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SYMMETRY : EYE ::

(A) melody : voice
(B) choreography : feet
(C) applause : hands
(D) pungency : tongue
(E) harmony : ear

By mike on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 09:09 pm: Edit

where did you get this analogy from.... was it from PR's cracking the SAT??? cuz i found those practice tests rathar difficult.

By SATWiz on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 09:19 pm: Edit

(B) choreography : feet

Choreography has to do with arranging dances or ballets. Feet are heavily involved in this!

By Jason817 (Jason817) on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 09:20 pm: Edit

its B

By largo on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 10:10 pm: Edit

Jason, what makes you think its B?

By Thedad (Thedad) on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 10:38 pm: Edit

E, I believe.

The eye perceives symmetry; the ear perceives harmony.

By Jason817 (Jason817) on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 10:38 pm: Edit

(A). A melody is not necessarily a voice. Cancel. Weak bridge.

(C). An applause is an expression of approval. THough mostly by hands, its always shown by hands.
Might be but unlikely.

(D). Pungency can affect the nose as well. Not always the tongue. Weak bridge.

I would not have cancelled E. So it was mainly between B and E. Then make a sentence. HARMONY is pleasant to the ear. Is SYMMETRY pleasant to the EYE? That sounds strange. So I chose B. CHOREOGRAPHY has to do with aligning FEET just as SYMMETRY has to with aligning EYES.

By PoobisFectum on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 10:50 pm: Edit

It is most definetly E. I say this with confidence as I answered correctly every single analogy question the last time I took the SAT.

By E...DUH!! on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 11:09 pm: Edit

THE ANSWER IS E.

By largo on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 11:22 pm: Edit

Thedad: Your explanation makes sense, but why not D by the same reasoning? Doesn't the tongue percieve pungency, just as the eye perceives symmetry?

By SATmaster on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 11:35 pm: Edit

Symmetry is a type of "Beauty", and is "harmonious". The eye perceives beauty. As the ear perceives harmony.

E. makes the most sense!

By Jason817 (Jason817) on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 11:51 pm: Edit

Oh so I am wrong. It was between B and E.

By largo on Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 11:57 pm: Edit

SATmaster: What does beauty have to do with it? Symmetry can be perceived as beautiful or as ugly.

By SATmaster on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 12:05 am: Edit

It can be perceived as both, but look at the choices. None mean "ugly", so you look for a bridge. Since we know Symmetry can mean harmonious and beauty. Choice E. stands out!

For Example:
I went to a river in the mountains, the beauty was breathtaking, the harmony heard by the birds added to the setting.

All about establishing bridges my friend, I scored perfectly on the verbal section. This method has never failed me!

By : on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 12:11 am: Edit

And may it never fail u!!!!

By largo on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 12:47 am: Edit

SATmaster, I agree that analogies are all about establishing bridges, but sometimes the bridge you've established fits more than one of the options, in which case you've got to come up with a more exclusive bridge that eliminates all but one of the options. So far, you given one bridge: X is perceived by Y. But that bridge fits both D and E. So how do you decide which? When you say "Symmetry can mean harmonious and beauty" that's not a bridge. A bridge is a relation between the members of the paired words. Symmetry and harmony are not members of the same pair, so when you try to relate them by talking about beauty, you're not establishing a bridge. You're right, my friend, it IS all about establishing bridges, and so far you're not doing it!

By SATmaster on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 01:01 am: Edit

largo my 800 Verbal score tells me I know what im doing, and theres no reason to change my method. I'm trying to explain my method, my definition of bridge doesnt go along with prep books. I make up my own strategies.

Usually it takes me less than 8 secs to answer the hardest analogies.

SYMMETRY can mean beauty and harmonious which means harmony. Right there we established a bond, harmony has the same meaning as harmonious.

Eye's and Ears have an obvious bond. Harmony can be heard by your ears, symmetry which can also mean "harmony" can be seen by the eyes. If your watching a bird chirp, your viewing both beauty and harmony!

Anyway you look at it theres a very strong bond between E. and the question!

By thereyougo on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 01:06 am: Edit

In simpler terms:
The ear likes to hear things that are harmonious
the eye likes to see things that are symmetrical

By SATmaster on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 01:08 am: Edit

"thereyougo" said exactly what ive been trying to say.. thanks...

