CEX–3005/18 Verbal Ability – 5 GRE
Reading Comprehension – 1 (Introduction and Strategy)
Answers and Explanations
1 B 2 - 3 C 4 B 5 C
11 B 12 B,C 13 A,B 14 - 15 D 16
21 B 22 C 23 - 24 B 25 -
1. B The correct answer is in the sentence beginning with
“Both men recognize… failure”. Also, the very next
sentence mentions that American elementary and
secondary schools “are working to produce…
increased economic inequality and cultural
homogeneity.” Therefore, Choice B is correct.
Choice A is incorrect because it is mentioned that
Canada has established Harlem Children’s Zone which
provides “significant opportunities for young people”.
The passage does not mention that American
education does not provide opportunities for young
people. Choice C can also be eliminated because it is
highlighted that only Canada and not Taylor has
established an institution which is parallel to the
American education system.
2. The correct answer is the second sentence (“Both
men … failure”), the only sentence in the passage
that states the gist of Canada’s and Taylor’s argument.
3. C In the passage, “evolved” has not been used in the
positive sense of adapting to the changing
requirements of the situation but in the negative sense
of becoming worse than its earlier state. Therefore,
the one that comes closest to this meaning is Choice
C “developed”.
4. B The author describes the rise of the Swedish sawmill
industry by tracing its development from the nineteenth
century and concludes by talking about the booming
timber exports.. Therefore, answer Choice B is
correct. The timber frontier movement and its role in
the exploitation of the Swedish forests are discussed
only in the beginning of the second paragraph. This
makes Choice A unsuitable to be the main idea of the
passage. The phrase “northern Sweden” in answer
Choice C makes it incorrect, as the option becomes
too limited to be considered the main idea. Answer
Choice D is wrong as the collusion between the
farmers and the industries is only one of the factors
which led to the expansion of the timber industry. In
the passage, the author’s main purpose is to provide
an account of the various factors that contributed to
the growth of timber exports and not the total value of
Sweden’s exports. Thus, Choice E is incorrect.
VA / Exercise – 5
6 B 7 B 8 - 9 C 10 B
B 17 - 18 C 19 E 20 C
5. C The author explains the rise of the Swedish timber
industry in a very matter-of-fact tone. The language of
the passage hints at no bias whatsoever. The author
takes an absolutely “non-judgmental” stance on the
concerned issue, which makes Choice C correct.
This also rules out Choices B, D and E. Choice A may
seem the correct choice due to the presence of the
word “exploitation” in the passage. The author uses
the word “exploitation” while relating the growth of
the Swedish timber industry in terms of “utilization” of
the forests. In the context of the passage, “exploitation”
doesn’t have any negative connotations one usually
associates with it. Therefore, Choice A cannot be the
correct option.
6. B Choice A is ruled out as the timber-frontier movement
was one of the various factors that contributed to the
growth of the timber industry. The author mentions the
timber-frontier movement mainly in order to show how
it played a major role in the shift towards the exploitation
of the “new, unexploited old- growth forests”, which
in turn fuelled the rise in the timber export value. Thus,
Choice B is correct. Search for pine forests
containing large-diameter timber was one of the
reasons for the exploitation of the old-growth forests
further inland and further north on the Scandinavian
peninsula. It is not the motive behind the mention of the
movement. Therefore, Choice C is incorrect.
7. B The passage frequently raises the question about
what makes “a life spent in the studio bearable”. The
fact that painters spend their entire lives working with
paint is given as an argument for the importance of the
act of painting. So Choice B can be inferred from the
passage. The passage also states that depicting things
is an important part of painting, but “it floats on the top
of awareness”. This suggests that painting appeals to
painters on a more fundamental level. The passage
conceptualizes two aspects of painting- painting as
an end product, “a framed object” and painting as “the
act of painting”. But it also states that neither of these
aspects “is complete without the other”. Hence Choice
C is incorrect.
Page 1
/4-
6AIJ2HAF
8. The correct answer is the eighth sentence
(“Certainly depicting … top of awareness”), the only
sentence in the passage that most clearly identifies
representation of objects as an important part of
painting.
9. C Choice C is the correct answer. The passage is
concerned with underscoring the importance of paint
in painting and to painters. While the passage alludes
to the hardships of painting as a profession, it is more
concerned with finding a reason why painters still
find such a life rewarding. The passage does not
compare depiction in painting with depiction in other
art forms. The passage does not establish a clear link
between the act of painting and the appreciation of
paintings.
10. B The dictionary-meaning of the word “autochthonous”
is “native”, which means something that belongs to a
particular place by birth or origin. Choice B
“indigenous” is a synonym of “native”. All other answer
choices do not conform to the intended meaning.
11. B The author mentions the word “Java” to be a likely
derivative of an ancient Sanskrit term “Djawa” in order
to highlight the ancientness of Indonesian civilization.
Also the fact that the given Sanskrit word vaguely
means “rice island” supports the author’s proposition
that rice and its cultivation hold a unique position in the
historic Indonesian civilization since the beginning.
Choice B is the correct answer because it
convincingly answers what has been asked. Choices
A, D and E only partially answer the question. Choice
C is irrelevant to the question.
12. B,C In the passage, the author states that, “…the intricate
technique in Javanese irrigated rice culture has been
regarded by most scholars as an autochthonous
Indonesian institution …” This implies that the said
technique was probably native to Indonesians who
brought it with them when they came to Java. Hence
Choice C is correct. Choice A can be ruled out
because the passage does not mention that rice was
an unfamiliar crop in the Malay Archipelago before the
Indonesians. The author mentions that rice is
“inextricably intertwined” with the religion of various
ethnic groups. Hence, Choice B is also correct.
