PSAT/NMSQT Prep 2019 - Princeton Review 2019
Connections and Vocab-in-Context questions
Reading
Reading
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
1. Identify and answer Connections questions that ask about explicit cause-and-effect, compare-and-contrast, and sequenced relationships in a passage
2. Identify and answer Connections questions that ask about implicit cause-and-effect, compare-and-contrast, and sequenced relationships in a passage
3. Interpret words and phrases in context to answer test-like questions
SMARTPOINTS
|
Point Value |
SmartPoint Category |
|
10 Points |
Connections |
|
60 Points |
Vocab-in-Context |
Prepare
CONNECTIONS QUESTIONS
Before we jump into the specifics about inferring connections—explicit and implicit—let’s look at different kinds of connections that can exist in a PSAT Reading passage.
Connections questions ask about how two events, characters, or ideas are related. The three most common connection types are:
1. Cause-and-Effect connections require you to identify an action or condition that brings about a predictable result. You can identify cause-and-effect relationships by the key words caused by, results in, because, and therefore.
2. Compare-and-Contrast connections highlight the similarities or differences between two items. Common compare-and-contrast key words are similar, different, despite, and like.
3. Sequential connections describe the chronology, or order, in which the items are arranged or occur. Key words include first, second, following, and after.
EXPLICIT CONNECTIONS QUESTIONS
Some Connections questions will ask about explicit information; the question stem will provide one part of the relationship and ask you to find the other part. In an Explicit Connections question, the wording of the correct answer will be very similar to the wording of the passage.
Remember
Don’t forget Step 2 of the Kaplan Method for Reading Comprehension: Examine the question stem.
IMPLICIT CONNECTIONS QUESTIONS
Questions about implicit connections, like those about explicit connections, ask you to identify how items are related. However, unlike Explicit Connections questions, Implicit Connections questions require you to find a relationship that may not be directly stated in the passage.
When answering implicit Connections questions, describe the relationship being tested in your own words by using key words such as because, although, and in order to.
Expert Tip
Eliminating answer choices that are clearly incorrect will help you answer even the toughest implicit Connections questions correctly.
VOCAB-IN-CONTEXT QUESTIONS
Vocab-in-Context questions require you to deduce the meaning of a word or phrase by using the context in which the word or phrase appears. You can recognize Vocab-in-Context questions because the wording of the question stem is often like this: “As used in line 7, ’clairvoyant’ most nearly means . . . ”
Expert Tip
Some Vocab-in-Context questions ask about infrequently used words that you don’t know or that may not have a common meaning. Approach these questions exactly the same way you would any other Vocab-in-Context question—by using the Kaplan Strategy.
Kaplan’s Strategy for Vocab-in-Context questions relies heavily on Step 3 of the Kaplan Method for Reading Comprehension: Predict and answer.
To answer Vocab-in-Context questions efficiently and correctly, employ the following Kaplan Strategy:
· Pretend the word is a blank in the sentence
· Predict what word could be substituted for the blank
· Select the answer choice that best matches your prediction
Real-world Application
You can use the Kaplan Strategy for Vocab-in-Context questions outside of the test preparation context. It works for texts you read for school and in your free time.
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.
|
Strategic Thinking |
|
Step 1: Read actively Read the passage and the notes provided. Remember, a well-crafted Passage Map should summarize the central idea of each paragraph, as well as important topics or themes. Use your Passage Map to help you answer each question. |
1. Questions 1-3 are based on the following passage.
2. The following excerpt is from a speech delivered in 1873 by Susan B. Anthony, a leader in the women’s rights movement of the nineteenth century.
|
Friends and fellow-citizens: I stand before you |
|
|
tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last Presidential election, with- out having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I |
|
|
not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply |
¶1: voting isn’t a crime |
|
exercised my citizen’s rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitu- |
|
|
tion, beyond the power of any State to deny. |
|
|
The preamble of the Federal Constitution says: “We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our poster- ity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” It was we, the people; not we, the white male |
¶2: Const. guarantees right |
|
citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but |
¶3: “we the people” includes women |
|
to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people— women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the |
|
|
blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government—the ballot. For any State to make sex a qualification that |
|
|
must ever result in the disfranchisement* of one entire half of the people is a violation of the su- preme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are forever withheld from women and their female posterity. To them this government had no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. |
|
|
To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters of every household—which ordains all men sover- |
¶4: should be unlawful to prevent women from voting |
|
eigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, dis- cord and rebellion into every home of the nation Webster, Worcester and Bouvier all define a citizen |
|
|
to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office. The one question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our |
|
|
opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no State has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against |
¶5: women are citizens |
|
women in the constitutions and laws of the several States is today null and void, precisely as is every one against African Americans. |
3. *disfranchisement: to deprive of the right to vote
4.
