Chapter 5

Making Sense of What You Read: Reading Comprehension

In This Chapter

Approaching the Reading Comprehension passages

Learning tips and tricks designed to save you time

Reading Comprehension questions on the GRE comprise almost half of the Verbal ­questions. The actual number may vary slightly, but close to half of your Verbal score is determined by these questions. Each question consists of a single passage, sort of like a graduate-level journal article, on a science, social science, or humanities topic that you’ve probably never considered before and never will again.

The Verbal section of the GRE contains about four Reading Comprehension passages. For each passage, you must answer one to four questions. The computer screen is split with the passage on the left and a question on the right. You get the questions one at a time; if more than one question references a passage, each question appears separately on the right side of the screen while the passage stays on the left.

This chapter introduces the three question formats you’ll encounter on the test, presents strategies for identifying the correct answers quickly, and provides some sample passages along with questions and their answers so you know what to expect on the test.

All Reading Comprehension questions are based directly on what’s in the passage. You don’t need to know anything about the subject outside the passage to answer the questions. In fact, if you’re familiar with the subject, be careful not to mix your own knowledge with what’s in the passage.

Recognizing the Three Reading Comprehension Question Formats

Being familiar with the question formats for the Reading Comprehension section enables you to field the questions more confidently, because you know what to expect. The GRE presents each question in one of the following three formats:

Multiple-choice questions: Choose one answer.

Multiple-choice questions: Choose one or more answers.

Sentence-selection questions: Choose a sentence from the passage.

The following sections describe each question format in greater detail and provide an example of each format based on the following short passage from Food Allergies For Dummies by Robert A. Wood, MD, with Joe Kraynak (Wiley):

In children and young adults, anaphylactic shock is relatively uncommon even with the most severe reactions, because their cardiovascular system is so resilient. This does not mean, however, that younger people are immune to severe anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis in younger people typically results in breathing difficulty — a constricted or blocked airway that causes the fatal and near fatal reaction. In a fatal reaction, the heart stops only because the body eventually runs out of oxygen.

Multiple-choice questions: Choose one answer

The following format is the traditional multiple-choice question. You get five answers to pick from, and only one is the correct answer.

Based on the passage, how common is anaphylactic shock in older adults?

A Very common

B Relatively uncommon

C About as frequent as in the general population

D Nonexistent

E Not stated in the passage

You pick one and only one answer. In this case, the correct answer is Choice (E), because the passage doesn’t even mention older adults.

Multiple-choice questions: Choose one or more answers

The next question format is a spin on the traditional multiple-choice question. Three choices follow the question and one, two, or all three of them are correct. You must pick all of the correct choices and no incorrect choices to receive credit for your answer. You don’t receive partial credit for picking only some of the correct answers. The GRE treats a partially answered question as a wrong answer.

When anaphylactic shock in a child or young adult is fatal, what happens? Consider each of the three choices separately and select all that apply.

A Heart stops.

B Airway is blocked or constricted.

C Body runs out of oxygen.

You pick all answers that are correct. In this case, all the answer choices — Choices (A), (B), and (C) — are correct.

You can quickly tell whether to select only one answer or up to three answers by looking at the instruction that accompanies the question: The GRE always instructs you whether to choose one or all answers that apply.

Sentence-selection questions: Choose a sentence from the passage

In the sentence-selection questions, the GRE presents a description or question followed by instructions to click the sentence in the passage that most closely matches the description or answers the question. Clicking any part of the sentence selects the entire sentence.

Choose the sentence in the passage that parents of young children are likely to find most reassuring.

In the sample passage provided earlier, you would click the sentence, “In children and young adults, anaphylactic shock is relatively uncommon even with the most severe reactions, because their cardiovascular system is so resilient.”

Developing Strategies for Success

Reading Comprehension questions can be the most time-consuming questions of the Verbal section. The best way to ace these questions is to master and use strategies for quickly reading the passages, identifying key facts called for in the questions, and drawing inferences based on subtle implications. The following sections explain four useful strategies for arriving at the correct answers (and avoiding incorrect answers) more efficiently and effectively.

