There are three types of critical reading questions: sentence completions, passage-length critical reading questions, and paragraph-length critical reading questions.. Sentence Completio
Trang 14 Don’t try any unusual or adventurous activity—
save it, too, for another time!
5 Don’t allow yourself to get into an emotional
exchange with anyone—a parent, a sibling, a friend, or a significant other If someone starts something, remind him or her you are taking the SAT tomorrow and need to postpone the discus-sion so you can focus on the exam
Test Day
On the day of the test, get up early enough to allow
yourself extra time to get ready Set your alarm and ask
a family member or friend to make sure you are up
Eat a light, healthy breakfast, even if you usually don’t eat in the morning If you don’t normally drink
coffee, don’t do it today If you do normally have
cof-fee, have one cup More than that may make you jittery
today If you plan to take snacks for the break, take
something healthy Nuts and raisins are a great source
of long-lasting energy Stay away from cookies and candy during the exam Remember to take water Give yourself plenty of time to get to the test site and avoid a last-minute rush Plan to get to the test room ten to fifteen minutes early Once the exam begins, keep an eye on the time
Remember not to spend too long on questions you don’t understand Mark them (in your test booklet, not your answer sheet) so you can come back to them if there’s time Check periodically (every five to ten ques-tions) to make sure you are transposing correctly Look
at the question number, and then check your answer sheet to see that you are marking the bubble by that question number
If you find yourself getting anxious during the test, remember to breathe If you need to, take a minute
or two to slip into your relaxation visualization or your visualization of success You have worked hard to pre-pare for this day You are ready
– S AT S T U D Y S K I L L S A N D S T R AT E G I E S –
Trang 2W h a t t o E x p e c t i n t h e C r i t i c a l R e a d i n g S e c t i o n
The SAT has three critical reading sections: two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section There are three
types of critical reading questions: sentence completions, passage-length critical reading questions, and paragraph-length critical reading questions All of them are multiple-choice questions with five answer choices, a–e.
There may be a fourth critical reading section If so, it means that one of the four sections is an experimental,
or equating, section You cannot determine which is the equating section, however, so it is important to do your best on each section
Sentence Completions
Sentence completion questions test your vocabulary and your ability to follow the logic of complicated sen-tences Each of these questions has either one or two blanks within a single sentence Often, the sentences are long and difficult to follow, but with practice, you can learn to master them There will be approximately 19 of these questions
C H A P T E R
The SAT Critical Reading Section
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Trang 3SAT Critical Reading Section at a Glance
The critical reading section of the SAT has 67 questions There are three kinds of questions:
Sentence Completions Questions test your vocabulary skills and ability to follow the logic of a sentence Passage-Length Critical Reading Questions test your ability to understand the meaning of material in
a long passage
Paragraph-Length Critical Reading Questions test your ability to understand and analyze material in
a short (one paragraph) passage or two related passages
Passage-Length Critical Reading
These questions test your understanding of fairly long
passages The passages, typically 400–850 words in length,
are drawn from texts in the humanities, social sciences,
and natural sciences There are also a variety of writing
styles, including narrative, expository, and persuasive
You will have to analyze the passages in advanced ways,
making inferences from the authors’ statements,
inter-preting rhetorical and stylistic devices, and/or selecting
the correct meaning of one of the words used Again,
practice will make perfect—or nearly so
Paragraph-Length
Critical Reading
Paragraph-length critical reading passages will be
100–200 words long, followed by two to five questions
each You will also find at least one (or more) pair of
related passages Like long-passage questions, the
ques-tions following short passages test your ability to
under-stand college-level readings on a range of topics and
styles And again, you will be asked about a range of
reading comprehension issues, from specific details to
the author’s purpose or main idea, from the meaning
of specific vocabulary words to inferences that can
log-ically be drawn from the text
T h e P o w e r o f Wo r d s
If you have a good vocabulary, you’re in good shape for the SAT All three kinds of critical reading questions test your knowledge of and ability to use words
If you don’t consider yourself a word person, don’t despair The fact is, we are all word people Words shape our perceptions of the world Even math can be thought of as another language; it is explained through the use of words
No matter what kind of word power you already possess, your SAT critical reading score will improve dramatically as you increase your vocabulary Other than reading this book, the single most productive thing you can do in studying for the SAT is to learn additional vocabulary The best way to go about this is
to read; check out LearningExpress’s Vocabulary and Spelling Success in 20 Minutes a Day, which makes it easy
to boost your vocabulary and your critical reading test score
Trang 4Te s t f o r S u c c e s s
Another important way to increase your chances for SAT success is to become familiar with the test itself This sec-tion focuses on the critical reading test quessec-tions The following pretest will help you assess what your strengths and weaknesses are when it comes to the critical reading skills tested on the SAT Take this test without studying ahead in this book Don’t worry if you don’t do as well as you wanted; there’s no better way to focus your studies than by pinpointing the topics and question types you know well and those in which you need more practice Use the answer sheet below to record your answers
– L E A R N I N G E X P R E S S A N S W E R S H E E T –
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ANSWER SHEET
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Trang 6C r i t i c a l R e a d i n g P r e t e s t
There are 32 questions in this section Set a timer for 30 minutes Stop working at the end of 30 minutes and check your answers
Sentence Completions
In each of the following sentences, one or two words have been omitted (indicated by a blank) Choose the word(s) from the answer choices provided that makes the most sense in the context of the sentence
1 Although skinny as a rail, the young girl had
a(n) - appetite
a eager
b demanding
c ravenous
d breathless
e primal
2 Because the rajah was sagacious, he ruled his
subjects with -
a rapacity
b ignorance
c compassion
d fortitude
e willfulness
3 Percival’s - approach to life caused him to
miss the kind of - experience his more friv-olous peers enjoyed
a careless cerebral
b unhealthy choleric
c busy understated
d amiable intense
e utilitarian ecstatic
4 Scientific knowledge is usually -, often
resulting from years of hard work by numerous investigators
a ponderous
b implacable
c precarious
d cumulative
e egregious
5 Even though - meals cause her digestive
trouble, my grandmother insists on eating her food as - as possible
a piquant spicy
b foreign often
c astringent slowly
d cold quickly
e purgative daintily
6 Although conditions in Antarctica are quite
-, scientists and others who go there to work have managed to create a comfortable envi-ronment for themselves
a audacious
b inimical
c felicitous
d incalculable
e oblivious
7 Because the king was heedful of -, he
ensured that his - would survive him
a posterity legacy
b venerability heir
c tradition sociopath
d empathy advisors
e artifice architect – T H E S AT C R I T I C A L R E A D I N G S E C T I O N –
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