Worked examples
Two examples
Example 1
Source: MTA daily ridership estimates (data.ny.gov), added up for each year
Which conclusion does the graph support?A. Rides on both railroads rose every year from 2021 to 2024.B. More people moved to the suburbs, so railroad rides rose.
C. Metro-North carried more rides than the LIRR in 2024.
D. Most railroad riders in 2024 rode to offices in Manhattan.
- First, name the kind of question. In a mixed set, each question may need a different skill, so start by saying to yourself what is in the box and what the question asks. Here the box holds a line graph, and the question asks which conclusion the graph supports. That is the skill of drill I.19, so use its steps, which follow.
- Read the edges first: the title (rides on the two commuter railroads, 2021 to 2024), the key (solid line, LIRR; dashed line, Metro-North), and the unit (rides in a year, in millions).
- Now take each conclusion and sort it into one of four kinds. Supported: the graph shows it. Goes too far: it stretches the graph into a cause, a prediction, or an “all” or “always” that reaches past the years or groups on the graph. Contradicted: the graph shows the opposite. Not shown: the graph has no numbers about it at all.
- A: both lines rise at every step, from about 35 to 75 million (LIRR) and from about 27 to 65 million (Metro-North). Supported.
- B: the graph shows rides rising, but “people moved to the suburbs, so” adds a cause. The graph shows that, not why. Goes too far.
- C: in 2024 the LIRR line (75) is above the Metro-North line (65). The graph shows the opposite. Contradicted.
- D: the graph counts rides; it says nothing about where riders were going. Not shown.
- Only A is supported. That is the answer.
Answer: A
Example 2
A passage written for this example
Which word in the passage shows most clearly whose side the writer is on?A. 1817In 1817, Governor DeWitt Clinton talked New York State into a scheme to dig a ditch 363 miles long, from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, through forest and swamp. Much of it would be dug by hand. The state borrowed millions of dollars to pay for it. Critics called the project “Clinton’s Ditch,” and many expected the money to be lost.
B. scheme
C. Hudson
D. miles
- First, name the kind of question. Here the box holds a short passage, and the question asks which word shows whose side the writer is on. That is the skill of drill I.24, loaded words, so use its steps, which follow.
- Skills Quiz 8: each word votes. Some words only name or measure. Others carry a charge: they make the reader feel for or against something.
- Test each choice. Ask: could a writer on the other side use this same word?
- A, 1817, is a year. Anyone on any side would write it. It is a fact, not a vote.
- C, Hudson, is the name of a river. D, miles, is a unit of measure. Neither takes a side.
- B, scheme. A plan can be called a plan, a project, or a scheme. A scheme is a plan that is sneaky or foolish. A supporter of the canal would never call it a scheme. The word votes against the canal.
- Notice the other charged words that lean the same way: Clinton “talked the state into” it, and “a ditch.” And notice what the passage leaves out: that the canal, when it opened in 1825, became a great success. The silence is part of the lean.
- None of the facts in the passage is false. Bias is not lying. The lean is in the words chosen and the facts left out.
Answer: B
Where this is taught: The Skills Diagnostic · The ten Skills Quizzes
In your Kaplan book: Unit 3, Chapter 1, all lessons
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.