Self-study
Support A person reading a new book for pleasure is like a tourist traveling to a new place. ███ ██████ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ ███████ █████████████ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████████████ █████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ████ █████ █████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ██ █████ █ █████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████ █████████ ███████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that it’s better to read fewer books and spend more time on each, rather than reading as many as possible. As support, she draws an analogy, saying that it’s better to travel to fewer places and spend more time in each, rather than spending a little time in many places. She notes that reading, like traveling, is about deepening understanding, instead of just gaining new information.
Notable Assumptions
In order to draw an analogy between reading and traveling, the author assumes that there are no relevant differences between the two. She also assumes that spending more time in one place leads to a better understanding of that place than spending less time there does.
3.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
Tourists typically learn █████████ █████ ███ ██████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ██ ██████
Irrelevant. This fails to address whether tourists deepen their understanding of a place when they spend more time there. The author focuses on how long tourists are in a place, not why they are there.
b
Tourists gain much ████ █████████████ ██ █ █████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ███████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ██ █████ █████ ███ ████ ██████
If tourists gain more understanding of a place once they’ve spent several days there and reading is like traveling, this suggests that readers gain more understanding by spending more time reading each book.
c
Many people report ████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ████ █████ █ █████ ██ ████████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ██ ███████ █████ ███
Irrelevant. This fails to address whether tourists deepen their understanding of a place when they spend more time there. The author uses reading and traveling as two different but analogous activities, both of which deepen understanding. Like (D), (C) mixes them together.
d
Tourists who have ████ █████ █ █████ ██████████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████
Irrelevant. This fails to address whether tourists deepen their understanding of a place when they spend more time there. The author uses reading and traveling as two different but analogous activities, both of which deepen understanding. Like (C), (D) mixes them together.
e
Some tourists are ███████████ █████ ███████ ███████████ █████ █ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██ █████████ ███ █████ █████████ ██████████
Irrelevant. This fails to address whether tourists deepen their understanding of a place when they spend more time there. Also, the author already said that people travel “to enlarge understanding rather than simply to acquire information.”