SAT #15 Reading (Questions 47 & 48)

Question

The passage suggests that if Seydel had planted wheat or corn on the two agricultural strips in Hartmann’s experiment, the percentage of the surface of each strip covered with weeds would likely have been [...]?

Answer 1

Answer Choices A and B are the correct answers because Lines 55-57 say, “No crops were planted in these pilot experiments, to avoid possible competition with the emerging weeds.” These Lines suggest that if crops, like wheat or corn, were planted on these strips that there would be competition between them and the emerging weeds, making it likely for there to be less of the strip covered by weeds. This most closely matches Answer Choice A, which says that if these crops were planted, the percentage of the surface of each strip would be “lower than the percentage that Hartmann found.” 

For Question 47, Answer Choice B is incorrect because the Passage suggests that if crops were planted alongside the weeds, there would be competition between them, making it more likely that less weeds would grow, not that the strip would contain a higher percentage of them. answer Choice C is incorrect, because it makes a strong claim and because the Passage doesn’t suggest that it would be almost impossible to determine the percentage of weeds which would cover the strips. Answer Choice D is incorrect because the Passage suggests that competition would likely lower the amount of weeds present in the strips, not make them comparable to the amount found in the original projection.

For Question 48, Answer Choice A is incorrect because it only gives an element of the methodology of the experiment, and not something about the effect of growing other crops alongside the weeds. Answer Choice C is incorrect because it only describes the results as “dramatic,” without giving any clear evidence about the likely effect of growing crops on the strips. Answer Choice D is incorrect because it gives the final results of the experiment without crops, but doesn’t suggest how the presence of crops would likely affect the results.

How to solve this? The Question asks, “The passage suggests that if Seydel had planted wheat or corn on the two agricultural strips in Hartmann’s experiment, the percentage of the surface of each strip covered with weeds would likely have been [...]?” Because this is a Paired Question, to solve it we should begin by going through the answer choices for Question 48, looking for any texts that tell us about the likely effect of planting crops alongside the weeds.