Reading Comprehension

Over the last decade, a number of businesses have experimented with giving regional offices greater leeway in making decisions that traditionally had been handed down from headquarters. Local retailers have been given the latitude to devise regional branding that differs substantially from the company's national image. In the corporate world, two offices within the same firm in the same state might have differing hiring practices, hierarchical structures, and a different set of job benefits. One nationwide high-technology firm went so far as to give each of its regional offices a turn at doing business for three weeks in which all but the most urgent communications with the head office were discouraged.

One case study, involving a company that offers automobile, homeowner, and office insurance at a dozen locations in the Midwest and the South, provides a lesson in the pitfalls and advantages of "added autonomy," as this approach is sometimes called. At first, regional managers were wary of taking on too much self-governance, despite personal assurances from the company's president. This hesitancy initially led to less initiative, precisely the opposite of what was intended. Aggravating matters, many of the top people in the national office felt psychologically uneasy loosening the controls, especially when they realized that local offices were communicating more than ever with one another not under the watchful eyes of the head office. However, this region to-region sharing of concerns and ideas proved to be genuinely beneficial. A discussion between managers at the firm's Atlanta and Oklahoma City offices led them both to abandon a new policy for drivers with substandard records, a decision that in retrospect saved the company millions of dollars.

Some regional offices went too far or moved too swiftly. When the firm's Topeka office decided to step up its marketing efforts to home business owners, a manager thought to save time by using promotional material that was based largely on the company's homeowner's insurance material. Eventually, the home office's legal department discovered that certain terms that applied to the homeowner's insurance should have been removed from the home business material. By the time this discovery was made, the firm was forced to honor the terms that had been offered.

Despite problems with the retention of personnel at both the regional and national levels, the company has decided to continue along with this program. In light of the company's slowed economic growth, the ability to find individuals who are comfortable with added autonomy may remain the biggest challenge to the program's proper implementation, for this or any other company that wishes to pursue an "added autonomy" initiative.

The passage is primarily concerned with which of the following?

a)Detailing the impact that a new business practice has had on several companies
b)Evaluating the unintended consequences of a shift in hiring and promoting practices at one representative business
c)Illustrating the importance of keeping lines of communication open between different offices within the same company
d)Providing a chronological outline of the impact of a new business model.
e)Reporting on a relatively recent phenomenon that has affected a variety of businesses.

oa e

This is a Veritas passage so I am familiar with it...

Let's look at A and at E.

A) "Detailing the impact that a new business practice has had on several companies"

The main problem with this answer is "several companies." The discussion is really of a single company with some regional offices and not "several companies." I know that this might seem like a small thing for a primarily concerned with question, but this is just the way that I like eliminate answers with a process of elimination -- eliminate answers for a specific word or words that are incompatible with the passage.

E) "Reporting on a relatively recent phenomenon that has affected a variety of businesses." Not a very exciting answer. I think that we get to this answer more through process of elimination. There is nothing wrong with this answer. a "phenomenon" just means "an observable occurrence." And it has "affected a variety of businesses" as the first paragraph mentions retailers, high-tech firms and corporate offices. The passage just does not "detail the impact" on these companies - only the single company that is profiled.

Does that help?

David is their any strategy for non-native english speaker to improve RC?. surprisingly, i am doing great in SC (hardly one or two mistakes) but RC...i have no idea why i am doing worst in RC.

There is a strategy, it is the same strategy that is best for all test-takers. This strategy works for people who have difficulty with attention and for people who are non-native English speakers. The strategy is to focus on the main ideas (such as the scientific theory) when you are reading and not get lost in vocabulary and details that you can easily look up later.

Try these two things:

1) Stop at the end of each paragraph and write the main idea in 6 - 12 words. Only the main idea. Not details like dates, locations, numbers, proper names. These things are easy to look up later. The main idea is the thing that counts here. Especially if it is something that you have to put together, such you would do with the Official Guide 13th edition passage that talks about ice ages: on that passage you need to understand that oxygen 18 isotopes are heavier and so they do not evaporate as readily. Oxygen 16 isotopes therefore make up more of the rainfall and snowfall. In normal times this does not make a difference to the ocean because that precipitation runs back to the ocean. During ice ages, however, the precipitation gets trapped in glaciers and so some of the oxygen 16 that evaporates from the ocean does not make it back. A higher percentage of oxygen 18 means an idea age. It is this last sentence that you need to write down! This is not something that you can quickly look up as a name or date would be.

