SAT® Crash Course

Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 2.02: Information and Ideas

Today's fun nautical fact: When ships don't have cell service or Wi-Fi, they communicate with each other with semaphore, a kind of visual Morse code using red and white flags. It's like miming, but with higher stakes.

Now picture an old, semaphore-loving sailing crew encountering a previously isolated island somewhere. The crew flashes their flags from the ship, ecstatic to have found other human beings, while the island leaders on the shore send smoke signals to welcome these surely famished strangers. Unfortunately, the islanders interpret the red flags as bloody banners of war, and the crew members interpret the smoke as a threat to burn their ship. Things take a turn from there.

Case in point: Ideas are one thing, but the way in which these ideas are interpreted is just as important.

This is why we always welcome strangers with pie. Pie can't be misinterpreted. (Source)

The Big Issues

We could try to interpret text through ribbon dancing, but the SAT Reading Test doesn't yet recognize ribbon dancing as an official entrant in the Information and Ideas category. It's a political thing. The official entries are almost as good, though.

• Reading closely requires us to make an inference and a generalization or two—no bifocals required.
    
• Citing textual evidence is about showing us the evidence from the text. It's good practice for lawyers and anyone who wants to give their arguments more credibility.
    
• Determining central ideas and themes calls for a view of the big picture.
    
• Summarizing requires us to recall plotlines and remain ruthlessly objective again. Any lawyers in the house?
    
• Understanding relationships is way easier with a text than it was in seventh grade, but reading between the lines is still helpful.
    
• Interpreting words and phrases means watching for words with double-meanings and scoping the text for context.

Maybe next year ribbon dancing will be included on that list. For now, we'll need to be satisfied with interpreting text.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 2.2.02a: Reading Closely

Put away that monocle, Shmooper. On the SAT, reading a text closely doesn't require physical magnification of any kind, nor does it require pressing your face so close to the page that your nose picks up a few ink stains.

Reading closely more accurately means "reading-and-thinking." Say sayonara to the days when skimming a few lines and sounding out a word or two counted as in-depth analysis. Close reading on the SAT Reading Test is the big leagues. It's time to bring the A game.

This is presumably the A game of cupcakes. Dibs on the marshmallow one. (Source)

Determining Explicit Meanings

We lied. In some cases, reading closely requires only a B+ level game, or maybe somewhere in A- territory. We're talking about everyone's favorite reading comprehension question, of course: Determining Explicit Meanings questions.

Questions about explicit meaning in a text are number one in our hearts because they require us to locate areas of the text rather than interpret them.

Explicit meanings aren't the profanity-laden kind that tend to worry parents. The term explicit in this sense means that something is written directly in the text. Like a poorly hidden Easter egg, it's right there for the finding. If a reader were so inclined, he could literally put a finger on the answer to one of these questions.

Explicit meanings questions are usually marked by the phrase "according to…" and could sound a little something like these.

• In the third paragraph, which of the following does the narrator reveal about Joseph's background?   
    
• According to the author, what were the results of the survey?
    
• According to the text, at which point would the business be profitable?

At no point do these questions require advanced prediction skills or a business degree. The phrases "according to…" and "in the third paragraph" tell us that the answers to these questions are specifically addressed somewhere in the text. The information may not be worded precisely the same as the answer choices, but it's there.

When explicit meanings questions appear, don't rely on memory alone for the answer. Head straight over to the passage and look for that answer nestled comfortably within the text. Then scoop it up and score that point.

Determining Implicit Meanings

Suppose we walk sleepy-eyed into the kitchen one morning to find that our beloved raspberry toaster strudel is nowhere in sight. It's normally sitting on the counter awaiting our arrival, but today, it's missing. Further suppose that the dog, Franklin, comes wandering into the kitchen covered in a suspicious raspberry-smelling goop.

From here, we could draw a few possible conclusions about what happened.

• We could conclude that a pterodactyl broke into the kitchen overnight and, finding no humans to terrorize, left with the toaster pastry.
    
• We could conclude that an exceptionally tiny meteorite crash-landed on the kitchen counter, engulfing the toaster pastry in flames, but somehow not damaging the rest of the kitchen due to an as-yet-undiscovered property of meteorites.
    
• We could conclude that Franklin is the toaster strudel thief.

Because we don't have an explicitly stated answer to the mystery of the missing toaster pastry, any of these conclusions is possible. Only one of them is logical, though. Franklin's raspberry-filling-covered nose is our only piece of evidence, so the one and only logical inference we could make is that Franklin is a dirty thief. We really should have made him finish puppy obedience school.

The process of making an inference like this one is also known as deductive reasoning. The truth is, texts don't always state information explicitly, just like how Franklin didn't leave us a note saying, "You snooze, you lose, brah." Texts require deductive reasoning.

Sometimes, we only have a text's implicit meaning. In these instances, when the text hasn't spelled the truth out for us, we make inferences, or logical conclusions based on evidence. The conclusion that Franklin was the strudel snatcher is an example of such an inference.

Wonder of wonders, we happen to have a ShmoopTube video on this very topic below. Check it out. Thank us later.

            
While the SAT Reading Test probably doesn't ask about toaster pastries, it will ask us about implicit meanings. Implicit meanings questions adore words like "indicate," "imply," "infer," or "suggest." They could sound something like this.

• The passage most strongly suggests that Cara's mother wanted her daughter to do which of the following?
    
• The conclusion of the text indicates that which of the following occurred later?
    
• From the passage, which of the following can the reader most reasonably infer about teenagers' sleep patterns?

When faced with an inference question, look for evidence in the text and choose the answer it most logically points to. Compare the four choices given and see which one is backed by the most textual evidence.

Using Analogical Reasoning

As much fun as deductive reasoning is, it's not the only kind available. As seen in the ShmoopTube video treat above, there's also analogical reasoning (also known as inductive reasoning). Analogical reasoning refers to using available evidence to make a logical generalization about a related, but not specifically addressed, topic.