By truth on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 08:49 am: Edit

Amazing, SATmaster, that you're unable to articulate what you're trying to say or even produce a grammatically coherent sentence, and yet you score a perfect 800 on Verbal!

By largo on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 09:05 am: Edit

That's an interesting suggestion, thereyougo. I guess you would narrow the bridge down to Y likes to perceive X. But I'm not sure that really works, because that bridge fits D as well: sometimes the tongue likes to perceive pungency. It's true that sometimes the tongue doesn't like to perceive pungeny, but that's okay because sometimes the eye doesn't like to perceive symmetry either. I still don't see a good way to decide between D and E.

By Josh Wood on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 09:39 am: Edit

(D) pungency : tongue COULD work, but when a much better choice, harmony:ear, is available, you know it's wrong. After all, don't the directions say, "Select the word or set of words that *best* completes the sentence."? E. is the best.

By largo on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 10:01 am: Edit

Actually, Josh Wood, the directions say "Select the pair that *best* expresses a relationship similar to that expressed in the original pair," but I agree with you that the goal here is to select what is best. My question is how do you justify that one particular answer, like E, is in fact the best answer? In order to show that the relationship in E is more similar to the orignal than D, don't you have to have a bridge that fits E but not D? That's what the College Board says you're supposed to do in their booklet when they discuss strategies for solving analogies. Is it enough to simply say that E is "a much better choice" without having any logical reason for saying so?

By Dammit on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 11:27 am: Edit

I scored a 790. I say E. I should have scored an 800 dammit.

By SATmaster on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 12:17 pm: Edit

"Amazing, SATmaster, that you're unable to articulate what you're trying to say or even produce a grammatically coherent sentence, and yet you score a perfect 800 on Verbal!"

Thanks for the comment smart ass. Despite the fact it was very late, and I was intoxicated the intelligent people seemed to comprehend what I was saying.

Love the people who contribute nothing to the board, yet find pleasure in criticizing those who do!

By smartass on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 01:16 pm: Edit

Sorry, SATmaster. I guess I should have downed a bottle of Jack Daniels before I read your post. Then maybe I could have understood what you meant by "SYMMETRY can mean beauty and harmonious which means harmony." Your idea of "contributing" to the board seems to be bragging about your fictitious score.

By enigma on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 01:30 pm: Edit

Answer: E

By SATmaster on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 01:45 pm: Edit

SYMMETRY does mean beauty and harmonious. Go check out dictionary.com if you need proof!

Fictitious score huh? Took it in Jan, had 710 M, 800 V. Had a 790 on SAT II Writing! And who in the hell do you think you are accusing people of lieing about there scores? You don't know me or my background. Getting a perfect score, on one or even both of the sections isnt that rare! Many people do it, or come close!

Judging someones entire academic profile based upon a post, where I was attempting to give explanation is both immature and juvenile.

When have I ever said a negative thing towards anyone here? You included!

I could say your a perverted rapist. Would I be accurate in saying that? Most likely not. Reason being I have no proof either way, thus I'm unable to make accusations.

I took a prep class, read various books, etc... to prepare for the SAT, and worked hard to earn my score! Took me 3 SAT's to achieve it, but I did! Based on what I learned from that, I formed some of my own methods which helped greatly.

Thanks for your opinion though!

By SATmaster on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 01:49 pm: Edit

enigma what book did that analogy come from? PR Im guessing?

By help on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 02:00 pm: Edit

SATmaster, could you please share some of the methods you formed yourself. I would really value your advice considering your success.

By thanks on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 02:20 pm: Edit

SATmaster, i could use your advice. Please help me! I realize that you're probably very good at english, so can you help me get a better score for the SATs? Please share your methods.

By enigma on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 02:26 pm: Edit

SATmaster: The analogy is from the latest edition of the College Board's TAKING THE SAT I 2002-2003. It's #14 in section 5, p. 53. The correct answer is supposed to be E.

By truth on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 02:34 pm: Edit

"SYMMETRY can mean beauty and harmonious which means harmony."

