® RC - 99 The Definitive RC Guide Copyright 2011, by Aristotle Prep 2 Aristotle Prep® Also Check Out: 1) Aristotle Sentence Correction Grail 2) Ultimate One-Minute Explanations to OG 12 SC Available for FREE Download on our website 1) Aristotle US B-Schools Ranking 2010 2) Quant Concepts & Formulae 3) Global B-School Deadlines 2010-11 4) The Tense Tutorial 5) OG 11 & 12 Unique Questions’ list 6) GMAT Scoring Scale Conversion Matrix www.aristotleprep.com 4 Contents 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………5 2. Low Difficulty Passages 1-33……………………………………………..7 3. Medium Difficulty Passages 34-66…………………………………….74 4. High Difficulty Passages 67-99………………………………………….142 5. Answers & Explanations…………………………………………………..212 www.aristotleprep.com 5 Introduction Reading Comprehension (RC) is perhaps one of the most difficult to improve areas on the GMAT. Unlike Sentence Correction or Critical Reasoning – sections in which there are several strategies that can appreciably improve your performance – there is no great strategy you can use for Reading Comprehension. For those who like to read and who have been exposed to different types of books, this section can be a breeze whereas for those who are not too ‗literally‘ inclined, this section can be a major problem area. Unfortunately, most students fall in the latter category. So what should one do then? The single best way to improve your performance in the RC section is by practicing as many passages as you can, especially from diverse subject areas. While there is a lot of practice content available for SC and CR, we felt there was no similar practice material available for RC. Even the passages in the OG are not enough, plus a lot of them have too many questions which makes them non–representative of the actual GMAT. This is where RC 99 comes into the picture. This book has 99 passages across difficulty levels and subject areas and the number and types of questions are very accurate representation of the actual GMAT. Here are some of the key features of this book: Passages graded by difficulty level Topic, Scope & Passage Map provided for each passage Average of 3 questions per passage – the same as in the actual GMAT Questions are a mix of Inference, Global, Detail and some other miscellaneous ones as tested on the GMAT Easy passages have more of Global and Detail questions whereas difficult passages have more of Inference and Roman Numeral questions, just like it is on the actual GMAT Detailed answer explanations for each question How to use this book? According to most students, RC is perhaps the most boring area of the GMAT. This is why it is not recommended that you do too many passages at a stretch since you can quickly lose interest and as a result get a lot of the answers wrong. www.aristotleprep.com 6 You should ideally target 3 to 4 passages everyday taking roughly 9 minutes for each passage (both to read and to answer the questions). You can either start from the low difficulty level and gradually move up difficulty levels or you can do a mix of passages from across the three difficulty levels that we have put them into. At this pace it will take you around 25 days to a month to finish this book and when you subsequently take a full length test you will see the difference this practice makes to your performance in the RC section. As always we would love to have your feedback on whether you found this book useful, do mail us the same on [email protected] Good luck! P.S. – While we have tried to provide as detailed an explanation as possible for each of the questions discussed in this book, in case you are still not clear about a particular question do put up your query (mentioning the passage number and the question number) on the ‗Forums‘ section on our website – www.aristotleprep.com. We promise to revert within 24 hours of your post. www.aristotleprep.com 7 LOW DIFFICULTY www.aristotleprep.com 8 Passage - 1 Once surrounded and protected by vast wilderness, many of the national parks are adversely affected by activities outside their boundaries. The National Park Organic Act established the national park system and empowered the Secretary of the Interior to manage 5 activities within the parks. Conditions outside park boundaries are not subject to regulation by the Park Service unless they involve the direct use of park resources. Several approaches to protecting the national parks from external degradation have been proposed, such as one focusing on enacting 10 federal legislation granting the National Park Service broader powers over lands adjacent to the national parks. Legislation addressing external threats to the national parks twice passed the House of Representatives but died without action in the Senate. Also brought to the table as a possible remedy is giving the states bordering the parks 15 a significant and meaningful role in developing federal park management policy. Because the livelihood of many citizens is linked to the management of national parks, local politicians often encourage state involvement in federal planning. But, state legislatures have not always addressed the 20 fundamental policy issues of whether states should protect park wildlife. Timber harvesting, ranching and energy exploration compete with wildlife within the local ecosystem. Priorities among different land uses are not generally established by current legislation. Additionally, often 25 no mechanism exists to coordinate planning by the state environmental regulatory agencies. These factors limit the impact of legislation aimed at protecting park wildlife and the larger park ecosystem. Even if these deficiencies can be overcome, state participation must be 30 consistent with existing federal legislation. States lack jurisdiction within national parks themselves, and therefore state solutions cannot reach activities inside the parks, thus limiting state action to the land adjacent to the national parks. Under the supremacy clause, federal laws and regulations supersede state action if state law conflicts with 35 federal legislation, if Congress precludes local regulation, or if federal regulation is so pervasive that no room remains for state control. Assuming that federal regulations leave open the possibility of state control, state participation in policy making must be harmonized with existing federal legislation. 40 The residents of states bordering national parks are affected by park management policies. They in turn affect the success of those policies. This interrelationship must be considered in responding to the external threats problem. Local participation is necessary in deciding how to protect park wildlife. Local interests should not, however, dictate 45 national policy, nor should they be used as a pretext to ignore the threats to park regions. www.aristotleprep.com 9 1. What is the main purpose of the author in writing the passage? A. argue that rampant timber harvesting is degrading national parks B. describe a plan of action to resolve an issue C. discuss different approaches to dealing with a problem D. suggest that local participation is necessary to solve the problem described E. to assert that national parks are adversely affected by activities outside their boundaries 2. The passage provides support for which of the following assertions? A. The National Park Organic Act gave the Secretary of the Interior the right to overrule state government policy in lands adjacent to national parks. B. The federal government has been selling national park land to state governments in order to raise money for wildlife conservation. C. The actions of state governments have often failed to promote the interests of national park wildlife. D. Local politicians want the federal government to turn control of national parks over to state governments. E. Timber harvesting and energy exploration have not had any impact on national parks 3. In the context of the passage, the phrase external degradation (lines 8-9) refers to which of the following: A. threats to national parks arising from the House of Representative's willingness to address environmental issues. B. threats to national parks arising from state government environmental policies. C. threats to national parks arising from local politicians‘ calls for greater state involvement in national park planning. D. threats to national parks arising from the National Park Organic Act. E. threats to national parks arising from the lack of local support 4. According to the passage, which of the following developments is most likely if environmental cooperation between the federal government and state governments does not improve? A. A further decline in the land area of national parks B. A further increase in federal ownership of land adjacent to national parks C. A further growth in the powers of the National Park Service D. A further loss of species in national parks E. A further increase in timber harvesting activities www.aristotleprep.com 10 Passage - 2 Henry Varnum Poor, editor of American Railroad Journal, drew the important elements of the image of the railroad together in 1851, ―Look at the results of this material progress...the vigor, life, and executive energy that followed in its train, rapidly succeeded by 5 wealth, the refinement and intellectual culture of a high civilization. All this is typified, in a degree, by a locomotive. The combination in its construction of nice art and scientific application of power, its speed surpassing that of our proudest courser, and its immense strength, are all characteristic of our age and tendencies. To us, like 10 the telegraph, it is essential, it constitutes a part of our nature, is a condition of our being what we are.‖ In the third decade of the nineteenth century, Americans began to define their character in light of the new railroads. They liked the idea that it took special people to foresee and capitalize on the 15 promise of science.