The following text is from a workplace communication study examining employee behavior during organizational transitions.During board meetings, Sarah ...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
The following text is from a workplace communication study examining employee behavior during organizational transitions.
During board meetings, Sarah maintained her usual professional demeanor, contributing thoughtful comments and asking clarifying questions. However, she found herself privately questioning whether the company's new direction aligned with her career goals, and she began discreetly updating her resume and researching potential opportunities at other firms. These exploratory activities felt necessary, even though she had not yet decided to pursue them actively.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
To illustrate Sarah's commitment to her current role during organizational change
To reveal the tension between Sarah's public professionalism and private career concerns
To demonstrate Sarah's strategic approach to career advancement within her company
To emphasize Sarah's proactive response to uncertainty in her workplace
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "During board meetings, Sarah maintained her usual professional demeanor, contributing thoughtful comments and asking clarifying questions." |
|
| "However, she found herself privately questioning whether the company's new direction aligned with her career goals," |
|
| "and she began discreetly updating her resume and researching potential opportunities at other firms." |
|
| "These exploratory activities felt necessary, even though she had not yet decided to pursue them actively." |
|
Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: The text reveals the tension between Sarah's outward professionalism and her private career concerns during organizational change.
Argument Flow: The passage establishes Sarah's professional public behavior, then contrasts this with her private doubts about the company's direction, supports this contrast with evidence of her job search activities, and concludes by explaining her cautious approach to these activities.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The passage is structured around a clear contrast - Sarah acts one way publicly (professional, engaged) but feels and acts differently privately (questioning, job searching)
- The "However" transition word signals this is the key relationship the author wants us to see
- The purpose isn't just to describe Sarah's behavior, but to highlight this specific tension between her public and private responses to organizational change
To illustrate Sarah's commitment to her current role during organizational change
- This focuses only on her public behavior at meetings
- Completely ignores her private doubts and job search activities
To reveal the tension between Sarah's public professionalism and private career concerns
- Captures both sides: "public professionalism" and "private career concerns"
- The word "tension" perfectly describes the relationship between these contrasting behaviors
- Matches our prethinking about the central contrast the passage establishes
To demonstrate Sarah's strategic approach to career advancement within her company
- She's researching opportunities at "other firms," not advancing within her company
- Misses that her actions are driven by doubts, not strategic career planning within her current role
To emphasize Sarah's proactive response to uncertainty in her workplace
- While she is responding to workplace uncertainty, this misses the key element of contrast
- Doesn't capture that her response has two very different sides (public vs. private)