Sat - MC Grawhill part 19 pot

B The passage states that “pions carry the nu-clear force only over distances greater than half a fermi—the radius of a proton—yet the distance between bound protons is far less than tha

SAT Practice 1:

About

demonstrated that pions carry the nuclear force only over distances greater than half a fermi—the radius of a proton—yet the

50 distance between bound protons is far less than that The pion seemed to be a giant plumber’s wrench trying to do a tweezer’s job

In the years since, physicists have refined Yukawa’s theory to suggest that closely

55 bound protons or neutrons are held by a

“residual” force left over from the strong forces binding quarks together into protons and neutrons, so that pions don’t need to be exchanged If the protons and neutrons are

60 far enough apart within the nucleus, however, perhaps pions do the job

1. Which of the following best summarizes the

“paradox” mentioned in line 1?

(A) Teachers don’t utilize educational materials effectively

(B) A law of physics appears to be violated (C) Scientists continue to test hypotheses that they suspect are false

(D) Hideki Yukawa’s theory is incorrect

(E) Scientists are increasingly reluctant to ex-plore the difficult field of nuclear physics

2. In lines 3–4, the author uses the term “vast knowl-edge” in order to

(A) emphasize the daunting task faced by sci-ence teachers

(B) empathize with overburdened students (C) draw a contrast to an area of relative ignorance

(D) praise the productivity of physicists relative

to other scientists (E) acknowledge the difficulty of writing physics textbooks

The following is an essay regarding current

knowledge of subatomic physics.

A tantalizing paradox peers out from every

basic physics textbook, but rarely do students

Line notice it or teachers exploit it Despite the vast

knowledge that scientists have accumulated

5 about the subatomic realm, including

aston-ishingly accurate equations for predicting the

behavior of barely detectable particles, an

ob-vious conundrum persists that they are only

recently beginning to understand: protons

10 stick together in atomic nuclei

All first-year physics students learn that the

atomic nucleus contains neutrons, which have

no charge, and protons, which are positively

charged They also learn that while opposite

15 charges attract, all like charges repel each

other, just like the north poles of two magnets

So what keeps all of those positively charged

protons bound together in a nucleus?

Physi-cists have long postulated that there must be

20 another special force, called the nuclear force,

that counteracts the electrical repulsion

be-tween protons But where does it come from?

One theory, proposed by Nobel laureate

Hideki Yukawa in the 1930s, held that the

nu-25 clear force is conveyed by a particle called a

pion, which, he claimed, is exchanged among

the neutrons and protons in the nucleus

Forty years later, physicists discovered that

pions, not to mention the protons and

neu-30 trons themselves, are actually composed of yet

smaller particles called “quarks,” which are

held together by aptly named “gluons.” The

force conveyed by gluons is called the “strong”

force Although experiments had clearly

35 demonstrated that these gluons are

responsi-ble for the force that binds quarks within

pro-tons and neutrons, nothing suggested that

gluons are exchanged between protons and

neutrons Nevertheless, by the early 1980s,

40 most physicists became convinced that some

combination of gluons and quarks, perhaps the

pion, must be responsible for the nuclear force

Professor Yukawa’s theory, however, was

dealt a blow by a series of experiments that

45 were conducted at Los Alamos National

Labo-ratory in the early 1990s These experiments

© 2004 Christopher Black All rights reserved Reprinted by per-mission of the author.

6. Which of the following best describes the organi-zation of this passage as a whole?

(A) presentation of a theory followed by refutation

(B) description of a problem followed by a history

of attempts to solve it (C) statement of fact followed by logical analysis (D) description of a scientific discovery followed

by a discussion of its implications (E) analysis of a theory and suggestions on how

it should be taught

3. In lines 35–36, the phrase “responsible for” most

nearly means

(A) guardians of

(B) indebted to

(C) representative of

(D) capable of conveying

(E) responsive to

4. According to the passage, the nuclear force

can-not be completely explained in terms of the

exchange of pions because pions

(A) are not composed of quarks

(B) have little or no effect on the distances

between nuclear particles

(C) repel each other

(D) cannot coexist with the gluons that convey

the “strong” force

(E) are positively charged

5. Which of the following best describes the

pur-pose of the fifth paragraph (lines 53–61)?

