All GMAT Verbal Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #154 : Reading Comprehension
The days of the amateur in intercollegiate athletics are numbered. College athletes are amateurs only in name and in the ill-defined mandates of outdated policies. They generate annual revenues which are estimated to be over $15 billion in the United States alone. Their efforts and images generate income from ticket sales, television and radio contracts, and merchandising. Yet, the bulk of this money goes directly to individual universities who then enforce codes that keep athletes from having the same opportunities to earn money as their peers. Clearly, it is time for American colleges to reevaluate this injustice.
Recent lawsuits involving the use images of current and former athletes in video games has shed light on just how draconian the treatment of college athletes can be. While millions of dollars are generated from video game sales, the same students whose images adorn the games cannot hold part-time jobs nor can they be given airfare to return home in time of family crisis unless it involves a death. Little or no health insurance or benefits are provided for athletes to deal with the after-effects of injuries that often last long after the student has left college. Unlike most colleges students athletes, in many ways, are treated more like indentured servants than like the highly visible and high valuable representatives of their institutions that they are.
Based on the passage, it can reasonably be inferred that the author of this passage is _______________.
a casual fan of intercollegiate athletics
a former college athlete who does not feel that he or she was treated fairly
a lawyer who is seeking to sue video game companies for using the images of college athletes
someone who has only a limited interest in intercollegiate athletics
an athletic administrator at a large American university
a former college athlete who does not feel that he or she was treated fairly
The author clearly has a passionate interest in the topic. Since the lawsuits mentioned are in the past, we cannot assume that the author is a lawyer. The specific references to policies that affect college athletes are a strong clue that the author was an athlete him or her self. Keep in mind that you are asked to choose the best answer to the question, and to assess the relative accuracy of each answer as compared to the others. The correct answer, while not ironclad, is by far the most reasonable of the given options.
Example Question #41 : Social Science Passages
Adapted from “Introductory Remarks” in The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud (trans. 1913)
In attempting to discuss the interpretation of dreams, I do not believe that I have overstepped the bounds of neuropathological interest. For, when investigated psychologically, the dream proves to be the first link in a chain of abnormal psychic structures whose other links—the hysterical phobia, the obsession, and the delusion—must interest the physician for practical reasons. The dream can lay no claim to a corresponding practical significance; however, its theoretical value is very great, and one who cannot explain the origin of the content of dreams will strive in vain to understand phobias, obsessive and delusional ideas, and likewise their therapeutic importance.
While this relationship makes our subject important, it is responsible also for the deficiencies in this work. The surfaces of fracture, which will be frequently discussed, correspond to many points of contact where the problem of dream formation informs more comprehensive problems of psychopathology which cannot be discussed here. These larger issues will be elaborated upon in the future.
Peculiarities in the material I have used to elucidate the interpretation of dreams have rendered this publication difficult. The work itself will demonstrate why all dreams related in scientific literature or collected by others had to remain useless for my purpose. In choosing my examples, I had to limit myself to considering my own dreams and those of my patients who were under psychoanalytic treatment. I was restrained from utilizing material derived from my patients' dreams by the fact that during their treatment, the dream processes were subjected to an undesirable complication—the intermixture of neurotic characters. On the other hand, in discussing my own dreams, I was obliged to expose more of the intimacies of my psychic life than I should like, more so than generally falls to the task of an author who is not a poet but an investigator of nature. This was painful, but unavoidable; I had to put up with the inevitable in order to demonstrate the truth of my psychological results at all. To be sure, I disguised some of my indiscretions through omissions and substitutions, though I feel that these detract from the value of the examples in which they appear. I can only express the hope that the reader of this work, putting himself in my difficult position, will show patience, and also that anyone inclined to take offense at any of the reported dreams will concede freedom of thought at least to the dream life.
According to the author, studying phobias, obsessions, and delusions is __________, but studying dreams is not.
possible
easy
practical
useless
wasteful
practical
The author makes this comparison in the first paragraph when he says, “For, when investigated psychologically, the dream proves to be the first link in a chain of abnormal psychic structures whose other links—the hysterical phobia, the obsession, and the delusion—must interest the physician for practical reasons. The dream can lay no claim to a corresponding practical significance; however, its theoretical value is very great.” Here, the author claims that studying phobias, obsessions, and delusions is practical, whereas studying dreams is “of theoretical value.”
Example Question #42 : Social Science Passages
Adapted from “Introductory Remarks” in The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud (trans. 1913)
In attempting to discuss the interpretation of dreams, I do not believe that I have overstepped the bounds of neuropathological interest. For, when investigated psychologically, the dream proves to be the first link in a chain of abnormal psychic structures whose other links—the hysterical phobia, the obsession, and the delusion—must interest the physician for practical reasons. The dream can lay no claim to a corresponding practical significance; however, its theoretical value is very great, and one who cannot explain the origin of the content of dreams will strive in vain to understand phobias, obsessive and delusional ideas, and likewise their therapeutic importance.
While this relationship makes our subject important, it is responsible also for the deficiencies in this work. The surfaces of fracture, which will be frequently discussed, correspond to many points of contact where the problem of dream formation informs more comprehensive problems of psychopathology which cannot be discussed here. These larger issues will be elaborated upon in the future.
