SAT Pastpaper with Solutions

The percentage of US forest land that a 2023 federal report identified as being either mature or old growth exceeds other recent estimates. Given how
little ____ there is among scientists regarding the scope of these categories, this discrepancy shouldn't be surprising: forest researchers regularly dispute one another's classifications.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Some robots such as KHR-1 (developed in 2004) and Sophia (developed in 2015) feature humanoid characteristics like bipedal locomotion so that people will find it easier to interact with them. While these features can help to `_` feelings of comfort in people, a robot that looks too human can fall into the "uncanny valley," meaning that its appearance unintentionally unsettles those who encounter it.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Karam Kang has demonstrated that lobbying does little to alter the probability that a particular energy policy under consideration by the United States Congress will be enacted, but lobbying is not as `_` as this finding seems to suggest. As Kang herself notes, lobbying can shape which policy proposals members of Congress bring forward for consideration in the first place.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

People sometimes dismiss a claim if it comes from a source they regard as self-interested, but from a strictly logical perspective, the source of a claim is _____: it has no direct bearing on whether the claim is true.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

When people think of dinosaurs with feathers, they typically think of winged dinosaurs, such as the four-winged Microraptor. However, many dinosaurs that didn't have wings also had feathers on their bodies. For instance, research indicates that the wingless, peacock-sized Caudipteryx likely had feathers.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

The following text is from Annie Dillard's 1987 autobiographical novel An American Childhood. The narrator is a young girl living in Pittsburgh. I walked. My mother had given me the freedom of the streets as soon as I could say our telephone number. I walked and memorized the neighborhood. I made a mental map and located myself upon it. At night in bed I rehearsed the small world's scheme and set challenges: Find the store using backyards only. Imagine a route from the school to my friend's house.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?

Joseph A. Walker's award-winning play The River Niger was produced in 1972 by Che groundbreaking Negro Ensemble Company (NEC). NEC cofounder Robert Hooks, an actor, producer, and activist, had met actor and playwright Douglas Turner Ward while they were performing in a 1960 touring production of Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun. Together, they envisioned a theater company that would nurture and showcase the work of Black theater professionals. Since NEC's founding in 1967, its workshops and performances have given Black playwrights, including Walker, a forum for their compelling stories.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

The food industry has long used thermal technologies to preserve food in large batches. Recent advancements in ohmic heating were made through research in Brazil on the preservation of acerola pulp. Ohmic heating is
generally considered to be an improvement over more conventional thermal preservation methods: whereas conventional methods transfer energy from the surface of a food to its interior, ohmic heating passes electric current through food products to generate heat within the food itself, thus reducing industrial cooking times.

Based on the text, what is one disadvantage of some conventional thermal preservation methods?

"Tomato" is an example of a loanword---that is, a word that originated in one language and was later adopted by another. The word came to English indirectly from tomate, the Spanish word for the widely cultivated plant. Spanish had borrowed it from Nahuatl, an Indigenous language of Central Mexico, in which the word's original form is tomatl. "Barbecue" is also Indigenous in origin and entered English through Spanish. But in this case, the original source was Taino, a language of the Caribbean islands, in which the word for the cooking technique is barbakoa.

The author makes which point about the Spanish language?

In terms of total area, the Navajo Nation is the largest tribal nation in the United States. It covers 24,425 square miles in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. Most tribal nations in the US are much smaller. For example, the total area of the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma is 4,867 square miles. And in Montana, the total area of the Blackfeet Nation is         

Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement?

While doing research for a paper about copper mining, a student finds a table with information about four different countries. The student notes that
the country that mined 0.73 million metric tons of copper in 2020 had mined ____

Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement?

"A Pair of Silk Stockings" is an 1897 short story written by Kate Chopin. In the story, Chopin suggests that the protagonist, Mrs. Sommers, experiences a shift in her sense of self as a result of putting on certain articles of clothing, writing, ____

Which quotation from "A Pair of Silk Stockings" most effectively illustrates the claim?

A student in an economics course is examining the decline since 1950 in average hours worked per person per year in various nations due to both  increased productivity and the adoption of policies that limit working hours. The first task in this investigation is to determine how the decline in Brazil compares to that in other countries. The student finds that ____

Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the student's conclusion?

The Mammillaria cactus M. phitauiana occurs naturally only in the state of Baja California Sur in Mexico, and the smallness of its range makes it especially vulnerable to extinction. The traditional single-species approach toconservation emphasizes the need to focus on individual species most at risk, like M. phitauiana, but recently, conservationists have argued that an ecosystem-based approach that incorporates the many interactions between the climate, terrain, and various species of a given geographical area may lead to better out comes for all the species in a given location. If this view is correct, the single-species approach to the conservation of M.phitauiana could thus `_`

Which choice most logically completes the text?

