RC lecture
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_________________ _______________ _______________ ________________ www.TCYonline.com ® Top Careers & You Page : 1 READING COMPREHENSION TYPES OF QUESTIONS INFERENCE/APPLICATION/ AUTHOR’S PURPOSE (A) INFERENCE QUESTIONS Inference questions ask you to identify an information or idea which is implied or suggested in the passage, or which can be inferred from the passage. These questions ask about what is not mentioned explicitly in the passage, but can be logically inferred from the information in the passage. So the answer is not stated directly in the passage but has to be inferred through a slight logical extension of the information that appears specifically in the passage. Some question types could be: (a) The passage implies that... (b) The author implies that… (c) The passage suggests… (d) The author uses the phrase “...” to mean... (e) The author would support which of the following… (f) It can be inferred from the passage that… (e) Which of the following can be inferred from the passage? To tackle these questions it is essential to read between the lines so as to understand the implications (for implied idea) of certain phrases, words, sentences, etc. You should learn to recognize the key words/phrases in the question. Choose an answer which would be a logical development of ideas provided by the author. Base your answer on what the passage implies, not what it states directly. Then match this with the options given and you will hit the right answer. Remember you must go beyond the obvious. Of late, there has been an increased emphasis on inference based questions in the CAT examination. Students find such questions quite a bit more difficult to handle. These questions require a greater understanding of the passage, though minute details may not be necessary. Having a clear understanding of the main idea, and to an extent the subsidiary ideas of the passage, is quite helpful. Since there may be a few close answer options, it is advisable to proceed on the basis of POE only.
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7/28/2019 RC lecture
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(B) APPLICATION QUESTIONS
These questions are similar to implied idea questions, but unlike the latter,
they require you to apply information or ideas used in the passage. These
questions test the ability to recognize how the author’s idea might apply to
other situations outside the parameters of the passage. You should be able to
apply and collate ideas extending them to situations or statements outside
the scope of the text. Primarily these questions are intended to test the critical
reasoning skills of the test takers.
This category can be further divided into several types some of which are:
Audience/Source Questions
1. With which of the following statements is the author most likely to
agree?
2. The passage is most probably taken from…
3. The author of this passage is most likely a/n
Agreement Questions
1. Which of the following aphorisms/proverbs would the author be
in strongest agreement with?
2. The author would most strongly agree/disagree with which of the
following statements?
Extrapolation Questions
1. Which of the following situations is most closely analogous to the
situation described by the author?
2. Most nearly parallel, in its fundamental approach, to the research
program described in the passage would be a program designed to…3. Which of the following describes a situation most analogous to
the situation described in lines…
Reasoning Questions
1. The author’s argument would be most weakened by the discovery of…
In dealing with such answers, try to perceive feelings of the author.
This, like inferential questions, requires that you go beyond what the
author explicitly states. Therefore, being inferential in nature, they can
be answered quite easily on the basis of the substance of the passage.
Least agree Questions
These questions would have one wrong answer option, all the others being
the right answer options. Students have to identify the wrong answer option.
Even if these questions are not inference based, and can be answered directly
based on the information furnished in the passage, they are still time taking.
This is because, unless we are able to identify all the right answers based on
the passage, we shall not know what the wrong answer option is. These
questions could be answered after we have answered the other questions and
have a better idea of the right answers.
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All of these/None of these (type) answer options
If a student is positive that more than one answer options are correct, the
right answer option is more likely to be ‘all of these’. The reverse is true in
case of ‘none of these’.
(C) AUTHOR’S PURPOSE
Like the questions based on implication/inference, questions regarding the
author’s purpose also require you to read between the lines to get the focus
of the entire passage as well as some supplementary ideas of the passage. If
the questions pertain to the main purpose of the passage, they would not be
much different from the main idea questions. But more often they ask you to
explain the purpose of a particular example, quote, phrase etc. used by the
author to make a point.
Some questions of this type could be
(i) The author cites the example of … in order to …
(ii) The … is intended to …
(iii) The order provides the information related to … primarily to …
(iv) The author is primarily trying to …
(v) What is the author trying to show through …
The strategy to handle these questions should be similar to the strategy
for inference based questions.
