SAT Pastpaper with Solutions

The swordfish is ectothermic, or cold-blooded, and the southern bluefin tuna is a regional endotherm, meaning that parts of its body are typically warmer than the surrounding water. The basking shark had been classified as a full ectotherm, a position that became_______after researchers Haley R. Dolton and colleagues showed that the basking shark's body temperature is consistently 1.0 to 1.5°C warmer than the water.

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

The following text is adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1837 story "Dr.Heidegger's Experment." The main character,a physician, is experimenting with rehydrating a dried flower.

 

At first [the rose] lay lightly on the surface of the fluid, appearing to

imbibe none of its moisture. Soon, however, a singular change began to

be visible. The crushed and dried petals stirred and assumed a

deepening tinge of crimson, as if the flower were reviving from a

deathlike slumber.

 

As used in the text, what does the phrase "a singular" most nearly mean?

Because it appears merely to reflect and rearrange the creative labor of human artists, art generated by artificial intelligence programs has been scorned by some as hackneyed. One can also argue, however, that all art is in some sense________because it draws on what has already been created by others for inspiration, making genuine artistic originality elusive.

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

Seventeenth-century Flemish artist Clara Peeters played a crucial role in the history of still-life painting. At a time when historical paintings were the preferred genre—indeed, at a time when there wasn't even a term for still-life painting in Peeters's language—Peeters painted food, flowers, fish, and game. Her influence spread throughout Western Europe and she became so strongly associated with the genre that painters who took up similar subjects were sometimes described as belonging to the "circle of Peeters."

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

In her book Limitarianism, researcher Ingrid Robeyns criticizes economic policies that allow businesses to profit from their successes while displacing the burden of failure onto taxpayers. As an example she cites the US financial crisis of 2008 in which dozens of institutions including JPMorgan Chase and SunTrust recived a collective $700 billion of government support. Had the US government previously exercised stricter regulation of risky financial instruments, Robeyns argues, this enormous expenditure of taxpayer dollars would not have been necessary.

Which choice best states the main topic of the text?

Alternative-history fiction is a subgenre of science fiction in which plots center on "what if?" questions. What if India had started the Industrial Revolution? What if Soviet cosmonauts had been first to land on the moon? Speculative counterfactuals like these can be great fodder for stories, but they're also commonly deployed by academic historians to better understand factors influencing historical events. Well-realized and coherent alternative-history stories can thus complement historians' speculations about the past.

 

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

Readers sometimes divide the works of twentieth-century English author Evelyn Waugh into two periods: one consisting of his early satirical novels and the other consisting of his later, more serious—even ponderous—books. Critic Seamus Perry, however, challenges that strict division. Perry argues that Waugh's writing didn't change over time as much as some readers have suggested. For instance, Perry contends that some of Waugh's earliest works, notably his biography of artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, exhibit the earnest romanticism that would characterize Waugh's later fiction.

Based on the text, which statement about Waugh's works would Perry most likely agree with?

The quality and yield of onion crops are affected by a myriad of factors, such as air and soil temperatures, rain and irrigation amounts, planting times, and fungal diseases such as Stemphylium fungus. Agriculturalists look for patterns from one year to the next to anticipate what challenges are ahead. Several states over the ten years represented by the graph routinely experienced major production fluctuations, with only one state escaping dramatic losses, that being_________.

 

Which choice most efficiently uses data from the graph to complete the example?

The occupational distributions of female and male full-time workers differ significantly. Compared with men, relatively few women work in construction, production, or transportation occupations, and women are far more concentrated in_________.

 

Which choice most effectively uses information from the graph to complete the statement?

The interiors of many temples in the ancient Middle East needed to satisfy a precise set of acoustic demands: the sounds of chants and hymns should travel with clarity, while profound silences should be fully felt and appreciated. In a research paper, a student claims that the users of one such temple were aware of how the materials that were used within the structure could affect sound quality and that they deliberately applied this knowledge to influence how sound was experienced in the space.

Which quotation from a work by a historian would most directly support the student's claim?

"Loon Point" is a 1912 poem by Amy Lowell. In the poem, which presents a nighttime scene on a body of water, Lowell describes an element of nature as an active participant in the experience, writing,________.

Which quotation from "Loon Point"most effectively illustrates the claim?

