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

112 Practice Tests for the SAT
1066
Practice Test Twelve Answers and Explanations
I was decided to write a story about recycling in our town
for the "Local Happenings" column. I interviewed the head
of the recycling plant for my story. I was really pleased that I
had gotten an interview with the head of all the recycling
in the town. He took me around the recycling plant
and showed me all about how materials are recycled and
answered my questions about how the program is working
in our town. I worked all weekend on a long article. When I
turned in my article the advisor for the paper told me I had
to do more work. At first I thought she was being unfair, but
she explained that you can't just rely on one person for a
story, unless it was an interview.
She helped me set up interviews with a garbage collector,
and also suggested I interview people from different
neighborhoods to see how they felt about the new recycling
program. I discovered that the garbage collector had some
very negative things to say about the program. He thought it
has been badly introduced so people did not know how to
sort their garbage which made his job more difficult. Some
people thought the program was great and other people
thought it was a waste of time.
I ended up writing a much better article, and I learned a lot
more about recycling in my town by getting both sides of
the story.
2 Score Essay
In the story the Gift of the Magi the man sells his watch so
he can buy his wife combs for her hair but his wife sold her
hair to buy her husband a chain for his watch. This story
shows that sometimes it is good not have both sides of the
story. If the man knew that his wife was going to sell her hair
he would never have brought her the combs. And if his wife
knowed that he was going to sell his watch she would never
have bought him his watchchain. Then they never would have
known how generous they were. This is the moral of the story.
When I first read the story I thought it was meant to be sad.
Because neither of them could enjoy there new presents. But
when we studied the story I learned that is actually a happy
story because they realize that they would part with there
most important thing to make their husband or wife happy.
Both the husband and his wife were trying to suprise the
other person, and the suprize was the most important part. If
they had knew what the other person was doing they would
not have been able to surpize them. Sometimes it is good
not know everything because that takes all the mystery out
of life and makes it impossible to have something really
special happen like in the story the Gift of the Magi.
2 Score Critique
4 Score Critique
All essays are evaluated on four basic criteria: To pic,
Support, Organization, and Language. The author states
his opinion of the prompt immediately, indicating to the
reader that his essay will provide an example from his
own experience on the school newspaper. The example
is fairly well developed and supported in the subsequent
paragraphs, showing that the author took time to plan his
essay and list his ideas before he began to write.
The essay is well organized, except for the conclusion,
which is short and seems hastily added. The word choice
and sentence structure are not remarkable, with generic
language and frequent use of sentences starting with /.
Errors like I was decided and the program is working in the
second paragraph detract from the essay and indicate that
proofreading would have helped this writer's score.
All essays are evaluated on four basic criteria: Topic,
Support, Organization, and Language. This essay launches
immediately into an example and does show that the
author has understood the prompt. However, although the
author doesn't digress from the topic, the remainder of the
essay lacks organization and support. The essay includes a
single example in its two paragraphs, but the development
of his topic is poorly executed. The author includes few
transition words or phrases between paragraphs and uses
few key words to help the reader navigate the essay. To
improve this aspect of his essay, the writer should plan his
essay before beginning to write.
The language is redundant and the sentences lack variety of
structure. Several run-on sentences or fragments result from
a lack of appropriate punctuation. Finally, the author has
failed to correct some spelling errors, such as surprize in the
second paragraph.