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Over the many years that I’ve been a tutor, I\u2019ve declaimed on numerous occasions that the act of studying only<\/b> from a deck of flashcards has limited efficacy. That’s why my answer to the common question, How do I improve my reading comprehension?<\/em> is simply this\u2014read voraciously from sources that challenge you to think critically and analyze<\/strong>. Here are my top sources for GRE reading comprehension practice, along with excerpts and vocabulary lists to help you get started!<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Reading comprehension practice is about more than rote memorization\u2014rather, you should be trying to interpret meaning and learn new words in the context of the surrounding text. I highly recommend perusing these sources for improving your reading comprehension.<\/p>\n Important Note: The following articles are published by outlets that require a subscription<\/strong>. Therefore, you might encounter a paywall if you choose to navigate to the articles I’ve recommended. Understandably, subscribing to one or more of these might be cost prohibitive. However, many offer free trial periods. Take advantage of this! A free trial will give you at least temporary access to a lot of great material, and it might help you choose one or more to subscribe to for the duration of your GRE prep and maybe even your own personal enrichment \ud83d\ude00 <\/p>\n Most of the writing in these august publications is not only replete with advanced vocabulary but is also similar in tone and style to GRE passages. In this post, we’ll look at GRE-level reading material from some of the aforementioned sources as well as highlight important words. We’ll also discuss how to approach learning vocabulary<\/a> in context in order to improve your reading comprehension.<\/p>\n The articles come from a variety of fields, including business, science, and literature. I\u2019ve done my best to select pieces that I think a majority will find interesting<\/em>, which I recommend you do as well when you embark on your quest to improve your reading comprehension. Each article excerpt not only contains GRE words to watch out for (these are also sprinkled throughout each article) but also analyzes an issue<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with an article from the business section <\/a> of The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n Outsider, non-founder CEOs are often overvalued because many corporate boards think the answer to their problems is a superstar CEO with an outsized reputation. This leads them to overpay for people who are good at creating outsized reputations through networking, interviewing, and taking credit for other peoples’ achievements\u2014all bad indicators of future success.<\/em><\/p>\n Rakesh Khurana has amply <\/strong>shown how this delusion<\/strong> of the charismatic<\/strong> savior creates a dysfunctional<\/strong> market for CEOs, allowing the small number of existing public-company CEOs to demand and receive extravagant compensation<\/strong>. The myth of the generalist CEO is bolstered<\/strong> by the many fawning<\/strong> media portrayals where CEOs say that their key jobs are understanding, hiring, and motivating people\u2014leading board members to believe that you can run a technology company without knowing anything about technology.<\/em><\/p>\n GRE Words to Watch Out For<\/strong><\/p>\n This reading passage is great because it is full of relatively difficult words, many of which are high-frequency GRE words to watch out for (fawning, bolstered, ample\/amply<\/em>). This excerpt is also filled with analysis, which will help sync your synapses for the ultimate GRE reading comprehension practice.<\/p>\n The article also scores big points in the Topics of Interest category. After all, it\u2019s Steve Jobs\u2014revere him or fear him, most of us have an opinion of the company and its ubiquitous products.<\/p>\n Perhaps you find that business isn’t too closely related to your graduate school field, or maybe you like to vary your reading. A great field to draw from is science. Part of the reason is that the GRE usually has one science RC passage. While it may be drier than the typical fare found in the magazines cited above, the science passages you’ll read on the GRE is often similar in tone and style to what you\u2019ll encounter in these magazines.<\/p>\n More Recommended Reading from The Atlantic<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n So let\u2019s take the article Bird Brain<\/em><\/a>, which appeared in The New Yorker<\/em> back in 2008. It explores the development of language in human beings and whether language is the province only of humans. To do so, it tells the story of an African gray parrot, Alex, and his owner, Irene Pepperberg. Irene trained Alex to say hundreds of words (though none, I believe, were GRE vocab) so that Alex, by the time he was an adult, was able to form relatively coherent sentences.