It is widely known that New York City's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)_____ a vast collection of oil paintings, including Franz Marc's The World Cow and Katherine S. Dreier's Abstract Portrait of Marcel Duchamp.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

An accomplished birder might be able to spot thousands of different species over the course of a career, from Milvus migrans to Gallinula chloropas, but no birder has ever achieved the ultimate ____ an in-person glimpse of all 10,000- plus species of birds.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

In 1987, chemist Ahmed Zewail devised a novel technique in optical spectroscopy that allowed him to study ultrafast chemical reactions occurring within molecules. Years later, he `_` for this groundbreaking research with the Robert A. Welch Award and the Priestley Medal from the American Chemical Society and hence would become known as the father of femtochemistry.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

Today, the Michelin Guide is widely known as the arbiter of fine dining, with its coveted 3-star rating being awarded to top restaurants like Jade Dragon in _____ when brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin created the guide in 1900, it was little more than a marketing gimmick---a way to increase profits for their tire company by encouraging their customers to drive across Trance, visiting the guide's recommended hotels and restaurants along the way.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

When attempting to determine a fault's seismic history, geophysicists like Dr. Estella Atekwana at the University of Delaware rely in part on data about the fault's physical dimensions and geological `_` the Juniper Mountain fault in Malheur County, Oregon, the US Geological Survey compiles such data in several ways: by exchanging information with state geological surveys, by
linking maps of the fault with sources that offer detailed descriptions of it, and by maintaining a database of quantitative data such as the fault's length (17 km).

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

For Italy, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) since 1949, NATO's principle of collective defense confers both benefits and _____ organization's many members, nations as disparate as the US and Lithuania, are all bound to defend Italy, the reverse is also true.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

If you could travel in a spaceship to Elara, one of Jupiter's many moons, you'd find a moon with a prograde orbit. This means that Elara orbits Jupiter in the same direction that Jupiter rotates on its axis. `_` at Harpalyke, another Jovian moon, you'd find an example of a retrograde orbit, with the moon revolving around Jupiter in the opposite direction.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

• Scientists have long sought to determine the origin of glass in Chile's Atacama Desert.

• A 2017 study concluded that ancient grass fires had melted the area's sandy soil into glass.

• In 2021, a different study revealed that the mineral signatures of glass samples were consistent with the mineral signatures of comet samples collected by NASA.

• That study concluded that the glass had formed as a result of a cometary explosion close to the desert's surface.

The student wants to describe how scientific understanding about the glass's origin has evolved. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

• Maya Lin is a US artist known for her memorials and large-scale
installation artworks.

• She became famous in 1982 when she completed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which consists of two 246-foot granite walls.

• She completed Groundswell in 1993.

• It is an installation composed of glass that fills an entire gallery room.

• She completed Water Line in 2006.

• It is an installation composed of aluminum tubing that fills an entire gallery room.

Which choice most effectively uses information from the given sentences to emphasize a difference between Groundswell and Water Line?

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

• The El Carmen-Verde Mountains are a mountain range located in northwestern Mexico.

• The range is one of the dozens of "sky islands" in the southwestern US and northwestern Mexico.

• A sky island is an isolated mountain range whose environment differs drastically from that of the surrounding lowlands.

• The US Forest Service (USFS) said, "The mountains are 'islands' surrounded by deserts that are 'seas.'"

• The USFS said, "Each Sky Island is a unique ecosystem."

The student wants to explain what a sky island is. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

• The Paralympic Games are a series of international sporting events involving athletes with an impairment.

• A gold medal indicates that an athlete finished in first place.

• Frank Höfle competed as a Paralympic cross-country skier from 1988 to 2006

• He won seventeen medals, ten of which were gold.

• Daniel Dias competed as a Paralympic swimmer from 2008 to 2020

• He won thirty-eight medals, twenty-five of which were gold.

Which choice most effectively uses information from the given sentences to emphasize the number of gold medals won by Daniel Dias?

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• The human tongue contains taste receptors for a rich, savory flavor called umami.
• Umami is triggered by the compounds in a variety of foods, including salmon and caramelized onions.
• Participants in a study tasted a sample of sugar kelp, a type of brown seaweed.
• They rated its umami intensity as moderate.
• The participants tasted a sample of hidaka-konbu, another type of brown seaweed.
• They rated its umami intensity as high.

The student wants to make a generalization about brown seaweed. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?