Verbal · Reading Comprehension
GRE Reading Comprehension practice
Six original passages with twenty questions: main idea, inference, detail, function, and select-all-that-apply. Every answer is justified by a specific line in the passage, with the traps explained. Free, no signup.
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Reading Comprehension practiceEasy
Question 1 of 20
When historians describe the spread of printing in fifteenth-century Europe, they often emphasize the press itself, as though the machine alone reshaped reading habits. Yet the printing press could not have transformed the circulation of texts without a parallel revolution in paper manufacture. Parchment, made from animal skin, was durable but scarce and costly; a single substantial book might consume the hides of an entire herd. Paper, by contrast, could be produced in quantity from rags collected in towns and milled with water power. As paper mills multiplied across the Rhine valley and northern Italy, the raw cost of a book fell sharply, and printers could risk larger print runs. Recognizing this, some scholars now argue that the so-called print revolution was, in part, a paper revolution. The shift did not merely lower prices; it widened the range of what could profitably be printed, from cheap pamphlets to technical manuals, and so altered who could become a reader at all.
Which of the following best states the main idea of the passage?
Select one answer choice.
How to approach it
A method for Reading Comprehension.
Map the argument, not every fact
On the first read, get the main point, the structure, and the author's stance. You can return for details, but you cannot answer without the argument.
Answer from the passage, not your knowledge
The correct answer is supported by the text, even when a choice is true in the real world. Find the line that backs your answer before you commit.
Inference means must be true
GRE inferences are small and strongly supported, not big leaps. The right answer is the one the passage forces, not the one it merely allows.
Questions
Reading Comprehension, answered.
About half of the Verbal questions are passage-based, drawn from short and longer passages across the humanities, sciences, and social sciences.
No. You must select every correct statement and no incorrect ones, so check each option against the passage independently.
Read the passage for its argument first. Skimming for keywords without the structure leads to detail traps and wrong inferences.
Pick the choice the passage makes unavoidable. Reject anything that overstates, adds new information, or steps outside the author's scope.