Manhattan Prep - GMAT Foundations of Verbal: Practice Problems in Book and Online (Manhattan Prep GMAT Strategy Guides)

This supplemental guide provides in-depth and easy-to-follow explanations of the fundamental verbal skills necessary for a strong performance on the GMAT.

GMAT is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admission Council. Manhattan Prep is neither endorsed by nor affiliated with GMAC.

Acknowledgements

A great number of people were involved in the creation of the book you are holding.

Our Manhattan Prep resources are based on the continuing experiences of our instructors and students. The overall vision for this edition was developed by Daniel Fogel and Andrea Pawliczek, who determined what strategies to cover and how to weave them into a cohesive whole.

For the Sentence Correction portion of the guide, Daniel Fogel was the primary author and Emily Meredith Sledge was the primary editor. For the Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension portions of the guide, Andrea Pawliczek was the primary author and Emily Madan was the primary editor. Patrick Tyrrell deserves special mention as the source of multiple new ideas for the CR unit of the guide. Helen Tan provided project management and Mario Gambino managed production for all images.

Matthew Callan coordinated the production work for this guide. Once the manuscript was done, Naomi Beesen, Stacey Koprince, and Emily Meredith Sledge edited and Cheryl Duckler proofread the entire guide from start to finish. Carly Schnur designed the covers.

GMAT Foundations of Verbal

Retail ISBN: 978-1-5062-4989-6
Course ISBN: 978-1-5062-4991-9
Retail eISBN: 978-1-5062-4990-2
Course eISBN: 978-1-5062-4992-6

Copyright 2020 MG Prep, Inc.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any meansgraphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or web distributionwithout the prior written permission of the publisher, MG Prep, Inc.

GMAT is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admission Council. Manhattan Prep is neither endorsed by nor affiliated with GMAC.

January 7, 2020

Dear Student,

Thank you for picking up a copy of Foundations of Verbal. I hope this book provides just the guidance you need to get the most out of your GMAT studies.

At Manhattan Prep, we continually aspire to provide the best instructors and resources possible. If you have any questions or feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Email our Student Services team at gmat@manhattanprep.com or give us a shout at 212-721-7400 (or 800-576-4628 in the United States or Canada). We try to keep all our books free of errors, but if you think weve goofed, please visit manhattanprep.com/GMAT/errata.

Our Manhattan Prep Strategy Guides are based on the continuing experiences of both our instructors and our students. The primary authors of this edition of the Foundations of Verbal guide were Daniel Fogel (SC) and Andrea Pawliczek (RC and CR). Project management and design were led by Matthew Callan, Mario Gambino, and Helen Tan. Id like to send particular thanks to instructors Stacey Koprince, Emily Madan, Emily Meredith Sledge, and Patrick Tyrrell for their content contributions.

Finally, we are indebted to all of the Manhattan Prep students who have given us excellent feedback over the years. This book wouldnt be half of what it is without their voice.

And now that you are one of our students too, please chime in! I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks again and best of luck preparing for the GMAT!

Sincerely,

Chris Ryan
Executive Director, Product Strategy

Welcome to GMAT Foundations of Verbal!

This book will improve your English for the rest of your life.

This guide will also help you with the GMAT, of course, but its usefulness isnt limited to the GMAT. Youll learn how sentences work, how arguments are constructed, and how written English is used and understood in business contexts.

The vast majority of this guide is helpful for both native and non-native English speakers, though the section on vocabulary in Reading Comprehension (RC) is primarily oriented toward English language learners.

Either way, this book will open your eyes:

• You may discover that words you thought you knew can be used in ways you werent aware of. (Did you know that qualified can mean limited?)
• You may also discover that passages you thought you understood actually have additional meaning that you missed on a first reading.
• And you may discover that the way even educated native speakers communicate in spoken English is not actually considered correct in written English. (Did you know that I have done more studying than has he is correct, and I consider her to be a good friend is incorrect? It should say I consider her a good friend.)

This is certainly not the only book you will need in order to succeed on the GMAT. You will also need the latest The GMATOfficial Guide, a book filled with past official GMAT questions, which you are going to use to practice.

We also recommend that you graduate from this book to the Manhattan Prep All the GMAT strategy guide series, which includes all of the Verbal, Quantitative, Integrated Reasoning, and Analytical Writing Assessment information youll need for the GMAT.

If youve never been sure exactly how to identify the subject of a sentence, if Quant is your natural strength and you dislike the Verbal section, or if youre a non-native English speaker who feels that you could use some additional instruction on the fundamentals, then youll likely want to work through this guide.

You may need only one or two of the major sections in this book before you feel ready to move on to the more advanced All the Verbal strategy guide. Alternatively, you may want to work through this book thoroughly before you move to All the Verbal.

If you generally feel comfortable with your language, reading, and reasoning skills, then you can move straight to the main All the Verbal guide, but use this Foundations guide as a reference whenever needed. You can look up adverbs here to remind yourself what they do. If you are struggling to find assumptions on Critical Reading (CR) or to articulate the main idea of a reading passage, flip open this book to drill your foundational skills.