(A) It resolves a problem indicated in the

previ-ous paragraph

(B) It provides an example of a concept

intro-duced in the previous paragraph

(C) It presents a counterexample to a

miscon-ception described in the previous paragraph

(D) It provides an example similar to the one

presented in the previous paragraph

(E) It logically analyzes a claim made in the

previous paragraph

Perfecting your Critical Reading skills takes lots of practice Check out our Online Practice Plus at www.MHPracticePlus.com/ SATverbal for more tools and resources you can use to get ready for the SAT.

Answer Key 1:

About

evidence in the passage—because if they weren’t, there would be no consistent way to score the test People would be arguing incessantly about the an-swers to the questions

6 English teachers ask lots of interesting questions that could never be asked on the SAT because they are too subjective, such as “What personal experi-ences does this story remind you of?” or “What kind of job would Hamlet have if he were alive today?” or “What could water represent in this story?” Contrary to what some claim, SAT Critical Reading questions are certainly not “worse” than English teachers’ questions just because they are less creative Indeed, you can’t begin to interpret

a passage subjectively until you first interpret it

objectively You have to understand what the pas-sage says before you can get creative

Concept Review 1

1 What is the purpose of this passage? What is the

central idea of this passage? What is the general

structure of this passage?

2 It’s better to read the passage first, before reading

the questions, because you get the most points on

the questions only when you get the “big picture”

of the passage The “read the questions first”

strat-egy only distracts you from getting the big picture

3 Active reading means reading with the three key

questions in mind “Passive” reading (which is

reading without questions in mind and merely

“hoping” to absorb information) is utterly

ineffec-tive on the SAT Top scorers must read acineffec-tively

4 “Objective” means based on clear evidence and

facts, not on your opinion or conjecture

5 SAT Critical Reading questions must be

objective—that is, based only on the clear, literal

SAT Practice 1

1 B The paradox is that “protons stick together”

(lines 9–10) even though a law of physics suggests

that they should repel each other

2 C The passage states that “Despite the vast

knowledge that scientists have accumulated”

(lines 3–4), “an obvious conundrum persists”

(lines 7–8) Therefore, the phrase “vast

knowl-edge” is being used to contrast the “conundrum,”

which is a vexing problem yet to be solved

3 D The passage states that gluons “are

responsi-ble for the force that binds quarks within protons

and neutrons” (lines 35–37) In other words, they

convey the force that binds the particles

4 B The passage states that “pions carry the

nu-clear force only over distances greater than half a

fermi—the radius of a proton—yet the distance

between bound protons is far less than that” (lines

47–51) This indicates that pions do not bind

pro-tons because they are ineffective in the small

dis-tances between bound nuclear particles

5 A The fifth paragraph describes how “physicists have refined Yukawa’s theory” (lines 53–54) in order to resolve the problem described in the fourth paragraph, namely, the fact that pions are not effective in the distances within nuclei

6 B This is essentially the third key question: What is the overall structure of the passage? The passage begins by describing a “conundrum” (line 8), then describing attempts to resolve it The passage ends, however, without a definitive solution: Scientists still don’t know precisely what holds an atomic nucleus together Thus the pas-sage is a description of a problem followed by a history of attempts to solve it

Lesson 2:

Finding the Purpose

About 20–30% of SAT CR questions are

“pur-pose” questions, such as “The overall purpose

of this passage is to ” or “The author refers

to the ‘mountaintop’ in line 6 in order to

em-phasize .” These questions ask why the

au-thor wrote the passage or used a particular

word, phrase, or reference You will always be

prepared for these questions if you focus on

overall purpose as you read

SAT CR passages are drawn from a wide range of

disciplines, but every passage has only one of three

possible purposes:

• To examine a concept objectively A passage that

examines a concept is an analysis It is strictly

informative, like a newspaper article or a textbook

passage Think of it as a response to an essay

ques-tion It is objective—sticking to facts rather than

opinions

• To prove a point A passage that proves a point is

an argument It presents the author’s point of view

on a topic and explains why it is better than another

point of view It is subjective—a matter of opinion

rather than fact

• To tell a story A passage that tells a story is a

narrative—a piece of fiction, a biography, or a

memoir It describes how a character changes in

order to deal with a conflict or problem

To understand a passage, begin by asking, “Is

this passage an analysis, an argument, or a

narrative? Is its main purpose to inform to

per-suade, or to inform?” Knowing this makes

an-swering many SAT questions easier

Often, the introduction to the passage gives

you clues about the purpose Look for key

words such as these:

