(C) also detracts, because the argument says that the night is when we are prey, but this choice says that some dangerous things hunt during the day.
(D) also detracts, because the entire paragraph is full of references to how “we,” as humans, dislike bats because they are active at night. This choice says that some humans think of bats positively.
(E) is the correct answer because it does NOT detract from the argument—in fact, it’s not really relevant to the argument at all. The original argument does say something about “reality” being “warped” during “dreamtime,” but it doesn’t say anything about where dream imagery comes from. Since the argument doesn’t make any claims about the source of dream imagery, this statement about the source of dream imagery can’t contradict the argument.
Page 607, Question 13
I just wanted to touch on this question briefly because students who have used other preparation materials before are often put off by the word “scornful,” which seems extreme to them. (There are some tutors and books that claim that extreme answer choices are never correct on the SAT.)
So I wanted to use this question to point out that we don’t really need to worry about whether answer choices are extreme or not; all that matters is whether they restate ideas from the text. If the text is extreme (and this particular text is quite extreme), then correct answers that describe the text accurately will also have to be extreme. This is why it’s okay for (B) to be correct here.
Page 607, Question 14
This question troubles a lot of students. Most of the people who miss it seem to choose (D), because line 49 of the text talks about “manipulators and manipulated, actors and imitators, simulants and simulated, stupefiers and stupefied.” But the text never talks about “blurring the line” between those groups, so (D) doesn’t work. Remember: every part of the answer choice has to be reflected in the original text!
(E) is right because of statements like “all these theories are rather unconvincing” in line 36.
Page 645, Question 7
Students often miss this question because of not reading the text and the answer choices carefully enough. Most people who miss the question either choose (A) or (B).
(A) is wrong for a couple of reasons, but the largest is probably the phrase “literary persona.” The article talks about Wilson “speaking directly through his letters,” but a “literary persona” would be a false personality deliberately adopted when writing a work of literature.
(B) doesn’t work because the text doesn’t actually mention whether Wilson was mature. It says he was direct, and that he wrote the same way at every stage of his life, but it doesn’t actually say that when he was young he wrote with the maturity of an older man. For all we know from the text, it might be that even as an old man he wrote with the immaturity of a young man.
(E) ends up being correct because the passage says that the same kind of writing (speaking “directly” and “informal(ly) for the most part,” et cetera) appears in letters Wilson wrote when he was “young, middle-aged, and old,” which means his style was consistent.
Page 646, Question 10
This is another question that often tricks students who don’t read carefully enough. Most people who miss the question choose (D), but (D) talks about “the discovery of the Andromeda galaxy,” which isn’t mentioned in the text at all. The idea of “Andromeda” is mentioned, but its discovery is not.
(B) ends up being correct because the text describes a now-extinct primate being alive, which is a “differen[ce].” (The footnote tells us that Australopithecus is extinct.) The word “dramatize” in this context basically means “illustrate” or “demonstrate.” “Two million years ago” is exactly from the text.
Page 649, Question 23
This question stumps a lot of people. The important thing with these “attitude” questions is to remember that the answer must be spelled out in specific phrases within the text, so we have to look for those. We don’t answer a question like this (or any other question) by just going with a rough idea of our impression of the text; we answer questions by finding choices that specifically restate the text.
Here, (E) is correct. Line 32 says that most people are “out of their depth” when considering real art; to be “out of your depth” means to be too unintelligent or inexperienced to deal with a new situation, so this is a “condescending” remark. Lines 4 and 5 say that “people in general” are not members of a “special class,” but that the special class isn’t necessarily “better;” this is a “tolerant” remark.