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.
A Pair of Silk Stockings” is an 1897 short story by Kate Chopin. In the story, Mrs. Sommers unexpectedly inherits a small sum of money. The narrator suggests that, for one afternoon, Mrs. Sommers allows herself to feel valued and happy: _________.*
Which quotation from “A Pair of Silk Stockings” most effectively illustrates the claim?
A. “She had intended to buy shoes and clothes for the children, and perhaps a hat.”
B. “She smiled faintly as the stockings slipped over her legs, snug and silken.”
C. “The shop girl looked surprised when Mrs. Sommers chose the better pair.”
D. “She walked slowly, almost reluctantly, down the street.”
High performance on Illustration question depends on carefully attending to the instructions given right before the “blank”. In this case, the words “valued” and “happy” give us what we need to know; we also know that Mrs. Sommers has a little extra money, so the way she allows herself to feel this way is likely by purchasing something.
Choice A refers to purchases, but mostly for “the children.” Even if the hat mentioned is for her, there is no expression of her feeling. Choice C implies that Mrs. Sommers is splurging, choosing the better pair, but we cannot infer a happy feeling of being valued from this information. Choice D certainly isn’t what we want, with its negative tone and no mention of a purchase.
That leaves Choice B. Granted, the purchase is only implied here; it doesn’t actually say that she has just bought the stockings. But the emotion we’re seeking is there: she smiles, indicating happiness. Meanwhile, the word “snug” denotes comfort, and the word “silken” suggests something fancy and special. Taken together, these words convey the sense of being valued; Mrs. Sommers has “treated herself” and is quite pleased with the outcome. The answer is B.
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.
Answer this: What does the E in the QUICKER Method stand for?
EXAMINE your preferred answer to the end.
“The Necklace” is an 1884 short story by Guy de Maupassant. In the story, the main character, Madame Loisel, experiences great emotional distress after losing what she believes is an expensive necklace. The story indicates that Madame Loisel blames herself for the loss, _______.
Which quotation from “The Necklace” most effectively illustrates the claim?
A. “She dressed plainly now, like a working woman.”
B. “She sat down and cried for hours, repeating, ‘It’s all my fault. I should have been more careful.’”
C. “She looked at herself in the mirror and saw a woman old before her time.”
D. “Her husband insisted they go to the party, but she shook her head.”
The answer is B. If you pay attention to the words “blames herself,” the answer may present itself quickly. Choice B, with Madame Loisel crying and saying it was her fault, clearly matches up. Choices pertaining to her feeling old or being a “working woman,” while they describe the woman, don’t get at the idea of self-blame.
“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 if I was going to Araby. I forgot myself and murmured yes.”
B. “The silence of the house was complete; I could hear the ticking of the clock.”
C. “I waited in the darkening street, clutching my coin and staring at the ground.”
D. “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. Choices A and B don’t point to anything particularly negative. Choice C has a bit of a somber tone, but 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.
“A Visit of Charity” is a 1941 short story by Eudora Welty. In the story, a young girl named Marian visits a nursing home to earn points for her camp group. The story portrays Marian as being uncomfortable during the visit: _______.
Which quotation from “A Visit of Charity” most effectively illustrates the claim?
A. “The hallway smelled like medicine and furniture polish.”
B. “Marian stood stiffly near the wall, clutching the potted plant like a shield.”
C. “The nurse gave her a sticker for the chart.”
D. “She had promised to visit for just fifteen minutes.”
The answer is B. Choices C and D can be dispensed with quickly, as there is no mention of discomfort in either choice. The most tempting wrong choice is A, as it conveys a smell that is probably not particularly pleasant to experience. But the right answer should give us a stronger impression of discomfort than this; with choice A, we have to work a bit to imagine the discomfort. Answer B is much clearer: Marian stood “stiffly”, implying discomfort, and her use of the potted plant as a sort of “shield” shows that she feels vulnerable and exposed.
“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. “He would do nothing in the office but copy, and the quietest of copyists he was.”
C. “Bartleby, always neat, pale, and respectable, remained seated immovably.”
D. “There was something about Bartleby that not only disarmed me, but unmanned me.”
The answer is D. This question asks us to look for “discomfort and affection.” Choice A certainly expresses discomfort, but not affection. Choice B could perhaps be construed as having some affection, but there is no discomfort. Choice C appears to have neither.
The leaves choice D, which, like the occasional SAT passage when the test quotes an older test, 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.
“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 was always barefoot in the spring, her legs scratched and sturdy.”
B. “She lent me her copybook and showed me how she had learned to write her name.”
C. “More than any other person I remembered, she seemed to mean the country, the landscape, the whole beginning of things.”
D. “At dinner, she laughed with the hired men and passed the bread without a word.”
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. Choice D describes Antonia, but it’s hard to tell if the description includes admiration. Even if it does, this choice does not look back into the past, so nostalgia is not present.
We are left with answers A and C. Choice A uses the past tense and describes her legs as “sturdy”, which is a positive description. Without context, it’s difficult to discern whether her being “barefoot” is presented nostalgically, and the description of her legs as “scratched” could be taken in a number of ways. There is some uncertainty here, so we should look for something clearer. We find it in choice C: the reference to the “whole beginning of things” clearly points backward. What does the author tell us in saying, “She seemed to mean the country …” To the narrator, Antonia represents all these things, important things like the country and the landscape, and she does so more than anyone else. This is praise for Antonia, 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.
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