just words. Choice (B) is out, leaving (A) as the correct answer.
Let’s try one more.
18.The author most likely mentions War of the Worlds in line 73 in order to
A) argue some cases of mass hysteria are legitimate.
B) prove the media was responsible for people’s reactions.
C) point out that most people were not upset by the broadcast.
D) criticize the media for failing to recognize the program was fictional.Here’s How to Crack It
Find your window and carefully read it, looking for the answer to the question, “Why does the author
mention War of the Worlds?” When you read your window, you find that the author says War of the
Worlds is a wonderful example of how the media emphasizes the few ‘real cases’ of hysteria without
recognizing that the vast majority of people knew that the radio program was fictional and did
nothing. We are looking for an answer choice that has something to do with the media overplaying the
hysteria and not acknowledging the majority of people who did nothing.
Choice (A): This doesn’t match our prediction. Also, don’t be deceived by Deceptive Language! Noticed
that in the text, “real cases” is in quotation marks. This indicates the author doesn’t agree with the phrase,
so it’s the opposite of what we’re looking for.
Choice (B): Doesn’t match our prediction.
Choice (C): That almost exactly matches the second part of our prediction, so hang on to it.
Choice (D): Doesn’t match our prediction. It was people who didn’t know the program was fictional, not
the media.
That leaves (C) as the correct answer!
So you can see that by following the Basic Approach on every question, you’ll be in good shape to
answer a majority of the Reading questions! You’ll use your time more efficiently, focusing on the pieces
of the test that will get you points, and your accuracy will be much higher. There are a few other question
types which we’ll look at in the next chapter.