Reading Comprehension: Main Purpose, Inference [+4 Worked RC questions] - GRE, GMAT and other exams!

a lot of students have been asking me to do another reading comprehension video so this is that video I thought I would cover two of the most common questions that people ask me about reading convention and that is one how to cope with what is the main purpose of the passage questions and two how to cope with inference questions and if that wasn't enough I am going to do a full worked tough question at the end of this video so that would be four questions I've picked a tough passage and it's gonna test what is the main purpose and influence questions and other questions as well so can't wait to do that I haven't filmed that yet that's coming soon but for now before I get into that I am going to give you my best tips regarding what is the main purpose of this passage and influence type of questions without further ado let's get to that here is my best tip for what is the main purpose of the passage questions keep your answer as broad as possible if you look at each of these kind of questions the incorrect answers tend to be quite narrow and focus on a particular detail in the passage rather than the entire passage all the right answers are very broad and like an umbrella encompass all of the topics covered in the passage even if only very vaguely and broadly and that is my favorite trick don't go for a narrow answer when the question is what is the main purpose of the passage go for the broadest possible answer nine times out of ten that will be the correct answer even if it sounds like a very vague word answer chances are that is the correct answer the main purpose of a passage has to be like a running theme throughout the passage it can't just be a particular detail what only appears at the end or at the beginning it's a bored theme not a particular detail okay I think we're all clear on that tip what about my tips for inference here I can sum up in one sentence many people think an influencer question where you're asked something like which of the following can be inferred from the passage means which of the following could be true or which of the following is plausible or which of the following is suggested by the passage no I don't want you to think like that I want you to think of Influence questions like a court of law which of the following do we have proof of from the passage just like in a court of law I want you to present proof of your inference answer using evidence from the text not your own outside ideas definitely not any assumptions you've got you want an answer that doesn't contain any assumptions and has clear simple proof and supporting evidence from the text that is the secret for inference questions too many students pick answers for those influence questions where they say to me oh but that could be true and the author was kind of hinting that this might be true I don't want hints I don't want could be I want this answer is proven on the basis of the text and here's my evidence here's my line that proves it obviously that's a very high bar and we might not quite be able to prove something just as if it was a court of law I want you to think like that have a very high bar in your head a standard of proof that your answer needs to me via the text don't rely on assumptions hypotheticals or plausibility --zz that is enough build-up from me so let's get straight to a reading comprehension tough passage and you can see me doing the questions under time pressure and again as in a previous video you can see my approach to reading and analyzing the message without taking any notes let's get straight to the passage and really try to joyeux the modern multinational corporation is described as having originated when the owner managers of nineteenth-century British firms carrying on international trade were replaced by teams of salaried managers organized into hierarchies so it used to be owner managers and then they were replaced by salaried managers in hierarchies mmm increases in the volume of transactions in such firms are commonly believed to have necessitated this structural change so they had more volume so they had to go from owner manager to salaried managers 19th century inventions like the steamship and the Telegraph by facilitating coordination of managerial activities are described as key factors so this only happened because of things like the Telegraph and the steamship sixteenth and seventeenth-century chartered trading companies despite the international scope of their activities are usually considered irrelevant to this discussion the volume of their transactions is assumed to have been too low and the communications and transport of their day too primitive to make comparisons with modern multinationals interesting so most people say forget about those companies back in the day sixteen seventeenth century too small irrelevant in reality however early trading companies successfully purchased and outfitted ships built and operated offices and warehouses manufactured trade goods for use of board maintained trading posts and production facilities overseas procured goods for imports and sold those goods both at home and in other countries Wow so they did actually a lot they're not irrelevant the large volume of transactions with these activities seems to have necessitated hierarchical management structures well before the advent of modern communications and transportation so even back in the day they needed these hierarchical management structures because of the volume of their activities in the Hudson's Bay Company each far-flung trading outpost was managed by a salaried agent hmm who carried out the trade with Native Americans managed day-to-day operations and oversaw the post workers and servants one chief agent answerable to the court of Directors in London through the correspondence committee was appointed with control over all the agents on the bay so even back in this time there were these managers doing lots of knots the early trading companies did differ strikingly from modern multinationals in many respects while so here's a contrast between these early trading companies and the modern multinationals one they depended heavily on the national government of their home countries and thus characteristically acted abroad to promote national interests not just commercial interests national interests their top managers were typically owners with a substantial minority share where as senior managers holdings in modern multinationals are usually insignificant so back in this day the managers actually controlled a substantial amount of shares which doesn't happen today at Marigny they operated in a pre-industrial world grafting a system of capitalist international trade onto a pre-modern system of artisan and peasant production so they operated really back in the day back when there were peasants and artisans and they were trying to forge this system of capitalist international trade despite these differences however early trading companies organized effectively in remarkably modern ways and merit further study as analogues of more modern structures so back here people thought that these companies are irrelevant the