It Is Hard For Us To Imagine Today How Utterly Different The World Of GMAT Reading Comprehension

Reading Passage Question

It is hard for us to imagine today how utterly different the world of night used to be from the daylight world. Of course, we can still re-create something of that lost mystique. When we sit around a campfire and tell ghost stories, our goosebumps (and our children’s) remind us of the terrors that night used to hold. But it is all too easy for us to pile in the car at the end of our camping trip and return to the comfort of our incandescent, fluorescent, floodlit modern world. Two thousand, or even two hundred, years ago there was no such escape from the darkness. It was a physical presence that gripped the world from sunset until the cock’s crow.

“As different as night and day,” we say today. But in centuries past, night and day really were different. In a time when every scrap of light after sunset was desperately appreciated, when travelers would mark the road by piling up light stones or by stripping the bark off of trees to expose the lighter wood underneath, the Moon was the traveler’s greatest friend. It was known in folklore as “the parish lantern.” It was steady, portable, and — unlike a torch — entailed no risk of fire. It would never blow out, although it could, of course, hide behind a cloud.

Nowadays we don’t need the moon to divide the light from the darkness because electric lights do it for us. Many of us have never even seen a truly dark sky. According to a recent survey on light pollution, 97 percent of the U.S. population lives under a night sky at least as bright as it was on a half-moon night in ancient times. Many city-dwellers live their entire lives under the equivalent of a full moon.

“It is hard for us to imagine today how utterly different the world”- is a reading comprehension exercise for the GMAT. Candidates must be extremely skilled in GMAT reading comprehension. This GMAT reading comprehension section contains 4 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed to assess candidates' ability to comprehend, analyzation, and application skills. GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions can help candidates who are actively preparing.

Solutions and Explanation

1. The primary purpose of this passage is to

(A) compare and contrast nighttime in the modern world with the dark nights of centuries past
(B) explain why the invention of the electric light was essential to increasing worker productivity
(C) lament the loss of the dark nights and the danger and excitement that moonless nights would bring
(D) describe the diminishing brightness of the moon and the subsequent need for more electric lights
(E) argue for an end to the excessive light pollution that plagues 97 percent of the U.S. population

2. When the author says, “Many city-dwellers live their entire lives under the equivalent of a full moon,” he is essentially saying that

(A) city-dwellers will never be able to truly appreciate the mystique and beauty of a truly dark night
(B) there is no longer a need for moonlight because artificial light is sufficient
(C) city-dwellers are missing out on much of the beauty of the natural world
(D) the amount of artificial light that shines in cities is enough to produce the same amount of light as a full moon
(E) it is easier to view the moon from cities than from rural areas

3. The passage mentions all the following as possible ways for travelers to find the path at night except

(A) piles of light-colored stones
(B) the moon
(C) a torch
(D) railings made of light wood
(E) trees with the bark stripped off

4. The author includes the statistic “97 percent of the U.S. population lives under a night sky at least as bright as it was on a half-moon night in ancient times” to primarily emphasize which of the following points?

(A) Modern humans have the luxury of being able to see well at night despite cloud cover or a moonless night.
(B) Most modern people cannot really understand how important the moon was to people in centuries past.
(C) Americans are unique among the people of the world in having so much artificial light at night.
(D) A full moon in ancient times was brighter than modern electric lights, which are only as bright as a half-moon.
(E) Light pollution is one of the most important problems facing the United States in the 21st century.

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