Worked examples
Two examples
Example 1
A passage written for this example
As it is used in the passage, what does “claims” mean?A. statements that something is trueIn 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. It offered 160 acres of public land in the West to a settler who would live on it for five years, build a home, and farm it. The settler paid only small fees. Single women and immigrants could file claims, and after the Civil War, so could freed African Americans. Over time, about 270 million acres, about 10 percent of the land of the United States, passed to private owners this way. Much of that land had been taken from Native nations.
B. requests to the government for a piece of land
C. complaints made in a court
D. payments for land
- Find the word in the passage: “Single women and immigrants could file claims …”
- Read around it. The passage is about a law that offered 160 acres to a settler who would live on the land and farm it. To get land, a settler had to ask for it.
- Try each choice in the word’s place. “Could file statements that something is true” does not fit a law about land. That is a real meaning of claim (“she claims she was there”), but not the meaning here: another meaning of the word.
- “Could file complaints in a court” does not fit; nothing in the passage is about courts. “Payments” does not fit either: the passage speaks of fees separately, and calls them small.
- “Could file requests to the government for a piece of land” fits the sentence and the whole passage.
Answer: B
Example 2
A passage written for this example
As it is used in the passage, what does “rank” mean?A. a position in the army, such as captain or generalIn 2019, New York City voters approved a change in the way the city chooses its candidates. Since 2021, in primary elections and special elections for city offices, voters may rank up to five candidates in order, from first choice to fifth. If no candidate wins more than half of the first-choice votes, the candidate in last place is dropped. Each ballot for that candidate then goes to the voter’s next choice. The counting goes on, round by round, until one candidate has more than half of the votes still being counted. About 73 percent of the voters approved the change.
B. put in order, from first choice down
C. vote against
D. having a strong, bad smell
- Find the word: voters “may rank up to five candidates in order, from first choice to fifth.”
- The sentence explains the word itself: in order, from first choice to fifth. Look for a clue like this right next to the word.
- A and D are real meanings of rank, but they do not fit a voter and five candidates: another meaning of the word.
- C does not fit either. Ranking a candidate fifth is still a choice for that candidate, not a vote against.
- B fits: to put the candidates in order.
Answer: B
Where this is taught: Skills Quiz 1, Reading a passage: First, the idea · Skills Quiz 1: the worked example · Skills Diagnostic, Part 1
In your Kaplan book: Unit 3, Chapter 1, Lesson 2: Interpret Words and Ideas · Map of the Terrain, topic 1: Reading a passage
The drill
Ten questions
How many:
Read what is in the box first. Then tap your answer; a few questions ask you to choose words from a drop-down instead, the way the GED test does. Press Check my answers at the bottom.Read what is in the box first. Circle your answer; where there are brackets, circle the choice that fits. The answer key, with the reasoning, is on the last page.