Young Writers Society

I've come to the conclusion that my PSAT practice tests given to me by my teacher are completely wacked out and contain ridiculous answers.

Observe.

Select the choice which best replaces the underlined phrase in terms of effectiveness and correctness.

"By the sixteenth century, the old geocrentric order had been shattered by Copernicus, the moral order undermined by Montaigne, and Machiavelli destroyed the political order."

(a) Machiavelli destroyed the political order.
(b) Machiavelli had destroyed the political order.
(c) the political order had been destroyed by Machiavelli
(d) the political order destroyed by Machiavelli
(e) the political order was destroyed by Machiavelli.

I chose D because it matched the structure of the other clauses in the sentence. The answer sheet claims the answer is B. I don't believe B is the right answer. Help me out.

Here's another:

"Edgar Allen poe was a virtuoso at plot construction, he refined the short story form to near perfection."

(a) Edgar Allen poe was a virtuoso at plot construction, he refined the short story form to near perfection.
(b) A virtuoso at plot construction, Edgar Allen Poe refined the short-story form to near perfection.
(c) The one who refined the form of the short story to near perfection was a virtuoso at plot construction, Edgar Allen Poe.
(d) The nearly perfect short-story form was refined by Edgar Allen Poe, and he was a virtuoso at plot construction.
(e) Being the virtuoso at plot construction, the short-story form was refined to near perfection by Edghar Allen Poe.

I selected B. The answer sheet says it's A. I find that hard to believe as the comma does not satisfy a job that a semicolon would be needed to do. Help me out.

Yet another:

"Determined to locate the famous statue, the museum's confusing map was scrutinized by Howard and Christine."

(a) the museum's confusing map was scrutinized by Howard and Christine.
(b) Howard and Christine scrutinized the museum's confusing map.
(c) Howard and Christine were confused, and the mueum's map was scrutinized by them.
(d) the museum's map, which was confusing, was scrutinized by Howard and Christine.
(e) confused, Howard and Christine scrutinizing the museum's map.

I selected B as my answer. The answer sheet claims it's A. I find that hard to believe since it was not the the confusing map which was determined to the find the statue.

And these are just a few of these damn things. So am I right or wrong?

On the last one, I agree with you (but in my experience College Board can be plain nutty, so it doesn't surprise me too much), but there is probably a reason, we just don't see it. Eh... their answer is also in passive voice, whereas your choice is active (which always is better), but I think it's because the map is the subject, not Howard and Christine. But I still don't like the sentence, hence my dilemma with anything SAT-ish.

On the first one, you have to have "had" in the sentence. Yeah, it's a bad example, but they're going for parallelism (sp?) there. Oh... eh...well. College board drives me insane. Between the three clauses, there's three different sentence structures. You right going for same sentence structure, though... *ponders* Quite frankly those are horrible questions, but there must be a reason! The "had" must be part of it, but it's not a parallel structure because the second clause (unless they're counting it as subordinate? Or is that even the right POS?)... meh. It's mental, it is. If anything, the answer should be C, and the second clause re-written. When I took my SATs, I kept wanting to just re-word the entire thing -- it drove me crazy!

As for the second question: I agree about the semi-colon, but it makes more sense than B to me. B is an awkward subordinate clause, and then the main clause which sounds incomplete if read alone. E, D, and C can be eliminated pretty quickly, which leaves B (rather awkward), and A (incorrect punctuation, but otherwise correct). Messy, but A is a better choice.

Moral of this story? College Board doesn't know as much as they think they do. In theory. Or this is all really a conspiracy plot, but I'll save that for debate.

MisterWaffles--


Don't be duped. CollegeBoard does not always give you a right answer. There is a peculiar clause in the instructions which reads "choose the best answer"--this is a tricky yet crucial ability to master.

Mesh otherwise said all I was going to say.


Best,
Brad

Good luck Waffles! I've got the test tomorrow, so wish me luck too! *crosses fingers* I just hope I do well on that dang math section...

Wiggy

I took the test yesterday. I took it as a state thing. I'm hoping to get my result by the beginning of Dec. And from my conclusion on your answers and theirs, I'm not going to do so well. Horrible buggers!

But, I wish you the best luck.

Yeah. I think many schools took it yesterday.

Glad it's over with.

Took it yesterday....and my calculator failed during the math portion.

Good luck.

STUDY THE VOCABULARY!!