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Reading Comprehension Practice for GRE 3


questions 1 to 3 below are based on this passage:
From an article by Malcom Gladwell entitled, "What the Dog Saw," discussing canine behavior.

A dog cares, deeply, which way your body is leaning. Forward or backward? Forward can be seen as aggressive; backward-even a quarter of an inch-means nonthreatening. It means you've relinquished what ethologists call an "intention movement" to proceed forward. Cock your head, even slightly, to the side, and a dog is disarmed. Look at him straight on and he'll read it like a red flag. Standing straight, with your shoulders squared rather than slumped, can mean the difference between whether your dog obeys a command or ignores it. Breathing evenly and deeply, rather than holding your breath, can mean the difference between diffusing a tense situation and igniting it. "I think they are looking at our eyes and where our eyes are looking, and what our eyes look like," the ethologist Patricia McConnell, who teaches at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, says. "A rounded eye with a dilated pupil is a sign of high arousal and aggression in a dog. I believe they pay a tremendous amount of attention to how relaxed our face is and how relaxed our facial muscles are, because that's a big cue for them with each other. Is the jaw relaxed? Is the mouth slightly open? And then the arms. They pay a tremendous amount of attention to where our arms go."

1. Based on the context of the passage, which best describes what an "ethologist" studies?
A Muscle and nerve reflexes of humans and animals
B Nonverbal forms of communication between species
C Animal behavior, particularly as it occurs in interactions between species in different environments
D Canine anatomy
E Character traits among different animal breeds

2. It can be inferred from the passage that
A Dogs are generally indifferent to minor movement shifts in humans.
B Dogs are more sensitive to physical cues from arms and legs than from eyes and mouths.
C Dogs are highly sensitive to nuances in human movement.
D "Intention movements" cannot be retracted once they have been initiated.
E Minor movements or changes in posture and expression have no impact on a tense situation between human and dog once it has begun.

3. According to the passage, the following human behaviors could all be perceived by a dog as potentially aggressive or dominant EXCEPT:
A Leaning forward
B Even breathing pattern
C Unrelaxed facial muscles
D Direct eye contact
E Standing straight with unrounded shoulder

Questions 4-6 are based on following paragraph.
From Mark Grief's essay, "Afternoon of the Sex Children"

Liberation implies freedom to do what you have already been doing or have meant to do. It unbars what is native to you, free in cost and freely your possession, and removes the iron weight of social interaction. Even in the great phase of full human liberation that extended from the 1960s to the present day, however, what has passed as liberation has often been liberalization (Marcuse used this distinction). Liberalization makes for a free traffic in goods formerly regulated and interdicted, creating markets in what you already possess for free. It has a way of making your possessions no longer native to you at the very moment that they're freed from your enjoyment. Ultimately you no longer know how to possess them, correctly, unless you are following new rules that emerge to dominate the traffic in these goods.

4. According to the author, what is the essential distinction between liberation and liberalization?
A Liberation allows freedom from persecution whereas liberalization puts stipulations and penalties on certain words and actions.
B Liberation is the ability to do things without constraint whereas liberalization takes natural freedoms and transfers them into alternative markets.
C Liberation is the process of releasing inhibitions whereas liberalization insists they remain hidden
D Liberation provides protection from unfair laws whereas liberalization forces a population into a particular set of beliefs.
E Liberation allows you to interact with whomever you choose whereas liberalization stipulates that you must only interact with those of similar morals and ethics.

5. In presenting the argument, the author does all of the following EXCEPT:
A Make an ironic observation
B Draw a conclusion
C Give a specific example
D Present a paradox
E Make a comparison

6. Which of the following best describes the function of the concluding sentence of the passage?
A To encourage people to learn the new set of rules that will govern the traffic of goods.
B To suggest that a person will be more successful if they accept the changes in various markets.
C To deter proponents of liberation from speaking out against liberalization.
D To insist that personal freedoms are less important than the overarching need to achieve flow in the traffic of goods and services.
E To illustrate the shift in power that occurs when liberalization overtakes liberation.



  • Reading Comprehension Practice Test 1
  • Reading Comprehension Practice Test 2
  • Reading Comprehension Practice Test 3
  • Reading Comprehension Practice Test 4
  • Reading Comprehension Practice Test 5


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