12.Practice.Tests.for.the.SAT_2015-2016_1128p

12 Practice Tests for the SAT
Practice Test Eleven Answers and Explanations I
993
9. D
Difficulty: Medium
Suggests tells us that this is an Inference question. Keep
the author's overall tone in mind when you research the
question. The relevant part of the paragraph is the very
beginning. Other playwrights write about themselves or cut
the other guy down. Miller doesn't do that. That must be the
difference the question is asking about.
Choice (A) is out of scope; we do not learn anything about
time frame. Choice (B) is out of scope; the passage does
not mention quantity. Choice (C) is out of scope; although
the author of this passage might wish that Miller is the most
influential essayist, there is no indication that this is actually
true. Choice (D) matches the prediction nicely. Choice (E) is
distortion; yes, this may be true, but it could also be true of
other playwright-essayists.
Questions 10- 1 5
The introduction tells you that this is an excerpt from an
autobiography. Your first read-through should have given
you a general idea of the main points: Douglass learned
to read and write through his own resourcefulness; he
was influenced greatly by a specific piece of writing; and
the more he read, the more tormented he became by his
conviction that freedom was rightfully his.
10. c
Difficulty: Medium
Remember that with Global questions, you need to find a
choice that covers the main points of the passage without
being too broad or too narrow.
In this case, (A) is much too narrow. Douglass mentions
that he made friends with some white boys only to let the
reader know how he learned to read. How learning to read
influenced his ideas about slavery, (C), is the primary focus
of the passage-it's the idea everything in the passage
relates to. Choice (D) is out of scope. It blows up the book
that influenced Douglass into literature and the discussion
of slavery into civil rights movements. It doesn't mention
Douglass, reading, or slavery at all. Choice (E) is a misused
detail; Sheridan's speeches are mentioned but are not the
main point of the passage. If you have trouble with a Global
question, you can either do the other questions first, which
might clarify the main idea for you, or eliminate any toobroad
or too-narrow choices and guess.
11. E
Difficulty: Low
Don't be put off by the vocabulary in this (or any) question
stem. Use the information you're given-the line referenceto
figure it out. What does Douglass say about his mistress
in paragraph 1? Simply that she started to teach him to read
and write, but then (influenced by her husband) stopped
and wouldn't let anyone else teach him either. That's what
(E) says.
Choice (A) is wrong because we found in paragraph 1 that
Douglass's mistress finally took her husband's advicenot
that she persisted in ignoring it. Choice (B) is wrong
because there is no mention of Douglass's opposition to
slavery in paragraph 1-if you chose (B), you're inferring too
much. The same goes for (C) and (D).
12. D
Difficulty: Medium
With a question about an analogy, you don't want to be too
literal. In the lines you're referred to, Douglass describes
how he gave bread to hungry boys in exchange for
lessons-the bread of knowledge. Since he says this kind of
bread is more valuable than actual food, it must have been
very important to him, as (D) has it.
If you chose (B), you're focusing too much on details and
losing sight of the main points. Choice (E) distorts a small
fact (the availability of bread) into an improbable inference.
Choice (C) takes the word valuable to mean financially
valuable, but Douglass means knowledge is valuable in
other ways.
13. B
Difficulty: Medium
Bear has a number of different definitions, so you must go
back to the context to figure out the answer. You should do
this with all Vocabulary-in-Context questions.
Choice (B) makes the most sense. Choice (D) might have
tempted you, since Douglass is suffering at the thought
of being a slave for life. But it's the situation that implies
suffering, not the word bear.