Sentence Completions

Link of the Day

One of the released SAT essay prompts asks “Has today’s abundance of information only made it more difficult for us to understand the world around us?”  Before you answer this question, take a look at this current event.  This current event could be used to argue either yes or no, but think for a moment.  Have you ever heard this man’s name before?  Did you know any of the facts associated with the massacres of Guatemalan villagers?  If not, why not?  What other information have you absorbed instead? 

Critical Reading: Sentence Completions

Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole. 

Cover up your answer choices so that they do not distract you while you read the sentence carefully.  Predict a word to fill the blank that you find easier, and then eliminate any answer choices that do not match your prediction for that blank.  Use the same method with the other blank.  Remember to eliminate each wrong choice, even if one answer matches one of your predictions exactly. 

Lazarro's last movie polarized viewers: while many ------- the film for its artfully directed scenes, others ------- it for being inaccessible.

The key word in this sentence is “polarized” – a Knowsys word!  However, you can still find the correct answer if you do not know what the word “polarized” means.  Start with the first blank.  If people think that the film is “artfully directed” that is a very positive observation.  If no word comes to mind immediately, predict “a positive word” and look down at your answer choices.

(A) praised . . extolled

(B) disparaged . . blamed

(C) regarded . . commended

(D) admired . . endorsed

(E) lauded . . criticized

(A) “Praised” is positive.  Keep it.  (B) Another Knowsys vocabulary word!  “Disparaged” is negative; it is the opposite of what you want.  Eliminate this answer choice.  (C) The word “regarded” often just means “to look.”  This is a neutral word rather than a positive word.  However, if you start over thinking the sentence, it is easy to remember that to “give that person my regards” is to give them respect or show interest in them.  If you aren’t comfortable with eliminating this word yet, keep it.  (D) “Admired” is positive.  Keep it.  (E) Another Knowsys word!  Remember that the Latin root “laud” means praise.  Keep this choice.

Now look at the second blank.  If people say that the film is inaccessible, that means that it was difficult to understand or they couldn’t get into it.  That is a criticism.  Predict “a negative word” and look down at your remaining answer choices.

(A) praised . . extolled

(C) regarded . . commended

(D) admired . . endorsed

(E) lauded . . criticized

(A) Another Knowsys word!  Are you studying your Knowsys SAT vocabulary?  If so, you know that extol is positive and you can eliminate it.  If not, keep it.  (C) This word is related to the word “recommend.”  If a teacher commends you or recommends you for something, those are good things.  Eliminate this choice.  (D) If celebrities endorse a product, they recommend trying that product and say positive things about it.  Eliminate this choice.  (E) You know that the word “criticized” is negative.  Always go with what you know on the SAT rather than hazarding a guess on what you don’t know.

Note:  If you knew the word “polarized,” you could have simply looked for two words that are opposites in your answer choices.

The correct answer is (E).

Words used in this SC:

Polarized: Made something completely opposite, at two different extremes

Extolled: Praised highly

Disparaged: Criticized disrespectfully

Regarded: Looked at or paid attention to

Commended: To reward or praise

Endorsed: To support or give approval to someone or something

Lauded: Praised

On sat.collegeboard.org, 64% of the responses were correct.

For more help with SAT vocabulary, visit www.myknowsys.com!

Triangles

Geometry: Triangles

Read the following SAT test question and then select the correct answer. 

Always read the question carefully so that you don’t misapply any information.  Identify the bottom line and assess your options for solving the problem.  Choose the most efficient method to attack the problem.  When you think you have the answer, loop back to make sure that it matches the bottom line.

If triangle ABC above is congruent to triangle DEF (not shown), which of the following must be the length of one side of triangle DEF?

Bottom Line: side of DEF = ?

Assess your Options: Many students go straight to the Pythagorean Theorem whenever they see a right triangle.  This formula, a² + b² = c², will not help you in this case because you do not know a or b.  Instead, use your knowledge of special triangles to solve this problem.

Attack the problem:  As soon as you see that this is a 30° – 60° – 90° triangle, you should think about the sides that relate to this special triangle.  Those sides, which you should have memorized, are x - x√3 – 2x.  Remember that the longest side has to be across from the biggest angle, the 90° angle.  That is your 2x.  This triangle has a 12 in that position.  Solve for x.

