Lesson: Critical Reading - 12t01

Practice At Getting The Gist

[Page 12 of 19]
 Getting the gist of the passage involves reducing it to simpler terms by using casual, informal language.
Review the following excerpt. How might you reduce it to simpler terms? Type your answer into the textbox below, and then click Continue to our response.

Anecdotal evidence indicates an underlying assumption on the part of most postal workers that the U.S. Postal Service will maintain in perpetuity its exclusive right to deliver first class mail. Yet failing a tremendous improvement in average delivery time, public outcry over poor postal service will likely force Congress to revoke the franchise.

Gist:


Note that our response lacks some of the finer details of the excerpt. That's not only O.K., but it's proper. Not only is this O.K., but it's proper. Why do you think the testmakers give such a limited amount of time to read passages and answer questions? It's because they want to reward those who are content to understand the broad lines of argument. (Once again, those who can't distinguish between broad ideas and details will have a lot of trouble in graduate school.)

When getting the gist, you'll have to sacrifice some nuances.

So: Don't worry about missing nuances. Concentrate on summing up, in broad terms, what the author is saying. If and when a question asks you about something more specific, you can always go back and reread that portion in greater depth. But most standardized test questions hinge on broader ideas rather than narrow ones.
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