Other reading comprehension questions test your ability to understand what you read.. You may also have to answer questions about the tone of the passages as well as their overall theme
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There are approximately 40 long-passage critical read-ing questions on the SAT Each Critical Readread-ing sec-tion contains at least one long passage, followed by questions about the passage Passages are excerpted from writings in the fields of literature, humanities, and social and natural sciences There is no poetry
Each passage is between 400 and 850 words in length, and there will be between 5 and 13 questions after each one
In one critical reading section of the exam, there will be a set of two long passages These two passages will complement each other in some way Most often, they will present either supporting or opposing points
of view Some of the questions about these passages will require that you be able to analyze similarities and dif-ferences between the two passages
Many of the reading comprehension questions are vocabulary-related You can think of them as a vari-ation on sentence completion questions, asking you
to determine the meaning of a word or phrase in con-text Sometimes, the test-makers ask about fairly com-mon words that have multiple uses and ask you to choose the correct meaning or shade of meaning Most often, the answer will be a more obscure meaning of the commonly used word
Other reading comprehension questions test your ability to understand what you read SAT passages are usually complex, densely packed with ideas; and many are somewhat overwhelming at first glance You will be asked to extract information that may be stated explic-itly or implied In other words, a passage may contain arguments with underlying assumptions, which you will be asked to uncover You will be asked about the logical flow of the texts and about their consistency or lack thereof You may also have to answer questions about the tone of the passages as well as their overall theme or meaning
Fortunately, the skills you are learning for the sentence completion questions will also serve you well
for the reading comprehension questions Additionally, learning to make sense of complex passages will make your college career even more successful
Ready, Set, Read!
If you are already skilled at quickly reading and under-standing dense prose, good for you! If not, try this approach Feel free to adapt it and change it to suit your needs and temperament There’s no one “right” way to read The right way to do all of these things is the way that works for you; so as you practice, try variations on the method to see what suits you
Every reading comprehension passage has a short one- to three-sentence introduction This introduc-tion will provide you with some context for the passage
as a whole, so read it first Occasionally, there will be a question that requires knowledge of this introduction,
so read it carefully
Now you may want to skim the passage for its subject matter With practice, you will find that topic sentences and key adjectives will practically leap out and grab your attention Be sure to keep your pencil poised to write as you read You will want to mark key words and phrases as you see them
Next, read the passage all the way through As you finish each paragraph, determine its main idea Then, jot a word or phrase that expresses that idea in the margin of your test booklet This is a note to yourself, which will enable you to easily find sections of the pas-sage later and quickly tie the separate paragraphs into
a coherent whole
As you read the passage, mark any words or phrases that seem particularly important or expres-sive Often, adjectives that set a mood or tone will help you understand the author’s meaning, so underline them or jot them down in the margin It’s also impor-tant to note the location of details that support the author’s main point(s)
Of course, you were paying attention in English class when the teacher discussed topic sentences, so you know that most well-written paragraphs have at
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paragraph It is most often either the first or the last
sentence, so if you’re having trouble determining the
author’s point, reread the first and last sentences of
each paragraph
Once you’ve quickly but carefully read the entire passage, it’s time to tackle the questions On the SAT,
the questions are organized roughly in the same order
as the parts of the passage to which they refer In other
words, the answer to the second question will most
likely be found in the passage somewhere after the
answer to the first question, and so forth All of the
pas-sages on the SAT are numbered every five lines
Addi-tionally, many of the questions contain the line number
or numbers that will help you locate the answer
Beware, though, that you don’t assume that the answer
to the question will be found exactly in the line
refer-enced in the question Chances are, it will be found
somewhere near that line; but it still may be a few lines
away This is when the words and phrases you have
marked and the notes you have jotted in the margin will
come in really handy
When you have a set of questions on two related passages, there will be several questions without line
numbers Those questions will usually ask you to
com-pare the two passages in various ways Again, you will
be glad for your marks and notes on the passages
As you read each question, approach it as you would any other sentence Underline or circle key
words and phrases that help you with the meaning of
the question Whenever you see a word or phrase such
as best, primarily, most closely, or most nearly, it alerts
you to the likely presence of particularly good
dis-tracter answers That is to say, there may be two or
more answers that reflect language from the passage or
that may be true about the passage Rest assured,
how-ever, that with careful attention to the wording of both
question and answer choices, you can determine which
choice is truly best
Nine Proven Strategies for Reading Comprehension Questions
1 Read actively! As you read, ask yourself at the end
of each paragraph what it was about Mark up the passage, and write any thoughts you have about it
in the margins Be an engaged reader Try to become interested for a few minutes in whatever the subject of the passage is
2 If you have an especially good short-term
mem-ory, you may want to look at the questions before you read the passage Mark the words and phrases the questions ask about, then look for those words and phrases in the passage When you find them, you can either go ahead and answer the question right then or mark the area
to come back to later
3 If you don’t understand what a question is
ask-ing, rephrase the question, using your own words SAT questions are written in a very pre-cise, “hyper-grammatical” style to eliminate any ambiguity Unfortunately, nobody talks that way,
so the questions can be confusing at first glance Once you have marked the key words and phrases, rearrange them in a way that makes sense to you Don’t be afraid to add new words to the question; just be sure the words are express-ing the same ideas that are already in the ques-tion and not changing the meaning of the question in any way
4 Once you understand a question, try to answer it
in your own words before looking at the answer choices Distracter answer choices often take one
of several forms:
■ are close to the correct answer, but wrong in some detail
■ are true, but do not answer the question
■ use language found in the text, but do not answer the question correctly
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SAT, elimination is an important strategy for the reading comprehension questions Even if you don’t know the answer to a particular question right away, you often will be able to eliminate one to three answer choices without even refer-ring back to the passage Then you know that one
of the remaining answers is the correct one, and you can spend your time more productively looking up those answers in the passage
6 If you know from your preparation and
pretest-ing that you don’t always have enough time to finish each section, don’t hesitate to skip around the questions Look them over and answer the easy ones first, coming back to the more difficult questions Remember, each correct answer is worth one point You don’t get bonus points for answering more difficult questions If you skip a question, though, mark it in your test booklet and come back to it if there’s time
7 When you encounter a two-passage section, read
the passages with their relationship in mind Are they in agreement? Are they opposed? Is there some other kind of relationship? How would you
describe the relationship? If the passages are opposed, what are the points of difference? Jot these things down and refer back to them, if necessary
8 Expect to refer back to the passages(s) on
virtu-ally every question If you know the answer to a question without referring to the passage, fine; however, it might be a good idea to check the passage anyway, just to make sure you haven’t fallen for a distracter answer
9 Remember to read between the lines! You may
remember that you must be extremely literal with sentence completion questions and never read anything into them or bring in any ideas that are not clearly expressed within the sentence itself That’s not true with critical reading ques-tions In fact, you will be called upon to interpret almost every passage, to draw conclusions from the text, and to extend the author’s point of view
to evaluate a statement that isn’t even in the pas-sage That’s why it is so important to be actively engaged in reading each passage Try to under-stand it as though you had written it yourself
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4 0 P r a c t i c e L o n g - P a s s a g e C r i t i c a l R e a d i n g Q u e s t i o n s
Read the passage and the questions that follow it As you form your answers, be sure to base them on what is stated
in the passage and introduction, or the inferences you can make from the material
Use the answer sheet below to record your answers
ANSWER SHEET