it isn’t really trying to change your opinion on an issue. It objectively presents scientific facts and experimental evidence. Because you know the gist of the passage and the context of each paragraph, the answer is obvious. Correct answer: Choice (C).
5. Select the sentence in the fourth paragraph that explains the form of mechanical breakdown of most species of leaves.
Key words come in handy in answering this question. The first and only place mechanical breakdown is mentioned is in the first sentence of the fourth paragraph. Correct answer: “In most species, the mechanical breakdown will take the form of gradual attrition at the margins.”
6. Which would be an example of “energy of the environment” (fourth paragraph, second sentence)?
The passage is about the degradation of leaves, which you already know. The fourth paragraph discusses factors that may break a brittle leaf across its center, or midrib. Sunlight may do this, but it wouldn’t necessarily target the midrib, so out with Choice (B). Animals would digest the leaves such that the leaves wouldn’t degrade, so no more Choice (C). Lumberjacks may leave leaves behind (so to speak), but the passage is all about natural factors, so down with Choice (D). Finally, there’s nothing about harvesting fuel, so Choice (E) is out. This leaves Choice (A), wind and rain, which makes sense. The wind and rain physically affect the leaf and both cause degradation and breaking along its weak point, the midrib. Correct answer: Choice (A).
The social sciences passage
The GRE usually includes a social sciences passage about history, psychology, business, or a variety of other topics. If the social sciences passage offers a perspective on a subject that you may already be familiar with, you can use your understanding of the subject as a backdrop to make the passage easier to read and understand.
Here’s a social sciences passage for you to practice on. Though you need to read the passage more carefully, the underlying strategy is the same: Look for the gist of the passage, usually in the first paragraph, and identify the purpose of each paragraph thereafter. You’ll still need to revisit these paragraphs to find details, so knowing where the details are located is easier and more useful than memorizing them.
Multinational corporations frequently encounter impediments in their attempts to explain to politicians, human rights groups, and (perhaps most importantly) their consumer base why they do business working conditions in other countries and to, in effect, develop a code of business with, and even seek closer business ties to, countries whose human rights records are considered heinous by United States standards. The CEOs propound that in the business trenches, the issue of human rights must effectively be detached from the wider spectrum of free trade. Discussion of the uneasy alliance between trade and human rights has trickled down from the boardrooms of large multinational corporations to the consumer on the street who, given the wide variety of products available to him, is eager to show support for human rights by boycotting the products of a company he feels does not do enough to help its overseas workers. International human rights organizations also are pressuring the multinationals to push for more humane conduct that must be adhered to if the American company is to continue working with the overseas partner.
The president, in drawing up a plan for what he calls the “economic architecture of our times,” wants economists, business leaders, and human rights groups to work together to develop a set of principles that the foreign partners of United States corporations will voluntarily embrace. Human rights activists, incensed at the nebulous plans for implementing such rules, charge that their agenda is being given low priority by the State Department. The president vociferously denies their charges, arguing that each situation is approached on its merits without prejudice, and hopes that all the groups can work together to develop principles based on empirical research rather than political fiat, emphasizing that the businesses with experience in the field must initiate the process of developing such guidelines. Business leaders, while paying lip service to the concept of these principles, fight stealthily against their formal endorsement because they fear such “voluntary” concepts may someday be given the force of law. Few business leaders have forgotten the Sullivan Principles, in which a set of voluntary rules regarding business conduct with South Africa (giving benefits to workers and banning apartheid in the companies that worked with U.S. partners) became legislation.
In Choice (A), the word quixotic means idealistic or impractical. The word comes from the fictional character Don Quixote, who tilted at windmills. (Tilting refers to a knight on horseback tilting his joust toward a target for the purpose of attack.) Although the president in this passage may not be realistic in his assessment of State Department policies, his belief isn’t the main idea of the passage.
Choice (E) is a value judgment. An answer that passes judgment, saying something is right or wrong, better or worse, or more or less appropriate (as in this case), is almost never the correct answer.
The main idea of any passage is usually stated in the first sentence or two. The first sentence of this passage touches on the difficulties that corporations have in explaining their business ties with certain countries to politicians, human rights groups, and consumers. From this statement, you may infer that those groups disagree with the policies of the corporations. Correct answer: Choice (D).
