Illustration Questions
Introduction
SAT Illustration questions ask the student to find a quotation or piece of information that demonstrates a broader idea or feeling. In nearly every case, the question will list 1-3 characteristics or attitudes you are supposed to find from a particular passage, followed by a blank space to indicate you are filling in the blank with a quotation. In most cases, Illustration questions draw on literature; each answer choice will contain a quotation from the same work, whether it be a play, a poem, or a novel. Your task is to choose the answer that most strongly illustrates what the question is asking for. Note well: in questions drawing on literature, meaning is often not literal, and the accompanying “feeling” tied to wording can be as important as the literal meaning of the words.
Approach Question
“A Pair of Silk Stockings” is an 1897 short story by Kate Chopin. In the story, Mrs. Sommers, a mother who puts her children’s needs first, unexpectedly finds herself with fifteen dollars and spends it on herself instead. The narrator suggests that, for one afternoon, Mrs. Sommers enjoys being treated as a woman of wealth and importance: _________
Which quotation from “A Pair of Silk Stockings” most effectively illustrates the claim?
A. “She would buy so and so many yards of percale for new shirt waists for the boys and Janie and Mag.”
B. “When she entered her appearance created no surprise, no consternation, as she had half feared it might.”
C. “She counted the money out to the waiter and left an extra coin on his tray, whereupon he bowed before her as before a princess of royal blood.”
D. “The play was over, the music ceased, the crowd filed out. It was like a dream ended.”
Explanation
High performance on Illustration questions depends on carefully attending to the instructions given right before the “blank”. Here the claim has two parts: Mrs. Sommers is treated a certain way by other people, and it is the way a woman of wealth and importance is treated. We also know that she has a little extra money, so the treatment likely comes with spending it.
Choice A refers to purchases, but they are her plans for the children’s clothes, and no one treats her any way at all. Choice B is the trap: it does show how others react to her when she walks in, but only that they were not surprised or alarmed to see her. Being accepted is not the same as being treated as important. Choice D shows a strong feeling, that the afternoon had been like a dream, but it describes her own experience, not how anyone treats her.
That leaves Choice C. The waiter, rewarded with an extra coin, bows to her “as before a princess of royal blood.” A princess is the very picture of wealth and importance, and the bow is something another person does for her: both parts of the claim are there. The answer is C.
Illustration Questions: Strategy
- The end of the question will reveal exactly the emotions, dispositions, or attitudes the question is asking for. Make sure your answer checks all the boxes!
- Consider tone. Is there any positive or negative feeling or event discussed? Is what is described considered a good thing or a bad thing?
- Look out for figurative meaning. If the literal meaning of a word used in the literature passage does not seem to fit the context, as yourself if the usage is meant to be more metaphorical than literal.
- In answer choices, it’s generally wise to avoid 1) answers that only address one of the aspects the question asks for and 2) answers with the wrong tone (positive/negative).
Topics for Cross-Reference
- Inferences questions
- Detail questions
Variations
In format, the main variation in Illustration questions is a question that doesn’t use a blank space, instead changing the wording of the question itself so it’s clear what you’re looking for. In content, Illustration questions aren’t always concerned with literature; sometimes, you are asked to illustrate an idea with a research finding that is summarized for you, possibly with an accompanying graph. We will cover this type of Illustration question in the section on using data.
Review
Answer this: What does the E in the QUICKER Method stand for?
EXAMINE your preferred answer to the end.
Sample Questions
Difficulty 1
“The Necklace” is an 1884 short story by Guy de Maupassant, quoted here in an early English translation. In the story, Madame Loisel borrows what she believes is a diamond necklace, loses it, and spends ten years paying for a replacement. The story indicates that she faces the poverty that follows with unexpected courage: _______
Which quotation from “The Necklace” most effectively illustrates the claim?
A. “She had no gowns, no jewels, nothing.”
B. “She bore her part, however, with sudden heroism.”
C. “Madame Loisel looked old now.”
D. “‘No; there’s nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women who are rich.’”
The answer is B. If you pay attention to the words “unexpected courage,” the answer may present itself quickly. Choice B’s “sudden heroism” matches both parts: heroism is courage, and “sudden” tells us it was not expected of her. Choices A and C describe her, before the loss and after the years of hard work, but neither shows courage, and choice D shows the opposite: her dread of looking poor.
Difficulty 2
“Araby” is a 1914 short story by James Joyce. In the story, the young narrator becomes infatuated with a girl and dreams of buying her a gift at a local bazaar. The narrator’s realization at the end of the story is presented as painful and disillusioning: ________.
Which quotation from “Araby” most effectively illustrates the claim?
A. “She asked me was I going to Araby. I forgot whether I answered yes or no.”
B. “The high cold empty gloomy rooms liberated me and I went from room to room singing.”
C. “The air was pitilessly raw and already my heart misgave me.”
D. “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.”
The answer is D. You can go a long way in your thinking about Illustration questions by identifying tone: positive versus negative. The words “painful” and “disillusioning” clearly point to a negative experience. Choice A shows the narrator flustered, and choice B shows him happy, singing as he goes from room to room. Choice C has a somber tone, but it comes before he even reaches the bazaar, and a heart that “misgave” him is nothing nearly strong enough to match the strongly negative cast we’re looking for.
