All SAT Writing Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #191 : Improving Paragraphs
1 The famous artist Man Ray is not nearly as well known as Picasso or Dalí, however, he contributed significantly to 20th century art. 2 Man Ray was particularly influential in Surrealism and Dadaism. 3 He worked in a variety of media including painting and photography, and he renamed a certain type of shadow-image photography “rayographs” after himself. 4 Born in Pennsylvania Ray lived in both New York City and Paris. 5 He also worked with fabric and collage.
Where should Sentence 5 be moved?
Before Sentence 3
Before Sentence 2
It should not be moved.
Before Sentence 4
Before Sentence 1
Before Sentence 4
Sentence 5 discusses media in which the artist worked, so it should immediately follow Sentence 4, which introduces the same subject.
Example Question #192 : Improving Paragraphs
1 The tornado, a dreaded meteorological phenomena and a verifiable force of nature. 2 But what is it really? 3 Also known as a twister or a cyclone, tornadoes are rapidly rotating funnels of air linked between a cloud and either the surface of the earth or water. 4 They are caused by the creation of strong thunderstorms by rotating columns of air, resultantly increased rainfall causes increased downward air movement. 5 Rather than the Richter scale measures the strength of hurricanes the Fujita scale measures the strength of a tornado. 6 This natural disasters’ destructive mite is commemorated in such classic films as the 1996, movie, Twister. 7 And the 2014 “Into the Storm” and even the 2013 sparse “Sharknado.” 8 The Fujita scale, also called the F-scale, was named after an employee at the University of Chicago and originally had 13 different levels. 9 The thirteenth level of the scale is used to describe only the most awe inspiring of tornadoes.
What change should be made to Sentence 8?
It should be deleted
It should not be moved, deleted, or altered in any way.
It should be moved after Sentence 5
It should be rewritten to correct grammatical errors
It should be moved before Sentence 5
It should be deleted
While grammatically correct, Sentence 8 is not relevant to the passage as a whole. It may be tempting to move it after the sentence in which the Fujita scale is first discussed, but this decision would interfere with the flow of the text and would preserve irrelevant, unnecessary information.
Example Question #192 : Improving Paragraphs
1 That’s why codes of discipline have arisen for raising factual or difficult children. 2 Some experts avow for strict authoritative castigation at all times while others argue for gentle or praise centric approaches. 3 Many parents find themselves confounded with the problem of unruly children. 4 Most adults however can agree that consistency and consequences are two key components of disciplining any child from the most pugilist to the most mild-mannered. 5 Being too permissive or too authoritarian can ultimately result with many instances of bad behavior.
Where should Sentence 3 be moved in the passage?
Before Sentence 2
Before Sentence 6
Before Sentence 1
Before Sentence 5
It should not be moved.
Before Sentence 1
It’s clear from the beginning words (“That’s why”) that Sentence 1 is not a good introduction for this essay; it explains a problem that hasn’t fully been developed in the passage yet. Moving Sentence 3 to the beginning of the passage would provide a seamless introduction and transition into the rest of the passage.
Example Question #193 : Improving Paragraphs
1 Most of you probably know essays to be boring, tendentious assignments required for English class. 2 However the essay has a fascinating history.3 Did you know that the first known example of an essay came in the 16th-century? 4 Its author was Michel de Montaigne the French philosopher. 5 Today the genre includes such disparate types as the dialectic, the narrative, the critical, the historical, the descriptive, and the lyric essay. 6 The genre progressed with essays such as Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s On Poesy or Art, and Virginia Woolf’s A Room of Her Own.” 7 It remains to be, see how the essay will evolve in the future.
Where should Sentence 6 be moved?
Before Sentence 2
Before Sentence 1
Before Sentence 4
Before Sentence 3
Before Sentence 5
Before Sentence 5
The events in Sentence 6 occur chronologically after Sentence 4 and before Sentence 5, so that is where the sentence belongs.
Example Question #194 : Improving Paragraphs
1 W. Somerset Maugham was a proliferate and English author of more than two dozen books. 2 Born in 1874 and orphaned at a young age, also working as an ambulance driver in World War I and studying medicine in London. 3 Among his life he traveled in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, within other places, these experiences were also reflected in his writing. 4 His first novel, Liza of Lambeth, drew on these real-life experiences and became an instant bestseller, when it was published, in 1897. 5 One of Maugham’s most famous works, the American writer Theodore Dreiser gave a glowing review to the 1915 novel Of Human Bondage. 6 His legacy includes many plays, film adaptations, a tumultuous love life, an epigrammatic British literary award (the Somerset Maugham Award), and a steady if unexperimental oeuvre of fiction.
Where should Sentence 3 be moved?
After Sentence 4
After Sentence 6
After Sentence 1
It should not be moved.
After Sentence 5
After Sentence 4
Since we can infer that Sentence 3 occurred chronologically after the events of Sentence 4, they should be ordered accordingly.
Example Question #195 : Improving Paragraphs
1 Whether or not you are superstitious. 2 Fortunetelling has played a major role in many cultures.3 Also known as divination. 4 Western fortunetelling arose from the Romani people and such as reading tea leaves’, gazing into crystal balls, tarot reading, palmistry, and observing the flights, innards, or eating patterns of birds. 5 In William Shakespeare’s famous play “Julius Caesar,” for example, a soothsayer warns the soon to be assassinated Caesar to beware the Ides of March. 6 Western fortunetelling has also been influenced by Eastern divination methods such as the I Ching and to read coffee beans. 7 Unfortunately several major religions prescribe fortunetelling with very degrees of severity. 8 Despite, fortunetelling still thrives in contemporary culture, psychics and Magic-8 balls are just two of many fun ways to attempt to see into the future.
