Reading Passage Question

Till the late 1990s, astrophysicists had always thought that the rate at which the Universe expands has always decreased consistently: after all, the gravitational pull among the galaxies would keep their tendency to move away in check and therefore, the expansion of the universe was expected to come to stand still. However, in 1998, it was discovered that the opposite was in fact true: the rate at which the universe is expanding has been increasing. The universe is now expanding at a rate faster than ever before; the universe will expand at an even faster rate tomorrow.

The observation that the expansion of the universe isn’t slowing down could be explained by the presence of a force – not identified yet – that opposes and overpowers the gravitational attraction force among the cosmic objects. Although this force is now called the ‘cosmological constant’, the existence of such a force was originally postulated by Albert Einstein in an attempt to find a middle ground between his theory of relativity and the thenexisting belief that the universe is of a static size. Even though physicists dropped the idea of the cosmological constant soon after Einstein’s death, eventually they realized that acknowledging the existence of such a force is necessary to at least partially explain the behavior of the universe.

However, the main part of the question still remained – why is the rate of expansion of the universe increasing? For the rate of expansion to accelerate like so, the value of this force – the cosmological constant – would need to keep increasing, raising further questions about the source of energy that can sustain a consistent increase in this force. To explain this phenomenon, physicists have postulated the existence of ‘Dark Energy’ – an elusive energy field that keeps increasing as more space is created with the expansion of the universe. However, this theoretical explanation needs to be substantiated by observational evidence before we can gain more insight into the workings behind the expansion of the universe.

“Till the late 1990s, astrophysicists had always thought”- is a GMAT reading comprehension passage. The candidates must gain a concrete understanding and ideas of English GMAT reading comprehension. This section of GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of four questions with a series of answers. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions ask the candidate to outline the passage and to learn, analyze, and apply details or ideas. The candidates needs to improve their learning by answering GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Solutions and Explanation

1. What is the main point of the passage?

1. To present a hypothesis that could explain why the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate
2. To highlight that the universe has been expanding faster than expected in the past
3. To point out the importance and insufficiency of the cosmological constant postulated by Einstein
4. To explain what Dark Energy is
5. To highlight that the universe was thought to be stable during Einstein’s time

2. Which of the following is true about the cosmological constant postulated by Einstein, according to the passage?

1. It provides a solid explanation for the increasing expansion rate of the Universe.
2. It was proposed by Einstein to bring his theory in line with the then-prevalent belief about the universe.
3. Einstein felt that the cosmological constant must keep increasing in value for the expansion of the universe to sustain.
4. It came into existence in 1998.
5. It is the single biggest breakthrough in astrophysics.

3. Factoring in the cosmological constant provides an answer to which of the following questions?

1. Why is the rate of expansion of the universe increasing?
2. Why is the universe expanding?
3. Why is the rate of expansion of the universe not slowing down?
4. What is the source of Dark Energy?
5. Why is the Theory of relativity not in line with the rest of Physics?

4. Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage?

1. Along with the universe, the amount of dark energy in the universe is also continuously increasing.
2. If Einstein had not postulated the existence of the cosmological constant, physicists wouldn’t have been able to formulate an explanation for the universe’s expansion.
3. The presence of dark energy is vital to the survival of the universe.
4. Prior to 1990, no one expected the universe to eventually stop increasing in size.
5. Gravitational force among galaxies is strong enough to hold the universe at a stable size.

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