New SAT Reading : Author's Intent

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Example Questions

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Example Question #1 :Function Of A Word Or Phrase

Passage 2 is adapted from Benjamin Rush, "Thoughts upon Female Education". Originally published 1787.

A philosopher once said, "let me make all the ballads of a country and I care not who makes its laws." He might with more propriety have said, let the ladies of a country be educated properly, and they will not only make and administer its laws, but form its manners and character. It would require a lively imagination to describe, or even to comprehend, the happiness of a country where knowledge and virtue were generally diffused among the female sex. Our young men would then be restrained from vice by the terror of being banished from their company. The loud laugh and the malignant smile, at the expense of innocence or of personal infirmities– the feats of successful mimicry and the low priced wit which is borrowed from a misapplication of scripture phrases– would no more be considered as recommendations to the society of the ladies. A double-entendre in their presence would then exclude a gentleman forever from the company of both sexes and probably oblige him to seek an asylum from contempt in a foreign country.

If I am wrong in those opinions in which I have taken the liberty of departing from the general and fashionable habits of thinking I am sure you will discover and pardon my mistakes.But if I am right, I am equally sure you will adopt my opinions for to enlightened minds truth is alike acceptable, whether it comes from the lips of age or the hand of antiquity or whether it be obtruded by a person who has no other claim to attention than a desire of adding to the stock of human happiness.

你,年轻的女士,一个重要的问题是通讯itted for solution: whether our present plan of education be a wise one and whether it be calculated to prepare you for the duties of social and domestic life. I know that the elevation of the female mind, by means of moral, physical, and religious truth, is considered by some men as unfriendly to the domestic character of a woman. But this is the prejudice of little minds and springs from the same spirit which opposes the general diffusion of knowledge among the citizens of our republics.If men believe that ignorance is favorable to the government of the female sex, they are certainly deceived, for a weak and ignorant woman will always be governed with the greatest difficulty. It will be in your power ladies, to correct the mistakes and practice of our sex upon these subjects by demonstrating that the female temper can only be governed by reason and that the cultivation of reason in women is alike friendly to the order of nature and to private as well as public happiness.

The first sentence of the second paragraph of the passage is primarily intended as

Possible Answers:

a statement questioning the decisions of his opponents.

a statement acknowledging his lack of worldly knowledge.

a request that his audience correct his misconceptions.

a statement meant to be taken ironically.

Correct answer:

a statement meant to be taken ironically.

Explanation:

Whenever a question asks for the function of a particular statement, remember to first look at the meaning of the statement itself and then to consider it in its context to figure out what purpose it serves. In the first sentence of the second paragraph, Rush says that if he's wrong in thinking that women's education is important that someone will point out the error in his argument. However, the next sentence goes on to say that should he be right that he expects others to change their ways. The first sentence isn't necessarily supposed to be taken literally - it's a way for Rush to say that he is sure in what he says. "A statement meant to be taken ironically" is therefore correct.

"A request that his audience correct his misconceptions" is much too literal, since Rush's argument makes clear that he believes this line of reasoning to be sound. "A statement questioning the decisions of his opponents" can be eliminated based on the fact that his opponents decisions are not discussed. "A statement acknowledging his lack of worldly knowledge" can be eliminated because Rush is obviously knowledgeable on the subject of women's education.

Example Question #2 :Author's Intent

The following passage is adapted from Ricki Lewis, "Did Donkeys Arise from an Inverted Chromosome?", originally published 2018 in PLOSOne Blogs.

In the world of genome sequencing, donkeys haven’t received nearly as much attention as horses. But now a report on a new-and-improved genome sequence of Willy, a donkey (Equus asinus) jack 5 born at the Copenhagen Zoo in 1997, appears in the new issue of Science Advances, from Gabriel Renaud, of the Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark. (A female is a jenny or jennet.) The new view provides clues to how donkeys may have branched from horses along the tree of evolution.

Horses and their relatives, past and present, are genetically peculiar in that their chromosomes are rearranged, with respect to each other. That should prevent them from producing viable hybrids – yet they do. Donkeys have 62 chromosomes and horses have 64. A mule comes from the mating of a male donkey and a female horse, and has 63 chromosomes. Mules are known for their intelligence, calm, stamina, and persistence. Their horse-like bodies perched on donkey-like limbs make them ideal for hauling tourists around the Grand Canyon and schlepping supplies in combat situations. The ears are large like those of the horse mom, and mules make a sound that begins as a whinny and becomes a bray.