Where should Sentence 5 be moved?
Before Sentence 1
Before Sentence 2
Before Sentence 4
Before Sentence 3
It should not be moved.
Before Sentence 4
Sentence 3 discusses the fact that fortunetelling has played a significant role in many cultures, and Sentence 5 is an example of just such a role. Therefore, the former should precede the latter.
Example Question #196 : Improving Paragraphs
1 While maybe he wasn’t as well known as Bluebeard or Captain Kidd, Bill Johnston was still known as a feared pirate and river smuggler in his day.2 That day being the War of 1812. 3 You see, he came from a British Loyalist family and settled in Upper Canada before beginning a career as a Lake Ontario schooner captain, he carried legal cargo as well as smuggled tea and rum into Canada. 4 When the War of 1812 began he spied on the British for several years. 5 In 1838, his most famous escapade occurred: in the capture and burning of the enemy ship Sir Robert Peel. 6 Because Johnston was arrested many times during his life (including for this crime against the Sir Robert Peel), he always either escaped jail or was not convicted because of juries sympathetic view of his activities. 7 Many people do not know that another name for pirate is “corsair.” 8 Nevertheless, Johnston played many roles in his lifetime – everything from fugitive and corsair, criminal and hero.
Where should Sentence 5 be moved?
After Sentence 2
After Sentence 3
After Sentence 7
After Sentence 1
After Sentence 6
After Sentence 6
Sentence 5 occurs chronologically after Sentence 6, so there is no logical reason for it to precede that sentence.
Example Question #197 : Improving Paragraphs
1 Many people have an imminent dislike of crows, few know much at all about the bird. 2 “Crow” actually refers to a genus not a species that includes jackdaws, ravens, rooks and other birds. 3 Their dark color, striated cries, and appearance in horror movies all make it seem very omnivorous. 4 The truth about this genus is that the birds in it are incredibly intelligent – often nearly so as some apes. 5 Appearing on all continents except South America and Antarctica. 6 These perspicacious birds were once thought to predict the future, including weather and war plans. 7 Today, they are used for scientific research, hunting, or even being kept as pets.
Where should Sentence 3 be moved?
before Sentence 6
before Sentence 2
before Sentence 1
before Sentence 4 (no change)
before Sentence 5
before Sentence 2
Sentence 3 discusses reasons for people’s dislike of crows, so it makes the most sense to move it after Sentence 1, which introduces the idea that people dislike crows.
Example Question #33 : Moving Sentences
1 One of America’s most inflammatory early disasters, the Johnstown Flood. 2 It was occurring in 1889 after the collapse of the South Fork Dam in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. 3 Heavy rainfall invigorated a reservoir upriver, causing the dam to burst and more than 20 million tons of water pouring down the Conemaugh River. 4 The Johnstown Flood has been immortalized in poems, novels, songs, and films. 5 The committal flood killed more than 2,000 people and it required the attention of the American Red Cross, Clara Barton, and various lawsuits. 6 Compounding the disaster was the Stone Bridge, causing a fire that killed at least 80 people when burning debris caught fire. 7 Later people would fault the rich business tycoons who had weakened the reservoir for their own leisure, building cottages and a spillway along the dam to create the swarthy South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club.8 Nearly $4 million would be donated to relief funds, for Pennsylvanians the true horror never preceded.
Where should Sentence 4 be moved in the passage?
After Sentence 6
After Sentence 8
After Sentence 5
After Sentence 7
it should not be moved
After Sentence 8
Since Sentence 4 concerns the immortalization of the Johnstown Flood (which occurred chronologically after all the other events in the passage), it makes sense to move it to the very end of the text.
Example Question #34 : Moving Sentences
1 Have you ever heard of the Arts and Crafts movement? 2 The Arts and Crafts movement was an artistic revival of traditional craftsmanship that occurred in the late 1800s and early 1900s in the British Isles, Europe, and North America. 3 Scholars contempt that the movement was predicted on the assumption that medieval and folk art was superior to contemporary arts and decorations. 4 As such the movement deemed to correct the debasement of the decorative arts and promote beauty and fine craftsmanship.5 It was also a reaction to the increased industrialization of the Victorian age. 6 Some key figures in the movement’s inception were writer, John Ruskin, artist, William Morris, and, architect and designer, A. W. N. Pugin. 7 The movement extended to visual art, interior decorating, architecture, landscaping, and textile design, a widespread influence until it was eventually upstaged by Modernism.
Where should Sentence 5 be moved in the passage?
It should not be moved.
Before Sentence 2
Before Sentence 4
Before Sentence 1
Before Sentence 3
Before Sentence 4
Sentence 5 discusses a second contention that scholars make about Arts and Crafts; it also contains a pronoun (“It”) that refers directly to a noun (“the movement”) in Sentence 3. Therefore, it makes the most sense to move Sentence 5 before Sentence 4, which is itself a discussion of the implications of Sentences 3 and 4.
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