sat virtual reality ii explanations phần 2 doc

It stands to reason that Douglass would pattern his autobiography after Equiano’s own “autobiography” or “life story.” The only choice that has a second-blank word coming even close to t

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1 C The important idea in this sentence is that the woman “lost herself in her work,”

which means it must have been “inspiring” (A), “complex” (B) or “absorbing” (C), not

“exhausting” (D) or “repetitive” (E) If she were really involved in her work, she would have been ignorant of the noise around her This rules out (A) and (B); if the work were “inspiring” or “complex” she wouldn’t be “annoyed by” or “involved in” the noise (C) works: her work was so “absorbing” that she was completely “oblivious to” the noise

2 C “In contrast to” is the signal; that there is the difference between the piranhas’

image and the reality that many species of piranha are vegetarian The word in the blank has to emphasize the piranha’s image as a carnivore (C), “voracious,” or

“greedy, ravenous, having a huge appetite,” works best “Nomadic” (A) means

“moving from place to place”; “lugubrious” (B) means “mournful”; (D) “covetous” means “eagerly desiring something belonging to someone else.” (E) might have been tempting, but the fact that piranhas seem “exotic” has nothing to do with their diet

3 A This sentence has quite a bit of verbiage that you can ignore The important thing

to see is that there is a contrast between the “modern, subway stations” and the “graceful curves” of the old buildings The word in the blank, therefore, has to

be something like “rectangular.” (A), “rectilinear,” which means “characterized by straight lines” is the only one of the choices that provides the necessary contrast

4 B The structural clue “while” alerts you that vetiver does not have a disruptive impact

on the local ecology like kudzu does A good prediction for th blank would then b

“negative,” because vetiver has “no negative effects.“ The only good match for this prediction among the choices is (B), “adverse,” which means “unfavorable.” Vetiver clearly has “foreseeable” (A) and “advantageous” (E) effects because it controls soil erosion, so these choices are wrong (C), “domestic,” doesn’t make sense in the sentence Since you don’t know whether kudzu’s impact on the ecology is permanent, (D) doesn’t fit either

5 E Concentrate on the second blank first It stands to reason that Douglass would

pattern his autobiography after Equiano’s own “autobiography” or “life story.” The only choice that has a second-blank word coming even close to this prediction is (E), “consciously narrative,” “Consciously” fits well into the first blank, too; Gates think that Douglass patterned his autobiography after Equiano’s narrative

“consciously,” or “on purpose.” (E) is the correct answer “patronizingly” (A) means

“condescendingly.” An “epitaph” (D) is the “inscription on a tomb or grave.”

6 D The first blank has to be consistent with “lived a lonely life”; you can predict a word

like “uncommunicativeness.” This rules out (B) “career” and (E) “gregariousness,” which means “sociability.” SInce Houseman did let a few close friends into his life, these friends must have been able to “get past” the “uncommunicativeness.” The choice that matches these predictions is (D), “reserve penetrate.” “Reserve” is restraint in one”s words and actions.” (A) is out because close friends would not

“spurn,” or disdainfully reject,” Houseman “Seclusion” works in (C), but “observe” doesn’t make any sense in the second blank

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7 B Narrowing your focus helps with this sentence Look at the phrase “patriotic and

other cliches.” The first blank has to be a word for a category that “patriotic”

falls into, such as “ideological” (B) For the second blank, you can infer that in an

impersonal world, relief will come from occasional “displays” of emotion (B),

“ideological manifestations,” has what you need to fill the blanks “Pragmatic,”

which mens “practical,” doesn’t work in the first blank, and “absences” is the

opposite of what we want in the second blank “Ephemeral” (D) means “lasting a

very short time,” while “vestiges” (E) means “trace or makes left by something.”