The complementary couple, a female donkey and a male horse, produces a hinny, smaller than a mule. Hinnies are the flip side of the mule, with a donkey’s physique atop horsey limbs, and short donkey ears. They’re rarer than mules, but also have 63 chromosomes. It’s easy to mix them up.

Comparing Willy’s genome to a horse genome revealed their close evolutionary relationship. Only about 15% of horse genes aren’t also in the donkey genome, and only about 10% of a donkey’s genes don’t have counterparts in the horse. Most of the genes that they share provide basic “housekeeping” functions like dismantling proteins, repairing DNA, enabling embryonic development, and controlling cell division. So that’s why a copy of each genome can smush together to yield mules and hinnies.

A second form of information encoded in genomes, in addition to the A, C, T, G sequence, is the pattern of whether the two variants of individual genes are different (heterozygous) or the same (homozygous). Many contiguous homozygous genes form a “run of homozygosity” (ROH).

An ROH indicates a chromosome chunk, perhaps as long as millions of DNA bases, that’s the same from each of an individual’s parents, who in turn inherited it from a shared ancestor, like a grandparent that cousins share. The longer the ROH, the more recent the shared ancestor, because it takes time for mutations to accrue that would break the sameness of the sequence.

Scrutinizing ROHs can reveal recent inbreeding and domestication, help to reconstruct possible branching patterns of evolution, and, more practically, help ancestry companies assign the DNA inspit samplesto geographic areas where people’s ancestors might have come from.The new study compared ROHs for the three zebra and three ass species, confirming that Willy’s most recent ancestors were Somali wild asses.

The researchers used Chicago HiRise assembly technology to up the quality of Willy’s genome sequence. “This new assembly allowed us to identify fine chromosomal rearrangements between the horse and the donkey that likely played an active role in their divergence and, ultimately, speciation,” they write.

The bigger pieces enabled them to zero in on DNA sequences where chromosomes contort, such as inversions (where a sequence flips) or translocations (where different chromosome types exchange parts). These events could have fueled the reproductive isolation of small populations that can expand into speciation.

If eventually sperm with one inverted chromosome fertilized eggs with the same inversion, animals would have been conceived in which both copies of the chromosome are inverted – and they’d be fertile with each other, but not with horses. Once a subpopulation with the inversion became established, further genetic changes would separate them further from the ancestral horse.

The author references “spit samples” in the highlighted line in order to

Possible Answers:

clarify how the team got its samples for analysis.

relate a scientific term to its better-known use.

explain why ROH studies are economically important.

argue against using ROH studies for unscientific purposes.

Correct answer:

relate a scientific term to its better-known use.

Explanation:

In the context of the paragraph, the author uses "spit samples" as part of a list explaining how ROHs are used. In this case, companies that look at a person's ancestry use them to determine what part of the world their ancestors are from. This most closely matches "relate a scientific term to its better-known use." It takes the idea of an ROH and gives an example of how it is used outside the world of academic evolutionary genetics.

Among the other answers, "explain why ROH studies are economically important" can be eliminated because the passage doesn't explain the economic impact of using the ROHs for ancestry studies, "clarify how the team got its samples for analysis" can be eliminated because the passage is talking about the general practice of using spit samples, not how the team got their samples, and "argue against using ROH studies for unscientific purposes" can be eliminated because the author isn't making a value judgment about whether genetic analysis should be used outside of a scientific context.

Example Question #11 :Author's Intent

This passage is adapted from “Flagship Species and Their Role in the Conservation Movement” (2020)

Until recently, two schools of thought have dominated the field of establishing “flagship” endangered species for marketing and awareness campaigns. These flagship species make up the subset of endangered species conservation experts utilize to elicit public support - both financial and legal - for fauna conservation as a whole.

The first concerns how recognizable the general public, the audience of most large-scale funding campaigns, finds a particular species, commonly termed its “public awareness.” This school of thought was built on the foundation that if an individual recognizes a species from prior knowledge, cultural context, or previous conservational and educational encounters (in a zoo environment or classroom setting, for instance) that individual would be more likely to note and respond to the severity of its endangered status. However, recently emerging flagship species such as the pangolin have challenged the singularity of this factor.