In the Great Toaster Pastry Incident, we used deductive reasoning to find out what happened to our breakfast. Now that we've weathered the inevitable feelings of betrayal and "hanger," we can extrapolate, or apply, what we know about Franklin to an analogous, or similar, situation.

For instance, given Franklin's insatiable greed (no hint of sarcasm), we could assume that Franklin might also steal a blueberry toaster pastry—or any food within reach, for that matter. We couldn't extrapolate, however, that Franklin would likely win a fight with a pterodactyl. There isn't enough evidence to make that generalization; it's too much of a stretch. Although Franklin can be ferocious when food is involved.

On the SAT Reading Test, questions about analogical reasoning ask to apply information from the text to make a generalization about a similar situation that's not in the text. These generalizations are essentially predictions, but answering them doesn't require mystical powers or anything. They might sound a little like the questions below.

• Based on Alan's reaction to the news of the Jenson's divorce, how would he most likely view the upcoming wedding?
    
• If the suggested solution from paragraph 3 were put into place immediately, the animals involved would most likely do which of the following?
    
• Which of the following scenarios is most similar to the one described in the last paragraph?

The trick to answering analogical reasoning questions is to identify how the new situation is similar to the one in the text. Franklin would likely steal a blueberry toaster pastry from the counter because it's similar to a raspberry toaster pastry.

On the other hand, the scenario in which Franklin steals a toaster pastry and the one in which he fights a pterodactyl aren't similar at all. Franklin's ability to steal food off of the counter doesn't say anything about his dinosaur-fighting skills, so we can't logically predict his success there. Sigh.

Sample Question

This passage excerpt comes from "NASA's Curiosity Rover Adjusts Route Up Martian Mountain."

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover climbed a hill Thursday to approach an alternative site for investigating a geological boundary, after a comparable site proved hard to reach.

The drive of about 72 feet (22 meters) up slopes as steep as 21 degrees brought Curiosity close to a target area where two distinctive types of bedrock meet. The rover science team wants to examine an outcrop that contains the contact between the pale rock unit the mission analyzed lower on Mount Sharp and a darker, bedded rock unit that the mission has not yet examined up close.

Two weeks ago, Curiosity was headed for a comparable geological contact farther south. Foiled by slippery slopes on the way there, the team rerouted the vehicle and chose a westward path. The mission's strategic planning keeps multiple route options open to deal with such situations.

"Mars can be very deceptive," said Chris Roumeliotis, Curiosity's lead rover driver at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "We knew that polygonal sand ripples have caused Curiosity a lot of drive slip in the past, but there appeared to be terrain with rockier, more consolidated characteristics directly adjacent to these ripples. So we drove around the sand ripples onto what we expected to be firmer terrain that would give Curiosity better traction. Unfortunately, this terrain turned out to be unconsolidated material too, which definitely surprised us and Curiosity."

(Source)

1. The passage excerpt most strongly suggests that the Curiosity rover performs best on which of the following types of terrain?

A. Steep slopes
B. Dark, bedded rock
C. Sand ripples
D. Rocky ground

The correct answer is (D).

We know from the phrase "most strongly suggests" in the question stem that we're about to make an inference. From the first sentence of the passage, we can infer that the Curiosity rover is having trouble roving to wherever it's trying to, um, rove. The passage spends most of its time talking about the different types of ground the rover has been on, but it never explicitly states what the ideal ground for the rover is. It's up to us to infer that.

The passage tells us that sand ripples cause "drive slip"—which is exactly what it sounds like. Immediately following the part about the sand ripples, we find out that the team deliberately moved the rover to rockier terrain nearby, hoping for better traction (D). For anyone who's ever driven a car, traction is a good thing, so "rocky ground" is definitely the best choice.

The line "The drive of about 72 feet (22 meters) up slopes as steep as 21 degrees" tells us that Curiosity did successfully climb a steep slope, but this whole article is about the difficulties the rover had making that climb (A). In fact, the author sounds slightly impressed that the rover managed it. The line that mentions "darker, bedded rock" (B) is talking about a type of ground "the mission has not yet examined up close." That rock is the rover's destination, and this question, like life, is all about the journey.

Study Break

Ever feel like checking out Mars? Now we can, but without the annoying nine months of space travel it takes to get there. Spoiler: There's lots of dirt.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 2.2.02b: Citing Textual Evidence

We're willing to admit that we do some kooky things around here. On Tuesdays we wear our brown comma t-shirt, and we always put an empty pickle jar by the dryer on Sundays. It's part of our unique, Shmoopy charm.

We should also mention that we wear the brown shirt because we pack a Kit Kat bar in our lunch on Tuesdays and often get chocolate on ourselves. If we're wearing the brown comma t-shirt, it's not as noticeable or embarrassing. We put the pickle jar by the dryer on Sundays because we need a place to stash the spare change that falls out of our pockets during end-of-the-week laundry. We have reasons for the weird stuff that we do.

Shocking news: the SAT Reading Test wants you to have reasons, too.

Us, basically every Tuesday. (Source)

Citing Textual Evidence

Just as we have strange-but-true explanations for the pickle jar and brown apparel, the SAT Reading Test wants everyone to be able to explain the inferences they chose in previous questions.

These reasons also need to be good reasons, as opposed to the kinds of random, arbitrary reasons given to explain why a bar of chocolate has nutty, or smoky notes to it.

In a beautiful twist of simplicity, questions about citing textual evidence on the SAT Reading Test are always worded the same way. The question stem is constant and unchanging, just like our love of chocolate or dystopian literature. It always looks like this.

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

FYI, the "previous question" mentioned above could be any question requiring an inference. A Citing Evidence question may appear after an Implicit Meanings question, a Relationship question, a Word Meaning question—anywhere. Just like graphs in geometry or Birkenstocks in college towns, Citing Evidence questions are anywhere and everywhere.

