Sat practice Test #8 Answer Explanations

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Answer Explanations
SAT Practice Test #8
Section 1: Reading Test
QUESTION 1
Choice A is the best answer. The first paragraph explains the 
narrator’s love of reading: “Even then my only friends were made of 
paper and ink. . . . Where my school friends saw notches of ink on 
incomprehensible pages, I saw light, streets, and people.” The fourth 
paragraph reiterates this love in its description of the bookshop as 
a “sanctuary” and “refuge.” The shift in focus occurs in the last six 
paragraphs, which recount the gift of a book that transforms the 
narrator’s love of reading into a desire to write: “I did not think there 
could be a better [book] in the whole world and I was beginning 
to suspect that Mr. Dickens had written it just for me. Soon I was 
convinced that I didn’t want to do anything else in life but learn to do 
what Mr. Dickens had done.” Thus the passage’s overall focus shifts 
from the narrator’s love of reading to a specific incident that influences 
his decision to become a writer.
Choice B is incorrect because the passage never focuses on the 
narrator’s father, who primarily serves to illustrate the narrator’s 
determination to read books despite all obstacles. Choice C is incorrect 
because the passage focuses on the narrator’s desire to write rather 
than on whatever skill he may have as a writer. Choice D is incorrect 
because the passage doesn’t make the narrator’s childhood hardships 
its central focus or analyze the effects of those hardships.
QUESTION 2
Choice C is the best answer. In the first paragraph, the third sentence 
describes the narrator’s love of reading (“where my school friends saw 
notches of ink on incomprehensible pages, I saw light, streets, and 
people”), and the fourth sentence describes the role that reading played 
in the narrator’s life (“a safe haven from that home, those streets, and 
those troubled days in which even I could sense that only a limited 
fortune awaited me”). The remainder of the passage recounts incidents 
in which the narrator’s actions arise from his love of, and dependence 
on, reading. Thus the third and fourth sentences can be seen as 
describing a passion that accounts for those actions.
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Choice A is incorrect because although the narrator’s “school friends” 
are mentioned in passing in the third sentence, they aren’t introduced 
as proper characters and make no further appearance in the passage. 
Choice B is incorrect because the passage doesn’t list the difficult 
conditions of the narrator’s childhood until after these sentences. 
Choice D is incorrect because the narrator’s aspirations aren’t 
discussed until the last paragraph of the passage.
QUESTION 3