GRE Verbal Logic Method Summary

GRE Verbal Introduction

• Number of questions: 10 questions per section, two sections totaling 20 questions

• Question types:

• Single blank: choose one from five

• Double blank: choose one from three (for each blank)

• Triple blank: choose one from three (for each blank)

• Sentence equivalence: choose two from six (select synonyms)

How to Get a High Score?

Vocabulary: Should not be lower than 12,000, ideally above 15,000

Less than five times through the vocabulary is basically bare minimum preparation, less than ten times is bikini-level preparation

• relying on the well-to-do for commissions: the wealthy & commissions

• hypocrite: hypocrite

• egotist: egotist

• sycophant: sycophant

• adulator: flatterer

• braggart: braggart

• coward: coward

• if sth at all: even if something really happens

• Sentence structure (mainly grammar issues)

• Postpositive attributive (four types):

• The boy who is reading a book: attributive clause as postpositive attributive

• The boy reading a book: participial phrase as postpositive attributive

• The boy in a red sweater: prepositional phrase as postpositive attributive

• The boy angry at his teacher: adjective phrase as postpositive attributive

• Example from real test: The writer so wary of extravagance was profligate with paper: very cautious about extravagance; profligate/dissolute

• Inverted sentences

• 1. Partial inversion: Only by ignoring decades of mismanagement and inefficiency could investors conclude that a fresh infusion of cash would provide anything other than a fleeting solution to the company’s financial woes: cash injection; temporary solution; financial crisis

• Normal sentence structure: Investors could conclude that … only by ignoring decades of …

• Partial inversion (auxiliary verb, be verb, modal verb fronted)

• only + adverbial fronted causes partial inversion

• Negative adverb fronted causes partial inversion

• 2. Complete inversion: Burke is often on slippery ground when it comes to her primary sources; especially dubious is the mode by which she gathered her oral evidence

• Normal word order: Burke is often on slippery ground when it comes to her primary sources; the mode is especially dubious by which she gathered her oral evidence

• Complete inversion knowledge explanation:

• 1. In “subject-predicate sentence + locative adverbial/temporal adverbial,” the adverbial can be fronted
• 2. “Subject + be verb + predicate (adjective phrase, prepositional phrase, participial phrase)”

• Parenthetical expressions:

• Common parenthetical examples: To be frank; The teacher, along with the headmaster, is doing sth

• How to handle parenthetical expressions: First look at the sentence structure outside the parenthetical, then integrate the parenthetical for complete understanding.

• That-led subject clause (that clause as subject)

• As-led concessive adverbial clause

• 1. As (in the role of): As a student, I must study hard
• 2. When: It was raining as I came back to my car
• 3. Because: As he is a child, we should not blame him
• 4. As…as (degree): I am as tall as my father
• 5. Compared to: I am as tall as my father
• 6. Although:

• Child as he is, he knows everything = Although he is a child, he knows everything

• Object as you may, I will go = Although you may object, I will go

• Much as you like it, I will not buy it = Although you like it, I will not buy it for you.

• Supplementary grammar knowledge (self-study)

• Six major clauses

• Emphatic sentences

• Subjunctive mood

• Non-finite verbs

Logical reasoning

• Logic should be convergent: Any reasoning must be based on the question itself!

• erudite: erudite

• insular: insular

• cosmopolitan: cosmopolitan

• imperturbable: imperturbable

• Often we only need to grasp the logical main line of the sentence without dwelling too much on Chinese translation.

• savor: savor/appreciate

• rejoice: rejoice

• prevarication: evasion

• flattery: flattery

• affectation: affectation

• narcissism: narcissism; daffodil

• indolence: indolence

• fecundity: fertility/abundance

• economy: economy; financial management

Correspondence techniques

• Core method for fill-in-the-blank summary: Understand sentence meaning - simplify sentence meaning - organize core logic - find blank correspondence point - select answer

• Practice:

• disdain: disdain

• egalitarian: egalitarian

• maverick: maverick

• dilettante: dilettante

• iconoclast: iconoclast

• purveyor: purveyor

• prose: prose

• general: general

• belligerence: belligerence

• indigence: indigence

• perfidy: perfidy

• betrayal: betrayal

• haughty: haughty