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• R eveal: After anticipating an answer, now look at the answer choices.
• E liminate: Remove answers that don’t match your anticipation first .
Because Tony Williams, an instrumental member of Davis’s Second Great Quintet and leader of his own trio Lifetime, paved the way for other artists who, like him, blended elements of jazz with rock and funk, he is considered a of jazz fusion.
A) beneficiary
B) composer
C) progenitor
D) Soloist
You should have anticipated something that captured the idea of a person who paved the way for later people . Whatever your anticipation was, it likely wasn’t B or D; eliminate them (the “E” in C.A.R.E.). If you don’t know what either of the remaining words mean, just take your best guess—you’ve got a 50-50 chance 24 .
progenitor
BEST PRACTICES Do not fear words that you don’t know. That’s the Ambiguity Effect: a cognitive bias where people avoid an uncertain option and instead choose a more familiar option, even if the uncertain option could lead to a better outcome.
1. 2.
a biologically related ancestor
a person or thing that first indicates a direction, originates something
3.
a paver of the way 25
DISTRACTORS
As mentioned earlier, a distractor is an answer choice intended to trap, decoy, or lure. Distractors are all over the SAT, but they can be especially tempting on Words in Context questions. For example, in the question above, if you chose composer or soloist , you took the bait. How do you know that Tony Williams was a composer or a soloist? There’s no evidence in the passage to substantiate either 26 .
substantiate
1.
to establish by proof or evidence
The presence of distractors in the answer choices is why we start with C in C.A.R.E. Focusing solely on the passage allows you to form a clear and informed idea of what the answer could be, free from potentially misleading ideas in the answer choices that might cloud your judgment. Even worse, when you scan the answer choices before analyzing the passage, you may unconsciously begin to rationalize or justify a wrong answer!
“Well, this could work.” “No. You’re trying to make it work.”
24 Always try to narrow the possibilities to two answer choices, giving yourself a 50-50 chance. 25 Just kidding. This is not an official definition of progenitor . 26 Let’s say you know for a fact that Tony Williams was indeed both a composer and soloist. They are still both wrong because the answer must be derived from the passage and not from what you just happen to know.
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