8 C The semi-colon in the middle of the sentence tells you that the two halves of the

sentence have similar meanings If a plan has “caused widespread resentment,”

then it has few elements that will “make the party popular” with the electorate We

need a word that means “make popular.” “Ingratiate” )C) means “to gain favor or

acceptance”; it’s the only choice that has the predicted meaning To “consolidate”

(B) is to “join together into one whole or to strengthen,” and the party doesn’t want

to merge with the electorate, so (B)’s out “Involve” (A) gives you a strange

sentence when you plug it in A political party is always involved with the

electorate “Deprecate” (D), to “express disapproval,” doesn’t make sense in the

context of the sentence (E) “impeach,” “to charge with a crime, especially the

crime of misconduct in a public office” might have tricked you because it’s a word

that fits in with the political subject matter of the sentence But it doesn’t fit in with

the meaning of the sentence

9 C This is particularly difficult question, which you can anticipate because it comes at

the end of the set Several of the choices look good at first, which is why you have

to look carefully at the sentence You need an adjective describing the students

who founded the literacy movement They all had come from French-speaking

colonies to live in France; so they were “expatriate” students, (C), which means

“exiled from or living outside of one”s country.” The word “expatriate” derives from

the root PATER, or “father” which is also found in “paternal.” And the prefix “EX”

means “out.” So to move out from your “fatherland” or native country is to

“EX-patriate.” “Laconic” (B) means “not talkative” and doesn’t fit the context The

students may have been “radical” (D) or “sophisticated” (E), but the evidence in the

sentence that they were “expatriated” is much stronger

10 C The WRIST is the joint that attaches the HAND to the rest of the body, in the same

way that the ANKLE is the joint that attaches the FOOT to the rest of the body

None of the other pairs of words int he choices fits into the stem bridge

11 E A good stem bridge here is “to REVERE someone is to ADMIRE that person

intensely.” Analogously, to “scrutinize” something is to “examine” it intensely

“Think” and “ponder,” in (C), are synonyms; there is no difference in degree of

intensity In (B), to “delay” something a great deal is not to “cancel” it

12 A A HEDONIST is primarily occupied with the pursuit of PLEASURE; a “philosopher”

is primarily occupied with the pursuit of “knowledge.” In (B), a “stenographer,”

knows “shorthand” and in (C), a “physicist” studies “energy,” but they are not, by

definition, primary occupied with these things In (D) a “progressive” wants social

improvement through government action, not necessarily “liberty.”

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13 E When something is being UNEARTHed, the process is called EXCAVATION

(digging something out and removing it) Similarly, “imprisoning” someone is the process of INCARCERATION In (A), the process of “addition” does not always involve “constructing.” In (D), “imposition” is “the act of imposing.” “Demanding” something is not imposing something on someone, so this pair of words doesn’t work

14 C Something that is ABSTRUSE is by definition difficult to UNDERSTAND Likewise,

something that is OBSCURED is difficult to SEE Things that are “unusable” (A) can still be changed; things that are “faulty” are not always difficult to “fix” (B); things that are “irrelevant” (D) may be easy to “prove.” None of these has a bridge that matches the stem bridge “Tepid” (A) means “lukewarm,” not “difficult to heat.”

15 B To SULLY is to damage a person's REPUTATION Similarly, to MAR is to damage

an object's FINISH

Leatherback T urtles Passage

If you are particularly averse to science, you could have gone on to the next passage, the fiction piece, and then returned to this one after you got through the questions there But take a look at the introduction to this one: this passage is about turtles, not quantum electrodynamics — not too tough Just be sure that with

a passage like this one, you don’t let yourself get bogged down in the details The overall sense of the passage is that the author, a scientist who is fascinated by the deep-diving of leatherback turtles, is reporting what he and his wife have learned about the turtles’ behavior He tells of recording—at least, partially—the dive of a female leatherback in the first paragraph In the second paragraph, the author discusses the difficulty of studying leatherbacks: they can’t be kept in captivity An instrument known as the time-depth recorder has been designed to measure turtle-diving at sea Using this instrument, the author found that female leatherbacks dive almost continuously Why do the turtles dive? This is the question the author attempts to answer in the final three paragraphs It seems that the turtles are following the movements of a group of organisms known as the deep scattering layer; this is where jellyfish, the turtles’ food source, are The author has two main pieces of evidence for this hypothesis: 1) the turtles’ pattern of diving seems to match the movement of the deep scattering layer, and 2) turtles do not lose weight between bouts of nesting Don’t worry about the details — you can always go back

