The passage-based reading questions on the SAT assess your ability to understand what you read. In the past, the SAT contained only long passages on the arts and literature. On the current SAT, the passages range from 100 to 850 words long and are taken from a variety of fields, including not only the humanities but also social sciences, such as psychology and economics, and natural sciences, such as biology and chemistry. The passages can be presented individually or in pairs. The paired passages require you to compare and contrast information.
TYPES OF PASSAGE-BASED READING QUESTIONS
There are three types of SAT passage-based reading questions.
1. Vocabulary-in-context questions ask you to define a specific word in the passage.
2. Literal comprehension questions require you to identify information directly stated in the passage.
3. Extended reasoning questions ask you to analyze, evaluate, and pull together information from the passage(s). These questions involve finding causes/effects, making inferences, analyzing, and using logical reasoning. Most of the passage-based reading questions involve extended reasoning.
Examples:
Questions 1–3 are based on the following passage.
In the vast majority of cases, a person will be happier if he has no rigid and arbitrary notions, for gardens are moody, particularly with the novice rather than the expert. If plants grow and thrive, he should be happy; and if the plants that thrive chance not to be the ones that he planted, they are plants nevertheless, and nature is satisfied with them.
Vocabulary-in-context question
1. The word novice in the first sentence means
(A) adept.
(B) mature.
(C) beginner.
(D) impatient.
(E) austere.
Literal comprehension question
2. According to the author of this passage, an intelligent person should approach the task of gardening
(A) with an easygoing, relaxed attitude.
(B) with specific ideas about crops to plant and ways to make them flourish.
(C) only after having completed extensive training.
(D) determined to master nature.
(E) as a career rather than a hobby, because gardening brings great rewards.
Extended reasoning question
3. This passage was most likely written by
(A) someone whose garden failed miserably.
(B) a gardener with specific ideas about plants, soil, and climate conditions.
(C) a plant salesperson.
(D) someone who breeds rare plants such as orchids.
(E) an expert gardener seeking to reassure an amateur gardener.
Answers
1. The correct answer is (C). Use the context clue “novice rather than the expert.”
2. The correct answer is (A). The answer is in the second sentence.
3. The correct answer is (E). You can infer this from the speaker’s knowledgeable, self-assured tone.
Read More : Passage-Based Reading
