RC: Insect Behavior

[shravani407]

Hi,

I'm referring to the 6th edition of MGMAT RC guide, in which there is a passage on Insect Behavior on page 58. Although I got the 2 questions right in the time limit of 4min, I found out that I missed out on some important details in the passage while reading. After reading the explanations that ensued, I realized I missed the part at line 15, which says that the wasp drags the grasshopper by its antennae. While reading, I thought it was too much of a detail to go through it and therefore skipped it . Because of this I could't understand why Fabre removed the antennae in the second paragraph!

On reading the explanations from pg 59-62, I realized that unless I read every line in this passage, I will not be able to get a clear picture.

Please advise how do I go about cracking such stuff within the time limit.

Thanks

[shravani407]

Hi,

I'm waiting for a reply to this.

[RonPurewal]

you don't have to read every line. (if you did, the problem would be unrepresentative of the exam; in fact, SKIPPING details is one of the major skills tested by GMAT RC!)

if you just skim the second paragraph, you'll notice that it contains nothing other than the results of some experiments. ("when fabre did X, Y happened. then fabre did Z, and Y happened." etc.)
that's enough to kill choices B, C, and D.

you can also knock off E pretty quickly, by thinking about either of these things:
* if the evidence countered the author's main point, the author would have to say so!
* the entire passage is only 2 paragraphs long, so it's implausible that the entire second paragraph (= 50 percent of the whole thing) would serve to refute the author's point.