Alongside public awareness, conservation experts have long considered a factor they refer to as a “keystone species” designation in the flagstone selection process. Keystone species are those species that play an especially vital role in their respective habitats or ecosystems. While this metric is invaluable to the environmentalists in charge of designating funds received, recent data has expressed the more minor role a keystone species designation seems to play in the motivations of the public.

Recent scholarship has questioned both the singularity and the extent to which the above classifications impact the decision making of the general public. Though more complicated to measure, a third designation, known as a species’ “charisma,” is now the yardstick by which most flagship species are formally classified. Addressing the charisma of a species involves establishing and collecting data concerning its ecological (interactions with humans/the environments of humans), aesthetic (appealing to human emotions through physical appearance and immediately related behaviors), and corporeal (affection and socialization with humans over the short- and long-terms) characteristics. This process has been understandably criticized by some for its costs and failure to incorporate the severity of an endangered species’ status into designation, but its impact on the public has been irrefutable. While keystone and public awareness designations are still often applied in the field because of their practicality and comparative simplicity, charisma is now commonly accepted as the most accurate metric with which to judge a species’ flagship potential.

The author of the passage uses the word “yardstick” in paragraph four in order to

Possible Answers:

highlight that the metric introduced in the paragraph is the most commonly used process today

express a shift in the passage

show that conservationists need to take a physical measurement of endangered animals

point out that measuring a species’ charisma is challenging

Correct answer:

highlight that the metric introduced in the paragraph is the most commonly used process today

Explanation:

Here, yardstick is used, not to say that we *physically* measure the animals, but to show us that the method expressed in the paragraph - charisma - is the commonly accepted standard. While many of the other answer options are accomplished within the paragraph, they don’t address why the specific term “yardstick” was used. Here, we use the term to show that charisma has been deemed the currently accepted method quality used to identify potential flagship species today.

Example Question #1 :Function Of A Word Or Phrase

This passage is adapted from “Flagship Species and Their Role in the Conservation Movement” (2020)

Until recently, two schools of thought have dominated the field of establishing “flagship” endangered species for marketing and awareness campaigns. These flagship species make up the subset of endangered species conservation experts utilize to elicit public support - both financial and legal - for fauna conservation as a whole.

The first concerns how recognizable the general public, the audience of most large-scale funding campaigns, finds a particular species, commonly termed its “public awareness.” This school of thought was built on the foundation that if an individual recognizes a species from prior knowledge, cultural context, or previous conservational and educational encounters (in a zoo environment or classroom setting, for instance) that individual would be more likely to note and respond to the severity of its endangered status. However, recently emerging flagship species such as the pangolin have challenged the singularity of this factor.

Alongside public awareness, conservation experts have long considered a factor they refer to as a “keystone species” designation in the flagstone selection process. Keystone species are those species that play an especially vital role in their respective habitats or ecosystems. While this metric is invaluable to the environmentalists in charge of designating funds received, recent data has expressed the more minor role a keystone species designation seems to play in the motivations of the public.

Recent scholarship has questioned both the singularity and the extent to which the above classifications impact the decision making of the general public. Though more complicated to measure, a third designation, known as a species’ “charisma,” is now the yardstick by which most flagship species are formally classified. Addressing the charisma of a species involves establishing and collecting data concerning its ecological (interactions with humans/the environments of humans), aesthetic (appealing to human emotions through physical appearance and immediately related behaviors), and corporeal (affection and socialization with humans over the short- and long-terms) characteristics. This process has been understandably criticized by some for its costs and failure to incorporate the severity of an endangered species’ status into designation, but its impact on the public has been irrefutable. While keystone and public awareness designations are still often applied in the field because of their practicality and comparative simplicity, charisma is now commonly accepted as the most accurate metric with which to judge a species’ flagship potential.

The author of the passage uses the word “understandably” in paragraph four in order to

Possible Answers:

Side with critics and claim that the charisma method is prohibitively expensive

Point out the existence of drawbacks in the use of charisma to designate flagship species

放弃的想法目前consid魅力ered the most effective method of identifying flagship species

Contrast claims made in earlier paragraphs

Correct answer:

Point out the existence of drawbacks in the use of charisma to designate flagship species

Explanation:

In this question, it’s important to note that while the author concedes (admits) that there are some reasonable complaints about the system, the author continues on to tell readers that it is still “commonly accepted as the most accurate metric with which to judge a species’ flagship potential.” So, the author is noting that the method isn’t flawless (pointing out that there are drawbacks), but is still the best method currently available.

