How did Chopin acknowledge the land of his birth?

Question

How did Chopin acknowledge the land of his birth?

by returning to Poland to live
by accusing German pianists of piano pounding
by composing selections that reflected Poland
by remaining in Paris to his death

Answer 1

Third choice. You can get this answer two ways:

http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e215/xxs3xp1stolxx/?action=view¤t=chopin.jpg

(A) If you skim read the selection, looking for "Poland" or "homeland" you will find the answer in the end of
Paragraph 2.

RE: He was an expatriate whose music, in the form of mazurkas and polonaises, reflected his war-ravaged homeland of Poland.

So the right answer that summarizes this concept is the
third choice "by composing selections that reflected Poland"

(B) The shortcut to getting this answer is to work backwards, to eliminate choices that seem too broad, too specific, or off-topic. Cross these out and focus on the remaining choices that have a chance of being correct. Then skim the excerpt looking for a sentence that justifies or matches the choices left, starting with the most likely answer, the one that makes the most sense.

If you did this, you would eliminate choice #2, as the least likely answer, and would guess choice #3 while skimming the passages to see if your guess is correct. Only if you couldn't find #3, then you would try finding #1 or #4 in the passages instead. But since the second paragraph justifies #3 then you would choose that answer.

I hope this helps you so you can work with this type of format, no matter what the questions or subject you are given.