766 MCGRAW-HILL’S SAT
12.C Statement (A) is supported in lines 48–50,
statement (B) is supported in lines 74–76, statement
(D) is supported in lines 38–39, and statement (E) is
supported in lines 51–55.
13.C The sample size of onerefers to the uniqueness
of Earth history(line 78).
14.A The first quotation in lines 101–103 is de-
scribed as a rejoinder,or an opposing response, to the
author’s thoughts. The author then responds with his
own quotation.
15.C The author says that he does not conclude that
there are no other cats (Rare Cat Hypothesis), only that
there are no other cats exactly like Wookiein order to
convey the idea that one should not draw conclusions
based on one occurrence.
16.B The author says that life is opportunisticto
summarize the next statement that the biosphere has
taken advantage of the myriad of strange idiosyncrasies
that our planet has to offer.
17.D The passage says that these creatures might
naively assume that these qualities, very different from
Earth’s, are the only ones that can breed complexity,
that is, that all life evolved the same way.
18.A The author of Passage 1 believes that complex
life, once evolved, faces numerous dangers that push
it toward extinction. The author would point this fact
out in response to the statement in lines 134–135 of
Passage 2.
19.D The author of Passage 1 says in line 26, In my
view, life in the form of microbes or their equivalents is
very common in the universe, perhaps more common
than even Drake and Sagan envisioned.The author of
Passage 2 says in line 139, My bet is that many other
worlds, with their own peculiar characteristics and his-
tories, co-evolve their own biospheres.Both authors
seem to agree that there is a lot of undiscovered life
out there in the universe.
Section 91.B When you list items in a sentence, the items
should have the same grammatical form. If the first
item is in the gerund, they should all be in the gerund.
Because the sentence says Eatingan english muffin
and sittingdown, drink coffeeshould instead be drink-
ing coffee.
(Chapter 15, Lesson 3: Parallelism)2.D The sentence begins with a participial phrase,
so the subject of the participle, pretending, must also
be the subject of the main clause. Since Mark is the
one pretending, the subject of the main clause should
be Mark. Choice (C) is incorrect because the pronoun
itlacks a proper antecedent and appears to refer, illog-
ically, to the practice. Choice (E) is incorrect because it
uses an unidiomatic phrase, convince in letting, rather
than the proper idiom, convince to let.
(Chapter 15, Lesson 7: Dangling and Misplaced
Participles)3.C The verb areis the improper tense. It should
be beas in answer choice (C).
(Chapter 15, Lesson 9: Tricky Tenses)4.C When you list items in a sentence, the items
should have the same grammatical form. If the first
term is in the noun form, then they all should be in
the noun form. Because the sentence says his temper,
impatience, how easily he can be irritatedshould in-
stead be irritability.
(Chapter 15, Lesson 3: Parallelism)5.B Before she gave the gracious speech,she won
the match. The verb winningshould instead be in the
past perfect form, having won.
(Chapter 15, Lesson 9: Tricky Tenses)6.C The sentence begins by describing something
that was the most influential science treatise of the
20th century. The pronoun to follow the comma
should describe this treatise. Choice (C) corrects the
error in the most logical and concise fashion.
(Chapter 15, Lesson 7: Dangling and Misplaced
Participles)