SAT Critical Reading Answer Guide: Section 7 (Critical Reading)

Answer Guide: Section 7 (Critical Reading)

• The test is available here: https://satonlinecourse.collegeboard.org
• Sentence Completions
• Question 1: Which word pair means “hard / beat-up”?
• Eliminate A and B; those first words don’t mean anything like “hard” or “difficult.”
• Eliminate C and E; those second words don’t mean anything like “beat-up” or “in poor condition”.
• D is promising; “strenuous” means “difficult” or “requiring exertion”, while “debilitated” means “injured” or “in poor shape”.
• Answer: D
• Question 2:Which word means “honored” or “given an award”?
• Hey, look! Choice C is actually “honored”!
• Answer: C
• Question 3:Which word pair means “photographed / traveled”?
• Eliminate D; the photographer’s work has nothing to do with domestication.
• Eliminate B, C, and E; those second words don’t mean anything like “traveled”.
• A meets both criteria.
• Answer: A
• Question 4:Which word pair means “icon”?
• Eliminate A; there’s no mention of Grandma Moses’ originality.
• B looks promising; “emblem” means “symbol.”
• Eliminate C; a person cannot be a successor to a country.
• Eliminate D and E; they’re both negative terms that are unlikely to be applied to a beloved painter.
• Answer: B
• Question 5:Which pair means “helpful/harmful”?
• Eliminate Choices A, B, and D; none of those first words means “helpful”.
• Eliminate E; “miraculous” does not mean “harmful”.
• Answer: C
• Passage-Based Questions
• Question 6:Which word means “underdeveloped and lacking in sophistication”?
• A good word here would be something like “simple”.
• Hey, look! Choice C is “simplistic”!
• Answer: C
• Question 7:Which word pair means “talent/understanding”?
• Eliminate A, C, and D; those first words don’t mean anything like “talent”.
• While “penchant” means “habit” and “bent” means “inclination” (both good words), “evading” in Choice B means “avoiding”, and a good logician does not avoid complicated arguments.
• Answer: E
• Question 8:Which word means “large”?
• “Voracious” means “hungry”; “disposable” means “able to be thrown away”; “redundant” means “pointless or surplus to requirements”; “superficial means “no more than surface deep”.
• “Prodigious” means “very large or productive”.
• Answer: E
• Question 9:What do the words “seized” and “shook” accomplish?
• What seizes and shakes things? A dog with a chew toy, perhaps.
• Choice D, “intensity” describes the behavior of a dog with a chew toy.
• Answer: D
• Question 10:What does the public response suggest about Mencken’s writing?
• If everyone read it, quoted it, and debated it, his writing must have been worthy of both reading and debate.
• Choice A, “authoritative” goes well with reading, but not debate.
• Choice B, “controversial” describes something that is hotly debated.
• Choices C through E are off-topic.
• Answer: B
• Question 11:What is the purpose of the reference to beetles in lines 5-6?
• The passage as a whole is about the importance of understanding an opponent’s point of view. The beetle analogy is an example of how not to do this.
• Only Choice D is consistent with the main idea of the passage.
• Answer: D
• Question 12:What is the primary purpose of the passage?
• Only Choices B and C have to do with the main idea we identified on Question 11.
• B is the more specific and limited answer of the two; C requires the reader to infer, as there’s no direct appeal to understand others better.
• Answer: B
• Question 13:What do both authors believe about King’s “I Have A Dream” speech?
• Both passages devote a lot of space to the speech and to people’s reactions to it. Most of those reactions are positive, and the speech is considered to have made a deep impression on all who read or hear it.
• C expresses this thought with the phrase “profound impact”.
• Answer: C
• Question 14:How would Julian Bond’s portrait of the “complete Martin Luther King” look?
• Bond lists many roles for King that go beyond the famous speech: antiwar activist, challenger of apartheid, etc.
• Eliminate A; there is little mention of King’s influence outside the U.S.
• Eliminate B and C; there is little mention of logical errors or of any of King’s contemporaries.
• D is promising, as it mentions King’s later concerns.
• Eliminate E; King’s private life is barely mentioned.
• Answer: D
• Question 15:How would the author of Passage 2 react to lines 7-11 of Passage 1?
• Those lines express an idea mentioned in both passages.
• Only Choice E, “complete agreement”, mentions any kind of real agreement at all.
• Answer: E
• Question 16:What does the word “suffered” mean in context?
• Because it is a speech doing the “suffering”, not a human being, most of the meanings of the word having to do with human feelings can be eliminated..
• Eliminate B, D, and E; these are all things that humans do and inanimate objects cannot do.
• Eliminate C; it’s off-topic.
• Answer: A
• Question 17:What is the purpose of lines 31-34?
• The lines in question are a list of things that don’t happen anymore, in part because of and in reaction to King’s work.
• Only Choice D suggests what this list does–give a series of examples to support the author’s point.
• All of the other choices are off-topic.
• Answer: D
• Question 18:Why does the author mention the “sermon” in line 35?
• The “sermon” is called “Ingratitude,” which King calls a particularly great sin. It comes in the middle of a discussion of how people should, and do, show gratitude for King’s work.
• Choice E, which mentions an “obligation” to King, is very close to the idea of gratitude. No other answer is remotely close to this idea.
• Answer: E
• Question 19:How would the author of Passage 2 characterize the description of Martin Luther King Day in Passage 1?
• The author of Passage 2 focuses on how King’s legacy has been oversimplified, with the complex or troubling parts glossed over.
• Choice D, “simplistic” is a good term for how this author would view a typical MLK Day celebration.
• Answer: D
• Question 20:What transition occurs in lines 57-58?
• The passage begins by describing King’s ideas; after this transition, the passage talks about how people understand and apply those ideas (or, rather, how they fail to do so).
• A is consistent with this notion.
• Eliminate B; the author never challenges King’s beliefs.
• Eliminate C; there is little mention of King’s intellectual predecessors.
• Eliminate D; King’s weaknesses are never enumerated.
• Eliminate E; no one is attacked.
• Answer: A
• Question 21:What is the effect of lines 76-79?
• Eliminate A; neither author denies King’s importance.
• Eliminate C; the author of Passage 2 doesn’t challenge the author of Passage 1 all that much.
• Eliminate D; nothing in here is funny.
• Eliminate E; the author of Passage 1 does not embrace this perspective.
• Answer: B
• Question 22:What does the author of Passage 1 do that the author of Passage 2 doesn’t?
• The only difference that stands out is that the author of Passage 1 cites Julian Bond’s criticism of the treatment of the speech–and disagrees with it.
• Only Choice A reflects this.
• Eliminate B through D; these choices are approaches that both passages take.
• Eliminate E; neither passage assumes the reader is unfamiliar with King’s ideas.
• Answer: A
• Question 23:Why would the author of Passage 2 say we commemorate “Martin Luther King the dreamer”?
• Look at lines 76-82. The author states that the “dreamer” is easier to accept than more controversial sides of King. That means the “dreamer” portrayal is seen as gentler and less offensive.
• Only Choice C, “reassuring”, describes a gentle and inoffensive option.
• Answer: C
• Question 24:What is the relationship between the two passages?
• Eliminate A; Passage 1 doesn’t really express political goals.
• Eliminate C and D; Passage 2 neither romanticizes anybody nor focuses on the history of Martin Luther King Day.
• Eliminate E; Passage 1 does not denounce King.
• Answer: B
• Recommended supplementary material to view SAT questions featured in lesson answer guides: The Official SAT Study Guide by the College Board.