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Reading Questions
In each of these questions, you will be given a paragraph that contains all the information necessary to
infer the correct answer. Use only the information provided in the paragraph. Do not speculate or make
assumptions that go beyond this information. Also, assume that all information given in the paragraph
is true, even if it conflicts with some fact known to you. Only one correct answer can be validly inferred
from the information contained in the paragraph.
Pay special attention to negated verbs (for example, "are not") and negative prefixes (for example,
"incomplete" or "disorganized"). Also pay special attention to quantifiers such as "all," "none," and
"some." For example, from a paragraph in which it is stated that "it is not true that all contracts are legal,"
one can validly infer that "some contracts are not legal" or that "some contracts are illegal" or that "some
illegal things are contracts," but one cannot validly infer that "no contracts are legal" or that "some
contracts are legal." Similarly, from a paragraph that states "all contracts are legal" and "all contracts are
two-sided agreements," one can infer that "some two-sided agreements are legal," but one cannot validly
infer that "all two-sided agreements are legal."
Bear in mind that, in some tests, universal quantifiers such as "all" and "none" often give away
incorrect response choices. That is not the case in this test. Some correct answers will refer to "all" or
"none" of the members of a group.
Be sure to distinguish between essential information and unessential, peripheral information. That is
to say, in a real test question, the preceding above ("all contracts are legal" and "all contracts are two-sided
agreements") would appear in a longer, full-fledged paragraph. It would be up to you to separate the
essential information from its context and then to realize that a response choice that states "some two-
sided agreements are legal" represents a valid inference and hence the correct answer.
Sample questions 11 and 12 are examples of the reading question in the test.
11.
Impressions made by the ridges on the ends of the fingers and thumbs are useful means of
identification since no two persons have the same pattern of ridges. If finger patterns from
fingerprints are not decipherable, then they cannot be classified by general shape and contour or
by pattern type. If they cannot be classified by these characteristics, then it is impossible to
identify the person to whom the fingerprints belong.
The paragraph best supports the statement that
(A) if it is impossible to identify the person to whom fingerprints belong, then the fingerprints
are not decipherable.
(B) if finger patterns from fingerprints are not decipherable, then it is impossible to identify the
person to whom the fingerprints belong.
(C) if fingerprints are decipherable, then it is impossible to identify the person to whom they
belong.
(D) if fingerprints can be classified by general shape and contour or by pattern type, then they
are not decipherable.
(E) if it is possible to identify the person to whom fingerprints belong, then the fingerprints
cannot be classified by general shape and contour or pattern.
The correct answer is response B. The essential information from which the answer can be inferred
is contained in the second and third sentences. These sentences state that "if finger patterns from
fingerprints are not decipherable, then they cannot be classified by general shape and contour or by pattern
type. If they cannot be classified by these characteristics, then it is impossible to identify the person to
whom they belong." Since response B refers to a condition in which finger patterns from fingerprints are
not decipherable, we know that, in that circumstance, they cannot be classified by general shape and