The word "symmetry" is a noun. The word "harmonious" is an adjective. A noun can't possibly have an adjective for its meaning. Ergo, "symmetry" cannot mean "harmonious." For a similar reason, "harmonious" (an adjective) cannot mean the same thing as "harmony" (a noun). Anyone capable of scoring 800 on Verbal would know this.

By How dumb can you be? on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 02:37 pm: Edit

E, you idiots.

By SATmaster on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 02:41 pm: Edit

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=sYMMETRY

3. Beauty as a result of balance or harmonious arrangement.

http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/s/s0958900.html

3. Beauty as a result of balance or harmonious arrangement.

Guess the dictionary has a mistake? I've proved you wrong more then once here, the dictionary backs me up. Go check the links I provided, and read!

Your making yourself look foolish, anyone with an 800 would know to look to a dictionary when in question.

By truth on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 02:57 pm: Edit

SATmaster, you had already proven that you can't write, and now you've shown that you can't read either. The definition you cite does not say that "symmetry" means "harmonious," as you earlier claimed. Are you such an imbecile that you think that a word is synonymous with any word that appears in its definition? By that logic, "circle" means "equidistant" because "circle" is defined as "the set of points equidistant from a given point." Is that the kind of reasoning that got you your 800? If you can't accurately interpret even a simple dictionary definition, how can you ever have made it through the reading comp sections of the test?

By Sabzevarian (Sabzevarian) on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 03:04 pm: Edit

I think the average person actually does find symmetry (in people) beautiful and attractive. My bio teacher was talking about that and the appearance factor in mate choices. So with succesfull knowledge of biology, you can get that question right=P

By Catalyst on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 03:11 pm: Edit

truth that is a definition. 1, 2, and 3 listed below are definitions for symmetry. Symmetry is also used quite often to describe beauty, attractiveness, appearance as Sabzevarian mentioned. Just drop it dude, enigma posts an analogy and you turn it into a flame. I honestly feel bad for you. You obviously have some emotional problems!

By MovieGuy on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 03:29 pm: Edit

LOL @ this "truth" character. I can see his daily agenda. Goes to school (nerd), and the popular kids walk by him, one says "wsup, you see that game today". Then Melvin, Minkus, whatever his name may be says "Incorrect verb usage, "wsup" should be "What's Up with an apostrophe after the t".

The popular kids then procede to tilt him upside down, take him into a bathroom, and give him a swirly. Through the day he is pegged with paper airplanes, pencils, erasers, Mac & Chesse, biscuits, mystery meat during lunch!

He goes home, crys, then hops on the PC, then to this site where he feels he is safe from those rabbit dogs!

---------
Part 2 to this story coming soon to a thread near you!
---------

By truth on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 06:54 pm: Edit

Aw, gee whiz, guys, what did you have to go and say those mean things for? That really hurt my feelings.

By Josh Wood on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 07:02 pm: Edit

In response to Largo's response to my response to everybody else's responses to the posted analogy:

Haha, I really am a moron. In order to emphasize the use of the word "best" in the verbal instructions, I looked up the directions to what I thought was the analogy section but was really the sentence completion section and typed them in without giving a second (or possibly first) thought as to what they meant. Obviously, I stand corrected.

My reasoning for discounting choice D:

1) Pungent often refers to smell rather than taste. Symmetry rarely, if ever, refers to anything except a characteristic that can be perceived only by the sense of sight. Harmony only describes something that cannot be solely perceived by the sense of hearing when used in a (almost) completely unrelated way. (Let us live in peace and harmony.)

2) Pungent has a negative connotation. Both harmony and symmetry are positive.

As for the bridge:
Symmetry is pleasing to the eye. Harmony is pleasing to the ear. Pungent sure ain't pleasing to the tongue (and it is an adjective, symmetry and harmony are nouns.)

By largo on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 08:53 pm: Edit

Josh Wood,

You're not a moron at all, and I didn't mean to suggest that when I corrected your post. I just wanted to be clear about what the goal is here. I'm really very grateful to you. Your defense of E is very sophisticated and has really helped clarify the issue. Maybe I'm just being thick here, but I'm just not convinced.

First of all, I don't think symmetry is an exclusively visual perception. I'm a musician, and musicians often talk about the symmetry of a musical phrase or the symmetry of a rhythm. You can also perceive symmetry with your sense of touch. If I run my fingers along a pencil, for example, I can tell it's symmetrical, whereas if I run my fingers along my house key, I can tell it's asymmetrical.

