Reading Comprehension

[spoiler]I will not bias readers by fillling my performance data , will do tht after some replies , is it tough ?? OA : BDDD[/spoiler]

MAKE A TIMED EFFORT , IF POSSIBLE MENTION TIME WITH ANSWERS


From the beginning, Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was convinced that
the basic astronomical verities must have a geometrical interpretation.
This conviction has been shared by all the great natural philosophers,
from Pythagoras to Einstein-the conviction that the cosmos was laid out
according to a mathematical design and that this design is "simple" and
accessible to human intelligence. For Kepler, mathematics meant the
pure geometry of the Greeks.

His early scientific career is especially interesting because the ideas
that seemed to him to be the most significant, and which he tried to
exploit for the rest of his life, appear to a modern reader to be almost
completely mad. It was the fact that he could never get them to work
that drove him to make the series of astronomical discoveries that appear
to us to be so significant.

God was for Kepler a master Greek geometer, and the "book of the
world" must therefore be contained among the theorems of Euclid. One
theory was that there are only five "perfect solids." A perfect solid (the
most familiar example is the cube) is a solid all of whose faces are
"perfect" plane figures (in the cube, these figures are squares). The other
perfect solids are the tetrahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron, and
icosahedron. There were known to be six planets - Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, in order of increasing distance from the
sun, around which, Kepler believed, the planets moved in circular orbits.

Carrying on with his geometry, he considered a universe in which a
cube, a tetrahedron, a dodecahedron, an icosahedron, and an octahedron
would be arranged concentrically, one inside another; the orbit of
Mercury would be fitted within the first of these perfect solids, the orbit of
Venus outside it, and outside each of the other solids the orbit of another
planet. This, he thought, might make it possible to calculate the
interplanetary distances and also explain why there were no more than
six planets.

With the superior vision of hindsight, it is all too easy for us to pass
judgment on the weakness of Kepler's youthful notion. (Apart from
anything else, we know that there are nine planets.) In fact, however,
had Kepler's mysticism not also been coupled with a fanatic obsession to
make his theory fit the observed facts quantitatively, he might as well
have gone down in scientific history as just another visionary crank,
along with the more unenlightened alchemists who abounded at that
time.

It is interesting to note that Newton also devoted his "spare" time to
alchemy. What would have driven this man of science, this father of our
modern physics, to spend his free time trying to turn base metals into
gold? Undoubtedly, this fact shows us that the desire for wealth often
trumps the pursue of pure science, even in the most noteworthy of
individuals. This combination of mysticism and devotion to the "facts" as
he knew them was Kepler's great strength. Einstein characterized the
interrelation between mystic intuition and the need to deal with hardfacts as a formula that "Science without religion is lame. Religion without
science is blind.

1. Which of the following statements most nearly captures the author's central
argument as articulated in the passage?
A. The originality of Kepler's early scientific work can be fully appreciated
by studying its influence on the mature work of Newton and Einstein.
B. Kepler's early beliefs were often erroneous, but his mysticism coupled
with an attachment to scientific fact led to many of his later, key
discoveries.
C. Kepler laid the groundwork for our current understanding of the
universe in his early studies of the pure geometry of the Greeks.
D. An investigation of Kepler's youthful work yields relatively few clues
about the method he employed in his most remarkable work.
E. Kepler's early beliefs were more accurate compared to his later beliefs

2. The passage suggests that which of the following scientific beliefs held by
Kepler in his youth was, in fact, correct?
A. The planets are arranged concentrically, within perfect solids.
B. The orbit of the planets are circular.
C. The number of perfect solids is equal to the number of planets
D. There is an underlying order to the cosmos which is accessible to the
human intelligence.
E. Humans can never fully understand the mysteries of the universe

3. The author quotes Einstein in the sixth paragraph. His primary purpose in
doing this is to:
A. suggest that Kepler's thought was misconstrued by Einstein.
B. clarify a difference between scientific and religious thought.
C. indicate the extent of Einstein's personal admiration of Kepler.
D. emphasize a particular attribute of Kepler's own method and outlook.
E. point out a flaw in Kepler's methodolgy

4. Which of the following statements is implied by the author in paragraphs five
and six?
A. The history of science is full of scientists who have failed to esteem
what was of greatest significance in their own work.
B. It is during periods of youthful enthusiasm that the fundamental
guidelines to the most important scientific discoveries nearly always
emerge.
C. Such is the paradox of the human personality that, despite such
problems, Kepler became one of the most determined seekers of
cosmic harmony in history.
D. Kepler, too, was aware of the dangers of pure speculation conducted
without taking into consideration observed phenomena
E. It is very easy to blame Kepler for his weaknesses bur perhaps not very
appropriate to do so

1-C by POE
2-B copy past from para
3-D - Kepler is focused that is the attribute

How much time you took ??

