SAT Practice Test (#2) – Writing & Language Test

A modifier should match its antecedent in number and gender. Also, be wary of words that sound alike but have different meanings and uses. As it stands, the sentence incorrectly uses the adverb “there.” Since it refers to “great philosophers,” the correct word is the possessive pronoun “their,” which is often confused with “there.” Choice (B) is the correct answer.

Read carefully to identify the context of the underlined word. Then, choose the word that best fits the context of the sentence. The underlined word modifies “premodern sources of truth and knowledge,” which in turn refers to “political and religious tradition and authority.” The context of the sentence indicates that these were powerful ideas that were being challenged by newer ideas. Choice (D), “reigning,” conveys the idea that “political and religious tradition and authority” had monarch-like, or ruling, levels of power in people’s lives.

Determine the relationship between the two parts of the underlined sentence, and then think about which answer choice best conveys this relationship. The sentence states that “foundations of truth seemed to be crumbling,” and “Descartes’s writings proposed an alternative foundation.” The two ideas are connected to each other: Descartes’s writings were a response to this “crumbling.” Choice (B) is the answer that identifies this relationship.

Determine whether the modifying phrase in this sentence references the correct noun. If the modifier in this sentence is describing a person, then the noun that is described by the modifier should also be a person. Choice (C) correctly matches the modifier (beginning with “an expert”) to the noun “Descartes,” rather than the noun “work.”

Answer:   Determine the central claim in the paragraph and then come back to the question. The central claim of the paragraph is that Descartes’s work established the foundation for many modern ideas. The statement found in (A) provides information that best supports this claim and logically transitions to the following sentence. Choice (A) is correct.

Answer: Identify whether the sentence consists of two independent clauses or an independent and a dependent clause. This will provide guidance for punctuating it. The sentence consists of two independent clauses (“ Descartes arrived . . .” and “he could only be . . .”). Separating the independent clauses into two sentences is the best way to punctuate them. Choice (D) is the correct answer.

A grammatically correct sentence will include a verb whose form makes the sentence an independent clause. “Propelled by” needs the addition of an auxiliary verb for this sentence to stand alone. Inserting “were” before this phrase makes the sentence grammatically complete. Choice (D) is the correct answer.

Determine whether there is a way to make the sentence less wordy without changing its intended meaning. The sentence, especially in the context of the paragraph, seems to be saying that it’s difficult to determine exactly what Descartes did versus what other people at the time did. Both answer choices C and D change the meaning of the sentence slightly to say either that Descartes himself could not be separated from his contemporaries or that what they did was identical. Choice (B) is correct, because it eliminates the wordiness of the sentence while maintaining its meaning.

Determine what role this verb has in the sentence. What is the precise nature of the action it is describing? The sentence is about how Descartes’s work brought about shifts in thinking that critically influenced other developments. However, the word “begun,” A, does not precisely convey the power with which this occurred. Choice (C), “initiated,” conveys this meaning and is the correct answer.