Second, I don't think symmetry is necessarily pleasing to the eye. If it were, then all artists would try to produce paintings, sculptures etc. that were perfectly symmetrical. They don't, though, because too much symmetry is often considered boring and unappealing. Some artists, like the cubists, try to avoid symmetry altogether because symmetry isn't at all pleasing to their eyes.

Third, I don’t think harmony is necessarily pleasing to the ear. In musical terms, harmony is just the simultaneous sounding of two or more notes, in other words, a chord. A harmony can be sweet (consonant) or sour (dissonant). Some people like sweet harmonies and some don’t. If you bang your fists on a piano keyboard, you’ll produce a very dissonant harmony. Some people like that sort of thing, but most don’t. Interestingly, musicians sometimes refer to such chords as “pungent.” The point is, just because something is a harmony, that doesn’t mean it’s pleasing to the ear.

Finally, I don’t think pungency necessarily has a negative connotation. If you do a Google search of the phrase “deliciously pungent,” for instance, you’ll see that food critics all over the web use “pungent” to praise the taste of cheeses, spices, sauces, etc. In this respect, pungency is just like symmetry: Some people find it pleasing and some people don’t.

For these reasons, Josh, I can’t really bring myself to accept your bridge, as well thought out as it is. As far as I can see, the bridge—X is pleasing to the Y—doesn’t exclude D any more than it excludes E.

By Josh Wood on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 11:46 pm: Edit

In response to largo's response to my response to largo's previous response to my earlier response to everybody else's responses stated above concerning the posted analogy:

I didn't mean to suggest that you suggested that I was a moron when you corrected my post, but thank you for being apologetic regardless. In fact, I found it genuinely hilarious that I went to the trouble to defend the answer choice E but somehow managed to post the wrong directions.

You say that you don't think symmetry is an exclusively visual perception. I am not a musician (of any seriousness) and I was not aware that music could be symmetrical. And yes, I suppose that you can perceive symmetry with touch but you can also speak with a voice box, "hear" by feeling vibrations, and "see" with a machine feeding electrical impulses to your tongue. (Don't believe me? I wouldn't have believed you either - check out the December 2002 issue of Wired magazine page 46.) Anyway, that doesn't matter because the problem gives you symmetry:eye. This alone tells us that we are talking about a visual perception.

In response to your second point, all I can say is touché. Symmetry is not necessarily pleasing to the eye and harmony is not necessarily pleasing to the ear. Pungency, likewise, is not necessarily a negative word. To me, though, it sounds too smelly to be positive. ;)

The only ammunition I have left is that symmetry is considered balanced and harmony is often (usually?) considered balanced. (No, I'm not a musician, but I think most people would consider something harmonious to be balanced) I can not read balanced into the definition of pungency. In fact, pungency describes a taste or aroma that is just the opposite. Like I said earlier, pungency:tongue COULD work, but I think harmony:ear is a better choice. And after all, the instructions for analogies are, (Can I get this right?) "Select the lettered pair that *best* expresses a relationship similar to that expressed in the original pair."

postscript: Oh yes... I just realized that I used the word pungent instead of pungency is my last post. That was stupid.

By milquetoast on Monday, February 24, 2003 - 07:22 pm: Edit

I think Largo's onto something here. When I first saw this I thought E was obviously a better answer than D, but I couldn't explain why, and after reading Largo's posts I'm not sure it CAN be explained. Josh makes a valiant effort, but I don't think "balance" is really the issue here. I'm not much of a musician, but I know enough about guitar chords (harmonies)to be able to say pretty definitely that they're not always balanced. I'd like to hear what Incognito or Numbertwopencil thinks about this one.

By aj on Monday, February 24, 2003 - 07:27 pm: Edit

imo the issue IS balance.

my bridge would be something like "symmetry is when balance is perceived by the eye"

and

"harmony is when balance is perceived by the ear"

By milquetoast on Monday, February 24, 2003 - 07:39 pm: Edit

Makes sense, aj, but how exactly is harmony a balance?

