Page 846, Question 24
This question seems to be asking us to speculate about how something in one passage would be applied to another passage. In these types of questions, it’s critical to remember that no speculation is actually called for. We’ll find the correct answer directly in the text, as always.
In the final paragraph of passage 2, the author says, “. . . the shrillest critics are not necessarily the most authoritative.” He adds that “the very shrillness of their cries . . . quickly exhausts their wind.”
The majority of passage 1 is dedicated to a variety of criticisms.
The correct answer, then, is (E), which talks about how critics who are “loud” will have influences that are “short-lived.” Notice how “loud” goes with “shrill” in the text, while “short-lived” goes with the idea of the critics being “quickly exhaust[ed].”
None of the other choices reflects anything that the author of passage 2 mentions in the last paragraph. That paragraph doesn’t talk about constructive advice, conforming to public opinion, being widely read, or being taken seriously.
Page 856, Question 19
People who miss this question almost always do so because they give up on the idea of finding the answer directly in the text, and just talk themselves into something so they can move on. But the answer is in the text for this question, just like it is for every other Passage-Based Reading question on a real SAT.
In the second line of the italicized print at the beginning of the passage, we learn that the narrator is writing about “his grandmother, Susan Ward.” In line 10, we learn about “the grandfather she [Susan Ward] was writing about.”
So both the narrator and Susan Ward are writing about a grandparent, which makes (C) correct.
Let this question serve as a reminder of two things. First, it’s important to remember that the answer is always spelled out in the text, no matter how much difficulty we might have in identifying that from time to time. Second, it’s important to remember not to give up looking for the correct answer—if you decide that something is weird about this question and you just take your best guess, you’ve basically made a decision to give points away for no reason.
Page 901, Question 19
This question asks about an assumption, but, as always, we’ll find the correct answer choice by reading the relevant text very carefully. The quote we were told to read says, “’Adaptation follows a different path in each person. The nervous system creates its own paths. You’re the neurologist—you must see this all the time.’”
Note that the last sentence of the quote says, in black and white, that the reason the listener must know about the nervous system is that he sees it all the time, since he’s a neurologist. The text isn’t requiring us to know anything about neurology; we don’t have to make any assumptions about what neurologists do or don’t know. Instead, the quoted text specifically says that a neurologist “must” (emphasis mine) be familiar with how the nervous system adapts.
This fits with choice (C), which says “all neurologists are aware” of the “adaptability.” Note how “adaptability” from the answer choice fits with “adaptation” in line 37. So (C) is correct.
Some students get hung up on the phrase “all neurologists,” because the quote in the text is only directed at a single neurologist. But “all” is appropriate here, since we were asked to figure out which assumption underlies the quote: if it were possible for there to be any neurologists who didn’t know about adaptation, then the statement “you must know because you’re a neurologist” wouldn’t make any sense. So the assumption must be that all neurologists know about it.
Some of the wrong answers incorrectly combine concepts that appear in the passage. (B), for instance, includes the idea of different paths, the idea of understanding, and the idea of neurologists, but it doesn’t tie those ideas together in the same way the text does. We have to make sure we don’t talk ourselves into this kind of answer!
Page 914, Question 23
This question gives a lot of students the impression that they need to interpret the text, since the passage is a work of fiction and the question is asking about a character’s emotional state. But it’s important for us to remember that literary interpretation is never the way to go on the SAT.
In line 45, we’re told that the young clerk “was cut to the heart,” and that he felt like Akakyevitch was saying “I am your brother.”
So the correct answer here is (E), which says that the clerk feels “compassion.” To understand why, it might help to know that the expression “to be cut to the heart” means something like “to be profoundly moved.” Further, the word “compassion” literally means that we feel something with someone else.