Reading Comprehension

Should we really care for the greatest actors of the past could
we have them before us? Should we find them too different from
our accent of thought, of feeling, of speech, in a thousand minute
particulars which are of the essence of all three? Dr. Doran's
5 long and interesting records of the triumphs of Garrick, and other
less familiar, but in their day hardly less astonishing, players,
do not relieve one of the doubt. Garrick himself, as sometimes
happens with people who have been the subject of much anecdote
and other conversation, here as elsewhere, bears no very distinct
10 figure. One hardly sees the wood for the trees. On the other hand,
the account of Betterton, "perhaps the greatest of English
actors," is delightfully fresh. That intimate friend of Dryden,
Tillatson, Pope, who executed a copy of the actor's portrait by
Kneller which is still extant, was worthy of their friendship;
15 his career brings out the best elements in stage life. The stage
in these volumes presents itself indeed not merely as a mirror of
life, but as an illustration of the utmost intensity of life, in
the fortunes and characters of the players. Ups and downs,
generosity, dark fates, the most delicate goodness, have nowhere
20 been more prominent than in the private existence of those devoted
to the public mimicry of men and women. Contact with the stage,
almost throughout its history, presents itself as a kind of
touchstone, to bring out the bizarrerie, the theatrical tricks
and contrasts, of the actual world.

Adapted from an essay by W H Pater

1. In the expression "One hardly sees the wood for the trees", the author apparently intends the word trees to be analogous to

A. features of Doran's language style
B. details learned from oral sources
C. personality of a famous actor
D. detail's of Garrick's life
E. stage triumphs of an astonishing player

2. The doubt referred to in line 7 concerns whether

A. the stage personalities of the past would appeal on a personal level to people like the author
B. their contemporaries would have understood famous actors
C. the acting of famous stage personalities would appeal to us today
D. Garrick was as great as he is portrayed
E. historical records can reveal personality

3. Information supplied in the passage is sufficient to answer which of the following questions?
I Who did Doran think was probably the best English actor?
II What did Doran think of Garrick?
III Would the author give a definite answer to the first question posed in the passage?
A. I only
B. II only
C. I and III only
D. II and III only
E. I, II and III
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A sanctuary may be defined as a place where Man is passive and
the rest of Nature active. Till quite recently Nature had her
own sanctuaries, where man either did not go at all or only as
a tool-using animal in comparatively small numbers. But now, in
5 this machinery age, there is no place left where man cannot go
with overwhelming forces at his command. He can strangle to
death all the nobler wild life in the world to-day. To-morrow
he certainly will have done so, unless he exercises due
foresight and self-control in the mean time.

10 There is not the slightest doubt that birds and mammals are
now being killed off much faster than they can breed. And it
is always the largest and noblest forms of life that suffer
most. The whales and elephants, lions and eagles, go. The rats
and flies, and all mean parasites, remain. This is inevitable
15 in certain cases. But it is wanton killing off that I am
speaking of to-night. Civilized man begins by destroying
the very forms of wild life he learns to appreciate most when
he becomes still more civilized. The obvious remedy is to begin
conservation at an earlier stage, when it is easier and better
20 in every way, by enforcing laws for close seasons, game preserves,
the selective protection of certain species, and sanctuaries.

I have just defined a sanctuary as a place where man is passive
and the rest of Nature active. But this general definition is too
absolute for any special case. The mere fact that man has to
25 protect a sanctuary does away with his purely passive attitude.
Then, he can be beneficially active by destroying pests and
parasites, like bot-flies or mosquitoes, and by finding antidotes
for diseases like the epidemic which periodically kills off the
rabbits and thus starves many of the carnivora to death. But,
30 except in cases where experiment has proved his intervention to
be beneficial, the less he upsets the balance of Nature the
better, even when he tries to be an earthly Providence.