Using the context as your road map

When reading a science or humanities passage, you first want to get a mental grid of where all the key information is. Skim the passage as you would scan a room upon first entering it to get a general idea of where everything is located. Doing so can help you figure out where the information is as you begin to answer questions. Remember: Don’t sweat the details. As you read each question, you can then quickly revisit the passage to locate the details for answering each question correctly.

Usually the first paragraph is an introduction, telling you what the passage is about (the main idea). Subsequent paragraphs (the body of the passage) provide details to support or develop the topic stated in the first paragraph. As you read each body paragraph, ask yourself what its purpose is and how it supports the main idea. Asking these questions gives you a clearer idea of what the related details are and where they’re located in the passage.

The exceptions to this strategy are the social sciences questions, which tend to be based less on facts and more on what can be determined from the facts. As explained later in the section “The social sciences passage,” you want to read these passages more carefully, so your brain has all the information it needs to draw correct inferences.

Sometimes an entire passage can be one giant paragraph. Don’t let these types of passages discourage you from mapping the details — look for where one idea ends and another begins and make a mental note of where paragraphs should be separated. Creating these mental paragraph breaks can help you map the passage details as you would for a passage that is already broken into separate paragraphs.

Grasping the gist of the passage

Understanding the main idea of the passage is key to establishing the context of the paragraphs within. The main idea is also usually the basis of one of the questions, typically an early question. If you can briefly sum up the gist of the passage, then you not only develop a contextual understanding of the passage but also answer one of the questions.

Using keywords strategically

Reading Comprehension passages and questions often contain keywords that act as valuable clues in identifying correct answers and eliminating wrong ones. For example, say a particular passage is all about successful international adoption; you’re asked to choose the best title for the passage from the following choices:

A Trends in International Adoption

B Children at Risk

C Analyzing the Child Psyche

D Overcoming the Challenges of International Adoptions

E What Makes a Good Parent

In this case, both Choices (A) and (D) mention international adoption, but of these two answers, only Choice (D) suggests a title leading to a successful adoption.

Avoiding traps

The people who write the GRE are a tricky lot. They dangle wrong but tempting answers in front of you, hoping you take the bait. By recognizing the most common traps (and the human mind’s tendencies toward making assumptions), you have a better chance of avoiding them:

Facts: Answer choices may contain facts that aren’t mentioned in the passage. The answer strikes you as correct because it’s a true statement, but if that fact isn’t mentioned in the passage, it’s not a correct answer.

Half-truths: Answer choices may contain information that’s part accurate and part inaccurate or not even mentioned in the passage. Before choosing an answer, make sure what the answer states is 100 percent accurate based on the passage.

Your own knowledge: If you’re like most people, you add detail based on your own knowledge and expertise to things that you read. Sometimes, these details tempt you to choose an answer that’s correct based on what you know but incorrect according to the passage. Be careful not to fill in the blanks with what you know beyond what’s in the passage.

Subtle distinctions: When a question includes words like mostly, best, primarily, or primary, watch out. Most of the answers are probably correct to some degree, but only one answer is the most correct.

Judgment statements: A judgment statement declares something right or wrong or better or worse, such as “Cats make better pets than dogs” or “People should stay out of other people’s business.” These value judgments may be tempting choices, because the human mind likes to draw its own conclusions from what it reads. However, value judgments are almost never correct answers.

Acing the Three Commonly Tested Reading Comprehension Passages

Reading Comprehension passages are based on biological or physical sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Each of the following sections explains one of the passage types; presents a passage of that type along with sample questions, answers, and explanations to get you up to speed; and provides additional guidance and tips for successfully answering each question.

The biological and physical science passage

A biological or physical science passage is straightforward, giving you the scoop on how laser beams work, how to build a suspension bridge, how molecular theory applies, and so on. Although the passage itself may be difficult to get through (because it’s full of facts and data from an unfamiliar subject), this type of passage is often the easiest because it has so few traps and tricks.

