<p>(just figured it out on my own)</p>
<p>Hi, everyone. Just took a PSAT for practice, and I got 3 wrong overall. One was a vocab moment, but the other two I’m just not sure. Could somebody explain these two, please? (1CR and 1W).</p>
<li> Passages 1 and 2, respectively, present the underlying causes of Arbella Stuart’s mistakes as:
(a) defiance versus inadequate assistance
(b) despair versus a lack of prudence
(c) great haste versus overly ambitious goals
(d) vanity versus poor judgment
(e) incompetence versus maliciousness</li>
</ol>
<p>
[quote]
Passage 1
Nothing had come of any of the family negotiations for a suitable marriage and, at twenty-seven, Arbella remained living on a pittance in the great house at Hardwick with Bess, her dragon of a grandmother. As Arbella saw the best years of her life drifting awy in attendance upon her crotchety grandmother, the fires of resentment began to smolder beneath her protective humility. Hers was not the courage for open revolt. Instead, she followed the sort of tortuous indirect course which the cowed and defeated resort to when they become desperate.</p>
<p>It seemed clear to Arbella that her only chance of escape from Hardwick House and her grandmother lay through marriage–but marriage to whom? It happened that the summer of 1602 had brought mounting speculation as to who would reign after the failing Queen Elizabeth I. One of the wilder stories going around was that a grandson of the Earl of Hertford, also of royal blood, was to marry Arbella and become King. Something of this tale probably reached Arbella at Hardwick. Later, she declared that the Earl of Hertford had made overtures to her through a lawyer. This is hard to believe–the elderly Earl had suffered much due to marrying a woman with royal blood (Katherine Grey) without the Queen’s consent and he went in fear and trembling of the Queen. The Earl would hardly have dared to embark on any such course. However, with the folly of desperation, Arbella at Christmas 1602 sent a servant to the Earl intimating that he would do well to negotiate for a marriage between herself and one of his family.</p>
<p>She could not have taken a more foolish step. The Earl at wonce locked up her messenger and tremulously informed the authorities of Arbella’s overture. His one concern was to clear himself and his family of any complicity in a matter so likely to enrage the Queen.</p>
<p>Passage 2:
Two more polarized personalities could hardly be imagined than Bess of Hardwick and her adult granddaughter, Arbella Stuart. Where Bess was wont to excercise her mind with accounts or legal papers, Arbella favored reading a little Hebrew or Greek. Where Bess was circumspect, Arbella was impulsive. Where Bess under pressure rose to the occasion, Arbella teetered on hysteria. As with her own husband, Bess misjudged a chracter whose passions–irrational and uncontrolled–were quite alien to her own.</p>
<p>Having resolved to spring herself free of Bess and Hardwick House, Arbella launched her campaign in 1602 with a proposal of marriage. Her intended was Edward Seymour, grandson of the Earl of Hertford. Arbella could hardly have alighted on a less suitable candidate. Because Seymour had royal blood, neither he nor Arbella could marry without the Queen’s consent. Their double dose of royal blood would have seemed doubly threatening to the Queen, making them potential rivals, and made her consent extremely unlikely.</p>
<p>And if Arbella required further warning of the consequences of marrying Edward Seymour she needed to look no further than the sad fate of Katherine Grey who, for secretly marrying the Early of Hertford, had found herself and her husband incacerated in the Tower of London. She died in 1568, alone and still in captivity, having given birth to two sons. Arbella was a romantic and this tale of doomed love, far from warning her off, seemed to exert an irresistible lure. She was drawn to the Seymours not once but twice in her life and the second time with fatal results.<a href=“sorry%20for%20any%20typos%20-%20I%20was%20typing%20very%20quickly”>/quote</a></p>
<p>I was between B and D for this question.
A was out because there was no inadequate assistance mentioned in the second passage.
C was out because there was no idea of haste or ambitious goals in either passage.
E was out because there was no idea of maliciousness in the second passage.</p>
<p>I would generally consider “lack of prudence” an equivalent statement to “poor judgment.”
So to me, it came down to despair versus vanity being the key idea in first passage.</p>
<p>“Despair” I see in the first paragraph (" …saw the best years of her life drifting away…")
“Vanity” I see in the second paragraph ("…and become King. Something of this tale probably reached Arbella at Hardwick.")</p>
<p>Actually…I think I kinda answered my own question, but why is the correct answer (B)?</p>
<p>Writing:
8. In 1946 Thurgood Marshall won the NAACP’s top award, the Springarn Medal, which he became its second-youngest recipient.
(a) which he became its second-youngest recipient
(b) of which he became its second-youngest recipient
(c) he was its second-youngest recipient
(d) the second-youngest recipient for it
(e) becoming its second-youngest recipient</p>
<p>(ans: E, I chose B)</p>
<p>Thank you for explaining!</p>