The following text is adapted from Sylvia Acevedo's 2018 memoir Path to the Stars: My Journey from Girl Scout to...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
The following text is adapted from Sylvia Acevedo's 2018 memoir Path to the Stars: My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist. The narrator is traveling by car with her family to Mexico City. Mario and Laura are her brother and sister.
Mario and I played games to see how many different license plates we could spot, and Laura liked to look for children in the back seats of the cars we passed. We were used to the forty-five-minute drive to El Paso and familiar with the six-hour ride to Chihuahua, but I wondered what the long journey to Mexico City would be like.
©2018 by Sylvia Acevedo
According to the text, what did the narrator and Mario do while riding in the car?
They read books.
They sang songs.
They went to sleep.
They played games.
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| 'Mario and I played games to see how many different license plates we could spot,' |
|
| 'and Laura liked to look for children in the back seats of the cars we passed.' |
|
| 'We were used to the forty-five-minute drive to El Paso and familiar with the six-hour ride to Chihuahua,' |
|
| 'but I wondered what the long journey to Mexico City would be like.' |
|
Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: The passage describes how family members occupied themselves during car travel and the narrator's anticipation about a longer upcoming trip.
Argument Flow: The passage begins by describing specific activities each family member engaged in during car rides, then provides context about their previous travel experience with shorter trips, and concludes with the narrator's curiosity about how this longer journey to Mexico City will differ.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
What's being asked? What specific activity the narrator and Mario did while riding in the car
What type of answer do we need? A direct factual detail from the passage about their behavior
Any limiting keywords? 'According to the text' indicates we need to stick exactly to what's stated, not infer anything beyond the text
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The passage clearly states that 'Mario and I played games to see how many different license plates we could spot.'
- This directly answers what Mario and the narrator did together during the car ride
- The answer should reference this gaming activity specifically
They read books.
- The passage never mentions reading books
They sang songs.
- No mention of singing songs in the passage
They went to sleep.
- The passage doesn't say they went to sleep
They played games.
- Matches exactly what the passage states about playing games to spot license plates