to the passage to get the details you need when you’re answering the questions

16 B When you go back to the passage and locate the lines cited in a question stem, be

sure to read for the context The author says in lines 18-23 that it is impossible to keep leatherbacks in captivity because they constantly swim against the walls of the tank Now, if you only read these lines, you’ll be tempted to select (E), keeping an animal in captivity can have negative consequences, or perhaps (A), larger facilities have to be constructed Neither is, however, the point that the author is trying to make in the context of the passage The author is explaining why “researchers have been developing methods of studying [the turtles] at sea.” The best paraphrase of

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this is (B) (C) is far too broad a generalization to be correct; furthermore, the

author doesn’t say anything about scientific understanding of the turtles being

“limited.” As for (D), the author never mentions other species of reptile in the

passage

17 A The “specific behavior” that the author describes in the cited lines is the continuous

diving of the turtles The author at this point is relating how astonished he and his

wife were when they first recorded the turtles’ diving He is conveying a sense of

“how impressive the diving activity of the leatherbacks is” (A) The author has not

yet talked about the deep scattering layer, so (B) is out Leatherback breeding (C) is

never even mentioned in the passage (D) is wrong because the author is not

suggesting that the turtles’ behavior is “unpredictable.” It may be unexpected and

astonishing because the scientists didn’t know much about the turtles, but that

doesn’t mean the turtles behave unpredictably Finally, you may get an insight into

the life of a marine biologist from this part of the passage, but the author’s purpose

is to describe the leatherbacks, not his lifestyle

18 C Several of the choices are possible definitions of “gradual.” Remember that with all

Vocabulary-in-Context questions, you need to check how the word is used in the

context of the passage Approach this question in the same way as you would a

Sentence Completion Put a blank in the sentence in place of “gradual” and you see

that the word in the blank has to have a meaning opposite of “vertical.” In other

words, “gradual” and “vertical” have opposite meanings here The only word among

the possible answers that has a meaning opposite of “vertical” is “sloping” (C)

19 B The question “Why the incessant diving?” serves to lead the reader into a

discussion of the author’s attempts to explain the turtles’ diving behavior The author

is using the device of asking a question and then answering it in order “introduce a

new topic for discussion” (B) Although the turtles’ diving may be an area requiring

“further research” (A), the author does not pose the question to make this point Nor

is he making a statement about the limitations of the time-depth recorder (C); you

already know from the previous paragraph what the instrument can and cannot do

There is no suggestion here that the turtles were “behaving in a novel way” (D)

How would the researchers know if the behavior were novel or not? This was the

first time time they ever monitored the turtles Finally, (E) is far too broad to be the

right answer — watch out for this common kind of wrong answer type

20 C Read the lines surrounding lines 56-57 The deep scattering layer “migrates to the

surface at night to feed on phytoplankton, then gradually retreats from daylight A

leatherback’s dives seem to follow the movements of the deep scattering layer.” The

reason turtles make shallower dives as dusk approaches is that their food source is

getting closer to the surface (C) Clearly turtles can locate their prey at night, so (A)

is out (B) can be eliminated because turtles feed on jellyfish, not phytoplankton (D)

and (E) may seem to be reasonable choices, but they don’t work in the context of

the passage

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21 E You can answer this question without reading all of the final paragraph The author

says that they “have not been able to directly observe leatherbacks feeding, but we have collected some additional circumstantial evidence.” It stands to reason, then, that the additional evidence will support what the author has been claiming in the previous two paragraphs, that “female leatherbacks find most of their food in the deep scattering layer” (E) Choices (A), (B) and (D) have little to do with the information in the passage (C) may have been distracting because the author does mention that female leatherbacks come ashore repeatedly during each nesting season, but this is not the circumstantial evidence the author uses nor is it what the author is trying to prove

