{"id":6062,"date":"2016-03-17t16:09:58","date_gmt":"2016-03-17t23:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/?p=6062"},"modified":"2016-11-13t07:26:47","modified_gmt":"2016-11-13t15:26:47","slug":"sat-reading-vocabulary-multiple-choice-strategies-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/sat-reading-vocabulary-multiple-choice-strategies-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"sat reading vocabulary: multiple choice strategies, part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
in my last post on multiple choice strategies in sat reading, multiple choice strategies in sat reading: implicit and explicit information<\/a>, we looked strategies for questions that focus on comprehending the specific information in a reading passage.<\/div>\n

comprehension of content is the main focus of multiple choice questions in sat reading. however, it\u2019s not the only<\/em>\u00a0focus. there are always some questions the reading section that focus more on knowledge of specific vocabulary words, with comprehension of the information in the passage as a secondary skill for choosing the right answer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

vocabulary and grammar questions<\/h2>\n

first, let\u2019s look at an example vocabulary-based question. this passage for this question has been adapted from an african millionaire<\/em>, a novel by grant allen.<\/p>\n

passage<\/h3>\n

we were a square party of four–sir charles and amelia, myself and isabel. we had nice big rooms, on the first floor, overlooking the lake; and as none of us was possessed with the faintest symptom of that rising mania which shows itself in the form of an insane desire to climb mountain heights of disagreeable steepness and unnecessary snowiness, i will venture to assert we all enjoyed ourselves. we spent most of our time sensibly in lounging about the lake on the jolly little steamers; and when we did a mountain climb, it was on the rigi or pilatus–where an engine undertook all the muscular work for us.<\/p>\n

question<\/h3>\n

as used in the second sentence in the passage, \u201cdisagreeable\u201d most nearly means<\/p>\n

a<\/strong>) fitting
\nb<\/strong>) difficult
\nc<\/strong>) declarative
\nd<\/strong>) argumentative<\/p>\n

while this type of question does test your comprehension of the broader context around a vocabulary word, it also tests vocabulary knowledge on a much more basic level. you can eliminate some answers simply by knowing the common dictionary definitions of the keyword.<\/p>\n

regardless of context, it\u2019s highly unlikely that \u201cdisagreeable\u201d would ever be used to mean \u201cfitting,\u201d as \u201cfitting\u201d in the opposite of the most common sense of \u201cdisagreeable\u201d (opposing ideas or course of action). \u201cdeclarative\u201d is related somewhat to the word \u201cdisagreeable\u201d because a person can declare that they disagree. however \u201cdeclarative\u201d definitely does not mean the exact same thing<\/em> as \u201cdisagreeable.\u201d so again we have an answer choice that can be eliminated without passage context, simply by using one\u2019s basic knowledge of vocabulary.<\/p>\n

with (a<\/strong>) and (c<\/strong>) now eliminated, we\u2019re left with choices (b<\/strong>) and (d<\/strong>). both of these choices are potential matches for \u201cdisagreeable,\u201d per the word\u2019s dictionary definition. now you\u2019ll need to look beyond the basic definition of the word and analyze the context of the passage surrounding \u201cdisagreeable.\u201d answer (b<\/strong>) seems appealing. the steepness of a mountain is being discussed in terms of climbing and steepness could be described as \u201cdifficult,\u201d where climbing is concerned. to make sure this really is the best answer, it\u2019s a good idea to check answer (d<\/strong>) and see if it might also work.<\/p>\n

\u201cdisagreeable\u201d is being used to describe a quality of mountains, the steepness of their slopes. a geographic quality is not a conscious, thinking, speaking being and thus can\u2019t make an argument, so \u201cargumentative\u201d seems like it probably won\u2019t work. it might work to describe a mountain slope if there is some metaphorical language saying that the mountain slopes are like<\/em> people who argue, but no such metaphor appears in the passage. so you can eliminate answer (d<\/strong>) and stick with (b<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

this strategy of analyzing answers based on a word\u2019s definition and on its broader context will always work for vocabulary questions in sat reading. strategies related to the dictionary definition of a word are the primary strategies for these questions, because the basic definition of the word is the first thing you should look at in order to eliminate obviously incorrect answer choices.<\/p>\n

once the choices that don\u2019t work in any context are ruled out, analyzing the context surrounding the word becomes necessary. usually there will be at least two answers that are both possible definitions of the vocabulary word in the question. even if there appears to be only one correct answer remaining, double checking your answer against the context will help you make sure you really are answering correctly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

there are always some questions on the new sat reading section that will focus more on knowledge of specific, commonly-used vocabulary words. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[24913],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nsat reading vocabulary: multiple choice strategies, part 2<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"there are always some questions on the new sat reading section that will focus more on knowledge of specific, commonly-used vocabulary words.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/sat-reading-vocabulary-multiple-choice-strategies-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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recine","image":{"@type":"imageobject","inlanguage":"en-us","@id":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/c25f47bb3a8328890274eea1ac8ba62f","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cb83f01789b236e00117edd9663c4568?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contenturl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cb83f01789b236e00117edd9663c4568?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"david recine"},"description":"david is a test prep expert for magoosh toefl and ielts. additionally, he's helped students with toeic, pet, fce, bulats, eiken, sat, act, gre, and gmat. david has a bs and ma from the university of wisconsin-eau claire and an ma from the university of wisconsin-river falls.","sameas":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/magooshenglishlearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/ucra3kqojlop7rywacyh2qew"],"knowsabout":["toefl","ielts","toeic","pet","fce","bulats","eiken","sat","act","gre","gmat"],"knowslanguage":["english","italian"],"jobtitle":"content creator","worksfor":"magoosh","url":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":24913,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"david recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cb83f01789b236e00117edd9663c4568?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"recine","first_name":"david","description":"david is a test prep expert for magoosh toefl and ielts. additionally, he's helped students with toeic, pet, fce, bulats, eiken, sat, act, gre, and gmat.\r\n\r\ndavid has a bs from the university of wisconsin-eau claire and an ma from the university of wisconsin-river falls. his work at magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2c50&q=recine+magoosh&btng=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his master's thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> reading with pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-witesol-program-final-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> witesol (link to pdf)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> nafsa<\/a> conferences. david has taught k-12 esl in south korea as well as undergraduate english and mba-level business english at american universities. he has also trained english teachers in america, italy, and peru.\r\n\r\ncome join david and the magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/ucra3kqojlop7rywacyh2qew\"> youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/magooshenglishlearning\"> facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> linkedin<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6062"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6062"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=6062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}