To test a vehicle battery under load, first make sure the engine is off and the surface charge has been removed by switching on the headlights for about a minute. Connect the tester across the terminals, observing polarity. Apply a load equal to half the battery's cold-cranking amp rating and hold it for fifteen seconds while watching the voltage. A healthy battery will stay above 9.6 volts at room temperature. If the reading sags below that, the battery is failing and no amount of recharging will restore it, because the plates themselves have degraded.
As used in the passage, the word sags most nearly means
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Correct answer to question 6 (Paragraph Comprehension): drops
Method
The sentence contrasts a healthy battery staying above 9.6 volts with a reading that sags below it, so here the word means falls. Bends is the everyday physical sense of the word and does not fit a voltage reading.
Updated: November 2026
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