Resolve the Paradox

Question 1

Resolve the Paradox: Intro

Answer 1

• Our job is to choose the answer choice that best explains how both facts presented in the passage could simultaneously be true. Find the answer that gives you the “Ah - of course - that makes sense” feeling.
• Every word matters. Know exactly what the paradox is. Notice the direction of what the correct answer has to explain (e.g., increase? decrease?)
• Look for what could be true, not what must be true.

Question 2

Resolve the Paradox: Key Words

Answer 2

yet, but, paradoxically, however, despite, unlike, even though, though, although, instead, rather, surprisingly, unexpectedly

Question 3

Resolve the Paradox: Strategy

Answer 3

1. Read the question stem
2. Understand the passage
3. Bullet point the paradoxical facts
4. Rephrase the paradox as a question
   → “How can it be the case that Fact 1, even though Fact 2?”
5. Analyze the answer choices

Question 4

Resolve the Paradox: Conclusion

Answer 4

• Don’t look for a conclusion in a Resolve the Paradox question.
• Sometimes, incorrect choices can be conclusions that follow from the info in the stimulus.
• Only choices that provide new info that explains how two facts can be true simultaneously will be the correct answers to Resolve the Paradox questions.

Question 5

Resolve the Paradox:

Incorrect Answer Types

Answer 5

1. A choice that explains the wrong thing.
   → An option that explains something related to only one side of the paradox will be incorrect.
   → An option that explains something related to the entire stimulus but does not explain how the two facts can coexist will be incorrect.
2. Never use a similarity between two things to explain a paradoxical difference between them.
3. Choices that actually make the situation described even more paradoxical.
4. Choices that seem to contradict one of the two facts.
   → We accept the statements in the passages as true, even though they apparently conflict. Don’t challenge the facts.
5. Choices that introduce info that has no effect on the paradox
   → Don’t make up convoluted stories
6. Discusses the facts that make up the apparent paradox without explaining how they can coexist