SAT January 2012 - Critical Reading

<p>I think it was like explaining a phenomenon and the study that followed to try to understand it?</p>

<p>^ yeah I agree with you.</p>

<p>If the passages weren’t so darn long, i swear I wouldn’t have rushed the CR and Math sections xD, anyone remember anything like close wording to the first few questions from the photography passage?</p>

<p>Why is it interesting historical fact? There is more evidence supporting the option that said it was a landmark decision. Dictionary.com:</p>

<p>landmark
2. an important or unique decision, event, fact, discovery, etc </p>

<p>Is there more evidence supporting the idea that the decision was “important or unique” or that it was merely “interesting?” Here’s a quote from the actual passage:</p>

<p>“It was probably also the last time the automobile existed at anything like human speed or scale. The car was soon to create a world of its own, a world in which humans, separated from everything outside the car but still somehow connected, would move at speeds beyond anything for which their evolutionary history had prepared them.”</p>

<p>It’s clearly more unique and important than it is interesting.</p>

<p>what was the correct answer about the lines referring to bicyclists having marked lanes or separate lanes?</p>

<p>@Michael where did you get that passage from?</p>

<p>And is it the exact same passage from the test?</p>

<p>@cbeauchene, I believe that one was there was no consensus</p>

<p>@Arctk3 It’s online and yes. I’m quoting myself again so hopefully I get more responses:</p>

<p>Why is it interesting historical fact? There is more evidence supporting the option that said it was a landmark decision. Dictionary.com:</p>

<p>landmark
2. an important or unique decision, event, fact, discovery, etc </p>

<p>Is there more evidence supporting the idea that the decision was “important or unique” or that it was merely “interesting?” Here’s a quote from the actual passage:</p>

<p>“It was probably also the last time the automobile existed at anything like human speed or scale. The car was soon to create a world of its own, a world in which humans, separated from everything outside the car but still somehow connected, would move at speeds beyond anything for which their evolutionary history had prepared them.”</p>

<p>It’s clearly more unique and important than it is interesting. "</p>

<p>Also, I’m still hesitant to agree with everybody saying that the drivers’ attitudes toward the laws was that they resented the limitations the laws posed. There is literally no evidence talking about any such limitations and given that the SAT is very, very literal that cannot be the right answer especially given the fact that there is much more evidence in the passage suggesting that they were confused. </p>

<p>Everybody is focusing too much on the one line “Eno […] teaching people to act and communicate in new ways, often against their will.” The phrase “against their will” is too ambiguous and is never expounded upon, even in the longer version of the actual book. You can’t assume that it translates to resentment</p>

<p>Wouldn’t it make more sense to look to the examples outside of that quote, which include the exact word “confusion” and “uncertainty” used to describe the drivers’ reaction toward red vs green lights? I really think the “confusion” option is right</p>

<p>I remember that the first question on the traffic question was asking what did line (1) mean?</p>

<p>Line 1 was if i am not mistaken this: “When driving began, it was a juggernaut, and we have rarely had time to pause and reflect upon the new kind of life that was being made.”</p>

<p>I believe the answer was a landmark decision like MichaelGScarn said, doesn’t seem like an interesting historical fact, because a juggernaut is “A huge, powerful, and overwhelming force or institution”.</p>

<p>Also I found the Apartment passage novel xD</p>

<p>It’s called the The Novels of Muriel Spark: Loitering with intent ; The girls of slender means ; The Abbess of Crewe ; The bachelors ; The ballad of Peckham Rye. Now we can get a more a precise answer to that passage xD</p>

<p>@ Michael</p>

<p>I put landmark for very similar reasons as you described, hopefully we are right.</p>

<p>The reason I said the drivers resented the new laws was because all of the other choices made little to no sense in context. Also, there is an “area” to the SAT. Meaning in line questions only have answers within the paragraph they talk about, so you have to look at the paragraph the lines referred to in order to make the decision.
“Against their will” would seem to show that the drivers somehow disagreed/resented the new laws…but I was further convinced because I remember that no other answer really was remotely correct.</p>

