PART
The GMAT
Verbal Section
II
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The Verbal section of the GMAT® exam is the last part of the test, but it is the first section covered in this book
because many of the concepts and skills you need to do well on the Verbal section are also important to your
success on the Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) section. In the following chapters, you will learn all about
the Verbal section: what this portion of the test is like, what kinds of questions to expect, and how to tackle
those questions. You will also review the core skills you will need for each type of question and specific tips
and strategies to use on the exam.
Before you begin this section, take a few minutes to do the pretest that follows. The passage and ques-
tions on the pretest are the same types you will find on the GMAT exam. When you are finished, check the
answer key carefully to assess your results. Your pretest score will help you determine how much preparation
you need and the areas in which you need the most careful review and practice.
CHAPTER
Verbal Pretest
3
51

Pretest
The Verbal section pretest contains 20 multiple-choice questions
—
approximately half the number of
questions you will see on the actual exam. To practice the timing of the GMAT exam, take approximately 37
minutes to complete the pretest. Record your answers on the answer sheet provided on this page. Make sure
you mark your answer clearly in the circle that corresponds to the question.
Remember that the GMAT exam is a CAT, so you will not be able to write anywhere on the exam. To
mimic the exam environment, do not write on the pretest pages. Make any notes or calculations on a sepa-
rate piece of paper.
– VERBAL PRETEST–

las is happy
—
everyone, that is, except the child who is kept locked in a basement closet. The child is left
entirely alone and neglected except for occasional visits from the citizens of Omelas. They come at a certain
age as a rite of initiation, to learn the secret of the happiness they enjoy. They come to learn that their hap-
piness has a price: the suffering of an innocent child. In the end, most people stay in Omelas; but a few, unable
to bear the fact that they are responsible for the suffering of that child, reject this utopia built upon a utili-
tarian morality.
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory based upon the belief that happiness is the ultimate good and that
people should use happiness as the measure for determining right and wrong. For utilitarians, the right thing
to do is that which will bring about the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. Fur-
thermore, utilitarianism argues that the intention of people’s actions does not matter; only the consequences
of their actions are morally relevant, because only the consequences determine how much happiness is
produced.
Although many useful social policies and much legislation are founded on this “greatest good” philoso-
phy, utilitarianism can be problematic as a basis for morality. First, happiness is not so easy to quantify, and any
measurement is bound to be subjective. Second, in a theory that treats everything except happiness as instru-
mentally rather than intrinsically valuable, anything
—
or, more importantly, anyone
—
can (and should) be
treated as a means to an end, if it means greater happiness. This rejects the notion that human beings have their
own intrinsic value. Further, utilitarianism puts the burden of the happiness of the masses on the suffering of
the few. Is the happiness of many worth the suffering of a few? Why do those few deserve to suffer? Isn’t this
burden of suffering morally irresponsible? This is the dilemma so brilliantly illustrated in LeGuin’s story.
1. Which of the following best sums up the author’s opinion of utilitarianism?
a. It is an ethical theory.
b. It is the ethical theory that people should all live by.
c. It is a useful but problematic ethical theory.

Y ϭ consequences that create happiness
Z ϭ consequences that create unhappiness
a. Do X if Y ϭ Z.
b. Do X if Y Յ Z.
c. Do X if Y Ն Z.
d. Do X if Y Ͼ Z.
e. Do X if Y Ͻ Z.

