Catch's SAT Journey

catchtwentythree
Thu, 20 Sep 2012 22:55:55 +0000

A
E
B
B


OK, I’m assuming you mean the answers from Practice test 3, section 2…

9

“When I entered journalism school in the 1920’s, I found out that perennial and fundamental laws governing the art of good writing had been discovered. Experts had stubbornly and rigorously analyzed readers’ modest capacity to dedicate their attention to the printed page and had established once and for all, apparently with the mathematical precision of astronomers, the order of readers’ natural preferences. They found that effective prose was composed of a limited number of very simple and common words grouped in short, crisp sentences. When designed rigorously, such prose could penetrate the opaque barrier of millions of readers’ indifference, apathy, inattention, and obtuseness.”

Sometimes it’s difficult to tell when someone’s being sarcastic. The parts of the paragraph I just bolded gave it away for me. Establishing good taste with the mathematical precision of an astronomer? Please.

8

What was the other question? It was about the second paragraph, where the author was worried that a view like the one above would turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. He wasn’t being sarcastic. He was being serious. That guy was legitimately concerned that the American people would forget how to appreciate good literature if authors didn’t consistently demonstrate what good prose, etc., was all about. Also, this sentence:

“I sometimes worry that our assumption that the reading public can comprehend only such writing might be selling them short.”

-directly answers the question.

22

The solar system one was a little tricky, but establishing the existence of a planet requires more than an educated guess. Extrapolation means that you assume something by applying definite knowledge in one case to another unrelated but similar case. I’m not really sure how else to explain that, but I can see why you were confused.

15

“B” was the only one that made sense.
The others were “creature comforts,” but the passage talks about animals garnering satisfaction from human-like jobs.