By aj on Monday, February 24, 2003 - 07:51 pm: Edit

milgue:

not sure if "balance" is the exact word actually. but it's something like that.

from dictionary.com:

har·mo·ny ( P ) Pronunciation Key (härm-n)
n. pl. har·mo·nies
Agreement in feeling or opinion; accord: live in harmony.
A pleasing combination of elements in a whole: color harmony; the order and harmony of the universe.

sometimes it's hard to explain these things. it just feels and sounds right. i guess you could substitute "agreement in feeling" or some other phrase like that for "balance." that's how i think of it anyway.

hope that helps a little, i'm not that great at explaining this kind of stuff.

By Bitz on Monday, February 24, 2003 - 07:52 pm: Edit

The answer is E.
The argument regarding pungent as pleasant to the tounge is not right because pungent does not carry a feeling of good taste, merely of strong taste. Additionally, balance does play a major role as aj states.

By aj on Monday, February 24, 2003 - 07:56 pm: Edit

yeah, bitz cleared it up a little there i think. pungency does not have a positive connotation while symmetry and harmony do.

By Incognito (Incognito) on Monday, February 24, 2003 - 08:10 pm: Edit

The answer is definately E....
However, to play devil's advocate a little here:
Harmony does not have to be "heard." Pungency is tasted (according to my list, at least). I got this one right, but I was a little ambivalent about it.

I wont go over why E is right, because many have done so alraady. However, it is not so easy to eliminate D, because one bridge may be:

Just as an EYE is an organ that may sense/perceive SYMMETRY, the TONGUE is an organ that may sense/perceive PUNGENCY. When one (or at least when I) think of harmony, I dont always correlate it with sound. I always correlate pungency w/taste. This was not an extremely easy analogy, you have to admit.

By Palindrome (Palindrome) on Tuesday, February 25, 2003 - 08:16 pm: Edit

I don't think balance is the issue. Symmetry implies balance, but harmony doesn't. If you look at the letter A, for example, the left side is of the same exact proportions as the right side. In other words, the left side balances the right side, so the letter is symmetrical. But harmony doesn't have that kind of balance. If you play a chord on the guitar, the harmony comes from the fact that each string is playing a DIFFERENT note. Instead of having a combination of two (or more)things of the same proportions, like with the letter A, you've got a combination of two or more notes of different pitches. So if AJ is saying that the bridge is

X is a balance perceived by Y,

I have to disagree.

By Lurker (Lurker) on Tuesday, February 25, 2003 - 10:44 pm: Edit

I vote for E.

The eye enjoys viewing symmetry.
The ear enjoys hearing harmony.

The tongue DOES NOT enjoy tasting pungency.

The other choices just don't fit.

I wouldn't go any deeper than that.

(Just my $0.02 and a chance to try out my newly registered username!)

By Palindrome (Palindrome) on Tuesday, February 25, 2003 - 11:10 pm: Edit

Lurker,

Weren't you at all impressed by the arguments Largo gave in his last post? Do you think that all the people who say things like "delicious pungency" are using the word incorrectly? Are the cubists lying when they say they don't enjoy looking at symmetrical figures?

By Pisces (Pisces) on Tuesday, February 25, 2003 - 11:14 pm: Edit

Palindrome- the people who say "delicious pungency" are using the word incorrectly, or at least the wrong connotation. And if it's the wrong connotation, it's not the "best fit". And, in general, symmetry is pleasing to the eye- they've probably even had studies done on it.

By Lurker (Lurker) on Tuesday, February 25, 2003 - 11:53 pm: Edit

Palindrome,
I think that the arguments that Largo gave are far deeper than intended by the SAT types who wrote the question. That's why I said "I wouldn't go any deeper than that."

The definition of the word "pungent" includes the adjectives "painful," "caustic," "acrid," "irritating." Yeah, someone with sadistic tendencies may find pungency to be delicious, but I don't think that's what the College Board is looking for. They want the test taker to know that pungency is not a pleasant noun.

Cubists and other abstract artists can also cringe at symmetry, but the dictionary definition of symmetry uses phrases like "balanced," and "beauty of form." Harmony and symmetry are "pleasant" nouns.

In taking the verbal SAT I, you need to know the definitions of the words, but you have to be careful not to overthink the logic and interpretation behind the analogies.

P.S. I definately prefer math reasoning to verbal reasoning!