PSAT/NMSQT Prep 2022 - Eggert M.D., Strelka A. 2022
Reflect
Answering PSAT reading questions
PSAT Reading
Directions: Take a few minutes to recall what you’ve learned and what you’ve been practicing in this chapter. Consider the following questions, jot down your best answer for each one, and then compare your reflections to the expert responses on the following page. Use your level of confidence to determine what to do next.
Why do PSAT experts research and predict the correct answer to Reading questions before reading the answer choices?
What are the types of research clues contained in PSAT Reading question stems?
What are the five common wrong answer types associated with PSAT Reading questions?
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How will you approach the process of answering PSAT Reading questions more strategically going forward? Are there any specific habits you will practice to make your approach to PSAT Reading more effective and efficient?
Expert Responses
Why do PSAT experts research and predict the correct answer to Reading questions before reading the answer choices?
Expert test takers know that the correct answer to each PSAT Reading question is based on the text of the passage. They research to avoid answering based on memory or on a whim. Predicting the correct answer before reading the choices increases accuracy and speed by helping the test taker avoid rereading, confusion, and comparing answer choices to one another.
What are the types of research clues contained in PSAT Reading question stems?
Line numbers, paragraph numbers, proper nouns, quoted text, specific content clues, and whole passage clues.
What are the five common wrong answer types associated with PSAT Reading questions?
· Out of scope
· Opposite
· Distortion
· Extreme
· Misused detail
How will you approach the process of answering PSAT Reading questions more strategically going forward? Are there any specific habits you will practice to make your approach to PSAT Reading more effective and efficient?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer here. Reflect on your own habits in answering PSAT Reading questions and give yourself an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses. Consider the strategies you’ve seen experts use in this chapter, and put them to work in your own practice to increase your accuracy, speed, and confidence.
Next Steps
If you answered most questions correctly in the “How Much Have You Learned?” section, and if your responses to the Reflect questions were similar to those of the PSAT expert, then consider Answering PSAT Reading Questions an area of strength, and move on to the next chapter. Come back to this topic periodically to prevent yourself from getting rusty.
If you don’t yet feel confident, review the material in “How to Answer PSAT Reading Questions,” and then try the questions you missed again. As always, be sure to review the explanations closely.
Answers and Explanations
1. A
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Global
Strategic Advice: Use your big picture summary to make a prediction on a Global question like this. For this question, you can simply use your summary of the author’s purpose.
Getting to the Answer: The author discusses the disappearance of a group of Norse settlers and offers a number of explanations for this occurrence, but doesn’t advocate for any one of them in particular. Thus, the primary purpose is to introduce readers to a number of possible explanations, as suggested in correct choice (A).
(B) and (C) are too narrow. The belief that there was a conflict between the Inuit and the Norse settlers is refuted in the second paragraph, and the passage continues for three more paragraphs, so (B) isn’t the main purpose. The passage mentions “strained relations” between the groups at the start of the second paragraph, but does not go on to “chronicle the conflict,” as (C) suggests. The motivations behind the explanations are never discussed, nor is it clear that the explanations are in conflict (climatological, economic, and cultural factors could all be partial causes of the collapse), so (D) is also incorrect.
2. A
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Inference
Strategic Advice: This question requires you to put together details from different parts of the passage to arrive at the appropriate inference.
Getting to the Answer: The important clues in the question are “the period in which the Norse settlements were initially founded” and “climate.” The beginning of the passage states that the colony was founded around the year 1000 c.e. However, climate is not discussed until the third paragraph, where the author writes, “a particularly warm period for Greenland... occurred between the years 800 c.e. and 1300 c.e.” (lines 49—51). In fact, “particularly warm” is not bad for a prediction. Choice (A) matches and is correct. The “mild,” warm weather was uncharacteristic of the usually cold, harsh climate.
All of the incorrect choices are misused details that are mentioned in the passage; they apply to the years after 1300 c.e., not to the specific time period indicated in the question stem.
3. B
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Command of Evidence
Strategic Advice: If you used a line reference to answer the previous question, use that as your prediction and start by seeing whether that line reference is one of the answer choices.
