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Analogies: Introduction, Part 1

Hello, everybody! Ready to start learning the GRE? Let's start with analogies. In some ways they are the easiest part of the GRE; in other ways, they are the hardest part of the GRE.

When are analogies easy? When you have a good English vocabulary. If you know lots of words in English, then the analogies section should be a breeze.

When are analogies hard? When your English vocabulary is not so strong. You will need to learn lots of new words for the GRE. In fact, the GRE is famous for its many thousands of words, many of which we rarely use.

What is an analogy?

Here's an example:

apple : fruit :: carrot : vegetable

First off, how do we read this?

We say, "apple is to fruit as carrot is to vegetable."

Now, let's look more closely at the analogy. We should be able to see that apple is related to fruit in the same way that carrot is related to vegetable.

In both cases, the first word is a member of the group of the second word--an apple is a kind of fruit; a carrot is a kind of vegetable.

When we explain the relationship in a sentence, we have made a relationship sentence, a relationship, a connection, or a bridge between the two words. At TestMagic, we will use the word bridge.

It is very important to make good bridges between the two words.

Let's do some practice.

Learn by doing

The first thing that we will do is learn how to make a relationship sentence for the analogies. For a couple of these problems, more than one answer may be possible. As usual, the analogies will become harder as we go on.

1.

analogy

happy : sad

bridge

happy is the opposite of sad

2 .

analogy

automobile : vehicle

bridge

an automobile is a type of car

3 .

analogy

pen : ink

bridge

a pen uses ink to perform its function

4 .

analogy

pen : write

bridge

the function of a pen is to write

5 .

analogy

cup : liquid

bridge

a the function of a cup is to hold liquid

6 .

analogy

travel : location

bridge

to travel is to change one's location

7 .

analogy

language : communicate

bridge

the function of language is to communicate

8 .

analogy

insult : harm

bridge

the purpose of an insult is to harm

9 .

analogy

tree : root

bridge

a tree derives nutrition from its roots

or

the roots of a tree keep the tree in place

10.

analogy

watch : time

bridge

the function of a watch is to show, measure, or keep track of the time