Reading Passage Question
The earth formed 4.5 billion years ago. Evolutionary biologists believe that single-celled prokaryotic life (cells without a cell nucleus) appeared on earth less than one billion years after that. What’s remarkable about this date is that geophysicists believe this was the earliest point at which the planet had cooled enough to sustain life. In other words, life appeared almost the instant (in geological time) that it was possible. For unknown reasons, it took more than another billion years for Eukaryotic life (cells with nuclei) to appear, another billion years for multicellular life to evolve from eukaryotic cells, and another billion years for humans to appear — which we did less than a million years ago. The processes that lead to multicellular life all took place in the earth’s oceans.

Solution and Explanation

1. Which of the following statements would the author of the passage be most likely to agree with?

(A) The reasons why Eukaryotic life took so long to appear will never be known to us.
(B) Humans took longer to develop because we are so complex.
(C) The ocean was vitally important to the development of multicellular life.
(D) Multi-cellular life cannot be studied with the complexity it deserves.
(E) The Earth took 4.5 billion years to form.

2. Which of the following statements most accurately captures the main point of the passage?

(A) It has been a long and winding road to the development of multicellular life.
(B) The development of multicellular life took an inconceivably long time.
(C) Since the earth’s formation 4.5 billion years ago, the development of life has been a complex process.
(D) No one knows when multicellular life developed.
(E) It is startling to realize how quickly life began to develop after the earth’s crust cooled.

3. According to the passage, cells without a cell nucleus are called which of the following?

(A) Multicellular life forms
(B) Human beings
(C) Eukaryotic life
(D) Cells without a cell nucleus
(E) Prokaryotic cells

4. Which of the following best explains the author’s tone in the passage?

(A) Hostile, probing
(B) Disbelief, incredulity
(C) Worshipful, hagiographic
(D) Intrigued, informative
(E) Reductive, dismissive

5. According to the passage, how long did it take for humans to appear after cells with nuclei existed?

(A) 2 billion years
(B) 1 billion years
(C) 3 billion years
(D) 1 million years
(E) 4 billion years

6. Which of the following statements can be reasonably inferred, based on the highlighted sentence?

(A) Life began at the earliest point at which the planet had cooled enough to sustain it.
(B) The planet cooled extremely rapidly.
(C) Life did not have to begin at the moment it was sustainable.
(D) Life needs to be studied in more depth to understand its origins.
(E) Life as we know it could exist on other planets.

“The earth formed 4.5 billion years ago. Evolutionary biologists”- is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.

This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 6 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions

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