SAT #11 Reading (Question 7 & 8)

Question

Based on the artistic philosophy expressed in the fourth paragraph (lines 46-59), it is reasonable to infer that Precious Auntie would consider a hastily written first draft to be [...]?

Answer 1

Answer Choices C and C are the correct answers because Lines 52-55 say, “You simply write what is swimming on the top of your brain. And the top is nothing but pond scum, dead leaves, and mosquito spawn,” which best answers how “Precious Auntie would consider a hastily written first draft of a story to be.” For Question 7, Answer Choice C most closely matches this Text when it says Precious Auntie would consider such a story, “essentially worthless in and of itself.” For Question 8, Answer Choice A is incorrect because it only tells us that Precious Auntie believes everything has a purpose, not how she would consider a hastily written first draft. Answer Choice B is incorrect because it only comments on the qualities of “good ink,” not how she would consider a first draft. Answer Choice D is incorrect because it details the importance, thought process and benefit of using an inkstick and inkstone, not how she would consider a first draft.

How to solve this? Question 7 asks, “Based on the artistic philosophy expressed in the fourth paragraph (lines 46-59), it is reasonable to infer that Precious Auntie would consider a hastily written first draft of a story to be [...]?” Because this is a Paired Question, we should begin by going through the answer choices for Question 8 and looking for any texts that can answer how Precious Auntie would consider such a draft. Our attention should be drawn especially to the words “hastily written,” which tell us that our answer will probably have something to do with a hurried, poorly completed work of art.

For Question 8, Answer Choice A says, “As he said this, Precious Auntie came back into mind. I was remembering how she taught me that everything, even ink, had a purpose and a meaning.” Because this answer choice doesn’t tell us anything about how Precious Auntie would consider a “hastily, written first draft,” we should eliminate this option. Answer Choice B says, “Good ink cannot be the quick kind, ready to pour out of a bottle.” Because this answer choice only comments on the quality of ink and not a quickly written draft, we should eliminate this option. Answer Choice C says, “You simply write what is swimming on the top of your brain. And the top is nothing but pond scum, dead leaves, and mosquito spawn.” Expanding the reference a little, we see that here Precious Auntie is discussing the “quick kind” of “modern ink,” and contrasting it the slower kind of ink. Because these lines reference a written first draft as well as the speed with which it’s written, we should keep this option. Answer Choice D says, “You push and you ask yourself, What are my intentions? What is in my heart that matches my mind?” Because this answer choice refers to the thoughts that follow the use of an old version of ink, involving the inkstick and inkstone, and the slowness of that ink, we should eliminate this option. That leaves us with Answer Choice C, which we should for our correct answer for Question 8.

Answer Choice C says, “You simply write what is swimming on the top of your brain. And the top is nothing but pond scum, dead leaves, and mosquito spawn.” Taking this as our evidence for how Precious Auntie would feel about a “hastily written first draft,” we can say that she would take a strongly negative stance towards one, considering it “pond scum, dead leaves and mosquito spawn.”

For Question 7, Answer Choice A says that Precious Auntie would consider a draft like this to be, “emotionally raw and powerful.” The word “raw” might be the only plausible thing about this answer choice, but because the Text doesn’t tell us anything about a draft being emotional and powerful, and because it isn’t negative enough, we should eliminate this option. Answer Choice B says that she would consider such a draft to be, “creatively satisfying for the author.” This answer choice is also not negative enough, nor does our Text talk about the creative satisfaction of the author, so we should eliminate this option as well. Answer Choice C says she would consider such a draft to be “essentially worthless in and of itself.” Because this answer choice is both negative and captures the Precious Auntie’s view of the work as “worthless” or “nothing but pond scum,” we should keep this option. Answer Choice D says that Precious Auntie would consider such a draft to be “inappropriately analytical for a piece of art.” Because our Text doesn’t mention the analytical nature of such a draft, and because this option isn’t negative enough, we should eliminate it. This leaves us with Answer Choice C, which we should choose as our correct answer for Question 8.