<\/p>\n Below is an excerpt from the article, which is about 15 pages long. I recommend reading the entire piece, especially if the premise intrigues you. The excerpt includes a few GRE words to watch out for, followed by some important points and tools to arm your reading comprehension practice.<\/p>\n All children grow up in a world of talking animals. If they don\u2019t come to know them through fairy tales, Disney movies, or the Narnia books, they discover them some other way. A child will grant the gift of speech to the family dog, or to the stray cat that shows up at the door. At first, it\u2019s a solipsistic<\/strong> fantasy\u2014the secret sharer you can tell your troubles to, or that only you understand. Later, it\u2019s rooted in a more philosophical curiosity, the longing to experience the ineffable<\/strong> interiority<\/strong> of some very different being. My eight-year-old daughter says that she wishes the horses she rides could talk, just so she could ask them what it feels like to be a horse. Such a desire presumes<\/strong>\u2014as Thomas Nagel put it in his 1974 essay \u201cWhat Is It Like to Be a Bat?\u201d\u2014that animals have some kind of subjectivity<\/strong>, and that it might somehow be plumbed.<\/strong> In any case, Nagel explained, humans are \u201crestricted to the resources\u201d of our own minds, and since \u201cthose resources are inadequate to the task,\u201d we cannot really imagine what it is like to be a bat, only, at best, what it is like to behave like one\u2014to fly around in the dark, gobble up insects, and so on. That inability, however, should not lead us to dismiss the idea that animals \u201chave experiences fully comparable in richness of detail to our own.\u201d We simply can\u2019t know. Yet many of us would be glad for even a few glimpses inside an animal\u2019s mind. And some people, like Irene Pepperberg, have dedicated their lives to documenting those glimpses.<\/em><\/p>\n GRE Words to Watch Out For<\/strong><\/p>\n After looking up these words, you\u2019ll notice that plumbed<\/em> has a secondary meaning and that subjectivity<\/em> and solipsistic<\/em> come from philosophy. After consulting Word Smart, Barron\u2019s Words You Need to Know<\/em>, or other vocabulary lists I\u2019ve recommend, you\u2019ll notice that subjectivity<\/em> (or subjective<\/em>) is a very important word. Solipsistic<\/em>, on the other hand, is not as likely to pop up on the test. But if you already have a strong vocabulary and are looking to score in the top 10%, then definitely learn solipsistic<\/em>.<\/p>\n You will notice that the definition of interiority<\/em> isn\u2019t very surprising, as it is directly related to interior<\/em>. You may also notice that it is similar to subjective<\/em>. Finally, you will learn the word ineffable<\/em>, which you’ll find on a few vocab lists. Write it down on a flashcard along with an example sentence (“Oh, the irony of ineffable<\/em>\u2014to say that something is ineffable is to undermine the essence of the word”).<\/p>\n \n Of course, reading the entire article is also a good idea. Essentially you are training your brain to read through a long, relatively challenging piece, a skill that is indispensable for reading on the GRE.<\/p>\n More Recommended Reading from The New Yorker<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Bonus Assignment<\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n Let\u2019s say that you read Bird Brain<\/em> and enjoy it. You are already familiar with a number of words and want something more challenging in your GRE reading comprehension practice, maybe something couched in academic jargon or that oozes literary style. (I\u2019m assuming that if you fall into this category, you are also looking to get the difficult GRE Verbal Reasoning section on test day.)<\/p>\n A good resource is The<\/em> New York Times Book Review<\/em>. Here you will find the erudite waxing literary on a book that is just as scholarly. (Are these the very writers who craft byzantine text completion questions<\/a> for ETS?)<\/p>\n Below are two excerpts from a review of a biography of Joseph Heller <\/a>, the reclusive and frequently irascible author of Catch-22<\/em>, one of the great novels of the 20th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n But again, Daugherty is often perceptive about Heller\u2019s place in the larger culture, even if the novelist himself rarely comes into focus. For the human aspect, one turns to Erica Heller\u2019s frank but loving memoir of her father, \u201cYossarian Slept Here,\u201d which comes as close as possible, I dare say, to deciphering the enigma<\/strong> behind the obsessive, pitch-black fiction. Joseph Heller, the opposite of demonstrative<\/strong>, was given to oblique<\/strong> ways of showing affection\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n That was the year Heller published his second novel, \u201cSomething Happened,\u201d which Daugherty commends<\/strong> as follows: \u201cJoe stepped beyond Wilson\u2019s sentimentality<\/strong> and Yates\u2019s bitterness to eviscerate<\/strong> modern America\u2019s success ethic.