Choice D conveys everything we’re looking for: note the word “vanity” (excessive self-concern). The narrator feels ashamed of himself, with the painful emotions associated with shame. The burning eyes suggest the narrator is crying, and “anguish” and “anger” are appropriately strong words.
Difficulty 3
“Eveline” is a 1914 short story by James Joyce. In the story, a young Dublin woman named Eveline has agreed to sail to Buenos Aires with Frank, a sailor who wants to marry her. When the moment to board the boat arrives, the story portrays Eveline as overcome by fear: _______
Which quotation from “Eveline” most effectively illustrates the claim?
A. “Her head was leaned against the window curtains and in her nostrils was the odour of dusty cretonne.”
B. “All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He was drawing her into them: he would drown her.”
C. “He held her hand and she knew that he was speaking to her, saying something about the passage over and over again.”
D. “Their passage had been booked.”
The answer is B. Choice D can be dispensed with quickly, as it states a travel arrangement with no feeling in it. Choice C is set at the moment of departure, but it tells us what Frank is doing, not what Eveline feels. The most tempting wrong choice is A, as it conveys a smell that is probably not particularly pleasant to experience. But it comes from earlier in the evening, as she sits at home, and with choice A we have to work a bit to imagine any distress at all. Answer B is much clearer: the “seas of the world” tumbling about her heart describe panic, and the thought that Frank “would drown her” shows terror of the very voyage she has agreed to take.
Difficulty 4
“Bartleby, the Scrivener” is an 1853 short story by Herman Melville. In the story, the narrator tries to understand the increasingly passive behavior of his employee, Bartleby. The narrator ultimately expresses both discomfort and affection.
Which quotation from “Bartleby, the Scrivener” most effectively illustrates the narrator’s conflicted feelings?
A. “Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance.”
B. “But he wrote on silently, palely, mechanically.”
C. “‘I would prefer not to,’ he said, and gently disappeared behind the screen.”
D. “Indeed, it was his wonderful mildness chiefly, which not only disarmed me, but unmanned me, as it were.”
The answer is D. This question asks us to look for “discomfort and affection.” Choice A certainly expresses discomfort, but not affection. Choice B describes how Bartleby works, and choice C repeats his famous refusal, but neither tells us anything about the narrator’s feelings.
That leaves choice D, which, like the occasional SAT passage that quotes an older text, uses words that are less familiar to a modern reader. You may have heard the word “disarm” used in a literal sense to take away someone’s weapons, but that’s clearly not the meaning. Meanwhile, what does it mean to “unman”? You can always take apart the word to make an educated guess: “unman” sounds like, literally, “take away the man”. If a male narrator is using this expression, there must be some figurative sense in which the observation of Bartleby takes away his sense of being a man. Indeed, if you look up the word “unman”, you’ll find words like “unnerve”. Something unnerving makes a person feel uncomfortable, out of sorts. We are getting closer to “discomfort”. Meanwhile, something or someone disarming has the effect of removing a person’s defenses; “disarm” is typically used with a positive connotation. We now have evidence for “affection”.
Keep in mind that, even if you struggled with the meaning of both of the words Melville uses, you likely could have answered this question by process of elimination.
Difficulty 5
“My Ántonia” is a 1918 novel by Willa Cather. The narrator, Jim, reflects on his childhood friendship with Ántonia, a strong-willed girl from a family of immigrants. His descriptions often blend admiration with nostalgia, _______.
Which quotation from “My Ántonia” most effectively illustrates the narrator’s reverence for Ántonia?
A. “She kept her sleeves rolled up all day, and her arms and throat were burned as brown as a sailor’s.”
B. “Ántonia, barefooted as she was, ran up behind me.”
C. “Ántonia had always been one to leave images in the mind that did not fade—that grew stronger with time.”
D. “How much older she had grown in eight months!”
The answer is C. The added difficulty of this question comes in part from the use of the word “nostalgia”, which may be unfamiliar to some students. Nostalgia is a sentimental longing or affection for the past. So we need a choice that looks backward fondly, but also one that has a positive attitude toward its object. Choice B can be eliminated because it is a straightforward, neutral description of an action. Choice D notices that time has passed, which may look like nostalgia, but it is a quick remark on how much older she looks, with no admiration in it.
We are left with answers A and C. Choice A describes her as hardworking and sun-browned, which could be read as admiring. But it only describes how she looked at the time; nothing in it looks back from years later, and the description could as easily be neutral. There is some uncertainty here, so we should look for something clearer. We find it in choice C: the images Ántonia left “did not fade” but “grew stronger with time,” so the narrator is clearly looking back across the years, and fondly. And to say that someone leaves images in the mind that only grow stronger is high praise, implying a sense of admiration.
One further note: if you weren’t sure about the meaning of “nostalgia” here, how should you proceed? You would use admiration to rule out choices B and D; then, you would have to decide if there’s more admiration in choice A or choice C. Even without “nostalgia”, there is stronger wording in choice C, suggesting that’s closer to the admiration you’re looking for.