SAT Pastpaper with Solutions

The early twentieth-century modernist movement is often characterized in terms of revolutionary artists'struggle against a static middle-class culture; by contending that the latter was itself ___________, literary scholar Michael Levenson frames the conflict between the two not as a clash between dynamism and stagnation but instead as "a contest of novelties."

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

In areas with mineral-rich water, mineral deposits may build up inside water heaters. If not treated or removed, these deposits can grow large enough to __________ heat transfer, thereby undermining the main function of the devices.

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

Rare tree species growing in the Tyson Research Center are much likelier than common species to be found in conspecific (same-species) aggregations, but in the Mo Singto plot, conspecific aggregation and abundance are nearly ___________, which is to be expected given that rare species in Mo Singtoare heavily reliant on seed dispersion via animals, while those in the Tyson Center tend to drop seeds directly to the ground.

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

Synthetic elements with very heavy nuclei, such as darmstadtium (Ds) and flerovium (FI),can exhibit behaviors that make these elements challenging to classify. The earliest experiment with Fl revealed properties associated with noble gases, while a second experiment found that Fl acts like a volatile metal. When Yakushev, Lens, et al. studied interactions between FI and gold surfaces, they found that Fl is less reactive than the volatile metal mercury but is more reactive than the noble gas radon. These results confirm that Fl forms chemical bonds with gold, but the mechanisms of these reactions are unclear.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

Maltese lithic (stone implement) assemblages from the sixth and seventh millennia BCE exhibit notable characteristics. Nearly all implements were fashioned from limestone—mostly from beach cobbles—rather than superior chert or obsidian, and the assemblages predominantly comprise flakes produced through direct percussion, with negligible representation of cores, blades, or retouched tools. The fairly rudimentary nature of Malta's lithic industry parallels contemporaneous Sardinian technologies rather than the sophisticated geometric microlith traditions documented in neighboring Sicily.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

A trend away from stable, relatively high humidity in the Middle East over the past 8 million years can be inferred from the composition of cave formations dating to different periods. Cave formations from about 7 million years ago mainly consist of transparent columnar calcite, indicative of an underground water system regularly replenished by rainfall. Cave formations younger than approximately 1 million years, however, mainly consist of branching, opaque (and sometimes colorful) material, often with more frequent growth interruptions, indicating an intermittent water supply.

 

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

Thurgood Marshall saw litigation as a means to enact social reforms and advance equal justice for US citizens. He cited the law's "capacity to initiate change and its flexibility to accept and mold change" as vital, breaking with the historical tradition of wielding the courts primarily to clarify or modify existing laws. This vision was realized in Marshall's successful arguing of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case before the US Supreme Court, as the court's decision to overturn the long-standing "separate but equal" doctrine revolutionized how the legal system regarded civil rights.

Based on the text, how did Marshall's Brown v. Board of Education case most likely influence the US legal system approach to civil rights?

Text 1

For thousands of years, O'odham farmers in the Sonoran desert of the southwestern US and northern Mexico have cultivated hackberries and beans, sometimes planting these species together so that the hackberry trees provide shade for tepary beans. Doing so helps protect tepary beans from the harshest heat and light and thereby helps prevent soil moisture from evaporating.

 

 

Text 2

Tepary beans are well adapted to growing in the desert but grow best when shaded. Inspired by O'odham farmers, who often strategically plant tepary beans in the shade of sun-hardy species like hackberry trees for protection from the sun and heat, Gary Nabhan and colleagues planted tepary beans in the shade of solar panels in the Sonoran desert and found that the plants grew well, suggesting to Nabhan and colleagues that the panels provide a benefit similar to that provided by hackberry trees.

 

Based on the texts, the author of Text 1 and the author of Text 2 would most likely agree on which point?

A study of commercial airline routes that carried the greatest number of passengers in 2017 and 2018 shows that, in general, domestic routes (routes within a single country) carried many more passengers than international routes. However, a few international routes were so popular that they carried more travelers than some of the most highly traveled domestic routes, as can be seen when comparing the___________.

 

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

While US public charities, like Habitat for Humanity International, must file Form 990 yearly with the IRS, private foundations, such as Lilly Endowment Inc., must file a different form, 990-PF. In addition, foundations that engage in certain prohibited activities must also file Form 4720 and pay a penalty tax on the money involved. Private foundations are prohibited from holding excess interests in a business enterprise, "self-dealing" (conducting activities that benefit foundation insiders), making taxable expenditures such as grants to noncharitable entities, and failing to cross a required threshold in making charitable distributions from income. Out of the organizations that filed Form 990-PF in the years 2003-2005, ____________.

 

The data in the graph best support which conclusion about organizations that filed Form 4720 in 2005?

Some cosmetics contain silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs), which can leach into waterways and soils via wastewater. In a 2014 study, Merel J. C. van der Ploeg and colleagues found that Ag-NPs can accumulate in the bodies of red earthworms (Lumbricus rubellus). While bioaccumulation of manufactured nanoparticles may be inherently worrisome, it has been hypothesized that Ag-NP bioaccumulation in invertebrates like L. rubellus could serve a valuable proxy role, obviating the need for manufacturers to conduct costly and intrusive sampling of vertebrate species—such as house mice (Mus musculus), commonly used in regulatory compliance testing—for nanoparticle bioaccumulation, as environmental protection laws currently require.

Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the hypothesis presented in the text?

A student is writing a research paper on the history of irrigation in the state of California, situating the development of the Dodge Reservoir (created in Lassen County, California, in 1893) in a larger historical context. The student claims that innovation in irrigation techniques was driven in part by the climate in some parts of the state.

Which quotation from a study of California agriculture best supports the student's claim?

There are over 150 species of the cactus genus Mammillaria throughout the Americas, but their survival can be threatened by high precipitation and dense vegetation that blocks sunlight. Researchers have located species from the genus in almost every state in Mexico, with several of them, like M. knippeliana, restricted to only one state. The fact that this genus has not been observed in eastern and western Coahuila has been attributed to a lack of appropriate habitat, but much of the landscape in this area is notoriously inaccessible, which suggests that___________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Maine is one of several US states with legislative provisions for the incorporation of worker cooperatives, businesses in which each worker receives an equal vote in company governance. Skeptics have questioned the co-op model for decades and declared __________ means of governance economically unsustainable, ignoring many examples of successful worker-owned businesses.

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

Researchers recently theorized that Copper Age (3500 BCE to 2750 BCE) owl-shaped carvings collected from Iberian archaeological sites were likely toys created by children. This hypothesis, based on comparative analyses of owl drawings made by modern children, is supported by the objects predominantly being crafted from slate—a material that, because of its___________ be easily carved by small hands using rudimentary tools.

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

In 2022 Frank Condori, who studies amphibians, joined a research team for a 38-day expedition to the remote yet populous region of Alto Mayo, Peru. It had long been assumed that regions with large human__________ were unlikely to yield discoveries of new species, but team members found 27 such species, including a new species of tropical climbing salamander.

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

Many writing systems used in South and Southeast Asia use the same punctuation mark to indicate textual breaks. Each of these scripts, which include Devanagari and other Brahmic systems, ____________ a punctuation mark called the danda to indicate subdivisions in text, with single and double dandas alternated depending on the length of the preceding text.

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

Prishtina, the capital of Kosovo, has a population of 198,214, which accounts for 10.32 percent of the country's total population. Having proportionally large populations ____________ common for national capitals.

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

Fluid impedes sound considerably more than air ___________ the process by which the human ear reconciles the discrepancy between the outer ear and the fluid-filled inner ear, recruits the tympanic membrane and the lever action of the ear bones to increase pressure such that sound can pass through the inner ear unimpeded.

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

In the past, the White House has played host to a diverse menagerie of pets, including the silkworms owned by John Quincy Adams, the nation's sixth president. __________ for the last few decades, nearly every White House pet has been a cat or dog.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A recent study found that groups of Paratrechina longicornis ants solved a geometric puzzle more efficiently than human groups. While humans performed well as individuals because of strategic thinking, working in teams did not enhance humans' problem-solving efficiency. __________ as part of a closely connected colony, the ants effectively used shared memory and coordination, collectively solving a problem that no ant could have solved alone.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

In a 2022 analysis of small sovereign countries, Archie Simpson categorized forty-one as microstates based, in part, on the criterion of having a population under one million—for instance, Suriname, with its population of approximately 630,000. _________ political scholar Sarina Theys suggests an intersubjective approach to classification by which a small country's status is self-defined rather than relying on externally imposed or quantitative standards.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

In the Pakistani truck art tradition, elaborately decorated cargo vehicles feature poetic verses, religious messages, or slogans that reflect drivers' values, aspirations, or humor. ____________ they invest considerably in decorating their trucks, seeing them both as personal artistic creations and as contributions to their country's folk art tradition.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Elisabetta Sirani employed several artistic techniques in her 1663 work Virgin and Child. _________ the work is notable for the artist's use of chiaroscuro, which involves integrating strong contrasts of light and shadow.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

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

· Marta Danielsdottir et al.'s 2007 study of planktonic ecosystems used a nutrient-phytoplankton-zooplankton (NPZ) model.

· Diane Stoecker et al. (2017): NPZ models rely "on the differentiation of the planktonic communities into phytoplankton or zooplankton functional types," excluding mixotrophic plankton.

· Phytoplankton are exclusively phototrophic, producing nutrients via photosynthesis.

· Zooplankton are exclusively phagotrophic, obtaining nutrients by consuming other organisms.

The student wants to challenge the model used in Danielsdottir et al.'s study. Which choice most effectively uses information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

· Ynés Mexía was a Mexican American botanist.

· Between 1917 and 1938, she collected over 150,000 botanical samples throughout the Americas.

· She collected a sample of Porophyllum ruderale in Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 1930.

· She collected a sample of Brickellia diffusa in Jalisco, Mexico, in 1926.

· Porophyllum ruderale and Brickellia diffusa are part of the Asteraceae family.

· These specimens can now be viewed online at the C. V.Starr Virtual Herbarium.

Which choice most effectively uses information from the given sentences to introduce Mexía to a new audience?