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SAT Reading 4.2 Passage Comparison 171 Views


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Description:

SAT Reading: Passage Comparison Drill 4, Problem 2

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here's your shmoop du jour, brought to you by Ellis Island. A great place to try to see

00:08

up the Statue of Liberty's robe.

00:22

In line 56, "destitute" most nearly means... what?

00:26

And here are the potential answers...

00:32

The question points us to line 56, so to line 56 we go.

00:36

According to the passage, one of the immigration laws of the late 19th century was aimed at

00:41

preventing "destitute" people from coming to the United States for the sole purpose

00:46

of going on welfare.

00:48

By following this train of thought, we can conclude that the law thought people without

00:53

money would want to apply for money from the government. So, basically, we're looking

00:57

for a word that means "poor."

00:59

Being poor might be kind of depressing, but not having any money doesn't necessarily

01:03

mean that you're sad all the time.

01:07

So Choice (A) is a no. The prefix "de" in front of "stabilized"

01:12

reminds us that the word refers to something that's been made unstable. Being "destitute"

01:18

is most likely not a very stable situation...

01:22

But--again--these two words don't always go hand in hand. Choice (B) is out.

01:26

When a person is distinguished it usually means that they're super good at something

01:30

and everybody thinks they're awesome.

01:32

We've never heard of anybody who was "distinguished" for being poor, so we're gonna scratch (C).

01:39

"Partial" means to be biased toward or in favor of something...

01:46

But when you add the prefix "im," which usually means "not," to the word it suddenly

01:50

means the opposite: "not partial."

01:55

Of course, being impartial doesn't have much to do with being poor either, so (D) is rejected.

02:03

Okay, here's one of the few examples of when the prefix "im" doesn't mean "not."

02:12

"Impoverished" comes from the root word poverty, which is the state of being extremely

02:18

poor. If our rule about "im" meaning "not" was true here, then "impoverished" would

02:23

mean "not poor."

02:26

However, in this case the prefix takes on one of its alternative meanings: "within."

02:32

So, impoverished means to be "within a state of poverty" and refers to anyone who's

02:37

really poor.

02:42

This, of course, matches the definition of "destitute" for which we've been looking;

02:46

so (E) is the correct answer.

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