Sat practice Test #8 Answer Explanations

Choice C is the best answer. In the first sentence of the second 
paragraph of Passage 2, Lincoln raises a question about how the 
consequences of the division of the United States into slave states and 
free states compare with the consequences of the other ways in which 
states differ from each other: “But has it been so with this element of 
slavery?” In this context, the word “element” most nearly means factor.
Choices A, B, and D are incorrect because in the context of Lincoln’s 
discussion of the “element of slavery,” the word “element” most nearly 
means factor, not ingredient (choice A), environment (choice B), or 
quality (choice D).
QUESTION 36
Choice B is the best answer. In the second paragraph of Passage 2, 
Lincoln asserts that the controversy surrounding slavery in the 
United States has died down whenever the institution of slavery has 
been restricted geographically: “Whenever it has been limited to 
its present bounds, and there has been no effort to spread it, there 
has been peace.” Since Lincoln associates peace on this issue with 
geographical limits on the institution of slavery itself, it can be inferred 
that he would agree that the controversy would abate if all attempts to 
establish slavery in new regions ceased.
Choice A is incorrect because Lincoln neither urges Northern states to 
attempt to abolish slavery unilaterally nor implies that such an attempt 
would extinguish the controversy over slavery. Choice C is incorrect 
because Lincoln neither suggests that the laws regulating slavery 
are ambiguous nor that such ambiguity exacerbates controversy over 
slavery. Choice D is incorrect because Lincoln never attributes the 
controversy over slavery to differences in religion or social values from 
one state to another.
QUESTION 37
Choice C is the best answer. The previous question asks which claim 
about the controversy over slavery would Lincoln agree with. The 
answer, that the controversy would abate if attempts to spread slavery 
to regions where it isn’t practiced were abandoned, is best supported 
in the second paragraph of Passage 2: “Whenever [slavery] has been 
limited to its present bounds, and there has been no effort to spread it, 
there has been peace.”
Choices A, B, and D are incorrect because the cited lines don’t 
support the answer to the previous question. Instead, they discuss 
state-to-state differences in laws regulating issues other than slavery 
(choice A), assert that the differences among the various states 
generally benefit the nation (choice B), and ask a philosophical 
question that doesn’t directly address the issue of slavery (choice D).

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QUESTION 38