SAT Mc Graw Hill 2011

CHAPTER 5 / SENTENCE COMPLETION SKILLS 231

Lesson 6: The Toughest Sentences

There are two ways to complete this sentence. Modern

film directors might likeordislikethenatural half-

sentences and interrupted thoughts that characterize

genuinehuman speech.If they like them, they would use

them; choice (A) supports this reading. If they don’t

like them, they would prefer more formaldialogue.

Choice (B) gives formaland (D) gives stilted,which

convey that idea. But if the directors use formallan-

guage, they wouldn’t assumeimperfect dialogue, so

(B) is out. Likewise, if they used stilted(formal) dia-

logue, they wouldn’t adoptimperfect dialogue. So (A)

is the correct response.

Abstract vs. Concrete

Tough Sentences

Some sentences are tough not because they

have tough vocabulary, but because they have

a complicated or ambiguous logical structure.

Negatives can easily complicate a sentence

and are easily overlooked. Watch carefully for

negative words like not, hardly, rarely, lacking,

etc., because they are as important as the key

words! When you encounter a sentence with

negatives, it may help to paraphrase the sen-

tence more “positively.”

Some sentences are tough to work with because

they are ambiguous; that is, they have more

than one possible interpretation, usually one

positive and one negative. Since there are usu-

ally only two possibilities, just try them both.

Concrete nouns, which usually represent peo-

pleandobjects,are typically easier to under-

stand than abstract nouns, which typically

representquantities, qualities,orideas.When

we focus on the concrete nouns in a sentence

more than the abstract ones, we can misread

the sentence. Pay special attention to abstract

nouns in sentences.

Negatives

Example:
Their approach was not unlike that of the Neo-
Darwinians, whose lack of respect for quasi-
scientific methods was far from unknown in the
University community.

This sentence is easier to work with if it is first para-
phrased without so many negatives:

Their approach was like that of the Neo-Darwinians,
whose support for the scientific method was well
known in the University community.

Ambiguous Sentences

Example:
The recent trend of using ------ dialogue in films
can be traced to directors who have ------ the
natural half-sentences and interrupted thoughts
that characterize genuine human speech.

(A) halting.. embraced

(B) formal.. assumed

(C) imperfect.. eschewed

(D) stilted.. adopted

(E) passionate.. endured

Example:

The dissent regarding the new restrictions on

student parking was ------ those who wanted to

be able to drive freely to school.

(A) spearheaded by

(B) surprising to

(C) troublesome to

(D) disputed by

(E) disregarded by

This sentence is not about the parking restrictions,but

rather about the dissent.It’s easy to misread if you

don’t focus on the word dissent.(We overlook it be-

cause it’s so abstract.) If you wanted to drive freely to

school, how would you feel about the dissent regard-

ing parking restrictions? You’d probably be one of the

people dissenting! You may even initiatethe dissent,

which is why (A) is the best choice.