When approaching biological and physical science passages, don’t get hung up on the scientific terminology. You usually don’t need to know the meaning of all the scientific terms a passage throws at you in order to answer the questions correctly. However, these terms may function as keywords to help you locate the answers inside the passage, even if you don’t know what the terms mean.

You can answer most biological or physical science questions directly from the facts provided in the passage itself.

Here’s a science passage for you to practice. Don’t forget to check the introduction paragraph for the overall gist of the passage and look for the high-level contribution of each paragraph. If you know what each paragraph’s purpose is, you’ll be able to quickly find the details when you need them.

Microbiological activity clearly affects the mechanical strength of leaves. Although it cannot be denied that with most species the loss of mechanical strength is the result of both invertebrate feeding and microbiological breakdown, the example of Fagus sylvatica illustrates loss without any sign of invertebrate attack being evident. Fagus shows little sign of invertebrate attack even after being exposed for eight months in either a lake or stream environment, but results of the rolling fragmentation experiment show that loss of mechanical strength, even in this apparently resistant species, is considerable.

Most species appear to exhibit a higher rate of degradation in the stream environment than in the lake. This is perhaps most clearly shown in the case of Alnus. Examination of the type of destruction suggests that the cause for the greater loss of material in the stream-processed leaves is a combination of both biological and mechanical degradation. The leaves exhibit an angular fragmentation, which is characteristic of mechanical damage, rather than the rounded holes typical of the attack by large particle feeders or the skeletal vein pattern produced by microbial degradation and small particle feeders. As the leaves become less strong, the fluid forces acting on the stream nylon cages cause successively greater fragmentation.

Mechanical fragmentation, like biological breakdown, is to some extent influenced by leaf structure and form. In some leaves with a strong midrib, the lamina break up, but the pieces remain attached by means of the midrib. One type of leaf may break cleanly whereas another tears off and is easily destroyed after the tissues are weakened by microbial attack.

In most species, the mechanical breakdown will take the form of gradual attrition at the margins. If the energy of the environment is sufficiently high, brittle species may be broken across the midrib, something that rarely happens with more pliable leaves. The result of attrition is that where the areas of the whole leaves follow a normal distribution, a bimodal distribution is produced; one peak is composed mainly of the fragmented pieces, the other of the larger remains.

To test the theory that a thin leaf has only half the chance of a thick one for entering the fossil record, all other things being equal, Ferguson (1971) cut discs of fresh leaves from 11 species of leaves, each with a different thickness, and rotated them with sand and water in a revolving drum. Each run lasted 100 hours and was repeated three times, but even after this treatment, all species showed little sign of wear. It therefore seems unlikely that leaf thickness alone, without substantial microbial preconditioning, contributes much to the probability that a leaf will enter a depositional environment in a recognizable form. The results of experiments with whole fresh leaves show that they are more resistant to fragmentation than leaves exposed to microbiological attack. Unless the leaf is exceptionally large or small, leaf size and thickness are not likely to be as critical in determining the preservation potential of a leaf type as the rate of microbiological degradation.

1. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A Why Leaves Disintegrate

B An Analysis of Leaf Structure and Composition

C Comparing Lakes and Streams

D The Purpose of Particle Feeders

E How Leaves’ Mechanical Strength Is Affected by Microbiological Activity

Note that because the passage is talking primarily about leaves, that word needs to be in the title, which eliminates Choices (C) and (D) right off. Choice (A) is too broad; other causes of disintegration may exist that the passage doesn’t mention. Choice (B) is too specific. The passage mentions leaf structure, but that topic isn’t its primary focus. Correct answer: Choice (E).

2. Which of the following is mentioned as a reason for leaf degradation in streams? Consider each of the three choices separately and select all that apply.

A Mechanical damage

B Biological degradation

C Large particle feeders

The second paragraph of the passage tells you that “. . . loss of material in stream-processed leaves is a combination of biological and mechanical degradation.” Choice (C) is incorrect, because the passage specifically states that the pattern of holes is contrary to that of large particle feeders. The correct answers are Choices (A) and (B).

