Critical Reading and Inference Questions Flashcards

A passage states: 'The author neither endorses nor rejects the hypothesis, preferring to present competing views.' The author's stance is best described as:

Answer: Neutral and balanced

Presenting competing views without endorsing or rejecting signals a neutral, balanced stance.

An author describes a trend as 'a symptom rather than a cause' of urban decline. This means the trend:

Answer: Results from decline rather than producing it

A 'symptom rather than a cause' is an effect, not the origin, of decline.

A passage notes the speaker's tone grew 'increasingly strident' during the debate. 'Strident' most nearly means:

Answer: Harsh and forceful

A 'strident' tone is harsh, loud, and forceful.

If an author writes that a claim 'rests on a questionable premise,' the author implies the claim's foundation is:

Answer: Doubtful and possibly invalid

A 'questionable premise' makes the claim's foundation doubtful and uncertain.

A passage reads: 'The memoir is less a record of events than a meditation on memory itself.' The author characterizes the memoir as primarily:

Answer: Reflective about the nature of memory

'Less a record... than a meditation on memory' frames it as reflective rather than factual.

An author observes that 'public enthusiasm, however genuine, cannot substitute for sustained funding.' The author implies that enthusiasm alone is:

Answer: Insufficient to ensure success

'Cannot substitute for sustained funding' means enthusiasm alone is not enough.

A passage states that a discovery 'overturned assumptions that had gone unexamined for decades.' This implies those assumptions were:

Answer: Long accepted without scrutiny

'Unexamined for decades' means the assumptions were long accepted without scrutiny.