Objective #4 – draw conclusions & make inferences about ideas and information based on grade-appropriate texts Analogies Thinking out of the Box To solve an analogy you must think “outside of the box”. You have to think in a different way. Analogy questions are often described as _______ is to _________ as _______ is to ________________. An example of how an analogy question would look: puppy : dog :: kitten : ______ it would be read as “puppy is to dog as kitten is to ?” The answer is, of course, cat. To figure out the analogy – you might think of the relationship between puppy & dog. A puppy is a young dog. They are the same, yet different. to complete the analogy Kitten is a small cat. This analogy showed a relationship between two things. Other examples of analogies Parts to a whole In this type of analogy, a pair of words consists of a part and a whole. spoke : wheel (part to the whole) A spoke is part of a wheel. Type and Category These analogies use pairs of words in which one word is a specific type in a general category. orange : citrus An orange is a type of citrus fruit. degree of intensity These analogies test your ability to find small variations in the meanings among a pair of words. shower : monsoon A shower & monsoon are both rains, but a monsoon is much stronger. function These questions pair words that are related through function. hammer : build A hammer is used to build things. manner This type of analogy describes the manner in which an action is accomplished. shamble : walk Shamble means to walk in an awkward way. symbol or representation These analogies pair words in which one word is the symbol of the other. dove : peace A dove is a symbol of peace. action & significance In this type of analogy, one word describes an action and the other word indicates the significance of the action. cry : sorrow To cry signifies sorrow. Let’s try a few Sherpa : Tibet :: Massai : ___________ a. b. c. d. Bicycle Kenya desert Mountain answer is c. Kenya Even if you do not know the exact meaning of the words in the question you might be able to guess the correct answer. Even if you were unable to describe the relationship between the words because they are unfamiliar to you, you could probably see that Kenya is the only country offered as a choice. Seeing that Tibet, another country is the 2nd half of the first pair, you can figure that a country is necessary to complete the analogy. Sherpa are people of Tibet. Massai are people of Kenya. Let’s try another one iron : Fe :: silver : _______________ a. b. c. d. Na Cl Ag K answer is c. Ag Sometimes factual knowledge is necessary to answer an analogy question. Even if you are unfamiliar with the chemical symbols, as in this question, you can find them in the dictionary by looking under the heading “elements”. Don’t give up – let’s try another About : bout :: __________ : mend a. b. c. d. Amend Near Tear Dismiss answer is a. amend In this case, the answer is amend because that is the word formed by adding “a” in front of mend. You will also find anagrams (words that use the same letters, but in a different arrangement) in analogy questions. Try another??? Tardy : ________ :: Liberal : generous What are you looking for in this example? Liberal and generous are synonyms. To complete the analogy you would look for a synonym for tardy. Antonyms are often used in analogies, as well. One more?? Warm : hot :: ________ : hilarious a. b. c. d. Humid Raucous Summer amusing answer is d. amusing To answer this one you need to figure out the relationship. This is an analogy of degrees. Warm is less intense than hot, therefore, what answer choice is something less intense than hilarious? Some test takers will impulsively pick “a” (humid) because humid is related to the 1st word pair (warm & hot), but it is not part of the analogy of degrees. Other test takers will choose “b” (raucous) because they think that the word pair, warm : hot, is a synonym pair. Choosing “c” summer is a slightly different case. This is another way to show how the test taker might be distracted by a wrong answer choice. “c” might be selected because warm : hot reminds the test taker of summer. Remember to look at both pair of words and figure out the correct relationship. For our practices you will always have the opportunity to use a dictionary to look up any words unfamiliar to you to help you to figure out the meaning or relationship between the words. Good Luck on