3. The conclusion the author reached from Ferguson’s revolving drum experiment was that

A Leaf thickness is only a contributing factor to leaf fragmentation.

B Leaves submersed in water degrade more rapidly than leaves deposited in mud or silt.

C Leaves with a strong midrib deteriorate less than leaves without such a midrib.

D Microbial attack is exacerbated by high temperatures.

E Bimodal distribution reduces leaf attrition.

The middle of the last paragraph tells you that leaf thickness alone is unlikely to affect the final form of the leaf. You probably need to reread that sentence a few times to understand it, but a detail or fact question is the type of question you should be sure to answer correctly. Choice (B) introduces facts not discussed in the passage; the passage didn’t talk of leaves in mud or silt. Choice (C) is mentioned in the passage but not in Ferguson’s experiments.

Nothing appears in the passage about high temperatures, which eliminates Choice (D). (Exacerbated means made worse.) Choice (E) sounds pretentious and pompous — and nice and scientific — but again has nothing to do with Ferguson. To answer this question correctly, you need to return to the passage to look up Ferguson specifically, not merely rely on your memory of the passage as a whole. Correct answer: Choice (A).

Be careful to answer only what the question is asking. Answer-choice traps include statements that are true but don’t answer the question.

4. The tone of the passage is

A Persuasive

B Biased

C Objective

D Argumentative

E Disparaging

Although you can make a case that the passage is persuasive, it isn’t really trying to change the reader’s opinion on an issue. It objectively presents scientific facts and experimental evidence. Because you know the gist of the passage and the context of each paragraph, the answer is obvious. Correct answer: Choice (C).

5. Select the sentence that explains the form of mechanical breakdown of most species of leaves.

Keywords come in handy in answering this question. The first and only place mechanical breakdown is mentioned is in the first sentence of the fourth paragraph. Correct answer: “In most species, the mechanical breakdown will take the form of gradual attrition at the margins.”

6. The author is most likely addressing this passage to

A Gardeners

B Botanists

C Paleontologists

D Biologists

E Epidemiologists

The most important clue in the question is most likely. You know the passage is about plants, so you can eliminate Choice (E), epidemiologists (people who study transmittable diseases). You can also eliminate Choice (A), gardeners, because they’re more interested in growing plants than in watching them decompose. Choice (D) is tempting because biologists study life, but they study both plant and animal life. Botanists (Choice [B]), who focus exclusively on plants in any sort of scientific way, are a good choice, but they tend to focus more on living plants and species than plant decomposition. Paleontologists, who study plant fossils, are most likely to read this passage. The correct answer is Choice (C).

The social sciences passage

The GRE usually includes one social sciences passage. It may be about history, psychology, business, or a variety of other topics. In other words, the term social sciences is broad enough to include whatever the test-makers want it to include. Because social sciences passages offer a perspective of a subject that you may already be familiar with, such as history, psychology, or sociology, you can use your understanding of the subject as a backdrop to make the passage easier to read and understand.

Be sure not to use your own knowledge of the subject to answer the questions. Everything you need to answer the questions is in the passage, and your outside knowledge may differ from what the questions ask.

In many ways, a social sciences passage is nearly the opposite of a biological or physical science passage. The questions deal more with inferences and less with explicitly stated facts. Therefore, you must read the passage carefully, trying to understand not only what’s stated but also what’s implied. Take some time to think about what you’re reading.

The questions that follow a social sciences passage may not be as straightforward as those for a biological or physical science passage. You may not be able to go back to a specific line and pick out a single fact. Instead, these questions require that you understand the big picture or comprehend what the author meant but didn’t come right out and say. You may be asked why an author included a particular example or explanation.