22 D The author’s hypothesis is that “female leatherbacks feed between bouts of

nesting.” You also know from working through the last few questions that the leatherbacks apparently get their food (jellyfish) by following the deep scattering layer as it moves The author admits, though, that he has not been able to observe the leatherbacks feeding when they dive This is what would support his hypothesis the most—information about “the activity of diving female leatherbacks” (D) (E) is

a tricky wrong choice The average weight of the turtles doesn’t matter at all; it’s how much each individual turtle gains or loses that will show whether they are feeding between bouts of nesting

23 E The correct answer to this Big Picture question should jump right out at you now

that you’ve done the other questions and re-read quite a bit of the passage in the process The author doesn’t say much about leatherbacks’ nesting patterns (A) or about “misconceptions” concerning the leatherback’s feeding activity (B) His description of the time-depth recorder (C) is a detail, not his primary objective (D)

is wrong because the author never encourages others to study leatherbacks

Instead, he is “offer[ing] his own findings about the behavior of leatherbacks.” A shortcut to answering this question would have been to take a look at the verbs in the answer choices first Does the author “dispute” anything or “encourage” in the passage? No, so these two choices could have been eliminated right away, leaving you with only three to examine more closely

Mar c and Camilla Passage

With this fiction passage, you really needed to read the introduction (something you should always do, in any case) If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have had any idea what caused the extremely uncomfortable situation to arise between Marc and his friends, and you’d be confused throughout the passage because the author never specifically mentions what has upset Camilla and Karen The first paragraph centers on Camilla’s reaction to Marc’s bragging and Marc’s realization that he has offended her once again In the second paragraph, the author airs Marc’s opinion

on Camilla’s tendency to “overreact.” She gets “emotional when it isn’t warranted, from Marc’s point of view, as a consequence of her intelligence and the fact that she cares strongly about certain things Marc’s attention and thoughts turn to Karen

in the third paragraph when he sees that he has offended her also, even though they’ve been friends for a long time The final paragraph depicts Marc’s initial, awkward attempts to smooth the situation over

This is approximately the level of information you should retain from a good-enough

reading The question stems will direct you to specific details you need to answer

the questions

24 A In line 22, Marc’s view is that “you had to watch your mouth” around Camilla The

author goes on to explain that there were “certain things she cared strongly about,”

things about which she would get emotional ”The most innocuous (harmless)

remark would set her off ” (lines 27-8) Therefore, “to watch you mouth” in this

context means to “avoid sensitive topics” in conversation (A) It was clearly not

Marc’s failure to observe grammatical rules (B) or the fact that he used profanities

(D) (you don’t know if he did or not) that upset Camilla (C) “behave in a polite

fashion” is too broad to be the correct answer (E) is far-fetched; Camilla would not

demand that you have to “talk eloquently” in her presence

25 D Marc thinks that Camilla has a tendency to get emotional when it isn’t “warranted.”

You get a clue about what “not warranted” means in the next sentence: “the most

innocuous remark would set her off.” In other words, she has no good reason, in

Mark’s eyes, to get so upset; she tends to get emotional when it isn’t “justified” (D)

It may be true that Camilla gets upset when she doesn’t “intend” (B) to or when

Marc doesn’t “expect” (E) it, but these are not possible meanings of the word

“warranted.”

26 C Marc compares having a conversation with Camilla to walking in a minefield: “one

minute you’d be strolling along admiring the view, and the next, you’d have tripped

her wire ” This analogy emphasizes “the unpredictability of Camilla’s reactions”

(C) The author never mentions “Marc’s fear of offending other people” (A),

“Camilla’s discomfort at upsetting others” (B) or “the close understanding between

Marc and Camilla” (D) As for (E), Marc may be annoyed at Camilla’s behavior—the

author says he suppresses a momentary impulse to get angry—but this doesn’t

have anything to do with the minefield analogy

27 B Choices (B), (C) and (E) are all possible meanings of the word “dissecting,” so you

have to go back to the passage to find the meaning of the word in context Karen

and Marc had spent whole summers “dissecting each other’s private lives.” So

“analyzing” (B) is the right meaning of dissecting here; “criticizing” (C) has too

sharp a connotation and “cutting” (E) is too literal (remember to watch out for the

most common meaning of the word — usually it’s not the correct choice)

