SAT Skills Insight

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Reasoning and Inferencing

Skills needed to score in this band

SKILL 1: Perform clear, simple steps of reasoning

SKILL 2: Recognize a general idea, such as a paraphrase, that is supported by separate but related points in different sentences

Perform clear, simple steps of reasoning

Example

This passage is from a 1998 book about animal intelligence. The author has written extensively on animal behavior.

View Passage

A reading passage
Line Number	Text
	Animal communication studies have generally set out to catalog every sound an animal makes, simultaneously noting what the animal was doing at the time. Then labels are attached to the various sounds—food calls, mating
Line 5	calls, and so on. That very approach, of course, takes as a given that the purpose of animal signals is communica- tion, that animals have in place a system that evolved with no other purpose than to permit the transfer of messages, a sort of universal telegraph that can carry information
Line 10	without any special regard to its content, and that our main challenge is to decode the semantic meaning of those messages in each species. One problem that has consistently dogged these efforts is that the same “word” is used under highly varying
Line 15	circumstances. By the same token, different signals, even different regional “dialects,” are often employed in identical situations that ought to be assigned identical “meanings” under this methodology. Perhaps the most universal characteristic of animal
Line 20	signals is their adherence to a basic rule of pitch. High- pitched tones (a dog’s whine) convey appeasement, fear, and an overall nonthreatening state. Deep, rough sounds (a dog’s growl) convey aggression, hostility, threat. Ornithologist^* Eugene Morton analyzed the
Line 25	sounds of 56 bird and mammal species and found this pattern consistent throughout. Dogs growl, but so do opossums, rats, African elephants, pelicans, ring-necked pheasants, and Carolina chickadees; dogs whine, but so do guinea pigs, wombats, rhinoceroses, bobwhites, barn
Line 30	swallows, and mallards. So, in fact, do people. If you talk to a baby, you will find yourself naturally using a soft, high-pitched sound. If you are telling a dog (or a driver who just cut you off) to get out of your way, you will find yourself with equal instinct using a rough, low—even
Line 35	growling—sound. Morton calls this pattern of relationship between an animal’s motivation and the acoustic structure of the sound it employs a “motivational-structural rule.” Now why should you—or a rhinoceros or a sandpiper— obey these rules? The answer is a perfect illustration of
Line 40	how senders and receivers use one another to evolve signals without even knowing it. Big things make low sounds. A longer string or a longer organ pipe makes a lower sound than a short one. It is thus a physical fact that big animals make lower sounds than small ones. Now big
Line 45	animals did not go around making low sounds in order to show that they were big. Nonetheless, animals that learned to avoid low sounds saved their hides; animals that learned not to run at every peep and squeak saved a lot of wasted time and energy running from nonexistent threats.
Line 50	Back to the senders: Once animals began assessing signals based on pitch, the senders could exploit that fact for manipulative ends. An animal that sought to get another out of its face could use a lower-pitched sound. An animal that wanted another to come near could use a high-pitched
Line 55	sound. Back to the receivers: If there were no social advantage in assessing such manipulative uses of signals— signals that were once based on a true reflection of physical reality—the story might have ended right there. Receivers might simply have come to ignore such signals altogether.
Line 60	But there was an advantage: A growling animal is one that it pays to avoid—whether it is big or whether it is just feeling mean. A whining animal need not be avoided. These signals, in other words, have become “ritualized.” A social function has piggybacked a ride on a physical fact.
Line 65	This evolutionary perspective underscores the important fact that signals don’t evolve because they “mean” some- thing; they evolve because they work. Again, the unwitting feedback between sender and receiver works to create signals that are informative without any conscious intent
Line 70	for them to be so. Sender and receiver continually exploit one another; when the exploitation is mutually reinforcing, a stable and informative signaling pattern emerges. Animal behavior researcher Donald Griffin attacks the contention that animal signals lack meaning. He caricatures
Line 75	this view as the “GOP” position—animal sounds are but “groans of pain,” uncontrollable utterances that reflect internal physiological processes. But Morton’s argument suggests nothing of the kind. Evolved signaling can be intricate and effective without either being conscious or
Line 80	possessing semantic meaning. And like other behaviors under cognitive control, there is little doubt that in both sending signals and acting upon them, animals are often responding in a complex fashion to circumstances. This sort of unconscious decision making is absolutely no
Line 85	different from many other things animals do that involve a combination of genetically programmed and learned behaviors. Griffin suggests that animal communication is a window on the conscious minds of animals—that “it seems likely that animals often experience something
Line 90	similar to the message they communicate.” But if the messages are not messages at all, and if indeed they are unconscious products of natural selection, then Griffin’s argument is cast in a very different light.

^* A zoologist who studies birds.

Which assumption underlies the author’s discussion in lines 20–24 (“High-pitched . . . threat”)?

Answer Choices

(A) Dogs can be trained to make sounds similar to those of humans.
(B) Dogs tend to reflect the personalities of the people with whom they live.
(C) Dogs have emotions that are expressed through a variety of tones.
(D) Some breeds of dogs are more aggressive than others.
(E) A dog’s emotions can change rapidly during its encounters with other animals.

