Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The Daughter Clause

On the SAT [and ACT] gender matters. Answers are often biased in favor of female authors and characters. Like every rule, this one can be bent a little.

The passage goes like this.

This passage is about an Asian-American author. She feels conflicted between pursuing her passion for the arts and her family's expectations of academic success.

1] Everyone knows that I am Asian and they simply expect me to get an A in Calculus then get into an Ivy League school. My mother is no exception. She is from a small village in China and has spent her life raising my sisters and I to be academic successes in America.

6]My older sisters have accepted this as their fate. They rejoice in their lives as a doctor and lawyer. My younger sister will probably be an engineer. Goodness, a doctor, a lawyer and an engine chief!  

10] Mother feigns interest in artistic pursuits. I guess she would approve if I had won a contest or had been accepted to Harvard for writing. But I can feel her disappointment... 

Question:
The author author uses the term "feigns" to express her mother's attitude of:
A) Displeasure
B) Sarcasm
C) Irony
D) Pretense
E) Pride

Using the "Gender Bias" rule blindly the answer would be E. It is the only positive answer regarding a question about an ethnic woman. But the "Daughter Clause" trumps the Gender Bias. Here the mother is negative towards the daughter.

Mothers of ethnic and female characters can be critical. Especially in the best interest of the child or involving a new situation like coming to America.

Daughters and ethnic sons can be critical of their mothers. Then they come to understand them.

I like the daughter clause, it works well. And it was taught to me by my daughter, Ali.

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