2x = 12

x = 6

Now you know that the side across from the 30° angle, AB, must be 6.  Label it.  Look at the side across from the 60° angle.  AC must be x√3.  You know that x = 6, so this side must be 6√3.  Label it.  You now know all the sides of triangle ABC:

x - x√3 – 2x

6 -6√3 – 12

Your bottom line is a side on triangle DEF, not on triangle ABC.  However, the problem tells you that ABC is congruent to DEF.  Congruent triangles have the same shape and size; they are basically the same triangle with different labels.  That means that the side lengths from triangle DEF will match the lengths you already found for ABC.

Loop back: You took into account all of the information that you were given and solved for your bottom line.  Look down at your answer choices.  One of the three side lengths you found will be there.

(A) 18

(B) 24

(C) 3√6

(D) 6√3

(E) It cannot be determined from the information given.

The correct answer is (D).

On sat.collegeboard.org, 38% of the responses were correct.

For more help with SAT math, visit www.myknowsys.com!

Pronouns

Link of the Day

Is the world changing for the better?  There are a variety of ways that you could approach this previous SAT essay question, but take a look at this article before you answer it.  It seems that people are living longer but not healthier.  Look for themes in this article that might show up in other SAT questions.  Some obvious themes are the contrast between young and old, the difference between generations, health, individual ability, dependency, and self-perception.  If any of these topics come up in your SAT essay prompt, this would make a great current event example to substantiate your thesis.  Make sure you note the facts from this article if you chose to use it as one of your five prepared current events.

Writing: Improving Sentences

Part or all of the following sentence is underlined; beneath the sentence are five ways of phrasing the underlined material. Select the option that produces the best sentence. If you think the original phrasing produces a better sentence than any of the alternatives, select choice A.  

Read the entire original sentence, listening for errors.  Evaluate the underlined portion using the Big 8 Grammar Rules.

The wide variety of spices and condiments used in sausage making including salt and, it depends on the ethnic or regional origin of the recipe, coriander, nutmeg, cloves, garlic, vinegar, mace, pepper, chili peppers, or pistachio nuts.

This sentence has two problems that your Knowsys book tells you to always avoid.  Any time you see an “-ing” underlined on the SAT, check to make sure that it belongs there.  You will never need two “-ing” ending words in a row unless you are looking at a list.  Check back to make sure you know the subject connected to the verb “including.” The subject of the sentence is “variety.”  You would not say “The variety including salt,” you would say “The variety includes salt.”  Mark this error.

Then notice the word “it.”  The word “it” must have an antecedent so that it is not a random and unassociated pronoun.  "The wide variety" is the only thing that could be the antecedent for "it," but if you substitute in “the wide variety” where “it” is, the sentence becomes difficult to understand as it jumps from an observation into a list.  The unnecessary pronoun “it” is causing this difficulty, so mark this error and look down at your answer choices.  Only one will solve both of these problems.  The other choices all contain specific errors.

(A) including salt and, it depends

(B) include salt, depending

(C) includes salt, and it depends

(D) includes salt and, depending

(E) including salt and, depending

(A) This answer matches the original sentence and can be eliminated without a second glance.

(B) This choice has a subject and verb agreement error.  “The wide variety” is singular so it requires a singular verb.  You would not say “the variety include;” you would say “the variety includes.”  Eliminate this choice.

(C) Including the word “it” causes problems with the sentence structure of this sentence because “it depends on the ethnic or regional origin of the recipe” is an independent clause.  Notice that there is a comma that comes after the preceding “and.”  You cannot have an independent clause inserted as an aside that is set off from the rest of the sentence by only commas.  Eliminate this choice.

(D) This answer gets rid of both of the problems that you initially identified.

(E)  This answer choice still has the awkward “-ing” phrasing.  Eliminate it.

The correct answer is (D).

On sat.collegeboard.org, 55% of the responses were correct.

For more help with SAT writing, visit www.myknowsys.com!

Sentence Completions

Link of the Day

Happy birthday to Rosa Parks who would have been 100 today.  Was she someone who happened to be in the wrong place at the right time, or an activist dedicated to  changing the world?  Find out here.

Critical Reading: Sentence Completions

Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole. 

Cover up the answer choices so that you will not be prejudiced by wrong answer choices as you read the sentence carefully.  Then make a prediction to fill the blank and compare it with the answer choices.  Eliminate any choices that do not match.  Be sure to look at all of the answer choices, even if you think that one answer matches perfectly.

