Take a look at the following passage from a travel essay written by Henry James: “Venice is an Italian city filled with canals, and boats are the primary form of transportation there. The fault of Venice is that, though she is easy to admire, she is not so easy to live with as you COUNT living in other places.” SAT test writers are not interested in promoting tourism to Venice. Instead, they want to know what the word “COUNT” most nearly means!
Count typically means to make a numerical calculation as when you count your change. This common definition prompted many students to choose ENUMERATE as an obvious answer. WRONG! On Module 2 “most nearly means questions” the obvious answer is usually a trap. ENUMERATE is incorrect because James does not provide a specific list of reasons why Venice is “not so easy to live with.”
As you have probably already guessed, COUNT has a secondary non-numerical definition in which it can mean “to regard” or “to consider.” When James writes “as you count living in other places” he means “as you CONSIDER or REGARD living in other places.
But wait! CONSIDER and REGARD are not given as possible answers. Instead, we are left with DEEM. Like COUNT, DEEM can mean to consider or judge something in a particular way. Given these choices, COUNT most nearly means DEEM!
COUNT – to regard or consider something or someone
DEEM – to consider, judge, or regard something in a particular way