Part I: Know the GRE: Reading Comprehension

In yesterday's article we discussed strategies for speed reading and Reading Comprehension-based questions along with a sample of a relatively long RC passage. Today we take a look at two 'short' RC passages with a different set of question types.

Directions: Questions 1 through 2 are based on the following reading Passage.
Poetic truth is different from the scientific truth since it reveals in its qualitative uniqueness and not quantitative universality. It does not speak of material qualities that can be measured but inward graces that can be felt only. The truths of poetry cannot be set out in elaborate arguments but are conveyed more subtly. To behold the vision is to be convinced of the truth. Deepest poetry has the widest appeal. What the scientists do when they discover a land is to give a new ordering to observed facts. The artist engages in a similar task. He gives a new meaning to our experience and organizes it differently due to his perception of subtler qualities in reality.

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Aesthetic appreciation demands the exercise of the whole mind and not merely of the logical understanding. We cannot truly appreciate symbolic representations if we are not aided by a higher insight. The artist does not close his eyes to the realities of the world. He knows its sufferings and sorrows as well as its virtues and its victories. We must share the world, which the artist presents to us. Appreciation requires sympathy and understanding though not belief and agreement. We often become disinterested and contemplative. Aesthetic enjoyment is non-intellectual.

1. Which of the following best illustrates the distinction between poetic truth and scientific truth?
(A) Poetic truth is a creation, scientific truth is discovery; poetry reveals the nature of reality, and science observes the conceptual matter.
(B) Poetic truth is uncertain and unverified, scientific truth is definitive, being based on objective observations and experimentation.
(C) Poetic truth is a source of aesthetic pleasures; the scientific truth increases our understanding of life and gives us a heightened sense of reality.
(D) Poetic truth is subjective and relative, whereas scientific truth is objective and absolute.
(E) Poetic truth, expressed through images and symbols, has wider appeal, as it unravels the hidden mysteries of life and universe; scientific truth restricts itself to quantifiable and measurable attributes.

(A) I only  (B) I and II  (C) II only  (D) II and III  (E) III only

Direction: Questions 3 through 4 are based on the following reading passage.
A group of people together may have the power to do what one single handedly cannot even dream of. Yet in a country where there is ostensibly complete absence of restriction, heterodoxy and transgression are most commonly misinterpreted. The mob mentality invariably prevails, particularly where the brute majority is in a position of strength. People will not readily forgo their beliefs; this trend is most clearly visible in a democratic setup. Free speech and democracy are not cousins. They are not only poles apart, but foes forever.  Suddenly we realize a hideous face of rule by the people. It becomes a rule by the mob and it scares the breath out of the iconoclastic. But, between the establishment and the maverick, it is the sagacity of the latter that ultimately prevails.  It may suffer a serious handicap, to start with. There may be an urge not to create controversy, yet there is no denying the ripples it will create.

There is an inherent advantage: the emotional sympathy naturally reserved for the oppressed and the down-trodden. In the ultimate analysis this might be more powerful than a thousand swords. The pearls of genius will lie buried in the hope of getting exhumed, in due course, solely on the strength of their veracity. And the process of rediscovering 'lost' wisdom starts all over again.
 
3. Which of the following statements cannot be inferred from the passage?      
(A)  Majority of men prefer delusion to truth.
(B)  No doctrine can be suppressed in the long run, just by coercion. It can only be countered by the force of logic.       
(C)  Truth always prevails irrespective of the protestations of the majority.
(D)  The force of reason can be cowed down for a while.
(E)  Might is not always right.

4. Which of the following situations most closely resembles the situation given in the highlighted sentence in the passage?
(A)  In a dispute between the boss and the acolyte, it is the former that ultimately prevails.
(B)  The incumbent government of the day has ultimately to restrict itself within the ambit of constitutional propriety.
(C)  Through the darkest of ages wisdom has withstood persecution.
(D)  Despite the staunch opposition of the establishment of the day, Galileo stuck to his views regarding the relationship between the sun and the earth.
(E)  Humanity has progressed in spite of the Cassandras and the naysayers.

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Solutions:
1. (E) --  (A) Poetic truth is not a creation. (B) Poetic truth is not uncertain. (C) Poetic truth is not all about pleasures. Besides it is art, not science 'that gives us a heightened sense of reality'.  (E) The demarcation is not borne by the passage. (E) The statement in para 2: "We cannot � a higher insight." and the statement in para 1: "Deepest poetry has the widest appeal", alongwith the opening sentence of the passage provide us with the answer.

2. (D) -- The negative connotation of 'apprehension of reality' renders I as incorrect.

3. (C) -- Statements (A), (B), (D) and (E) can be generally inferred from the passage. Statement (C) is rather sweeping and does not reflect the author's viewpoint that the wisdom of the iconoclast is sought to be suppressed by the majority.

4. (C) -- A similar situation should reflect victory of truth, of wisdom. The closest analogy is available in option (C).

Part I: Know the GRE: Reading Comprehension

The writer is a senior trainer with Top Careers & You. He can be contacted at tcychd@tcyonline.com. For more tests on Reading Comprehension of GRE visit http://www.tcyonline.com/gre.php and www.ets.org/gre.