PSAT/NMSQT Prep 2019 - Princeton Review 2019

Global and command of evidence questions
Reading
Reading

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

1. Locate appropriate textual evidence to support the answer to a previous question

2. Summarize the passage or key information and ideas within the passage

3. Identify central ideas and themes of a passage to answer questions about central ideas and themes

SMARTPOINTS

Prepare

GLOBAL QUESTIONS

Global questions require you to both identify explicit and determine implicit central ideas or themes in a text. If you pay attention to the big picture—the author’s central idea and purpose—while reading PSAT Reading passages, you will be able to answer Global questions with little to no rereading of the passage. To fully understand the central ideas and themes of a passage, you must synthesize the different points the author makes with his or her thesis statement, which you should underline when Passage Mapping.

Global questions may also ask you to choose a correct summary of the passage as a whole or identify key information and ideas within the passage. When presented with this type of Global question, you can use your Passage Map, which is essentially a brief summary of what you have read.

On Test Day

The introductory portion at the beginning of a PSAT Reading passage can be very helpful in determining the author’s central ideas and themes. Make sure you take the time on Test Day to read this information—it orients you to the passage.

You can recognize Global questions because they typically do not reference line numbers or even individual paragraphs. To confidently answer Global questions, you need to not only identify the central idea or theme of the passage but also avoid choosing answers that summarize secondary or supplementary points.

Note that there is a slight difference between nonfiction and fiction passages. Science and History/Social Studies passages are nonfiction and will have a definite central idea and thesis statement; U.S. and World Literature passages are fiction and will have a central theme but no thesis statement.

Remember

History/Social Studies and Science passages on the PSAT Reading Test are just well-written essays or article excerpts. You can normally find the thesis statement of a well-written piece at the end of the introductory paragraph.

COMMAND OF EVIDENCE QUESTIONS

A Command of Evidence question relies on your answer to the question that precedes it. These questions require you to identify the portion of the text that provides the best evidence for the conclusion you reached when selecting your answer to the previous question.

Kaplan’s Strategy for Command of Evidence questions involves retracing your steps; that is, you must return to the previous question to ensure you answer the Command of Evidence question correctly.

To answer Command of Evidence questions efficiently and correctly, employ the following Kaplan Strategy:

· When you see a question asking you to choose the best evidence to support your answer to the previous question, review how you selected that answer.

· Avoid answers that provide evidence for incorrect answers to the previous question.

· The correct answer will support why the previous question’s answer is correct.

Expert Tip

You can recognize Command of Evidence questions easily. The question stem usually reads, “Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?” Furthermore, the answer choices are always line numbers with parentheses containing the first and last word of the intended selection. Answer choices are listed in the order they appear in the passage.

Command of Evidence questions ask that you cite the textual evidence that best supports, disputes, strengthens, or weakens a given claim or point. Whether the argument is supported or not, the use of textual evidence is the same. The evidence can be personal stories, scientific facts, tone, writing style, or infographics. It is important to identify the appropriate aspect of the text used for Command of Evidence questions and not to make assumptions beyond what is written.

The first step to approaching a Command of Evidence question is to make sure you answered the previous question—no matter its type—correctly. If you answer the question preceding a Command of Evidence question incorrectly, you have a smaller chance of selecting the correct answer.

Remember

There is no incorrect answer penalty on the PSAT, so even if you have no idea of how to approach a question, take your best guess and move on.

Let’s look at the following example of a test-like passage and question set. After the mapped passage, the left column contains questions similar to those you’ll see on the PSAT Reading Test on Test Day. The column on the right features the strategic thinking test experts employ when approaching the passage and questions presented. Pay attention to how test experts vary the approach to answer different question types.

1. Questions 1-3 are based on the following passage.

2. The following, adapted from an English novel published in 1907, describes the family environment and early childhood of Rickie Elliot, a boy with a mild physical disability.

3. * here, a piece of furniture covered with a cotton fabric

4.

Note

Remember the Kaplan Strategy for Command of Evidence questions: review how you selected the answer to the previous question, and avoid answer choices that provide evidence for incorrect answer choices to it. The correct answer will support why the previous question’s answer is correct.

Practice

You have seen the ways in which the PSAT tests you on Citing Textual Evidence and Global questions in Reading passages and the way a PSAT expert approaches these types of questions.

You will use the Kaplan Method for Reading Comprehension to complete this section. Part of the test-like passage has been mapped already. Your first step is to complete the Passage Map. Then, you will continue to use the Kaplan Method for Reading Comprehension and the strategies discussed in this chapter to answer the questions. Strategic thinking questions have been included to guide you—some of the answers have been filled in, but you will have to fill in the answers to others.

Use your answers to the strategic thinking questions to select the correct answer, just as you will on Test Day.

1. Questions 4-6 are based on the following passage.

2. Paleontology is the study of life from prehistoric or geological times through the use of fossils. The following is adapted from a magazine article written by a paleontologist for a general interest magazine.

3.

Perform

Now, try a test-like PSAT Reading passage on your own. Give yourself 6 minutes to read the passage and answer the questions.

