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SAT – Reading

What does the SAT Reading Section test?

The Reading section is designed to measure a student’s ability to understand, analyze, and interpret written texts. The questions are based on passages from a variety of sources, including literature, science, and social studies. The passages are typically between 500 and 750 words long, and students are expected to read them carefully before answering the questions.

The Reading section assesses a student’s ability to:

Identify key ideas and details
Determine the meaning of words and phrases in context
Analyze the structure of a text
Analyze the author’s purpose and point of view
Integrate information from multiple sources
Evaluate the effectiveness of an argument or claim

To do well on the SAT Reading section, students should practice reading a variety of texts and familiarize themselves with the types of questions that are typically asked. It’s also important to manage time effectively during the test, as there are many questions to answer within a relatively short period of time.

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SAT Reading Sample:

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.

Literature often reflects life. Authors are shaped by the society in which they live and write about what they know, like Joseph Conrad, who wrote about the sea having had a career on ships, or F. Scott Fitzgerald, who grew up on the East Coast and based many of his books on places in New York and New Jersey. The fictional setting of West Egg in “The Great Gatsby” is based on Great Neck, a portion of Long Island where he happened to live for three years. Certainly, a writer’s experiences influence what ends up on the page, but occasionally, books can have as great of an influence on the world as the world has on their writers. They can be instruments for change.

One example is Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist,” in which the fate of orphaned children condemned to the workhouse is portrayed. They were little more than prisons for poor people, with children as young as three set to unpicking old rope to make “oakum” (a tarry mass of fibers used to seal the joints in wooden ships) that the workhouses profited from.
Dickens’ work didn’t result in an immediate change in the law, but it highlighted the appalling conditions and the corruption involved in workhouse administration and made it a topic of conversation that eventually led to reforms.

Another example is “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair, although the results he would have liked were not what he got.

The book pointed out the unsavory conditions in the meatpacking industry in 1900s Chicago. It was denounced as being un-American, and while Sinclair wanted to highlight the exploitation of workers, his readers focused on the appalling way their food was being handled. It forced Roosevelt to investigate and ultimately resulted in a change in the law to make food production more sanitary.

Reading Sample Questions:

Sample Question #1
Which influences on a writer are NOT mentioned?
A. work
B. home
C. society
D. religion

Answer: D – The author refers to the work Conrad did (A) and to the place where Twain lived (B) and to a societal problem in Dickens’ time (C), but nowhere does it mention religion (D).

Sample Question #2
The author refers to the practice of picking oakum in order to
A. illustrate how poor workhouse children were.
B. highlight the exploitative nature of workhouse administrators.
C. shock readers with the inhumane conditions in workhouses.
D. offer an example appropriate to the time period concerned.

Answer: B – The author refers to the “appalling conditions and the corruption involved in workhouse administration,” and the example of three-year-olds being exploited by picking oakum illustrates both the awful conditions (it was a hard, dirty job) and the corruption of the workhouse authorities in making money off the toddlers they were supposed to care for. It doesn’t illustrate how poor workhouse children were (A) by suggesting they’d do anything for a few pennies, because they weren’t doing the job to earn money for themselves; that went to the workhouse administrators; the children were compelled to work. The author doesn’t do it just to shock readers (C), but simply to illustrate the awful conditions, and while it does offer an example appropriate to the time period (D) as Dickens lived during the Age of Sail, that isn’t why; any example would be relevant to the period because workhouses were of that period too.

Sample Question #3
The author would most likely agree that books can bring about social change
A. by ridiculing current practices.
B. by forcing lawmakers to take action.
C. by engaging the public in debate.
D. by bringing issues to light.

Answer: D – The author would most likely agree that books bring about change by bringing issues to light. People who read Dickens’ books would not have been aware of how dreadful workhouses were because they lived in a completely different area of society; people in the U.S. were unconnected with the meat-packing factories of Chicago and would not have been aware of the unhygienic methods in use. By writing about them, the authors highlight an issue and bring it to the public’s attention. (A) is incorrect because although some authors might ridicule a particular practice, it is not the ridicule that leads to reform but the fact the issue is out in the open. (B) is incorrect because it is public pressure that forces change to the law, not the books themselves. (C) is incorrect because books can only prompt public debate—they can’t engage in it.

Sample Question #4
According to the passage,
A. Upton Sinclair was branded as anti-American.
B. “The Jungle” was consciously directed at Roosevelt.
C. Sinclair wanted food prepared in more hygienic conditions.
D. readers misunderstood Sinclair’s intentions in “The Jungle.”

Answer: D – The passage tells us that “while Sinclair wanted to highlight the exploitation of workers, his readers focused on the appalling way their food was being handled,” so his readers missed Sinclair’s point; they misunderstood why he wrote the book. The book was branded “un-American,” but Sinclair wasn’t branded anti-American (A). The book wasn’t deliberately targeting Roosevelt (B); he was just forced to act when readers became appalled at the state of the meat-packing industry. Sinclair probably did want food to be prepared in more hygienic conditions (C), but that isn’t what the passage says; it says that’s what the public picked up on and what they wanted changed.

Sample Question #5
The main idea of this passage is that
A. legal changes may be brought about by indirect means.
B. society both influences and is influenced by writers.
C. Dickens and Sinclair were champions of reform.
D. literature is a mirror of society.

Answer: B – The passage explains in the first paragraph how writers are influenced by the society in which they live and their experiences of life, and in the next two paragraphs how books influence society and can bring about change. So, the main idea is that society both influences and is influenced by writers. While the passage shows that legal changes can be brought about by indirect means (A), that is not the main idea. The passage says that works by Dickens and Sinclair highlighted issues that needed changing, but it is too strong to say they were “Champions of Reform” (C); they weren’t campaigners in that sense. (D) is only partially true because the passage is about more than books reflecting the society in which their authors lived, but about society changing as a result of the books people read.

Sample Question #6
As it is used in this passage, unsavory most nearly means
A. disgusting.
B. impoverished
C. untrustworthy
D. disorganized.

Answer: A – The author says that conditions in the meat-packing factories of Chicago were unsavory, meaning disgusting, unpleasant, or repellent. Unsavory can mean untrustworthy (C), but not in this context. It does not mean impoverished (B) or disorganized (D).