<p>@Arctk3 Thank you
@drac313 Yeah I really hope so. Can’t wait until scores come out; there are a lot of disputed answers this time around.</p>

<p>As far as “in the lines” questions go, please read at least the last 2 paragraphs of this:</p>

<p>ultimatesatverbal.blogspot.com/2011/12/if-answer-isnt-in-lines-youre-given-it.html</p>

<p>I think it was a very typical SAT trick question since the paragraph immediately following the “against their will” clause was ALL about confusion; the typical student would look only within the referenced sentence.</p>

<p>@michael
I guess we will have to disagree until the scores actually come out. But I am thinking that we are going to get a lenient CR curve. Many of us got most of the fill ins right, but we are CCer’s, most people don’t. Plus, there has been so much debate about the answers, so I don’t expect that many people have done amazing on this test outside of the handful here on CC. Keeping fingers crossed for that curve haha!</p>

<p>I found the Graveyard/Policeman/Alexanders passage as well as the Traffic passage if anybody’s interested.</p>

<p>I’m think that judgmental and snide > proud and aloof
Also contentment is definitely correct upon a reread</p>

<p>What about the photography passages?
More specifically the first one</p>

<p>Yes, post the link</p>

<p>elude is “to avoid or escape by speed, cleverness, trickery, etc.; evade: to elude capture.”
forestall: “to prevent, hinder, or thwart by action in advance: to forestall a riot by deploying police. to act beforehand with or get ahead of.”
With aging, one would try to act in advance to prevent aging; hence, forestall seems more appropriate.
Google has more than 11K references to “forestall aging”
It has about 2K for “elude aging” but most refer to a cream called Elude. Get rid of those and there are 175 references.
Furthermore, quackery has a medical connotation. It comes from quack, an untrained person who pretends to be a physician and dispenses medical advice and treatment.</p>

<p>does anyone remember any lines from the first photo passage</p>

<p>@MichaelGScarn</p>

<p>I’ll have to disagree with judgemental and snide> proud and aloof</p>

<p>The text directly supported the assertion that she was proud and aloof. She was a background character, prefering not to be characterized as an owner but as a tenant, which corresponds to an aloof character (distant.) She was also “proud” as demonstrated by her appearance. I forget the entire description, but it did not support that she was judgemental.</p>

<p>She may have been supercilious (superiority complex) but it certainly wouldn’t support the assumption that she was either snide or judgemental</p>

<p>Possible reasoning for why the answer could have been “fun fact”
If it were a landmark event, the paragraph would have inevitably gone into more detail describing its significance, repercussions, results, etc. It did not, and the only extra information it gives other than the fact that i was a traffic regulation law for the first of automobiles was that people would be able to walk alongside and overpass the cars on the road. The imagery provided by the description was rather humorous, as it pictures a man walking faster than an automobile. In addition, it did not have a significant relevance to the proceeding paragraphs. It was like a hook, to get you interested in the story. (this is only 1 interpretation out of many) Furthermore, it was an electric vehicle regulation. To assume that this was the first traffic regulation EVER is quite an overstatement</p>

<p>Of course, that is only one side of the argument. The argument for a landmark event is also very strong. (Michael’s interpretation)</p>

<p>What were the other choices for the vocab with the answer obdurate?</p>

<p>@jimmypod, do you think it is entertaining historical fact, cuz i thought it was this whole sentence.
When driving began, it was like a juggernaut, and we have rarely had time to pause and reflect upon the new kind of life that was being made. When the first electric car debuted in mid-nineteenth-century England, the speed limit was hastily set at 4 miles per hour—the speed at which a man carrying a red flag could run ahead of a car entering a town, an event that was still a quite rare occurrence. </p>

<p>and i remember it talking specifically about “When the first…occurrence” ?</p>

<p>@Jimmy: Adding on to the “proud” part, she nodded like all the other tenants, except in a more superior manner as I remember.</p>