Adapted from: Animal Sanctuaries in Labrador, W Wood (1911)

4. The author implies that his first definition of a sanctuary is

A. totally wrong
B. somewhat idealistic
C. unhelpful
D. indefensible
E. immutable

5. The author's argument that destroying bot-flies and mosquitoes would be a beneficial action is most weakened by all of the following except

A. parasites have an important role to play in the regulation of populations
B. the elimination of any species can have unpredictable effects on the balance of nature
C. the pests themselves are part of the food chain
D. these insects have been introduced to the area by human activities
E. elimination of these insects would require the use of insecticides that kill a wide range of insects

6. It can be inferred that the passage is

A. part of an article in a scientific journal
B. extracted from the minutes of a nature club
C. part of a speech delivered to an educated audience
D. a speech delivered in a court of law
E. from a polemical article published in a magazine

7. The purpose of the final paragraph is

A. to sum up the main points of the author's argument
B. to urge a solution to an increasingly pressing problem
C. to qualify the author's definition of an important term
D. to propose a program
E. to suggest that man should not intervene in natural environments

Be careful: The numbers in the passage (on left indent)are line numbers..

OA-
[spoiler]1-B
2-A
3-C
4-B
5-D
6-C
7-C[/spoiler]

ok guys 2 RC's posted. we will keep posting alternatively each day.... so that everyone gets a turn. Again the Motto is to learn and help each other.

try to include strategies, explanations, remarks, maps or what ever. We will try our best and "Beat the RC" .............


ALL THE BEST......

okay..let me try.
i only attempted the 1st one, not in a position to strain my barn more. this was really tough for me.
force5,
whts the source?
my answers: DAC
total time: 7:00
now, i looked at the lenght of the passage, short one, didnt take notes, as i said before wasnt sure it would be of any help.

Q1) author uses "miss wood for the trees" one of them refers to details and the other to big picture. to answer Q1 it is important to knw wht refers to wht. unfortunatley i cundt decide upon while reading the passage. but now see wht line 2 says(menions details like thought,feeling,spech) so author implies we are going for them ->details are trees, wood is the big picture. so i think my answer here would be wrong. given a second chance i wuld pick up B, but then u dnt have second chances on exam. damn, this is the answer, option B.

Q2)one thng i observed for questions which mention line numbers, its important to get into the flow, so read lines before and after too.
so if you read from 1st you will knw wht doubt the author is refering to. great actors of past,shud we care abt thm...blahblhah. wth this in mind look for options.
option A itself looks so lovely.just gave a reading for the rest an went with A.

Q3)in this type of questions, i read all the I, II, III and see which one can i prove false first. so eliminate those options. II -> doran's long and interesting records of the triumphs of Garrick -> this doesnt say definitely wht daron thnks abt garrick(sumthgn good defntly but wht?)
so still skeptical of this.
option III -> author is still in doubt (line 7) so he will not give a definite answer to the question. so this is sufficient to answer.

so 1,2 are out.
I- On the other hand,
the account of Betterton, "perhaps the greatest of English
actors," - iam presuming this acount to be of doran,as if u read the passage as a whole, first it says, doran's xxxx abt garrick. on the ohter hand account of betterton.
II-> still doesnt give me a definite answer.
so i will go for C here. (I, III)

let me knw how it was, any thoughts mentioned above which u feel were wrong (there obviosuly will be ), give a honest reply.

Thanks force for taking initiative for starting the RC section. Great going !!! Lets beat RC .

Frankly speaking i started reading the 1st passage .... i couldnt understand a single word ... will take that later . My take at the 2nd passage .

Notes :

Para 1: deftn santuary ; man influ (-)
Para 2: Killmore breed less ; remedy
Para 3: alter deftn ;suggestn .

IMO EDCC

I had doubt between two choices in most questions . Took me somewhat 6 mins .

OK good going guys. i know this was a little difficult passage. I got only 1 correct.
i get stuck between the last two and the one i choose is always wrong...

I'm updating the OA

i was unable to make any map 1st one was just Greek i think at least i could understand what 2nd passage was all about. Rohu27 after we have finished discussing this RC you do the next posting of RC. Keep the difficulty level to low or medium. lets plan a strategy first then we will hit maximum difficulty.

1: What a passage, my head is still spinning around. Frankly speaking i will run away from Test center if I see something like this in my real test .

Since I didn't understood the passage completely, No notes taken. So now I answer the question by reading between the lines related to questions.

So My Pick :
[spoiler]1. between D and B. Picked D
2. A
3. C[/spoiler]

2. Passage Map"

P1: to provide author definition of sanctuary and Man's influence over nature.
P2: Threat on species, possible solution
P3: sanctuary def in not perfect for all cases. Points to improve situation

IMO : BDCB , Time taken : 7:00 min

Questions were easy compare to Passage reading.

