The Little Blue Reasoning Book - Brandon Royal [58]
(Comment: We are only concerned with how to achieve success, not what might happen beyond that juncture.)
Opposite: “People who are either hardworking, skillful, or lucky are not likely to achieve success.”
(Comment: The word “not” reverses the meaning of the original statement.)
Distortion: “Only through hard work can one achieve success.”
(Comment: No, we can also achieve success by being skillful or lucky. The word “only” creates a distortion.)
“A person who is hardworking does not run any risk of failure.”
(Comment: The word “any” distorts the meaning of the original statement. How likely is the possibility of engaging in any human endeavor and having no chance of failure. Another way to view this statement is out of scope because the original statement makes no mention of the word “failure.”)
“A person who is hardworking, skillful, or lucky can achieve greatness.”
(Comment: The word “greatness” has an elevated meaning as compared with “success.” Another way to view this statement is that it is out of scope because the original statement does not make mention of what it takes to achieve greatness.)
The Relationship Between Question Types and Common Wrong Answer Choices
How might the different reading comprehension question types be tackled based on an understanding of the common wrong answer choices?
(1) Overview questions
There are at least four ways to avoid wrong answer choices when tackling overview questions.
i) Consider eliminating any answer choice which does not contain the words of the topic. Note that this advice works well for Q1, problem 43.
ii) Avoid any overly detailed answer choice which may be a factually correct statement, but which is too detailed to be the correct answer choice to an overview question.
iii) Avoid any overly general answer choice that is too broad to represent the topic at hand.
iii) Use a verb scan, when possible. That is, look at the verb which begins each answer choice and eliminate those verbs which do not fit. Five common verbs found in reading comprehension passages include describe, discuss, explain, argue, and criticize. “Argue” is found frequently in social science passages; “describe” is found frequently in science passages. “Discuss” and “explain” are found in both social science and science passages. “Criticize” is usually not correct in an overview question involving a science passage because the author is typically out to describe something without being opinionated or judgmental.
(2) Explicit-detail questions and (3) Inference questions
On both explicit-detail questions and inference questions, common wrong answer choices include opposites and out of scopes.
Inference questions are especially vulnerable to wrong answer choices that are beyond the scope of the passage. In the context of a standardized test question, the test taker must be careful not to assume too much. Standardized test questions are notorious for narrowing the scope of what we can infer based on what we read. Contrast this with everyday life in which we generally use a loose framework and assume a lot.
(4) Tone questions
Tone is attitude and there are basically three “temperatures” for tone questions — positive, negative, or neutral. One trick is to avoid answer choices which contain “verbally confused word pairs.” For example, the word pairs “supercilious disdain” or “self-mingled pity” are not terribly clear. Test makers like to include these types of answer choices believing that test takers will be attracted to confusing, complex sounding wrong answer choices.
(5) Passage organization questions
Two classic structures arise in reading comprehension passages. The first relates to social science passages, where a common structure is “A > B.” Given that the hallmark of social science passages is their provocative, subjective, and often argumentative nature, such passages often contain competing viewpoints, where one view is favored over another. The other classic structure relates to science passages, which are often structured