Overview

A brief introduction on how the CARS section will work

• 9 passages (500-600 words)

• 5~7 questions each (53 in total)

• 90 minutes, so 1o minutes per passage

Topics:

• Humanities

• Literature

• Philosophy

• Ethics

• Social sciences

• Physiology

• Sociology

• Economics

*Note: EVERYTHING you need to answer will be in the passages, you are not expected to know them already/have a deep understanding

Types of Questions:

1. Foundations of Comprehension (30%)

• Intended message

• Overall idea

• Organization of the passage

• Usage of specific words and phrases

2. Reasoning within (30%)

• What claim are they supporting

• Or where do they think it is flawed

3. Reasoning beyond (40%)

• Apply ideas in the passage to new situations

• How would the author’s message change if there was new information to consider?

Foundations:

1. Comprehension

• Tests your basic understanding

• Main idea, theme, intended meaning and why the specific organization

• Some questions ask you about the main goal of the passage and/or main position/claim, which can usually be found in the thesis statement (usually early)

• Thesis statements also foreshadows what they are going to talk about

• Can also be asked about the conclusion, and you can look at the conclusion so see if there was a clear ending to the passage

• Infer author’s attitude

• Consider their particular words and phrases

• May ask you to use connotative language1 to determine what the author is trying to convey (if it is factual, their opinion, or revealing a bias)

• Intended meanings

• May use unfamiliar words and figure them out from the rest of the passage

• May use familiar words that you may need to determine the precise meaning

• Consider passage structure

• Helps identify basic info, main ideas, thesis, etc.

2. Reasoning within

• Ask you to examine the arguments

• Directs your attentions to arguments, themes, conclusions and pieces of evidence

• Analyze and evaluate the author’s arguments in some way

• Two main types:

• Structural

• Identify how the author is trying to relate various ideas within the passage

• Asks you to recognize which particular evidence is intended to support (find quotes)

• Evaluative

• Criticize and consider flaws and weaknesses in the author’s arguments and evidence (i.e. unreasonable or unjustified and perhaps just not strong enough)

• May ask you to identify unstated assumptions (something that the author didn’t specifically say, but needs to be true in order for their conclusion to be correct)

• Evaluate the author’s reasoning in terms of info presented within the passage

• Do NOT introduce your own opinion

• Base responses on what is provided

3. Reasoning beyond

• Easiest to spot, because you are given something new to think about

• Two main type

• Apply concept from passage

• Focus on key parts

• Look for answers that preserves the role for the key parts

• Integrate new information into passage

• Can be facts not mentioned in the passage or new information after the passage was written

• Consider if the new information is consistent or not with the passage

• The right answer can be justified by considering something in the passage

• Answer using only information provided

• No personal opinions

Keywords:

1Connotative Language — the use of a word to suggest a different association than its literal meaning. Can also be thought of as loaded words signaling some sort of bias (i.e. a “novice” or “expert” way of doing things, it is clear the writer prefers the latter way as they’ve used a lighter respecting word such as “expert” to describe a certain thing)

Signal Words — words that signify a meaning to something (i.e. “most importantly”, “the only thing that matters is” within a passage that can help you determine the meaning/general idea of what they were trying to say there). There can also be sub-points signaled by words like “by the way” of “in a few cases”

Rhetorical Devices — devices the author uses to convey their message. Includes signal words as well as repetition and parallelism (when words and sentences are repeated), which can be literary devices.

NOT to be taken literally:

• Metaphor (compares one thing to another)

• Sarcasm (meaning the opposite of what is said)

• Allegory (when relates a narrative to something else, when they personify abstract ideas)

• Symbolism (when the author uses a concept to represent something else)

• Can help determine a theme for the work