[교육연합신문=Michelle SAT전문강사]

Writing – Improving Sentences
Select the option for the underlined portion that produces the best sentence.

Upon winning her third gold medal at the competition, the young athlete learned that her accomplishments had
surpassed her coach’s, a former track star.

(A) her coach’s
(B) her coach
(C) those of her coach
(D) those done by her coach
(E) those of her coach’s

The underlined portion is incorrect as it is because it is comparing the young athlete’s accomplishments to her “coach’s”. When making a comparison, the two subjects have to be the same part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.). The word “accomplishments” is a noun, so the underlined portion would also have to be a noun. Also, the underlined portion is being described by a noun phrase, “a former track star”. “Her coach’s” is a possessive noun, which cannot be modified by a noun phrase.
The correct answer is (C). “Those” refers to the accomplishments of the coach, providing the noun that is necessary to be compared properly to the young athlete’s accomplishments. The phrase “of her coach” provides the noun (coach) that is modified by the noun phrase at the end of the sentence.

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Reading Comprehension – Sentence Completion
Select the option that best completes the sentence.
Ray was ------- gambler who had seldom gone a day without indulging his expensive habit.

(A) an inveterate
(B) a dubious
(C) an occasional
(D) a novice
(E) an obnoxious

Let us first define all of the words in the options. “Inveterate” means having a particular habit, activity, or interest that is long-established and unlikely to change. “Dubious” means doubtful or not to be relied upon. “Occasional” means occurring every now and then. “Novice” means having very little experience. “Obnoxious” means very annoying.
We must next examine the sentence for any context clues. The phrase “seldom gone a day without indulging” means that Ray gambles almost every day and it is very rare for him to skip a day. Right away, the sentence points to A because we know that his daily routine of gambling does not easily change. For the same reason, we know that C, the opposite of A, is not correct.
The word “habit” also reinforces the idea that gambling is not a new interest for Ray, so D would not be correct. B and E may appear to be possible choices, but the sentence does not provide any insight into Ray’s gambling skills or his attitude while gambling. Therefore, the correct answer is (A).

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