sample copy. not for distribution. · i would specially like to thank rita shahdeo mam (english...

Sample Copy. Not For Distribution.

i

Algorithmic Reading Comprehension


ii

Publishing-in-support-of,

EDUCREATION PUBLISHING

RZ 94, Sector - 6, Dwarka, New Delhi - 110075

Shubham Vihar, Mangla, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh - 495001

Website: www.educreation.in

________________________________________________________________

© Copyright, 2018, Rahul Anand

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, chemical, manual, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of its writer.

ISBN: 978-93-88381-08-6

Price: ` 365.00

The opinions/ contents expressed in this book are solely of the authors and do not represent the opinions/ standings/ thoughts of Educreation or the Editors.

Printed in India


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Algorithmic Reading

Comprehension

Rahul Anand,

Kamlesh Chauhan

EDUCREATION PUBLISHING (Since 2011)

www.educreation.in


iv


v

Rahul Anand

PREFACE

Reading comprehension solving is a skill. It is

different from literature in the sense that it is

independent of interpretation. There is no

subjectivity in RC questions. The art of

solving can be learnt by mastering the topic at

three levels – The ability to read, to eliminate

options and to build mistake patterns so as to

learn from them. These three levels lie at the core of “Algorithmic

Reading Comprehension” – an approach to build expertise in RC

solving. This approach was created by my team and me over the

past 6 years of training thousands of students for the Reading

comprehension section for CAT-GMAT and other aptitude based

entrance examinations.

The book deals with two major aspects of reading, “Central

Idea” and “Contextual Word Learning”. It moves on to discuss the

meaning of different question types asked across exams and also

provides elimination frameworks to tackle tricky options. Finally,

students get many passages arranged in levels and then in a

practice chapter to practice and to learn from.

Welcome to the world of flawless RC learning!

Thanking You

Rahul Anand

Co-author, Algorithmic Reading Comprehension

Co-founder and Director, Bfactory

Alumnus, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad


vi

Kamlesh Chauhan

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The idea behind this book came from the

problem in question solving that most CAT-

GMAT aspirants face. It is a product of 6 years

of training expertise and 3 months of efficient

content creation work done by the entire

Bfactory team

I would specially like to thank Rita Shahdeo

mam (English H.O.D, Bfactory) who worked effortlessly to edit

this book. Would also like to thank Shalini Layak mam who

worked as the Assistant Editor and helped Rita mam create the

wonder that the book has to offer!


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My heartiest gratitude to Ms. Shreya Sharma, Mr. Abhishek Singh,

Mr. Rahul Kumar and Ms. Priyanka Singh (Academic Research

Associates, Bfactory) for their work on paragraph selection and

arrangement. Finally, a big kudos to Rahul Sir who was

instrumental in creating the rich frameworks for solving that the

book has to offer. I wish the book goes a long way in helping you

out in sorting your RC troubles.

Thanking You!

Kamlesh Chauhan

Co-author, Algorithmic Reading Comprehension

Co-founder and Director, Bfactory

Alumnus, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad


viii

Table of Contents

Sr. Chaptes Page

A letter from author ix

How to build reading speed? 1

What is algorithmic reading comprehension all

about?

5

1 Module 1: Learn 6

Chapter 1: Contextual Meaning 7

Chapter 2: Central Idea 29

Chapter 3: Titles 56

Chapter 4: Question Types with solving logic 64

Chapter 5: Reading Comprehension Examples 72

2 Module 2: Build 98

Chapter 6: Reading Comprehension Level 1 99



Chapter 9: Reading Comprehension Practice Set 138

3 Module 3: Perform 171

Chapter 10: Reading Comprehension Previous years

CAT papers

172

Chapter 11: CAT GMAT Reading Comprehension

Strategy

195

Solution and answer key 197


ix

A Letter from Author

How to Build A Good Reading Habit? No matter what exam you are going to take, a good and speedy

reading of comprehension is something that is going to play an

important role in giving you an edge over other candidates. The

bigger question is that how can one’s reading be improved; what

are the areas in which a novice needs to work on?

Many a times we come across people who complain that

despite the comprehension being very easy and knowing all the

answers they could not attempt all the questions. This should make

us realize the significance of speedy reading. No matter how good

one is at understanding the passage and finding out the answers, if

one can’t complete the reading on time the will never be able to

score good in exams. One can improve one’s speed by reading

aloud. You can take a newspaper or any novel of your choice and

read it aloud; by aloud I do not mean that your reading should be

audible to your neighbors. It should be done in a way that you can

be audible to your ears and at the same time be able to have a good

understanding of what you are reading. If your brain is not able to

decode the messages your ears are bringing to it, then it is of no

use, therefore while reading aloud you should also be able to

understand it.

Vocabulary is another important aspect of your reading. If you

do not know the words that has been used in the passage; the

fluency of your reading is sure to get hindered. These slippages are

sure to affect your speed and understanding. First you must try to

improve your vocabulary, and this can only be done if you indulge

into extensive reading. Content of what you are reading is also

important. Anything that is accessible and gives an easy reading

should not be picked. You must first try to find out the various

topics on which the questions are asked. In most of the exams

passages from Philosophy, Psychology, literature, Economics,


x

History are given. Having a prior knowledge of these topics will

enhance your understanding during the examination and you will

also be able to know various terms which are typical of the

particular subject. You should also track your reading progress.

