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

12 Practice Tests for the SAT
920 Practice Test Ten Answers and Explanations
Choice (A) matches your prediction. Choice (B) is out of
scope; there is no mention of other authors anywhere in
the passage. Choice (C) is an opposite; this is tempting
if you didn't read paragraph 1 carefully. Choice (D) is
distortion; Author 1 says that the novel was an advance
in efforts at innovation, but he means it in a negative way.
The innovation was clumsy and ineffective. Choice (E) is
a misused detail; the author would agree with this, but it
doesn't come up until paragraph 2.
8. B
Difficulty: Medium
Especially on tough passages, you can often get several
questions right just based on the author's tone. Since the
author hates Moby Dick so much, the quotes around fine
writing are used to show that he doesn't really believe the
writing to be fine at all.
Choice (A) is an opposite; even if you don't understand
much of the passage, it should be clear that the author
doesn't hold the novel in high esteem. Choice (B) is a
good match. Choice (C) is out of scope; the author doesn't
mention any other critics. Choice (D) is distortion; this
may be tempting, but the author is using the word success
sarcastically. Melville was successful only in showing that
his writing was poor. Even if you didn't fully understand
this sentence, you could eliminate it because it is far too
positive. Choice (E) is out of scope; there is no indication
that Melville actually used the term fine writing himself.
9. D
Difficulty: Medium
The author believes that the book is an ill-compounded
mixture of a novel and an instructional work. So, when he
says that the idea of a connected and collected story has
obviously visited and abandoned its writer again and again,
he is implying that the plot appears and disappears as you
read the book, since it's interrupted by the factual sections.
Choice (A) is distortion; this is the opinion of Author 2,
but it's much too positive for Author 1. Choice (B) is an
opposite; in paragraph 1, the author makes exactly the
opposite claim. Choice (C) is out of scope; the author says
that the novel is a strange blend of both kinds of material,
but it doesn't describe one as more prevalent. Choice (D)
is a good match. Choice (E) is distortion; this interpretation
is too literal. Also, since the author describes Melville as
vain and overconfident, it seems unlikely Author 1 would
attribute periods of doubt to Melville.
10. c
Difficulty: Medium
Some sentences from Reading Comp passages are
constructed much like Sentence Completions. A word
is immediately followed by a phrase that provides a
definition. Right after the quoted phrase, you read neither
so compelling as to be entertaining, nor so instructively
complete as to take place among documents on the
subject of the Great Whale. In other words, the book
doesn't work as either a novel or an instructional document.
Choice (A) is out of scope; the author never says that
whaling is an unusual subject for a book. Choice (B) is
a misused detail; the author does say this in paragraph 1
but not in paragraph 2, where the strange book reference
occurs. Choice (C) is a good match. Choice (D) is out of
scope; this is mentioned in Passage 2 but not in Passage 1.
Choice (E) is a misused detail; the author does say this,
but it's not mentioned in the sentence that explains why he
considers Moby Dick a strange book.
11. E
Difficulty: High
Treat Inference questions about tone like Global questionsconsider
the entire passage. Look for a choice that captures
the writer's highly critical tone.
Choice (A) is an opposite; this is the opinion of Author 2, not
Author 1. Choice (B) is distortion; the author does note that
Melville was ambitious, but the author would not agree with
the word greatness. Choice (C) is extreme; the author doesn't
like Moby Dick, but that doesn't mean it's always a bad idea
to include instructional elements. Choice (D) is distortion;
this is the thesis of Passage 2, not Passage 1. Choice (E) is
supported in two places. In paragraph 1, the author notes that
Melville's novels are getting worse, and in paragraph 3, he
writes that Melville should have stopped while he was ahead.
12. c
Difficulty: Low
The word admittedly indicates that, though the passages
are important, the author knows that they are a little dry or
boring.
Choice (A) is a common meaning of dry, but it makes no
sense here. In (B), the context doesn't suggest that the
passages are ironic. Choice (C) is a good match. Choice
(D) is the opposite of what you're looking for. Choice (E)
doesn't make sense after the word admittedly.