|
Questions |
Strategic Thinking |
|
1. In line 7, “exercised” most nearly means 1. used. 2. practiced. 3. angered. 4. trained. |
Step 2: Examine the question stem What kind of question is this? A Vocab-in-Context question How do you know? The question uses the phrase “most nearly means.” Step 3: Predict and answer Pretend “exercised” is blank in the sentence from the passage. What word or phrase can you substitute for the blank? Acted within Which answer choice matches your prediction? Choice (A) |
|
2. The author suggests that without the lawful right to vote, women 1. can still hold elected office. 2. cannot be considered citizens. 3. can still receive the blessings of liberty. 4. cannot consent to be governed. |
Step 2: Examine the question stem What kind of question is this? An Implicit Connections question How do you know? By using the word “suggests,” the question stem describes a “cause,” so the correct answer must describe an implied effect. Step 3: Predict and answer Which paragraph discusses the results of disfranchisement? Paragraph 4 What is the cause of women not being able to vote, according to the passage? Government has no “just powers derived from the consent . . . ” (lines 34—35). Which choice best matches this? Choice (D) |
|
3. Based on the passage, which of the following is necessary to secure the blessings of liberty? 1. A republic 2. The ballot 3. A constitution 4. The people |
Step 2: Examine the question stem What kind of question is this? An Explicit Connections question How do you know? Because the question stem is asking for a cause “based on the passage,” the correct answer must describe a stated cause. Step 3: Predict and answer Where in the passage does the author discuss this relationship? The last sentence of the third paragraph What question describes this relationship? What has to happen to secure liberty? Which choice best matches this? Choice (B) |
Practice
You have seen the ways in which the PSAT tests you on Connections and Vocab-in-Context 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.
|
Strategic Thinking |
|
Step 1: Read actively The passage below is partially mapped. Read the passage and the first part of the Passage Map. Then complete the Passage Map on your own. Remember to focus on the central ideas of each paragraph as well as the central idea of the overall passage. Use your Passage Map as a reference when you’re answering questions. |
1. Questions 4-6 are based on the following passage.
2.
3. James Weldon Johnson was a poet, diplomat, composer, and historian of African American culture who wrote around the turn of the twentieth century. In this narrative passage, Johnson recalls his first experience of hearing rag-time jazz.
|
When I had somewhat collected my senses, I realized that in a large back room into which the |
|
|
main room opened, there was a young fellow sing- ing a song, accompanied on the piano by a short, thickset young man. After each verse, he did some dance steps, which brought forth great applause and a shower of small coins at his feet. After the singer had responded to a rousing encore, the stout man at the piano began to run his fingers up and down the keyboard. This he did in a manner which indicated |
|
|
that he was a master of a good deal of technique. Then he began to play; and such playing! I stopped talking to listen. It was music of a kind I had never |
¶1: new kind of music |
|
heard before. It was music that demanded physi- cal response, patting of the feet, drumming of the fingers, or nodding of the head in time with the beat. The dissonant harmonies, the audacious resolutions, often consisting of an abrupt jump |
|
|
from one key to another, the intricate rhythms in which the accents fell in the most unexpected places, but in which the beat was never lost, pro- duced a most curious effect . . . . This was rag-time music, then a novelty in New |
|
|
York, and just growing to be a rage, which has not yet subsided. It was originated in the question- |
¶2: ragtime history |
|
able resorts about Memphis and St. Louis by black piano players who knew no more of the theory of music than they did of the theory of the universe, but were guided by natural musical instinct and talent. It made its way to Chicago, where it was popular some time before it reached New York. These players often improvised simple and, at times, vulgar words to fit the melodies. This was the beginning of the rag-time song. . . . American musicians, instead of investigat- |
|