Here’s a social sciences passage for you to practice. Though you need to read the passage more carefully, the underlying strategy is the same: Look for the gist of the passage, usually in the first paragraph, and identify the purpose of each paragraph thereafter. You’ll still need to revisit these paragraphs to find details, so knowing where the details are located is easier and more useful than memorizing them.

Multinational corporations frequently encounter impediments in their attempts to explain to politicians, human rights groups, and (perhaps most importantly) their consumer base why they do business with, and even seek closer business ties to, countries whose human rights records are considered heinous by United States standards. The CEOs propound that in the business trenches the issue of human rights must effectively be detached from the wider spectrum of free trade. Discussion of the uneasy alliance between trade and human rights has trickled down from the boardrooms of large multinational corporations to the consumer on the street who, given the wide variety of products available to him, is eager to show support for human rights by boycotting the products of a company he feels does not do enough to help its overseas workers. International human rights organizations also are pressuring the multinationals to push for more humane working conditions in other countries and to, in effect, develop a code of business conduct that must be adhered to if the American company is to continue working with the overseas partner.

The president, in drawing up a plan for what he calls the “economic architecture of our times,” wants economists, business leaders, and human rights groups to work together to develop a set of principles that the foreign partners of United States corporations will voluntarily embrace. Human rights activists, incensed at the nebulous plans for implementing such rules, charge that their agenda is being given low priority by the State Department. The president vociferously denies their charges, arguing that each situation is approached on its merits without prejudice, and hopes that all the groups can work together to develop principles based on empirical research rather than political fiat, emphasizing that the businesses with experience in the field must initiate the process of developing such guidelines. Business leaders, while paying lip service to the concept of these principles, fight stealthily against their formal endorsement because they fear such “voluntary” concepts may someday be given the force of law. Few business leaders have forgotten the Sullivan Principles, in which a set of voluntary rules regarding business conduct with South Africa (giving benefits to workers and banning apartheid in the companies that worked with U.S. partners) became legislation.

7. Which of the following best states the central idea of the passage?

A Politicians are quixotic in their assessment of the priorities of the State Department.

B Multinational corporations have little if any influence on the domestic policies of their overseas partners.

C Voluntary principles that are turned into law are unconstitutional.

D Disagreement exists between the desires of human rights activists to improve the working conditions of overseas workers and the pragmatic approach taken by the corporations.

E It is inappropriate to expect foreign corporations to adhere to American standards.

In Choice (A), the word quixotic means idealistic or impractical. The word comes from the fictional character Don Quixote who tilted at windmills. (Tilting refers to a knight on horseback tilting his joust toward a target for the purpose of attack.) Although the president in this passage may not be realistic in his assessment of State Department policies, his belief isn’t the main idea of the passage.

Choice (E) is a value judgment. An answer that passes judgment, saying something is right or wrong, better or worse, or more or less appropriate (as in this case), is almost never the correct answer.

The main idea of any passage is usually stated in the first sentence or two. The first sentence of this passage touches on the difficulties that corporations have explaining their business ties with certain countries to politicians, human rights groups, and consumers. From this statement, you may infer that those groups disagree with the policies of the corporations. Correct answer: Choice (D).

Just because a statement is true doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the correct answer to the question, especially a main idea question. The answer choices are often true statements, or at least plausible ones, but this doesn’t make them “best state the central idea of the passage.”

8. According to the passage, the president wants the voluntary principles to be initiated by businesses rather than by politicians or human rights activists because

A Businesses have empirical experience in the field and thus know what the conditions are and how they may/should be remedied.

B Businesses make profits from the labor of the workers and thus have a moral obligation to improve their employees’ working conditions.

C Workers will not accept principles drawn up by politicians whom they distrust but may agree to principles created by the corporations that pay them.

D Foreign nations are distrustful of U.S. political intervention and are more likely to accept suggestions from multinational corporations.

E Political activist groups have concerns that are too dramatically different from those of the corporations for the groups to be able to work together.

Choices (B), (C), (D), and (E) assume facts not in evidence, as the lawyers say. Although you personally may believe the statements in these answer choices to be true, they don’t answer the specific question.

