SAT Critical Reading Questions

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1

<p>Passages: <a href="http://i.imgur.com/0ruE2.jpg%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://i.imgur.com/0ruE2.jpg&lt;/a>
(yes, I know, 13 and 14 were wrong)</p>

<p>Here are the questions I am having trouble understanding (all are "level 3"):</p>

<ol>
<li><p>In line 74, "gaping" most directly emphasizes the
(A) public's appetite for documented truths
(B) audience's susceptibility to persuasion
(C) scholars' approach to conducting research
(D) historians' desire to entertain readers
(E) reader's preference for familiar explanations
I eliminated C, D, and E. I chose A , but the answer was B. I know why B is correct, but I don't know why A is wrong.</p></li>
<li><p>The author of Passage 2 argues that written history often functions as a
(A) useful description of documented facts
(B) glorious commemoration of past greatness
(C) powerful motivation for future reforms
(D) dubious training in scholarly detachment
(E) questionable model for future conduct</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I narrowed it down to C and E, but I ultimately chose C because the first paragraph of Passage 2 describes how actions caused, for example, the fall of oppressors.</p>

<ol>
<li>The author of Passage 1 and the author of Passage 2 differ most strongly on which topic?
(A) The appeal of history
(B) The reliability of historians
(C) The impact of tumultuous events
(D) The dearth of accessible historical documents
(E) The relevance of the past to the present</li>
</ol>

<p>Once again, I managed to narrow it down to two choices: A and B. However, I chose A, because I felt that the second passage didn't really discuss the reliability of the scholars, but rather talked about what would happen if historians didn't do their job right ("the unscrupulous and unqualified will do it for them" 72 - 73)</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

2

<p>Please help!</p>

3

<ol>
<li>If the audience is listening gaping, that – to me – means that they have their mouths open in awe of these profits. The public is already deluded, so it wouldn’t take much for them to be swayed by these false prophets, which is why B is correct.</li>
</ol>

<p>A is incorrect because nowhere within the context of line 74 does it say that these audiences are seeking truth. It just says that they are easily misled.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>What is your question here? You got the answer correct.</p></li>
<li><p>If I had to summarize these two passages, I would say:
Passage 1 → People look to history to help them figure out what to do
Passage 2 → History has been the impetus of huge changes in the past. Historians have are responsible for educating the public so that chaotic things won’t happen in the future.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>A. Author 2 makes no mention about the appeal of history.
B. Author 1 makes no mention about reliability, but it is implied by his pro-history stance that historical writings are accurate and reliable.</p>

<p>Courtesy of Preply.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the reply!
The answer to 23 is “E”, but I chose “C”.</p>

5

<p>Interesting. Where did you get this test?</p>

<p>To validate E, look at lines 55-60. To discredit C, we could argue that history doesn’t motivate people to do things. It is that we mislead people will blindly refer to it to inform out future actions.</p>

6

<p>Thanks!
To answer your question, this was part of the October 2007 SAT. It was the first CR section.</p>