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35 multiple-choice questions and 8 flashcards on Paragraph Comprehension, about 12% of the ASVAB bank. Every one carries a written rationale.
Paragraph Comprehension is one of 11 chapters in CoStudy's ASVAB bank, and it holds 35 of the bank's 300 multiple-choice questions — roughly 12% of the total. That proportion is not arbitrary: chapters follow the certifying body's published exam outline, and the number of questions in each is set by that domain's published weight, so the share of your practice time this chapter takes matches the share of the real exam it accounts for.
Studying by chapter is worth doing once you have a diagnostic score. A single overall percentage tells you whether you are close; it does not tell you which domain is dragging. Working a weak chapter in isolation, and re-testing it in isolation, is the fastest way to move a score that has stalled — and it is why the mock exams in CoStudy report by domain rather than as one number.
10 questions drawn from this chapter, with the full rationale shown — the controlling principle behind the right answer, and why each wrong option tempts and fails.
Most warehouses now count stock in small batches all year instead of shutting down for one large annual count. A team checks a few shelf sections each week and compares the result with the computer record. Errors show up while the paperwork trail is still fresh, and the building keeps shipping orders the whole time. The method takes more planning, but it spreads the labor across the calendar. The main idea of this passage is that:
Answer: A — counting stock in small weekly batches works better than one yearly shutdown
A) Right — every sentence supports the superiority of cycle counting over the annual shutdown. B) Errors are mentioned only as something the method catches, not as a frequent problem the passage claims. C) Shipping appears once as a side benefit and is far too broad a takeaway. D) The closure is background detail, true of the old method but not the point.
Wind turbines are shut down in very high winds. The blades could keep turning, but the loads on the shaft and tower rise faster than the available power, so the machine is feathered and parked until the gusts drop. Operators lose a few hours of output and avoid a repair that would take weeks. The cutout point is set by the manufacturer, not by the operator on duty. It can be inferred that the shutdown is intended mainly to:
Answer: A — protect the equipment from damaging loads
A) Right — the trade is a few hours of output for avoiding a weeks-long repair. B) Output actually falls to zero, so steadiness is not the aim. C) Noise is never mentioned, though it is a real turbine issue. D) No inspection is described during shutdown.
A shipment of refrigerated goods must be logged at three points: when the trailer is sealed, when it crosses to the receiving dock, and when the last pallet enters the cooler. The middle reading is taken by the driver, the other two by warehouse staff. If any reading is above the limit, the load is held rather than refused, and quality control decides within two hours. According to the passage, the driver records:
Answer: A — the reading taken at the receiving dock
A) Right — the middle of the three points is the dock crossing, and the driver takes that one. B) Sealing is the first point, assigned to warehouse staff. C) Combines the driver's reading with one that is not his, an off-by-one trap. D) The cooler entry is the third point and also warehouse staff's.
Passage: "The recruit, though exhausted, completed the obstacle course in record time. His persistence impressed every instructor watching." The word PERSISTENCE most nearly means:
Answer: B — Refusal to give up
A) Related but not the precise meaning. B) Persistence = continued effort despite difficulty. C) Speed is mentioned separately. D) Unrelated.
A shop supervisor writes: every guard must be back in place before power is restored to a machine, and the technician who removed the guard is the one who replaces it. No one else may return the machine to service. If that technician's shift ends first, the machine stays locked out until the next shift's technician has inspected it personally. According to the passage, a machine may be returned to service by:
Answer: C — the technician who took the guard off the machine
C) Right — the passage assigns restoration to the technician who removed the guard. A) A later technician may inspect, but only after a personal inspection, and the passage frames that as the exception rather than a free hand. B) The supervisor wrote the rule but is never given the authority. D) The operator is never mentioned as having any role.
Passage: "Sleep deprivation slows reaction time and impairs judgment, mirroring the effects of moderate alcohol intoxication." The main point is:
Answer: D — Lack of sleep impairs performance similarly to alcohol
A) Not stated. D) Stated directly. C) Absurd inference. B) Opposite of implied.
Sound travels faster through steel than through air because the particles in a solid sit closer together and pass a vibration along sooner. That is why a worker can hear a hammer strike through a long pipe before the sound arrives through the open air. Temperature matters too: warm air carries sound faster than cold air. Density alone does not settle the question. It can be inferred that sound moves fastest through:
Answer: C — a solid metal bar of some length
C) Right — the passage puts steel ahead of air, and the pipe example confirms it. A) Cold air is the slowest medium named. B) Warm air beats cold air but still trails the solid. D) A vacuum has no particles to pass the vibration, so no sound travels at all.
Before the first railroads, each town kept its own time from the local noon sun, so clocks a hundred miles apart could differ by several minutes. That was tolerable for a stagecoach and impossible for a timetable. Rail companies pushed for wide zones of uniform time, and by the end of the century most of the country had accepted them. The change came from commerce rather than from any scientific discovery. The main idea of this passage is that:
Answer: D — the need for railroad scheduling drove the adoption of time zones
D) Right — the passage traces standard time to commercial pressure from the railroads. A) True and stated, but it is the setup rather than the point. B) Timetables are mentioned in passing and cover far less than the passage says. C) The passage denies a scientific origin but never claims scientists lacked accuracy.
To season a bare cast iron pan, wipe a very thin film of cooking oil over the whole surface, including the handle. Place the pan upside down in a hot oven with a sheet pan underneath, and bake it for one hour. Let it cool in the oven. A heavy coat of oil will pool and turn sticky rather than harden, so thin is the rule. Repeat the cycle several times for a durable finish. The passage suggests that a sticky pan is most likely the result of:
Answer: D — applying too much oil before baking the pan
D) Right — the passage states directly that a heavy coat pools and turns sticky. A) Short baking time is plausible but the passage links stickiness to oil quantity. B) Orientation is given so excess can drip, making it adjacent to the cause but not the one named. C) Cooling in the oven is advised, yet no sticky result is tied to fast cooling.
Passage: "Night vision goggles amplify available light up to 50,000 times. Without ambient light, however, they cannot function. Most modern models include an infrared illuminator to compensate." We can infer that:
Answer: B — An infrared illuminator helps when ambient light is absent
A) Contradicted by the passage. B) Inferred directly from the third sentence. C) The passage says modern, not older. D) Not stated.
1 cards from the 8 in this chapter.
PC strategy?
Read the passage first, then the question. Stay close to text — don't infer beyond what's stated.
These are a sample. The full Paragraph Comprehension chapter runs 43 items with per-chapter progress tracking, on the web and in the iOS app.