If you are reading this in an email you received from me, do not click the link to sat.collegeboard.org below. Use the link to my website that is farther down on the email. If you are seeing this in my blog, dco the SAT Question of the Day by clicking on this link:
http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-question-of-the-day?src=R&questionId=20130601 (This link takes you to today’s question. If you use my archive, you will see the question related to my SAT explanation for that date.)
The answer is D. Always start with the topic of the sentence and predict words for the blanks based on the topic and key words and phrases. The word “but” signals that after the parade was canceled, the officials “renewed” or did something to reverse their decision and make the parade happen after all. They changed their minds in response to the residents “complaining.”
Because there are two blanks, start with one of your predictions to eliminate some of the answers and then use your other prediction to eliminate the remaining answers. I happened to start with my second prediction and look for a word that meant “renewed.” Only answer D worked. I checked the first word and saw that “outcry” means the same thing as “complaining.” Had I started with the first blank and used “complaining” to begin, I would have been left with answers C and D. Then the second blank would eliminate C. In either case, you can see how much quicker it is to use one blank at a time than trying to do both blanks together for each answer.
Let’s see what we can do to demystify the ACT.
http://www.act.org/qotd/ (The ACT staff does not put a date on their questions so if you click on an archived blog, you’ll get today’s question and the old explanation. Sorry. The SAT staff has dated their questions; so, the archive is helpful. The ACT folks simply don’t do that.)
I can see why the ACT QotD isn’t as helpful as the SAT QotD: the ACT folks keep recycling their questions. I’ve seen this question at least 3 times in less than a month. We should launch a YouTube that complains to the ACT staff that they need to get some new materials. Does anybody know how to do that?
The answer is H. All the other answers have a consistent trend of going from high to low or low to high. Only carbon dioxide goes up and then back down like you see in the answer’s graph.
Be sure to remember that the Science Reasoning Test is about interpreting data and not prior science knowledge. Sharpen your skills related to reading charts and graphs and don’t worry about reviewing any science. They’ll give you the science knowledge in the passages; you just need to be able to use their charts to answer the questions.
Happy June! Enjoy your weekend.
The Wizard
