of the critical genius he does not create. Any of the other answer choices may be considered true, but choice c is the only one found in this passage, so it is the correct one. 11.e.The word colossal comes from the Latin colos- sus and refers to a figure of gigantic propor- tions. The author has been discussing Dante and Michelangelo, both of whom he obviously admires. So, when he calls Beethoven an artist of the same order as those two, even if you don’t know the word colossal, you can assume he is complimenting Beethoven’s artistry. 12. b. In answering this question, it is important to keep in mind the author’s purpose in writing the passage—to praise poetical genius. Beethoven is the sole composer discussed along with other creative artists the author reveres. While some of the other choices may be true, the author does not discuss them in this passage. 13. a. This is a question about the author’s main point, or purpose in writing the passage. The word suggests tells you the exact phrasing of the answer choices may not be found in the passage itself. The author is praising artistic, or poetical genius and writes at length about the artistic imagination. The only answer choice that summarizes the author’s ideas is choice a. Again, while some of the other answers may be true, they are not found in the passage. 14. d. In the first paragraph, Lincoln is discussing two U.S. laws that are philosophically opposed to each other: the fugitive-slave law, which requires a runaway slave to be returned to his or her owner, even if the slave has escaped to a free state, and the law which for- bids the importation of slaves into the coun- try, a law aimed at curtailing the slave trade. He says that each law is as well enforced as any law can be when the community itself is so divided on the moral issues involved. In other words, someone who supports the fugitive-slave law would be pro-slavery; and someone who supports forbidding the foreign slave trade would be opposed to slavery. The only answer choice which correctly restates what Lincoln says is d. 15. b. After Lincoln makes the declaration that sepa- ration would make matters worse, he gives his reasons in the next sentence. He says that each side would grow more firmly entrenched in its own position, a position the opposing side finds offensive. 16. c. This question asks for the point of the entire paragraph. Lincoln makes several points here, and it’s up to you to tie them together into a coherent whole. While each answer is partially true, only choice c sums up Lincoln’s state- ments throughout the paragraph. 17. b. The phrase domestic institutions is used in a sense we find unfamiliar today. Both before and after this phrase, however, Lincoln is dis- cussing laws, and domestic institutions is used as part of that discussion. 18. a. The key to the correct answer here lies in the phrase worthy and patriotic citizens, used to describe those who want to change the Con- stitution. Lincoln goes on to say that he does not object to the proposed amendment. 19. e. Lincoln opens his Second Inaugural Address by saying there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at his first inaugura- tion. He continues by comparing the two occasions, using the words then and now; and saying that the first occasion (then) called for a detailed statement, but that now, little that is new could be presented. 20. c. After using the phrase insurgent agents, Lin- coln says what these agents were doing— seeking to dissolve the Union. In other words, they were secessionists. –THE SAT CRITICAL READING SECTION– 37 5658 SAT2006[03](fin).qx 11/21/05 6:42 PM Page 37 21. b. When Lincoln says that one side would make war rather than let the nation survive, he is lay- ing blame at the feet of the secessionists—in other words, the South. 22. c. You have to carefully trace back through the sentence to determine if it refers to a word or phrase in that sentence. It does, in fact, refer to the word interest. You have to go back for two more sentences to discover that interest refers to slaves, not to slavery itself. Nevertheless, even if interest referred to slavery, the correct answer would still be interest. Paragraph-Length Critical Reading 23. b. The passage briefly summarizes the main effects of the Great Depression, including record unemployment, bank closings, and homelessness. Although it does not refer to the early causes of the economic crisis, it does explain what ruined small farms and further deepened the Depression. Thus, this passage would be an effective introduction to a discus- sion of the causes and effects of the Great Depression. The focus is clearly on the impact of the crisis in America, so choice a is incor- rect, and the passage covers many conse- quences of the depression, not just unemployment (choice d). There is no sugges- tion that the author will propose a change in how economic crises are handled (choice c) or a mention of economic conditions today, so choice e is also incorrect. 