SAT #17 Reading (Questions 16-17)

Question

The passage implies that when conducting his laboratory work, Fernbach would have been most surprised by which finding [...]?

Answer 1

Answer Choices D and D are the correct answers because Lines 44-49 say, “Fernbach’s idea was that such an exercise would force many to realize just how little they really know about cap and trade, and confronted with their own ignorance, they would dampen their own enthusiasm.” These Lines tell us clearly that Fernbach expected individuals to have a poor understanding of the complex ideas which they were enthusiastic about, so we would expect him to be surprised at the opposite finding. This most closely matches Answer Choice D which says that Fernbach would have been surprised if, “When volunteers were asked questions about complex issues, those with the most extreme views were found to have the best overall understanding of them.” For Question 17, Answer Choice A is incorrect because it only explains the features of the group used in the experiment and doesn’t suggest something which Fernbach might have been surprised by. Answer Choice B is incorrect because it also only explains the methodology of the experiment, and not something that Fernbach might be surprised by. Answer Choice C is incorrect because it also only discusses the overall methodology of the experiment, and not something that would have surprised Fernbach. For Question 16, Answer Choice A is incorrect because neither the Passage nor the Texts suggest that Fernbach believed that there was a link between the complexity of an issue and the strength of volunteers’ position on it, so it’s doubtful that he would be surprised by not finding that link. Answer Choice B is incorrect because Fernbach didn’t expect volunteers’ understanding of an issue to increase after analyzing an issue, so he’d be unlikely to be surprised if it didn’t increase. Answer Choice C is incorrect because neither the Passage nor our Texts say that Fernbach expected that listing reasons for a policy would affect volunteers’ views in any significant way.