SAT Pastpaper with Solutions

Both overwatering and underwatering can significantly reduce agricultural yields and waste valuable resources. To avoid these problems, farmers' management of agricultural irrigation systems must be____________. Following the careful consideration of crop requirements, soil conditions, and weather patterns, farmers need to make precise, minute adjustments to water allocations to ensure the best outcomes.

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

Lauren Hoult, Michael Smith, and colleagues reviewed 51 studies about positive expressive writing (writing about positive experiences and emotions like happiness) in an attempt to determine what therapeutic outcomes this kind of writing most reliably achieves. However, large _________ across the studies in the methodologies used and health effects assessed prevented a definitive universal conclusion.

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

Microhistories tackle "big questions" about broad phenomena via narrow subjects. The questions they ask are often __________. Distinct strains of microhistory emerged at different times in Italy, Iceland, and elsewhere, for example, and while microhistories of the 1980s reflected the era's interest in labor history, the "global turn" in recent historiography sparked a wave of globally contextualized microhistories.

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

Biologist Grace Herzel and colleagues conducted a study of how butterfly color and weather conditions relate to butterfly behavior, which wouldn't have been possible without data gathered by students and other amateur science enthusiasts in the community. Considering over three years' worth of data, the researchers found that white butterflies were observed on green flowers more often than any other butterflies were, and that butterflies were observed to feed more often on cloudy days than on other days.

According to the text, which factors seemed to be linked to the behavior of butterflies in Grace Herzel and colleagues' study?

Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera (1929) not only exhibits striking visual effects like multiple exposure, but it also has as a central idea that the camera itself is a character in the film. The camera's presence is continually accentuated by showing the operator position it, for example, placing it atop a steel structure, where he then adjusts the camera to capture a view of traffic passing underneath, to which the film cuts immediately after.

 

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

Early television analysis in the 1970s and 1980s was shaped by film studies, though media scholar Horace Newcomb notes that tools borrowed from that field often proved inadequate when applied to TV's distinct characteristics. A recognition of the limitations led researchers to approaches that accounted for a domestic viewing context, embedded advertisements, and serialized narratives, and to a shift in audience research toward ethnographic methods that emphasized viewer engagement. By the 1990s, television studies had emerged as a widely recognized academic field, with scholars founding dedicated journals.

 

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

Like all species of baleen whales, the sei whale feeds on tiny creatures known as krill by filtering water through bristlelike keratin structures called baleen plates. In this way, baleen whales can eat up to 30 percent of their total mass per day. And while no one would call the sei whale small—it can have a mass as high as 25,000 kg—it is one of the smaller baleen whales and is much smaller than the bowhead whale, which can weigh a whopping 66,000 kg and consume as much as 19,800 kg of krill per day.

 

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

Text 1

For decades, ornithologists assumed that if they saw a singing house wren—a bird species found in temperate North America—they must be observing a male trying to attract a mate or claim territory. As Peter J. B. Slater and Nigel I. Mann have emphasized, however, a similar assumption can't be made about birds in the tropics, where females sing as often as males do. Slater and Mann call for more research on this discrepancy between tropical and temperate female birdsong.

 

 

Text 2

Recent evidence shows that a female house wren is as capable of song as a male is. In fact, female birdsong is more common among temperate species than currently assumed, claim Evangeline Rose and colleagues. These female songbirds sing less frequently than males do, and in duller tones, making it "easy for researchers to miss the quiet and hidden females and focus on the loud and colorful males," says Rose.

 

Based on the texts, how would Rose and colleagues (Text 2) most likely respond to the assertion by Slater and Mann (Text 1) about the different prevalence of female birdsong in temperate and tropical areas?

Male orangutans typically disperse from the territory in which they were born when they reach maturity, whereas females typically do not. Beatrice Ehmann and her colleagues hypothesized that this difference in life trajectory should be reflected in the diets of immature orangutans: males should share fewer of their mothers' dietary preferences than females do since those preferences tend to be particular to the food resources available in the local area and may be of relatively low utility beyond it. The researchers calculated the percent of mother orangutans' diets shared with their offspring's diets and the percent of immature orangutans' diets not shared with their mothers' diets.

 

Which choice best describes data from the graph that support Ehmann and colleagues' hypothesis?

The rapid completion of the Specialty Granules Field Office, a modular structure (a structure built in pieces elsewhere and assembled on site) located in the United States, led an employee at another company to collect data on other facilities built using modular construction methods. The employee concluded that modular construction methods are more efficient than other construction methods.

 

Based on the text and the table, is the employee' s conclusion supported?

Estimated electricity for green hydrogen production data are rounded to the first decimal place. In 2020, most hydrogen was produced through steam methane reforming, which emits carbon gases. Using electricity from renewable sources to produce green hydrogen sourced from water would enable countries to reduce industrial carbon emissions, but doing so depends on countries' capacity for direct-use electricity (electricity produced and used at the same facility). Researchers estimated the amount of electricity needed in 2020 if green hydrogen had been adopted and the amount needed to meet projected green hydrogen demand in 2050. Comparison between these estimates and estimates of capacity suggests that in most countries, projected green hydrogen production would require a larger share of electricity produced on-site. But the exception is __________.