24. c. Lines 5–6 state that shantytowns were called “Hoovervilles” because citizens blamed their plight on the Hoover administration’s refusal to offer assistance. This suggests that Hoover didn’t handle homelessness effectively, but it doesn’t comment on Hoover’s overall han- dling of the crisis, so e is incorrect. According to the sentence, Hoovervilles were shacks built by the homeless, so it could not refer to a fed- eral housing program (choice a) or a new kind of social program (choice d). Choice b may be true, but the passage does not directly support this claim. 25. d. The sentence states that the severe drought and economic crisis together ruined small farms, so coupled most nearly means combined. None of the other choices makes sense in the context of the sentence. 26. e. From the context of the passage, it can be deduced that immobilizes is synonymous with incapacitates, because lines 2–4 explain that the effects of venom include targeting the muscle tissue and causing breathing difficulties. 27. c. The second-to-last sentence (lines 4–5) intro- duces the general idea that some venom has curative properties. The last sentence (lines 5–6) illustrates this by providing a concrete example of some venom’s curative properties. The last sentence does not explain how medi- cines are derived from snake venom (choice a), nor is its purpose to show how evolution- arily advanced snakes are (choice b) or that Brazilian snake venom has more curative properties than other snakes (choice d). Although the final sentence does introduce the idea that some venom is used to treat hyper- tension, it does this to expand on the state- ment made in the previous sentence, not merely to introduce a new concept, as is incor- rectly suggested by choice e. 28. d. The passage clearly introduces and discusses one subject area of Aristotle’s many philo- sophical musings: friendship. Choice a is incorrect because the passage addresses one topic covered by a particular philosopher, not philosophy as a whole. While the passage does call Aristotle a great thinker, its primary pur- pose is not to prove this, making choice b –THE SAT CRITICAL READING SECTION– 38 5658 SAT2006[03](fin).qx 11/21/05 6:42 PM Page 38 incorrect. While the passage does state that human beings are motivated only to achieve happiness and that friendship may be a reflec- tion of self-love, the passage does not intend to show that human beings are egoistical hedonists, thus making choice c incorrect. Choice e is incorrect because, although the passage ends in a question, it does not aim to leave the reader with an unanswered question, but rather to extrapolate one of Aristotle’s points on friendship. 29. c. According to Aristotle, someone in a perfect friendship wants success for his friend. Although choice a seems like the right choice, the passage never defines what it means to be a virtuous person, nor does it give any examples of this kind of person. The same is true for choice b. Although helping a friend get a job is an unselfish act, the passage does not define or exemplify an unselfish act. Choice d is illogi- cal, and choice e is a concept that is never addressed in the passage. 30. d. Context is a big clue here. The sentence before (lines 8–9) introduces the idea that equally vir- tuous people form perfect friendships. Line 9 uses the word however, which suggests a con- trasting, or opposite idea to the one in the pre- vious sentence. 31. e. According to Aristotle, befriending someone simply because he or she provides you with pleasure (in this example, a sense of humor) is the definition of an imperfect friendship. Choice a is incorrect—the example given pro- vides no evidence that B is not a virtuous per- son. Choice b is incorrect for similar reasons to choice a. The example given provides no evidence that A is virtuous. Again, there is no evidence that either A or B is virtuous, so choice c is incorrect. Choice d is incorrect because, according to the passage, it is in an imperfect friendship that one friend uses the other for pleasure alone, not in a perfect one. 32. b. In the last sentence, the author attempts to extrapolate for the reader one of Aristotle’s points on friendships. Choice a is incorrect because, although Aristotle says that every- thing we do is to achieve the goal of happiness, he never says that this is a selfish pursuit. Although the last sentence is a question, its purpose is not to leave the reader in a quandary, but rather to pinpoint one of Aris- totle’s positions on friendships; thus, c is incorrect. Choice d is incorrect; the author is not trying to justify anything with the last sen- tence. Choice e is incorrect because the author never focuses on Aristotle’s teachings being complex—if anything, the author is trying to clarify for the reader Aristotle’s thoughts on friendship. –THE SAT CRITICAL READING SECTION– 39 5658 SAT2006[03](fin).qx 11/21/05 6:42 PM Page 39 Part 1: Complete That Sentence! There will be approximately 19 sentence completion questions on the SAT. You will find them in three of the critical reading sections, and they make up a little less than 40% of your total Critical Reading score. Each of these questions takes the form of a sentence that is missing either one or two words, represented by blanks. You will have five answer choices, a–e, and must determine which