|
ing rag-time, attempt to ignore it, or dismiss it with a contemptuous word. But that has always been the course of scholasticism in every branch of art. Whatever new thing the people like is pooh-poohed; whatever is popular is spoken of as not worth the while. The fact is, nothing great or enduring, especially in music, has ever sprung full-fledged and unprecedented from the brain of any master; the best that he gives to the world he gathers from the hearts of the people, and runs it through the alembic* of his genius. In spite of the bans which musicians and music teachers have placed upon it, the people still demand and enjoy rag-time. One thing cannot be denied; it is music which possesses at least one strong element |
¶3: American critics dislike ragtime, but the public and Europeans like it |
|
of greatness: it appeals universally; not only the American, but the English, the French, and even the German people find delight in it. In fact, there is not a corner of the civilized world in which it is not known, and this proves its originality; for if it were an imitation, the people of Europe, anyhow, would not have found it a novelty. . . . I became so interested in both the music and the player that I left the table where I was sitting, and made my way through the hall into the back room, where I could see as well as hear. I talked to the piano player between the musical numbers and found out that he was just a natural musician, never having taken a lesson in his life. Not only could he play almost anything he heard, but he could accompany singers in songs he had never heard. He had, by ear alone, composed some pieces, several of which he played over for me; each of them was properly proportioned and balanced. I began to wonder what this man with such a lavish natural endowment would have done had he been trained. Perhaps he wouldn’t have done anything at all; he might have become, at best, a mediocre imitator of the great masters in what they have already done to a finish, or one of the modern innovators who strive after originality by seeing how cleverly they can dodge about through the rules of harmony and at the same time avoid melody. It is certain that he would not have been so delightful as he was in rag-time. |
¶3, cont.: ragtime popular all over |
4. *alembic: scientific apparatus used in the process of distillation
5.
|
Questions |
Strategic Thinking |
|
4. In line 19, “intricate” most nearly means 1. innate. 2. elaborate. 3. complex. 4. ornate. |
Step 2: Examine the question stem What kind of question is this? A Vocab-in-Context question How do you know? The question uses the phrase “most nearly means.” Step 3: Predict and answer Pretend “intricate” is blank in the sentence from the passage. What word or phrase can you substitute for the blank? Complicated Which answer choice matches your prediction? ____ |
|
5. According to the author, the “most curious effect” (lines 21-22) was most likely the result of 1. tension between surprising and familiar elements. 2. conflicts between scholastic and popular music. 3. differences between natural and trained techniques. 4. contrast between simple and lavish melodies. |
Step 2: Examine the question stem What kind of question is this? A Connections question about an implicit relationship How do you know? The words “most likely” in the question stem indicate that this is a Connections question. The question stem describes an effect and asks for the cause. Step 3: Predict and answer What was the cause of the “curious effect”?_________________________________________ Which answer choice best matches this? _____ |
|
6. Based on the passage, which choice best describes the reason for the author’s opinion that the piano player was “a natural musician” (line 63)? 1. He might have become a mediocre imitator. 2. He could play and compose by ear. 3. He cleverly dodged the rules of harmony. 4. He was a master of technique. |
Step 2: Examine the question stem What kind of question is this? An Inference question asking about an explicit relationship. How do you know? ________________________ Step 3: Predict and answer Why does the author think the piano player was a “natural musician”? ___________________________________ Which answer choice best matches this? _____ |
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 7-10 are based on the following passage.
2. This passage, about infant language acquisition, was adapted from a research paper that explores early childhood development.
