December 2008 sat

Test Preparation
181

<p>For the gardening passage: I also got ripping out weeds. Let’s just assume that’s right now hahaha…</p>

<p>For the privacy passage: It is DEFINITELY differing institutions. I also have absolutely no questions about that… The first passage was clearly bemoaning a future lack of privacy from TECHNOLOGY, ie computers which phish for online information and credit-card swiping machines which store numbers. The second passage lamented an entirely different institution: the GOVERNMENT. The author gave several examples of unwarranted governmental surveillance, even using an analogy concerning policemen granted binoculars to carefully monitor the public’s every move.</p>

<p>Also, the Israeli rug-making passage was definitely the experimental one. Thank god, since I got the “credulity” sentence completion wrong… (I put flippancy for some reason…)</p>

182

<p>This is very irritating, I didn’t have any of these passages! haha, does anyone want to talk about the “advertisement research” passage?</p>

183

<p>The answer was definately cutting out vines, which would mean selecting which type of plants live in an area (plus there was a parallel example with weeds in the passage). The other answer was “Selecting flowers to plant instead of peas” or something, which is wrong because if you selected either peas or flowers you’d be discriminating.</p>

<p>How about the question about something like what would passage 2 say to the “institutions” said in passage 1 in the privacy passage? I put something like “he’d say they infringed on personal rights.”</p>

184

<p>i said passage 2 would say the gov’t was indeed infringing on privacy rights. but i’m not entirely sure. </p>

<p>there was this ISE question that said “Laura was more likely than Mary to accept an invitation to a large party…” blahblahblah. was that one no error? cuz i kept overthinking that it might be “Laura was more likely than Mary WAS to accept”… what’s right?</p>

185

<p>I think no error. I read in a grammar prep book that the “was” or “am” is eliptically implied. </p>

<p>Like “He is much better at tennis than I (am)”</p>

186

<p>why i believe the privacy question was 1) one generally negative one generally positive</p>

<p>choice 4 suggested that the 2 were both equally negative about a social phenomenon, but blamed different institutions</p>

<ol>
<li>i don’t think social phenomenon is quite right, but regardless of that…</li>
<li>there’s no way they were equally concerned. passage 1 railed against it the whole time; passage 2 highlighted its positives and expressed concern, but that was not the main point of the article.
The main point of the article was to highlight its positive effects. The last sentence in the passage even states that we just need to figure out the gov. thing and then the databasification will save us all, or whatever.
meanwhile, the other one ended in a different way. it is hurting us right now, and we need to completely change it if we can fix it at all.</li>
</ol>

187

<p>Remember the question about passage 2? It was about what “dark” most closely means in that context. At first I put ominous, but I changed it to morbid.</p>

<p>Which one is it? I think it might be ominous, so I’m wrong, but they both make sense.</p>

<p>Ominous means threatening or foreshadowing evil. Morbid can mean queasy/grisly, and also means causing discomfort, gloomy, uneasiness.</p>

188

<p>Morbid could make sense actually, but I think it has more of the connotation of death and disease. Ominous is more like a harbinger or warning, which fits in with the guy’s fear of control by the feds</p>

189

<p>yes i put ominous and that makes sense for exactly why hipster said</p>

190

<p>in the writing section with the architect, there was a weird question about which sentence should be inserted after sentence 2 nd i remember feeling like none of the choices made sense. does anyone remember the question and answer?</p>

191

<p>I was pretty confident that my choice (something about strip malls being the most problematic) was correct.</p>

192

<p>Yea, I put “ominous” for the question concerning what “dark” meant as well. Though it wouldn’t quite be my choice word, I felt that was best.</p>

<p>Also, w200, I agree with you. For some reason, the critical of different institutions does not strike me as correct. It seems to equate the two passage a little too much. When describing passage 2, “critical” wouldn’t be the first word that comes to my mind. I would describe passage 1 as mostly critical and passage 2 as mostly positive.</p>

<p>Maybe I’m remember this wrong, because in all honesty, I don’t even remember what exactly I put. I thought there was an answer choice that stated something along the lines of what I said (passage 2 being more optimistic than passage 1 of this new technology). Then again, maybe I eliminated all the other ones b/c they didn’t make any sense and ended up with the critical answer. <em>Sigh</em> I simply don’t remember, and it will continue to bug me haha</p>

<p>To the people with regular 800s, you seem confident already, but are you 100% (absolutely 100% no question about it) sure it was “critical of differing institutions”, maybe this is one of those harder ones that people aren’t supposed to get? :P</p>

193

<p>astonisher, i would bet my house that it was the correct answer…does anyone remember any other hard questions that i can try to remember to see if i got them wrong?</p>

194

<p>im with guynamed on this one.</p>

<p>:]</p>

195

<p>I’m still in denial, lol, though I’m pretty sure you guys are right.</p>

<p>Here are most of the questions I remember to see if it matches any of yours:</p>

<p>Privacy-</p>

<p>What is stated in both passages?
I put that both said that privacy was hard to come by in the present day.</p>

