Answer Key 8:
CheckingThat You’ve Nailed the Answer
208 MCGRAW-HILL’S SAT
Concept Review 8
- An answer is “true” but “wrong” if it reflects a
point that is made in the passage but does not an-
swer the question that is asked. Such answers are
very common on SAT Critical Reading questions. - You can avoid the trap of choosing a “true” but
“wrong” answer by reading the question very care-
fully and focusing on the specific line references it
mentions and on the question it asks. - Underlining the evidence in the passage helps you
to focus on what is in the passage rather than
what is in your head.
4. The percentage of questions that should be
attacked to get particular score goals are as follows:
500 = 75%, 550 = 80%, 600 = 85%, 650 = 90%, 700
and above = 100%.
5. First, don’t panic. When you notice that you have
spaced out, calmly come back to the point where
you left off and continue to read. The key to avoid-
ing“space-outs” in the first place is to focus on an-
swering the three key questions and summarizing
each paragraph. - B Words and phrases such as “perhaps” (line 23),
“if” (line 26), and “maybe not” (line 28) indicate
that the second paragraph is examining
hypotheses. - C The passage explores the question of how
modern humans came to “win out” (line 20) over
the Neanderthals, that is, how they came to thrive
while the Neanderthals died out, or how they
came to dominate them. - D The sentence “Anthropologists find...
speech” (lines 34–36) is used to support the later
claim that “‘spoken speech’ is not in all ways supe-
rior to ‘signed speech’” (lines 40–41), which would
cast doubt on the advantages of the “long vocal
chamber needed for speech” (lines 23–24).
4. C According to the final paragraph, the relative
“physical frailty” (line 47) of modern humans
compared to Neanderthals created a need for
modern humans to “tapping... into the potential
of their brains” (line 51), which led to their domi-
nance over the Neanderthals.
5. E The “mobile phones” and “diplomacy” in line
58 are examples of how countries that “lack nat-
ural resources” (lines 54–55) can still “use their
brains to innovate” (line 56).
SAT Practice 8