• Analysis key words: examine, analyze,

scien-tific, historical, explore

• Argument key words: comment, argue,

opinion, perspective, point of view, position

• Narrative key words: biography, story,

auto-biography, memoir, novel, fiction, account

Finding the Central Idea

Often, the first question after an SAT passage

is a “central idea” question such as “With which of the following statements would the author most likely agree?” or “This passage is primarily concerned with .” Knowing the central idea is critical to answering these ques-tions When you are given two “paired” pas-sages, it is particularly important to know how their central ideas compare and contrast

Although SAT passages contain lots of ideas, each

has only one central idea Find it Every different type

of prose has a different type of central idea

• Every analysis focuses on a question that might

interest a college professor It might answer a question such as “What methods do scientists use

to measure the location and intensity of earth-quakes?” or “What were the social conditions of women in 19th-century England?”

• Every argument focuses on a thesis—the point the

writer is trying to make An argument takes a side and

makes an evaluation It argues against something

substantial and doesn’t merely support a claim that everyone already agrees with Too many students for-get this When reading an argument, ask “What

sub-stantial idea is this author arguing against?”

• Every narrative focuses on a conflict—the

prob-lem that the main character must deal with There

is no story without conflict—conflict drives the

story Basically, every story consists of (1) the

intro-duction of the conflict, (2) the development of the

conflict, and (3) the resolution of the conflict.

Understanding a story begins with understanding this structure

Once you discover the purpose of the passage, find its central idea—the question, the thesis,

or the conflict Underline it in the passage or jot it down in the margin To make sure that you really have the central idea, check that it is

supported by every paragraph Often, students

mistakenly think that the first idea in the pas-sage must be the central idea Not necessarily

For instance, an author may describe an

oppos-ing viewpoint before presentoppos-ing his or her

own, so his or her central idea doesn’t appear until the second or third paragraph

Concept Review 2:

1 Name the three kinds of prose, and describe the purpose of each

2 For each type of prose, name four “key words” in the introduction that indicate that particular type of prose:

a Narrative

b Argument

c Analysis

3 What is the function of the “central idea” of a piece of prose?

4 The central idea of a narrative is the

5 The central idea of an argument is the

6 The central idea of an analysis is the

7 How do you know whether you’ve found the central idea of a passage?

8 After reading the passage on the next page, write what type of prose it is and its central idea

SAT Practice 2:

feeble light is but a presentiment, and

45 the soul, when it sees it, trembles in doubt whether the light is not a dream, and the gulf

of darkness reality This doubt and the still-harsh tyranny of the materialistic philosophy divide our soul sharply from that of the

Primi-50 tives Our soul rings cracked when we seem to play upon it, as does a costly vase, long buried

in the earth, which is found to have a flaw when it is dug up once more For this reason, the Primitive phase, through which we are

55 now passing, with its temporary similarity of form, can only be of short duration

1. Which of the following is the best title for this passage?

(A) The Art of the Early 20th Century (B) The Dangers of Materialism (C) Obstacles to the Revival of Primitive Art (D) The Similarities in Artistic Movements (E) The Lack of Purpose in Art

2. In context, the word “aspect” (line 16) most nearly means

(A) meaningful perspective (B) facial expression (C) configuration (D) contemplation (E) minor part

3. Which of the following is an example of the

“fundamental truth” mentioned in lines 19–20? (A) the inability of great artists like Vincent Van Gogh to achieve fame in their lifetimes (B) the tendency of artists from all cultures to eschew social conventions

(C) the failure to reproduce artwork that was created in the fourth century BC

(D) the ability of apes to create paintings that resemble abstract works by humans

(E) the similarity between two paintings created

a century apart, each in the midst of a great class war

The following passage was written in 1911 by

Wassily Kandinsky, a renowned abstract painter.

Here he discusses the relationship between

Prim-itivism, an artistic movement that seeks to move

away from technology and the divisions of

mod-ern society, and Materialism, which denies that

there is a spiritual component of reality.