Peculiarities in the material I have used to elucidate the interpretation of dreams have rendered this publication difficult. The work itself will demonstrate why all dreams related in scientific literature or collected by others had to remain useless for my purpose. In choosing my examples, I had to limit myself to considering my own dreams and those of my patients who were under psychoanalytic treatment. I was restrained from utilizing material derived from my patients' dreams by the fact that during their treatment, the dream processes were subjected to an undesirable complication—the intermixture of neurotic characters. On the other hand, in discussing my own dreams, I was obliged to expose more of the intimacies of my psychic life than I should like, more so than generally falls to the task of an author who is not a poet but an investigator of nature. This was painful, but unavoidable; I had to put up with the inevitable in order to demonstrate the truth of my psychological results at all. To be sure, I disguised some of my indiscretions through omissions and substitutions, though I feel that these detract from the value of the examples in which they appear. I can only express the hope that the reader of this work, putting himself in my difficult position, will show patience, and also that anyone inclined to take offense at any of the reported dreams will concede freedom of thought at least to the dream life.
The author could not rely upon the dreams related in scientific literature because __________.
not many dreams had been discussed in scientific literature, and those that had been discussed concerned a very limited number of topics
he couldn’t be sure if material had been changed in or censored from them
no work of scientific literature had discussed dreams at the time the author began his study
The author does not give a reason for this in the passage, but says that the rest of his work explains why this is the case.
he needed to interview people himself in order to discuss their emotional reactions to their dreams
The author does not give a reason for this in the passage, but says that the rest of his work explains why this is the case.
The author discusses how he selected dreams to analyze in the third paragraph. About dreams in scientific literature, he says, “The work itself will demonstrate why all dreams related in scientific literature or collected by others had to remain useless for my purpose.” Thus, while some of the answer choices may sound plausible, the passage does not tell us precisely why the author could not use the dreams in scientific literature and does not give us enough information to allow us to claim that one of the listed reasons is in fact the actual reason why the author avoided using these reported dreams. The correct answer is thus “The author does not give a reason for this in the passage, but says that the rest of his work explains why this is the case.”
Example Question #1 : Extrapolating From The Text In Social Science Passages
Adapted from The Family Among the Australian Aborigines: a Sociological Study by Bronislaw Malinowski (1913)
It seems beyond doubt that in the aboriginal society the husband exercised almost complete authority over his wife; she was entirely in his hands and he might ill-treat her, provided he did not kill her. Out of our thirty statements, in six cases (Kurnai, Bangerang, Lower Murray tribes, according to Bonney, Geawe-Gal, Port Jackson tribes, North-west Central Queenslanders) the absolute authority of the husband is explicitly affirmed. We read in them either the bare statement that the husband had an absolute power over his family; or, in the better of them, we are more exactly informed that he had only to abstain from inflicting death on his wife. It was the latter's kinsman who would avenge her (Kurnai, Bangerang, North-west Central Queenslanders). It is difficult to ascertain in what form society would interfere with the husband if he transgressed the limits of his legal authority, i. e. killed his wife. Curr informs us that the woman's relatives would avenge her death. Howitt says that there would ensue a blood feud, which comes nearly to the same. It is very probable that the woman's kin retained some rights of protection. The remaining statements implicitly declare that the husband's authority was very extensive. (Encounter Bay tribes according to Meyer; New South Wales tribes according to Hodgson; Port Stephens tribes according to R. Dawson; Arunta; Herbert River tribes; Queenslanders according to Palmer; Moreton Bay tribes according to J. D. Lang; South-Western tribes according to Salvado; West Australians according to Grey.) It is clear that wherever we read of excessive harshness and bad treatment, wounds, blows inflicted on women, the husband must possess the authority to do it; in other words, he does not find any social barrier preventing him from ill-treatment. Especially as, in these statements, such ill-treatment is mentioned to be the rule and not an exception. In two statements we can gather no information on this point. According to the statement of J. Dawson on the West Victoria tribes, the husband's authority appears strictly limited by the potential intervention of the chief, who could even divorce the woman if she complained. But Curr warns us against Dawson's information concerning the chief and his power. Curr's arguments appear to be very conclusive. Too much weight cannot be attached, therefore, to Dawson's exceptional statement. Discarding it, we see that we have on this point fairly clear information. We may assume that society interfered but seldom with the husband, in fact, only in the extreme case of his killing his wife. Six statements are directly, and the remainder indirectly, in favor of this view, and the only one contradictory is not very trustworthy.
The author dismisses the argument by Dawson largely because __________.
Dawson's argument largely does not add anything to the author's argument
another academic has largely rebutted Duncan's claims
the author has a personal problem with Duncan
the author has used enough sources before he considers Duncan's argument
Dawson discusses a different issue than the one the author does
another academic has largely rebutted Duncan's claims
The author specifically cites Dawson's argument about the authority of the chief in aboriginal Australian societies as one that cannot be trusted. Citing another author's better-reasoned and better-sourced statement, the author does not give credence to Dawson's position.