RC Practice Questions - 3 | Practice Questions for GMAT PDF Download

The correct answer is (D). Oersted’s ideas would not have been published in so many journals within a short time frame if major objections were raised about his findings.

The correct answer is (B). The passage states that Oersted wrote his pamphlet in Latin and forwarded it to “the learned societies and outstanding scientists all over Europe.” We are also told that “the paper was published in various journals”. Thus we can infer that the readers of those journals knew the Latin language.

The correct answer is (D). You can derive the author's purpose, tone and sentiment as indicated by the passage's language and structure; although word choice is important, the overall layout of the text should be taken into account as well.

In the last paragraph of the passage, the author states that “Oersted’s comment that the voltaic apparatus used should “be strong enough to heat a metallic wire red hot” does not excuse the twenty-year delay of the discovery”. This statement suggests that the author agrees with the earlier writers that the discovery of the connection between electricity and magnetism took too long given the circumstances.

The correct answer is (D). We are told that Oersted “had been seeking electromagnetic relationships more or less deliberately for several years before he made his decisive observations”. After his discovery, he “described fully how the direction and magnitude of the needle deflections varied with the relative position of the wire and the polarity of the battery”. We can infer that he was not fully aware of the nature of the relationship between electricity and magnetism although he might have suspected that there was a relationship between the two.

The correct answer is (B). Using what you know about the passage's logical structure, identify the answer choice that squares most readily with the author's overall argument. It is supported by both the very beginning and the very end of the passage.

The correct answer is (B). The passage discusses the surprise that many writers felt about the fact that although many “natural philosophers were firmly persuaded, even in the absence of positive evidence, that there must be a connection between electricity and magnetism” no one actually discovered the connection for about 20 years. Answer choice (B) describes a situation where there was a connection between two things, but scientists were slow to discover that connection. (B) is the only answer choice that describes a situation that is parallel to the one described in the passage.