SAT Prep - Critical-Reading

Style of questions ask you to identify how the passage was written.  They don't want to know what the passage was about- they want to know how the passage was developed and how the author constructed the passage. 

SAT Passages can either be expository, persuasive, narrative, or descriptive.  It may be designed to educate, to persuade, to tell a story, or to introduce you to a few different points of view.  As you read the passage, you should be paying attention to the author's tone- this can help you to answer Style of Passage questions.  You should also be paying attention to the supporting points- are they scientific or are they anecdotes (stories)?  Are they detailed descriptions or hard facts? 

Style of passage questions can be phrased in several different ways.  Some examples of Style of Passage question based on our Spider passage are as follows:

 (1)  The Spider has a bad name: to most of us, she represents an odious, (2)  noxious animal, which every one hastens to crush under foot.  Against (3)  this summary verdict the observer sets the beast’s industry, its (4)  talent as a weaver, its wiliness in the chase, its tragic nuptials and (5)  other characteristics of great interest.  Yes, the Spider is well (6)  worth studying, apart from any scientific reasons; but she is said to (7)  be poisonous and that is her crime and the primary cause of the repugnance (8)  wherewith she inspires us.  Poisonous, I agree, if by that we understand (9)  that the animal is armed with two fangs which cause the immediate death (10) of the little victims which it catches; but there is a wide difference (11) between killing a Midge and harming a man.  However immediate in (12) its effects upon the insect entangled in the fatal web, the Spider’s (13) poison is not serious for us and causes less inconvenience than a Gnat-bite.  (14) That, at least, is what we can safely say as regards the great majority (15) of the Spiders of our region.