Troy was ------- when he wasn’t elected class president: his spirits were so low that there was nothing we could say or do to cheer him up.

This sentence tells you exactly what belongs in the blank.  You know that Troy’s spirits were low and he could not be cheered up.  Predict the word that this information suggests to you; any word like “depressed” or “unhappy” will work.  Look down at your answer choices.

(A) unctuous

(B) disconsolate

(C) ebullient

(D) inscrutable

(E) tenacious

(A) You may not know the word “unctuous,” but you can probably see that it is a negative word.  Keep any word that you do not have a specific reason to eliminate.

(B) Break down this word.  The Latin root “dis” means “away.”  That leaves “consolate,” and you know that to console someone is to make them feel better.  If a person is away from or beyond feeling better, that person is definitely unhappy.  This matches your prediction; since you should generally pick what you know on the SAT rather than what you do not know, it might be the answer you pick.  However, before you select this choice, you should quickly check the other words.

(C) This is a Knowsys vocabulary word!  It comes from a Latin verb meaning to boil over: the “e” comes from “ex” and the “bullire” comes from the Latin “to bubble.”  If you are ebullient, you are so lively and enthusiastic that you cannot contain yourself.  This is the opposite of your prediction!  Eliminate it.

(D) The Latin root “in” can mean “not” while “scrut” is the same root that appears in your Knowsys vocabulary word “scrutinize.”  To scrutinize something is to examine it closely.  If you cannot scrutinize or understand something, it is mysterious, which has nothing to do with your prediction.  Eliminate it.

(E) The Latin root “ten” means “hold.”  If you are tenacious, you intentionally hold fast to something.  That sounds more like the word “determined” than the word “depressed.”  Eliminate it.

The correct answer is (B).

Words used in this SC:

Unctuous: having oily characteristics or excessively pious, even smug

Disconsolate: beyond consolation, downcast, cheerless

Ebullient: lively and enthusiastic

Inscrutable: difficult or impossible to comprehend

Tenacious: unyielding, stubborn, determined

On sat.collegeboard.org, 74% of the responses were correct.

For more help with SAT vocabulary, visit www.myknowsys.com!

Functions

Link of the Day

Is there always another explanation or point of view?  Before you answer this released SAT essay prompt, check out this article that is part current event and part historical example with a literary connection thrown in just for fun.  Richard the III was a real king who is best known as a villain in Shakespeare’s work.  Read about what happened to him and why he is appearing in the news now.  There are far too many themes in this article to name them all, so come up with about a dozen ways you could connect this example to an essay prompt.  Then memorize a few of the most interesting facts so that you can use them to support your opinion on any of the themes that show up in your SAT essay prompt.

Note: The identity of King Richard the III has been confirmed.  Read here for details.

Algebra: Functions

Read the following SAT test question and then select the correct answer. 

Always read the problem carefully, identify the bottom line, and assess your options for solving the problem before you attack the problem.  When you have an answer, loop back to verify that it matches the bottom line.

The function y = f(x), defined for -1.5 ≤ x ≤ 1.5, is graphed above. For how many different values of x is f(x) = 0.2?

Bottom Line: # times f(x) = .2

Assess your Options:  Some students will skip this problem, thinking that it requires a lot of time to somehow write a formula for the function from the graph.  However, once you know what you are looking at, this is one of the easiest and fastest problems on the test!  All that you have to do is read the graph!

Attack the Problem:  You know that f(x) = .2 is the same thing as y = .2.  Anytime you see f(x), you can just substitute a y for f(x) if that clarifies the problem in your head.  If y is constant, you know that it will be a horizontal line at .2.  Draw that line on your graph.

Anywhere that the line crosses the function f(x), that function is equal to .2.  Count up the number of intersections between the line that you drew and the original function.  There are four.  That means that f(x) = .2 four times.

Loop Back: You solved for your bottom line, so you are ready to look down at your answer choices.

(A) None

(B) One

(C) Two

(D) Three

(E) Four

The correct answer is (E).

On sat.collegeboard.org, 39% of the responses were correct.

For more help with SAT math, visit www.myknowsys.com!

Parallelism

Writing : Identifying Sentence Errors

The following sentence contains either a single error or no error at all. If the sentence contains an error, select the one underlined part that must be changed to make the sentence correct. If the sentence contains no error, select choice E. 