Here is an article that talks about what to write down. https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/08/ ... prehension

2) Go back to the passage when you can! Use the "two-way paraphrase technique" that I write about in the article. It saves so much time to go back to the passage right away on those questions where you can go back. Don't start with process of elimination if you can go back. Process of Elimination wastes time and it convinces you to try to memorize the passage. Go back when you can!

sana.noor wrote: The passage is primarily concerned with which of the following?

a)Detailing the impact that a new business practice has had on several companies
b)Evaluating the unintended consequences of a shift in hiring and promoting practices at one representative business
c)Illustrating the importance of keeping lines of communication open between different offices within the same company
d)Providing a chronological outline of the impact of a new business model.
e)Reporting on a relatively recent phenomenon that has affected a variety of businesses.

oa e

1. Experimenting with delegation of decision making to regeional offices ( Autonomy ) , Diff in startegy of operation - Provides an Example.

2. Case of a company provides a lesson , initially employees were hesitant and feared the new policy but with time innovative ideas came out that were beneficial for the company.

3. Innovation with Homeowners Insurance Policy.

4. Continue the policy despite problem with retention of personnel , under the current shape of the company finding candidates comfortable with the existing prog is diff to find.



a)Detailing the impact that a new business practice has had on several companies

Business practice of several companies is not mentioned as a main idea in the passage ...

The introductory paragraph mentions -

" A number of businesses have experimented with giving regional offices greater leeway in making decisions that traditionally had been handed down from headquarters. "

Further the author does not mention about it it's impact on other companies but concentrates on the impact of the New programme with one company.

Just scroll down to the first line of the last paragraph -

" Despite problems with the retention of personnel at both the regional and national levels, the company has decided to continue...... "

So the author constraints the story with respect to a single company.

b)Evaluating the unintended consequences of a shift in hiring and promoting practices at one representative business.

The red highlighted part mentions problem concerning a particular Business outlet , but the last paragraph clearly states the problem concerning both the Regional as well as Central Office.

The Violet part is nowhere mentioned in the passage.

The 2nd paragraph talks about -

Case of a company providing lesson. Initially employees were hesitant and feared the new policy but with time innovative ideas came out that were beneficial for the company.

The 3rd paragraph mentions -

Innovation with Homeowners Insurance Policy.

The 4th paragraph mentions -

Despite some problems of retention of existing employees both at central and regional level the company has decided to continue with the program ( We can understand the this decision has been taken by the HR department in consultation with the Operational Team / Strategic Decision making Team ) and here the author doen't mention anything about the promotional aspect too...

c)Illustrating the importance of keeping lines of communication open between different offices within the same company

The second paragraph mentions -

This region to-region sharing of concerns and ideas proved to be genuinely beneficial. A discussion between managers at the firm's Atlanta and Oklahoma City offices led them both to abandon a new policy for drivers with substandard records, a decision that in retrospect saved the company millions of dollars.

But this statement have not been sufficiently elaborated to show it as the Principal concern of the author for writing this passage...

d)Providing a chronological outline of the impact of a new business model.

Not at all , a chronological order would have been organised as follows ( Describing the flow / Implementation of the programme)-

A ====> B =====> C =======> D

The same has not been done here...

E. Reporting on a relatively recent phenomenon that has affected a variety of businesses.

The introductory paragraph mentions -

Over the last decade, a number of businesses have experimented with giving regional offices greater leeway in making decisions that traditionally had been handed down from headquarters.

Over the last decade Suggests its a recent phenomenon

a number of businesses Suggests involvement of a number of Business...

Which of the following best describes the structure of the passage?
(A) A problem is addressed, and then a solution is discussed through example and analysis.
(B) A phenomenon is described, and then general examples are given, followed by a specific example that is discussed in some depth.
(C) A business theory is outlined, and then several examples are given that show the inherent weakness of this theory.
(D) A specific business model is analyzed, and the reasoning behind the model is gradually revealed.
(E) The strengths of an idea are described and illustrated, followed by a description and illustration of the pitfalls of the idea.

Im confused between B and E. E mentions positive outcomes in 2nd para, negative outcomes in 3rd para. and concludes there in 4th.
Why cant E be correct?

Mechmeera wrote:Which of the following best describes the structure of the passage?
(A) A problem is addressed, and then a solution is discussed through example and analysis.
(B) A phenomenon is described, and then general examples are given, followed by a specific example that is discussed in some depth.
(C) A business theory is outlined, and then several examples are given that show the inherent weakness of this theory.
(D) A specific business model is analyzed, and the reasoning behind the model is gradually revealed.
(E) The strengths of an idea are described and illustrated, followed by a description and illustration of the pitfalls of the idea.

Im confused between B and E. E mentions positive outcomes in 2nd para, negative outcomes in 3rd para. and concludes there in 4th.
Why cant E be correct?

E is very simple. It says that first strengths are discussed and then pitfalls are described and illustrated.

The passage is not structured that way. It starts off with general description, goes on in the second paragraph to discuss issues and benefits seen in a particular case, talks about a particular misstep, and then, in the fourth paragraph, mentions a particular challenge.

B fits. The first paragraph includes first the description and then the general examples. The following three paragraphs compose the in depth discussion of the specific example.