SAT Reading question

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>Yesterday had been her last day on the paper. She had
felt queer about that thing of taking her last assignment,
though it was hard to reach just the proper state, for the
20 last story related to pork-packers, and pork-packing is
not a setting favorable to sentimental regrets. It was just
like the newspaper business not even to allow one a little
sentimental harrowing over one’s exodus from it. But the
time for gentle melancholy came later on when she was
25 sorting her things at her desk just before leaving, and
was wondering what girl would have that old desk—if
they cared to risk another girl, and whether the other poor
girl would slave through the years she should have been
frivolous, only to have some man step in at the end and
30 induce her to surrender the things she had gained through
sacrifice and toil.</p>

<ol>
<li>The second paragraph suggests that Georgia believes
the “proper state” (line 19) would be one of
(A) excitement
(B) wistfulness
(C) amusement
(D) annoyance
(E) relief
please be thorough in explanation</li>
</ol>

2

<p>(B) because line 21 says “sentimental regrets,” a fair definition of “wistfulness.”</p>

3

<p>Here’s a little tip:
Always read the sentence before and the one after the lines mentioned. And when you do this try to look for some key words or synonyms and then start to eliminate the answers choices that dont match with the words you found. Doing this will reduce your error margin and in most cases leave you with only 2 choices left.</p>

<p>However going back to your question, I believe the keyword here is “sentimental regrets”, so you can quickly eliminate choices A,C and D. Then one may argue is choice (E) state of relief, however the word melancholy mentioned later in the passage refutes this claim and leaves us with only one choice left, (B). And in fact its “wistfulness” because later in the passage it says that the “proper state” is one of sentimental regrets and then it supports this claim by describing the state as one of “gentle melancholy”.</p>

<p>Hope it helps!</p>

4

<p>Thank you very much to the both of you! @Salami809 I really LOVE your tip. I find myself missing questions like these ALL the time. I REALLY appreciate it. My gratitude is understated with this reply.</p>