Read the entire sentence to yourself, listening for errors.  Then quickly check the underlined portions of the sentence against the Big 8 Grammar Rules.  Mark any error that you find.

From its modest beginnings Aas a series of brief vignettes to Bits establishment as the longest-running prime-time animated series on television, The Simpsons Ctransformed the way Dboth the audiences and television programmers view the animated sitcom. ENo error

(A) The word “as” can be used to introduce how something once was or how something once was thought to be.  That is the way this sentence uses “as,” so there is no error here.

(B) Start by checking that the correct “its” is used.  “Its” is possessive and matches the previous “its” that is not underlined, so it must be correct.  Notice that the sentence uses the idiomatic phrase “from x to y.”  Whenever you see this format, you should check to make sure that the words that replace the variables x and y are parallel.  “Its modest beginnings as…” matches the format of “its establishment as…,” so there is no error here.

(C) Whenever a verb is underlined, check to make sure that it matches the subject and that it is in the correct tense.  The show transformed (past tense) the way people view (present tense) the show.  The change in tense is okay here because the change had to take place in the past in order for you to see an effect of the change in the present.  There is no error here.

(D) When you see the word “both,” you should immediately look for the idiomatic format “both x and y.”  An “and” follows this “both,” but the x and y are not parallel.  Only one has an article: “the.”  “The audiences” does not match “television programmers” in format.  Eliminate the extra article, "the."

(E) This answer cannot be correct because you already marked an error.

The correct answer is (D).

On sat.collegeboard.org, 47% of the responses were correct.

For more help with SAT vocabulary, visit www.myknowsys.com!

Sentence Completions

Critical Reading: Sentence Completions

Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole. 

Cover up your answers before reading the sentence carefully.  Make a prediction to fill one blank, the easier one, and eliminate any answer choice that does not match your prediction for that blank.  Do the same with the blank that is left.  Using this method, you will be able to eliminate answers even if you do not know one of the words in the answer choice.

Refuting the claim that the surest way to reduce anger is to express it, the author asserts that------- anger can actually increase its -------.

The key word in this sentence is “refuting” because the logic of the sentence hinges on this one word.  Don’t panic if you don’t know this word.  You also have the word “actually” to help you out. The word “actually” often corrects an incorrect notion.  For example, some people think that, but this is actually true.  Paraphrase the sentence so that it corrects an incorrect notion.  Some people claim the best way to reduce anger is to express it, but the author says that ------- anger can actually increase its -------.

Start with the second blank if it seems easier.  You set up a contrast between the first and second parts of the sentence.  The opposite of reducing anger would be increasing its strength.  Predict the word “strength,” or a similar word, and look down at your answer choices. 

(A) denying . . impact

(B) understanding . . importance

(C) overcoming . . likelihood

(D) venting . . intensity

(E) voicing . . benefits

(A) Impact can mean strength, so keep this choice.  (B)  Something doesn’t have to be strong to be important.  Eliminate this choice.  (C)  If you are already angry, the likelihood of being angry is already at one hundred percent!  You cannot increase its likelihood.  Eliminate this choice.  (D) Intensity can mean strength, so keep this choice.  (E) The sentence assumes that anger is bad, that it is something that people want to get rid of.  Benefits are good.  Eliminate this choice.

Now think again about your paraphrased version of the sentence.  Some people claim the best way to reduce anger is to express it, but the author says that ------- anger can actually increase its strength.  You set up a contrast, so some students might be tempted say that the opposite of expressing an emotion is hiding it.  But wait!  If people think they can reduce anger by expressing it, and the author says that hiding it can increase its strength, these two statements agree!  In order to set up a contrast, you need to set up statements that are truly opposite.  If people think expressing anger will reduce it, this author must say that expressing anger will increase it.  Predict the word “expressing” and look down at your answer choices.

(A) denying . . impact

(D) venting . . intensity

(A) Denying an emotion would be hiding it.  This is the opposite of what you are looking for.  (D) Venting is definitely expressing a strong emotion.  This matches your prediction.

The correct answer is (D).

Words used in this SC:

Refuting: disproving or rejecting

Asserts: declares strongly, states positively, affirms

Denying: not allowing or saying that something is not true

Impact: the force or influence of something

Venting: relieving oneself of pressure, usually through angry speech

Intensity: strength

On sat.collegeboard.org, 55% of the responses were correct.

For more help with SAT vocabulary, visit www.myknowsys.com!