answer best completes the sentence. Sentence completions test two separate aspects of your critical reading skills: your vocabulary and your ability to follow the internal logic of sentences. These sentences are often quite complex. Fortunately, there are some strategies that will greatly increase your score on these questions. Vocabulary Rules By now, you are surely working on your vocabulary. You’ve seen that a good working vocabulary is a very important asset on the critical reading portion of the exam. Remember, the best way to learn vocabulary is also the easiest: Make long lists of words you don’t know and then break them down into short lists. Learn a short list every day. Tip When working on your vocabulary, remember to focus first on roots, prefixes, and suffixes. You will be pleasantly surprised to see how quickly learning these will increase the size of your vocabulary! News Flash! Try working with flash cards. They’re easy to handle, portable, and friend-friendly, so you can study with a buddy. You and your friends can drill each other. If you can make games out of learning vocabulary, studying will be more fun; and you will learn more, too! Tip When you learn a new word, try to use it in conversation as soon as possible. Use a word three times, and it’s yours! Sentence Detective Deciphering some of those sentences on the SAT can seem like an impossible mission, but like everything else worth doing, it’s hard at first and gets easier as you practice. There are some basic skills you need to acquire, though. Think of yourself as a detective trying to decode a secret message. Once you have the key to the code, it’s easy to decipher the message. The follow- ing sections will give you the keys you need to unlock the meanings of even the most complex sentences. The great thing is that these are master keys that can unlock any and all sentences, including the many complex sentences you will encounter in your college reading. Sentence Structure The single most important key to the meaning of a sen- tence is its structure. The best and easiest way to deter- mine sentence structure is to look at its punctuation. Sentence completion questions always have one or more commas or semicolons. The basic strategy is to separate the sentence into units divided by punctua- tion. Often, one of the units will be complete (without a blank); then at least one unit will have one or two blanks. The complete unit will tell you what the unit(s) with a blank(s) (incomplete unit) needs to say. For example, consider this sentence: After finding sacred objects inside numerous Mayan caves, archaeologists have begun to revise their opinion that the Maya used the caves solely for functions. –THE SAT CRITICAL READING SECTION– 40 5658 SAT2006[03](fin).qx 11/21/05 6:42 PM Page 40 5 Words a Day = SAT Success When you divide this sentence into punctuation- defined units, you have: After finding sacred objects inside numerous Mayan caves, and archaeologists have begun to revise their opinion that the Maya used the caves solely for functions. The first unit, the unit without the blank, tells you that the second unit has something to do with what hap- pened 1) after finding sacred objects and 2) in Mayan caves. The second unit, the one with a blank, tells you that 1) archaeologists have begun to revise their opin- ion and 2) their opinion (before being revised) was that Mayan caves were used only (solely) for so me kind of function, or purpose. Your mission is to figure out what goes in the blank, namely what kind of function or purpose archaeologists used to think the caves were exclusively used for. Now you’re ready to use the first unit to illuminate the second. If scientists used to think one thing until they found sacred objects, it means they used to think the caves were not used for sacred purposes. Now you know you need to fill in the blank with a word that means non-sacred, a word such as civic, secular, or non- ceremonial. Your final step is to look at the answer choices to find the one that matches the idea you have formed about what needs to be in the blank(s). Here’s an example of a question that doesn’t divide neatly into a complete unit and an incomplete unit. This question is taken from the pretest, and it has a blank in each of its two units: The famous daredevil was actually quite by temperament, as illustrated by the fact that he did not until he was two years old. The first unit is The famous daredevil was actually quite by temperament. The word actually tells us that there is something unexpected going on. If actually were removed from the sentence, there would be no way you could know what kind of words go in the blanks. Actually is a clue word, one that points you toward the meaning of the sentence. The famous dare- devil actually had an unexpected kind of tempera- ment. What kind of temperament would you expect a famous daredevil to have? Adventurous, bold, daring, right? So the word that goes in the first blank will be one that has a contrasting relationship to that expected temperament. The second unit of the sentence, as illustrated by the fact that he did not until he was two years old, uses a phrase of comparison, as illustrated by, to let us know that the word that goes in the blank should com- plete the idea of the daredevil’s having a non-bold tem- perament. Think of a synonym for “not bold.”Put it in the first blank. Now read the sentence, using your word in the first blank. Think of something that, if not done before age two, would indicate that kind of tempera- ment. Next, look at the answer choices for words sim- ilar to the ones you chose. The answer to that question, 41 Try this: 1. Figure out how many days there are until you take the SAT. 2. Multiply that number by 5. 