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Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
The fact that MTV, the cable channel devoted primarily to music, provided extensive coverage of the 1992 presidential race demonstrates how ------- politics and popular music culture have become.
obscured
contradictory
interrelated
enclosed
permeated
The sentence states that MTV, which is “devoted primarily to music,” covered a “presidential race,” which is an example of politics. This implies that politics and music are “interrelated,” or connected.
Difficulty: Medium Question Type: Sentence Completions (Critical Reading)
Read the following SAT test question, then click on a button to select your answer.
Of 5 employees, 3 are to be assigned an office and 2 are to be assigned a cubicle. If 3 of the employees are men and 2 are women, and if those assigned an office are to be chosen at random, what is the probability that the offices will be assigned to 2 of the men and 1 of the women?
Of the 5 office workers, 3 are to be assigned an office. This is an example of combinations: to find the number of ways of choosing 3 of the 5 workers, you can count the number of ways of selecting the workers one at a time and then divide by the number of times each group of 3 workers will be repeated.
There are 5 ways of choosing the first worker to get an office. Then there will be 4 ways of choosing the second worker to get an office, and 3 ways of choosing the third worker. This is a total of 5 × 4 × 3 = 60 possibilities. In these 60 possible selections, each distinct group of 3 workers will occur 3 × 2 × 1 = 6 times. (There are 3 possibilities for the first worker chosen from the group, 2 for the second worker chosen, and only 1 for the third.) Therefore, there are = 10 different ways the 3 workers who get an office can be chosen from the 5 workers.
How many of these 10 possible groups of 3 workers consist of 2 men and 1 woman? From the 3 male workers, 2 can be chosen in 3 different ways. There are 2 possibilities for the female worker. Therefore, 3 × 2 = 6 of the groups of 3 workers consist of 2 men and 1 woman.
Since there are 10 different ways the 3 workers who get an office can be chosen, and 6 of these possible groups of 3 workers consist of 2 men and 1 woman, the probability that the offices will be assigned to 2 men and 1 woman is , or .
Correct Answer: 4 Difficulty: Hard Question Type: Standard Multiple Choice (Mathematics)
Part of the following sentence is underlined; beneath the sentence are five ways of phrasing the underlined material. Select the option that produces the best sentence. If you think the original phrasing produces a better sentence than any of the alternatives, select choice A.
Like machinery was integral to the development of industrial capitalism, so the rapid transfer of information is the force driving modern business.
Like
Given that
Since
Just as
Although
Choice (4) is correct. It avoids the error of the original by providing the appropriate phrase “Just as” to complete the comparison (“Just as machinery … so the rapid transfer of information”).
Part of the following sentence is underlined; beneath the sentence are five ways of phrasing the underlined material. Select the option that produces the best sentence. If you think the original phrasing produces a better sentence than any of the alternatives, select choice A.
Woody Guthrie wrote and adapted more than a thousand songs, many of them are about the struggles of workers and the poor in the United States.
many of them are
many of which are
many are
which are, many of them,
and many of them that are
Choice (2) is correct. It avoids the comma-splice error of the original by using the pronoun “which” in place of the pronoun “them,” thereby turning what was originally an independent clause (“many of them are … United States”) into a relative clause that modifies “songs.”
