GMAT Verbal Reasoning

GMAT reading comprehension practice

GMAT reading comprehension passages are short, dense and argument driven. Read for structure first: what is the main point and what does each paragraph do? Then answer using the text, not your own opinions. Below are two original passages with four questions each.

Key ideas

Summarise each paragraph in a few words as you read.
The correct answer to a detail question can be found in the text, so go back and check.
For inference questions, pick the answer the passage supports most directly.
For tone questions, use the verbs and adjectives the author chooses.

Common traps

Choosing an answer that is true in the real world but not in the passage.
Picking extreme answers with words such as always, never or only.
Mixing up what the author says with what the author reports others saying.

Two original practice passages

Passage 1

Each autumn, millions of migratory birds pass over cities after dark, guided partly by the stars. Artificial light confuses this navigation. Birds drawn into brightly lit districts circle the buildings until they are exhausted, and many collide with glass. For years conservation groups treated the problem as one of individual buildings, urging owners to fit screens or markings on windows. Such measures help, but a recent study of radar data suggests that the larger effect lies in the sky above entire cities, where the glow reaches birds long before they approach any one tower.

When a coastal city agreed to switch off decorative lighting on peak migration nights, radar showed the number of birds descending into the city falling by roughly a third, and reported collisions fell with it. The finding does not make window treatments pointless, since they still protect birds that do come down. But it suggests that policy aimed only at single buildings addresses the symptom rather than the cause, and that coordinated, temporary reductions in city lighting may protect more birds at lower cost.

Passage 2

When a team of surgeons began using a short checklist before operations, complication rates fell sharply, and hospitals around the world adopted the practice. Later reviews, however, found uneven results: some hospitals saw large gains, while others saw almost none. The explanation seems to lie less in the list than in how it is used.

In the hospitals that benefited, staff read the items aloud together, and any member of the team, including junior nurses, was expected to stop proceedings if an item had been missed. In the hospitals with little improvement, the checklist was often ticked silently by one person before the rest of the team arrived, as a form to be completed for the records. A tool that changes how people talk to one another can change outcomes; the same tool treated as paperwork changes nothing. Managers who wish to copy a success would be wise to ask not whether a procedure has been adopted but whether the behaviour it was designed to produce has appeared.

Practice questions with solutions

Try each question first, then open the solution. Time yourself and note where you hesitate.

Passage 1: Which of the following best states the main point of the passage?
- A Cities should permanently switch off all decorative lighting.
- B Reducing lighting across a whole city on migration nights may protect more birds than treating individual buildings, although both measures help.
- C Radar is more reliable than direct counts of bird collisions.
- D Birds navigate mainly by the lights of cities and not by the stars.
- E Window markings are the most effective way to protect migrating birds.
Show answer and solution

Answer: B. Reducing lighting across a whole city on migration nights may protect more birds than treating individual buildings, although both measures help.

The passage argues that city wide dimming has a larger effect than building level measures, while saying window treatments still help. The other options overstate or misstate this.
Passage 1: According to the passage, the radar study suggests that the larger effect on birds comes from
- A the glow above entire cities, which reaches birds before they come near any single building.
- B collisions with glass on individual towers.
- C the number of window markings that owners install.
- D the speed at which birds fly during autumn.
- E the decorative lighting of coastal cities only.
Show answer and solution

Answer: A. the glow above entire cities, which reaches birds before they come near any single building.

The first paragraph says the larger effect lies in the sky above entire cities, where the glow reaches birds long before they approach one tower.
Passage 1: The author would most likely agree with which of the following statements?
- A Conservation groups were wrong to care about individual buildings.
- B Window markings should be removed once lighting is reduced.
- C City lighting should be reduced on every night of the year.
- D Reducing lighting on migration nights would have no effect on collisions.
- E An owner who fits markings to windows has not wasted effort, because some birds still come down to the buildings.
Show answer and solution

Answer: E. An owner who fits markings to windows has not wasted effort, because some birds still come down to the buildings.

The author says window treatments still protect birds that do come down, so they are not pointless. The other options go beyond or against the passage.
Passage 1: The example of the coastal city is used mainly to
- A argue that decorative lighting is more harmful than office lighting.
- B prove that window treatments should be abolished.
- C suggest that bird numbers have risen in recent years.
- D give evidence that city wide lighting is an important factor in how many birds descend and collide.
- E show that coastal cities are more dangerous to birds than inland ones.
Show answer and solution

Answer: D. give evidence that city wide lighting is an important factor in how many birds descend and collide.

The city that dimmed its lights saw fewer birds descend and fewer collisions, which supports the claim that city wide lighting matters.
Passage 2: The primary purpose of the passage is to
- A compare the cost of checklists in different hospitals.
- B report the complication rates of every hospital that used the checklist.
- C explain why a widely adopted practice produced uneven results and what that implies for managers.
- D argue that surgical checklists should be abandoned.
- E describe how the first checklist was designed.
Show answer and solution

Answer: C. explain why a widely adopted practice produced uneven results and what that implies for managers.

The passage notes uneven results, gives an explanation in how the checklist is used, and ends with advice for managers.
Passage 2: According to the passage, in hospitals that saw little improvement the checklist was often
- A read aloud by the whole team and followed by any junior staff.
- B used only for the most serious operations.
- C completed silently by one person before the rest of the team arrived.
- D ignored completely and never filled in.
- E introduced without any training for surgeons.
Show answer and solution

Answer: C. completed silently by one person before the rest of the team arrived.

The second paragraph says it was ticked silently by one person before the team arrived, as a form to be completed for the records.
Passage 2: Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
- A The first checklist trial had been badly designed.
- B Junior nurses are better at using checklists than senior surgeons.
- C Adopting a procedure does not guarantee that the behaviour behind its original success will appear.
- D Hospitals that kept records of the checklist performed better.
- E A checklist is useful only in surgery.
Show answer and solution

Answer: C. Adopting a procedure does not guarantee that the behaviour behind its original success will appear.

The passage states that managers should ask whether the behaviour has appeared and not only whether the procedure was adopted. That follows only from the first option.
Passage 2: The tone of the passage is best described as
- A neutral and purely descriptive.
- B nostalgic and reflective.
- C analytical and cautionary.
- D dismissive and sarcastic.
- E enthusiastic and promotional.
Show answer and solution

Answer: C. analytical and cautionary.

The author examines evidence and warns managers against copying a practice without its behaviour, which is analytical and cautionary.