Thankfully, the answer choices in citing evidence questions are as consistent as the question stem. The choices always reference specific lines from the text (for example, "lines 3-4."). Then they indicate in parentheses the first and last word of that section of text ("Evidently…discussion"). An answer choice might look like this.

A. lines 3-4 ("Evidently…discussion")

Notice that the answer choices are never, ever worded as, "Eh, I don't know, it just kind of seemed that way, I guess…maybe." At no point on the SAT Reading Test is this an acceptable answer to anything, ever.

At heart, a question about citing text evidence is asking, "How do you know?" Think of these questions as the type of follow-up question an exceptionally persistent interviewer would ask a political candidate. Evidence questions are nosy. They want proof. They don't want to hear about the gut feelings or general impressions that led to the answer. They want cold, hard evidence from the text itself.

To answer Citing Evidence questions, first review what you chose as the answer to the previous question. Next plug in that answer to Shmoop's fantastically helpful Claim-and-Evidence Formula.

I think [claim] because [evidence].

Suppose the previous question had asked about the mood of the text, and we had chosen an option for describing the mood as "dark and mysterious." Our super-sentence would start like this.

We think the mood is dark and mysterious because…

Then we'd complete the sentence with whatever information in the text we remember had helped us to determine the answer.

We think the mood is dark and mysterious because in line 4, the author says the woods are 'shadowy,' and then in line 5, he says that the air felt 'sinister.'

When we put it all together, the sentence is logical. Words like "sinister" and "shadowy" absolutely create a dark, mysterious mood. Yay for us. Whichever answer choice for this citing evidence question lists "lines 4-5" is a strong, logical choice.

On the other hand, if we had no idea how to approach the question in the first place, we could examine the lines referenced in each answer choice and plug them in to the formula to look for a logical fit. This option, for example, wouldn't work.

We think the mood is dark and mysterious because in line 8, the author describes the birds as 'two happy robins, twittering the day away merrily.'

Unless someone has a major bird phobia or this text is the script of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, there's nothing at all dark about birds chirping merrily. Give what a drastically poor fit this line is, we'd consider revisiting the other answer choices to see if there's a better answer.

Which reminds us, you can totally go back to the previous question and change your answer. That's one of the biggest and most beautiful perks to Citing Evidence questions. They force us to pause, evaluate, and possibly save a point or two. Remind us to send David Coleman a fruit cake for the holidays.

Sample Question

This passage excerpt comes from "NASA's Curiosity Rover Adjusts Route Up Martian Mountain."

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover climbed a hill Thursday to approach an alternative site for investigating a geological boundary, after a comparable site proved hard to reach.

The drive of about 72 feet (22 meters) up slopes as steep as 21 degrees brought Curiosity close to a target area where two distinctive types of bedrock meet. The rover science team wants to examine an outcrop that contains the contact between the pale rock unit the mission analyzed lower on Mount Sharp and a darker, bedded rock unit that the mission has not yet examined up close.

Two weeks ago, Curiosity was headed for a comparable geological contact farther south. Foiled by slippery slopes on the way there, the team rerouted the vehicle and chose a westward path. The mission's strategic planning keeps multiple route options open to deal with such situations.

"Mars can be very deceptive," said Chris Roumeliotis, Curiosity's lead rover driver at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "We knew that polygonal sand ripples have caused Curiosity a lot of drive slip in the past, but there appeared to be terrain with rockier, more consolidated characteristics directly adjacent to these ripples. So we drove around the sand ripples onto what we expected to be firmer terrain that would give Curiosity better traction. Unfortunately, this terrain turned out to be unconsolidated material too, which definitely surprised us and Curiosity."

(Source)

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

A. lines 3-4 ("The drive…meet")
B. lines 4-6 ("The rover…up close")
C. lines 11-12 ("We knew…in the past")
D. lines 12-14 ("but there…traction")

The correct answer is (D).

What a coincidence! We need to find evidence to support the answer to the previous question. In that case, we should probably check out that previous question, and look, here it is for our convenience.

The passage excerpt most strongly suggests that the Curiosity rover performs best on which of the following types of terrain?

A. Steep slopes
B. Dark, bedded rock
C. Sand ripples
D. Rocky ground

Way back when we answered this question, we decided that the best choice was the one about rocky ground (D). Now we need to find evidence in the text that supports this rocky ground theory. That's lines 12-14.

These lines describe how the team purposefully headed the rover toward ground they thought would be rockier and firmer so that it could get better traction. Take it from us: Better traction is always desirable, be it on Mars or the sidewalk in front of our house.

Lines 3-4 (A) aren't a good choice because they only explain that the rover managed steep hills; they don't describe whether these hills were easy to drive up or not. Lines 4-6 (B) might sound good if we had chosen "dark, bedded rock" as the answer to the previous question—but we didn't. If we check the text again, we'd notice that the "bedded rock" from the text is Curiosity's destination, and there's nothing to indicate whether the rover will perform well on it. Lines 11-12 (C) talk about drive slip on sand ripples, but that doesn't sound like a good performance. Slipping is usually bad, and often embarrassing—especially if your machine cost $2.47 billion. Just saying.

Study Break

The Mars Rover is amazing and all, but how amazing is the New Horizons spacecraft? It made it all the way to Pluto!

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 2.2.02c: Determining Central Ideas and Themes

Literature teaches us all kinds of lessons. Take the epic poem The Odyssey. We learned buckets of good information from this literary great. For starters, we realized how difficult it is to pronounce classical Greek names. We also learned a little about sailing on an ancient ship. We even learned that a siren was a mythical creature with a lovely singing voice and nasty (sometimes violent) fear of commitment.

