Digital PSAT Reading and Writing Practice Question 136: Answer and Explanation

Question: 136

It is hard to imagine what life would be like without the contributions engineers have already made. They have not just helped us to survive, be healthy, explore, and move around better but they have also made life more enjoyable through advances in areas such as communications, computing, and sports. Computer engineers, for example, have helped develop devices and software that we can use to make and share documents and home videos, listen to our favorite music, and talk with co-workers, friends, and family members across the globe. In sports, different engineers have made systems and devices that provide us with better, safer equipment, communications that enable teams to interact better and games to be televised, and environments and infrastructure that improve the playing and watching of games.

What is the point of the text as a whole?

• A. To make the reader feel that engineering is an accessible career
• B. To show how human life would go extinct without engineers
• C. To highlight the contributions of computer and sport engineers
• D. To give examples of how engineers' contributions are used in daily life

Correct Answer: D

Explanation:

(D) Text 4 discusses the contributions engineers have made to making life more enjoyable, specifically in the daily areas of "communications, computing, and sports." Hence, (D) is right. The author is not discussing engineering specifically as a career, ruling out (A). (C) is incorrect because the author is considering how engineers from varying fields have impacted communications and sports, rather than focusing on two types of engineers. Choice (B) is tempting, but the author's purpose is to show how entirely engineers have impacted certain aspects of daily life, not to illustrate how human life would go extinct without them.