13. A,B The passage explains how documentarians utilize
many of the same techniques that fiction filmmakers
do. It goes on to state that documentaries are created
to be emotional journeys for the audience. It can be
inferred from the passage that Else’s documentary
was to portray Oppenheimer as a scientist who
anguished over his responsibilities and that Else
wanted to recast the scientist as something of a
modern Hamlet. Choices A and B can both be inferred
from the passage.
Page 2
14. Last sentence of the 3rd paragraph (“Conventions
also, however, disguise the assumptions that makers
bring to the project, and make the presentation of the
particular facts and scenes seem inevitable to the
audience”.) This sentence implies that the audience,
to a certain extent, passively accepts what is shown
in the documentary.
15. D The passage mentions that documentaries usually
require sophisticated editing. So Choice D is
addressed in the passage. There is nothing in the
passage to indicate that documentaries engage
audience attention more easily than other films do.
The passage states that documentaries employ
conventions that make it simpler for the filmmaker to
share her/his perspective with the viewer. The
passage mentions that the director might ask the
subjects for retakes when making a documentary.
16. B In the second paragraph, the author states that “By
triggering hundreds of thousands of high-speed
collisions each second, physicists using the LHC hope
to break subatomic particles into even more basic
forms of matter, which can be used to study what the
universe was like a trillionth of a second after the big
bang.” Therefore Choice B is the correct answer
because it lays down the process through which the
quark-gluon plasma was formed. Choice A is incorrect
because it states that the plasma “fused immediately”
whereas the third paragraph merely states “It’s thought
that, as the universe cooled, the quark-gluon plasma
that existed after the big bang coalesced to form matter
as we know it today.” Since there is no mention of the
time period involved in the cooling process, this option
is incorrect. The first sentence of the last paragraph
mentions that “Some theories predict that, in the
extreme heat of the very early universe, quarks and
gluons would have been even more widely spaced,
creating a quark-gluon plasma that behaved like a gas.”
However, it should be noted that this is a mere
theoretical possibility and it cannot be said that the
plasma turned from gas to liquid after the big bang.
Hence Choice C is incorrect
17. The last sentence of the first paragraph (”If you had
a cubic centimeter of this stuff, it would weigh 40
billion tons,” he added.”)This is the only sentence in
the passage which quantifies the density of quark-
gluon plasma.
18. C In the first paragraph, the author states that “While
Churchland’s intellectual opponents over the years
have suggested that you can understand the
“software” of thinking, independently of the
“hardware”— the brain structure and neuronal firings
— she has responded that this metaphor doesn’t work
with the brain.” Therefore, Choice C is the only one
that can be inferred according the detail mentioned in
the passage. The passage is about Churchland’s
VA / Exercise – 5
/4-
6AIJ2HAF
 views on philosophy and its association with
neuroscience. Moreover, her assertions are not
directly about neuroscience, making Choice A incorrect.
Choice B is also eliminated because she agrees with
Hume but it would be incorrect to call him the “inspiration”
for her treatise.
19. E It has been clearly stated in the passage that “When
she learned of oxytocin’s … larger moral systems.”
Hence, Choice E is the correct answer. Choice A is
incorrect because nothing is mentioned in the passage
about the relationship between oxytocin and neuronal
firings. Choice B can be ruled out because it is the
prefrontal cortex and not oxytocin which plays an
instrumental role during a crisis. Choice C is not
mentioned in the passage. Choice D is not
substantiated by the passage as the author does not
mention the role played by oxytocin in distinguishing
between acceptable and just behavior.
20. C Choice C is clearly and directly inferred from the first
sentence of paragraph five. Choice A can be eliminated
because the study does not include or provide any
information as to when the non-playing peers started
showing symptoms of MCI. Choice B can be eliminated
because it talks about illness in general.
21. B The last sentence of paragraph five clearly states
that “....although MCI can lead to other forms of
dementia and some patients never get worse.” Hence
MCI doesn’t necessarily have to lead to any form of
dementia. Therefore Choice B is not supported by
the passage. The first sentence of paragraph seven
mentions that CTE is sometimes confused with
Alzheimer’s. Hence they must necessarily be distinct.
Therefore answer Choice A is incorrect. The first
paragraph describes how athletes often lie about their
concussion states and inadvertently risk their health
so that they can play and retain their jobs. Therefore
Choice C is incorrect. Choice D is supported by
paragraph seven while Choice E is supported by the
second paragraph .
VA / Exercise – 5
22. C Though protocol can mean any of the given options,
but in the particular context it refers to Choice C – a
detailed plan of action for a medical or scientific
procedure. Choice E is also a close option but given
the medical connotations of the usage of the word,
Choice C is a better alternative.
23. The correct answer is the first sentence (“Knowing
the course … his career”) of the eighth paragraph.
It is the only sentence in the passage that discusses
the significance and potential use of the various
research efforts directed towards understanding brain
injuries in NFL athletes.
24. B The passage describes the illusion called the
“cutaneous rabbit” to demonstrate that our
consciousness influences our perception of time. This
is the point made in Choice B, which is the correct
answer. While the passage mentions the “contents of
consciousness”, it does not describe these contents.
This makes Choice C incorrect Choice D is incorrect
because the passage does not talk about how our
brain functions. The passage does not address any
myths surrounding consciousness hence, Choice E is
incorrect.
25. The correct answer is the last sentence of the
passage. (“Perhaps, if this apparently natural
distinction is causing so much trouble, we should
abandon it.”) The passage suggests that we need to
stop thinking that things must always be either “in” or
“out” of consciousness-that we need to give up this
distinction.
Page 3
/4-
6AIJ2HAF