Vocabulary on the New SAT
The new SAT places greater importance on
testing the meaning of words in the context of
a sentence, paragraph, or passage. That’s why Analogies, the dreaded
question type that tested vocabulary knowledge in a vacuum, were
dumped for the new version of the SAT. Analogies looked something
like this:
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|
|
2. EVIL : DIABOLICAL
:: |
| (A) |
good : devilish |
| (B) |
good : angelic |
| (C) |
bad : beneficent |
| (D) |
bad : amoral |
| (E) |
immoral : saintly |
|
(The answer, by the way, is B; just as a
diabolical person does evil, an angelic person does good.)
On the new SAT, your knowledge of vocabulary is now directly
tested in the Critical Reading section via Sentence Completions and
a Reading Passage question type called Vocabulary-in-Context.
Here’s an example of each:
Sentence Completions
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|
|
3. Recipes
for watercolor paint caution against adding too much pigment, lest
the paint become -------, resulting in watercolors that are too
thick and sticky to work with properly. |
| (A) |
translucent |
| (B) |
ponderous |
| (C) |
malleable |
| (D) |
glutinous |
| (E) |
vitiated |
|
The answer is D; glutinous means
“having the quality of glue; gummy; sticky.”
Reading Passages
The relevant lines of text from the passage are excerpted
directly below.
During his drip-paintings period, Jackson
Pollack worked both feverishly and deliberately, flinging paint
with abandon, but always according to a loosely preconceived scheme.
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| 4. |
As used
in line 19, “feverishly” most nearly means |
| (A) |
sickly |
| (B) |
haphazardly |
| (C) |
languidly |
| (D) |
actively |
| (E) |
carefully |
|
The answer is D; feverishly means
“with intense emotion or activity.”
In both cases, vocabulary is tested within sentences.
Context matters and can help you figure out the proper meaning.
But context clues are only a part of the story.
