SHSAT: Technical reading: conditions, causes and failures
Learn to break an explanation of how something works into its conditions, trace each failure to the condition it breaks, and see what job a passage's opening does.
How do you keep track of a passage that explains how a device works and why it sometimes fails?
Short answer
List the conditions the device needs, then match every failure the passage describes to the condition it breaks. A fix works only if it restores the condition that failed.
Know first: Cause and effect, The purpose of a paragraph
Step 1 of 5
Sort the explanation into conditions
Technical passages explain how something works: a bicycle brake, a lock, a solar oven. They usually name a small number of conditions that must all be true, explain the cause that makes the device work, and then describe failures.
The questions test whether you can keep these straight. Which condition explains this failure? Would this fix help? Why does the author describe this test?
| Piece | What a passage might say |
|---|---|
| Condition 1 | Sunlight must reach the pot. |
| Condition 2 | The lid must seal so the warm air stays in. |
| Failure of condition 1 | A cloud passes, and the oven cools even with the lid sealed. |
| Failure of condition 2 | A gap in the lid lets heat escape even in full sun. |
| A fix that misses | Adding more panels won't help if the lid is the problem. |
Step 2 of 5
Trace a failure to its condition
An excerpt
The garden club cooks rice in a cardboard solar oven. Shiny panels aim sunlight onto a dark pot1, which turns the light into heat. A clear plastic lid traps the warm air around the pot2. On one test day, the rice stayed hard even under a cloudless sky; a student found that the lid had slipped, leaving a gap3 along one edge.
- Condition 1: light must reach the pot.
- Condition 2: heat must stay in.
- Condition 2 fails, even though condition 1 is met.
Worked example: Diagnose the failure
In the excerpt, which change would most likely fix the problem on the test day?
- AAdd a second shiny panel to aim more sunlight at the pot.
- BReseal the lid so the warm air stays around the pot.
- CMove the oven to a sunnier spot in the garden.
- DUse a lighter-colored pot.
- 1
Name the conditions
Light must reach the pot, and the lid must keep the heat in.
- 2
Find the broken one
The sky was cloudless, so the light was fine. The lid had a gap, so heat escaped.
- 3
Match the fix
Only B restores the condition that failed.
- 4
See why the others are there
A and C add sunlight, which was never missing. D works against the oven, since the excerpt says the dark pot turns light into heat.
Answer
B. Reseal the lid so the warm air stays around the pot.
When a question asks why an author opens a certain way, read the opening and then ask what the next paragraphs do with it. Do they answer a question it raised, explain how a claim works, or give an example of a bigger idea? The purpose of the opening is the job the rest of the passage gives it.
Find the wrong step
A student uses the excerpt to explain a new problem: on a sunny day with the lid sealed, the oven holds a shiny silver pot, and the rice stays hard.
- 1
Lists what the oven needs: light reaching the pot, a dark pot to turn light into heat, and a sealed lid.
- 2
Checks the sky and the lid. Both are fine.
- 3
Concludes that the oven needs more panels to aim more light at the pot.
What went wrong
Light is already reaching the pot. The part that changed is the pot itself, and the excerpt says a dark pot is what turns light into heat.
The fix
Swap in a dark pot so the light that reaches it becomes heat.
Step 3 of 5
Match each problem to its cause
Check yourself · Question 1
Why does the solar oven excerpt open with the sentence The garden club cooks rice in a cardboard solar oven?
Answer: B
The next sentences explain the panels, the dark pot and the lid, and then a failure. The opening's job is to name the device those sentences explain.
Check yourself · Question 2
Use the solar oven excerpt. On a cloudy afternoon, the lid is sealed tight, but the rice stays hard. Which explanation fits the passage?
Answer: B
The lid is sealed, so condition 2 holds. The clouds break condition 1: not enough light reaches the pot.
Trap answer: The lid has a gap that lets warm air escape.
The failure you just saw
- Why it looks right
- The test day in the excerpt blamed the lid, so it's the first explanation that comes to mind.
- Why it's wrong
- This time the question says the lid is sealed. The new detail is the clouds, which affect the other condition.
- The right answer
- Too little sunlight explains the failure, because the light condition is the one that broke.
Check yourself · Question 3
A student wants to find out whether a failed cooking day came from the lid or from the light. Which test would best separate the two?
Answer: C
Holding the sunlight steady and changing only the lid shows the lid's effect by itself.
Common mistake
I figured any fix that improves the device should solve the problem.
- Why it's tempting
- More sunlight and a tighter lid both sound like improvements, so either seems helpful.
- Do this instead
- A fix helps only if it restores the condition that failed. Name the broken condition first, then look for the choice that repairs that one.
Step 4 of 5
What to remember
Remember
- List the conditions a device needs before you read about its failures.
- Match each failure to the condition it breaks, and each fix to the condition it restores.
- To explain why a passage opens as it does, check what job the rest of the passage gives that opening.
Step 5 of 5
Practice on a real question
Use what you just learned on this question, then check the explanation.
In your own words
In the practice passage, what job does the visitors' question do for the rest of the passage, and which paragraphs show it?