Every work of art is the child of its age and, in

many cases, the mother of our emotions It

Line follows that each period of culture produces

an art of its own which can never be repeated

5 Efforts to revive the art-principles of the past

will at best produce an art that is still-born It

is impossible for us to live and feel as did the

ancient Greeks In the same way those who

strive to follow the Greek methods in

sculp-10 ture achieve only a similarity of form, the

work remaining soulless for all time Such

imitation is mere aping Externally the

mon-key completely resembles the human being;

he will sit holding a book in front of his nose,

15 and turn over the pages with a thoughtful

aspect, but his actions have for him no real

meaning

There is, however, in art another kind of

external similarity which is founded on a

fun-20 damental truth When there is a similarity of

inner tendency in the whole moral and

spiri-tual atmosphere, a similarity of ideals, at first

closely pursued but later lost to sight, a

simi-larity in the inner feeling of any one period to

25 that of another, the logical result will be a

revival of the external forms which served to

express those inner feelings in an earlier age

An example of this today is our sympathy, our

spiritual relationship, with the Primitives

30 Like ourselves, these artists sought to express

in their work only internal truths, renouncing

in consequence all considerations of external

form

This all-important spark of inner life today

35 is at present only a spark Our minds, which

are even now only just awakening after years

of materialism, are infected with the despair

of unbelief, of lack of purpose and ideal The

nightmare of materialism, which has turned

40 the life of the universe into an evil, useless

game, is not yet past; it holds the awakening

soul still in its grip Only a feeble light glimmers

like a tiny star in a vast gulf of darkness This

Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art © 1997

Dover Publications Reprinted by permission of Dover Publications.

6. According to the metaphor in the final paragraph, the “costly vase” (line 51) represents

(A) a materialistic aspiration (B) a meticulously crafted piece of modern art (C) an irretrievable frame of mind

(D) a cynical attempt at forgery (E) a lack of purpose

4. In saying that the soul “trembles in doubt” (line

45) when it sees the “feeble light” (line 44), the

author suggests that

(A) artists have doubts about whether the era of

materialism is truly past

(B) the public is unsure that its hunger for art

will be met

(C) artists do not know from where their next

inspiration will come

(D) the Primitives found mysterious lights more

frightening than modern people do

(E) artists usually do not work well under the

harsh light of scrutiny

5. How would the author characterize the effect of

materialism on the artist’s soul?

(A) supportive

(B) confusing

(C) calming

(D) oppressive

(E) inspirational

Answer Key 2:

6 the question being analyzed

7 The central idea must “carry through” the entire passage, so to check that you’ve found the central idea, make sure that every paragraph contributes

to that central idea If not, then reread the para-graph until it “fits” with the central idea, or recon-sider what the central idea is

8 This passage is an argument; the author is pre-senting a subjective theory about art and artistic movements Its central idea, or thesis, is

summa-rized in lines 3–4: each period of culture produces

an art of its own which can never be repeated.

Concept Review 2

1 Narrative: to tell a story; argument: to persuade;

analysis: to inform

2 a Narrative: biography, story, autobiography,

memoir, novel, fiction, account

b Argument: comment, argue, opinion,

perspec-tive, point of view, position

c Analysis: examine, analyze, scientific, historical,

explore

3 The central idea is the idea that focuses, organizes,

and unifies the passage Every paragraph must

contribute to the central idea

4 the conflict

5 the thesis

SAT Practice 2

1 C The title should capture the central idea of

the passage, which is the thesis that it is difficult

to rekindle primitive art because all art is “a child

of its age” (line 1) and because modern

material-ism is interfering with primitive impulses The

best title, then, is (C) Obstacles to the Revival of

Primitive Art

2 B The passage says that a monkey can look at a

book with a “thoughtful aspect” but really have no

understanding of the book Since the monkey

does not understand the book, choices (A) and (D)

are illogical The sentence is saying that the

mon-key only looks thoughtful, so choice (B) is the only

sensible one

3 E The “fundamental truth” described in the

sec-ond paragraph is that a “revival of external forms”

(line 26), that is, art forms that resemble those of

the past, can occur only when there is “a

similar-ity of inner tendency in the whole moral and

spiritual atmosphere” (lines 20–22) The only

example given that suggests that fact is (E)

