<p>Questions 9-10 are based on the following passage.</p>
<pre><code> The big doors of the hotel are padlocked. So far nobody has smashed their glass panels. Nobody could stand to do it because the panels mirror your own face as well as the view behind your back: acres of chive grass edging the sparkly beach, a movie- screen sky, and an ocean that wants you more than anything. No matter the outside loneliness, if you look inside, the hotel seems to promise you ecstasy and the company of all your best friends. And music. The shift of a shutter hinge sounds like the cough of a trumpet; piano keys waver a quarter note above the wind so you might miss the hurt jamming those halls and closed-up rooms.
</code></pre>
<ol>
<li><p>The passage is characterized by all of the following
EXCEPT
(A) visual imagery
(B) auditory description
(C) contrast
(D) an appeal to reason
(E) hypothetical musings</p></li>
<li><p>Lines 10-12 (piano keys . . . rooms) convey
a feeling of
(A) lightheartedness
(B) bewilderment
(C) melancholy
(D) nostalgia
(E) detachment</p></li>
</ol>
<p>anwer: D C</p>
<p>I don not quiet get what the passage is saying, can anyone explain the essential idea to me? Thanks. :)</p>
<p>yeah, this is a pretty tough passage. all i got from that was there was a very quiet, peaceful hotel outside in a visually stunnung beach. but next time, just a suggestion, you might not want to post the ans. until people have answered. according an AP Psych. phenonmen i leard known as hindsight bias, people tend to just if an ans after they konw it, and have no clue why it was right in the first place. if u didnt post the ans. then the pepole who actually got it right can explain it to u instaed of those who falsly try to justify an answer that they already know is right.=)</p>
<p>The first three sentences tell you it is talking about a closed and abandoned hotel (doors are padlocked) with a door that has very impressive glass panels (no one will break them) which, when you look into them, are like mirrors and you see your face and behind you acres of lawn, the beach, ocean, and the sky. If you go inside (apparently possible through some opening because it mentions there is wind inside), it still seems to invite guests and you get sounds (either done by the speaker or by the wind, the author is unclear on that) of a shifting shutter and from the keys of the left-behind piano which may help you forget that the place is abandoned.</p>
<p>It obviously uses visual imagery in its description, likewise auditory (the shutter creaking and the piano); hypothetical musings (examples include the ocean wants you more than anything, seems to promise you ecstasy) and contrast (no matter the outside loneliness, the hotel seems still alive inside). There is nothing in it that can be classified as an appeal to reason.</p>
<p>The second one is melancholy (a sense of sorrow) over the place being unused.</p>
<p>It is not a good and understandable passage as far creative writing goes but the authors of SAT passages have never been accused of being good writers.</p>