Questions - How to Crack the Writing and Language Test - Cracking the New SAT with 4 Practice Tests, 2016 Edition

Cracking the New SAT with 4 Practice Tests, 2016 Edition (2015)

Part III. How to Crack the Writing and Language Test

Chapter 9. Questions

In the previous chapters, we’ve seen “questions” that don’t have questions at all. In this chapter, we will deal with those questions that actually do contain questions and some of the strategies that can help to simplify them.

AND THEN SAT WAS LIKE, “HEY, CAN I ASK YOU A QUESTION?”

In the previous two chapters, we saw most of the concepts that will be tested on the Writing and Language Test. In this chapter, we’re not going to learn a lot of new stuff in the way of grammar. Instead, we’ll look at some of the questions you’ll see in this section.

As we’ve seen, a lot of the questions on the Writing and Language Test aren’t questions at all. They’re just lists of answer choices, and we start the process of answering them by asking a question of our own: “What’s changing in the answer choices?”

Because you need to move quickly through this test, you may fall into the habit of not checking for questions. Even when you do read the questions, you may read them hastily or vaguely. Well, we are here to tell you that neither of these approaches will work.

The most important thing about Writing and Language questions is that you notice those questions and then answer those questions.

This may seem like just about the most obvious advice you’ve ever been given, but you’d be surprised how much less precise your brain is when you’re working quickly.

Here’s an example. Do these next 10 questions as quickly as you can.

1.2 + 1 =

2.1 + 2 =

3.3 + 1 =

4.3 + 2 ≠

5.1 + 2 =

6.2 − 1 <

7.2 ± 2 =

8.3 + 1 =

9.3 + 2 =

10.3 + 3 ≠

Now check your answers.

1.3

2.3

3.4

4.Anything but 5

5.3

6.Any number greater than 1 (but not 1!)

7.0 or 4

8.4

9.5

10.Anything but 6

Now, it’s very possible that you got at least one of those questions wrong. What happened? It’s not that the questions are hard. In fact, the questions are about as easy as can be. So why did you get some of them wrong? You were probably moving too quickly to notice that the signs changed a few times.

This is a lot like the Writing and Language Test. You might miss some of the easiest points on the whole test by not reading carefully enough.

As we will see throughout this chapter, most of the questions will test concepts with which we are already familiar.

WORDS AND PUNCTUATION IN REVERSE

Many of the concepts we saw in the chapters on punctuation and words show up explicitly with questions, but usually there’s some kind of twist.

Here’s an example.

Most people are familiar with the idea of a gender pay gap. What most people don’t realize is just how persistent that pay gap has been.

1.Which of the following alternatives to the underlined portion would NOT be acceptable?

A)gap; what

B)gap: what

C)gap, however,

D)gap—what

Here’s How to Crack It

First and foremost, it’s important to notice the question. This one is asking for the alternative that would NOT be acceptable, so we’ll need to find an answer that doesn’t work.

In the meantime, let’s go through the steps. What’s changing in the answer choices? STOP, HALF-STOP, and GO punctuation. Use the Vertical Line Test between the words gap and what. The idea before the line, Most people are familiar with the idea of a gender pay gap, is complete. The idea after the line, what most people don’t realize is just how persistent that pay gap has been, is also complete. Therefore, we need either STOP or HALF-STOP punctuation.

Choices (A) and (B) definitely provide the punctuation we want. Choice (D) doesn’t look like it does, but remember! But is one of the FANBOYS, and comma + FANBOYS is one of the forms of STOP punctuation! The only one, therefore, that doesn’t work in the context is (C), so it is the alternative that would NOT be acceptable.

Notice how important that word NOT was in this question. If you missed it, you might have thought the question had three correct answers!

Let’s try another.

The size of the gap may have narrowed, but we still have a long way to go.

2.Which of the following substitutions would be LEAST acceptable?

A)magnitude

B)proportion

C)vastness

D)immensity

Here’s How to Crack It

Again, the question asks for the LEAST acceptable, so find and eliminate answers that work. In this case, we need something similar in meaning to the word size as it is used in this sentence. All four words mean something similar to size in different contexts, but we want something that refers to just how large the gap is, so (A), (C), and (D) would work.

Choice (B) does give a synonym for the word size, but it means something more like dimensions than largeness, so it is the LEAST acceptable of the substitutions.

Let’s look at another that deals with some of the topics we’ve seen earlier.

The problem has certainly gained a good deal of traction in public debates. The fact that it has gained such traction makes us wonder why isn’t there more significant action to combat the gender pay gap.

3.Which of the following gives the best way to combine these two sentences?

A)The problem has certainly gained a good deal of traction in public debates; the fact that it has gained such traction makes us wonder why isn’t there more significant action to combat the gender pay gap.

