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Course: Praxis Core Reading > Unit 1
Lesson 3: Worked example videos- Main idea | Worked example
- Supporting ideas | Worked example
- Meanings of words | Worked example
- Organization | Worked example
- Inferences | Worked example
- Evaluation of evidence | Worked example
- Purpose of component | Worked example
- Relationship of ideas | Worked example
- Fact or opinion | Worked example
- Author’s attitude | Worked example
- Recognize similar situations | Worked example
- Draw Conclusions | Worked example
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Relationship of ideas | Worked example
Watch David work through a relationship of ideas question from the Praxis Core Reading test.
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Video transcript
- [Instructor] For short
passages with a single question, I find that it sometimes makes sense to read the question first and see how that drives
our reading of the passage. So, I'm gonna start by
reading this question. Which of the following best
describes the relationship between the two paragraphs in the passage? So you can see they're
divided by line breaks, and we're gonna be looking for the relationship between them. So I'll read aloud these two paragraphs, then we'll see how they
relate to one another, like what's going on in each one. Here we go. Paragraph one. The world's best professional athletes all have one thing in
common, innate talent. Some studies have shown that athletes with
exceptional natural talent often outperform their competitors,
even those who practice. Paragraph two. However, I'm gonna circle however, practice is still a key
ingredient to success in sports. Okay, so Paragraph one,
talent is very important, Paragraph two, so far, yeah that's true, but also
practice is also important. Careful dedicated practice
can elevate one's skill, regardless of genetic predisposition. In other words, athletic
skill can be learned, at least to an extent. Only by honing natural talent
through diligent practice can an athlete elevate their performance to truly elite levels. Okay, so Paragraph one,
talent is powerful, perhaps even more powerful than practice. But Paragraph two
complicates that and says, yes that's true but
practice is still important and, if you apply diligent
practice to natural talent, you get something truly elite. So I'm gonna say, yes but
practice can make talent better. So as we go through the choices, we want to look for something
that contains a contrast. Paragraph one has an idea, Paragraph two contrasts it in some way. So let's just make a quick run-through and see what we can eliminate
just based on those grounds, leave in stuff that contains a contrast, take out stuff that omits
any reference to a contrast. Choice A, Paragraph
two refutes an argument presented in Paragraph one. That's a kind of contrast,
we'll leave that for now. Paragraph two makes a qualification to an argument presented in Paragraph one. So that's like a complication, not necessarily completely undercutting it but making it more complicated. So I'm gonna star that one as well. Paragraph two provides supporting examples for an idea introduced in Paragraph one. This doesn't mention a
conflict or a contrast at all. I don't think this is an option for us. Paragraph two examines the drawbacks to a system proposed in Paragraph one. That's kind of like a contrast,
that's kind of a conflict, examining drawbacks, so
we'll leave that for now. And then option E, Paragraph
two suggest an action plan based on a theory
mentioned in Paragraph one. I'm just not seeing that. I don't think that there's a theory mentioned in the first paragraph. There's stuff that's supported by studies, but there's not really an. If you were really squinting,
you could pull out, ah yes, my action plan for this would be, if I'm really talented I should practice, but I think that's a stretch,
so I'm going to eliminate E. So now we have three
choices left, A, B and D. We've used our little working model, Paragraph one, talent is powerful, Paragraph two, yes but practice
can make talent better, to eliminate two possible choices. And now let's go through
the remaining choices and see what we can eliminate. So returning to option
A, the word refutes, which means completely disagrees with, rebuts, goes against in opposition, I'm not sure that this is the right word to describe the relationship
between the two paragraphs. Ask yourself what would
the passage look like if the relationship
between the two paragraphs did look like this option. So if Paragraph two refuted an argument presented in Paragraph one, so Paragraph one's argument
is, talent is powerful, sometimes even more
powerful than practice, in order to refute or
completely deny that argument, the message of Paragraph
two would have to be, no, practice is powerful, and sometimes more powerful than talent. And that's a little bit too
strong for what is actually said because we have this yes but, however practice is still a
key ingredient to success. It's not denying that
pure talent in athleticism isn't very important and cannot
be a main driver of success. So I think refutes, a single word, taints this option, it's too strong. I'm gonna cross it off. Option B, Paragraph two
makes a qualification to an argument presented in Paragraph one. And as we said before, a qualification isn't necessarily an attempt
to knock down the argument. It's an attempt to infuse
it with some nuance. And I think that's what's going on. So if Paragraph one
says talent is powerful, Paragraph two says, yes it's powerful, but we also have this other
thing going on with practice. Practice can make talent even greater. So I want to leave this in for now. I don't see anything that's
going to knock this out. Finally, option D, Paragraph
two examines the drawbacks to a system proposed in Paragraph one. So the reason I left this in initially is because I saw the word drawbacks, and examining drawbacks seems like a kind of contrast
relationship between two paragraphs. However, looking at it again more closely, I'm not sure I see a system
proposed in Paragraph one, unless they're talking about, broadly, the system of international
professional athletics, which isn't, that's again a stretch. And you won't be asked to
make those kinds of stretches. The answer will fit or it won't. But more specifically, does Paragraph two examine
drawbacks to a system? Does Paragraph two explore
the drawbacks to talent? And the answer is no. It says, here's what we can
do to make talent better is diligent practice. So D is not our answer,
and that means that B is. So, to recap the strategy, what I did was I went through these two
paragraphs in the passage, and then I summarized and
boiled down the arguments from each paragraph
and tried to figure out how they related to each other. Do they contradict each other? Do they agree with each other? Is one vague and one more specific? When you're doing these
boiled down summaries, try to get away from the specifics or the details of each passage and instead focus on what the paragraphs within the passage are doing
in relation to each other. So, for example, we could
take out the word talent and call it factor X
and then compare it to, instead of practice, call that Y. X is powerful, but Y can make X better. And, in doing that, subbing in
these mathematical variables if you want, can help
you think more abstractly about the function of the argument. Because what you know or
believe about athletics or sports or talent is kind
of irrelevant to the question. Don't let your personal
biases or understandings of the way the world
works play into the way that you answer these
questions because everything that you need to answer
the question correctly is contained inside the passage. So, come up with a model in your own words of how the two paragraphs
of the passage interact, knock out answers that
don't conform to that model and then, with the remaining choices, try to test them against
the passage as it exists. Try and reimagine what the
passage would look like if it matched each choice.