Critical Reasoning
Directions: For each question, select the best answer from the choices given.
7. Unemployment in Winston County has risen only 4% since I took office. Under my predecessor,
unemployment rose 14%. Clearly, my economic policies are far more effective.
Which of the following must be true in order for this argument to be valid?
a. Winston County’s population dropped significantly during the current administration.
b. The national unemployment rate increased by 12% during the previous administration but only
2% during the current administration.
c. Key socioeconomic variables such as the state of the national economy and the demographics of
Winston County are comparable for each administration.
d. Key policy changes, such as increased job training for the unemployed, were implemented under
the current administration.
e. Tax incentives have been implemented to bring new businesses to Winston County.
8. Morning Glory, the coffee shop on the corner, has lost nearly 50% of its business because a national
retail coffee chain opened up a store down the street. Instead of closing up shop, the owner of Morn-
ing Glory plans to draw in customers by offering coffee, tea, and pastries at much lower prices than the
national coffee chain.
The owner’s plan of action is based on all of the following assumptions EXCEPT
a. some customers will choose the coffee shop that offers the lowest price.
b. the quality of Morning Glory’s coffee is comparable to that of the national coffee chain.
c. Morning Glory can afford to cut its profit margin in order to lower prices.
d. Morning Glory’s customers are very loyal.

e. the relocation of a major technical corporation to Union, New Jersey, two miles from South Orange
12. One out of four heart surgery patients at St. Vincent’s dies from complications during surgery. Only
one out of six heart surgery patients at St. Mary’s dies from complications during surgery. If you need
heart surgery, make sure you go to St. Mary’s, not St. Vincent’s.
Which of the following, if true, is the best reason to reject this argument?
a. St. Vincent’s specializes in heart surgery for elderly and high-risk patients.
b. St. Mary’s surgical equipment is more up to date than St. Vincent’s.
c. St. Vincent’s has the most renowned heart surgeon in the country on its staff.
d. St. Vincent’s offers flexible payment options for balances not covered by insurance.
e. Two doctors who used to work at St. Mary’s now work at St. Vincent’s.
– VERBAL PRETEST–
55
13. DNA evidence has increasingly been used in court to prove guilt and to exonerate the innocent.
Because so many convicted felons have been cleared by DNA evidence, all cases in which someone was
convicted largely on circumstantial evidence should be called into question and reviewed.
Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen this argument?
a. One in three convictions today rests largely on DNA evidence.
b. DNA evidence is admissible even after the statute of limitations has expired.
c. Of every ten cases in which DNA evidence becomes available post-conviction, five convictions are
overturned.
d. DNA evidence is 99.8% accurate.
e. DNA evidence is very difficult to falsify or tamper with.

Sentence Correction
Directions: The following questions each present a sentence, part or all of which is underlined. Beneath the
sentence you will find five ways of phrasing the underlined portion. The first choice repeats the original; the
other four choices present different options for phrasing the underlined text. Determine which choice best
expresses the idea in the underlined text. If you think the original is best, choose option a. These questions
test both the correctness and overall effectiveness of expression. In choosing your answer, pay attention to
grammar, sentence construction, and word choice and style. The correct answer is free of grammatical errors,

reat
ing a fundamental shift in Amer
ican foreign policy and establishing a
“policy of containment
”
that framed our f
oreign p
olicy as a battle between the for
ces of good (Ame
rica and other d
emocratic
societ
ies) and evil (the Sov
iet Union and other communist nat
ions), was the 1947 Truman Doct
rine.
a. Creating a fundamental shift in American foreign policy and establishing a “policy of contain-
ment” that framed our foreign policy as a battle between the forces of good (America and other
democratic societies) and evil (the Soviet Union and other communist nations), was the 1947
Truman Doctrine.
b. The 1947 Truman Doctrine created a fundamental shift in American foreign policy, establishing a
“policy of containment” that framed our foreign policy as a battle between the forces of good
(America and other democratic societies) and evil (the Soviet Union and other communist
nations).
c. Creating a fundamental shift in American foreign policy was the Truman Doctrine, which was put
forth in 1947, and which established a “policy of containment” that framed our foreign policy as a
battle between the forces of good (America, along with other democratic societies) and the forces
of evil (the Soviet Union, along with other communist nations).
d. The 1947 Truman Doctrine created a fundamental shift in American foreign policy, establishing a
“policy of containment” that framed our foreign policy as a battle between American and other

