SAT Pastpaper with Solutions

People tend to______the impact of acts of kindness. For example, participants in a study were asked to give a pencil to a stranger and then guess how much this action would improve the stranger's mood. The researchers found that the guesses were generally wrong: the strangers' happiness after getting the gift turned out to be greater than givers thought it would be.

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

The following text is from Lilliam Rivera's 2020 novel Never Look Back. The text describes the narrator arriving at his father's apartment.

 

"Pops, I'm here!" I drop my bag and set my guitar case against a wall. I

place my keys on the bowl right next to the ceramic elephant Pops got

me on one of his trips to Santo Domingo when I was a little kid.

 

As used in the text, what does the word "drop" most nearly mean?

Ethicist Ingrid Robeyns argues that to minimize wealth inequality,there should be a legally enforceable upper limit on the wealth one person can hold. Robeyns concedes that some________in wealth should be tolerated—for example, some jobs are more dangerous than others, and those jobs should therefore earn a higher income than others. But this is not a license for limitless wealth inequality.

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

In 2014 Marta S. Pimentel and colleagues published a study concluding that ocean acidification has a strong effect on the behavior of Coryphaena hippurus, a species of fish. However, Pimentel and colleagues' study relied on a mean sample size of only 10 fish. In a 2022 review of various scientists' conclusions about the impacts of ocean acidification on fish behavior, Timothy D. Clark and colleagues caution that relying on such a relatively small sample size can increase the potential for biased analysis. Such analysis, in turn, can contribute to reports of exaggerated effects.

What is the main topic of the scientific research discussed in the text?

People tend to assume that being happy is the ideal emotional state and should be an ongoing aspiration; recently, however, research has suggested that it is at times beneficial to embrace negative emotions. To test whether anger can contribute to problem-solving abilities, researcher Heather Lench led an experiment in which participants were randomly assigned to view images designed to create an emotional condition—either neutral or one of anger, amusement, desire, or sadness. When asked to then solve a series of challenging puzzles, the participants in the anger condition had greater success than those in the other conditions.

 

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

Since 2012, a consortium of research institutions has released an annual report that ranks countries by their populations' well-being, which the authors of the report derive using data from a globally administered survey of respondents' self-assessed levels of happiness. However, some other scholars caution that this approach reflects a tendentious understanding of the relationship between these two metrics. For example, studies have revealed a tendency among people in some non-Western countries to regard individual happiness as less important to their well-being than other ideals (e. g., a sense of harmony or balance).

Based on the text, what is a potential weakness of the annual report issued by the consortium of research institutions?

Text 1

Vernacular art, also known as folk art, refers to works by artists without extensive training who work outside the mainstream art world. In the last few decades, the Minneapolis Institute of Art and similar cultural institutions have worked to bring vernacular art out of obscurity. As a result, Nellie Mae Rowe's drawing Rocking Chair can now be experienced by art lovers.

Text 2

Special exhibits and similar efforts by cultural institutions to promote vernacular artists often inadvertently uphold misleading distinctions between these artists and the creators of so-called "high" art. Artists regularly gain inspiration from each other: vernacular artists often reveal a familiarity with prevailing trends through their works, and more mainstream artists in turn often credit vernacular works as important influences.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the author of Text 1's characterization of vernacular artists?

An intern at a publishing house who is writing a report is asked to determine which of several genres of books published in 2019 had paperbacks with the lowest average price. Consulting the table, she determines that, on average, the least expensive paperbacks in that year belonged to the genre of__________.

 

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

 

Pacific hermit crabs live in shells that they either find empty or take from another hermit crab. Biologists Louise Roberts and Mark Laidre noticed that hermit crabs sometimes vibrate their shells and wondered if they do this to scare away other crabs. The researchers put a shell on a beach and set it up to remain still, gently vibrate, or strongly vibrate when another hermit crab approached it. They recorded how many of those crabs tried to flip the shell over, which is the first step in trying to take a shell from another crab.

 

According to the table, what percentage of hermit crabs tried to flip the shell over when it was gently vibrating?

Peter Pan is a 1911 novel by J. M. Barrie. In the fantasy novel, a dog named Nana is a nurse (nanny) for the children in the Darling family—Wendy, John, and Michael. The narrator describes Nana as planning for events like a human would:_________.

Which quotation from Peter Pan best illustrates the claim?

