Verbal Lecture-15

Reading Comprehension:

Other Specific questions:

Every passage has some purpose; i.e the author write a passage to communicate his main point. While doing so, the author includes sever specific informations and examples or experimental details. These several specific information supports the main point of the whole passage. so the understanding of these specific details are tested in specific questions in RC. Your ability of understanding the specific but important details is tested in such questions. You may required to give details about facts cited in the passage or some information about specific content in the passage. Such questions are frequently asked in exams. Almost 1 in every 3 question consists of such specific questions.

These detail question typically use words like: “According to the passage…”, “The author mentioned …… because?”, “The author mentioned which…”, “The passage states…”. In order to answer such questions you need to understand passage well, and help from paragraph summary notes to go back to the relevant information if required. These questions are too easy questions, because they do not require any inference etc. Rather the answer is exactly the same as mentioned in the passage, but perhaps in different wording. For instance,

Companies that exceed $100B in revenue, also called Extremely Large Caps (ELC), rarely grow their revenue faster than the average company. This is surprising considering the market power that these companies hold It is commonly thought that this (slow growth) happens because these companies are too big to grow faster. However, studies show that majority of ELCs that grow faster than average are run by their founders. Since most of the ELCs are run by professional management that is inherently risk averse, the studies’ finding strongly suggests that the real reason why most ELCs don’t beat the market is not that they are too big to grow but rather that they are run by professional management that is too risk averse.

Question: According to the passage, what is the common perception about why ELCs which don’t grow their revenue faster than average company?

If you read the passage carefully, you might quickly come to that piece of paragraph that is taken from a big passage. And from this you have read the line and remembered it well if you have developed understanding till now, throughout this course. So at this stage, without referring to the passage, you can simply say about the common perception that these companies doesn’t grow faster because of their large size. And you know the author belief and hence the purpose of the passage is to counter that common perception. For the exact wording, you may see the line having words: It is commonly thought that this (slow growth) happens because these companies are too big to grow faster.

Similarly, let’s consider another specific question:

Questions: Which of the following is mentioned in the passage as real reason that ELCs don’t grow faster than average company do?

Again, you don’t need to consult the passage if you have developed understanding the passage quite well. And learned the important points from RC lectures while reading. After you get expert in RC, you would have no need to write notes for the paragraphs. Because when you make a habit of giving more jobs to your brain, your brain will trained itself and things will be simple for you. 🙂

Clearly, you will respond to this question that real reason is the author’s view i.e these companies are run by risk averse professional management, rather than founders.. For evidence, you may see the last line in the passage above, i.e. the real reason why most ELCs don’t beat the market is not that they are too big to grow but rather that they are run by professional management that is too risk averse.

Generally speaking, there are two types of specific questions:

1. single placed specific question:

In this type, we can pinpoint exactly where the specific detail is mentioned and ,therefore, answer it confidently. The correct answer usually contains rewording of the original information stated in the passage.

2. Multi-placed specific questions:

In this type, the information about the question is written at more than one places in the passage. These questions are generally hard level questions. We need to consult every part of the passage where that information is mentioned. And that simply waste time to find the all relevant information to answer such questions. The best way is to rely on POE, after perfect understanding the passage. Eliminate choice that are not pertinent according to your understanding of the passage and finally select the choice when you thing is pertinent or are in doubt. But remember, during POE, you have a good reason for eliminating an answer choice. Proof of having correct answer choice is not important in such questions. These questions are very hard in difficulty level, and thus only rarely come in exams. For instance, let’s consider the same passage as discussed above.

Question: According to the passage, which of the following is true about extremely large cap companies.

As the entire paragraph (or passage in this case) is about extremely large companies (ELCs), so we should not go back for information about extremely large cap companies. So in such questions, only employ POE without doing self-analysis to avoid waste of time as follows:

A. They hold unmatched market power in the businesses they operate in.

B. Their management employs sophisticated management techniques to ensure that they maintain their market power and do not run a loss.

C. Their revenue usually don’t grow faster than average due to the risk averse nature of their management.

D. They are too big to grow faster than the average company.

E. A majority of them are run by their founders.

POE:

Choice A: This choices seems partially correct, because market power does mentioned in the passage, but unmatched market power was not mentioned, rather it was about revenue that exceed $100B, as per our understanding of the passage. Thus this choice is incorrect. ELIMINATE IT.

Choice B: According to our understanding, the passage has never talked about the sophisticated management techniques employed by management to avoid loss. So this is also incorrect choice. ELIMINATE IT.

Choice C: This choice is exactly mentioned in the passage about ELCs. This choice clearly seems correct. HOLD IT. But we must look other choices as well, but comparatively will quick glance.

Choice D: Some people, who not understood the passage carefully will also say this choice as correct and better one. But unfortunately they are wrong. This choice does states few wording similar as stated in the passage, but is out of context. i.e, We know that according to the passage, only information about “ELCs that could not perform faster than the average company” is mentioned. So This choice entice students to select as correct. Its a trap answer choice. Be careful about such choices that are stated in the passage, but do not answer the specific question correctly. So ELIMINATE IT.

Choice E: This choice is again a trap answer and is incorrect, because according to the passage only majority of those ECLs that are growing faster are run by their founders. But this choices states a different thing. i.e majority of all ECLs are run by their founders. Also it is mentioned in the passage that “Since most of the ELCs are run by professional management that is inherently risk averse”. So it go against the information in the passage. As I mentioned earlier that be careful about wording and hence trap answers! So ELIMINATE IT.

Therefore, Choice C is correct answer.

Process to answer specific questions:

Step 1: Understand the argument very carefully

Step 2: Read the question statement very carefully

Step 3: See whether the question is a single-placed specific or a multi-placed specific. If it’s a single-placed, go back to that specific part of the passage where the information relevant to answer that question is present. On other hand if it’s a multi-placed specific question, just do POE.

Characteristics of incorrect answer choice:

Following are the characteristics of incorrect specific answer choices:

1. Out of scope

2. Out of context

3. Opposite information

4. Inconsistent