B)The problem has certainly gained a good deal of traction in public debates, which raises the question of why more isn’t being done to combat the gap.

C)The problem has certainly gained a good deal of traction in public debates: this fact of more public attention raises a serious question of why more isn’t being done to close that gap.

D)The problem has certainly gained a good deal of traction in public debates. Why isn’t more being done to combat the gap?

Here’s How to Crack It

The question asks us to combine the two sentences. Your eyes were probably drawn immediately to (D), which is the most concise of the choices. There’s just one problem: (D) doesn’t answer the question! The question asks to combine the sentences, and while (D) shortens them, it doesn’t combine them.

Choice (B) is therefore the best option. It combines the sentences and shortens them a bit, unlike (A) and (C), which combine the sentences, but don’t really do much beyond changing the punctuation.

Questions like question 3 are why…

The most important thing about Writing and Language questions is that you notice those questions and then answer those questions.

PRECISION QUESTIONS

Not all questions will be just applications of punctuation and words. Some questions will ask you to do more specific things. Remember the three terms we kept repeating in the Words chapter: Consistency, Precision, and Concision. We’ll start with the Precision-related questions. Even when Precision is not asked about directly, or when it is mixed with Consistency or Concision, remember this:

Answer the question in the most precise way possible. Read literally!

Let’s try one.

The question of unequal pay for women draws on many other broader social issues.

4.The writer is considering deleting the phrase of unequal pay for women from the preceding sentence. Should this phrase be kept or deleted?

A)Kept, because removing it would remove a crucial piece of information from this part of the sentence.

B)Kept, because it reminds the reader of social injustice in the modern world.

C)Deleted, because it wrongly implies that there is a disparity between what women and men are paid.

D)Deleted, because it gives information that has no bearing on this particular text.

Here’s How to Crack It

This question asks whether we should keep or delete the phrase of unequal pay for women. Without that phrase, the sentence reads, The question draws on many other broader social issues. Because nothing in this sentence or any of the previous ones specifies what this question might be, we should keep the phrase. We want to be as precise as possible!

And, as (A) says, we want to keep the phrase because it is crucial to clarifying precisely what the question is. Choice (B) is a little too grandiose a reason to keep the phrase, especially when the whole passage is about the particular injustice of the gender pay gap. Choice (A) is therefore the best answer.

Let’s try another.

The gender disparities persist in areas other than pay. It is a kind of open secret, for instance, that women have had the right to vote in the United States for less than a century. There is a long history of misogyny written into the very cultural and social fabric of the United States.

5.At this point, the writer is considering adding the following true statement:

The year that women’s suffrage became legal in the United States was also the year that the American Football League was formed under the leadership of Jim Thorpe.

Should the writer make this addition here?

A)Yes, because it gives a broader context to the achievement of women’s suffrage.

B)Yes, because it helps to ease some of the political rhetoric in the rest of the passage.

C)No, because it does not contribute in a significant way to the discussion of the gender pay gap.

D)No, because the question of gender pay is irrelevant when all football players are men.

Here’s How to Crack It

The proposed sentence does contain an interesting bit of information, but that piece of information has no clear place either in these few sentences or in the passage as a whole. Therefore, it should not be added, thus eliminating (A) and (B).

Then, because it does not play a significant role in the passage, the sentence should not be added for the reason stated in (C). While (D) may be true in a way, it does not reflect anything clearly relating to the role the sentence might play in the passage as a whole. Read literally, and answer as literally and precisely as you can.

CONSISTENCY QUESTIONS

Just as questions should be answered as precisely as possible, they should also be answered with information that is consistent with what’s in the passage.

When answering consistency questions, keep this general rule in mind:

Writing and Language passages should be judged on what they do say, not on what they could say. When dealing with Style, Tone, and Focus, make sure to work with the words and phrases the passage has already used.

Let’s look at two questions that deal with the idea of consistency.

[1] One need look no further than to the idea of the “traditional” family. [2] The shift, however, has yet to produce a substantive increase in how women, who are now nearly as likely to work as men, are paid. [3] In this idea, the father of the family earns the family wage and gives the children his last name. [4] With such an idea bolstering what many consider to be the goal inherent in the “American dream,” it is no wonder that women in the workplace should have a somewhat degraded position. [5] Shifting social and economic roles, however, have begun to change how people think about gender roles within the family.

6.Which of the following choices would best complete the distinction described in this sentence and the paragraph as a whole?

A)NO CHANGE

B)while the mother tends to the children and the home.

C)though his interest in masculine things like sports may vary.

D)but will only be able to achieve a wage commensurate with his skills and education.

7.The best placement for sentence 2 would be

A)where it is now.