When a question begins with the words according to the passage, you need to go back to the passage and find the answer. The word empirical is a keyword here, and it’s buried in the middle of the second paragraph.

Find the word, read the sentence, and you’ve found the answer: “The president vociferously denies their charges, arguing that each situation is approached on its merits without prejudice, and hopes that all the groups can work together to develop principles based on em­pi­ri­cal research rather than political fiat, emphasizing that the businesses with experience in the field must initiate the process of developing such guidelines.” You don’t even need to know what empirical means. Correct answer: Choice (A).

9. Select the sentence that describes the human rights activists’ response to the president’s plan.

The passage contains only one mention of human rights activists, and it appears in the second sentence of the first paragraph. So the correct answer is, “Human rights activists, incensed at the nebulous plans for implementing such rules, charge that their agenda is being given low priority by the State Department.”

10. Which of the following is a reason the author mentions the boycott of a corporation’s products by its customers? Consider each of the three choices separately and select all that apply.

A To show the difficulties that arise when corporations attempt to become involved in politics

B To suggest the possibility of failure of any plan that does not account for the customer’s perspective

C To indicate the pressures that are on the multinational corporations

Choice (A) makes a valid point. Difficulties may arise when corporations attempt to become involved in politics. However, the passage doesn’t give that as a reason for a boycott, so Choice (A) is wrong. Choice (B) seems logical, because a company that ignores its customers will probably fail. The passage mentions corporate communications with customers in the first sentence but not the customer’s perspective, so Choice (B) is wrong. Choice (C) is also true, because according to the passage, multinational corporations run the risk of alienating any group and thus inciting a boycott, which is a reason given by the passage. Correct answer: Choice (C).

If you’re an expert in international marketing or international politics, don’t let your knowledge of the subject interfere with your ability to answer the questions. If you know firsthand that the passage is wrong, it doesn’t matter: Go with what the passage says.

11. Which of the following statements about the Sullivan Principles can best be inferred from the passage?

A They had a detrimental effect on the profits of those corporations doing business with South Africa.

B They represented an improper alliance between political and business groups.

C They placed the needs of the foreign workers over those of the domestic workers whose jobs would therefore be in jeopardy.

D They will be used as a model to create future voluntary business guidelines.

E They will have a chilling effect on future adoption of voluntary guidelines.

Choice (A) is the major trap here. Perhaps you assumed that because the companies seem to dislike the Sullivan Principles, they hurt company profits. However, nothing was said in the passage about profits. Maybe the companies still made good profits but objected to the Sullivan Principles, well, on principle. The companies just may not have wanted governmental intervention, even if profits weren’t decreased.

Two keywords/phrases can help you answer this question: Sullivan Principles tells you to look at the end of the final paragraph where these principles are first mentioned. The word chilling in Choice (E) means “to cause fear.” The second to last sentence, just before the sentence about the Sullivan Principles, states that “. . . they [business leaders] fear such ‘voluntary’ concepts may someday be given the force of law.” Because business leaders fear that the adoption of voluntary guidelines will lead to forced legislation, the Sullivan Principles will have a chilling effect on the future adoption of voluntary guidelines. The correct answer is Choice (E).

To answer this question correctly, you really need to understand not only the sentence about the Sullivan Principles but also the sentence before it. An inference question like this one usually means you have to read at least two statements and make a conclusion from them; you can’t just go back to one specific sentence or phrase of the passage and get the answer.

The humanities passage

Humanities passages may be about art, music, philosophy, drama, or literature. The passages are usually positive, especially if they talk about a person who was a pioneer in his or her field, such as the first African American astronaut or the first female doctor. Use this to your advantage: If someone is worthy of mention historically or in a Reading Comprehension passage, then he or she must have been an amazing person or done something truly noteworthy. This sense of admiration helps you create the context in which to frame the passage.

The humanities passages seem to be the most down-to-earth of the lot. They’re easy to read, informative, and can even be enjoyable. The approach is the same, though: Look for the gist of the passage in a few words and establish a context for the whole story and each paragraph. You can always go back for the details later.

