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Course: SAT > Unit 11
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- Writing: Logical Comparison — Video Lesson
- Writing: Logical comparison — Example
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Writing: Logical Comparison — Video Lesson
David walks you through a Logical Comparison question on the SAT Writing and Language test. Created by David Rheinstrom.
Want to join the conversation?
- what is a good way to identify if it is a logical comparison question? I am struggling with this concept.(4 votes)
- I think purchasing is correct because is mentioned the sentence before 3:14(0 votes)
- I'm not sure I see your reasoning here. The reason David picks D) is that we're comparing 'organically grown crops' to something else, and by the rules of logical comparison, that should be some other crops. Choices A), B), and C) compare the crops themselves to some form of purchasing or the people that purchase them. Choice D) compares the organic crops directly to 'conventionally grown counterparts', so it is the right answer.(8 votes)
- thanks,nice explaination(2 votes)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] We're
looking at question 12 here from a passage titled "The Hype
of Organic Healthier Food." I'll read us in. "Some people buy organic food because they believe
organically grown crops are more nutritious and
safer for consumption than the people who purchase their conventionally grown counterparts, which are usually produced with pesticides and
synthetic fertilizers." Now, that's a very long sentence. So let's figure out what's
going on in this sentence, what's the subject, what are the verbs. Okay, so some people, what do they do? They buy organic food. Why do they do it? Because they believe in something. What do they believe? They believe that organically grown crops are more nutritious and
safer for consumption than something else. So they believe that
organically grown crops are better than something else. And the use of the word
than here signals to me that this is a logical
comparison question. Logical comparison on the SAT is the idea that you should only make comparisons between things in the same category. You'll see one to two questions about logical comparison on test day. So an incorrect example, an example of illogical
comparison would be, I prefer apples over
people who love pears. So why is this incorrect? Because the sentence
compares apples to people, not apples to pears. And a person is not picked in an orchard. It's not the same thing.
A person is not fruit. To fix this sentence, I need
to compare apples to pears and change it to I
prefer apples over pears. You might need to add a word like that or those in order to correct that illogical comparison. Pierre's croissants are
less tender and delicious than Amadou. This is an illogical comparison because Amadou is a person not a pastry. So we want to compare
his pastries to Pierre's. Pierre's croissants are
less tender and delicious than those of Amadou. Or, Pierre's croissants are less tender and delicious than Almadou's. Let's go back to the question. Feel free to pause the video here if you want to take a
crack at it yourself. Okay, let's do it together. I'm going to plug the
options into the choices and see if the comparisons are logical. So people who buy organic food believe that organically grown
crops are more nutritious and safer for consumption than choice A, the people who purchase their conventionally grown counterparts. So organically grown crops are
more nutritious than people. I don't think we're talking
about eating people here, that's an illogical comparison. I'm gonna cross off choice A. Choice B, organic crops
are more nutritious and safer to eat than the purchase of their conventionally
grown counterparts. Now, we're comparing
organic fruit and vegetables to the purchase of, the buying process of conventionally grown fruit and veg. And that's illogical. It's comparing fruit to
the act of buying fruit. I'm gonna cross off B. Choice C is purchasing, and that's basically the same as choice B. Remember, when two choices on the SAT are functionally identical, that's a great way to know
they're both incorrect. They can't both be right, which means they must both be wrong. So I've crossed it off,
too da loo, choice C. And that leaves choice D. Let's see what happens if we
delete the underlined portion. Some people bull buy organic food because they believe
organically grown crops are more nutritious and
safer for consumption than their conventionally
grown counterparts. Hey, how about that? It's comparing organic crops to their conventionally
grown counterparts. So comparing crops to crops. That's our answer because
it's a logical comparison. Your strategy here primarily
turns on figuring out what's being compared to what. First, ask yourself, are they the same? Are you comparing two terms
in similar categories? Cross out choices that are illogical. And then ask yourself, are
there any other errors? If you find that two choices fix the logical comparison error, look at them closely. One will introduce an additional error. Use these tips to logic
your way to the answer. Good luck out there. You've got this.