Critical Reading: Dancing Around the Maypole

Did you ever dance around the maypole? You hold a colored ribbon which is attached to the top of the pole and you weave in and out and around the other kids and you end up with a decorated pole.

The pole holds it all together

It struck me today that it’s a good analogy to the Critical Reading section on the SAT. The questions in the reading section are like the different colored ribbons – they each may deal with a different idea. But they are all attached, or centered, around the main idea of the passage. If you can keep your eye on the pole (or remember how this particular question relates to the main idea), it will make finding the right answer much easier.

A real example

This is a passage about animal perception from  Test 8, Section 2 in the Blue Book.  Here’s part of the first paragraph:

“Anyone who trains animals recognizes that human and animal perceptual capacities are different. For most humans, seeing is believing….But for dogs, scenting is believing.”

Further down in the passage it says,

“So if Fido and I are sitting on the terrace, admiring the view, we inhabit worlds with radically different principles of phenomenology. Say that the wind is to our backs. Our world lies all before us, with in a 180 degree angle. The dog’s – well, we don’t know, do we?

He sees roughly the same things that I see but he believes the scents of the garden behind us. He marks that path of the black-and-white cat as she moves among the roses in search of the bits of chicken sandwich I let fall as I walked form the house to our picnic spot. I can show that Fido is alert to the kitty, but not how.”

Where is the maypole?

The main idea of the passage is that humans see and understand the world through our sight and that dogs see and understand the world through their noses.

What if you don’t know one of the words?

11. The example in the last paragraph suggest that “principle of phenomenology” mentioned in [the previous paragraph] can best be defined as

A. memorable things that happen
B. behaviors caused by certain kinds of perception
C. ways and means of knowing about something
D. rules one uses to determine the philosophical truth about a certain thing
E. effects of a single individual’s perception on what other believe

 Most of my students don’t know what phenomenology means and therefore skip this question entirely. But I don’t think they need to. Let’s see how each answer choice relates to the main idea

A. Nope. The main idea is how humans and dogs understand their worlds through different senses, not things that happen

B. Close, but still not right. The focus is on the different means of understanding, not on behaviors caused by these different perceptions

C. This could work.

D. Nope. Again, the main idea is how humans and dogs take in information about the world, not about ‘rules’ or ‘philosophical truth’

E. Nope. The passage isn’t about how one person’s (or dog’s) perception influences anyone else’s

 What if you don’t understand the question?

12. The missing phrase in the incomplete sentence “The dog’s – well, we don’t know, do we?” refers to

A. color blindness
B. depth perception
C. perception of the world
D. concern for our perceptions
E. motivation for action

 Again, let’s look at each answer choice in terms of the main idea.

A. Nope.
B. Nope
C. Yes – this could work. It’s talking about how the dog perceives the world
D. Nope
E. Nope

Summary

Staying relentlessly focused on the main idea throughout the critical reading section will help you dance your way to higher SAT scores!

*BTW – The College Board publishes online solutions to all of the answers in their free official tests. I think their explanations for the critical reading section are particularly helpful – they explain why the right answer is right and why every other answer is wrong. It helps you get into their heads and understand what they are looking for in these passages.