ACT Preparation / Unit 18 ACT 1718 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Reading a Chart With a Passage
The idea
A question combining a graphic and a passage is answered in three steps. First, read the graphic: its title, axes, units and trend. Second, find the sentence in the passage that the question links it to. Third, decide the relationship: does the graphic support, extend or limit that sentence? Choose the answer that states the relationship accurately, at the graphic's actual scale.
In practice
Worked example: an invented passage claims that a lake's ice now melts weeks earlier than it did a century ago. An invented table gives the melt date as April 20 in 1920, April 12 in 1970, and April 4 in 2020. Over the century, the date moved 16 days earlier, a little over two weeks. The table supports the claim of earlier melting and gives its size.
Where people slip
Read the numbers, not the impression. Sixteen days is a little more than two weeks, so a choice describing a change of a month or more overstates what the table shows.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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