We'll admit it, though. If that was all we learned from The Odyssey, we missed the boat. We were so busy paying attention to the details that we completely missed the theme, or the central idea, of the whole thing. Here's Homer, making all of this effort to write a poem that's 12,110 lines long, and all we picked up was that Eumaios's name is a great one for wreaking havoc on Starbucks employees. Homer would be so disappointed.

Life on an ancient boat was great for working the triceps, but less great for avoiding death by harpy. (Source)

Determining Central Ideas and Themes

Also known as main ideas, central ideas typically belong with informational texts, while themes usually appear in literary texts. Every informational text has at least one central idea, but don't confuse its central idea with its purpose, as in "to persuade" or "to inform." A central idea is the overall statement that an author makes about the topic. Check out some examples of central ideas below.

• The Cold War prompted many new technological innovations in the United States.
    
• It's more cost-effective to invest in reducing carbon emissions than to pay for the damage created by greenhouse gases.
    
• Genghis Khan's advanced military skills helped him establish an empire.
    
• Public parking should never be free.
    
• If humans continue to eat meat at the current rate, we soon won't be able to produce enough food for the world's population.

Do those sound a little like thesis statements? Good. They should sound a lot like thesis statements because that's what they are. An author's thesis isn't always clear or positioned front-and-center at the end of the introduction, but it's there somewhere. (Not unlike the toy in the cereal box.)

Again, when we talk about theme, we're generally referring to a literary text. A theme is similar to a central idea, but it's more elusive. The author of a literary text will rarely spell out the theme for us a la "The theme of this book is that too much power can corrupt even a good person." Thesis statements like that spoil all the fun of the fantastical, mysterious world of literary analysis.

Literary authors are smooth and sneaky, so they hide themes in the subtext of the story, wrapping it in figurative language and symbolism. The story itself is merely the vehicle to deliver the important message to us, the esteemed reader.

The kinds of messages that authors send vary, just as our favorite emojis and Facebook cover photos vary. Nonetheless, these messages are often universal themes and could apply to anyone at any point in history. These are the ultra-frequent, "deep" themes that we see over and over again throughout literature. Any of these guys look familiar?

• The corrupting nature of power


• The inevitability of death


• The struggle to tame the natural world
    
• The difficulty of change and growing up
    
• The search for justice in an unjust world

When we read The Hunchback of Notre Dame, for instance, the life lesson we walk away with isn't that it pays to be friends with statues. That theme would be far too specific to the text and—let's be honest—not a terribly useful lesson to the majority of the population. It's not universal.

A theme about how appearances can be deceiving, or about how life isn't fair, on the other hand, touch people from any generation or walk of life. Those themes are universal.

Many literary texts have one major, overarching theme, but will often have multiple, minor themes as well. Because authors rarely go on the record stating the Official Theme of This Book, it's possible to make arguments for lots of different themes. In fact, in our Shmoop guide to The Hunchback of Notre Dame, we found at least eight themes.

Explicitly Stated Central Ideas or Themes

Occasionally, on a supremely good day, a text's central idea or theme is explicitly stated somewhere in the text for the reader. This isn't a common occurrence, but it does happen, and we need to be able to recognize when and where it does.

Questions about explicitly stated themes/central ideas may sound like this.

• Which of the following lines from the passage best reveals the passage's theme?  
    
• Which of the following quotations best represents the central idea of the text?
    
• Which statement from the passage best describes the author's main point?

With informational texts, begin the hunt for an explicitly stated central idea in the first paragraph, where the thesis statement usually likes to hang out. If the author has included a clear thesis statement there, rejoice. In other cases, check the conclusion. If nothing clearly stands out, try summarizing the central idea in your own words and then examine the answer options for something similar.

Literary texts don't contain such explicit statements as "The theme of this story is…," but they may contain lines that come close. One of the major themes in Earnest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea is the nature of defeat, and it's nearly spelled out in a few places.

Implicit Central Ideas or Themes

At other times (okay, most of the time), there are no helpful thesis clues, no theme life rafts. During these tough times, we need to make inferences.

Questions about implicitly stated central ideas and themes might sound like this.

• Which of the following best represents the central idea of the text?
    
• Which of the following most represents the author's main point about Tokyo?
    
• Which choice best expresses the central theme of the text?

Sad news for us: Authors of informational texts are allowed to break the traditional essay-writing rule about a one-sentence thesis that appears at the end of the introduction. Hey, it's the writer's prerogative. That and being able to go to work in pajamas.

When a traditional thesis is missing in action, start by identifying the overall topic, or subject, of the text. It could be something along the lines of "the energy crisis" or "Genghis Khan." Then skim each paragraph to summarize what the author is saying about the topic overall. If every paragraph of the text talks about a different tactic that Genghis Khan used to succeed militarily, the central idea is something like, "Genghis Khan's advanced military skills helped him establish an empire."

            
Central idea statements should summarize all of the main points, though, not just some of them. Suppose that the first two paragraphs of the Genghis Khan text talk about ways that he succeeded militarily, and the last two paragraphs talk about how he never, ever managed to wash the dishes when his wife asked. In this case, the central idea would be more like "Genghis Khan was a talented military leader, but a bad husband."

Finding an implicit theme in literary texts is trickier. When there aren't any helpful theme statements available, ask yourself what lesson the main character learns, or what the reader learns from the main character. Pro tip: The reader is supposed to learn from what happens to the main character.

Suppose the main character in a literary text sets out to "civilize" a recently discovered tribe of indigenous people living in the Amazon. By the end of the book, he decides to give up his close minded ways and live among the tribe as a member.

This character probably learned what Amazonian mosquito bites are like and how large the Goliath tarantula's legs are. More than those important lessons, he would have learned that he didn't necessarily know what was best for the tribe, and that they actually had plenty to teach him. Talk about an ego-crush. We'll send tissues and Benadryl.

Sample Question

This excerpt is from Senator Edward M. Kennedy's first speech on the Senate floor, April 9, 1964. This speech was delivered in the context of Senate hearings on whether or not to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination in employment, education, and public accommodations.

