last paragraph than just the first sentence. You do not have to master how an interferometer works (thankfully!), but you have to have read through nearly everything in that last paragraph to understand the main idea, which is distributed throughout.

2. The Point of the passage is contained in the first sentence of the passage: In 1887, an ingenious experiment performed by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley severely undermined classical physics by failing to confirm the existence of “ether,”…. (Of course, don't copy this word for word into your notes, but instead abbreviate it dramatically, as shown above.) Everything else in this passage is secondary to this assertion.

3. The first paragraph gives Background on the ether (a ghostly massless medium that was thought to permeate the universe) and also gives an Implication (Although the implications…theory of relativity). The rest of the passage is a combination of Background knowledge and Support for the assertion made in the Point.

4. The summary might be called “An Experiment”: M+M's shook physics, paved the way for Einstein. Here is what people used to think existed. Here is what M+M did to look. Here is what they found: Nothing!

5. This is a Select-in-Passage question asking for a particular detail. You can look to where interference is mentioned, and then try to work backwards to figure out why Michelson and Morley needed it. The first sentence of the final paragraph states: In 1887 there were no clocks sufficiently precise to detect the speed differences that would result from an ethereal wind. Because they couldn't simply time the light, Michelson and Morley had to depend on the interference patterns of split light beams.

6. This is a very general Select-one-or-more question, which could draw from information provided anywhere in the passage.

(A) The passage indicates that the experiment failed to confirm the existence of “ether,” but this does not mean that the experiment failed to produce any usable or meaningful results. In fact, the results of the experiment were far-reaching; the end of the first paragraph says that the implications ultimately paved the way for Einstein's special theory of relativity.

(B) CORRECT. You are told in the final paragraph that Michelson and Morley surmounted the problem of not having precise enough clocks. That means that the lack of such clocks did not significantly impact their results.

(C) CORRECT. The second sentence of the first paragraph tell you that the results of the experiment “paved the way for Einstein's special theory of relativity.” In other words, without the experiment, it is possible that physics would not have progressed as quickly.

7. Prescription Errors—Notes

  1. Eur: Rx in Latin hist.
    BUT now → mistakes
    —Can be fatal. Ex: 2 babies.
  2. Cost Rx mistakes = hard to quant, but lots
    All should elim errors ← Point
  3. Some steps = agreed.
  4. Other steps harder, need multi-prong

Incidentally, Rx is an abbreviation for “prescription,” probably originating from Latin. If you happen to encounter a passage on prescription drugs, feel free to use this abbreviation; otherwise, use it to locate a pharmacy when traveling abroad!

8. The Point combines the last sentence of the second paragraph with the end of the fourth paragraph: While mistakes will always happen in any human endeavor, medical professionals, hospital administrators, and policymakers should continually work to drive the prescription error rate to zero, taking simple corrective steps and also pushing for additional investments. This is the strongest and most general claim made by the author. The author finishes the point via the end of the fourth paragraph: Ultimately, a multi-pronged approach is needed to address the issue.

9. What comes before the Point is a mixture of Background (e.g., the use of Latin on medieval prescriptions) and Support (e.g., the explanation of the fatal tragedies). After the Point is mostly Implications (various potential steps with pros and cons). The last two paragraphs could be interpreted as Judgments on specific tactics, given that everyone would like to drive the error rate down to zero.

10. This Select-in-Passage question is quite specific. Notice that it doesn't ask for problems with the prescription-writing process, but a reason why the problem could get worse. The final sentence of the third paragraph states: As more drugs reach the market, drug-name ‘traffic control’ will only become more complicated. While other sentences mention other CURRENT problems with drug-name confusion, this is the only sentence giving a reason why things might get WORSE in the future.

11. This Select-one-or-more question asks about prescription errors; note the types of errors described in the passage.

(A) CORRECT. The third paragraph describes the confusion caused by the use of the terms “qd,” “qid,” and “qod.” Clearly the phasing out of this terminology could reduce prescription errors.

(B) CORRECT. The third paragraph describes a dozen reports of accidental switches between Prilosec and Prozac. If these two products had more distinctive names, prescription errors could be reduced.

(C) The passage does not suggest this remedy, nor does it provide any reason to think that nurses and nurse practitioners would make fewer mistakes than do doctors.