SAT Critical Reading Section Questions 19 sentence completion

SAT Critical Reading Section

Questions • 19 sentence completion: Tests vocabulary • 48 passage-based reading questions

Strategies • Consider related words, familiar sayings and phrases, prefixes, and suffixes • Work on sentence completion questions first – Questions range from easy to hard • Mark your test booklet EVERYWHERE • Use the process of elimination

Passage-Based Reading Strategies • You must annotate while you read • Break the long passages down into sections • Summarize what you read at the end of each section and write it on the test • Highlight key vocabulary words and phrases • Find the main idea of the passage—circle it

Tone, Mood, Attitude Ask yourself the following questions while you read a passage: *What is the author’s attitude about this subject? *Which words add to the mood of the selection? *What is the author’s overall tone in the last paragraph?

Passages • Short, paired passages—Look at two passage and compare (typically the most difficult questions) • Short passage—Difficult questions • Long Passage—Easier questions • Long, paired passages—typically the easiest questions on the test

Sentence Completion • Strategy #1—Answer the questions without looking at the answer choices. • Hoping to ------- the dispute, negotiators proposed a compromise that they felt would be ------- to both labor and management. • (A) enforce. . useful (B) end. . divisive (C) overcome. . unattractive (D) extend. . satisfactory (E) resolve. . acceptable

Vocabulary in Context • Somewhere in the sentence the words will be defined. • Ravens appear to behave -------, actively helping one another to find food. • (A) mysteriously (B) warily (C) aggressively (D) cooperatively (E) defensively

Example 2 Both ------- and -------, Wilson seldom spoke and never spent money. Example 2 • Both ------- and -------, Wilson seldom spoke and never spent money. • (A) vociferous. . generous (B) garrulous. . stingy (C) effusive. . frugal (D) taciturn. . miserly (E) reticent. . munificent

Example 3 • Once Murphy left home for good, he wrote no letters to his worried mother; he did not, therefore, live up to her picture of him as her ------ son. • (A) misunderstood (B) elusive (C) destructive (D) persuasive (E) dutiful

Logic-Based Questions • You need to know the meanings of the words , know how the words are used in context, and understand the logic of a complicated sentence. (Basically, how is the word being used in the sentence)

Examples • After observing several vicious territorial fights, Jane Goodall had to revise her earlier opinion that these particular primates were always ------- animals. • (A) ignorant (B) inquisitive (C) responsive (D) cruel (E) peaceful

• Example 2 • Although its publicity has been -------, the film itself is intelligent, well-acted, handsomely produced, and altogether -------. • (A) tasteless. . respectable (B) extensive. . moderate (C) sophisticated. . amateur (D) risqué. . crude (E) perfect. . spectacular

Two-Blank Questions • Eliminate some answers based on just one plank. We will use example 2 as our practice. • Although its publicity has been -------, the film itself is intelligent, well-acted, handsomely produced, and altogether -------. (A) tasteless. . respectable (B) extensive. . moderate (C) sophisticated. . amateur (D) risqué. . crude (E) perfect. . spectacular

More Strategies • Start out reading the entire sentence, saying “blank” for the blanks to get an overall understanding of the sentence. • Always begin by trying to understand dictionary definitions of the words in the sentence and the answers. • Watch out for transitional words! – But, although, however, yet, even though

Strategies, Cont’d • Most difficult sentence completion questions contain negatives. • Choose the BEST answer! • Check your answer choice by reading the entire sentence with the answer you have selected in place to make sure the sentence makes sense.

Quiz • 1. A judgment made before all the facts are known must be called -------. • (A) harsh (B) deliberate (C) sensible (D) premature (E) fair

• Despite their ------- proportions, the murals of Diego Rivera give his Mexican compatriots the sense that their history is ------- and human in scale, not remote and larger than life. (A) monumental. . accessible (B) focused. . prolonged (C) vast. . ancient (D) realistic. . extraneous (E) narrow. . overwhelming

• 3. The research is so ------- that it leaves no part of the issue unexamined. • • (A) comprehensive (B) rewarding (C) sporadic (D) economical (E) problematic

• A dictatorship ------- its citizens to be docile and finds it expedient to make outcasts of those who do not -------. (A) forces. . rebel (B) expects. . disobey (C) requires. . conform (D) allows. . withdraw (E) forbids. . agree

5. Alice Walker’s prize-winning novel exemplifies the strength of first-person narratives; the protagonist tells her own story so effectively that any additional commentary would be -------. (A) subjective (B) eloquent (C) superfluous (D) incontrovertible (E) impervious

The Supreme Court’s reversal of its previous ruling on the issue of states’ rights ------- its reputation for -------. (A) sustained. . infallibility (B) compromised. . consistency (C) bolstered. . doggedness (D) aggravated. . inflexibility (E) dispelled. . vacillation