ACT® · Reading — Key Ideas and Details: Relationships
Implied or Subtly Stated Comparative Relationships
A passage can compare two subjects just by describing them in the same order, with matching details, so the reader lines them up without ever reading a word like unlike or more than.
A writer who wants you to compare two people, places, or things doesn't need to put them in one sentence. She can put one in a paragraph, then put the other in the next paragraph, describing it in the same order: same categories, same kind of detail, same sentence shapes. Your mind does the lining-up on its own. That's the whole trick. The comparison lives in the structure, not in any single word.
Watch for parallel phrasing. If paragraph one says a scientist worked the same sites every spring and calls her patient, and paragraph two says a second scientist worked from museum drawers and calls him relentless, the words themselves don't compare anything. Patient and relentless are just praise. But set side by side, in matching slots, they divide up two kinds of labor and quietly rank them. The ranking is built by the parallel structure, not stated anywhere.
This sits next to sequence and cause in the same family of relationships, because all three ask you to connect ideas the text never joins with a signal word. Sequence asks when; cause asks why; comparison asks how two things stand next to each other. None of them announce themselves. The questions that test this ability usually ask what the passage establishes or invites you to see, which is a signal that you're meant to supply the connection the parallel structure is pointing toward.
Key terms
- Parallel phrasing
- Describing two different subjects using the same categories or sentence structure, so they line up for comparison.
- Implied comparison
- A comparison the text sets up through structure or word choice without ever stating it directly.
- Signal word
- A word like unlike, whereas, or more than that explicitly marks a comparison in a sentence.
- Connotation
- The praise or judgment a word carries beyond its literal meaning, such as patient suggesting steady endurance.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow does parallel phrasing in two separate paragraphs set up a comparison you are meant to see?
- Worked exampleShow me the comparison hidden when one scientist is called patient and another is called relentless.
- Common mistakeWhy doesn't the absence of words like unlike or whereas mean no comparison is being made?
Check yourself
End of topic.