Find out what you will face on the Reading Comprehension section of the GMAT exam. Try these practice questions and then click on the get answer link to download the answer and explanation.
Answer the questions after reading through the passage. Base your answers on information that is either stated or implied in the passage.
The Passage
An important feature of the labor market in recent years has been the increasing participation of women, particularly married women. Many analysts suggest, however, that women comprise a secondary labor market where rates of pay and promotion prospects are inferior to those available to men. The principal reason is that women have, or are assumed to have, domestic responsibilities that compete with paid employment. Such domestic responsibilities are strongly influenced by social values that require women to give priority to home and family over paid employment. The difficulties that women face in the labor market and in their ability to reach senior positions in organizations are accentuated with the arrival of children. In order to become full-time employees, women with children must overcome the problems of finding good, affordable childcare and the psychological barriers of workplace marginality. Some women balance domestic and workplace commitments by working part time. However, part-time work is a precarious form of employment. Female part-timers are often the first laid off in a difficult economy. These workers are often referred to as the “reserve army” of female labor. One researcher has found that approximately 80 percent of women in their twenties who have children remain at home. Such women who later return to work represent another sector of the workforce facing difficulties. When the typical houseworker returns to the labor market, she is unsure of herself in her new environment. This doubt is accentuated by her recent immersion in housework, a very private form of work. Without recent employment experience, these women confront a restricted range of opportunities and will almost certainly be offered lowstatus jobs with poor prospects. Even women professionals who interrupt their careers to have children experience difficulties. Their technical skills may become rusty or obsolete, important networks of business contacts are broken, and their delayed return to work may mean that they are likely to come up for promotion well after the age that would be otherwise normal. Consequently, women, even those of high ability, may find themselves blocked in the lower echelons of an organization, overlooked, or even “invisible” to senior management.
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Question 1
The author of the passage is primarily concerned with...
A. advocating changes in employers’ practices towards women with children
B. examining some of the reasons women rarely reach the higher echelons of paid labor
C. describing the psychological consequences for women of working outside the home
D. taking issue with those who believe women should not work outside the home
E. analyzing the contribution of women to industry and business
Question 2
The passage provides information to support which of the following statements about women workers?
A. It is the responsibility of employers to provide childcare accommodations for women workers with children.
B. Women in high-status positions are easily able to integrate career and children.
C. Conditions for working mothers are much better today than they were 20 years ago.
D. The decision to work outside the home is often the source of considerable anxiety for women with children.
E. With the expense of childcare, it is often not profitable for women with children to work.
Question 3
The author’s discussion of women professionals in the last paragraph serves to...
A. show that the difficulties of integrating careers and motherhood can be overcome
B. indicate that even women of higher professional status are not exempt from the difficulties of integrating careers and children
C. defend changes in the policies of employers towards working mothers
D. modify a hypothesis regarding the increased labor force participation of women
E. point out the lack of opportunities for women in business
Question 4
According to the passage, men generally receive...
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