SAT Mc Graw Hill 2011

Lesson 4: Simplifying the Sentence

222 MCGRAW-HILL’S SAT

Simplify

Some sentences are hard to interpret. But don’t give

up immediately just because you can’t think of a good

way to complete the sentence right away. When that

happens, try to simplify your task using one of these

strategies.

Process of Elimination

Example:

Without David’s ------, the dispute between

the parties might never have been resolved so

tactfully.

(A) conciliation (B) antagonism

(C) embarrassment (D) indelicacy

(E) ridicule

The right word might not come right to mind, but it

shouldbe pretty clear that whatever David used was a

goodthing, because it helped resolve the dispute tact-

fully.Therefore, if you notice any words that are nega-

tive or neutral, you can eliminate them! The beauty of

this strategy is that you don’t have to know all of the

words: just go to the ones you do know, and eliminate

them if they’re not the right tone. (The answer, by the

way, is (A).)

Paraphrase

If you understand any part of the sentence, see if

that understanding can help you to rule out any

choices.

If a sentence does contain two blanks, it is usu-

ally easier to complete the second blank first.

Why? Because by the time you get to the sec-

ond blank, you will have read more context

clues. Of course, the example we just used is an

exception, but you will find that usuallythe sec-

ond blank is easier to complete than the first.

You may also often find it helpful to para-

phrase the sentence, that is, restate it in your

own words.This helps you to focus on the

logic of the sentence as a whole, without get-

ting stuck on any particularwords or phrases.

Just read the sentence completely, then try to

restate the idea in the simplest terms possi-

ble. When you read the sentence again, you

will probably find it easier to complete it, or

at least to eliminate wrong choices.

Remember that you don’t have to find the per-

fect word to fill the blank; you simply want to

capture the right idea. Often, you will find it

easy to just pick a word (or a form of a word)

from elsewhere in the sentence.

If you can’t find the right word or words to com-

plete the sentence, try to at least determine the

tone of the word, that is, whether it’s positive,

negative, or neutral.Then eliminate any choices

that don’t have the right tone.

Example:
Statistics are often ------ information, but this
is an ------ impression, because they must, by
definition, obscure data by reducing many val-
ues to a single number.
(A) equated with.. erroneous
(B) mistaken for.. aesthetic
(C) superior to.. inaccurate
(D) relegated to.. insidious
(E) substituted for.. interesting
This sentence may be tough to understand at the first
reading (or two). But you may know that statistics
can’t be relegated to(assigned to the lower status of)
information, because data isinformation. If you just
focus on the relationship between statisticsandinfor-
mation,you can probably eliminate choices (C), (D),
and (E). From there, you can try out the remaining
choices and see that (A) works best.

Focus on Tone

Don’t Be Afraid to Cut and Paste

Example:

Her account was so sterile that it made all of the

other ------ seem ------ by contrast.

To complete the sentence, just reuse the words:

accountsandunsterilesound a bit redundant, but they

do the job!