I believe the basic problem the American people face in the 1960s in the field of civil rights is one of adjustment. It is the task of adjusting to the fact that [African-Americans] are going to be members of the community of American citizens with the same rights and the same responsibilities as every one of us.

The people of my state of Massachusetts have been making this kind of adjustment for 300 years. We have absorbed every racial national group, from the Puritans to the Poles to the Puerto Ricans. Massachusetts today has a higher percentage of foreign nationality groups that any other state in the country. Fully 40 percent of the people of my State, according to the latest census, are either immigrants or children of immigrants.

Every problem this bill treats—be it voting, equal accommodations, employment, or education—has arisen in my state at one time or another, and we have solved them—by persuasion where possible; by law where necessary.

We have not suffered from this effort. Indeed, we have been strengthened. Our economy, our social structure, the level of our culture are higher than ever before, in a large part because of the contributions minorities have made.

I believe that if America has been able to make this adjustment for the Irish, the Italians, the Jews, the Poles, the Greeks, the Portuguese—we can make it for the [African-Americans]. And the nation will be strengthened in the process.

(Source)

1. Which of the following lines from the passage best reveals its central idea?

A. line 1 ("I believe…adjustment")
B. line 4 ("The people…years")
C. lines 8-9 ("Every…necessary")
D. lines 12-14 ("I believe…process")

The correct answer is (D).

Preach, Teddy. In this case, we're looking for an explicit central idea statement, and we need to decide which line from the text best summarizes the main idea. There's no obvious thesis statement waiting at the beginning of the text, so we'll try summarizing the central idea in our own words.

Ted is speaking in favor of passing the Civil Rights Act. He uses Massachusetts as an example of a state that has passed laws on behalf of foreign nationality groups, and he emphasizes that these laws have benefited Massachusetts as a whole. We can infer, then, that his main thrust is something like, "This worked for lots of minority groups in Massachusetts, so it can work across the United States for African-Americans." Sounds similar to what he says in lines 12-14 (D), right? Yup. In fact, it's nearly identical.

Ted starts off his speech by presenting the problem: The American government needs to adjust to the Civil Rights Movement. He doesn't stop there, though (A). Next, line 4 (B) introduce Senator Kennedy's example about Massachusetts, but Ted wants to change the way the entire country operates. His home state is an example; it’s not the whole enchilada.

Lines 8-9 (C) get closer to the central idea by explaining that Massachusetts's efforts were ultimately worthwhile, but we're still missing the part about how that applies to the national debate. The last two sentences are totally where Ted brings it in for the real thing. Pardon us while we shed a tear and hum the tune of "God Bless the USA."

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 2.2.02d: Summarizing

If we had only five minutes to summarize all of the key events and people spanning the years 1949 to 1989, we'd struggle. We admit this openly. Forty years is a lot of historical ground to cover, and five minutes is less time than it takes to make our favorite Thursday afternoon mac and cheese snack. Apparently we don't have the summarizing talents of one Mr. Billy Joel, because he managed to accomplish his feat of summary in only four minutes and he was nominated for a Grammy in the process. Color us impressed.

A summarizing giant among men. (Source)

Identifying Text Summaries

The SAT Reading Test knows no one can be Billy Joel except for Billy Joel, so it doesn't ask anyone to write a comprehensive summary of everything that happened in a forty-year time span. It only wants us to choose the sentence that best summarizes the passage. That sentence could summarize the entire passage, or in some cases, it might summarize only a portion of the text. Where's Billy when we need him?

Questions about summaries usually contain the helpful clue word "summarize" and could sound similar to these.

• Which of the following most accurately describes what happens in the passage?
    
• Which of the following best summarizes the text?
    
• Which choice best summarizes the author's opinion of the narwhal?

The regular rules of good summaries still apply to these questions, however. Good summaries are always objective, which means they don't include any personal opinions, or analysis about how good or bad the text is; they include the essentials of the text, not the minor details. Need some clarity on summary vs. analysis? Shout out to ShmoopTube.

            
Now check out the following three sentences, which summarize a text about narwhals. Without even reading the text, which one is likely the best choice?

A. Narwhals are sometimes called the unicorn of the sea, and scientists think they've discovered the purpose behind their tusks.
B. Scientists now believe that narwhal tusks serve as sensory organs, but I think the study seems flawed.
C. The purpose behind the narwhal's tusk has long been a mystery, but scientists now believe that they serve as sensory organs.

We're smitten with that title "unicorn of the sea," but there's no way that a cute name for a narwhal is an essential point of the text. This summary sentence falls short because it doesn't focus on the essentials. On to the next one.

Scientists now believe that narwhal tusks serve as sensory organs, but I think the study seems flawed.

Nope. Adding a comment like that to a summary makes the summary subjective, or biased, instead of objective. There's a time and a place for sharing your opinions (Twitter?), but it's not here. Analysis may also come at some later point in this textual journey, but we don't have room for it in a summary. When summarizing, stay objective. Check out the final option.

The purpose behind the narwhal's tusk has long been a mystery, but scientists now believe that they serve as sensory organs.

Gold star! This summary includes two basic factual points: 1) Scientists were formerly puzzled by the narwhal's tusk, 2) but now they know their purpose. Plus, this summary leaves out random extra details and personal opinions—exactly what we're looking for in a summary (and a significant other).

To answer summary questions like these, mentally write a summary to the side of each paragraph or section of the text. Stack them on top of each other like they're pancakes and read through. To stay focused, keep these questions in mind.

• What are the main events?
    
• If lots of stuff is going on, what's mostly going on, more than anything else?
    
• If it's a literature passage, what's going on underneath it all, in the subtext?

The answer to those questions should point to one of the answer choices. If not, it's time to take a deep breath and re-read the passage. We've got this; Billy Joel is our spirit animal.