Example Question #651 :New Sat

The following passage is adapted from a speech delivered by Susan B. Anthony in 1873. The speech was delivered after Anthony was tried and fined $100 for voting in the 1872 presidential election.

Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last Presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen’s rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any State to deny.

The preamble of the Federal Constitution says: “We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people— women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government—the ballot.

For any State to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people is a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are forever withheld from women and their female posterity. To them this government had no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the right govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured, but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters of every household—which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord and rebellion into every home of the nation.

Webster, Worcester and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office. The one question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no State has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women are citizenswomen in the constitutions and laws of the several States is today null and void, precisely as is every one against African Americans.

The author uses the word “alleged” in the first paragraph to:

Possible Answers:

show how she had been mistreated.

highlight the irony of her arrest for voting.

indicate that she had not yet been convicted.

emphasize that she had done nothing wrong.

Correct answer:

emphasize that she had done nothing wrong.

Explanation:

In the first paragraph, Anthony uses the word alleged to address that she is not willing to refer to the “crime” as a crime, since according to her argument, she was just exercising her constitution-given rights. So, she calls the crime “alleged,” not because she has not yet been convicted, (we can see from the italicized context that this is not the case,) but to “emphasize that she has done nothing wrong.”

Example Question #113 :New Sat Reading

The following passage is adapted from a speech delivered by Susan B. Anthony in 1873. The speech was delivered after Anthony was tried and fined $100 for voting in the 1872 presidential election.

Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last Presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen’s rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any State to deny.

The preamble of the Federal Constitution says: “We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people— women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government—the ballot.

For any State to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people is a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are forever withheld from women and their female posterity. To them this government had no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the right govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured, but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters of every household—which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord and rebellion into every home of the nation.

Webster, Worcester and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office. The one question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no State has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women are citizenswomen in the constitutions and laws of the several States is today null and void, precisely as is every one against African Americans.

The author includes Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier’s definition of a citizen in paragraph 5 primarily in order to

Possible Answers:

cite her disagreement with all rules and policies set in place by Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier

表达她同意的观点韦伯斯特,Worcester, and Bouvier

point out what she believes to be a disparity between voting laws at the time and the constitution

验证投票法律的时候her speech

Correct answer:

point out what she believes to be a disparity between voting laws at the time and the constitution

Explanation:

在第五段,安东尼引用韦伯斯特,伍斯特,and Bouvier’s definition of a citizen, not to claim that she agrees with their views, but to continue to highlight the contradiction between the constitution and current voting rules. This aligns perfectly with our correct answer: “point out what she believes to be a disparity between voting laws at the time and the constitution.” Anthony does not attempt to validate or agree with current voting laws. She instead uses contrasting opinions and what she sees as the disparity between the constitution and those opinions to support her view.

Example Question #1 :Function Of A Word Or Phrase

The passage is excerpted from Ngonghala CN, et. al’s “Poverty, Disease, and the Ecology of Complex Systems” © 2014 Ngonghala et al.

现代经济学文献对贫困陷阱,however, is strikingly silent about the role of feedbacks from biophysical and biosocial processes. Two overwhelming characteristics of under-developed economies and the poorest, mostly rural, subpopulations in those countries are (i) the dominant role of resource-dependent primary production—from soils, fisheries, forests, and wildlife—as the root source of income and (ii) the high rates of morbidity and mortality due to parasitic and infectious diseases. For basic subsistence, the extremely poor rely on human capital that is directly generated from their ability to obtain resources, and thus critically influenced by climate and soil that determine the success of food production. These resources in turn influence the nutrition and health of individuals, but can also be influenced by a variety of other biophysical processes. For example, infectious and parasitic diseases effectively steal human resources for their own survival and transmission. Yet scientists rarely integrate even the most rudimentary frameworks for understanding these ecological processes into models of economic growth and poverty.

The author discusses parasitic and infectious diseases in order to:

Possible Answers:

contrast their importance with that of resource dependent primary production.

criticize social scientists who overlook their importance in analyzing poverty.

demonstrate that these diseases are the most important factor in many poverty traps.

show an important example of a biophysical process that is often overlooked.

Correct answer:

show an important example of a biophysical process that is often overlooked.

Explanation:

In paragraph four of the passage, the author discusses parasitic and infectious diseases. In this context, parasitic and infectious diseases are used as support for the topic sentence – “The modern economics literature on poverty traps, however, is strikingly silent about the role of feedbacks from biophysical and biosocial processes.” So, the author is using them as an example of a biophysical process that is absent in current economics literature (and thus “overlooked”). This aligns with our correct answer: “show an important example of a biophysical process that is often overlooked.”

