Verbal Examples

Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension questions measure your ability to read with understanding, insight, and discrimination, and to analyse a written passage from several perspectives. There are three types of reading comprehension questions. Let’s start with the most easily recognized:  the traditional multiple-choice question.  Here’s a sample:

Sample questions 1 to 3 below are based on this passage:
Policymakers must confront the dilemma that fossil fuels continue to be an indispensable source of energy even though burning them produces atmospheric accumulations of carbon dioxide that increase the likelihood of potentially disastrous global climate change. Currently, technology that would capture carbon dioxide emitted by power plants and sequester it harmlessly underground or undersea instead of releasing it into the atmosphere might double the cost of generating electricity. But because sequestration does not affect the cost of electricity transmission and distribution, delivered prices will rise less, by no more than 50 percent. Research into better technologies for capturing carbon dioxide will undoubtedly lead to lowered costs.

Sample Multiple-choice Questions — Select One Answer Choice

The passage implies which of the following about the current cost of generating electricity?

1. It is higher than it would be if better technologies for capturing carbon dioxide were available.
2. It is somewhat less than the cost of electricity transmission and distribution.
3. It constitutes at most half of the delivered price of electricity.
4. It is dwelt on by policymakers to the exclusion of other costs associated with electricity    delivery.
5. It is not fully recovered by the prices charged directly to electricity consumers.

Answer: C

The second type of reading comprehension question supplies three possible answers to a question based on the reading passage, asking you to select all those answer choices that apply—that is, only one, or two, or possibly all three choices.  No credit is given for partially correct answers. Let’s look at a sample (based on the same passage given above, beginning with “Policymakers…” )

Sample Multiple-choice Questions — Select One or More Answer Choices

The passage suggests that extensive use of sequestration would, over time, have which of the following consequences?

1. The burning of fossil fuels would eventually cease to produce atmospheric accumulations of carbon dioxide.
2. The proportion of the delivered price of electricity due to generation would rise and then decline.
3. Power plants would consume progressively lower quantities of fossil fuels.

Answer: B (ONLY B of the three, in this case)

The third type of reading comprehension question (“Select-in-Passage”) calls for an analysis of the passage that will allow you to identify a sentence fitting the conceptual description provided.  Let’s look at a sample (based on the same passage given above, beginning with “Policymakers…” )

Sample Select-in-Passage Question

3.  Select the sentence that explains why an outcome of sequestration that might have been expected would not occur.

Answer:

“But because sequestration does not affect the cost of electricity transmission and distribution, delivered prices will rise less, by no more than 50 percent.”

Text Completion

Text Completion questions measure the reading skills of constant interpretation and evaluation by omitting crucial words from short passages and asking the test taker to make choices in filling those blanks that will create a coherent, meaningful whole.
Text Completion questions include a passage composed of one to five sentences with one to three blanks. There are three answer choices per blank, or five answer choices if there is a single blank. There is a single correct answer, consisting of one choice for each blank. You receive no credit for partially correct answers.

Sample Text Completion Questions

Directions: For each blank select one entry from the corresponding column of choices. Fill all blanks in the way that best completes the text.

1. It is refreshing to read a book about our planet by an author who does not allow facts to be (1)__________ by politics: well aware of the political disputes about the effects of human activities on climate and biodiversity, this author does not permit them to (2)__________ his comprehensive description of what we know about our biosphere. He emphasizes the enormous gaps in our knowledge, the sparseness of our observations, and the (3)__________, calling attention to the many aspects of planetary evolution that must be better understood . Before we can accurately diagnose the condition of our planet.

Answer: overshadowed, obscure, and superficiality of our theories

Sentence Equivalence

This final question type in the Verbal Reasoning Measure works in much the same way as the Text Completion questions, but on a more condensed scale.  For a single blank in a single sentence, six answer choices are provided.  These questions require you to select the two answer choices that will form coherent sentences of nearly identical meaning. You receive no credit for partially correct answers. Let’s look at a sample:

Sample Sentence Equivalence Questions

Directions: Select the two answer choices that, when used to complete the sentence, fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole and produce completed sentences that are alike in meaning.

1.   The corporation expects only _______ increases in sales next year despite a yearlong effort to revive its retailing business.

1. dynamic
2. predictable
3. expanding
4. modest
5. slight
6. volatile

Answer: D and E