Some farms are expanding their mix of crop species in an effort to reduce nonagricultural biodiversity loss caused by increasing agricultural specialization, in which farmers focus on a limited range of crops or livestock species to improve yields and, thus, their revenues. To study the joint environmental and economic effects of diversification practices (which can encompass improved soil and water management as well as increased variety in crops and livestock), Laura Vang Rasmussen and team analyzed data from 2,655 farms in eleven countries. They found that using multiple diversification practices concurrently had greater potential for improving both nonagricultural biodiversity and yields than using a single strategy did. Their finding suggests that_________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

There is a growing belief that teaching medical students about art alongside standard science and clinical coursework helps them become more observant, develop greater patient empathy, and strengthen their communication skills. But some medical program educators are skeptical, questioning if arts and humanities experiences can be clearly shown to have any worthwhile advantages for their students. Research into the effectiveness of arts programs for medical students by Neha Mukunda and her colleagues found that evidence is largely anecdotal and based on studies that were short in duration, limited to single institutions, or restricted to small numbers of students. To strengthen the evidence base in support of incorporating humanities into the coursework for medical students, then, _________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Researchers recently found that disruptions to an enjoyable experience, like a short series of advertisements during a television show, often increase viewers' reported enjoyment. Suspecting that disruptions to an unpleasant experience would have the opposite effect, the researchers had participants listen to construction noise for 30 minutes and anticipated that those whose listening experience was frequently interrupted with short breaks of silence would thus _________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

That Chaucer's Canterbury Tales inspired imitators is evident from the existence of three near-contemporary "continuations"of the collection: The Siege of Thebes, which purports to be a new tale told during the pilgrims' ________ The Tale of Beryn, which depicts the pilgrims as tourists; and The Ploughman's Tale, which features a minor character from the original work.

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

As part of his effort to identify Bronze Age pathways across Sicily, archaeologist Dario Calderone created three-dimensional digital models of the terrain via aerial photogrammetry. The drone_________ the landscape, which included archaeological sites from as far back as the Early Neolithic Period, flew in a pattern that ensured 60 percent forward overlap and 20 percent side overlap between individual images.

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

In economics, mustard seeds are considered a commodity because they are essentially interchangeable, "essentially" being a word that admits a degree of latitude. In 2021, researchers J. Shorish, M.Stephenson, and M.Zargham devised a mathematical model of fungibility (interchangeability) that would account for such variation. Distinguishing "exactly the same" and "nearly the same" commodities—whether crops, lumber, or precious metals—_________ among their primary aims.

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

The legacy of the Spanish Empire, which once controlled portions of five continents, is evident in Spanish-speaking Honduras, one of many places that reveal their imperial history in their language. Contrast Honduras with Taiwan, which ceased to be part of the empire in________the latter's connection to the empire is so attenuated that Spanish is seldom spoken there today.

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

Traveling to India between 1935 and 1952, African American intellectuals Sue Bailey Thurman, Blanche Wright Nelson, and Sadie T. M. Alexander met with Mahatma Gandhi, an influential proponent of nonviolent resistance, and forged meaningful connections with local Indian women as part of an effort to promote women's__________ but also around the world.

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

When it was built in the nineteenth century, the Eiffel Tower was criticized—even protested—for its unique appearance. _________ the spire-like structure earned not just acceptance but adoration, and its iconic design is now echoed in everything from the Eiffel Tower replica in Klagenfurt, Austria, to the Tokyo Tower in Tokyo, Japan.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

In studying whether jellyfish sleep, researchers Michael Abrams, Claire Bedbrook, and Ravi Nath attempted to answer three questions. _________ is there a period each day when the pulse rates of jellyfish decline? Second, do jellyfish respond more slowly to stimuli during that period? Finally, if prevented from sleeping, are jellyfish adversely affected?

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Establishing Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is no easy task. Each month, readings of a single second from atomic clocks around the world are taken and sent to the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) in France. __________ BIPM metrologists perform the meticulous work of assembling these minutely disparate readings into a globally shared time standard.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

In 1873, Spanish scientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal observed that brain fibers have distinct boundaries with clear end points, a finding that went against earlier assumptions about the brain. _________scientists had assumed that the brain was a continuous web of fused fibers, not a vast network of distinct, individual cells.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

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

· It is generally accepted that all bats use echolocation to navigate.

· The statement "all bats use echolocation to navigate" is falsifiable.

· A falsifiable statement can theoretically be proved false by observation.

· "All bats use echolocation to navigate" could be falsified by observing a single bat that didn't use echolocation.

· The statement "some bats use echolocation to navigate" is not falsifiable.

· Falsifying it would require observing every bat in the universe, which is not possible.

The student wants to contrast the falsifiability of two statements about bats. 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:

· Stars form in a galaxy when gravity causes a massive cloud of dust and gas to collapse.

· A galaxy in a phase of rapid star formation is called a starburst galaxy.

· Quenching is a process in which a galaxy loses star-forming gas.

· A galaxy that no longer forms stars is called a quenched galaxy.

· A quenched galaxy has entered the poststarburst phase.

The student wants to explain what a quenched galaxy is. 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:

· In the early 1960s, the US had a strict national-origins quota system for immigrants.

· The number of new immigrants allowed from a country each year was based on how many people from that country lived in the US in 1890.

· This system favored immigrants from northern Europe.

· Almost 70% of slots were reserved for immigrants from Great Britain, Ireland, and Germany.

· The 1965 Hart-Celler Act abolished the national-origins quota system.

The student wants to present the significance of the Hart-Celler Act to an audience unfamiliar with the history of US immigration. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?