Getting to the Answer: In answering the previous question, it emerges that the climate during the initial founding of the Norse settlements was “uncharacteristically mild.” This strange, “particularly warm” weather is mentioned in line 49, making choice (B) correct.
(A) and (C) mention the change in climate, but do not specifically mention the warmer years in the answer to the previous question. (D) connects the disappearance of the flies to that of the settlers, but does not address the climate change.
4. C
Difficulty: Easy
Category: Vocab-in-Context
Strategic Advice: Use surrounding information to figure out the meaning of a challenging word. If you can’t think of a single word to use as a prediction, a short phrase is also fine.
Getting to the Answer: Return to line 63, mentioned in the question, and read a little above and a little below the line. The flies were not on the island until the Norse ships arrived, and “inadvertently” is an adverb describing how the flies were brought to the island. The suggestion there is that the flies were not brought on purpose, so “by accident” is a good prediction. Choice (C) matches and is thus correct.
The remaining choices are incorrect because they don’t fit the context. It makes little sense that the ships would hide the flies in secret as (A) suggests. (B) almost suggests that the flies somehow diverted the attention of the colonists to bring themselves on board, which also seems implausible. Finally, (D) presents the opposite of the intended meaning.
5. D
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Detail
Strategic Advice: When an open-ended question makes prediction difficult, use elimination. Match information in the passage to the choices and eliminate choices as you go.
Getting to the Answer: The Inuit people are mentioned in the second and final paragraphs. The second paragraph states in lines 28—29 that “Inuits... had recently come to Greenland.” In lines 97—98, in the final paragraph, this point is repeated, indicating that the Norse colonists were not the only recent settlers of Greenland. (D) is therefore correct.
(A) is incorrect because the author dismisses the view that the Inuit are responsible for the Norse colony collapse (lines 29—34). (B) is incorrect because the author suggests in the final paragraph that the Norse were unwilling to abandon their European ways, so there’s no evidence that the Inuit successfully shared knowledge with them. (C) is incorrect because, in the final paragraph, the Inuit are said to have had “time-tested strategies to cope with the severe environment” (lines 100—101), suggesting they did not struggle with the climate.
6. C
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Function
Strategic Advice: If your prediction ends up being more specific than the answer choices, try to fill in the generic descriptions with actual details from the passage to better assess which choice is a match. For example, if a choice mentions the main idea of a particular paragraph, then rephrase the choice in your mind to include that actual main idea.
Getting to the Answer: At the beginning of the third paragraph, the author notes that new information is leading to novel theories that explain the Norse colonies’ decline. The author then goes on to provide some examples of these new theories and the evidence that supports them. The fourth paragraph continues this line of thought by turning to economic factors such as the changing ivory trade. Because that discussion provides additional support for the main idea of paragraph 3, (C) is correct.
(A) is incorrect because the traditional view, that the colony was destroyed by war with the Inuits, is dismissed later in paragraph 2, not supported. (B) is incorrect because the discussion of the ivory trade supports, not challenges, the theory in paragraph 4 about economic factors of collapse. (D) is incorrect because the shift in the ivory trade away from whale ivory strengthens the author’s claim that new explanations are emerging, which is the central idea of the passage.
7. D
Difficulty: Hard
Category: Inference
Strategic Advice: Inference questions may require you to put together pieces from different parts of the passage before arriving at a prediction.
Getting to the Answer: The shipping fleets of Norway and Germany are part of the economic discussion in the fourth paragraph. Lines 86—94 indicate that the German fleets took over the trade routes from the Norse and lost interest in the Norse colony. The suggestion is that a country’s fleets are generally more interested in transacting with that country’s colonies than with foreign colonies. Choice (D) is thus correct.
(A) is too extreme and contradicted by the passage, which suggests that at least a few non-Norwegian ships visited the colonies. (B) is incorrect because the colony was able to survive for a time even after the Norwegian fleets were supplanted, suggesting that essential deliveries could come from foreign sources. (C) is incorrect because the author presents another possibility in the last paragraph: the colonists could have adopted more of the well-adapted customs of the Inuit and learned to survive in Greenland’s natural environment, instead of sticking with European practices that didn’t suit the climate.
