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, do the SAT Question of the Day by clicking on this link:
http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-question-of-the-day?src=R&questionId=20130520 (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 A. This is an easy one to start the week! 72% of the students who have tried it have gotten it right.
Using our strategy of determining the topic of the sentence and then making a prediction for the blank before looking at the answers makes this question pretty simple. The sentence tells us these forests have “never suffered” which would indicate we should predict there is “lots of” plant and animal life. That prediction should lead us right to Answer A, “rich in.”
There’s that word again, devoid. Did you learn it the other day when I suggested you do so? It is probably the least common word among these answers and is a good one for you to know.
Be on the alert for words that mean the opposite of right answers. The test writers like to trick you with them. Often students make mistakes by picking antonyms because they don’t get the right topic; they think the sentence means just the opposite. For example, in this Sentence Completion Question, the topic is about “lots of” or “rich in” life. If you incorrectly got the opposite meaning from the sentence, you would pick “devoid.” Be careful.
Let’s see how we can master the issue presented by the ACT question this morning.
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.)
Oh no, they have used the same question again in just a matter of days!! Come on, guys (and ladies), get some new materials.
The answer is H. It has been so recent that I’ve written about this question that I knew what the question would be by looking at the graph. I even remembered the answer. Carbon dioxide is the only ion and dissolved gas that doesn’t have a consistent increase or decrease in concentration. It’s concentration goes up then back down on the table.
Use your time wisely today. Work hard and play hard. Time is short before finals.
Wizard
