Answer Key 1:
Mapping What the SAT Critical Reading Is All
About
172 MCGRAW-HILL’S SAT
evidence in the passage—because if they weren’t,
there would be no consistent way to score the test.
People would be arguing incessantly about the an-
swers to the questions.- English teachers ask lots of interesting questions
that could never be asked on the SAT because they
are too subjective, such as “What personal experi-
ences does this story remind you of?” or “What
kind of job would Hamlet have if he were alive
today?” or “What could water represent in this
story?” Contrary to what some claim, SAT Critical
Reading questions are certainly not “worse” than
English teachers’ questions just because they are
less creative. Indeed, you can’t begin to interpret
a passage subjectively untilyou first interpret it
objectively. You have to understand what the pas-
sage says before you can get creative.
Concept Review 1
- What is the purpose of this passage? What is the
central idea of this passage? What is the general
structure of this passage? - It’s better to read the passage first, before reading
the questions, because you get the most points on
the questions only when you get the “big picture”
of the passage. The “read the questions first” strat-
egy only distracts you from getting the big picture. - Active reading means reading with the three key
questions in mind. “Passive” reading (which is
reading without questions in mind and merely
“hoping” to absorb information) is utterly ineffec-
tive on the SAT. Top scorers must read actively. - “Objective” means based on clear evidence and
facts, not on your opinion or conjecture. - SAT Critical Reading questions must be
objective—that is, based only on the clear, literal
SAT Practice 1- B The paradox is that “protons stick together”
(lines 9–10) even though a law of physics suggests
that they should repel each other. - C The passage states that “Despite the vast
knowledge that scientists have accumulated”
(lines 3–4), “an obvious conundrum persists”
(lines 7–8). Therefore, the phrase “vast knowl-
edge” is being used to contrast the “conundrum,”
which is a vexing problem yet to be solved. - D The passage states that gluons “are responsi-
ble for the force that binds quarks within protons
and neutrons” (lines 35–37). In other words, they
conveythe force that binds the particles. - B The passage states that “pions carry the nu-
clear force only over distances greater than half a
fermi—the radius of a proton—yet the distance
between bound protons is far less than that” (lines
47–51). This indicates that pions do not bind pro-
tons because they are ineffective in the small dis-
tances between bound nuclear particles.
5. A The fifth paragraph describes how “physicists
have refined Yukawa’s theory” (lines 53–54) in
order to resolve the problem described in the
fourth paragraph, namely, the fact that pions are
not effective in the distances within nuclei.
6. B This is essentially the third key question:
What is the overall structure of the passage? The
passage begins by describing a “conundrum”
(line 8),then describing attempts to resolve it.
The passage ends, however, without a definitive
solution: Scientists still don’t know precisely what
holds an atomic nucleus together. Thus the pas-
sage is a description of a problem followed by a
history of attempts to solve it.