B)before sentence 1.

C)after sentence 4.

D)after sentence 5.

Here’s How to Crack It

Let’s look at question 6 first. In this case, the question tells us exactly what to look for: something that would complete the distinction in the sentence, a distinction made between what is expected of a man and a woman in a “traditional” family. Choices (A), (C), and (D) may be true in some definitions of what that “traditional” family is, but none of those answers fulfills the basic demands of the question. Only (B) does so by describing what is expected of a mother in contrast to what is expected of a father, as described earlier in the sentence.

Now, as for question 7, we need to find some very literal way to make sentence 2 consistent with the rest of the paragraph. Look for words and phrases that will link sentence 2 to other sentences. Remember, it’s not what the passage could say; it’s what the passage does say. Sentence 2, we should note, starts with the shift, thus clearly referring to a shift that has been mentioned before it. As such, sentence 2 belongs definitively after sentence 5, which discusses shifting social and economic roles.

As we have seen, these questions are not difficult, but they do require very specific things. Make sure you read the questions carefully and that you answer those questions as precisely and consistently as you can.

The same goes for charts and graphs on the Writing and Language Test. Don’t let the strangeness of the charts throw you off! Just read the graphs with as much precision as you can and choose the most precise answers possible.

Let’s have a look at one.

Even as women’s roles in high-level positions, such as Congress, have increased almost five-fold since 1981, the pay that women receive relative to men has increased by only approximately 33%.

8.Which of the following choices gives information consistent with the graph?

A)NO CHANGE

B)women’s wages have increased by over 80%.

C)the wages of women in Congress have decreased.

D)the efforts of women in Congress to raise wages have failed.

Here’s How to Crack It

This question is asking for what agrees with the graph. From what we have seen, these questions are usually pretty straightforward. You don’t have to do anything overly complex with the graphs, and that is certainly the case here.

It looks like “Women in Congress” goes up significantly where “Women’s Pay” remains relatively consistent. The only choice that reflects that trend is (A). Choice (B) misreads the graph, and (C) and (D) can’t be supported one way or the other. Choice (A) is therefore the best answer.

In general, graphs on the SAT Reading and Writing and Language Tests are very straightforward, and the fundamental question they ask is, “Can you read a graph?” These are easy points as long as you read the graphs carefully and use POE.

CONCLUSION

As we have seen in this chapter, the SAT can ask a lot of different kinds of questions, but you’re not going to have anything really crazy thrown at you. The biggest things to remember, aside from the punctuation rules, are CONSISTENCY and PRECISION. If you pick answers that are precise and consistent with other information in the passage, you should be good to go. Just make sure to answer the question!

Writing and Language Drill 4

Answers can be found on this page.

Time: 7–8 minutes

[1]

Genre in Hollywood movies is a constant but inconstant thing. Horror, Western, Sci-Fi: all of these are staples of Hollywood production, but the amount varies widely. For example, as the number of Westerns has stayed at or below about 25 per year since the 1960s, the number of Horror films, especially Zombie and Vampire films, has risen dramatically between 1960 and 2000, during which time the production of Vampire films has increased nearly six-fold.

1.Which of the following choices would best introduce the essay by pointing to the potential confusion in how to understand the role of genre in Hollywood films?

A)NO CHANGE

B)While many movie genres are staples in Hollywood, the popularity of these genres has changed over time.

C)Everyone knows that the highest form of Hollywood film is the drama.

D)There’s a lot that you may not know about how films are made in Hollywood.

2.Which of the following gives information consistent with the graph?

A)NO CHANGE

B)has risen dramatically between 1960 and 2000, during which time the production of Zombie films has increased nearly six-fold.

C)has declined sharply between 1960 and 2000, during which time the production of Zombie films has decreased to almost a sixth.

D)has declined sharply between 1960 and 2000, during which time the production of Zombie films has increased nearly four-fold.

[2]

While the saying goes that there’s “no accounting for the public’s taste,” lots of people like lots of different things. Why should the number of Westerns have remained relatively low while the number of Zombie films has skyrocketed? Maybe we should ask the question another way: what do people today get from Zombie films that they don’t from Westerns?

3.Which of the following choices would offer the most effective transition between the paragraph and the current one?

A)NO CHANGE

B)these trends nonetheless invite us to try.

C)a lot of people don’t even care about Zombie movies.

D)science has not yet shown that zombies exist.

[3]

Westerns dominated the 1920s. Zombie films have dominated the 1990s and 2000s. Beginning with these facts alone, we can start to see why these films might have been popular in different eras. The 1920s, for instance, was an American moment of crusade. Only a tough sheriff, the kind one might get in an old-west town, could find the perfect balance between justice and brutality. Thus, if the world could not be contained by law and order, at least here was an imaginary space that could be in the West.

