Tips for Reading

Check the topic and main ideas for the passage:

1.- Read the first sentences for the topic and main ideas.
2.- Read the last sentences for the conclusion and a possible restatement of the topic and the main ideas.
3.- Skim the rest of the passage for the key words that will confirm the topic and the main ideas and show the organization of the passage.
4.- Read the first question about a passage and answer it.
5.- Read the answer choices. Eliminate any answer that are definitely wrong, and choose the best answer from the remaining ones.

Answer choices for questions about purpose and organizational pattern:

1.- Distinguish between the overall purpose of a passage or are to general for the purpose of a passage.
2.- Identify statements that are not true about the passage or are to general for the purpose.
3.- Identify category words that restate the purpose.
4.- Identify the orgaizational pattern of the passage by recognizing relation ships between points made in passage and recognize signal words in the passage.

Answers reading example


1. (B) In this context, obliterated would mean destroyed. Created (A) is the opposite of obliterated. Changed (C) and eroded (D) are not meanings for obliterated.
2. (A) The second paragraph states that scientists estimate the Earth's age by measuring the ratios of various radioactive elements in rocks. The other methods are not mentioned in the passage.
3. (C) Scientists estimate that the Earth is 4.6 billion years old by testing rocks found on the moon and meteorites. (A) 3 1/3 billion years (A) old is the age of the oldest rock found on Earth.
4. (D) The passage indicates that the craters were obliterated by crustal motions and erosion. None of the other answers were mentioned in the passage.
5. (B) Erosion and crustal motions are mentioned in the passage as the cause for the obliteration of the craters that formed from celestial bombardment of the Earth. Human alteration (A) and deforestation (D) are both man-made procesess of recent occurence.
6. (A) "Determining the Age of the Earth" would be the primary focus of the passage. "Determining the Age of the Solar System" (B) is mentioned but is not the focus of the passage. "Erosion and Crustal Motion of Earth" (C) is a process that hampered scientific determining of the Earth's age. "Radioactive Elements in Rocks" (D) help determine the age of the Earth.
7. (C) Choices (A), (B), and (D) were all studied to determine if Earth was bombarded in its early history. The satellites of Jupiter were studied according to the passage. Jupiter, choice (C), was not studied, however. Therefore, (C) is the correct answer.
8. (A) The passage says that there is evidence that the other planetary bodies were bombarded; from that evidence, one can infer that Earth was bombarded as well. There is no mention in the passage that bombardment of Earth is documented fact, so choice (B) is incorrect. The lunar record is discussed in the passage as indicating the decrease of bombardment, not whether it actually happened, so choice (C) is incorrect. The passage states that erosion has gotten rid of any evidence that Earth was bombarded, so (D) is incorrect.
9. (D) The passage states that the number of bombardments "decreased to its current low about 4 billion years ago." Choices (A), (B), and (C) are incorrect because they state that information incorrectly.
10. (B) "Assault" is the best answer because it is closest to the meaning of "bombardment," which is an attack or battering. An "avoidance" (A) is the opposite of a bombardment, so (A) is a wrong answer. Choices (C) and (D), effect and cause, have nothing to do with the meaning of bombardment.