<p>These questions are from the May 2011 SAT Critical Sections:</p>
<p>"Often reproduced in textbooks as the beginnings of Western art, animal cave paintings -- the multicolored and stylized horses, and the pride of hunting lions with their eyes ablaze, the weighty yet delicately curving bison -- all prove that beauty is truly eternal"</p>
<p>10 (Level 5). The tone of lines 13-17 ("Often . . . eternal") is best described as:
(A) incredulous
(B) nostalgic
(C) bemused
(D) mirthful
(E) reverent</p>
<p>I didn't really know what to pick for this one; can someone please explain why the answer is (E) reverent?</p>
<p>"Delia Daley looks out over the carpet of people, more people than she knew existed. Her steps slow as she slips in behind the mile-long crowd. All in front of her, the decades-long Great Migration (A movement of Black Americans from the southern United States to the north starting in 1916) comes home. She feels the danger, right down her spine. A crowd this size could trample her without anyone noticing. But the prize lies at the other end of this gliding crush. She breathes in, forcing her diaphragm down -- support, appoggio! -- and plunges in."</p>
<p>16 (Level 2). In line 32, "comes home" metaphorically suggests that the migrants can now
(A) adopt a new lifestyle
(B) feel that they belong
(C) recognize old friends
(D) rejoin their families
(E) reclaim lost property</p>
<p>This was another one where I just didn't know how to answer. I couldn't find anything that supported one of them. </p>
<p>"Just past Delia in the press of the bodies, a high schooler - though from the looks of her, high school is a vanished dream -- spins around, flashing, to catch the eye of anyone who'll look at her, a look of delivery that has waited lifetimes."</p>
<ol>
<li>The behavior of the "high schooler" mentioned in lines 41-42 expresses
(A) unrestrained aggression
(B) cheerful perplexity
(C) exuberant celebration
(D) serene contentment
(E) patient resignation</li>
</ol>
<p>I picked (E) for this, since I thought that the high schooler was kind of sad from "high school is a vanished dream," but clearly I was mistaken as the answer is (C) exuberant celebration.</p>
<p>This one is from the January 2006 SAT:</p>
<p>Black holes are the most efficient engines of destruction known to humanity. Their intense gravity is a one-way ticket to oblivion, and material spiraling into them can heat up to millions of degrees and glow brightly. Yet, they are not all-powerful. Even supermassive black holes are minuscule by cosmic standards. They typically account for less than one percent of their galaxy's mass. Accordingly, astronomers long assumed that supermassive holes, let alone their smaller cousins, would have little effect beyond their immediate neighborhoods. So it has come as a surprise over the past decade that black hole activity is closely intertwined with star formation occurring farther out in the galaxy.</p>
<ol>
<li>Which of the following most resembles the relationship between "black hole activity" and "star formation" (lines 11-12) as described in the passage?
(A) A volcanic eruption on one continent results in higher rainfall totals on another continent.
(B) wrong answer
(C) wrong answer
(D) wrong answer
(E) Overfishing in a gulf leads to an increase in the population of smaller aquatic organisms.</li>
</ol>
<p>I picked (E), but the answer is (A). I can see why A would be the answer in that the distance between the cause and effect is relatively large, but overfishing in (E) can be likened to a black hole in that it takes stuff (fish), and caused creation of other fish.</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>