Digital PSAT Reading and Writing Practice Question 241: Answer and Explanation

Question: 241

The text is from Booker T. Washington's 1901 autobiography.

I was born a slave on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia. I am not quite sure of the exact place or exact date of my birth, but at any rate I suspect I must have been born somewhere and at some time. As nearly as I have been able to learn, I was born near a cross-roads post-office called Hale's Ford, and the year was 1858 or 1859. I do not know the month or the day. The earliest impressions I can now recall are of the plantation and the slave quarters—the latter being the part of the plantation where the slaves had their cabins.

Washington's primary purpose in the text above is most likely

• A. to lament his increased senility.
• B. to express his identity.
• C. to critique his familial relations.
• D. to underscore his rootlessness.

Correct Answer: D

Explanation:

D. The vocabulary of the choices is perhaps the most difficult part of this question. “To underscore his rootlessness” is another way of saying to emphasize the uncertainty of his background. Choice D is the correct answer, as Washington is emphasizing that he really has very little idea about how he came into this world. Washington is not complaining about his dementia, as in Choice A, and Choice B is flawed in that he is uncertain of his “identity.” Choice C is flawed in that Washington is not critical of his family; rather, he is critical of the system of slavery that led to the instability/absence of his familial relations.