Normally, your brain wakes up these ideas and memories as a natural part of reading. However, under
stress, your eyes can pass over words and even recognize them, but no ideas come to life in your brain. You
are too distracted and overwhelmed, and the words on the page remain “just words.”
In this case, try
concretizing
. That is,
actively
imagine
what the words are referring to
. Re-explain the
original text to yourself. Visualize what it represents. Indulge in simplifications, even stereotypes. Make up
examples and use any other mental handles that you can.
Of course, there is a danger in actively concretizing part of a GRE passage—you might introduce outside
ideas. However, that danger is small in comparison to the worse problem of
not understanding at all
what
you are reading, especially at the start of a passage.
Consider the following sentence, which could be the opening of a passage:
Most exobiologists—scientists who search for life on other planets or moons—agree that car-
bon probably provides the backbone of any extraterrestrial biological molecules, just as it does
of terrestrial ones, since carbon is unique among the elements in its ability to form long, stable
chains of atoms.
Ideally, you can read this sentence and grasp it without any problems. Under exam pressure, however, you
might need some help understanding the sentence.
In your mind, you might concretize this sentence in the following manner:
You should NOT write this concretization down (except as an exercise during your preparation). The
process should happen quickly in your head. Moreover, as you read further into the passage, the need to
W
or
ds
Concr
etiz
ed I
deas
…exobiologists–scientists…
smart folks in white coats
…who search for life
on other planets or moons…
who peer through telescopes
looking for little green men
…carbon probably provides the
backbone of extraterrestrial
biological molecules…
carbon
: charcoal, key element in
living things
backbone
: like a spine to a little
molecule
…its ability to form long, stable
chains of atoms.
carbon can make long, stable
chains
like bones in a backbone
or links in a physical chain

INTRODUCTION TO PRINCIPLES
18
Manhattan
GRE
Prep
Chapter 1
the new standard
*
concretize should diminish. In fact, if you do too much concretizing along the way, you might introduce
too many outside ideas and lose track of what is actually written in the passage. However, concretizing can
help you make sense of a difficult opening paragraph, so you should practice this technique.
Principle #4: Unpack the Beginning
You must understand the first few sentences of every passage, because they supply critical context for the
entire passage. If you do not grasp these sentences at first, you have two choices. Either you can take more
time with them right away, or you can read a little further and gather more context. In the latter case, you
MUST go back and re-acquire those initial sentences later.


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