discussion that the author's ending by saying no they're kind of relevant and they're interesting and it merits further study and that is the passage notice spend almost five minutes on that but we can make up that time by answering the questions a bit more quickly and here is the classic question the author's main points so we're looking for a broad answer that kind of covers everything as opposed to a very narrow detailed answer modern multinationals originated in the 16th and 17th century with the establishment of chartered trading companies that's just talking out their origin though that's too specific the success of early chartered trading companies like that of modern multinationals depended primarily on their ability to carry out complex operations mm-hmm maybe but we're focusing more on management than on complex operations I think early childhood trading companies should be more seriously considered by scholars that's what he ended with here he or she studying the origins of modern multinationals like this answer because it does fit with the conclusion that we read here and it's also encompassing the early childhood trading companies and the modern multinationals so it's quite a broad answer and he's not even going into any detail it's just saying that they should be more seriously considered a very broad answer this one is too strong saying the scholars are quite mistaken concerning origins he's not dismissing all scholars the management structures of early chances trading companies are fundamentally the same definitely not so I'm going to go with C and we'll find out I guess at the end how I did anyway I am obviously taking a bit too long because I'm kind of talking a bit more than I normally would but you get the rough idea about the pace that I'm going at and here is an inference question it can be inferred which I think of as with evidence from the passage that the author would characterize the activities engage in by early charted trading companies as being complex are nothing scope to require a substantial amount of planning and coordination on the part of management mmm-hmm maybe actually I mean it did talk about how they were doing lots more than people realized building ships and manufacturing trade goods so that would fit complex enough in scopes require substantial amount of planning and coordination maybe probably there is evidence for that too simple to be considered similar no there are similarities as intricate as those carried out by the largest we're not really making a comparison saying it's as intricate there's definitely not a direct comparison there often unprofitable we didn't really talk about profit too much hampered by the political demands imposed on them by governments it did say they acted on national interest but didn't say they were hampered by that so I'm gonna go with a because I have direct evidence of the complex scope of these early companies here here we go with which of the following generalizations regarding management structures with the author of the passage most agree so which one of these does the author agree with hierarchical management structures are the most efficient management structures don't remember efficiency being mentioned particularly it could be firms that routinely have a high volume of business transactions find it necessary to adopt hierarchical I think the author actually said that somewhere early on necessitated increases in the volume of transactions in such firms are commonly believed to have necessitated this structural change there we go that word necessitated is very similar to the word and necessary if you have large volume it's necessary to adopt hierarchical in fact I'm so confident with that one that would already be my answer but for your benefit I will quickly look at the others this one's too strong saying that these structures cannot be successfully implemented without modern communications that's too strong modern multinational firms were the relatively small volume of business we don't really talk about modern firms with a small volume of business usually do not have so we can't really say that we're confidently companies that adopt hierarchical management structures usually do so in order to facilitate expansion in front rate now definitely be last one the passage suggests that modern multinationals differ from early chartered trading companies in that so what was the main difference now thinking back it said here the main difference they differed a lot for a few reasons and the first one talked about was how they promoted national interest over commercial interests or certainly they promoted national interest and then it was about the share that the managers had so the top managers of modern multinationals owned stock in their own companies it was the opposite right I think the managers back then earns much more stock and the managers now have an insignificant amount modern multinational would depend on a system of capitalist international trade rather than less modern that is true but that's not a difference with the early ones because they also relied on capitalist international trade because they grafted that system onto it modern multinationals have operations in a number of different foreign countries didn't count the number of the countries the operations of modern multinationals are highly profitable again we didn't really focus on profit the overseas operations of modern multinationals are not governed by the national interest exactly so back in the day they had to promote national interests that these days companies just do what they want for their own profit so that is a big difference so we've got those right we did take a bit too long but I would say that's because I'm reading out loud rather than reading in my head obviously in the real exam you won't be reading out loud so you'll be reading a bit quicker but still the pace that I went at is roughly the same as the pace I go out in the real test and I try to catch up on time by being quicker at the other types of questions the main takeaways I hope are about the main purpose kind of questions and how you want the broadest answer not one that's very detailed and for inferences you want one that's supported by the text not just a suggestion or a hint or plausible you want what something with direct evidence as if you're in a court of law thank you so much for watching the video please do leave a like leave a comment I read absolutely every single one I'm really excited to be at around 1,300 subscribers so massive thank you to everyone who subscribed please tell all your friends and I will be coming out with more videos very very soon

Channel: The Tested Tutor

Views: 70,183

Keywords: gmat reading comp, gre reading comp, gmat reading comprehension, gre reading comprehension, main purpose questions, inference questions, reading comprehension, reading comprehension advice, RC, RC tips, RC main purpose, RC inference, main purpose advice, inference qs, reading comprehension inference, reading comprehension main purpose, reading comprehension tips, RC best tips, reading comprehension best tips

Id: xC1ihhZln4Y

Length: 16min 28sec (988 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 30 2019