Although the humanities passages don’t require meticulous reading, the questions are another matter. The questions following a humanities passage often require you to get into the mind of the author in order to read between the lines and make inferences. While you’re reading a passage about a particular person, for example, you’re supposed to ascertain not just what the person accomplished but why she worked toward her goals and what mark she hoped to leave on the world.

Here’s an example of a typical humanities passage, taken from LSAT For Dummies by Amy Hackney Blackwell (Wiley), about someone you’ve probably never heard of before but will still enjoy reading about.

Junzaburou Nishiwaki, a 20th-century Japanese poet, scholar, and translator, spent his career working to introduce Japanese readers to European and American writing and to break his country out of its literary insularity. He was interested in European culture all of his life. Born to a wealthy family in rural Niigata prefecture in 1894, Nishiwaki spent his youth aspiring to be a painter, and traveled to Tokyo in 1911 to study fused Japanese and European artistic traditions. After his father died in 1913, Nishiwaki studied economics at Keio University, but his real love was English literature. After graduating, he worked for several years as a reporter at the English-language Japan Times and as a teacher at Keio University.

Nishiwaki finally received the opportunity to concentrate on English literature in 1922, when Keio University sent him to Oxford University for three years. He spent this time reading literature in Old and Middle English and classical Greek and Latin. He became fluent in English, French, German, Latin, and Greek. While he was in England, Roaring Twenties modernism caught his eye, and the works of writers such as James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and T.S. Eliot were crucially important to his literary development. In 1925, Nishiwaki published his first book, Spectrum, a volume of poems written in English. He explained that English offered him much more freedom of expression than traditional Japanese poetic language.

Nishiwaki returned to Keio University in 1925 and became a professor of English literature, teaching linguistics, Old and Middle English, and the history of English literature. He remained active in modernist and avant-garde literary circles. In 1933 he published Ambarvalia, his first volume of poetry written in Japanese; this collection of surrealist verse ranged far and wide through European geography and history, and included Japanese translations of Catullus, Sophocles, and Shakespeare. Angered by the Japanese government’s fascist policies, Nishiwaki refused to write poetry during the Second World War. He spent the war years writing a dissertation on ancient Germanic literature.

After the war, Nishiwaki resumed his poetic pursuits and in 1947 published Tabibito kaerazu, in which he abandoned modernist language and returned to a classical Japanese poetic style, but with his own postmodernist touch, incorporating both Eastern and Western literary traditions. In 1953, Nishiwaki published Kindai no guuwa, which critics consider his most poetically mature work. He spent his last years producing works of such writers as D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Stéphane Mallarmé, Shakespeare, and Chaucer. Nishiwaki retired from Keio University in 1962, though he continued to teach and write poetry. Before his death in 1982, he received numerous honors and awards; he was appointed to the Japanese Academy of Arts and Sciences, named a Person of Cultural Merit, and nominated for the Nobel Prize by Ezra Pound. Critics today consider Nishiwaki to have exercised more influence on younger poets than any other Japanese poet since 1945.

12. Which one of the following most accurately states the main idea of the passage?

A Nishiwaki was a Japanese poet who rebelled against the strictures of his country’s government and protested its policies toward Europe during World War II.

B Nishiwaki was a Japanese poet and literary critic who embraced European literature as a way of rebelling against the constraints of his family and traditional Japanese culture.

C Nishiwaki was a Japanese poet and professor who spent his life trying to convince young Japanese students that European literary forms were superior to Japanese poetic styles.

D Nishiwaki was a Japanese poet and linguist who throughout his life chose to write in English rather than Japanese.

E Nishiwaki was a Japanese poet and scholar who spent his life specializing in European literature, which proved tremendously influential to his own work.