dy from
conve
rting an imp
ortant product o
f digestion,
glucose, which is commo
nly know
n as sugar, into
energy.
a. While diabetes does not interfere with digestion, on the other hand, it does prevent the body from
converting an important product of digestion, glucose, which is commonly known as sugar, into
energy.
b. Diabetes does not interfere with digestion, but it does prevent the body from using glucose, which
is commonly known as sugar, which is a product of digestion and which is converted into energy.
c. Commonly known as sugar, glucose is an important product of digestion, which is prevented from
being converted by the body into energy by diabetes, although diabetes does not interfere with
digestion.
d. Diabetes does not interfere with digestion, but it does prevent the body from converting an impor-
tant product of digestion, glucose (commonly known as sugar), into energy.
e. Diabetes does not interfere with digestion, but glucose (commonly known as sugar) is an impor-
tant product of digestion and is unable to be converted into energy by the body because of the
disease.
20. W
ith an increasing amount of vegetarians, more stores are beginning to stock their shelves with stan-
dard vegetarian fare, such as soy milk and tofu.
a. With an increasing amount of vegetarians
b. With the number of vegetarians on the rise
c. With the number of vegetarians, which is on the rise
d. Increasingly, there are more and more vegetarians, so
e. Increasing in number are vegetarians, so

ing moral principle. Choices b and c are therefore incorrect. Choice d is incorrect because nothing in
the passage indicates how she feels about utilitarianism as a basis for social policy. The passage does
not state that she believes most people do not really understand utilitarianism, so choice e is incorrect.
5. a. The author states that “most people stay in Omelas” after they have visited the child. This indicates
that they understand and have accepted the utilitarian nature of their society. Only a few walk away
and reject the society, so choice b is incorrect. The summary clearly states that everyone except the
child and the ones who are “unable to bear the fact that they are responsible for the suffering of that
child” are happy, so choice c is incorrect. No evidence indicates that the child willingly sacrifices him-
self for others (choice d). The passage makes no reference to LeGuin’s popularity or success as a sci-
ence-fiction writer, so choice e is incorrect.
6. d. The basic principle of utilitarianism as explained in the passage is that people should do “that
which will bring about the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people.” There-
fore, humans should choose actions that will have more happy consequences (Y) than unhappy con-
sequences (Z); Y must be greater than (Ͼ) Z.
7. c. In order for the two administrations to be compared, the socioeconomic variables must be com-
parable. If Winston County’s economy had relied largely upon a factory that closed down during the
previous administration, then the unemployment rate would necessarily rise considerably following
that event. The state of the national, state, and local economies and the demographic makeup of
– VERBAL PRETEST–
59
Winston County (e.g., no significant increase or decrease in population) need to be nearly identical
for the speaker to make a fair comparison and claim that his or her policies are more effective. If
Winston County’s population dropped significantly (choice a), it could explain why the unemploy-
ment rate dropped as well
—
but it does not support the speaker’s claim that his or her policies “are
far more effective.” Choice b, which reflects the state of the national economy, also offers an explana-
tion for the change in unemployment rates in Winston County, again contradicting the speaker’s
claim that his or her economic policies made the difference. If the speaker had implemented key pol-
icy changes (choice d) or tax incentives (choice e), they could have significantly reduced unemploy-

