PSAT Practice #1 Critical Reading Questions

Sentence Completion Before Karen Chin’s research, scientists assumed that the value of evidence preserved in the fossils called coprolites was too ____________________________ to warrant the effort of ____________________________. A) Unpredictable….transformation B) Superlative…examination C) Conventional…eradication D) Relevant…synthesis E) Dubious…analysis

Sentence Completion: Why is D the correct answer? O Which options can I eliminate? O Choice A: While “unpredictable” might make sense in the first blank, it doesn’t make much sense for scientists to “transform”, or change, evidence. O Choice B: “Superlative” means of very high quality. If the evidence was high quality then the scientists probably would “warrant the effort of examination” O Choice C: “Eradication” means the complete elimination. It doesn’t make sense for scientists to eliminate evidence, especially if it was too “conventional”, or common. O Choice D: If the evidence is “too relevant” (which in itself doesn’t make much sense), wouldn’t it then warrant the effort of synthesis?

Paired Passages Passage 1 I believe that all forms of popular culture—rock and rap music, sci-fi and horror films, cartoons and comic strips, etc---should be banned from college courses in the arts and the humanities. Typically today students arrive on college campuses already besotted with the trash of popular culture, and it must now be one of the goals of a sound liberal education to wean them away from it---or, if that is asking too much (I don’t think it is, but if that really is too much), then at least to educate them to perceive what the differences are between high culture and the trash that impinges on so much of their leisure time. Passage 2 Although there are legions of crabs, cranks, and curmudgeons who proclaim that all popular culture is worthless garbage and/or responsible for the crime, short attention spans, and disrespect for elders, nobody who knows anything about popular culture has so simple a relationship to the stuff. Nobody says, “I just love all movies,” or “I like pretty much every song I hear.” On the contrary, developing the faculty of discrimination is part of the fun of immersing oneself in the popular---which means, interestingly, that few fans of popular culture are wholly “immersed” in it. To be a really knowledgeable fan, in other words, you usually have to be a keen critic. It is the people who cannot stand pop culture who are truly indiscriminate.

Paired Passage Question #1 1. Which best describes the respective attitudes of the author of Passage 1 and the author of Passage 2 toward popular culture? A) Scathing versus regretful B) Dismissive versus receptive C) Impartial versus appreciative D) Arrogant versus ambivalent E) Judgmental versus uninterested

Why is B the Right Answer? O Choice A: While the author of passage 1 is “scathing”, the author of passage 2 is not “regretful” O Choice C: While the author of passage 2 is “appreciative”, the author of passage 1 is not “impartial” O Choice D: While you could say the author of passage 1 is “arrogant”, the author of passage 2 is anything but “ambivalent” O Choice E: Again, while author 1 might be “judgmental”, author 2 is not “impartial”

Paired Passage Question #2 2. The author of Passage 2 would most likely argue that the characterization of the “students” in Passage 1 is too A) Forgiving, because consumers should be held more accountable for their tastes B) Argumentative, because many students now regard popular culture as passé C) Simplistic, because it fails to acknowledge that some students are in fact unfamiliar with popular culture D) Sweeping, because many consumers of popular culture are actually quite discerning in their judgments E) Harsh, because these students have yet to begin their education

Why is “D” the right answer? O Choice A: The tone is passage 1 is certainly not “forgiving” O Choice B: Passage 2 seems to value popular culture, not see it as “passé” O Choice C: Passage 2 seems to say that some students are in fact quite familiar with popular culture O Choice E: While the author of passage 2 may agree that the author of passage 1’s view is to “harsh”, it is not mentioned that not yet beginning their education would be the cause.