8. C
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Detail
Strategic Advice: Follow the clue in the question stem to discover the relevant detail from the passage. For Detail questions, it’s fine to use phrases or sentences directly from the passage as predictions.
Getting to the Answer: The discussion of the Norse colonists refusing to adapt to the changing climate occurs in the fifth paragraph. Lines 101—104 attribute this refusal to the Norse colonists thinking of themselves as European and clinging to European traditions. The author even concludes the passage by suggesting that the Norse colonists were likely guilty of a “stubborn cultural inflexibility” (lines 119—120) that led to their collapse. Choice (C) is therefore correct.
(A) is a misused detail from the second paragraph. Although there were strained relations between the two groups, the text does not cite this poor relationship as the reason why the Norse did not adopt Inuit ways. (B) and (D) are not mentioned in the passage, making them incorrect as well.
9. D
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Command of Evidence
Strategic Advice: Use your work on the previous question to make a prediction: wherever you went for research will likely be correct.
Getting to the Answer: The author suggests in the concluding sentence that the Norse colonists died out because of their refusal to take on better-adapted cultural norms, which directly supports the previous question’s answer. (D) is thus correct.
(A) is the line that supports the misused detail (from choice (A) in the previous question) in the second paragraph. There is no evidence that the difficult relations between the two groups led to the colonists’ refusal to adopt Inuit practices. (B) and (C) identify two of the Inuit’s survival tactics, but do not provide a reason these tactics were not adopted by the Norse.
10. B
Difficulty: Hard
Category: Global
Strategic Advice: For a question about the organization of the passage, review the marginal notes of your passage map and try to construct a story of how the passage moves from one paragraph to the next, using this as your prediction. The correct answer will best reflect the story you’ve constructed.
Getting to the Answer: The first paragraph introduces the topic of the unexplained disappearance of the Norse colonies and the second paragraph presents and refutes one historical explanation. In the remainder of the passage, the author presents a number of alternative explanations, but never advocates for one of them over the others. Rather, the author seems to suggest the theories are somewhat compatible, all representing factors that led to the colonies’ collapse. This structure is best reflected in (B), the correct answer.
(A) is incorrect because no single cause is definitively determined. (C) is incorrect because the traditional view, war between the Norse colonists and the Inuit, is discredited, not supported. (D) is too extreme; the disappearance of the colonies is not really a “paradox” so much as a mystery, and the author doesn’t attempt to “prove” anything, but just offers possible explanations.
11. D
Difficulty: Easy
Category: Global
Strategic Advice: Research the answer to a Global question in your big picture summary, and keep the author’s tone in mind.
Getting to the Answer: The author presented a factual description of several aspects of infant language acquisition, which matches choice (D).
(A) and (C) are incorrect because the passage doesn’t identify a “recent medical discovery” or “new breakthrough.” (B) is incorrect because, although some of the steps in the process of language acquisition are described in the text, the history of the research into this process is not.
12. C
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Detail
Getting to the Answer: The important context clue in this question is “begin to acquire their native language.” Although the entire passage is describing language acquisition, the context clue tells you to focus your research on the first paragraph. Lines 9—14 state that babies start to learn their native language before they can speak, and this prediction matches (C), the correct answer.
(A) and (B) are ages mentioned in the passage, but (A) gives the age when babies begin to produce recognizable words and (B) gives the age when babies begin to prefer the phonemes of their native languages. (D) is a distortion of information presented in the last paragraph. Although the passage says that babies prefer the phonemes of their native language, it does not say that babies imitate these phonemes, nor that this preference is evident at the beginning of the language acquisition process.
13. A
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Command of Evidence
Getting to the Answer: Good research on the previous question pays off in efficient, correct answers to Command of Evidence questions. Since the answer to the previous question is found in lines 9—14, (A) is correct.
(B) describes the age at which infants still discriminate among phonemes, (C) describes the age when children begin to prefer the phonemes of their native languages, and (D) defines the “critical period.” None of these incorrect choices identify the age when children begin to acquire their native languages.