28 B In the line immediately following the description of Marc’s summers with Karen, the

author says that “Marc couldn’t think of a single woman who knew him better.” The

summers spent with Karen show the “longstanding nature of their friendship” (B)

This choice should have stood out because it’s the only one that fits in the context

of the third paragraph, which is all about the fact that Marc has offended Karen also

even though they’ve been friends for a long time Nowhere does the author

mention that Marc has “few close women friends” (A), that Marc has to overcome

many obstacles in his private life (D), or that Marc regrets not having pursued a

relationship with Karen further (E) (C) is based on a misinterpretation of the line

that says “Marc used to justify the relationship to his father ” This does not mean

that Marc had to seek his father’s approval; “justify” means “rationalize” here

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29 C Marc’s feeling that he’d “really done it now” comes right on the heels of his

realization that he has offended Karen, his closest friend, in addition to upsetting Camilla Reading a few lines up from the phrase quoted in the question stem makes this clear Marc doesn’t feel that he’s “really done it now” because he’s lost the ability to talk (A)—it’s the other way around (B) is wrong because there is no reason to think that Karen is not loyal to him She is simply annoyed at him right now (D) and (E) can be eliminated quickly because they don’t make sense in the context of the passage

30 C The author says that Marc was the “statesman of the class people joked about

how much money he was going to make ” However, Marc is “groping for his words now ” You can make the inference that the author talks about Marc being the statesman of the class in order to show that he is “generally an articulate speaker” (C), but he’s floundering now It’s true that being the statesman means that Marc is also probably “noted for his diplomacy” (A) and a “a popular student on campus” (D) These do not, however, touch upon the contrast the author is making between Marc’s usual articulate self and his current awkwardness There is no evidence in the passage that people resent Marc’s success (B) or that his “ambitions are not realistic” (E)

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Section 3 (Math)

1 B In the QC section you’re supposed to compare, not calculate Plugging all these

numbers into your calculator is too time-consuming If you look carefully at the

numbers in the 2 columns, you’ll see that each number in Column B is slightly larger

than a number in Column A, so you can compare piece by piece 2 is greater than

1.7, 3.1 is greater than 3, 4.5 is greater than 4.1, and 5.4 is greater than 5.2, so the

correct answer is choice (B)

2 A These angles lie on a straight line, so together they measure 180˚ You can turn

this into an algebraic equation and then solve it:

a + 20 + a + 10 + a = 180

3a + 30 = 180

3a = 150

a = 50

So a is greater than 45, Column A is greater than Column B, and the correct answer

choice is (A)

3 C In this question you’re given 2 equations Since one equation contains one variable,

x, and the other equation contains 2 variables, x and y, let’s start with the easier

one, the one with only one variable If = 3, you can multiply both sides of the

equation by 2 to get x = 6 Now you know the value of x and you can plug that into

the 2nd equation like this:

2x – y = 7 Plug in 6 for x

2(6) – y = 7 Multiply 2 × 6

12 – y = 7 Subtract 7 from both sides

5 – y = 0 Add y to both sides

5 = y Now you’re ready to compare the columns

Since x = 6, Column A is 6 – 1, or 5, and since y = 5, Column B is also 5, so the

correct answer is choice (C)

4 B The only thing you’re given here is that x is positive In Column A you’ve got a

percent, and in Column B you’ve got a fraction Remember the strategy “Make one

column look like the other”? That strategy is very useful here You should either

change the percent to look like a fraction or change the fraction to look like a

percent 10% is the same as and since is less than , of x is less than

of x (as long as x is a positive number) If you wanted to change the fraction to a

percent, you’d have to remember (or use your calculator to figure out) that is

approximately 11% Either way you do it, Column B is larger and choice (B) is

correct

1

 9

1



9

1

 10

1

 9

1

 10

1

 10

x

 2

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5 A If you subtract 13 from both sides of the equation that’s given to you the result is

a + b = c + d + 1 The average of a and b is and the average of c and d is

You can make the equation a + b = c + d + 1 look more like the averages by dividing both sides by 2, which gives you = , or =

+ Another way of writing this equation is “the average of a and b is

one-half more than the average of c and d” That means that the average of a and b is

greater than the average of c and d, so choice (A) is correct.