Sample Question

The following excerpt is from Edith Wharton's 1920 novel The Age of Innocence.

There were certain things that had to be done, and if done at all, done handsomely and thoroughly; and one of these, in the old New York code, was the tribal rally around a kinswoman about to be eliminated from the tribe. There was nothing on earth that the Wellands and Mingotts would not have done to proclaim their unalterable affection for the Countess Olenska now that her passage for Europe was engaged; and Archer, at the head of his table, sat marvelling at the silent untiring activity with which her popularity had been retrieved, grievances against her silenced, her past countenanced, and her present irradiated by the family approval. Mrs. van der Luyden shone on her with the dim benevolence which was her nearest approach to cordiality, and Mr. van der Luyden, from his seat at May's right, cast down the table glances plainly intended to justify all the carnations he had sent from Skuytercliff.

Archer, who seemed to be assisting at the scene in a state of odd imponderability, as if he floated somewhere between chandelier and ceiling, wondered at nothing so much as his own share in the proceedings. As his glance travelled from one placid well-fed face to another, he saw all the harmless-looking people engaged upon May's canvas-backs as a band of dumb conspirators, and himself and the pale woman on his right as the centre of their conspiracy. And then it came over him, in a vast flash made up of many broken gleams, that to all of them, he and Madame Olenska were lovers, lovers in the extreme sense peculiar to "foreign" vocabularies. He guessed himself to have been, for months, the centre of countless silently observing eyes and patiently listening ears; he understood that, by means as yet unknown to him, the separation between himself and the partner of his guilt had been achieved, and that now the whole tribe had rallied about his wife on the tacit assumption that nobody knew anything, or had ever imagined anything, and that the occasion of the entertainment was simply May Archer's natural desire to take an affectionate leave of her friend and cousin.

It was the old New York way of taking life "without effusion of blood": the way of people who dreaded scandal more than disease, who placed decency above courage, and who considered that nothing was more ill-bred than "scenes," except the behaviour of those who gave rise to them.

As these thoughts succeeded each other, in his mind, Archer felt like a prisoner in the centre of an armed camp. He looked about the table, and guessed at the inexorableness of his captors from the tone in which, over the asparagus from Florida, they were dealing with Beaufort and his wife. "It's to show me," he thought, "what would happen to ME—" and a deathly sense of the superiority of implication and analogy over direct action, and of silence over rash words, closed in on him like the doors of the family vault.

(Source)

1. Which choice best summarizes the passage?

A. An outsider attends a dinner party given by wealthy aristocrats.
B. A member of society realizes the truth behind his guests' kindness.
C. A man considers escaping from society's strict customs.
D. A young husband is amused by the silly traditions of aristocratic society.

The correct answer is (B).

Based on the answer choices and the fact that this is literature, we know that we're looking for the gist of what's really going on at this party, rather than a summary of the four different soup courses. To start, we'll summarize each paragraph.

Paragraph 1: Everyone is being nice to a lady at a going-away party.
Paragraph 1: Archer realizes that the guests suspect he is Madame Olenska's lover.
Paragraph 3: Archer realizes the guests are being nice to avoid a making a scene.
Paragraph 4: Archer knows they'll get rid of him next.

Smashing those mini-summaries together, we get something like "High society guy realizes the truth, is terrified" (B).

It's true that the scene is set at a dinner party given by wealthy aristocrats, but because Archer seems to be married to one of them, we can't characterize him as an outsider (A). The saddest part of Archer's realization is that he doesn't think about escape, even though he feels "like a prisoner" (line 24) (C). In fact, escape seems out of the question, given the way the author says his realization "closed in on him like the doors of the family vault" (line 28). Heavy. The tone of the passage is one of hopeless, paranoid defeat (check out that last paragraph!), so we definitely can't describe it as an entertaining experience for Archer (D). Poor guy.

Study Break

Don't worry. It has a happy ending—sort of. Check out our sweet Shmoop Age of Innocence guide for more summaries (and possibly spoilers). Maybe you've heard, but we have lots of these literary guides. It's kind of our thing.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 2.2.02e: Understanding Relationships

Some relationships defy understanding. For example, a friendship between a lamb and a rhino would defy all logic. That's okay though, because relationships this pure (and cute) don't need to be understood, just enjoyed.

Relationships on the SAT Reading Test are another story entirely. These relationships are almost never between two cute and mismatched animals, and they're always more complex and cryptic. The SAT clearly doesn't know what it's missing.

Don't play innocent with us, Patrick. We know you ate the chapstick. (Source)

Identifying Relationships Among Individuals

SAT Reading questions often focus on relationships between two individuals, but not necessarily on the romantic relationships we might find in a Taylor Swift song. Instead, these questions could ask how any two characters relate to one another or how two authors view a common topic, such as politics or shellfish.

Relationship questions about individuals may sound similar to these questions right here.

• The passage indicates that Mr. Godfrey respects his father most for…
    
• Based on the two passages, which choice best describes the relationship between the two authors' views of the abolitionist cause?
    
• Which statement best describes the relationship between the houseguest and her host?

Like T. Swift, authors are not often forthcoming about their characters' relationships. To approach these questions, look for descriptive words that imply one character's attitude toward the other one.

To show what we mean, suppose we read the following sentence in an imaginary text about Mr. Godfrey and his father.

Mr. Godfrey stopped abruptly, peering through the doorway at his esteemed and kindly father. He gazed at the old man with something like admiration in his usually flinty eyes.

In this case, the author doesn't say, "Mr. Godfrey thought his father was the bees knees," but we don't need her to. The author shows us with figurative language and an example. From this one sentence, we know that Mr. Godfrey views his father as esteemed, kindly, and admirable. Sounds like Godfrey's not the warmest guy in the town, but that's beside the point.