 

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

From larks to buzzards, many birds fly in flocks. But starlings uniquely form murmurations, large flocks that swirl in changing shapes before the birds roost together overnight. The two leading explanations for this behavior are the"warmer together" hypothesis, which holds that the goal is to attract more starlings to increase body heat in cold roosts, and the "safer together" hypothesis, which centers on defenses like crowding to make it hard for peregrine falcons and other predators to target a single bird. A study of over 3,000 murmurations across a range of climates found that local temperature was not associated with size, but the presence of a predator correlated with increases in both size and duration. Thus, researchers suggest that_________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Animal fossils from the Arabian Peninsula come primarily from two time periods and locations: a late Miocene (7.0-7.7 million years ago) site in the Baynunah Formation and a Pleistocene (12,000-500,000 years ago) site in the Nefud Desert. The 6.5-million-year gap between these fossil assemblages occurs in the context of considerable evidence of concurrent African-Eurasian faunal exchange. While limited exchange may have occurred via island hopping across the 5.3-million-year-old Mediterranean Sea, many of the species that moved between the continents were adapted to grasslands that could not have existed in sufficient size on Mediterranean islands, leaving only the Peninsula as a viable exchange route, a fact suggesting that___________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

The advent of online streaming has led many music listeners to drift away from ownership of music (through downloads or through physical media such as compact discs) and toward the streaming services Bandcamp and Tidal, among others. Datta et al. studied the impact of this change on the variety of music that listeners consume. The researchers reasoned that the ownership model of music assigns a cost per song to acquiring a variety of music, while streaming services typically charge a flat fee for access to an entire music catalog, making variety free, which suggests that__________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

In Danger Mouse's Grey Album, each of the instrumental samples—isolated from the Beatles' White Album and then reconstructed into entirely new arrangements— __________ raw material used in the instrumental collage that backs unaltered vocal tracks from Jay-Z's Black Album, resulting in a remarkable integration of two disparate musical genres.

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

In recent years, the English writer Mary Robinson (1758-1800), whose poetry was widely read during her lifetime, has been rediscovered by contemporary audiences—a resurgence of interest that is largely due to literary scholars such as Anne Janowitz, whose work __________ the richness of Robinson's poems and the poet's historical importance to the Romantic literary movement encourages a broader rethinking of British Romanticism itself.

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

While calling the frogfish (family Antennariidae) a "walking fish" might suggest a creature that has fully transitioned to terrestrial life, the frogfish's unique locomotion represents a specialized adaptation for movement along the ocean _____________ the frogfish's modified pectoral fins function similarly to legs, allowing this unusual marine predator to "walk" across the seafloor in the tropical and subtropical waters it inhabits.

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

Noise from human activity poses significant challenges to animal _________ ambient noise from automobile traffic, for example, may mask environmental signals that animals depend on for their survival.

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

According to Roxana Silbert, former artistic director of Hampstead Theatre, the past five decades have seen UK theater companies—once operated as artist cooperatives like the Royal Exchange (with its five founding artistic directors)—evolving toward increasingly corporate structures, with executives rather than creatives ____________ decision-making power over programming.

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

While phenomenology and liberal political philosophy are both associated with philosophy's contemporary period (early 1900s to the present day), these two schools of thought propose distinctly different answers to questions about the nature of knowledge, reality, and the human condition. __________ the term "contemporary period" describes a period of wide-ranging philosophical discourse rather than an era of homogeneity and agreement.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

In a 2003 study, Hall and Fransson identified a distinct time-pressure effect on avian molting behaviors in lesser whitethroats, with potential implications for migration fitness. __________ the researchers observed that birds exposed to shifted daylight patterns suggesting a more imminent departure molted quicker and grew shorter wing feathers than did the controls, likely resulting in decreased migration speeds.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Many puppeteers specialize in a specific type of puppetry. Indian puppeteer Dadi Pudumjee, _____________ is a specialist in marionette puppetry, while Tamao Yoshida, a Japanese puppeteer, is a bunraku puppetry specialist.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Shards of ceramic husking trays have been recovered across northwestern Mesopotamia, dating back to the Late Neolithic Period. Taranto et al. wanted to determine whether the use-wear patterns on the husking tray shards were consistent with the baking of lipid-infused doughs. _________ they baked such doughs in replicas of the husking trays and compared the use-wear patterns on the replicas with those on the shards.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

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

· Swimming was celebrated in ancient Rome but fell out of favor throughout Europe's Dark Ages.

· English theologian Everard Digby wrote the first modern swimming manual, De Arte Natandi, in 1587.

· Digb's manual described and illustrated a variety of aquatic stunts that he had developed (e. g., "ringing the bells," "the leap of the goat").

· Historian Vicki Valosik claims, "In providing instructions for these aquatic 'refinements,' Digby hoped to revive swimming—a once revered skill that had all but died out during Europe's Dark Ages—and elevate it from a crude, mechanical function of the hands and feet to an artful science."

The student wants to cite a historian to explain why Dighy wrote De Arte Natandi. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes about a documentary TV genre called slow TV:

· Slow TV programs consist of uninterrupted broadcasts of ordinary events.

· Reinfjellet is a Norwegian slow TV program.

· The 8-day-long program documented a wild reindeer migration from their winter to summer pastures.

· It first aired in 2017.

· Slow TV has been called "the world's most boring television."

· American journalist Nathan Heller, writing that the program affords a "visceral kind of armchair tourism."

The student wants to use a quotation to refute the claim that slow TV programs are boring. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

· India Arie is an African American singer and songwriter.

· The media outlet BBC Music has described her music as a "blend of hip hop, soul and folk [that is] as subtle as it [is] inspired."

· Her first studio album, Acoustic Soul, was released in 2001.

· It features the song "Promises."

· Nioka Workman played cello on the album.

Which choice most effectively uses information from the given sentences to introduce Acoustic Soul to an audience already familiar with India Arie?