GMAT Reading Comprehension Discussions

[vikram_1982]

Kaplan 800:

This is for those who have a Kaplan 800 book with them. There is this RC passage on Page 104. Can you give me the answer for Q1 on that page - it starts with "A freshwater lake's summertime ecology....." . I somehow disagree with the answer that Kaplan has given for that question. I feel the answer should be A.

Same is the case with Page 111 Q1 for the passage that begins "Some one and a half or two billion years ago....". I believe the answer is C while Kaplan's answer is D.

Can someone help me out here by explaining Kaplan's answers and why mine are wrong?

Regards,
Vikram.

[neptune000]

Hey Vik!
will chk kap 800 and get back...

O/T -- wat do u think of kap 800 Quant? are they really that tough as they claim??
I finished the whole Kap 800 book in 3 days flat... pretty good accuracy rate too? wat do u think?

[vikram_1982]

Originally Posted by neptune000

Hey Vik!
will chk kap 800 and get back...

O/T -- wat do u think of kap 800 Quant? are they really that tough as they claim??
I finished the whole Kap 800 book in 3 days flat... pretty good accuracy rate too? wat do u think?

Kaplan Quant was good, but I wouldnt term it tough! I have spent the last 5 days on this book and I have SC left. I found RC challenging (didnt get all correct on even a single passage, however, I do have my cribs about the answers ). On the whole the book is good and its a good investment of time...

[neptune000]

here we goo...

Originally Posted by vikram_1982

Kaplan 800:

This is for those who have a Kaplan 800 book with them. There is this RC passage on Page 104. Can you give me the answer for Q1 on that page - it starts with "A freshwater lake's summertime ecology....." . I somehow disagree with the answer that Kaplan has given for that question. I feel the answer should be A.

i do think its E.

to support the answer..

we do not know that the temperature affects the solubility!
temp gradient/ thermocline only prevents the O2 frm getting into the deeper and colder layers... maybe if at all it gets through, it might have enuf O2

secondly, (i know there's no firstly ) the deeper colder water has less O2 because all the O2 has been consumed by the dinosaurs, plankton what not...

Lastly, it has been clearly specified in the passage in lines 5-10 that the wave action increases the O2 levels in the water... Hence E - QED (hopefully)

reminds me of analysis of an argmnt.. heheee

Same is the case with Page 111 Q1 for the passage that begins "Some one and a half or two billion years ago....". I believe the answer is C while Kaplan's answer is D.

Can someone help me out here by explaining Kaplan's answers and why mine are wrong?

Regards,
Vikram.

onto the next zoological problem

I do believe the answer is D
C is an assumption not based on the passage. and it is very clearly mentioned in the passage in lines 5-10 that the abundance of atmospheric O2 brought abt the symbiosis.
so D...

watsup with u and oxygen anyway? :PPP

[vikram_1982]

Originally Posted by neptune000

here we goo...
i do think its E.

to support the answer..

we do not know that the temperature affects the solubility!
temp gradient/ thermocline only prevents the O2 frm getting into the deeper and colder layers... maybe if at all it gets through, it might have enuf O2

secondly, (i know there's no firstly ) the deeper colder water has less O2 because all the O2 has been consumed by the dinosaurs, plankton what not...

Lastly, it has been clearly specified in the passage in lines 5-10 that the wave action increases the O2 levels in the water... Hence E - QED (hopefully)

reminds me of analysis of an argmnt.. heheee

My issue with E is that it says the "wave action at the surface increases dissolved oxygen". The wave action doest increase anything by the correct definition of the word increase. The wave action merely "distributes" the already dissolved oxygen - it doesnt "create and increase" the oxygen level. Hence the option E takes the argument too far.

My support for choice A comes from lines 27-34 ( "The temperature barrier prevents oxygen from circulating downward...... causing the fish to come up). Hence, it can be inferred from this statement that the cold water holds lesser oxygen forcing the fish to come up to the warmer water. (I understand the argument that you made against option A, however considering the two choices A and E, I somehow feel E pushes the envelope too much compared to A).

onto the next zoological problem

I do believe the answer is D
C is an assumption not based on the passage. and it is very clearly mentioned in the passage in lines 5-10 that the abundance of atmospheric O2 brought abt the symbiosis.
so D...

watsup with u and oxygen anyway? :PPP

I disagree.. THe statement doesnt mention that the atmospheric O2 brought abt the symbiosis. It merely states that the atmospheric O2 was the "driving force" behind it. However, it doesnt say that this is the ONLY way in which these two could have merged, as is suggested in option D - for all u know, an abundance of sunlight could have also triggered the same and it would be going too far to say that it COULDNT have happened without proper atmospheric conditions.

My support for C comes from lines 3 to 7 where the passage says that primitive bacterium made a precarious living - meaning that it was frought with dangers and hence they merged so that they could be mutually useful - with the O2 in the atmosphere being just a driving force.

What say????

... and my problem with O2 is that whenever I take a mock GMAT, i feel that all the O2 has disappeared and I start gasping for breath

[neptune000]

Originally Posted by vikram_1982

... and my problem with O2 is that whenever I take a mock GMAT, i feel that all the O2 has disappeared and I start gasping for breath

ROTFL... LMAO!

[shek26]

Hi...Finally I found the link to the 1000 series...I was going through the posts of this forum and im seeing people frantically asking abt links and stuff...So i decided to put up the link..
So if anyone is looking for the 1000 series of sc,cr and rc..dload this file in the link below.
1000 series - eSnips, share anything
Its pretty decent..I checked it out..

Abhishek..

[kkj06]

Hi All,

Need some help. I have taken two mocks and in both of them RC accuracy is pathetic - around 20%. When I solved RC questions from Official Verbal guide, accuracy was around 70% (2 minutes per question). I think it is the time pressure that is getting better of me in the mocks. Any suggestions how to cope up with this and get a respectable verbal score. I am satisfied with SC and CR accuracy.

TIA,
Cheers!

[abchekstylo]

Thats exactly my prob too with RC.
When i do the OG i get most of em right (like 5 in 6 or sometimes all right) but wenever i do a mock test, accuracy gets lower.
So much so that for me RC is a bigger headache than SC (most peple seem to be worried about SC and stress on it more than on RC).
Any suggestions to improve the RC score would be very helpful!

[kkj06]

Googled a bit.....on the following link/blog, Eric mentions some nice strategies:
General Strategies for Reading Comprehension

" This may sound like odd advice, but one strategy that really helped me focus on RC passages was pretending that I was really interested in the subject matter discussed in the passages. I tried to read each RC passage with an attitude that I really wanted to learn something from them. Having this attitude helped me improve my performance quite a bit. "

I am trying hard to own the passage and till now it seems to have helped me in solving OG RC. This weekend's mock will show my actual improvement in RC accuracy.

Cheers!