14. D
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Vocab-in-Context
Getting to the Answer: The word “predicated” connects the “ability to learn from... mother’s speech” to the “ability to separate that speech” from other sounds. Logically, it would not be possible to learn from something (mother’s speech) if you can’t even recognize that thing in the first place, so the noted word must mean something like “dependent.” (D) comes closest to this prediction, making it correct.
(A) is incorrect because the ability to learn from a stream of speech comes after the ability to distinguish that speech, but “predicted” seems to reverse the chronology. (B) is incorrect because it suggests the two abilities are the same, that one is only the expression of another, but the author is clear to distinguish them. (C) is incorrect because the two abilities work together; the second doesn’t simply take the place of the first.
15. C
Difficulty: Hard
Category: Function
Getting to the Answer: Keep the purpose of the passage in mind, then review the passage map and predict a reason the author included the third paragraph. Within the discussion of language acquisition in infants, the third paragraph describes the importance of the volume of the mother’s voice over the other background sounds. This prediction matches (C), the correct answer.
Choice (A) subtly distorts the information in the paragraph. The ability of a baby to identify a specific speech stream is not connected to the speed of language acquisition. (B) is an opposite choice; louder volumes of speech assist, not impede, language acquisition. (D) is not discussed in the passage; no data is supplied to connect the improvement in language acquisition to different volumes of speech.
16. A
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Vocab-in-Context
Getting to the Answer: Read the sentence without “discriminate” and ask what the author is trying to communicate. Because the sentence is about infants distinguishing sounds as belonging to one or another language, separate or tell the difference are good predictions. Choice (A) is correct because it matches.
(B) is incorrect because it is synonymous with “recognize,” which the author combines with “discriminate,” so it would be redundant and lose the connotation of distinguishing between multiples phonemes. (C) is incorrect because it contradicts what the author says in the following sentence (lines 85—89) about the lack of preference toward specific phonemes. (D) is incorrect because “persecute” is a common meaning of “discriminate” that doesn’t fit the context.
17. B
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Detail
Getting to the Answer: The clues in the question stem point to paragraph 4, where the author mentions “rhythmic patterns” and “differences in pitch or accented syllables.” That paragraph begins, “During the first few months after birth,” which directly matches with correct choice (B).
(A), (C), and (D), the incorrect answers, all contain different ages of children that are mentioned in the passage, but each is associated with a different phase of language acquisition, not the stage mentioned in the question.
18. C
Difficulty: Hard
Category: Inference
Getting to the Answer: Paragraph 3 discusses how infants have difficulty separating voice streams that have equal volumes, as well as how important it is for infants to recognize their mother’s speech in order to learn from it. Thus, it makes sense that a mother would aid her infant’s language acquisition by speaking louder than any background sounds, which makes (C) correct.
(A) and (B) are distortions of information in the passage, making them incorrect. Although the passage mentions that young children learn languages easily, the text never recommends exposing children to multiple languages. Similarly, phonemes are discussed, but using phonemes to assist children in learning to speak is not. (D), using a large vocabulary, is never mentioned in the text, and so is incorrect.
19. C
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Command of Evidence
Getting to the Answer: Since the support for the previous answer came from the third paragraph, return to that paragraph and identify the line numbers that most directly state that volume helps children to learn language. Lines 55—58, choice (C), are correct.
You can eliminate (A) and (D) quickly because neither comes from the third paragraph. (A) and (D) are indeed incorrect because they identify different stages in the language acquisition process, not a specific action a mother could take to assist this process. (B) is incorrect because, although it identifies the need for babies to be able to differentiate the targeted speech stream from background noises, it does not suggest how this could be done by using a louder volume.
20. A
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Function
Getting to the Answer: The author discusses phonemes in the fourth and fifth paragraphs, identifying two distinct ways that infants respond to phonemes. In paragraph 4, the author notes that infants can recognize phonemes from other languages until six months of age, while in paragraph 5, infants stop responding to foreign phonemes altogether in the “critical period.” Thus, the purpose of this discussion is to highlight some important stages in the process of language acquisition, as in correct choice (A).
(B) and (C) are not mentioned in the text, and so are incorrect. (D) is incorrect because volume is discussed earlier in the passage where phonemes are not the topic.