\u201d Such a pat <\/strong>comparison to Sloan Wilson, the author of \u201cThe Man in the Gray Flannel Suit,\u201d and Richard Yates, the author of \u201cRevolutionary Road,\u201d is the sort of thing Daugherty might have emended<\/strong> given a bit more time to think about it; at any rate, \u201cSomething Happened\u201d is perhaps the one work of postwar American fiction that makes Yates seem positively Panglossian<\/strong>. Erica Heller, for her part, describes the novel (probably her father\u2019s best) as \u201c569 pages of hilarious but mordant<\/strong>, caustically<\/strong> wrapped, smoldering <\/strong>rage\u201d\u2014though of course it\u2019s personal in her case. Primary among the targets of the protagonist Bob Slocum\u2019s paranoid, solipsistic<\/strong> rant is his family\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n GRE Words to Watch Out For<\/strong><\/p>\n This article is clearly the most challenging among those printed here. There are many difficult words, some that may give even the most literate among us pause (“Panglossian” is derived from a character in Voltaire\u2019s Candide<\/em>, Dr. Pangloss. Pangloss is always optimistic, regardless of the circumstances).<\/p>\n Interestingly, solipsistic<\/em> makes another appearance. Maybe it\u2019s not such an arcane word after all. Higher-frequency GRE words include mordant<\/em>, caustic<\/em>, emend<\/em>, enigma<\/em>, and oblique<\/em>.<\/p>\n Also, you want to be careful not to rely too much on assumptions. Demonstrative<\/em> does not simply mean ‘to demonstrate’ (it means ‘tending to expressive one\u2019s emotions openly’). And pat\u2014<\/em> such a diminutive word, so folksy-sounding and innocuous\u2014has many meanings. The adjectival form employed in the book review could easily pop up on the GRE and cause you to answer a text completion incorrectly. So be sure to look up such words (if an explanation is “pat” it is superficial, cursory, and unconvincing).<\/p>\n Surprisingly, difficult vocabulary words and highfalutin prose aren\u2019t only found in the esoteric niche of the book review. Take an opinion piece we are far more likely to read: the movie review. Let’s take a look at this movie review from The New York Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n At a certain point, though\u2014to say exactly when would ruin a fairly stunning surprise\u2014the cat-and-mouse psychology is jettisoned<\/strong> in favor of something more procedural.<\/strong> The two halves of \u201cLove Crime\u201d divide according to the words of the title: the first explores the knotty<\/strong>, feverish<\/strong>, ambiguous<\/strong> bond between Christine and Isabelle, while the second is all about guilt, innocence, evidence and motive. It is interesting and ingenious<\/strong>, even if some of the kinky, queasy<\/strong> fascination that had been so intoxicating in the earlier scenes ebbs<\/strong> away.<\/em><\/p>\n GRE Words to Watch Out For<\/strong><\/p>\n While the words here aren\u2019t as recondite as Panglossian<\/em>, the prose style will still challenge your GRE reading comprehension practice. It also has echoes of the GRE text completion.<\/p>\n More Recommended Reading from The New York Times<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nTable of Contents<\/h2>\n
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\nEager to get practicing? Click here<\/a> to go straight to the GRE Reading Comprehension practice questions.<\/strong><\/p>\nWhy Reading Vocab in Context Matters for the GRE<\/h2>\n
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GRE Reading Comprehension Practice: Passages, Analysis, and Words to Watch Out For<\/h2>\n
The Atlantic<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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The New Yorker<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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GRE Reading Pro Tip:<\/strong><\/span>A good rule of thumb for GRE reading comprehension practice is to always validate your hunch<\/strong>\u2014don\u2019t assume you can always glean the exact definition of the word simply by looking at context. Even if you know a few of these words, you should definitely look them up, especially if you are inferring the meaning based on the context.<\/p>\n GRE Reading Pro Tip:<\/strong><\/span>: Following a process similar to the one above is imperative to improving your reading comprehension skills. Don’t simply underline the words and look them up. You need to digest them, so that, much like Alex the parrot, you will be able to use them in a coherent sentence!<\/p>\n\n
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\nWrite a one-page response to the article in which you summarize important parts and include your own opinion on the article. See if you can use twenty-five GRE words. The words do not need to come from the article, but can come from any vocabulary source. Get creative and have fun! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe New York Times<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The Book Review<\/h4>\n
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The Movie Review<\/h4>\n
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