SSAT Reading Strategies

A question begins: "It can be inferred from the passage that..." What is this question asking you to do?

• Determine the author's purpose in writing the passage.

• Guess what the author was thinking.

• Make a small logical leap based on information in the passage.

Tags

CCSS.RI.7.1

CCSS.RI.7.6

In looking at answer choices, you are looking for:

• the best or 'least bad' answer

• the perfect answer

• the weirdest answer

What is a stanza?

• A pair of rhyming lines in a poem

• A series of lines grouped together within a poem

• The opening lines in a poem

Which of the following is NOT a simile?

• Her heart beat like a pounding drum.

• The cat sat as still as a statue.

• Their feet were glued to the floor in fear.

• The child clung to his mother's legs like twisting vines of ivy might encircle a tree.

Tags

CCSS.L.7.5A

CCSS.RL.7.4

"Acupuncture involves the insertion of very fine needles, no thicker than a few human hairs, into specific parts of the body."

In the above sentence, the word 'fine' most nearly means:

• flexible

• painful

• thin

• expensive

Tags

CCSS.L.7.4A

CCSS.L.7.4D

CCSS.RI.7.4

"For the most part, birds are, like us, active by day. Diurnal, they don't creep about in the dark of night, like the raccoon or the opossum."

In the sentences above, the word 'diurnal' most nearly means:

• appealing to most people

• awake during the day

• not creepy

• enjoyable to human beings

Tags

CCSS.L.7.4A

CCSS.L.7.4D

"The sun smiled down from the bright sky."

The above sentence is an example of which literary device?

• Metaphor

• Personification

• Alliteration

• Simile

Tags

CCSS.L.7.5A

CCSS.RL.7.4

"What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east and Juliet is the sun."

Which literary device is featured in the above quotation?

• Synecdoche

• Simile

• Irony

• Metaphor

Tags

CCSS.L.7.5A

CCSS.RL.7.4

Which of the following is a recommended strategy for the SSAT reading section?

• Whenever possible, think of your own answer first.

• Eliminate extreme answer choices.

• When a specific line or section of the passage is referenced, go back to that spot in the passage to find the answer.

• All of the above.

After you read the passage, what could you do first, before looking at the questions?

• Try to guess exactly where the passage comes from.

• Summarize the main idea of the passage.

• Circle all the adjectives in the passage.

Tags

CCSS.RI.7.2