Not everyone starts at the same level at a point of time. You must

be aware of what your current reading level and appetite is and

then plan your reading trajectory accordingly. For example, if you

are a beginner and your aim is to becoming good with newspaper

reading, you can plan something like this:

Month 1-2: Times of India/ Telegraph news articles

Month 3-4: Times of India/ Telegraph editorial section

Month 5-8: The Hindu editorial section

Month 9-10: The Economic Times editorial section

Month 11-12: The Guardian/ The New York Times editorial

section

This is just a tentative plan. You see, you need to have a plan.

Reading progress can be tracked and if you are reading regularly,

you can sense improvement in your level of reading. It is no rocket

science. But yes, it demands discipline.

No matter how strong one’s vocabulary is, no one can know

all the words that are in our dictionary and there are greater

chances that while reading you come across words that you are

unaware of and due to that the entire paragraph or at least some

parts may become undecipherable. To overcome this problem you

should avoid looking up for the meanings into the dictionary or

your phones while reading the passage, because during the exams

you will not get a dictionary. You should always try to find out the

contextual meaning of the words. However you can look up for the

meanings of the difficult words once you have finished reading

and answering the questions. Also try to know the origin of the

words, and also maintain a copy where you write down all the new

words that you come across. Knowing just the meaning of the

words is not useful; you should also know how to use these words

in a sentence.


xi

Make sure that you read a lot looking on to a monitor. These

days a lot of exams are taken online and you should develop this

habit, or your eyes may start straining.

You should also have the best conditions for reading; choose a

place that is peaceful and well lit.

Read well. Do well.

Best wishes

Rahul Anand


xii



1

How to Build Reading Speed?

Hello Readers

I have trained thousands of students for reading comprehension for

MBA entrance examinations. I have seen people double their

reading speed with just a little bit of systematic practice. I don’t

know of any magical ways of doing it, but can tell you how to

approach speed reading from my training experience.

First 2–3 lines of the article: Read a bit slow so that you are

able to grasp the subject about which you are going to read. I call

this, “Building context”. If you do not do this, you might run

through the article blind and get lost in the middle. So, when you

enter the passage, ask yourself one question, “What am I entering

into - What’s the subject?”

Once the subject sinks in - run through the passage. This is

where eye spanning comes into play. You know the context now.

All you need to do is pick phrases (group of 3–5 words) at one shot

and run through the article lines left to right. Take a minute pause

only if the theme changes or takes a new turn. Else keep running.

Let’s understand how this entire exercise works:

Sample article: You read first: Will explain later

Do you often imagine what if I could relive those magical moments

when my team won the world cup or any other hard fought

extremely competitive game of cricket? Well you are not alone;

there are several cricket fans all over the world who echo similar

sentiments about the performance of their team. Reliving on field

golden moments of a cricket match is what all cricket fans love to

relive and cricket podcast is the source for you to enjoy this.

Cricket podcast not only enables you to relive the wonderful

moments of a game played in the past, but also keeps you updated

and informed about a current series that is being played. Podcast

is nothing but simply means publishing audio files in the internet.


Rahul Anand, Kamlesh Chauhan

2

Online visitors can subscribe to these feeds that will give them

complete information about a particular match or series.

Most of these online cricket sites provide cricket podcast services

to their visitors. Mostly a team of experts discuss a match and give

their opinion through the pre and post match analysis. The online

sites have a huge database of podcast of all the matches that has

been played in the recent past. Not only this, some online sites keep

podcast of some major and exciting cricket matches that have been

played over the years for cricket fans.

Sample article: Speed reading explained:

Started reading para 1 looking for “What is the passage about?”

*****



3

Para 1:

Do you often imagine what if I could relive those magical moments

when my team won the world cup or any other hard fought

extremely competitive game of cricket? Well you are not alone;

there are several cricket fans all over the world who echo similar

sentiments about the performance of their team. Reliving on field

golden moments of a cricket match is what all cricket fans love to

relive and cricket podcast is the source for you to enjoy this.

Explanation:

[Read with a normal speed till now - Now got the main idea -

passage is about cricket podcast as a source to relive cricket

moments. Now I will run.]

Eye spanning begins now - Let’s pick up phrases from Left to

right and scan through the article.

Cricket podcast not only enables you to relive the wonderful

moments of a game played in the past, but also keeps you updated

and informed about a current series that is being played. Podcast

is nothing but simply means publishing audio files in the

internet. Online visitors can subscribe to these feeds that will give

them complete information about a particular match or series.

Explanation:

[Notice the highlight difference here. These many words I am

reading at one shot. So practically 8 pick-ups and the paragraph

gets over. This improves memory and understanding too as you

remember/catch phrases and not words - leads to better

understanding than normal]

Most of these online cricket sites provide cricket podcast

services to their visitors. Mostly a team of experts discuss a match

and give their opinion through the pre and post match

analysis. The online sites have a huge database of podcast of all

the matches that has been played in the recent past. Not only this,


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