1. Questions 7-9 are based on the following passage.

2. This passage, about the decline of the Norse colonies that once existed in Greenland, is from a comprehensive research report examining this anthropological mystery.

In 1721, the Norwegian missionary Hans Egede discovered that the two known Norse settlements on Greenland were completely deserted. Ever since, the reasons behind the decline and eventual disap- pearance of these people have been greatly debated. Greenland, established by the charismatic outlaw Eric the Red in about 986 c.e., was a colony of Nor- way by 1000 c.e. complete with a church hierarchy and trading community. After several relatively prosperous centuries, the colony had fallen on hard times and was not heard from in Europe, but it wasn’t until Egede’s discovery that the complete downfall of the settlement was confirmed. Throughout the nineteenth century, research- ers attributed the demise of the Norse colonies to war between the colonies and Inuit groups. This is based largely on evidence from the work Descrip- tion of Greenland, written by Norse settler Ivar Bardarson around 1364, which describes strained relationships between the Norse settlers and the Inuits who had recently come to Greenland. How- ever, because there is no archeological evidence of a war or a massacre, and the extensive body of Inuit oral history tells of no such event, modern scholars give little credence to these theories. New theories about the reason for the decline of the Norse colonies are being proposed partially be- cause the amount of information available is rapidly increasing. Advances in paleoclimatology, for ex- ample, have increased the breadth and clarity of our picture of the region. Most notably, recent analyses of the central Greenland ice core, coupled with data obtained from plant material and sea sediments, have indicated severe climate changes in the region that some are now calling a “mini ice age.” Such studies point toward a particularly warm period for Greenland that occurred between the years 800 c.e. and 1300 c.e., which was then followed—unfortu nately for those inhabiting even the most temperate portions of the island—by a steady decline in overall temperatures that lasted for nearly 600 years. The rise and fall of the Norse colonies in Greenland, not surprisingly, roughly mirrors this climate-based chronology. Researchers have also found useful data in a most surprising place—fly remains. The insect, not native to the island, was brought over inadvertently on Norse ships. Flies survived in the warm and unsanitary conditions of the Norse dwell- ings and barns and died out when these were no longer inhabited. By carbon dating the fly remains, researchers have tracked the occupation of the settlements and confirmed that the human popula- tion began to decline around 1350 c.e. Changing economic conditions likely also conspired against the settlers. The colonies had founded a moderately successful trading economy based on exporting whale ivory, especially im- portant given their need for the imported wood and iron that were in short supply on the island. Unfortunately, inexpensive and plentiful Asian and African elephant ivory flooded the European market during the fourteenth century, destroying Greenland’s standing in the European economy. At the same time, the trading fleet of the Ger- man Hanseatic League supplanted the previously dominant Norwegian shipping fleets. Because the German merchants had little interest in the Norse colonists, Greenland soon found itself visited by fewer and fewer ships each year until its inhabitants were completely isolated by 1480 c.e. Cultural and sociological factors may have also contributed to the demise of the Norse settlements. The Inuit tribes, while recent immigrants to Green- land, had come from nearby areas to the west and had time-tested strategies to cope with the severe environment. The Norse settlers, however, seem to have viewed themselves as fundamentally European and did not adopt Inuit techniques. Inuit apparel, for example, was far more appropriate for the cold, damp environment; the remains from even the last surviving Norse settlements indicate a costume that was undeniably European in design. Likewise, the Norse settlers failed to adopt Inuit hunting tech- niques and tools, such as the toggle harpoon, which made it possible to capture calorie-rich seal meat. Instead, the Norse relied on the farming styles that had been so successful for their European ancestors, albeit in a radically different climate. It seems likely that this stubborn cultural inflexibility prevented the Norse civilization in Greenland from adapting to increasingly severe environmental and economic conditions.

3.

7. The main purpose of the passage is to

1. explain possible theories explaining a historical event.

2. refute a commonly held belief about a group of people.

3. chronicle the conflict between immigrant settlers and a country’s indigenous people.

4. analyze the motivations behind a number of conflicting explanations.

8. The author implies that, during the period in which the Norse settlements were initially founded, the climate in the region was

1. uncharacteristically mild.

2. typically inhospitable.

3. unusually harsh.

4. increasingly cold.

9. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

1. Lines 31—34 (“Most notably . . . region”)

2. Lines 35—38 (“Such studies . . . 1300”)

3. Lines 38—41 (“Which was . . . 600 years”)

4. Lines 41—44 (“The rise . . . chronology”)

On your own

The following questions provide an opportunity to practice the concepts and strategic thinking covered in this chapter. While many of the questions pertain to Citing Textual Evidence and Global questions, some touch on other concepts tested on the Reading Test to ensure that your practice is test-like, with a variety of question types per passage.

1. Questions 1-9 are based on the following passage.

2. In the following excerpt from a novella, Rosemary, an elderly woman, reminisces about her childhood as she waits for her grandson to wake up.