may not be related to the increase in property values. It would be logical to conclude that funds for
improving the schools and downtown could be gleaned from additional resources from increased
property taxes, another effect of increased property values. The relocation of a major corporation to a
neighboring town (choice e) could account for the increased desirability of property in South
Orange, but the direct access to the city is a more compelling reason. Perhaps a few hundred persons
may work in the corporation, but many thousands are likely to want an easy commute to the city.
– VERBAL PRETEST–
60
12. a. Statistics can be very deceiving. In this case, based only on the numbers, St. Mary’s seems like a
safer place to undergo heart surgery. But what you do not know about St. Mary’s and St. Vincent’s
can lead you to make a poor choice. If St. Vincent’s specializes in heart surgery for elderly and high-
risk patients (choice a), then it is logical that it would have a higher rate of mortality among its
patients. Indeed, given this fact, the difference in mortality rates may make a case for going to St. Vin-
cent’s instead of St. Mary’s. Assuming you are not an elderly or high-risk patient, to make an
informed choice, you would need statistics about St. Vincent’s mortality rates for surgery on patients
who are not elderly or high risk. Up-to-date equipment is important (choice b), but the condition of
the patients prior to surgery and the skill of the surgeons are more important considerations. The
fact that St. Vincent’s has the best heart surgeon in the country (choice c) is compelling, but it does
not contradict the statistics. The payment options (choice d) are irrelevant if you do not survive the
surgery, and there can be many reasons why the doctors who worked at St. Mary’s are now at St. Vin-
cent’s (choice e), so you cannot consider this factor without more information.
13. c. The fact that would most strengthen this argument is the percentage of cases in which DNA evi-
dence overturned prior convictions. If half of all cases resulted in erroneous convictions that were
later cleared by DNA evidence, then that should certainly draw other convictions into doubt. The fact
that one in three of today’s convictions rest on DNA evidence has no bearing on prior convictions, so
choice a is incorrect. Similarly, the admissibility of DNA evidence (choice b) has no bearing on the
quality of prior convictions. That DNA evidence is accurate (choice d) and difficult to tamper with
(choice e) strengthens the argument for the use of DNA evidence in court, but it does not directly
strengthen the argument that prior convictions should be called into doubt.
14. d. Despite growing evidence of global warming is a dependent clause that should be followed by a

diately after the appositive glucose, the sentence may be confusing. Choice b is grammatically correct
but quite awkward, using which three times in one sentence. Choice c inverts the sentence, making it
less direct and therefore less clear. Choice e is correct but less direct and slightly more wordy than d
because it uses the passive construction (converted by the body).
20. b. Choice b presents the most concise and fluent version. Choice a incorrectly uses amount instead
of number. Choice c is unnecessarily wordy, using the nonrestrictive phrase which is on the rise
instead of on the rise. Choice d is also unnecessarily wordy and less direct. Choice e is awkward, with
an inverted word order.

Pretest Assessment
How did you do on the pretest? If you answered nearly all of the questions correctly, congratulations. If you
missed more than three questions, chances are most of your incorrect answers were in one category. Perhaps
your reading comprehension skills are strong, but you need to focus on building your critical-reasoning skills.
Clearly, the more questions you got wrong in each section, the more time you should devote to your review
of that material.
It is difficult to scale your performance on this pretest to its actual GMAT equivalent because the GMAT
CAT factors in both the number of questions answered and the level of difficulty of each question to deter-
mine your score. However, a simple percentage of correct answers in each category should give you a good
indication of how you might perform on the Verbal section. If you missed three or more questions in any sec-
tion, you will probably need several weeks of concentrated study to do well on those questions during the
actual exam.
– VERBAL PRETEST–
62
Based on the title “Verbal section,” you might expect this portion of the exam to measure your oral commu-
nication skills or your ability to express yourself effectively in writing. But that is not quite what the Verbal
section is about. It is designed to measure three rather different groups of skills. The questions on the GMAT
Verbal section can be divided into the following categories:
■
reading comprehension questions that test your ability to read and understand sophisticated written
texts