4 A In these lines, the author is using a metaphor

to describe how “our minds” and “the soul,” by

which he means the artistic, spiritual mind, are

affected by the materialism of the age Artistic

inspiration is described as a “spark,” and

materi-alism as a “nightmare” and a “vast gulf of

dark-ness.” The soul “trembles” because it doubts that

the light is “not a dream,” meaning that the light

might be a dream and the darkness reality

There-fore the author suggests that materialism might

still hold the artistic soul in its grip

5 D The metaphor in the final paragraph makes it clear that materialism “holds the awakening soul

in its grip” (lines 41–42) This is not a nurturing grip, because the soul “trembles” (line 45) before the “nightmare of materialism” (line 39) Therefore, according to the author, materialism oppresses the artistic soul

6 C The “costly vase” is described as something that has been “long buried in the earth, which is found to have a flaw when it is dug up once more” (lines 51–53) This vase is compared to “our soul” (line 50), which is described as having a “sympa-thy” (line 28) and “spiritual relationship” (line 29) with the primitives Therefore, the costly vase clearly represents the irretrievable idea of primitivism

The Structure of an Argument

There are many ways to prove a point For instance,

if you want to persuade your readers to support gun control, you might tell a tragic story of a gun-related death, cite government statistics about gun violence, refer to a study about the behavior of people when they have guns versus when they don’t, or discuss the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of past gun policies and education programs Each of these is a different

rhetorical device for persuading the reader Noticing

the choices a writer makes when constructing an argument makes you not only a better reader but also

a better writer

When reading an argument, pay attention to the rhetorical devices the author uses with a critical eye Are they convincing to you? Are the examples strong? Is the reasoning sound? Asking these questions helps you to read more actively Furthermore, reading critically pre-pares you to answer higher-order questions such as “Which of the following, if true, would suggest a basic flaw in the author’s reasoning?”

or “Which of the following elements is NOT used in this passage?”

The Structure of a Narrative

As we discussed in the last lesson, every narrative has the same basic skeleton: The conflict is introduced, then developed, and then resolved This is helpful to remember because paragraphs don’t work the same way in narratives as they do in other kinds of prose For instance, in an essay, a new paragraph signals the start of a new idea, but in a narrative, it also may signal a new line of dialogue or a new scene

To understand the structure of a narrative, continually ask “How does this dialogue or description introduce, explain, develop, or resolve the conflict?” For instance, a

descrip-tion of a fight between friends establishes a

conflict A paragraph about a character’s inner

thoughts about the fight develops the conflict.

And a dialogue in which the friends make up

resolves the conflict Look for such key points

in every narrative you read

Lesson 3:

Finding the Structure of the Passage

Many SAT CR questions are structure

ques-tions such as “Which of the following best

de-scribes the overall structure of this passage?”

or “What is the relationship between the third

paragraph and the fourth paragraph?” They

ask you to focus on the relationships between

paragraphs and how they work together to

convey the central idea After you’ve found the

purpose and central idea of the passage, ask

“What does each paragraph or section do to

support the central idea?”

A good piece of prose is like a good painting: It

has an effective structure—the parts work together to

create an overall effect The basic unit of structure in

a passage is the paragraph To give another analogy,

a paragraph is like a stepping-stone on a journey

Good writers make sure that each paragraph takes

the reader further on the journey No paragraph

should deviate from the goal of developing the

cen-tral idea

The Structure of an Analysis

Most analytical essays have three basic parts: the

intro-duction, the development, and the conclusion The first

paragraph of an analytical essay usually introduces the

topic A good introduction shows why the topic is worth

exploring and draws the reader in by revealing

interest-ing facts It might describe an interestinterest-ing phenomenon,

a theory, or concept If it describes a phenomenon, then

the next paragraphs might give examples of it, present

a theory to explain it, or describe its discovery The

pas-sage also may describe a problem or debate related to

that phenomenon

There are many ways to structure an analysis,

so pay attention As you read, focus on the role

each paragraph is playing and what devices

the author uses to support the central idea

SAT questions often ask about devices, as in

“The author’s reference to the ‘maze’ (line 32)

serves the same illustrative purpose as which

of the following?”

Concept Review 3:

1 What is the “structure” of a passage?

2 What is the basic unit of structure in a passage?

3 What are the three basic parts of most analyses?

4 What are the three basic parts of most narratives?

5 Name four kinds of rhetorical devices that an argument might use