For an infant just beginning to interact with the surrounding world, it is imperative that he quickly become proficient in his native language. While developing a vocabulary and the ability to communicate using it are obviously important steps in this process, an infant must first be able to learn from the various streams of audible communication around him. To that end, during the course of even the first few months of development, an infant will begin to absorb the rhythmic patterns and sequences of sounds that characterize his language, and will begin to differentiate between the meanings of various pitch and stress changes. However, it is important to recognize that such learning does not take place in a vacuum. Infants must confront these language acquisition challenges in an environment where, quite frequently, several streams of communication or noise are occurring simultaneously. In other words, infants must not only learn how to segment individual speech streams into their component words, but they must also be able to distinguish between concurrent streams of sound. Consider, for example, an infant being spoken to by his mother. Before he can learn from the nuances of his mother’s speech, he must first separate that speech from the sounds of the dishwasher, the family dog, the bus stopping on the street outside, and, quite possibly, background noise in the form of speech: a newscaster on the television down the hall or siblings playing in an adjacent room. How exactly do infants wade through such a murky conglomeration of audible stimuli? While most infants are capable of separating out two different voices despite the presence of additional, competing streams of sound, this capability is predicated upon several specific conditions. First, infants are better able to learn from a particular speech stream when that voice is louder than any of the competing streams of background speech; when two voices are of equal amplitude, infants typically demonstrate little preference for one stream over the other. Most likely, equally loud competing voice streams, for the infant, become combined into a single stream that necessarily contains unfamiliar patterns and sounds that can quite easily induce confusion. Secondly, an infant is more likely to attend to a particular voice stream if it is perceived as more familiar than another stream. When an infant, for example, is presented with a voice stream spoken by his mother and a background stream delivered by an unfamiliar voice, usually he can easily separate out her voice from the distraction of the background stream. By using these simple yet important cues, an infant can become quite adept at concentrating on a single stream of communication and, therefore, is capable of quickly learning the invaluable characteristics and rules of his native language.
7. According to the information in paragraph 5, whether an infant is able to distinguish a certain voice depends partially on whether that voice is
1. noncompetitive.
2. in a vacuum.
3. nuanced.
4. familiar.
8. As used in line 38, “predicated upon” most nearly means
1. predicted by.
2. expressed by.
3. replaced by.
4. influenced by.
9. Based on the passage, which choice best describes the relationship between language acquisition and distinct speech streams?
1. Acquiring language helps an infant to distinguish speech streams.
2. Acquiring language requires an infant to disregard speech streams.
3. Distinguishing speech streams improves an infant’s capacity for language acquisition.
4. Distinguishing speech streams reduces an infant’s capacity for language acquisition.
10.As used in line 49, “attend to” most nearly means
1. care for.
2. participate in.
3. listen to.
4. cope with.
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 Connections and Vocab-in-Context 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.
1. Questions 1-9 are based on the following passage.
2. This passage is an excerpt adapted from the novel You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe. (©1934, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940 by Maxwell Perkins as Executor of the Estate of Thomas Wolfe. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.)
It was late afternoon and the shadows were slanting swiftly eastward when George Webber came to his senses somewhere in the wilds of the upper Bronx. . . All he could remember was that suddenly he felt hungry and stopped and looked about him and realized where he was. His dazed look gave way to one of amazement and incredulity, and his mouth began to stretch into a broad grin. In his hand he still held the rectangular slip of crisp yellow paper. . . . It was a check for five hundred dollars. His book had been accepted, and this was an advance against his royalties. So he was happier than he had ever been in all his life. Fame, at last, was knocking at his door and wooing him with her sweet blandishments. . . . The next weeks and months were filled with the excite- ment of the impending event. The book would not be published till the fall, but meanwhile there was much work to do. Foxhall Edwards had made some suggestions for cutting and revising the manuscript, and, although George at first objected, he surprised himself in the end by agreeing with Edwards. . . . George had called his novel Home to Our Mountains, and in it he had packed everything he knew about his home town in Old Catawba. . . . He had distilled every line of it out of his own experi- ence of life. And, now that the issue was decided, he sometimes trembled when he thought that it would only be a matter of months before the whole world knew what he had written. He loathed the thought of giving pain to anyone, and that he might do so had never occurred to him until now.. . . Of course it was fiction, but it was made as all honest fiction must