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Hola! The GED reading test has different kinds of thinking questions, and they ask you to do different things. One kind of question is called a synthesis question. Synthesis questions ask you to take two kinds of information and put them together… you compare them, or make conclusions based on both of them, or get new information about the reading based on learning something new.

A GED reading synthesis question has two parts to read. First, there’s the main reading, like this one, from The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck:

They arose in the dark no more to hear the sleepy birds’ first chittering, and the morning wind around the house while they waited for the first light to go out to the dear acres. These things were lost, and crops were reckoned in dollars, and land was valued by principal plus interest, and crops were bought and sold before they were planted. Then crop failure, drought, and flood were no longer little deaths within life, but simple losses of money. And all their love was thinned with money, and all their fierceness dribbled away in interest until they were no longer farmers at all, buy little shopkeepers of crops, little manufacturers who must sell before they can make, Then those farmers who were not good shopkeepers lost their land to good shopkeepers. No matter how clever, how loving a man might be with earth and growing things, he could not survive if he were not also a good shopkeeper. And as time went on, the business men had the farms, and the farms grew larger, but there were fewer of them.

Now farming became industry, and the owners followed Rome, although they did not know it. They imported slaves, although they did not call them slaves: Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, Filipinos. They live on rice and beans, the business men said. They don’t need much. They couldn’t know what to do with good wages. Why, look how they live. Why, look what they eat. And if they get funny–deport them.

And all the time the farms grew larger and the owners fewer. And there were pitifully few farmers on the land any more. And the imported serfs were beaten and frightened and starved until some went home again, and some grew fierce and were killed or driven from the country. And farms grew larger and the owners fewer.

Then, the synthesis question gives you another piece of information, like this:

John Steinbeck made ends meet by working as a farm laborer while he was studying at Stanford University.

And then, there’s a question that asks you to use information from both:

John Steinbeck’s experience working on farms probably:

A)  Made him an expert in California history

B)  Contributed to his writing about gourmet foods

C)  Contributed to his writing about farm workers

D)  Led to him owning a farm

E)  Led to him writing about husbandry

Basically, you have to see how the two things relate to each other. In the passage, Steinbeck talks about how farms have changed over time and how the big, modern farms treat the farm workers badly. Then, you learn that Steinbeck worked on a farm while he was going to college. It seems likely that his experiences on a farm made him want to write about what farm workers were going through… remember, it’s got to relate both the new information and the information from the reading together. So, answer C is the best.

Keep a lookout for synthesis questions on the GED, and you’ll know how to do them!

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.

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