Example Question #115 :New Sat Reading

The passage is excerpted from Ngonghala CN, et. al’s “Poverty, Disease, and the Ecology of Complex Systems” © 2014 Ngonghala et al.

Nonetheless, for the billion people who still languish in chronic extreme poverty, Malthus’s ideas about the importance of biophysical and biosocial feedback (e.g., interactions between human behavior and resource availability) to the dynamics of economic systems still ring true.Indeed, while they were based on observations of human populations, Malthus ideas had reverberations throughout the life sciences.His insights were based on important underlying processes that provided inspiration to both Darwin and Wallace as they independently derived the theory of evolution by natural selection. Likewise, these principles underlie standard models of population biology, including logistic population growth models, predator-prey models, and the epidemiology of host-pathogen dynamics.

The author uses the word “reverberations” in the highlighted sentence primarily in order to

Possible Answers:

draw attention to the lack of recognition of Malthus’s ideas in the works of social scientists

show that Malthus’s work was primarily audial in nature

emphasize the impact of Malthus’s work on the works of social scientists and scholars

insinuate that the works of Malthus did very little to impact the field of social science

Correct answer:

emphasize the impact of Malthus’s work on the works of social scientists and scholars

Explanation:

The term “reverberations” in its context is used in a figurative sense to express that the works of Malthus had an impact on the life sciences as a whole. This aligns with our correct answer: “emphasize the impact of Malthus’s work on the works of social scientists and scholars.” The term reverberations is not used in a literal sense in this context, nor does it suggest that Malthus’s work did very little to impact the field. Additionally, while indications that Malthus’s works were sometimes overlooked appear elsewhere in the passage, the surrounding context of the term “reverberations” does not accomplish this task.

Example Question #2 :Function Of A Word Or Phrase

This passage is adapted from “Flagship Species and Their Role in the Conservation Movement” (2020)

Until recently, two schools of thought have dominated the field of establishing “flagship” endangered species for marketing and awareness campaigns. These flagship species make up the subset of endangered species conservation experts utilize to elicit public support - both financial and legal - for fauna conservation as a whole.

The first concerns how recognizable the general public, the audience of most large-scale funding campaigns, finds a particular species, commonly termed its “public awareness.” This school of thought was built on the foundation that if an individual recognizes a species from prior knowledge, cultural context, or previous conservational and educational encounters (in a zoo environment or classroom setting, for instance) that individual would be more likely to note and respond to the severity of its endangered status. However, recently emerging flagship species such as the pangolin have challenged the singularity of this factor.

Alongside public awareness, conservation experts have long considered a factor they refer to as a “keystone species” designation in the flagstone selection process. Keystone species are those species that play an especially vital role in their respective habitats or ecosystems. While this metric is invaluable to the environmentalists in charge of designating funds received, recent data has expressed the more minor role a keystone species designation seems to play in the motivations of the public.

Recent scholarship has questioned both the singularity and the extent to which the above classifications impact the decision making of the general public. Though more complicated to measure, a third designation, known as a species’ “charisma,” is now the yardstick by which most flagship species are formally classified. Addressing the charisma of a species involves establishing and collecting data concerning its ecological (interactions with humans/the environments of humans), aesthetic (appealing to human emotions through physical appearance and immediately related behaviors), and corporeal (affection and socialization with humans over the short- and long-terms) characteristics. This process has been understandably criticized by some for its costs and failure to incorporate the severity of an endangered species’ status into designation, but its impact on the public has been irrefutable. While keystone and public awareness designations are still often applied in the field because of their practicality and comparative simplicity, charisma is now commonly accepted as the most accurate metric with which to judge a species’ flagship potential.

作者举了例子pangol的物种in in paragraph two primarily in order to:

Possible Answers:

Provide an example of a species with a high level of public awareness

Provide an example of a species with a keystone designation

Question the decision of environmentalists to include the pangolin as a flagship species

Highlight a limitation in the public awareness designation system

Correct answer:

Highlight a limitation in the public awareness designation system

Explanation:

在这个问题上,我们要密切关注to why the author chose to include the example by looking at the context. The term “however” indicates a transition or contrast. Here, the example highlights that the public awareness a species possesses is likely not the “singular” factor driving concern among the general public - thus, “Highlight a limitation in the public awareness designation system.” We’re expected to infer that the pangolin does *not* follow the assumed pattern of high public awareness, and the passage fails to address the keystone designation of the species. The author uses the example to show that public awareness cannot be the only impacting factor on a species’ success as a flagship endangered species.

