Drinking While Taking the SAT

Do you know what's wrong with this sentence?

"Most of the hypotheses that Kepler developed to explain physical forces were later rejected as inconsistent to Newtonian theory."

This is question number 26 from Secton 6 of an actual SAT test.



Once a week, I take the Writing section of an SAT practice test so I can help students understand what they did wrong. Usually I miss one or two problems myself.

Sometimes I get them all right. I prefer when this happens because it makes me feel smart, despite the fact it's a test aimed at 11th graders.

Tonight, I missed the above problem.

Maybe because I found a lone beer leftover from my birthday fiesta in the back of my fridge, and I popped it open before administering the test to myself.



Not to mention, I took the test from the comfort of my living room, sprawled out on my couch, enjoying the air conditioner's crsip breeze upon my brow.

I thought the problem with the above question was the word "as".

No.

The problem is with the phrase "inconsistent to".

It should be "inconsistent with".



At least on a scale of 1 to 5 of difficulty, that one was a 5.




I don't recall anyone arriving at my party with Miller Lite. Whoever it was must have consumed five Miller Lites that night.

I had five mojitos that night.





Five mojitos is too much for me. I went a little haywire.





In case you didn't know, Garfield and I share the same birthday: June 19, 1978. The comic strip debuted on this day, but it is also considered Garfield's birthday.

This delighted me to no end when I was younger.

I felt a special connection to Garfield. So much so that I collected every conceivable Garfield trinket you can imagine.

Garfield stuffed animals. Garfield pencils. Garfield erasers. Garfield bookmarks. Garfield books.

I drew Garfield constantly. One time, I won a free meal at Garcia's restaurant in Phoenix for drawing a great picture on the kids' menu. The picture was of Garfield.



I'm sure it was better than this. It did WIN after all.



Every year, for years, my mom would snip out the Garfield strip from the newspaper on "our" birthday.




According to Wikipedia, "this comic strip pokes fun at pet owners and their relationship with their pets—often portraying the pet as the true master of the home. Garfield also struggles with human problems, such as diets, loathing of Mondays, apathy, boredom, and so on."

I had no way of relating to such issues because I was a ten year old girl who had never owned a pet, and who had never felt the plight of the Monday blues.

Still, I recall laughing hysterically at the fat cat and his antics.



I've since lost touch with my passion for this feline.

I simply refuse to see the Garfield movies, though, because the Garfield lover that's buried inside could never subject myself to such a horrific mutilation of a...... childhood soulmate.

I wonder what good ol' Garfield did for his 28th?