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

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1 12 Practice Tests for the SAT
Practice Test Eleven Answers and Explanations
weakens the author's argument that poor conditions were
necessary.
12. B
Difficulty: Medium
In paired passages, it's extremely important to keep the
authors straight. Don't fall for choices that mix up the
authors' points of view.
What part does this paragraph play in the passage as a
whole? The author feels that the system created poor
working conditions, and the second paragraph explains the
role of agents in this process.
Choice (A) is a misused detail; this comes from the author
of Passage 1, not Passage 2. Choice (B) matches your
prediction. Choice (C) is a misused detail; the author speaks
of the immorality of the system in the final, but not in the
second, paragraph. Choice (D) is a misused detail; the
fire isn't mentioned until the third paragraph. Choice (E)
is a misused detail; again, this comes from Passage 1, not
Passage 2.
13. c
Difficulty: Low
Read each answer choice carefully and don't get caught in a
trap: for example, (E) is wrong because of a single word.
The third paragraph, which describes the fire, says that the
Waltham-Lowell system ... [was] downright dangerous. So,
look for something that says the factory owners created
dangerous conditions.
Choice (A) is out of scope; the author only mentions a
single fire and doesn't suggest that such events happened
often. Choice (B) is distortion; the author feels the accident
was a tragedy, so sympathy wouldn't be unwarranted.
Choice (C) matches your prediction. Choice (D) is an
opposite; the author feels that factory owners didn't do
enough to protect workers. Choice (E) is distortion; it's the
factory owners, not the workers, who were negligent.
14. E
Difficulty: Medium
On Detail questions, watch out for answer choices that bring
in irrelevant information from other parts of the passage.
Reread the sentence in which the word appears. The author
notes that one would hope that the tragedy would bring
about change, but that nothing much happened to the
factory owners· and that factories continued to lock their
doors for several years.
Choice (A) is distortion; the passage mentions 23 families,
not 23 victims. There might have been victims whose
families did not sue. Choice (B) is an opposite; the next-tolast
sentence in the third paragraph states that the owners
were acquitted of criminal charges, so they didn't go to
jail. Choice (C) is distortion; the practice of locking doors
remained common, but we don't know that tragedies of
this sort remained common, since we don't know if fires
continued to happen frequently. Choice (D) is a misused
detail; the whale-oil lamps in the first paragraph created
pollution, not fires. Choice (E) matches the last two
sentences of the paragraph.
15. c
Difficulty: Medium
If you're asked about the structure of a paragraph, go back
and quickly reread each sentence to figure out what's going
on. Author 2 mentions the view also held by Author 1-that
factory owners had to create poor working conditions in
order to make money and stay in business. Author 2 then
goes on to disagree and proposes that a system of common
decency should have been used instead.
In (A), no evidence is introduced in the final paragraph.
In (B), no statistical evidence is introduced in the final
paragraph. Choice (C) matches your prediction. In (D), we
don't know how widely held any of the views discussed
are, and no historical evidence is presented in the final
paragraph. In (E), the author doesn't say that there is a
contradiction. To the author, the choice is clear: the factory
owners were in the wrong.
16. A
Difficulty: Low
With paired passages, you will almost always see a question
that asks you to pinpoint an issue or issues on which the
two authors disagree.
Both authors agree that the working conditions were bad,
but they disagree in their final paragraphs. Author 1 states
that the conditions were necessary in order for factories to
stay in business, while Author 2 states that the conditions
were unacceptable and that another system should have
been implemented.