Example Question #3 :Function Of A Word Or Phrase

The following is an excerpt from Night and Day, a novel by Virginia Woolf that was first published in 1919. The novel tells the story of two main female characters in London in the early 20th century.

It was a Sunday evening in October, and in common with many other young ladies of her class, Katharine Hilbery was pouring out tea. Perhaps a fifth part of her mind was thus occupied, and the remaining parts leapt over the little barrier of day which interposed between Monday morning and this rather subdued moment, and played with the things one does voluntarily and normally in the daylight. But although she was silent, she was evidently mistress of a situation which was familiar enough to her, and inclined to let it take its way for the six hundredth time, perhaps, without bringing into play any of her unoccupied faculties. A single glance was enough to show that Mrs. Hilbery was so rich in the gifts which make tea-parties of elderly distinguished people successful, that she scarcely needed any help from her daughter, provided that the tiresome business of teacups and bread and butter was discharged for her.

Considering that the little party had been seated round the tea-table for less than twenty minutes, the animation observable on their faces, and the amount of sound they were producing collectively, were very creditable to the hostess. It suddenly came into Katharine’s mind that if some one opened the door at this moment he would think that they were enjoying themselves; he would think, “What an extremely nice house to come into!” and instinctively she laughed, and said something to increase the noise, for the credit of the house presumably, since she herself had not been feeling exhilarated. At the very same moment, rather to her amusement, the door was flung open, and a young man entered the room.Katharine, as she shook hands with him, asked him, in her own mind, “Now, do you think we’re enjoying ourselves enormously?”... “Mr. Denham, mother,” she said aloud, for she saw that her mother had forgotten his name.

That fact was perceptible to Mr. Denham also, and increased the awkwardness which inevitably attends the entrance of a stranger into a room full of people much at their ease, and all launched upon sentences. At the same time, it seemed to Mr. Denham as if a thousand softly padded doors had closed between him and the street outside. A fine mist, the etherealized essence of the fog, hung visibly in the wide and rather empty space of the drawing-room, all silver where the candles were grouped on the tea-table, and ruddy again in the firelight. With the omnibuses and cabs still running in his head, and his body still tingling with his quick walk along the streets and in and out of traffic and foot-passengers, this drawing-room seemed very remote and still; and the faces of the elderly people were mellowed, at some distance from each other, and had a bloom on them owing to the fact that the air in the drawing-room was thickened by blue grains of mist. Mr. Denham had come in as Mr. Fortescue, the eminent novelist, reached the middle of a very long sentence. He kept this suspended while the newcomer sat down, and Mrs. Hilbery deftly joined the severed parts with several remarks.

Katharine stirred her tea, and seemed to speculate, so Denham thought, upon the duty of filling somebody else’s cup, but she was really wondering how she was going to keep this strange young man in harmony with the rest. She observed that he was compressing his teacup, so that there was danger lest the thin china might cave inwards. She could see that he was nervous; one would expect a bony young man with his face slightly reddened by the wind, and his hair not altogether smooth, to be nervous in such a party. Further, he probably disliked this kind of thing, and had come out of curiosity, or because her father had invited him–anyhow, he would not be easily combined with the rest.

Katharine Hilbery uses the quote in the underlined sentence primarily in order to:

Possible Answers:

emphasize how wonderful the gathering has turned out to be.

contrast her feelings of the gathering with the outward appearance.

show how much better this gathering is than most others.

indicate her disdain for the other guests at the house.

Correct answer:

contrast her feelings of the gathering with the outward appearance.

Explanation:

The quote in the highlighted sentence has not been spoken aloud. Instead, Katharine uses the quote to show that while shaking hands and other normal social interactions were ensuing, internally she was apprehensive and uncertain about the gathering. This aligns well with our correct answer, “contrast her feelings of the gathering with the outward appearance.” Katharine uses this line to show that the feigned appearance of enjoyment and casual conversation was just that - made up in an effort to seem as though everyone was casually having a good time at the gathering and did not feel the awkwardness of the arrival of the new guest. This function is furthered when we get a better sense of the tone using the context surrounding the sentence in question.

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