With informational texts (i.e., the science and history/social sciences passages), Relationship questions are much less personal. We're focused on the facts; there's no need to wind up with the conclusion that Dr. Berstein thinks Dr. Egglethorpe is a spoiled narcissist who doesn't deserve her tenure. That's too personal.

Questions about informational texts likely focus on two individuals' contrasting views. To approach these, start by summarizing the two individuals' positions or opinions, then break out a mental Venn diagram to compare their differences and similarities.

Because informational texts rely less on figurative language, they're also good places to look for relationship buzzwords, like "colleagues," "conversely," and "opposes." These guys indicate whether two individuals agree or disagree with each other, whether they've worked together on research projects, or whether they simply enjoy building giant Lego towers together.

Identifying Relationships Between Events or Ideas

When we're not busy interpreting people's personal or professional feelings about one another, the SAT Reading Test wants us to get busy figuring how events or ideas relate to each other. These questions are less common with literary texts, but they might sound like the ones below.

• Which statement best describes the relationship between the two passages?  
    
• Which choice represents how the experimental results relate to the initial hypothesis?
    
• Which of the following describes how the riots were related to the governor's speech?

Finding the relationship between two events or ideas may sound like it involves trolling through an impossibly long list of options, but it doesn't. Thankfully, there are a few common ways to structure events and ideas in a text: cause and effect, sequence, and comparison and contrast.

Cause and Effect

One of the most straightforward ways to organize ideas is by cause and effect. Especially where historical events are concerned, a question may want us to demonstrate how an event, such as appendicitis or the sudden urge to clean the bathroom, didn't occur randomly. Instead, we'll need to show that the second event was a direct result of the first one. Watch for cause and effect cue words like "thus," "consequently," and "accordingly" that mark this type of relationship.

Be careful not to confuse a sequential relationship with a causal relationship: Just because one event happened after another doesn't mean that the first event caused the second. ShmoopTube can break it down for us.

Sequence

Sequence refers to the order in which events or ideas appear in a text. Questions about sequential relationships likely appear with texts that relate events out of order, like a literary text that uses flashbacks, or a speech that begins to ramble off-topic. (Where's "Cue Card Wally" when we need him?) Watch for zingers like "meanwhile," "initially," "suddenly," "eventually," and "afterward" for understanding the chronological sequence of events.

Compare and Contrast

In some cases, the SAT Reading Test asks the delightfully vague question, "How do these two passages relate?"

When that bomb is dropped, the answer options usually represent various comparisons between the two passages like, "The first passage supports the ideas that baby giraffes should eat Coco Puffs every day for breakfast, while the second passage opposes it."

Find the answers to these bad boys by building another mental Venn diagram and summarizing the ways in which the two events or items are similar or different.

Comparing and contrasting is a big job. It's so big that ShmoopTube has an entire video on it.

Sample Question

The following excerpt is from the article "Heat Accelerates Dry in California Drought," from the U.S. Geographical Survey.

Although record low precipitation has been the main driver of one of the worst droughts in California history, abnormally high temperatures have also played an important role in amplifying its adverse effects, according to a recent study by the U.S. Geological Survey and university partners.

Experiments with a hydrologic model for the period Oct. 2013-Sept. 2014 showed that if the air temperatures had been cooler, similar to the 1916-2012 average, there would have been an 86% chance that the winter snowpack would have been greater, the spring-summer runoff higher, and the spring-summer soil moisture deficits smaller.

To gauge the effect of high temperatures on drought, lead author Shraddhanand Shukla, from the University of California, Santa Barbara, devised two sets of modeling experiments that compared climate data from water year 2014 (October 2013-September 2014) to similar intervals during 1916-2012.

In the first simulation set, Shukla substituted 2014 temperature values with the historical temperatures for each of the study's 97 years, while keeping the 2014 precipitation values. In the second simulation set, he combined the observed 2014 temperatures with historical precipitation values for each of the preceding years, 1916-2012.

"This experimental approach allows us to model past situations and tease out the influence of temperature in preceding drought conditions," said Chris Funk, a USGS scientist and a co-author of the investigation. "By crunching enough data over many, many simulations, the effect of temperature becomes more detectable. We can't do the same in reality, the here and now, because then we only have a single sample." Funk, an adjunct professor at UCSB, helps coordinate research at the university that supports USGS programs.

…

Although the study did not directly address the issue of long-term climate change, the implications of higher temperatures are clear.

"If average temperatures keep rising, we will be looking at more serious droughts, even if the historical variability of precipitation stays the same," Shukla said. "The importance of temperature in drought prediction is likely to become only more significant in the future."
(Source)

1. Based on the passage, which choice best describes the relationship between Funk's research and Shukla's research?

A. Funk's research contradicts Shukla's.
B. Funk's research builds on Shukla's.
C. Funk's research questions Shukla's.
D. Funk's research is a part of Shukla's.

The correct answer is (D).

As 90s superstar Nelly would say, it's getting hot in here. In fact, we wonder if Shukla and Funk should look into the effect of Nelly on droughts.

All right, all right. Hold the rim shot.

Since this passage is an informational text rather than a literary one, let's start by looking for relationship buzzwords. When Chris Funk is introduced in the fifth paragraph, he's called "a co-author of the investigation." Then, when Chris starts talking, he explains more about the Shukla's experiments. Inference time. Chris is writing the paper with Shukla, and he's explaining more about Shukla's work. He's definitely a part of Shukla's team (D).

If Funk were contradicting or correcting Shukla (A), (C), we might expect to see him criticize Shukla’s work, or make a specific claim that's different from Shukla’s. Looking back at what Funk says in this passage, we don’t see any signs that he disagrees with Shukla. If Funk's work were described as separate and distinct from Shukla's, we could say that his research builds on Shukla's (B). In this case, however, Funk is both working on, and talking about, the same study, not a different one.

Study Break

It sounds like the drought in California is changing plenty of relationships between individuals, too. #droughtshaming

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 2.2.02f: Interpreting Words and Phrases in Context

Behold the decrepit relic of Sentence Completion.

