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

12 Practice Tests for the SAT
118 Practice Test One Answers and Explanations
21. E
Difficulty: Medium
Always reexamine the relevant portion of the paragraph and
use evidence found there to support your answer choice.
The word while at the beginning of the sentence indicates
that in spite of the fact infants are capable of separating
out voice streams, their ability to do so is based on certain
factors. In other words, while they are quite capable, infants
are not always able to separate streams.
Choice (A) is an opposite; the sentence clearly states that
most infants are capable of separating out different voice
streams. Choice (B) is out of scope; the paragraph does
not discuss the comfort level of infants. Choice (C) is out
of scope; the paragraph does not describe the frequency
of these conditions. Choice (D) is out of scope; no.where
is it stated that an infant is wholly dependent upon his
environment for language acquisition. Choice (E) is correct;
the paragraph that contains these lines discusses stimuli of
the surrounding environment.
22. D
Difficulty: Medium
To determine how a particular word or phrase is being
used by the author, first identify its meaning and then
go back and refamiliarize yourself with its context. In this
case, necessarily refers to an inevitable or unavoidable
consequence, and the referenced sentence is referring to
competing voice streams becoming combined into a single
stream. The author is stating that the consequences of this
occurrence, the resulting unfamiliar patterns and sounds
and the infant's confusion, are inevitable.
Choice (A) is distortion; the author is not simply discussing
two streams of speech but two streams of equal volume
mixing, which is confusing. Choice (B) is out of scope;
nothing in the paragraph refers to an adult's ability to
distinguish between streams of speech. Choice (C) is
distortion; again, the author is only referring to separate
streams of equal volume, not just any two streams. Choice
(D) is correct; an inevitable confusion would also be
understandable. Choice (E) is out of scope; the author, at
least in this sentence, does not explore how the diversity of
audible stimuli could add to an infant's confusion.
23. c
Difficulty: Medium
This question asks you to use information from one
portion of the paragraph in the context of another. Start
by finding the exact information needed from the first
portion referenced, then apply it to the second piece of
cited content. In this case, by beginning with a look at the
example in the final paragraph, you learn that an infant
presented with a voice stream spoken by his mother will be
able to easily separate out her voice from the distraction of
the background stream because her voice is more familiar
to him. This information applies almost directly to the cited
content in paragraph 3, which also refers to an infant being
spoken to by his mother. Here, the competing speech
comes from a newscaster on the television or siblings
playing nearby, so look for an answer choice that describes
how the infant would be able to separate out his mother's
voice from these competing speech streams.
Choice (A) is distortion; nothing in the paragraph indicates
that infants necessarily understand these speech streams,
only that they can begin to learn their language from them.
Choice (B) is distortion; this statement also goes too far,
as the paragraph only mentions that in this case an infant
would be able to separate out his mother's voice. Choice
(C) is correct; his mother's voice would be the most familiar
stream to the infant, and he would push the newscaster's
voice to the background. Choice (D) is out of scope; the
paragraph does not explore whether or not the infant would
learn anything from the television voice. Choice (E) is
distortion; the example in the final paragraph only describes
an infant's ability to separate out his mother's voice from
other competing streams of speech, but not necessarily the
background noises described in the second paragraph.
24. B
Difficulty: High
It is sometimes helpful to step back from the details and
consider the scope and purpose of the paragraph as a
whole. It's likely that the cited content is being used to
advance this purpose. Notice that in the last sentence of the
paragraph, which provides something of a summary of the
author's main idea, the example referred to in the question
stem is described as an important cue that enables an
infant to be capable of more quickly learning the invaluable
characteristics and rules of his native language. In other
words, being spoken to by the familiar voice of his mother
speeds up the infant's language acquisition process.