6 C The best way to do questions like this is just to pick a number for the variable

Since y is a positive even integer, let’s say that y is 2 Then Column A becomes the

remainder when 3 is divided by 2, which would be 1, and Column B becomes the remainder when 7 is divided by 2, which is also 1 (In fact, y + 1 and y + 5 must both be odd since y is even, and an even number plus an odd number is an odd number Any odd number divided by 2 has a remainder of 1.) Since the columns are equal, the correct answer is (C)

7 A Here you are told that a circle has radius 5 That means that its circumference is

2π(5) or 10π You’re also given that angle A OCis 60˚ That means that it is ,

or of the entire circle If you cut the circle into 6 identical wedges (pieces like pie slices), each one would be 60˚ Each one would also have the same area, and the same arc length The 6 equal arcs make up the entire circumference of the circle

So the length of arc ABC must be of the circumference of the circumference

is of 10π, or ( )π, which is π Now π is a little greater than 3, so π is a little greater than 5 Column A is greater

8 B The slope of a line is the change in y divided by the change in x (If that doesn’t

sound familiar to you, you might want to check out your Math Reference Book.) Point D’s y-coordinate is 1 and point E ’s y-coordinate is 6, so the change in y is

6 – 1, or 5 Point D’s x-coordinate is 0 and E ’s is 4, so the change in x is 4 – 0, or

4, and the slope is Notice that you could have written the change in y as 1 – 6

and the change in x as 0 – 4 It doesn’t matter which point’s coordinate you put first,

5

 4

5

 3

5

 3

10

 6

1

 6

1

 6

1

 6

1

 6

60

 360

1

 2

c + d

 2

a + b

 2

c + d + 1



2

a + b

 2

c + d

 2

a + b

 2

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as long as you’re consistent and put the same point’s coordinate first when you do

both the change in y and the change in x You can find the slope of the line passing

through D and F the same way That slope is = You have in Column

A and in Column B, so B is greater and the answer is choice (B)

9 D If there were less than 60 students at the lecture and 60% of them were female, how

many were female? It’s probably a good idea to try picking numbers here There

might have been 50 students, in which case there were 60% 50 = 6 50 = 30

female students On the other hand, there might have been only 20 students at the

lecture, in which case there were 60% 20 = 6 20 = 12 female students

Since you get 2 different relationships depending on exactly how many students

were there, the correct answer must be choice (D)

10.A Compare, don’t calculate If T is greater than S, the result of the subtraction problem

would be negative Think about it logically If T and S were 1 and 2, respectively

(they’re not), then ST – TS would be 12 – 21 = -9 Don’t do the math; just think

logically

11.B Inequalities are easy to solve if you remember that you can usually treat them the

same as you do equations Just be careful if you multiply or divide by a negative

number — in that case you have to switch the direction of the inequality sign

There’s more information about inequalities in your Math Reference Book Here you

can solve pretty easily:

3 + 2c < –5 Now just subtract 3 from both sides

2c < –8 Divide both sides by 2

c < –4 That’s what you need to answer the question!

Notice that you didn’t have to change the direction of the inequality sign because

you divided by a positive number Since c < –4, Column A is less than Column B

and choice (B) is correct

12.D If you got this one wrong, you did not read the question carefully If apples cost 79

cents a pound, then the cost of one pound of apples is 79 cents, the cost of two

pounds of apples is $1.58, etc., but how do you figure out the cost of a certain

number of apples? Well, you have to know how big the apples are, in other words

how many apples are in a pound If they’re really big apples, they could weigh half

a pound each, but if they’re really small apples there might be 4 or 5 or 6 or even

more per pound Since you have no way of knowing how many apples there are in

a pound, the only possible answer to pick is (D)

13.D The only thing you’re given here is the inequality a > 0 > b; in other words a is

positive and b is negative That means that is a positive number divided by a

negative number, which is a negative number It also means that b is a negative

a

a



b

×

×

×

×

5

 2

5

 4

5

 2

6 – 1



2 – 0

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