4.The writer is considering deleting the phrase in different eras and ending the sentence with a period after the word popular. Should the phrase be kept or deleted?

A)Kept, because the meaning of the sentence changes without the phrase.

B)Kept, because it is interesting to think about history and film together.

C)Deleted, because the essay is more concerned with the genres’ popularity across time periods.

D)Deleted, because the essay is already dull and could stand to have some words removed.

5.At this point, the writer wants to insert an idea that will support the idea given in the previous sentence (“The 1920s…crusade”). Which of the following true statements would offer that support?

A)These were crusades altogether distinct from those conducted by the Catholic Church starting in 1095.

B)The U.S. is still interested in crusade today, so it’s hard to see why they don’t make as many Westerns anymore.

C)Led by Woodrow Wilson’s plan for a U.S.-led League of Nations, the world, reeling from World War I, wanted justice among the outlaws.

D)The stock market wouldn’t crash for another nine years, at which point people would really freak out.

6.Which of the following alternatives to the underlined portion would NOT be acceptable?

A)brutality, and if

B)brutality: if

C)brutality; thus, if

D)brutality, thus, if

[4]

It may seem that genre conventions never change. Because they never change, it probably seems like a Western today follows the same set of rules as a Western from 100 years ago. What the rise in Zombie films shows, however, is that the genres themselves change, and they provide different things to different eras. This is not to say that one genre is better than the other—that it’s better, for instance, to watch a tough cowboy fight off a gang of cattle rustlers—but it is to say that these genres hold a lot more than their mere entertainment value.

7.Which of the following gives the most effective way to combine the previous two sentences, reproduced below?

It may seem that genre conventions never change. Because they never change, it probably seems like a Western today follows the same set of rules as a Western from 100 years ago.

A)(keep the sentences as they are)

B)It may seem that genre conventions never change; because of it, it could be argued that a Western today follows the same set of rules as a Western from 100 years ago.

C)It may seem that genre conventions never change, that a Western today follows the same set of rules as a Western from 100 years ago.

D)Because Westerns today follow the same set of rules as they did 100 years ago, it seems to most outside observers that genre conventions never change.

8.At this point, the author is considering adding the following true statement:

For what it’s worth, my personal favorite is Jacques Tourneur’s I Married a Zombie, which is based loosely on Jane Eyre.

Should the writer make this addition here?

A)Yes, because the essay as a whole is filled with these kinds of examples and personal preferences.

B)Yes, because the author’s quirky choice shows that he has an off-beat perspective.

C)No, because the author’s strange choice disqualifies him from discussing popular taste.

D)No, because the essay as a whole is not primarily focused on the author’s personal preferences.

[5]

The 1990s and 2000s, dominated as they are by Zombie films, show that contemporary conflicts are not so far away. Although we now have the world at the click of a button, Zombie films show that we are not all that interested in that world. Instead, we are interested in and suspicious of the people around us. Whether coworkers or fellow students, the people around us, especially when viewed as a mass, can seem almost “dead.” And the reasons for this are fairly obvious: our private or online personalities have become so robust that the “real world” outside cannot help but seem dull or claustrophobic by comparison.

9.Which of the following alternatives to the underlined portion would be LEAST acceptable?

A)taken

B)espied

C)seen

D)regarded

10.The writer is considering replacing the word robust in the preceding sentence with the word healthy. Should the writer make the change or keep the sentence as it is?

A)Make the change, because the word robust is not familiar to many readers.

B)Make the change, because the word healthy provides a more accurate representation of people’s medical conditions.

C)Keep the sentence as it is, because the word healthy changes the meaning in a way inconsistent with the passage as a whole.

D)Keep the sentence as it is, because the word robust keeps the level of vocabulary within the passage at an appropriately high level.

11.The best placement for paragraph 5 would be

A)where it is now.

B)before paragraph 1.

C)after paragraph 2.

D)after paragraph 3.

WRITING AND LANGUAGE DRILL 4 ANSWER KEY

1.B

2.B

3.B

4.A

5.C

6.D

7.C

8.D

9.B

10.C

11.D

Summary

○The most important thing about Writing and Language questions is that you notice those questions and then answer those questions. Don’t miss out on some of the easiest points on the whole test by not reading carefully enough.

○As we saw in the Words chapter, answer questions in the most precise way possible.

○When answering consistency questions, keep this general rule in mind: Writing and Language passages should be judged on what they do say, not on what they could say. When dealing with Style, Tone, and Focus, make sure to work with the words and phrases the passage has already used.

○There will be charts or graphs on the Writing and Language Test, but don’t let that throw you off. Just read the graphs with as much precision as you would a passage and choose the most precise answers possible.