In the early 1970s, art historian Michael Baxandall created an approach to viewing art called the "period eye," which explains how to look at art through the lens of its historical period. Baxandall argued that it is critical that art historians understand and communicate the original social and cultural contexts of older works of art so that it is clear what the artists intended and how the pieces would have been understood by their original viewers. Since it was first introduced, Baxandall's period eye has significantly influenced the practice of art history.

 

Which statement, if true, would most strongly support the claim in the underlined sentence?

The British Bronze Age began when sophisticated techniques for making tools, weapons, and other objects from metal were introduced to the British Isles around 2500 BCE, and it lasted until around 700 BCE. Collections of Bronze Age metal items (called hoards) have been found all over Britain, and while most of the objects found in these hoards are weapons or tools, some are purely decorative. For example, the Tisbury hoard included bronze tools, weapons, and jewelry, and the Urquhart hoard included gold jewelry. As ancient metalsmiths in Britain gained knowledge from working metals like bronze, they were able to apply those skills to work other metals as well, but gold was much rarer than bronze, so it's not surprising that__________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

The play The Great Leap, which tells the story of a basketball player named Manford Lum, was written by Chinese American playwright Lauren Yee. Yee's script was brought to life in 2018, when the play _______ staged at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York City.

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

Ferns and conifers_________ during the Triassic period (201 to 252 million years ago). These plants were well suited to the hot, dry climate of Pangaea, the sole landmass on Earth at the time.

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

An emulsifier is a type of compound that serves to stabilize an emulsion—a mixture of two or more liquids that otherwise would not easily blend together, like oil and water. Though modern chemists commonly use emulsifiers like glyceryl caprate in their formulations, emulsifiers that have been employed for millennia, such as beeswax and egg yolk,__________used to this day by chemists as well.

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

On April 12, 1985, the space shuttle Discovery blasted off into space, commencing Mission _________ six days and twenty-three hours, the mission ended when the shuttle landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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

An imposing spire of igneous rock rising high above the Belle Fourche River in eastern Wyoming, Devils Tower (also known as Bear Lodge) is one of the most prominent examples of columnar jointing, a pattern of fracturing in rocks that________ in parallel arrays of long polygonal prisms.

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

Established in 1933 for the specific purpose of stabilizing the US banking system,_________helped the nation recover from the Great Depression.

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

How a folktale begins depends largely on the language in which it__________folktales told in the Korean language open with a phrase that roughly means "on an old day, in the old times." English-language folktales, on the other hand, often begin with "once upon a time."

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

Nineteenth-century Modernista architects championed nature in their designs. Granted, the wavy stone facade and ornate floral tilework of Casa Batlló, a Modernista private home designed by Antoni Gaudi, couldn't exactly grow in a forest. _________one sees natural influences in Gaudi's penchant for curves (rather than right angles) and plant-and animal-inspired flourishes.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Rocket Geyser, found in Yellowstone National Park, is a cone geyser, a type of geyser that forms a mound of silica around the narrow geyser vent as volcanic rock dissolved in the water is deposited during eruptions.__________Yellowstone's fountain geysers, such as Jewel Geyser, erupt from larger openings where water collects in a pool.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

In ArtMed inSight, a series of art-based medical education classes taught by Anne Willieme, medical students learn to use techniques more often associated with the arts, such as slowing down interpretation and considering multiple perspectives. ___________ Willieme's students develop better observational skills, enhancing their ability to understand and diagnose patients effectively.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

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

· Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012) was a celebrated African American artist.

· She is best known for creating sculptures and prints that explore the Black experience.

· Recognition is a 1970 marble sculpture by Catlett.

· Magic Mask is a 1990 marble sculpture by Catlett.

The student wants to emphasize a similarity between the two sculptures. 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:

· There are around 90 automated snow measurement sites in Wyoming.

· One site is at Blind Bull Summit.

· At the start of February 2021, the site's snow depth was 68 inches.

· At the start of March 2021, the site's snow depth was 47 inches.

The student wants to specify the snow depth at Blind Bull Summit at the start of March 2021. 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:

· The Colorado River is the eighth longest river in North America.

· It passes through the country of Mexico.

· It passes through the country of the United States.

· It ranks No. 46 among the longest rivers in the world.

· It is 2,333 kilometers long.

The student wants to specify which countries the Colorado River passes through. 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:

・The Great Salt Lake is located in Utah.

・It is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world.

・More than 330 species of migratory birds stop at the lake each year.

・One of these species is the tundra swan.

The student wants to emphasize the number of migratory bird species that stop at the Great Salt Lake. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?