Section A (Reading)
7
Read the passage and answer the questions that follow:
Freedom is a sweet sounding word. Nearly all of us love to use
it or hear it used. Even if we do not quite understand what it means, we
feel it stands for someting fine and courageous. And so it does. It
stands for someting precious too; something for which men and women
in every part of the world have struggled and suffered and gone bravely
even to their death. If we enjoy any freedom now, it is partly due to
them. So it is really worth out while to know clearly what freedom is,
and why it has been valyed so highly. We shall ourselves thereby come
to value it and not lose it by our carelessness. At one time, it used to
be said, "All men are born free," but we can now see that it is not true
at all; for nature binds us in all sorts of ways. The newborn baby is not
free not even as free as the newborn calf
, much less than the newborn
mosquito. The young mosquito is soon able to fly away, the calf begins
to walk in a few bays; but the human baby takes at least a year even to
crawl. He slowly wins his freedom by increase of strength and skill. It
does not come to him in any other way.
1) How is freedom a sweet-sounding word?
2) How has freedom come to us?
3) All men are born free.' Does the writer agree with this?
How does the writer compare a human child with young ones
of the other species?
How does a child win its freedom?
Find from passage words which mean the same as the following:
a) Valuable and important
b) move on one's knees and hands, keeping the body
close to the ground.
Answers
Answer:
Total: 18 questions
Reading Test: 10 questions focusing on word/phrase meanings and the effect of word choice.
Writing and Language Test: 8 questions covering a variety of skills, from making text more precise to maintaining style and tone to combining two or more sentences into a smoother, more effective single sentence.
In order to answer these questions you will need to use context clues to determine a word’s meaning, figure out what a particular word or phrase is doing (i.e. analyze its effect or impact), or make choices about which word or phrase to use in a particular writing situation.
What is context?
We’re so glad you asked! To better understand the meaning of the word context, let’s look at the meaning of its parts: “con-” and “text.”
Con- This prefix means “with” or “together”
Text You might know that “text” means “reading material,” but did you know that the Latin root of this word, texere, means “to weave?”
When you put them together, con and text make a pretty important and powerful word that could be defined like this:
Context = the surrounding circumstances, ideas and words woven together to form the setting or background for an event, statement, or idea.
Context—the words or ideas expressed before and after— provides us with the information we need to fully understand, evaluate or interpret the ideas in the passage.
Example: “You misinterpreted my words because you took them out of context. I did say that I was hesitant to bake cookies for the fundraiser, but it’s not because I don’t want to participate, as you claim. I also told you I ran out of butter, and the last time I made cookies, nobody bought them.”
High-utility academic words and phrases
The SAT focuses on the type of vocabulary that you can find in a wide range of challenging reading across a range of subjects—it does not test you on obscure, seldom-used words and phrases presented with little context.
Okay—so where’s “The List?” There isn’t any official list. We do not recommend practicing by memorizing long lists of vocabulary!
Read with Purpose Since the SAT focuses on academic words and phrases commonly encountered in challenging texts, a good way to prepare is to read texts across a range of subjects and types. As you encounter unfamiliar words or phrases, practice using context clues to determine their meaning, and then look them up to check if you were right! Many students create word notebooks to keep track of all the new words they’re learning. Give it a try and let us know if it works for you!
Here are a few examples to show you how words can change depending on their context:
Example: “restrain”
Depending on context, restrain can mean several things:
To hold back physically: “His classmates had to restrain him from eating the last cupcake.”
To control emotions: “I wasn’t able to restrain my excitement upon winning the tournament – I threw my ping-pong paddle into the crowd and hit my poor brother on the forehead, knocking him out.”
To limit: “The embargoes and tariffs were designed to restrain trade
Explanation:
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