Rosemary sat at her kitchen table, working a crossword puzzle. Crosswords were nice; they filled the time, and kept the mind active. She needed just one word to complete this morning’s puzzle; the clue was “a Swiss river,” and the first of its three let ters was “A.” Unfortunately, Rosemary had no idea what the name of the river was, and could not look it up. Her atlas was on her desk, and the desk was in the guest room, currently being occupied by her grandson Victor. Looking up over the tops of her bifocals, Rosemary glanced at the kitchen clock: It was almost 10 a.m. Land sakes! Did the boy intend to sleep all day? She noticed that the arthritis in her wrist was throbbing, and put down her pen. At 87 years of age, she was glad she could still write at all. She had decided long ago that growing old was like slowly turning to stone; you couldn’t take anything for granted. She stood up slowly, painfully, and started walking to the guest room. The trip, though only a distance of about 25 feet, seemed to take a long while. Late in her ninth decade now, Rosemary often experienced an expanded sense of time, with present and past tense intermingling in her mind. One minute she was padding in her slippers across the living room carpet, the next she was back on the farm where she’d grown up, a sturdy little girl treading the path behind the barn just before dawn. In her mind’s eye, she could still pick her way among the stones in the darkness, more than 70 years later. . . . Rosemary arrived at the door to the guest room. It stood slightly ajar, and she peered through the opening. Victor lay sleeping on his side, his arms bent, his expression slightly pained. Get up, lazy bones, she wanted to say. Even in childhood, Rosemary had never slept past 4 a.m.; there were too many chores to do. How different things were for Victor’s generation! Her youngest grandson behaved as if he had never done a chore in his life. Twenty-one years old, he had driven down to Florida to visit Rosemary in his shiny new car, a gift from his doting parents. Victor would finish college soon, and his future appeared bright—if he ever got out of bed, that is. Something Victor had said last night over dinner had disturbed her. Now what was it? Oh yes; he had been talking about one of his college courses—a “gut,” he had called it. When she had asked him to explain the term, Victor had said it was a course that you took simply because it was easy to pass. Rosemary, who had not even had a high school education, found the term repellent. If she had been allowed to continue her studies, she would never have taken a “gut.” . . . The memory flooded back then, still painful as an open wound all these years later. It was the first day of high school. She had graduated from grammar school the previous year, but her father had forbidden her to go on to high school that fall, saying she was needed on the farm. After much tearful pleading, she had gotten him to promise that next year, she could start high school. She had endured a whole year of chores instead of books, with animals and rough farmhands for company instead of people her own age. Now, at last, the glorious day was at hand. She had put on her best dress (she owned two), her heart racing in anticipation. But her father was waiting for her as she came downstairs. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked. “To high school, Papa.” “No you’re not. Take that thing off and get back to work.” “But Papa, you promised!” “Do as I say!” he thundered. There was no arguing with Papa when he spoke that way. Tearfully, she had trudged upstairs to change clothes. Rosemary still wondered what her life would have been like if her father had not been waiting at the bottom of the stairs that day, or if somehow she had found the strength to defy him. . . . Suddenly, Victor stirred, without waking, and mumbled something unintelligible. Jarred from her reverie, Rosemary stared at Victor. She wondered if he were having a nightmare.

1. Rosemary’s attitude toward the physical afflictions of old age can best be described as one of

1. acceptance.

2. sadness.

3. resentment.

4. anxiety.

2. Rosemary’s walk to the guest room in lines 20—28 reveals that she

1. feels nostalgia for her family.

2. is anxious about Victor.

3. is determined to conquer her ailments.

4. has an elastic perception of time.

3. Rosemary’s memory of the day she finally prepared to start high school indicates that she had

1. anticipated her father’s command to stay home.

2. hesitated over her choice of clothes.

3. done especially well in grammar school.

4. strongly desired to continue her education.

4. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

1. Lines 10—13 (“Looking up . . . day”)

2. Lines 48—52 (“When she . . . repellent”)

3. Lines 60—61 (“After much . . . high school”)

4. Lines 83—86 (“Suddenly . . . nightmare”)

5. The author includes Rosemary’s thoughts regarding her grandson in lines 38—43 (“Her youngest . . . that is”) in order to

1. emphasize Rosemary’s dislike of her grandson.

2. demonstrate that Rosemary’s grandson does not appreciate how fortunate he is.

3. set up a juxtaposition between Rosemary’s grandson’s opportunities and Rosemary’s own struggles.

4. explain why Rosemary is waiting for him to get out of bed.

6. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

1. Lines 1—3 (“Rosemary sat . . . active”)

2. Lines 34—38 (“Get up . . . generation”)

3. Lines 52—54 (“If . . . ’gut’”)

4. Lines 65—67 (“She had . . . anticipation”)

7. As used in line 27, “sturdy” most nearly means

1. stoic.

2. physically strong.

3. capable.

4. flighty.

8. “If he ever got out of bed” in lines 43—44 suggests that Rosemary thinks Victor

1. lacks a sense of humor.

2. is ashamed of what he said last night.

3. is promising but undisciplined.

4. works himself to exhaustion.

9. The passage as a whole is most concerned with

1. Rosemary’s affectionate concern for Victor.

2. Rosemary’s struggle to suppress painful memories.

3. the abusive treatment Rosemary suffered at the hands of her father.

4. the interplay in Rosemary’s mind between past and present.