Command of Evidence Qs What do they look like? The typical stem for a command of evidence Q says “which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous questions?”.

Command of Evidence Qs Continued Command of evidence questions are generally paired with one of two types of questions: literal comprehension questions inference questions

Command of Evidence Qs The most important thing to remember about command of evidence questions is that they are not really two questions all but a single question broken into parts. You need to work them together.

Command of Evidence Qs Step One Identify your command of evidence pairs right after you finish your passage map

Command of Evidence Qs Step 2 When answering the first of the paired questions, simply plug the answer choices from question 2 into question 1. Then use that information to answer both questions. The answer to question 1 will simply be a rephrasing of the answer to question 2

Command of Evidence Qs In some instances it may be necessary to read above or below the line reference in these types of questions

Command of Evidence Qs We’re going to practice this technique in a bit

Literal Comprehension Questions Some typical literal comprehension question stems: The author’s discussion of antibiotics indicates that…. The author claims which of the following is a longstanding tradition? Which reaction does Watson have to the statement in lines 9-11?

Literal Comprehension Questions The secret to literal comprehension questions is your ability to understand the ideas well enough that you can recognize paraphrased versions of the ideas

Literal Comprehension Questions Lets work through the passage and question on page 123

Literal Comprehension Questions Now lets work through the passage and questions on page 126

Literal Comprehension Questions One more practice (a little different), on page 130

Literal Comprehension Questions Your turn… Please map the passage on page 137 and then answer all the following questions

Inference Questions What they look like…. In lines 9-11, the author suggests that… The author most stronly implies which of the following… It can be most reasonably inferred that the author considers “those scientists” (lines 9-11)….

Inference Questions The most important thing to remember …. Although answers to inference questions will not be stated word-for-word in the passage, the passage will always contain wording that clearly indicates a particular idea, event, or relationship.

Inference Questions Some common fallacies that pop in as the wrong answers in inference questions… 1) Speculation – it could be true based on the information in the passage, but there just isn’t enough information to judge whether it is actually true

Inference Questions Another common type of fallacy… “if x is true in one case, then x is true in all cases These fallacies are often characterized by extreme words such as always, never, all and only

Inference Questions Let’s try the passage and questions on page 161

Inference Questions Underlying Assumptions Example: An unstated assumption made by the authors about x is that …. They are hard because they are not often accompanied by command of evidence questions or with line references

Inference Questions Underlying assumptions continued.. Answers to these questions often “fill in the blanks” - that is, explicitly spell out information that is only implied in the passage Traps 1) answers that go beyond the bounds of what be reasonably be inferred 2) use some of the same wording as that found in the passage alter it just enough so that it means something different

Inference Questions Let’s work through the passage and questions on page 173

Inference Questions You practice with pages 174-175