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From a critical reading section of the March 1994 SAT:

In line 36, "impinge" means

(A) enlarge
(B) contribute
(C) resolve
(D) fall apart
(E) fix firmly

The passage reads as follows:

"To complicate further the question of identity, not only are parentage and geographical factors significant, but external or social factors impinge as well."

Where's the bubble for "none of the above"?

By b on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 09:29 am: Edit

the answer is B

By avatar on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 10:46 am: Edit

Thanks, b, but "impinge" does not mean contribute!

By Caught_Ya (Caught_Ya) on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 11:54 am: Edit

its b, not a good definition it usualy means to like infringe on privacy but just look at the ohter choices. They are talking about factors that are significant to complitcating identity. C and E break the trend of the sentence. Fall apart and enlarge make no sense. Contribute is the only reasonable answer

By avatar on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 12:14 pm: Edit

No question, Caught Ya, that B is the right answer. But the right answer is wrong. I repeat: the word "impinge" does not mean contribute. I just doesn't!

By Caught Ya is ugly on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 12:59 pm: Edit

Is this from the 10 Real SATs book? If so, give us the date of the test. There are sites on the web with answers to those questions.

By Caught Ya is ugly on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 01:00 pm: Edit

Oops, nevermind. March 94.

By Caught Ya is ugly on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 01:03 pm: Edit

But wait, doesn't impinge mean to contribute? The Websters definition of impinge is: "to have an effect : make an impression". Making an effect or an impression can be "contributing."

By Milquetoast on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 02:27 pm: Edit

Good point, CY is ugly. Websters also gives "to play a significant part in bringing about an end or result" for contribute, and that matches up with "to have an effect." I noticed, though, that the American Heritage Dictionary doesn't give either of those meanings for "impinge," so it looks like ETS is using the word in a really unusual sense, and that's probably what's confusing avatar.

By Barbarosa on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 03:55 pm: Edit

I have to agree with Milquetoast et al. that the “impinge” question is defensible. But while we’re in the neighborhood, take a look at question 18 of the same test:


The discussion of Diana Chang’s life (lines 23-33) suggests that she was

(A) unfamiliar with the culture of the United States
(B) isolated from other writers
(C) concerned with developing an unusual style
(D) unwilling to identify solely with any one cultural background
(E) trying to influence a small group of specialized readers


Here are lines 23-33 (Diana Chang isn’t discussed anywhere else in the passage):


“Another example is Diana Chang, whose mother was Eurasian (of Irish and Chinese ancestry) and whose father was Chinese; she was born in New York City, taken to China as an infant, reared in the International Sector in Shanghai where she attended American schools, then brought back to the United States for high school and college. In the early 1970’s, scholars included her work in anthologies of Asian American literature but also castigated her for the lack of ethnic pride and themes in her novels.”

This question is similar to the Mexican ancestors question discussed extensively on another thread. The approved answer seems right on a superficial reading of the passage, but when you go back and read the passage carefully, you see that it doesn’t really support the approved answer at all. There’s nothing in lines 23-33 that tells us anything about what Diana Chang was willing or unwilling to “identify with”. The fact that she was exposed to both American and Chinese cultures doesn’t in any way imply that she was unwilling to identify with either one of them. Nor does the fact that certain scholars criticized her for “the lack of ethnic pride and themes in her novels” in any way imply that she--the novelist, as opposed to the characters portrayed in her novels—did not personally identify with one cultural background or another. This is yet another instance of ETS carelessly imposing its misinterpretation of a text on thousands of hapless test-takers.

By um....d on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 07:33 pm: Edit

Is the answer d? That is what i got out of it when they said "lack of ethnic pride and themes in the novel". That passage suggests she is unable to choose between a cultural backround.

By braintrust on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 07:58 pm: Edit

uh, yeah, the answer's d but I think barbarosa's point is that you can't judge the author by the people in her novel

By BC on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 08:14 pm: Edit

RM: Is that you hiding behind the "red beard"? The stilted prose is a dead giveaway.

By dartmo17 on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 09:13 pm: Edit

BC: I think you’re right about the bearded one, but it’s not very to polite to go around outing people like that. Anyway, whoever Barbarosa is, he’s got a point. The passage doesn’t give you any basis for deciding what Chang’s personal views are. If you had to guess (which is all you can do here--and that’s apparently what ETS is forcing you to do) you’d have to say that she probably DOES identify solely with one culture--American culture. After all, all of her education, even in China, was in American schools. And when she writes her novels she doesn’t include ethnic themes (assuming what her critics say about her is true—sorry, RM, I know how you hate assumptions!) which would suggest that she has turned her back on Chinese culture and identified solely with American culture—exactly what ETS claims she doesn’t do.

