The Critical Reader question

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

On page 181 (if you have the book), there’s a paragraph followed by the question: The author mentions “ice-cream” and “packaged pasteries” in order to
© describe an unexpected outcome
(D) downplay an important distinction
(E) indicate the magnitude of a shift

The paragraph talks about Dolley Madison. Back then, she was an international renowned “queen” with a historical contribution; now, she reminds Americans of ice-cream and pasteries.

That’s the info needed to answer the question. I’m confused about the answer though.

my reasoning:
C (consequence) isn’t right - there wasn’t a process that yeilded particular results.
E (I chose this) she was a famous “queen” but her reputation greatly changed to one about “ice-cream”

E is the correct answer. I want to make sure why is D wrong though - is pointing out “ice-cream” a way of showing readers the difference between how she was viewed back then and how she’s viewed now? the part that makes the answer wrong is “downplay”, right? And is my reasoning in choice C correct?

Thanks in advance

2

(D) means that the author is trying to make the distinction (difference) seem unimportant, to de-emphasize (downplay) that distinction. Sounds to me like the distinction is an important one and the author isn’t trying to say there’s no real difference. Your reasoning for eliminating © is correct. @BethanyD

3

I wholeheartedly agree with both @BethanyD’s and @marvin100’s reasoning (as if I would even dare not to).
What I’d like to address is @BethanyD’s self-confessed habitual agonizing when choosing between two answers under the time crunch.
Why not try following this path: when one of the two remaining answers appears to be much stronger than the other, simply pick the heavy-weighter and move on. This approach goes against Erica Meltzer’s gospel (prove the good answer and refute ALL the bad ones), but when battling the time limit, as @BethanyD admits doing often, this might be a sound strategy. Is it scary? Yes. Will it save time? Yes. Will it lead to mistakes? Can’t tell until having experimented.

Back to the question.
Dolley Madison: before - a revered “queen”, now - a brand name of the lowly ice-cream and pastries. What a magnitude of the plunge! That’s E (indicate the magnitude of a shift) hands down.
D (downplay an important distinction) - meh.

Of course, this strategy is not fool-proof, but it might work for YOU, @BethanyD ; you’ll know only after having tried it on those pesky time-sucking questions in several timed CR sections.

Still afraid? - Circle those questions, go back to them later, and argue pro/against to your heart’s content, or for the remaining time, whichever ends first. :stuck_out_tongue:

4

@gcf101 I actually used that strategy here xD (I used again after reading your post and I end up with the right answer) What took me so long (by so long I mean 2 mins, and I think that’s too much) was that I cannot even find out the function. LOL

I suffer with functions of phrases, words, and punctuation marks (quotation marks!!), to be specific.

I’ve gotten better at finding functions of words and phrases (I got them all correct in practice so far) - but quotation marks? I still get those almost always wrong :S

Here are the two questions on quotation marks that appeared so far (got them both wrong)

  1. (p.201) Like all good satire, the mock headline comes perilously close to the truth. Modern Luddites do indeed invent “machines”–in the form of viruses, cyberworms, and other malware–to disrupt the technologiesthat trouble them.

Before I looked at the answer choices, I thought:
“machines” are obviously negative in this sense, given the examples that follow. So quotation marks here are used to show that “machines” aren’t good things.

Choices:
(A) cast doubt on a theory
(B) defend an unpopular notion
© emphasize a contrast
(D) indicate a specialized definition of a term
(E) condemn a behavior

So right away, I eliminated A (machines isn’t a theory), B (nothing is being defended), and E (tricky, but the author neither condemns nor discusses machines as “behavior”. He just says machines are harmful - and condemn is too extreme for our case)

Now C and D… I was really confused. D makes a lot of sense, but what really “ruined” it for me was “definition” - mahcines IS used in a specialized way (as indicated by the quotation marks) - but what exactly “indicates a specialized DEFINITION of a term” are the dashes, which contain the definition. I believe the quotes were used to “highlight a term with a specialized definition” because we had the word itself in the quotes.

then I looked at C. I found it ironical that people who were against technology used technology themselves to impede technological progress (Too much techno here xD) so the quotes might as well emphasize that irony? Anyway, I know irony is not equal to contrast. The other choice was ruined by “Definition” imo, so I picked this one because all the choices seemed wrong to me anyway.

and I was wrong.

The correct answer is D. I don’t understand why though? @gcf101 @marvin100 Can you please “correct” my thinking?

  1. (p.186) No one liked the fudging, but because it led to such stunningly accurate answers, scientists couldn’t dismiss it. In the reigning paradigm in physics today–which describes the working of invisible “fields” (similar to magnetic fields)—would not exist without this hand weaving.

The author uses quotation marks in “fields” in order to:
(B) present a novel approach
(D) imply skepticism about a concept

I also got confused here. “Now” and “today” implied that the fields idea was recent, so I picked B. The answer is D and I understand why D is correct. (-ve attitude towards fields in “hand weaving”, “fudging”, so skepticism about fields) I still don’t know exactly why is B wrong though.

My issue is… OK - I understand why is the correct answer correct, but I also still get those questions specifically wrong, so I need to know what is that mistake I do each time, but I can’t really figure it out (and these questions take too much time to be solved!!)

I managed to have clear “steps” for functions of words and phrases, but I can’t come up with something for quotation marks, except this tip:

I need to make sure that what follows the “function verb” (s.a. present, imply) is a general counterpart of the quoted word - for example, fields: concept, and machines: term.

5

For question 2, the word fields has the quotes and that word does not present a novel approach. The passage might, but the quotes aren’t used to present it - as you now, they are used to show the author’s skepticism.

6

Quotes do two main things on the SAT: (1) indicate the author doesn’t believe the enclosed term is correct or accurate (think sarcasm or skepticism) and (2) indicate a term is used in a technical or non-standard way. If you keep this in mind, you’ll find quotation mark questions pretty easy. (Of course quotes can also indicate dialogue or the title of a poem, short story, or article, but the CB never asks about those uses. Ever.) In this case, you got too hung up on the word “definition,” which doesn’t mean that the word in quotation marks is a definition but rather that the author is using it in a way that has a non-standard definition–they’re not literal “machines” in the way we usually use that word.

Again, the rule of thumb for quotation mark questions holds. B is wrong because the lines are about “fudging” and “hand waving” (not weaving, btw) rather than originality, novelty, or creativity.

Hope this helps.

7

hats off

Helps A LOT! I’ve been struggling with quotation marks ever since May 2015! Thank you!