There are 4 questions , it took me 7:39:94 and got one wrong the last one , i missed to read the para properly , missed "NOT" assumed opposite of what is said in the para ... need to read more carefully .

For 4 it is btw A and C and I chose C and thought A was a little extreme with word "full"

I got the OA

found in first question I eliminated B after reading the first sentense
I havent understood the second or 4

HSPA wrote:For 4 it is btw A and C and I chose C and thought A was a little extreme with word "full"

Kindly post the OA AIM...

ALready posted the OA , see the top of post .

please give OE for 2 and 4 AIM and your explanations as well... I took 4min for this .. skimmed havent followed my original procedure

My notes :-

P1 : Kepler -- > astro -- > geometrical
P2 : early career -- > strange -- > but imp
P3 : God -- > universe geometrical
P4 : arrangement of universe
P5 : fanatic -- > make to fit It shud be not fanatic -- > make to fit
P6 : Newton + Einstein

Official Explanations :-

2. Look for a belief that the author suggests has some connection to our modern knowledge. (D) is a likely candidate. The author mentions this belief in the passage, and immediately above says that it is a "•conviction shared by all the great natural philosophers,"– including Einstein. If all natural philosophers share the belief, a prominent modern scientist among them, it's reasonable to infer that it's a valid belief.
(A): Faulty Use of Detail. This belief was based on the faulty idea that there were
six planets (the author points out that this must be false as "we know that
there are nine planets" (Para 5)).
(B): Faulty Use of Detail. Though Kepler believed this also, there's no indication
from the passage that this is in fact correct, and so we cannot infer that it is(and, of course, common knowledge now is that planetary orbits are
elliptical).
(C): Opposite. Kepler believed that there were six planets and five perfect solids,
so there couldn't be an exact correspondence between the two groups. Even
if there were, one of the author's main points is that the idea of a geometrical
correspondence between solids and planetary orbits is faulty.
(D): The correct answer
(E): Incorrect, as described above.

4 .Inference question

"In fact, however,had Kepler's mysticism not also been coupled with a fanatic obsession to
make his theory fit the observed facts quantitatively, he might as well
have gone down in scientific history as just another visionary crank," --- Para 5

Para 6 -- Supported the above view with ex of Newton + Einstein


D fits the bill .

Wow u took only 4 mins , what strategy did u follow ?

I can see only 5 paragraphs...

vikram4689 wrote:I can see only 5 paragraphs...

By mistake merged 3rd and 4th para , i given a space to make it clear.

BDDD Scored 4/4 but lost the time constraint by taking 12 mins overall to solve the question!

Tips and tricks are welcome!

bubbliiiiiiii wrote:BDDD Scored 4/4 but lost the time constraint by taking 12 mins overall to solve the question!

Tips and tricks are welcome!

Wow all correct . I guess the time span can be reduced with practice , basically there are 2 approaches that can be followed one is to skim and read , then reread for specific question and other read carefully w/o skiming and re read only when required only for tough questions . Which strategy do u follow ? Or any other one ?

AIM GMAT wrote:

bubbliiiiiiii wrote:BDDD Scored 4/4 but lost the time constraint by taking 12 mins overall to solve the question!

Tips and tricks are welcome!

Wow all correct . I guess the time span can be reduced with practice , basically there are 2 approaches that can be followed one is to skim and read , then reread for specific question and other read carefully w/o skiming and re read only when required only for tough questions . Which strategy do u follow ? Or any other one ?

For this question, I actually carefully read the passage which took me around 8 mins of time and the rest was spent on picking the answer choices.

Personally, I felt the passage to be convoluted and complex. Any idea on the complexity of passage?

Its categorised into medium difficulty passage , not aware about the GMAT score range it would fit in , but practicing such passage will definately do good and no harm. What do u think ? ACtually what makes it difficult is because of many details integrated and those do divert test takers and kill time.

Bingo .. !

Though I am not vert aware of GMAT's RC pattern, I got this feeling that this one is not in -line with what GMAT would test. I thought so because I answered around 5 RC's from the official guide and found this one to be totally different than those written in OG.

Anyways, I guess anwswering questions like these enhances one's reading and understanding skills. Is this an LSAT question?

AIM GMAT wrote:Its categorised into medium difficulty passage , not aware about the GMAT score range it would fit in , but practicing such passage will definately do good and no harm. What do u think ? ACtually what makes it difficult is because of many details integrated and those do divert test takers and kill time.