A process of elimination reveals the correct answer. Choice (A) is wrong: Though Nishiwaki did protest against his country’s fascist policies during World War II, this fact isn’t the main idea of the passage. Choice (B) is flat out wrong: Although the first paragraph discusses Nishiwaki’s departure from family and his country’s literary insularity, the word rebelling is too harsh. Choice (C) is also wrong: The passage doesn’t say that he tried to convince his students one way or the other. Choice (D) is wrong: The passage states only that his first book was in English and many others were in Japanese. Correct answer: Choice (E).

13. The author’s attitude toward Nishiwaki’s life and career can be best described as

A Scholarly interest in the life and works of a significant literary figure

B Mild surprise at Nishiwaki’s choosing to write poetry in a language foreign to him

C Open admiration for Nishiwaki’s ability to function in several languages

D Skepticism toward Nishiwaki’s motives in refusing to write poetry during the Second World War

E Envy of Nishiwaki’s success in publishing and academia

Choices (B), (D), and (E) are wrong because the passage doesn’t reflect surprise, skepticism, or envy. Choices (A) and (C) remain, but you can eliminate Choice (C): The passage is objective, not admiring, and Nishiwaki’s multilingual abilities is a supporting detail to his accomplishments. The correct answer is Choice (A).

14. The primary function of the first paragraph is to

A Describe Nishiwaki’s brief study of painting.

B Introduce Nishiwaki and his lifelong interest in European culture.

C Summarize Nishiwaki’s contribution to Japanese literature.

D Explain why a Japanese man chose to specialize in English literature.

E Analyze European contributions to Japanese culture at the start of the 20th century.

After rereading the first paragraph, you know that in a nutshell it introduces Nishiwaki as one who worked to bridge the literature gap separating Japan from Europe and America. It also summarizes Nishiwaki’s interest in art through college and his early career years afterward. Most importantly, the first paragraph sets the stage for the rest of the essay. Armed with this perspective, only one possible answer remains: Choice (B).

15. Select the sentence in the passage that explains why Nishiwaki stopped writing poetry during World War II.

Like most select-a-sentence questions, as long as you can spot the correct sentence buried in the passage, this one’s a gimme. Correct answer: “Angered by the Japanese government’s fascist policies, Nishiwaki refused to write poetry during the Second World War.”

16. The passage is primarily concerned with

A Comparing Nishiwaki’s poetry to that of other Japanese poets of the 20th century

B Discussing the role of the avant-garde movement in Nishiwaki’s writing

C Providing a brief biography of Nishiwaki that explains the significance of his work

D Explaining why writers can benefit from studying literature from other countries

E Describing the transformation in Japanese poetic style during the post-war period

The keywords in this question are primarily concerned with. The passage may suggest some of the points listed, but its primary concern is more explicit. Choice (A) is wrong because the author doesn’t mention the work of other Japanese poets. Choice (B) is wrong because although the avant-garde movement was influential to Nishiwaki’s writing, this point is hardly the primary concern. Choice (C) looks about right, but check the others just in case. Choice (D) is wrong because the author doesn’t mention the benefits of studying foreign literature. Choice (E) is wrong because the passage doesn’t mention changes in Japanese poetic style after the war. Correct answer: Choice (C).

17. According to the passage, which one of the following types of literature did not greatly interest Nishiwaki? Consider each of the three choices separately and select all that apply.

A Old and Middle English literature such as Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales

B Classical Greek works such as Antigone

C Classical Japanese literature such as The Tale of Genji

From the first paragraph, you know that Nishiwaki’s real love was English literature. From the second paragraph, you know that Nishiwaki spent his time at Oxford reading Old and Middle English and classical Greek and Latin. However, even though he may have had some interest in Japanese literature, it didn’t greatly interest him as the question states. Only one correct answer: Choice (C).

18. Select the sentence that explains why Nishiwaki chose to write his first published poems in English.

Though many sentences in the passage mention Nishiwaki’s interest in English literature, in only one sentence does the passage provide Nishiwaki’s explanation of why he chose to write his first published poems in English. Correct answer: “He explained that English offered him much more freedom of expression than traditional Japanese poetic language.”