Help with SAT Official Practice Test 5 Reading Question 15

Plotinus
Wed, 03 May 2017 12:22:25 +0000

One meaning of “distinctive” is:
“characteristic of one person or thing, and so serving to distinguish it from others.”

In everyday language, we usually use “peculiar” to mean “strange” or “unusual”. But in formal English, “peculiar” often means “belonging to one person or group.” When it has this latter meaning, it is a synonym for “distinctive”.

This sentence says that the mode of influence of women is characteristic of women and distinguishes them from men.
So “peculiar” = “distinctive”.

You need to consider all the different meanings of the words to answer these questions.