By myself on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 09:25 pm: Edit

this is gotta be the gayest thread ive ever seen

By Numbertwopencil (Numbertwopencil) on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 10:16 pm: Edit

I always teach students to just cross out the word and treat the question like a sentence completion, because, if they're asking you about the meaning of a particular word, it's often because it's being used in a contextually idiosyncratic way. So just fill in your own word into the passage and find an answer choice that matches up, and more or less ignore the actual word, because it's essentially just a distractor.

As for the Diana Chang passage, I'll have to dig that one up and check it out...

By castle-king on Wednesday, February 19, 2003 - 07:40 pm: Edit

you make an interesting point, dartmo. and it shows how ets tries to force you to accept ethnic stereotypes. it's like ets assumes that if chang did identify soley with one culture, it would have to be chinese culture. if she identifies only with american culture, that doesn't count. so what ets means by "identifying soley with one cultural background" is really "identifying soley with her chinese cultural background". they assume that if she doesnt show ethnic (chinese) pride in her books (and therefor doesn't identify soley with CHINESE culture), then she can't possibly identify with ANY single culture because no self-respecting chinese american would choose to identify only with AMERICAN culture, right? it really is stereotype thinking.

p.s. not that it really matters, but i am asian-american, and i identify only with american culture

By Barbarosa on Wednesday, February 19, 2003 - 10:09 pm: Edit

BC: I have no idea who RM is, but I thank you for your flattering assessment of my prose style.
Dartmo7 and Castle-King: You each make a very plausible devil’s advocate sort of argument for the falsehood of the supposedly correct answer, D. My point, however, was not that that D is demonstrably false but rather that it has no support whatsoever in the passage. Allow me to explain.

First of all, the fact that certain scholars criticize Chang for what they perceive to be an absence of ethnic pride in her novels doesn’t imply that there really is an absence of ethnic pride in her novels. Critics (particularly politically oriented scholars) often make erroneous claims about the novels they critique. But that point is really moot because whether Chang does or does not show ethnic pride in her novels implies nothing at all about whether she identifies with only one culture or not. If she did in her novels portray characters oozing with ethnic pride, that obviously would not imply that she herself had ethnic pride (any more than the fact that Shakespeare created murderous characters proves that Shakespeare was a murderer). No less obviously, if she did not portray any characters with ethnic pride, that would not imply that she herself lacked ethnic pride (any more than the fact that Oscar Wilde did not portray openly homosexual characters proves that Wilde was not himself openly homosexual). But this point is likewise moot, because even if (as ETS seems to surmise) Chang did not herself feel ethnic pride, that in no way implies that she did not, or was not willing to, identify with one particular cultural background. As Dartmo17 and Castle-King have ably demonstrated, the fact that someone lacks ethnic pride does not in any way imply that she is unwilling to identify solely with an American cultural background. The streets of America are filled with people of all ethnic backgrounds who individually identify themselves only as Americans and who very reasonably feel that it makes no sense to take pride in something (like race, sex, or ethnicity) over which one has no control. If ETS refuses to recognize this, then Castle-King is right, they are engaging in a kind of crass ethnic profiling and, what is worse, forcing test-takers to do the same. But I also want to point out that it’s equally possible for someone like Chang to lack ethnic pride and still identify solely with her Chinese cultural background. What would prevent her from doing so? Certainly nothing that is mentioned in this passage.

Anyway you look at it, this passage does not logically support the inference that ETS has enshrined as the “correct” answer. What really just sickens me about this is that, in order to get into elite colleges--where we’re told that we must, above all, think critically and reason logically--we are forced to submit to a test which requires that we suspend our critical faculties and swallow ETS’s fallacious reasoning.

By blankety blank on Thursday, February 20, 2003 - 07:15 am: Edit

Uh, Sorry, folks. You'll have to pardon our friend Barbarosa. You see, when he was a mere boy his entire family was tortured and killed by renegade test development specialists from ETS.

By BC on Thursday, February 20, 2003 - 08:26 pm: Edit

Sounds alot like the rant RM posted on the BU board.

By Ethan on Thursday, February 20, 2003 - 10:01 pm: Edit

Barbarosa,

You seem to be overlooking the earlier part of the passage(lines 8-12) where it says "When born to parents of different races or nationalities, or when born in one country, reared in another, and finally settled in a third, once cannot give a simple answer to the question of racial or national identity." Doesn't that imply that Chang was unable to identify solely with any one cultural background?

By cowboy on Thursday, February 20, 2003 - 10:39 pm: Edit

Dear Ethan,

It appears that Mr. Barbarosa is too busy dyeing his prodigious beard to reply to your most perceptive inquiry. However, were he available for a response, I have no doubt that he would say

SHUT THE FVCK UP, YOU WANKING IMBECILE!!!