Analogies: Tool, Worker, and Category

Solve analogies about tools and their users, functions, and categories.

Three more common analogy relationships appear in middle-school tests and texts. Tool to user: 'scalpel : surgeon :: brush : painter'. Sentence: 'A surgeon uses a scalpel. ' Tool to function: 'thermometer : temperature :: scale : weight'. Sentence: 'A thermometer measures temperature. ' Item to category: 'oak : tree :: salmon : fish'. Sentence: 'An oak is a kind of tree.

' Some analogies combine relationships with subject knowledge: 'telescope : astronomer :: microscope : biologist' requires knowing what each scientist studies. When two answer choices seem to fit, make your sentence more specific. For 'pen : write :: knife : ___', both 'cut' and 'kitchen' relate to knives. But the first pair's sentence is 'A pen is used to write', so you need what a knife is used to do: 'cut'. A more specific sentence eliminates answers that are merely related.

That is the real skill: not just seeing that words connect, but stating exactly how.

• 1Tool to user: brush is to painter.
• 2Tool to function: scale is to weight.
• 3Item to category: oak is to tree. Make your sentence specific.