<p>What would Passage 1 say about the hundreds of monitors in Passage 2?
I put like that it was beneficial to the economy of something (I’m not sure if this was an answer but the question was something to that effect)</p>

<p>What would the 1st Passage say to the 2nd about the list of benefits?
I put that he would say they do not accurately represent the problem of privacy or soemthing.</p>

<p>What would the 1st Passage say about the 2nd passage (line something) “institutions”?
I put that he would say that it infringed upon people’s privacy</p>

<p>What does “dark” mean?
I put ominous</p>

<p>Navigation -</p>

<p>what is the point of the author mentioning famous landmarks on sea?
I put “to orient themselves at sea.”</p>

<p>What was the purpose of paragraph 2? (the paragraph with all the explorations)
To show the scope of exploration</p>

<p>What is the purpose of the lines something (the ones that describe the explorers from Spain and stuff)
To give specific examples to a claim</p>

<p>The author of the passage would most likely believe that people are have less…
I put “have less respect for the difficulties in making navigational devices”</p>

<p>Gardening - </p>

<p>What does the passage mean by Thoreau’s influence?
I put “literary successors”</p>

<p>What does the girl mean when she says “What if someone needs to, nay, wants to garden?” or something, referringto locke.
I put about Locke’s advice not being practical</p>

<p>What is the girl’s opinion about the garden?
I put that she thought it bridged the gap between nature and man (or something)</p>

<p>What does the author mean in these lines: (something about how people don’t usually think of nature as landscape gardening)
That most people think that humankind and nature are supposed to be seperate</p>

<p>Korean Hands -</p>

<p>What does the grandma mean when she talks about the guy being a doctor?
I put “to use their intellect in the future”</p>

<p>What is the grandma’s attitude?
Playful</p>

<p>What best describes paragraphs 2&3 (about the stories)?
I put something about familiar stories</p>

<p>What does “lithe” mean?
Soft</p>

<p>What is the children’s response to the lullaby?
I put “soothing familiarity”</p>

<p>Carpeting -</p>

<p>What was the purpose of the Iranian Uncle’s story?
I put “explain the importance of the rug makers” though I think I’m wrong</p>

<p>Short passage about Genes -</p>

<p>How would the guys at the end of Passage 1 feel about the statement at the end of passage 2?
“Heartening”</p>

<p>Short passage with something in parantheses that said (Native Americans have good poetry too!) or something…</p>

<p>A question that asked what was the point of the parenthetical statement
I put to mention something of interest for further research (or something)</p>

<p>Short passage about this present day nomad who liked hearing people talk</p>

<p>What is the device in lines blahblah (something about a fish out of water)
I put metaphor</p>

<p>What is the guy primarily interested in?
He is interested in people’s accents and where they came from</p>

196

<p>i really have trouble buying that about the privacy passage.
i agree with what someone said about the equating of the two passages. and yes, choice 1 was passage 2 overall views the positive aspects of something concering the author of passage 1.</p>

197

<p>i remember a lot of those and, as far as i remember and can tell from ur descriptions, i dont disagree with anything =)</p>

198

<p>in math i can remember some questions, the cube one was 8, there was one where f(-x)=-f(x) and the answer was 1, there was one with three triangles inside of each other and it asked for the perimeter and i think the answer was 1/4, there was one with the zeros of a function and the answer was e) 12, anyone hav anything different for any of those or any other maths they remember?</p>

199

<p>I think I got most of what you got, and it looks good (except i didn’t have carpeting).
You got ominous right…I put morbid, which I now realize is wrong, kudos.
But for the privacy passage, I think I differed from you on some of those answers.
Like,
a) For the “privacy is hard to deal with today” response, I was going to put that, but where does it mention it in the passage? On the other hand, both the last half of passage 2 and the whole of passage 1 discuss the need for us to maintain our liberties, so I went for that one.</p>

<p>b) Again, for the hundreds of monitors question, I was going to put that, but then look at what those monitors are referring to: government-tapping into our systems, not the databasification that passage 2 so strongly supports (and which would, in turn, lend your answer as the correct one). So I had a feeling the answer to this would be, “that’s why we need government restrictions” (e, on my test, if i remember right). </p>

<p>i probably had what you had for the fourth question you posted there, but I honestly don’t remember the third one (or that as an answer choice).</p>

<p>So maybe all of us are wrong, :)- but this was just my thought process. </p>

<p>As for the question that received so much intense debate, about both passages’ views, I put the ‘differing institutions’ answer. Yes, passage 2 is not as intense about, but that doesn’t mean you can characterize the passage as mainly beating down on the idea of privacy. No, in fact, I would say it does emphasize privacy, but takes a more qualified perspective on the matter. But keeping opinions out of this, they both emphasize privacy, the degree to which they do so is simply indicative of the tone, not the overall message/subject matter. </p>

<p>Good luck everyone. :)</p>

200

<p>For the f(-x) = -f(x), I got “the answer could not be determined”. is anyone with me or did i make a stupid mistake?</p>