3. If you have 30 days until the exam, you can learn 150 new words, if you learn only 5 new words each day! 5658 SAT2006[03](fin).qx 11/21/05 6:42 PM Page 41 you may recall, was careful perambulate. Even if you didn’t know that to perambulate is to walk, or move about on one’s own, you could be fairly confident that you had the right answer because careful is such a good choice. A Clue for You The second important skill you must master for sen- tence completion questions is the ability to identify key words and phrases. These are the words that most help you decode the sentence. Think of them as clues to a mystery. Among the most useful of these are the words that enable you to identify the logical relation- ship between the complete unit(s) of the sentence and the incomplete unit(s). As in the preceding example, sometimes you have to complete one portion of a two- blank sentence before you can work on the logical rela- tionship of another unit. There are three types of logical relationships commonly expressed in sentence com- pletion questions: contrast, comparison, and cause and effect. These three relationships will help you succeed on sentence completion questions. Contrast Words that logically signal a relationship of contrast are words such as: though, although, however, despite, but, and yet. Can you think of others? There are also phrases that signal a contrast between the units of the sentence, phrases such as on the other hand or on the contrary. Try making a sentence using these words and phrases. See how the two parts of your sentence oppose each other. This is the logical relationship of contrast, or opposition. No matter how complex a sentence completion sentence seems at first glance, when you see one of these words or phrases, you will know you’re looking at a sentence that expresses one thought in its complete unit and a contrasting thought in the incomplete unit. First, you decipher the thought in the complete unit, and then fill in the blank in the incomplete unit with a word that expresses a contrast- ing thought. For example: Although the tiger is primarily a solitary beast, its cousin the lion is a animal. First, divide the sentence into two units, using the punctuation to guide you. Now you have as the first unit, Although the tiger is primarily a solitary beast, and, its cousin the lion is a animal, as the sec- ond unit. The first unit tells you by the use of the word although that the second unit will express a relation- ship of opposition or contrast. You can see that tigers and lions are being contrasted. The word that goes in the blank has to be an adjective that describes animal in the way that solitary describes beast. Therefore, the word that will contrast with the idea in the first unit is in opposition to solitary. What is an antonym of soli- tary? Solitary means alone. You might choose the word social. Friendly, gregarious, or sociable are other options, all meaning “not solitary.” Then you look for the word in the answer choices that is a synonym of the word you chose. Comparison There are two kinds of comparison relationships: comparison by similarity and comparison by restate- ment. Words that signal comparison are words such as likewise, similarly, and and. Phrases that introduce comparisons are just as, as as, for example, as shown and as illustrated by. Words and phrases that precede restatement are namely, in other words, in fact, and that is. Relationships of logical comparison are straightforward. The idea expressed in the com- plete unit of the sentence is similar to or the same as the idea that needs to be expressed in the incomplete unit. When you know what the complete unit says, you know what the incomplete unit needs to say—the same thing, or very nearly so. Here’s an example of a comparison sentence: Until he went to military school, Foster never stood up straight; as illustrated by his in this photograph. –THE SAT CRITICAL READING SECTION– 42 5658 SAT2006[03](fin).qx 11/21/05 6:42 PM Page 42 . true, the author does not discuss them in this passage. 13. a. This is a question about the author’s main point, or purpose in writing the passage. The word suggests tells you the exact phrasing. were doing— seeking to dissolve the Union. In other words, they were secessionists. THE SAT CRITICAL READING SECTION– 37 5658 SAT2 006[03](fin).qx 11/21/05 6:42 PM Page 37 21. b. When Lincoln. Second Inaugural Address by saying there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at his first inaugura- tion. He continues by comparing the two occasions, using the words then and