GRE Reading Comprehension Practice Test 2
- Reading Comprehension (Set 2)
- 10 questions
- 15 minutes
The set has three original passages: a longer science passage, a short humanities passage and a one-paragraph argument. Each passage is printed with its first question; answer only from what the passage states or clearly implies, not from outside knowledge.
Tap an option to mark your answer. You can change your mind, or tap the same option again to leave the question blank. The correct answers and explanations appear when you finish the test.Tap an option to answer; tap it again to leave the question blank.
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Question 1
Passage 1
(1) Cities tend to be warmer than the countryside around them, a pattern known as the urban heat island. Less widely appreciated is that the difference is usually greatest not in the afternoon, when the sun is strongest, but several hours after sunset. Asphalt, brick and concrete absorb large amounts of solar energy during the day and release it slowly through the evening, while fields and forests cool quickly once the sun goes down.
(2) The daytime contrast is smaller in part because vegetation does not simply sit in the sun. Plants release water vapor through their leaves, and the evaporation of that water carries heat away. A city that replaces trees with pavement therefore loses a source of cooling as well as gaining a store of heat.
(3) These two mechanisms suggest different remedies. Planting trees restores evaporative cooling and shades surfaces so that they store less heat in the first place; painting roofs in light colors reduces how much energy they absorb. Neither measure is free, and neither works equally well everywhere: a light roof matters little in a narrow street that the sun rarely reaches, and trees need water that some cities can spare only with difficulty.
The primary purpose of the passage is to
Correct answer: D
The passage explains two causes of the heat island (stored heat and lost evaporative cooling) and then links each to a remedy, with limits. It never ranks tree planting above other measures or presents any history of discovery or city data.
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Question 2
Passage 1 (see above):
According to the passage, the temperature difference between a city and the surrounding countryside is usually greatest
Correct answer: C
Paragraph 1 states that the difference is usually greatest "several hours after sunset," because pavement and buildings release stored heat while fields cool quickly. The passage specifically says it is not greatest in the afternoon.
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Question 3
Passage 1 (see above):
According to paragraph 2, one reason the daytime temperature difference is smaller than the nighttime difference is that
Correct answer: E
Paragraph 2 says that plants release water vapor and that its evaporation "carries heat away," which keeps the countryside relatively cool by day. Nothing in the passage says rural land absorbs more energy than pavement; paragraph 1 implies the reverse.
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Question 4
Passage 1 (see above):
The final sentence of the passage serves mainly to
Correct answer: A
After proposing trees and light roofs, the author adds that neither is free or works everywhere, giving examples of each limit. This qualifies the remedies rather than rejecting them, and it introduces no new cause.
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Question 5
Passage 2
Translators of poetry are often said to face a stark choice: they can stay faithful to the words of the original or produce a poem that is beautiful in its new language, but not both. The dichotomy is too tidy. A line rendered word for word may preserve every dictionary meaning yet lose the rhythm, the pun or the surprise that made readers remember it, and a reader who meets only that literal line receives a less accurate impression of the poem than one who meets a freer version that keeps its effect. Fidelity, on this view, is owed not only to what a poem says but to what it does. This does not license translators to invent at will; a version that "improves" on its original by adding ideas the poet never had has simply become a different poem.
The author regards the "stark choice" described in the first sentence as
Correct answer: B
The author calls the dichotomy "too tidy" and argues that a word-for-word line can give a less accurate impression of the poem, so literalness does not guarantee faithfulness. The passage says nothing about beginners, history or prose.
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Question 6
Passage 2 (see above):
The author would most likely agree with which of the following statements?
Correct answer: D
The author says fidelity is owed "to what a poem does," so keeping a pun's effect can be more faithful than a literal line. The last sentence rules out adding the translator's own ideas, and the word "may" shows the author does not condemn every literal translation.
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Question 7
Passage 2 (see above):
The last sentence of the passage functions primarily to
Correct answer: A
Having argued for freer versions, the author adds that this "does not license translators to invent at will," which sets a boundary on the argument. It does not return to the traditional view or concede that literal translation is better.
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Question 8
Passage 3
Officials in the city of Riverton point out that in the two years after the city opened its bike-share system, the number of cars entering the downtown district each weekday fell by 8 percent. They conclude that the bike-share system persuaded many commuters to leave their cars at home, and that expanding the system to the city's other districts will reduce car traffic there as well.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the officials' conclusion that the bike-share system caused the decline in downtown car traffic?
Correct answer: E
Moving 2,000 jobs out of downtown gives a different explanation for fewer cars entering the district, so the bike-share system may not be the cause. Reports from other cities, if anything, support the officials, and cost or seasonal use does not explain the drop.
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Question 9
Passage 3 (see above):
The officials' prediction about the city's other districts depends on which of the following assumptions?
Correct answer: C
The prediction carries a downtown result over to other districts, which only works if conditions and commuters there are similar enough to respond the same way. Heavier traffic elsewhere or funding questions are not needed for the argument.
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Question 10
Passage 3 (see above):
Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the officials' conclusion?
Correct answer: B
If bike-share trips mostly replace former car trips, the system is directly linked to fewer cars, which supports the causal claim. More pedestrians, future bike lanes or the age of riders do not show that cars were replaced.
Questions you leave blank are not counted as wrong.
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