any topic from the physical or life sciences, social sciences, humanities, or business, but you do not need to
be familiar with the topic to be able to answer the questions. The questions test what you understand and can
logically infer from the information in the text, not what you may already know about the topic.
The writing in these passages is serious and sophisticated. You can expect college-level material of the
sort you might see in graduate school. Most passages will contain between four and seven paragraphs and
are about 150 to 350 words long. You will typically be asked three to five questions about each passage.
The passages on the GMAT exam are either informative or argumentative. An informative passage
might, for example, explain Einstein’s theory of relativity, evaluate its impact on science and society, or dis-
cuss how current findings in physics are forcing a revision of Einstein’s theory. An argumentative passage, on
the other hand, might argue that Einstein’s theory of relativity is the most important scientific discovery of
the twentieth century; that the theory of relativity dramatically altered humans’ understanding of themselves,
their place in the universe, and their relationships to each other; or that a revision of the theory of relativity
will encourage more research in the existence of other dimensions. Some passages are both informative and
argumentative. For example, a passage may explain the theory of relativity in the first three paragraphs and
argue in the last three that it is the most important scientific discovery of the twentieth century.
Types of Questions
The GMAT Verbal section has essentially four types of reading comprehension questions:
■
Basic comprehension questions test your ability to understand the words and ideas expressed in the
passage. You may be asked about the main idea of the text or the best way to paraphrase a definition or
key concept discussed in the passage. Questions 1 and 2 from the pretest are examples of basic compre-
hension questions.
■
Analysis questions test your ability to see the structure of a passage and the relationship between the
ideas in the passage. You may be asked to identify the main idea, to distinguish between main and sup-
porting ideas, to identify the strongest support, or to identify the organizational pattern of the text. You
may also be asked about the effect of the organization or other techniques or the relationship between
ideas discussed in the text. Question 3 from the pretest is an example of an analysis question.
■
Inference questions test your ability to draw logical conclusions based upon the facts and ideas

and each passage only has one question. More impor-
tantly, each passage presents an argument (or at least part of an argument). Some of these arguments will be
logical and well reasoned; others will be built upon faulty logic or invalid assumptions. As with the reading
comprehension passages, you do not need to know anything about the topic discussed in the passage in order
to answer the question correctly. In fact, sometimes your knowledge of the topic can interfere with making
the correct choice. It may lead you to choose an answer that is not supported by the information in the
passage.
Types of Questions
To measure your critical thinking skills, the GMAT exam presents you with three types of critical reasoning
questions:
■
Structure questions test your ability to recognize basic argument structure. For example, you may be
asked to identify the conclusion, premises, or underlying assumptions of an argument. Questions 9 and
11 from the pretest are structure questions.
– WHAT TO EXPECT ON THE GMAT VERBAL SECTION–
65
Common Question Stems
Because critical reasoning questions may be new to you, their format might take some getting used to. The fol-
lowing is a sampling of the kind of stems you might see on critical reasoning questions:
• All of the following are valid objections to the argument EXCEPT
• The statements, if true, best support which of the following assertions?
• If the information in the statement is true, which of the following must also be true?
• If the information in the statement is true, all of the following statements must also be true EXCEPT
• The argument is based upon all of the following assumptions EXCEPT
• All of the following conclusions can reasonably be drawn from the argument EXCEPT
• Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the argument?
• Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument?
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■
Evaluation questions test your ability to measure the effectiveness of an argument and recognize com-

tences that use a comma when a period should be used or sentences that misuse semicolons
—
punctuation
issues that deal with establishing the right relationship between clauses and answers.
■
Grammar questions test your knowledge of the rules and conventions of standard written English,
including correct sentence structure, idioms, and parallel structure. You will need to determine whether
sentences have errors such as run-ons or fragments, inconsistent verb tense, or unparallel structure.
You will not need to identify errors in mechanics, including punctuation, spelling, or capitalization.
These skills are not tested on the GMAT exam.
■
Style questions test your ability to identify sentences that are clear, precise, and concise. You will see
many versions of sentences that are wordy, redundant, vague, awkward, and/or ambiguous. You will
need to determine which version expresses the idea with the most clarity, precision, and concision.
These three types of questions will be presented in random order throughout the exam. Thus, your
GMAT exam may begin with three or four questions based on a reading comprehension passage, then a sen-
tence correction question, then two critical reasoning questions followed by another sentence correction ques-
tion and reading comprehension passage.
– WHAT TO EXPECT ON THE GMAT VERBAL SECTION–
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