be, from the stuff of human life. Some people might recognize themselves and be offended, and then what would he do? Would he have to go around in smoked glasses and false whiskers? He comforted himself with the hope that his charac- terizations were not so true as, in another mood, he liked to think they were, and he thought that that perhaps no one would notice anything. Rodney’s Magazine, too, had become interested in the young author and was going to publish a story, a chapter from the book. . . . This news added immensely to his excitement. He was eager to see his name in print, and in the happy interval of expectancy he felt like a kind of universal Don Juan, for he literally loved everybody—his fellow instruc- tors at the school, his drab students, the little shop- keepers in all the stores, even the nameless hordes that thronged the streets. Rodney’s, of course, was the greatest and finest publishing house in all the world, and Foxhall Edwards was the greatest editor and the finest man that ever was. George had liked him instinctively from the first, and now, like an old and intimate friend, he was calling him Fox. George knew that Fox believed in him, and the editor’s faith and confidence . . . restored his self-respect and charged him with energy for new work. Already his next novel was begun and was beginning to take shape within him. . . . He dreaded the prospect of buckling down in earnest to write it, for he knew the agony of it. . . . While the fury of creation was upon him, it meant sixty cigarettes a day, twenty cups of coffee, meals snatched anyhow and anywhere and at whatever time of day or night he happened to remember he was hungry. It meant sleeplessness, and miles of walking to bring on the physical fatigue without which he could not sleep, then nightmares, nerves, and exhaustion in the morning. As he said to Fox: “There are better ways to write a book, but this, God help me, is mine, and you’ll have to learn to put up with it.” When Rodney’s Magazine came out with the story, George fully expected convulsions of the earth, falling meteors, suspension of traffic in the streets, and a gen- eral strike. But nothing happened. A few of his friends mentioned it, but that was all. For several days he felt let down, but then his common sense reassured him that people couldn’t really tell much about a new author from a short piece in a magazine. The book would show them who he was and what he could do. . . . He could afford to wait a little longer for the fame which he was certain would soon be his.
1. Through describing George Webber’s experiences, what central idea does the author establish about life as a writer?
1. Like most professions, work as a writer eventually settles into predictable routine that usually requires hardly any exhaustive effort to maintain.
2. A young author’s big break—such as getting one’s first book published—is a complex experience that can have the writer at the mercy of the full range of human emotions.
3. A young author’s big break is usually the final hurdle one must overcome to bask in the fame and money that being a successful author brings.
4. A traditional marker of success such as getting one’s first book published does not always lead to a long career as an author; in fact, many young authors never again publish.
2. Throughout the passage, George Webber is described as
1. a young author who is hungry for the fame, recognition, and wealth that a career as a fiction writer could potentially provide.
2. a young author who is wary of the corrupting influences of fame, recognition, and wealth.
3. a seasoned writer who has grown tired of the literary and publishing worlds.
4. a nonfiction author who chronicles life in small-town America.
3. George’s new book, Home to Our Mountains, is described as
1. a memoir about George’s time growing up in his hometown, Old Catawba.
2. a novel that was inspired by George’s time growing up in his hometown, Old Catawba.
3. a novel based on life in a small town George once visited.
4. set in a small town, most of the details of which were invented by George to suit the purposes of his story.
4. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?
1. Lines 11-13 (“His . . . royalties”)
2. Lines 18-23 (“The . . . Edwards”)
3. Lines 24-28 (“George . . . life”)
4. Lines 76-80 (“When . . . all”)
5. As used in line 7, “incredulity” most nearly means
1. disbelief.
2. repudiation.
3. conviction.
4. fatigue.
6. Based on lines 28-42 (“And, now . . . notice anything”), what can the reader infer about the details of George’s soon-to-be-released novel?
1. George’s experiences in Old Catawba informed his writing only sparingly, providing inspiration for bland details such as time and place.
2. George based most of the novel’s contents on experiences he had after he left his hometown, even though the novel is set in a town like Old Catawba.
3. Most of the novel is based on real events, and the characters on real people, from the time of George’s childhood in Old Catawba.
4. George looked beyond Old Catawba when he sought inspiration for the novel.
7. When writing a new work, George
1. has a different creative process for every work he creates.
2. has a creative process that is arduous and difficult, but he relishes the opportunity to produce something new.
3. has learned how to control his creative periods, resulting in pleasantly predictable experiences when he writes new work.
4. has a creative process that takes a heavy toll on his mind and body and is not necessarily something he looks forward to.
8. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?
1. Lines 1-6 (“It . . . was”)
2. Lines 61-71 (“Already . . . morning”)
3. Lines 76-79 (“When . . . strike”)
4. Lines 83-86 (“The . . . his”)
9. As used in line 64, “fury” most nearly means
1. indignation.
2. agitation.
3. serenity.
4. animosity.