SAT Reading: How to approach a Science passage | The Complete SAT Course - Class 10 PDF Download

Passage 1 is adapted from Nicholas Carr, “Author Nicholas Carr: The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains.” ©2010 by Condé Nast. 
Passage 2 is from Steven Pinker, “Mind over Mass Media.” ©2010 by The New York Times Company.

The mental consequences of our online info-crunching are not universally bad. Certain cognitive skills are strengthened by our use of computers and the Net. These tend to involve more primitive mental functions, such as hand-eye coordination, reflex response, and the processing of visual cues. One much-cited study of video gaming revealed that after just 10 days of playing action games on computers, a group of young people had significantly boosted the speed with which they could shift their visual focus between various images and tasks.

It’s likely that Web browsing also strengthens brain functions related to fast-paced problem solving, particularly when it requires spotting patterns in a welter of data. A British study of the way women search for medical information online indicated that an experienced Internet user can, at least in some cases, assess the trustworthiness and probable value of a Web page in a matter of seconds. The more we practice surfing and scanning, the more adept our brain becomes at those tasks.

But it would be a serious mistake to look narrowly at such benefits and conclude that the Web is making us smarter. In a Science article published in early 2009, prominent developmental psychologist Patricia Greenfield reviewed more than 40 studies of the effects of various types of media on intelligence and learning ability. She concluded that “every medium develops some cognitive skills at the expense of others.” Our growing use of the Net and other screen-based technologies, she wrote, has led to the “widespread and sophisticated development of visual-spatial skills.” But those gains go hand in hand with a weakening of our capacity for the kind of “deep processing” that underpins “mindful knowledge acquisition, inductive analysis, critical thinking, imagination, and reflection.”

We know that the human brain is highly plastic; neurons and synapses change as circumstances change. When we adapt to a new cultural phenomenon, including the use of a new medium, we end up with a different brain, says Michael Merzenich, a pioneer of the field of neuroplasticity. That means our online habits continue to reverberate in the workings of our brain cells even when we’re not at a computer. We’re exercising the neural circuits devoted to skimming and multitasking while ignoring those used for reading and thinking deeply.

Critics of new media sometimes use science itself to press their case, citing research that shows how “experience can change the brain.” But cognitive neuroscientists roll their eyes at such talk. Yes, every time we learn a fact or skill the wiring of the brain changes; it’s not as if the information is stored in the pancreas. But the existence of neural plasticity does not mean the brain is a blob of clay pounded into shape by experience.

Experience does not revamp the basic information-processing capacities of the brain. Speed-reading programs have long claimed to do just that, but the verdict was rendered by Woody Allen after he read Leo Tolstoy’s famously long novel War and Peace in one sitting: “It was about Russia.” Genuine multitasking, too, has been exposed as a myth, not just by laboratory studies but by the familiar sight of an SUV undulating between lanes as the driver cuts deals on his cell phone.

Moreover, the effects of experience are highly specific to the experiences themselves. If you train people to do one thing (recognize shapes, solve math puzzles, find hidden words), they get better at doing that thing, but almost nothing else. Music doesn’t make you better at math, conjugating Latin doesn’t make you more logical, brain-training games don’t make you smarter. Accomplished people don’t bulk up their brains with intellectual calisthenics; they immerse themselves in their fields. Novelists read lots of novels, scientists read lots of science.

The effects of consuming electronic media are likely to be far more limited than the panic implies. Media critics write as if the brain takes on the qualities of whatever it consumes, the informational equivalent of “you are what you eat.” As with ancient peoples who believed that eating fierce animals made them fierce, they assume that watching quick cuts in rock videos turns your mental life into quick cuts or that reading bullet points and online postings turns your thoughts into bullet points and online postings.

Questions 1 and 2: Explicit meaning and citing textual evidence

• Simplify the first question using your own words
• Try to find the answer to your simplified version of the question by reading the quotations provided in the second question

Q.1. The author of Passage 1 indicates which of the following about the use of screen-based technologies?
(a) It should be thoroughly studied.
(b) It makes the brain increasingly rigid.
(c) It has some positive effects.
(d) It should be widely encouraged.

Correct Answer is Option (d)
This is the best choice. In the first paragraph, the author writes that "certain cognitive skills are strengthened" by the use of screen-based tech.

Q.2. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question? (CITING TEXTUAL EVIDENCE)
(a) "Certain cognitive skills are strengthened by our use of computers and the Net."
(b) "But it would be a serious mistake to look narrowly at such benefits and conclude that the Web is making us smarter."
(c) "In a Science article published in early 2009, prominent developmental psychologist Patricia Greenfield reviewed more than 40 studies of the effects of various types of media on intelligence and learning ability."
(d) "She concluded that 'every medium develops some cognitive skills at the expense of others.'"

Correct Answer is Option (a)
This choice supports the answer to the previous question. It suggests that certain cognitive skills are strengthened by screen-time, which matches the "positive effects" choice from the previous question.

Question 3: Explicit meaning

• Pick out key words and ideas in the question
• Scan the passage to find where those keywords appear
• Read around the keywords in the passage to find the answer
• Express the answer in your own words
• Find a match for your prediction in the choices!

Q.3. The author of Passage 1 indicates that becoming adept at using the Internet can (UNDERSTANDING RELATIONSHIPS)
(a) make people complacent about their health.
(b) undermine the ability to think deeply.
(c) increase people’s social contacts.
(d) improve people’s self-confidence.

Correct Answer is Option (b)
This is the best choice. It even matches the title of the passage! In the third paragraph, the author describes Patricia Greenfield's research, concluding that using screen-based tech leads to a weakened capacity for "deep processing".

Question 4: Words and phrases in context

• Cover up the choices
• Go back to the passage to find the word/phrase
• Make up your own version of the word/phrase using context clues in the surrounding sentences
• Uncover the choices, and find a match to your prediction in the choices

Q.4. As used in the last paragraph, “plastic” most nearly means (INTERPRETING WORDS AND PHRASES IN CONTEXT)
(a) creative.
(b) artificial.
(c) malleable.
(d) sculptural.

Correct Answer is Option (c)
This is the best choice. The author says that "neurons and synapses change" immediately after calling the brain "highly plastic", which suggests that "plastic" means something like "capable of change" in this context. "Malleable" means "shapeable", so it's the best choice here.

Question 5: Implicit meaning

Correct Answer is Option (b)
This is the best choice. War and Peace is famously complex, yet Allen's summary of the novel is so superficial that it suggests he didn't really get the book when he speed-read it.

Question 6: Explicit meaning

Top tip: For questions like these, we encourage you to

• Pick out key words and ideas in the question
• Scan the passage to find where those keywords appear
• Read around the keywords in the passage to find the answer
• Express the answer in your own words
• Find a match for your prediction in the choices!

Q.6. According to the author of Passage 2, what do novelists and scientists have in common? (EXPLICIT MEANING)
(a) They take risks when they pursue knowledge.
(b) They are eager to improve their minds.
(c) They are curious about other subjects.
(d) They become absorbed in their own fields.

Correct Answer is Option (d)
This is the best choice. The author refers to novelists reading novels and scientists reading science, suggesting that they are very interested in their own fields.

Question 7: Analyzing word choice

Correct Answer is Option (d)
This is the best choice. This paragraph is mocking the view of media critics who think "you are what you eat"; the author compares this to ancient people with beliefs he deems obsolete or silly.