@Force and all .. Good that we started this thread but let me request one thing.

"Kindly post passages & questions from reputed & recognized GMATprep orgs".
We all wanted to improve ourself in RC and this will happen only when we start with trusted RC source.
Later we might can try various other sources.

Hope every one agree with this point. Also kindly mention Source in all you Posts.

the second para has two types of questions i go worng 90% of the times, this time beign no exception.
except and purpose of the passage. though after reading the answers i could relate to thm.
for second one:BCCE
whts the source btw?

i only have passages from RC 99, can post some LSAT ones, but it would require some time to first find the GMAT legitimate ones, and then post them.

@everyone - Yes i agree to you guys. We will take authentic passages. this was just a one off passage. Don't want to see such again especially on the test. So what do you guys suggest where should we pick passages from? 1000 RC i have seen they ain't too bad. then we have OG's. what else??

plz suggest. Lets discuss the 2nd passage that i posted. Its still manageable. @Rohu27 its your turn to post after this...

force5 wrote:@everyone - Yes i agree to you guys. We will take authentic passages. this was just a one off passage. Don't want to see such again especially on the test. So what do you guys suggest where should we pick passages from? 1000 RC i have seen they ain't too bad. then we have OG's. what else??

plz suggest. Lets discuss the 2nd passage that i posted. Its still manageable. @Rohu27 its your turn to post after this...

Sources that can be used whichever one has :-

OG 10 , OG 11 , OG 12 -- > Best questions
Gmat Prep -- > I think we should avoid this coz it will give one inflated scores while taking test for proper analysis of position of self.
RC99
MGMAT Book + Test
Veritas
Kaplan
No CAT Material please
Grockit
LSAT passages [They are long but it isnt bad solving those passages for practice and endurance]

This is what i can now possibly think of RC sources . What i would suggest that the poster should try to solve the passages before posting those , so he/she might know the problems faced , traps , difficulty , relevence to GMAT etc factors . And while solving in day to day practice i would separate out some passages , in which we have specific learning to be shared oe which seem bit tricky to solve esp which have question that might get wrong on the test day .

Passage II

p1- sanctuary, man, nature
disturbed by man
P2- large animals killed
man kills for pleasure
begin conservation
P3- definition of sanctuary changed.
human intervention beneficial but shld stay away.

question 4

The author implies that his first definition of a sanctuary is

A. totally wrong
B. somewhat idealistic (mentions in line 23)
C. unhelpful
D. indefensible
E. immutable

Q-5
5. The author's argument that destroying bot-flies and mosquitoes would be a beneficial action is most weakened by all of the following except

A. parasites have an important role to play in the regulation of populations (weakened)
B. the elimination of any species can have unpredictable effects on the balance of nature (weakened)
C. the pests themselves are part of the food chain (weakened)
D. these insects have been introduced to the area by human activities
E. elimination of these insects would require the use of insecticides that kill a wide range of insects( weakened)

6. It can be inferred that the passage is

A. part of an article in a scientific journal
B. extracted from the minutes of a nature club
C. part of a speech delivered to an educated audience
D. a speech delivered in a court of law
E. from a polemical article published in a magazine

From the words "I am speaking of tonight" (line 15) we can infer that the words were delivered orally, and not during the day time. The only possible answer is C.

7. The purpose of the final paragraph is

A. to sum up the main points of the author's argument
B. to urge a solution to an increasingly pressing problem
C. to qualify the author's definition of an important term
D. to propose a program
E. to suggest that man should not intervene in natural environments

The author is modifying or qualifying his earlier definition of a sanctuary. Examiners are fond of the word "qualify" as many students do not know this meaning of the word.

here u go;

https://www.beatthegmat.com/rc-group-200 ... tml#358747

thanks bro... If any one has a doubt in this thread please post it here and we can discuss it further.

I still want to talk about the right strategy for RC. shld maps be made or not?? and if yes then how? i tried making one Took me a long long time besides i didnt even know what to keep in mind when writing a map?? If someone can summarize this problem and explain then it will be fantastic....