<p>SimpleLife, the sentence you refer to is not analogous to the PSAT question. </p>
<p>“She told the court she would give a full explanation of the prosecution’s decision on Monday.”</p>
<p>She is indicating her intention to make a physical action. The scientists are not searching for a physical action.</p>
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<p>Indeed, and so we look for a phrase that means “something that explains” or a “reason for something.” We don’t look for a phrase that means “to give an explanation.”</p>
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<p>Feel free to press if you continue to not see the issue; I’m happy to debate the issue.</p>
<p>silverturtle, you’re the one who added the whole “physical action” thing to the definition, right? I don’t see “physical action” in the link you gave.</p>
<p>Hate to break up the whole debate here (personally, I now think CB should have just thrown out that question) but I’m from CA and I got a 234.
And I thing Kaplan has the average cutoffs per state in the back of their PSAT Prep book, so that should help if you want a general idea.</p>
<p>^They are also on CC.</p>
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<p>Indeed, I have not found a source that explicitly uses the language “physical action.”</p>
<p>If, however, you do find an example sentence from a dictionary that doesn’t use “explanation of” to indicate a physical action but instead uses it in a way that would work in the sentence, I would be happy to resign my point. I just have not been able to find one despite my extensive searching, and so I determined that the question is flawed and in turn elected to petition it.</p>
<p>Silverturtle, approaching this problem in a different way:</p>
<p>The question was:
The (arrival of) swallows in San Juan Capistrano on the same day each spring (fascinates) scientists, who (continue to) search for (an explanation of the) phenomenon. (No error)</p>
<p>But say you replaced (an explanation of the) with (an explanation for the), you would end up with:</p>
<p>The arrival of swallows in San Juan Capistrano on the same day each spring fascinates scientists, who continue to search for an explanation for the phenomenon.</p>
<p>I personally think having two prepositions like that makes the sentence sound odd. IMO, it sounds better with “of.” Again I’m just throwing out a new perspective for you and everyone else to consider.</p>
<p>1253729, I addressed that in post #192 of this thread:</p>
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<p>Wow you are thorough with regards to this question. Sorry I missed that…just don’t have the patience to comb through this whole thread lol.</p>
<p>I always thought it went like this…</p>
<p>“Explanation for” implies justifying something, or rooting out the cause.</p>
<p>“Explanation OF” means explaining how something works, or what something means. It implies making something more understandable or clearer to someone else, as in teaching.</p>
<p>Some examples:</p>
<p>“Son, do you have any explanation for these bad grades??”</p>
<p>“Yes, mother, the teacher gave us a bad explanation of the Theory of Relativity.”</p>
<p>or…</p>
<p>“Darling, do you have any explanation for this lipstick on your collar???!?”</p>
<p>“No, dear, but I can give you a detailed explanation OF where I was all last night.”</p>
<p>HowtheHeck, that’s very close to the actual uses. The only correction I would make: “explanation for” doesn’t mean “to justify”; it means the “justification,” or “reason.”</p>
<p>Even if we use your definitions, however, “explanation of” is incorrect in the PSAT question.</p>
<p>233 from RI, deff enough to get Merit.
2350 is my real score on the Dec SAT.</p>
<p>barely any prep</p>
<p>If there wasn’t an asterisk next to my index score, does that mean I am at least commended student?</p>
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<p>What’s your score?</p>
<p>Hey, that’s super weird: my response to your post shows up before your post. :)</p>
<p>wow. I also couldn’t get to this post without going through my email. I couldnt find it through the site but anyways… I’m kinda embarassed of my score but I got a 181 and 89%. I know the cut off is usually above 96& but the packet said if you didnt have the asterisk then you continue on with the qualification process so now I’m confused on my status.</p>
<p>181 will not qualify for Commended (it typically requires ~200-203). I believe the absence of an asterisk merely indicates one’s eligibility for consideration by National Merit Corporation, not that he or she actually qualifies.</p>
<p>The asterisk means you have a 0% chance of qualifying. I got one next to my score sophomore year when I received a 202.</p>