Though he was often criticized for being resistant to other points of view, the __________ appealed to the fanatical audience with his __________ refusal to compromise his ideals.

A. ingrate…oblivious
B. zealot…obdurate
C. crusader…obscure
D. heretic…obfuscated
E. demagogue…obliterated

Now forget about it, because this question is axed, gone, and as unwelcome on the SAT as a selfie stick at Disney World.

This is bad enough. Don't ruin the Tea Cups for everyone with flying projectiles. (Source)

Determining the Meaning of Words and Phrases in Context

Because the College Board is now all about useful, real-world situations, every question on the new SAT Reading Test is based on a reading passage. The SAT peeps don't care anymore that we can memorize long lists of vocabulary words. We're guessing they may have also heard about Google's "define" function last year.

As of this year, the SAT cares about our ability to figure out what a word means from the context of the passage itself. It's trying to protect us from overreliance on our Google safety blanket, apparently.

Questions about the meaning of words and phrases in context are always formatted the same way, which is like this.

• As it is used in line 21, the word "languor" most nearly means

In a throwback to the old version of the test, some of the words assessed in these questions may be more sophisticated. (Think "languor" or "obfuscate.") We'll get to those in a minute. In most cases, though, these questions ask about words that aren't featured in the Scripps Spelling Bee or on our Shmoopy SAT vocabulary flashcards at all.

Multiple-Meaning Words

Instead, many of the questions ask about relatively well-known words that can have multiple meanings depending on how they're used in a sentence. As an example, check out "custom" or "sanction."

The tailor specializes in custom ball gowns.
 
In some countries, custom dictates the wearing of ball gowns to sports games.
 
Iran would very much prefer if the sanctions against it were lifted.
 
This glitter pen is sanctioned by glitter-loving teachers everywhere.

In the examples above, we'll use the sentence around the words, the context, to hone in on what the words mean. The context of the first sentence tells us that this version of custom is associated with clothing. It's something you specialize in, and it requires a skilled tailor. We'll go ahead and make the educated guess that custom in this sentence refers to something that's custom made, instead of a habit or tradition.

The other kind of custom, appears in the second sentence, and in wedding traditions around the globe.

We can also work the context clues to define sanction. According to the first sentence, a sanction is preventing Iran from doing what it wants to do. Reminds us of Mama Shmoop's strict stance towards blue hair. Mental conclusion? Sanction means rule or threatened penalty.

Another strategy is to think of a familiar synonym to replace the vocabulary word. In the example sentence about glitter pens, we might guess that the phrase officially approved would be a good synonym for the type of sanction that we think this sentence is talking about.

Then plug in that synonym to the original sentence to see if it still makes sense.

This glitter pen is [officially approved] by glitter-loving teachers everywhere.

Yep, that still makes sense. In fact, it sounds spot-on. From here, we can look for an answer option close to officially approved in the answer choices.

If the proposed synonym doesn't make sense in its new sentence's home, it's time to exchange that synonym for a different one. No worries, though. Synonyms have lifetime return policies.

Difficult Words

The other brand of Interpreting Words in Context question asks about words that don't have multiple meanings but are, well, difficult. When this happens, we may need to look for context farther around the text than the word's home sentence.

Sadly, the SAT Reading Test isn't likely to use many of the classic (and easy) context clues. There probably won't be a synonym right after the word in question and setting it off with commas.

The robot was assiduous, or diligent, in its duties.

Nope, probably not going to happen. Too easy.

This might happen, though.

The robot was assiduous in its duties. It took great care to have the breakfast prepared on time. It consistently arrived ten minutes early for work and left nearly twenty minutes late every night, taking extra time to be sure that every task was completed.

That's probable. The passage doesn't hand out a synonym for the taking, but it does describe the robot as diligent and attentive. We'd look for words or choices similar diligent and attentive in the answer choices. We'd also start locking the doors and outfitting a bunker with supplies for the impending robot revolution. Maybe that's just us.

Need more on figuring out what a word means? We've got you covered.

Sample Question

The following excerpt is from the article "Polar Bears Shifting to Areas with More Sea Ice," an article from the U.S. Geological Survey.

The study also confirmed earlier work that suggests that modern polar bears stem from one or several hybridization events with brown bears. No evidence of current polar bear-brown bear hybridization was found in the more than 2,800 samples examined in the study. Scientists conclude that the hybrid bears that have been observed in the Northern Beaufort Sea region of Canada represent a recent and localized phenomenon.

(Source)

1. As used in line 2, "current" most nearly means

A. present-day.
B. slowly developing.
C. moving water.
D. accidental.

The correct answer is (A).

Unlike the word "currant," which is a delicious fruit with only one meaning, the word "current" has multiple meanings. In this case, "current" modifies the hybridization that's taking place between two species of bear. Line 4 mentions that this hybridization is a "recent" phenomenon, leading us to believe that this version of "current" probably means "happening right now," as in the present day (A).

The other, second meaning of "current" refers to the kind that creates waves in the ocean and carries unwary surfers out to sea (C). Polar bears may be excellent swimmers, but there's nothing in this passage about the movement of water.

The other two choices, "slowly developing" (B) and "accidental" (D), would make grammatical sense if substituted into the sentence, but they're out of place in the context of the passage. The mention of "recent" tells us that we need a word with a similar meaning, and neither of these choices fit the bill.

Study Break

In other happy news, rest easy that foreign and fury-inducing words like bourgeoisie do not appear on the SAT without proper context. You have Shmoop's permission to drop those Rosetta Stone French lessons now.

Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 2.02: Discussion Board

Two minds are better than one, and a whole classful of minds is better than pretty much anything except Nutella. Throughout the unit, if you want to share some SAT Reading study strategies with the rest of the gang, head on over to the discussion board.

Hopefully your classmates will share right back.