Today’s SAT: Let People From The Past Help You Now!
By judiethcarol&rocketcat
Wow! Today’s SAT Q&A contains several strategies in one. These are all ways to enjoy studying (yes, that is what I said—ENJOY STUDYING) and to pull in points on the SAT test as surely as you are playing a game to win.
After you finish today’s SAT Q&A, check out the site below and look at the photo of Captain Robert Marshall Glass in all of his flying gear—the leather jacket, goggles—Reading this little story will get you set to answer several questions correctly on aptitude and other standardized tests.
Why is this true? Today’s sentence completion does not require that you know that the Red Tail pilots in World War II were in segregated sections of the military forces. You do not have to know that the battles they fought on behalf of the United States of America were in airplanes guarding the bomber planes that were flown by Caucasian pilots.
However, to be an outstanding scholar and to be a student who is going to use the freedom and knowledge won by those before you, take a few minutes to celebrate their victories! The Red Tail pilots loved to fly! They learned to fly airplanes before people traveled by plane as a way of transportation!
I once talked to a pilot from World War II who had worked for the railroad before he learned to fly an airplane. He served in the air force as a pilot and then returned to his career with the railroad after the war because he did not see a real future in being an airline pilot at that time! Think about this. These people are in their eighties now, but some of these people who flew in World War II are still alive today.
Maybe you can find someone in your own family to interview. Turn on a tape recorder and make your own oral history! The older generation can tell you things—even if they did not fly an airplane!
Using the bits of information chosen as subject matter by the test designers of the SAT for a little more investigation will enrich your ability to recognize ‘tone’ in other questions on standardized tests. The connotation (feeling, emotion) connected with the words in sentence completion is what leads you to the correct answer.
Too, reading more about individuals will give you perspective in answering questions on standardized tests relating to time frames. The SAT recently had a question containing information about a female scientist. Reading about her work reveals that she had to overcome obstacles that may not exist in most places today, including her own mother’s resistance to her going to college.
Her mother thought her daughter should think about marriage instead of college, and her parents influenced this female scientist very much. Her father was her mentor. When you read more about the individuals who lived during different time periods, you are able to put some of the other information into a perspective helping you to absorb the ‘connotation’ –the emotions and meaning behind the words. Often, these are the clues to getting correct answers. Fortunately, they are also the clues to getting a good education for your own benefit.
The more you know and the more you connect while reading every question on the SAT, including the mathematical questions, the more likely you are to recognize the correct answer. Connotation of the words is key in every question. The test designers are very careful.
Remember: denotation is the dictionary definition of the word (d,d,d).
Connotation, the feelings and emotions of the words, lead you to the answers on the standardized tests.
http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/tuskegee/airoverview.htm
Check out the photograph of Robert Marshall Glass
Captain, US Air Force
December 17, 1920 - January 24, 1955
Already a qualified pilot, Robert Marshall Glass was one of the highly skilled and committed young men to join the 332nd Fighter Group of the Tuskegee Airmen. Glass was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he attended public school. He graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology with a degree in mechanical engineering.
Glass signed up at Tuskegee Army Air Field on January 28, 1943, and attended cadet school at Tuskegee. Charles "Chief" Anderson was one of his flying instructors at Tuskegee and Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., was his commanding officer.
Glass served his country in World War II and during the Korean conflict. He was a senior pilot with the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, EAME Campaign medal, American Campaign Medal, Distinguished Unit Citation and the National Defense Service medal. His last duty station was at Wright Air Development Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. At the time of his death, Captain Glass was at the Air Command Staff School, Maxwell Air Force Base. His name is inscribed on the Memorial Honor Roll of the Air Force, Air Force Aid Society, Washington, D.C.
Here is how to ‘win’ when taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT):
1. Look at the ‘games’ ahead. Pretend you are a coach studying the plays that are the winning ones for the SAT test designers. Then, you can learn to manage the ‘plays.’
2. Notice the subject areas of the questions and get some more information in these areas. Usually, the information does not have to be familiar to answer the question, but your brain functions in a brighter, happier way when the information is familiar. Plus, it makes it interesting and helps in understanding the tone.
3. Always, the tone is part of the question in the SAT. The connotation of the words gives the clues to the answer. Knowing the words, including the feeling surrounding the words, helps to drive you right to the answer.
Do you know about the Tuskegee Airmen? Do you know about the Black American fighter pilots in World War II? Look at today’s question and notice how you can understand the answer to this question is a positive word even if you do not know about these pilots.
Still, isn’t it interesting enough to go look up some oral histories and listen to some of the pilots from World War II who flew the guard duty around the other pilots who were bomber pilots?
What motivates young men and women to learn to fly airplanes when flying is not the commercial way of transportation it is today? I am smiling as I read this SAT question because I transcribed interviews with the pilots and some of the other people who worked with them—many, many years later.
You see, during World War II, the Black American fighter pilots were segregated, and their experiences in the air force are unique, as a group, as well as individuals. Each has an interesting story to tell, and listening to their voices, years later, can make you smile, as well.
A group of Black American fighter pilots known as the Red Tail Angels has the ------- of never having lost any of the bombers it escorted on missions over Europe in the Second World War.
A. Onus
B. Distinction
C. Imperative
D. Potential
E. Assignment The answer is B. distinction!judiethcarol&rocketcatApril2010c