Reveal Answer

Recognize a general idea, such as a paraphrase, that is supported by separate but related points in different sentences

Example

This passage is from a 1998 book about animal intelligence. The author has written extensively on animal behavior.

View Passage

A reading passage
Line Number	Text
	Animal communication studies have generally set out to catalog every sound an animal makes, simultaneously noting what the animal was doing at the time. Then labels are attached to the various sounds—food calls, mating
Line 5	calls, and so on. That very approach, of course, takes as a given that the purpose of animal signals is communica- tion, that animals have in place a system that evolved with no other purpose than to permit the transfer of messages, a sort of universal telegraph that can carry information
Line 10	without any special regard to its content, and that our main challenge is to decode the semantic meaning of those messages in each species. One problem that has consistently dogged these efforts is that the same “word” is used under highly varying
Line 15	circumstances. By the same token, different signals, even different regional “dialects,” are often employed in identical situations that ought to be assigned identical “meanings” under this methodology. Perhaps the most universal characteristic of animal
Line 20	signals is their adherence to a basic rule of pitch. High- pitched tones (a dog’s whine) convey appeasement, fear, and an overall nonthreatening state. Deep, rough sounds (a dog’s growl) convey aggression, hostility, threat. Ornithologist^* Eugene Morton analyzed the
Line 25	sounds of 56 bird and mammal species and found this pattern consistent throughout. Dogs growl, but so do opossums, rats, African elephants, pelicans, ring-necked pheasants, and Carolina chickadees; dogs whine, but so do guinea pigs, wombats, rhinoceroses, bobwhites, barn
Line 30	swallows, and mallards. So, in fact, do people. If you talk to a baby, you will find yourself naturally using a soft, high-pitched sound. If you are telling a dog (or a driver who just cut you off) to get out of your way, you will find yourself with equal instinct using a rough, low—even
Line 35	growling—sound. Morton calls this pattern of relationship between an animal’s motivation and the acoustic structure of the sound it employs a “motivational-structural rule.” Now why should you—or a rhinoceros or a sandpiper— obey these rules? The answer is a perfect illustration of
Line 40	how senders and receivers use one another to evolve signals without even knowing it. Big things make low sounds. A longer string or a longer organ pipe makes a lower sound than a short one. It is thus a physical fact that big animals make lower sounds than small ones. Now big
Line 45	animals did not go around making low sounds in order to show that they were big. Nonetheless, animals that learned to avoid low sounds saved their hides; animals that learned not to run at every peep and squeak saved a lot of wasted time and energy running from nonexistent threats.
Line 50	Back to the senders: Once animals began assessing signals based on pitch, the senders could exploit that fact for manipulative ends. An animal that sought to get another out of its face could use a lower-pitched sound. An animal that wanted another to come near could use a high-pitched
Line 55	sound. Back to the receivers: If there were no social advantage in assessing such manipulative uses of signals— signals that were once based on a true reflection of physical reality—the story might have ended right there. Receivers might simply have come to ignore such signals altogether.
Line 60	But there was an advantage: A growling animal is one that it pays to avoid—whether it is big or whether it is just feeling mean. A whining animal need not be avoided. These signals, in other words, have become “ritualized.” A social function has piggybacked a ride on a physical fact.
Line 65	This evolutionary perspective underscores the important fact that signals don’t evolve because they “mean” some- thing; they evolve because they work. Again, the unwitting feedback between sender and receiver works to create signals that are informative without any conscious intent
Line 70	for them to be so. Sender and receiver continually exploit one another; when the exploitation is mutually reinforcing, a stable and informative signaling pattern emerges. Animal behavior researcher Donald Griffin attacks the contention that animal signals lack meaning. He caricatures
Line 75	this view as the “GOP” position—animal sounds are but “groans of pain,” uncontrollable utterances that reflect internal physiological processes. But Morton’s argument suggests nothing of the kind. Evolved signaling can be intricate and effective without either being conscious or
Line 80	possessing semantic meaning. And like other behaviors under cognitive control, there is little doubt that in both sending signals and acting upon them, animals are often responding in a complex fashion to circumstances. This sort of unconscious decision making is absolutely no
Line 85	different from many other things animals do that involve a combination of genetically programmed and learned behaviors. Griffin suggests that animal communication is a window on the conscious minds of animals—that “it seems likely that animals often experience something
Line 90	similar to the message they communicate.” But if the messages are not messages at all, and if indeed they are unconscious products of natural selection, then Griffin’s argument is cast in a very different light.

^* A zoologist who studies birds.

Lines 30–32 (“If you . . . sound”) support the general point that

Answer Choices

(A) adults unconsciously induce children to imitate their tones of voice
(B) our private conversations are much different from our public dialogues
(C) we have unintentionally patterned our pitches after those of animals
(D) we automatically adjust pitch in response to different situations
(E) we use tones and inflections that are very different from those of animals

Reveal Answer

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Skills needed to score in the next band

As you read a text and consider the ideas in it, think about how you reach conclusions based on those ideas. Ask yourself what you can guess about the author and his or her feelings about a topic based on what is in the text: Is the author suggesting rather than stating a certain idea? Can you tell that the author is saying something or believes in something even if it is not directly stated? Can you draw your own conclusion or make a prediction based on clues in the text?

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