<p>I found these two questions in a group on Facebook promoting SAT questions of the day, and I thought they were too cool not to share.</p>
<ol>
<li>As Q gracefully plopped himself next to Bond, he remarked about the painting, “This one always makes me rather melancholy-the grand old warship being ___________ hauled away for scrap.”</li>
</ol>
<p>A. contemptuously
B. scandalously
C. blithely
D. ignominiously
E. nonchalantly</p>
<ol>
<li>Among the most popular TV shows of the 90s, [it is no surprise that Disney is developing a sequel to Boy Meets World.]</li>
</ol>
<p>A. it is no surprise that Disney is developing a sequel to Boy Meets World.
B. it was no surprise that Disney will develop a sequel to Boy Meets World.
C. Disney is unsurprisingly developing a sequel to Boy Meets World.
D. Boy Meets World will be no surprise when it is developed into a sequel by Disney
E. Boy Meets World – to no surprise – is being developed into a sequel by Disney.</p>
<p>1)C because ignominiously-ignominious means something that invokes a feeling of shame- best conveys the sense the guy feels when he sees a huge ship being drawn away just for scrap. this idea is supported with the feeling of melancholy.</p>
<p>2)E, because the first part of the sentence is supposed to modify the TV show named Boy Meets World, nevertheless we have 2 options which pass this requirement;</p>
<p>D and E.</p>
<p>It can not be D because “…will be no surprise when it is developed into a sequel by Disney” changes the tense of the original sentence, which is in present continuous tense.</p>
<p>E is the correct answer, nonetheless, the test-takers will have a tendency to select D because of the interruption in the middle of the sentence.</p>
<p>These questions are not even close to the Princeton Review’s acrimoniously criticized questions; they do not feel one bit of close to real SAT questions.</p>
<p>As math guy, what I learn from this example is that even more so than with math, it is a crazy waste of time to practice with fake tests for reading and writing. At least when a math problem is flawed, there is a clear standard to judge it by and a clear way to determine the right answer (if there is one). But in verbal, if the test is not real, there is NO WAY to determine the right answer. So for example, I would have gone with “igominiously”. Maybe you picked “blithely”. But we are just two people with opinions, neither one more “official” – even if you are the one who wrote the problem! But with a real College Board question, there is a clear standard: the right answer is what they say it is! Part of practicing is learning to pick the one that they pick. Practicing with fake tests does not help you to learn that.</p>
<p>Just in my defense, I posted these questions because they amused me, not for their accuracy. It is my personal belief that students often approach the SAT far too seriously, and end up being bogged down meaningless questions. These culturally relevant questions brought a smile to my face.</p>
<p>Then again, I come from the generation when Boy Meets World was extremely popular.</p>