SAT Pastpaper with Solutions

Since 1813 reaction to Jane Austen's novels has oscillated between ________ and condescension; but in general, later writers have esteemed her works more highly than did most of her literary contemporaries.

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

It was her view that the country's problems had been ______ by foreign technocrats, so that to invite them to come back would be counterproductive.

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

The following text is from Charles Dickens's 1861 novel Great Expectations. The narrator is taking a walk near his home on a damp morning.

On every rail and gate, wet lay clammy, and the marsh mist

was so thick, that the wooden finger on the post directing

people to our village—a direction which they never accepted,

for they never came there—was invisible to me until I was

quite close under it.

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

What is a city? The answer depends on where you live! Many countries define an area as a city based on how many people live there. However, not every country uses the same numbers. Albania defines a city as an area with a population of at least 400, while Greece defines a city as having a minimum population of 10,000. Some countries even define cities using other factors, like the number of buildings in the area.

Which choice best states the main topic of the text?

Stores often play background music to create a pleasant shopping experience. Based on a survey, Amir Manzoor found that such music was linked to reduced enjoyment among customers. Manzoor thinks that one explanation for this result is that the surveyed customers may have wanted to finish their shopping as quickly as possible. They therefore weren't focused on enjoying the experience. It's possible that background music could improve the experience of other customers whose main goal is to have a good time while they shop.

Based on the text, which research question was Manzoor's study most likely intended to answer?

Astronomers are confident that the star Betelgeuse will eventually consume all the helium in its core and explode in a supernova. They are much less confident, however, about when this will happen, since that depends on internal characteristics of Betelgeuse that are largely unknown. Astrophysicist Sarafina ElBadry Nance and colleagues recently investigated whether acoustic waves in the star could be used to determine internal stellar states but concluded that this method could not sufficiently reveal Betelgeuse's internal characteristics to allow its evolutionary state to be firmly fixed.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the overall structure of the text?

Text 1

Conventional wisdom long held that human social systems evolved in stages, beginning with hunter-gatherers forming small bands of members with roughly equal status. The shift to agriculture about 12,000 years ago sparked population growth that led to the emergence of groups with hierarchical structures: associations of clans first, then chiefdoms, and finally, bureaucratic states.

Text 2

In a 2021 book, anthropologist David Graeber and archaeologist David Wengrow maintain that humans have always been socially flexible, alternately forming systems based on hierarchy and collective ones with decentralized leadership. The authors point to evidence that as far back as 50,000 years ago some hunter-gatherers adjusted their social structures seasonally, at times dispersing in small groups but also assembling into communities that included esteemed individuals.

Based on the texts, how would Graeber and Wengrow (Text 2) most likely respond to the "conventional wisdom" presented in Text 1?

Drosophila (fruit flies) have generation times of 10-12 days, so seasonal changes in rainfall and other environmental conditions can drive seasonal fluctuations in chromosome rearrangements in species such as D. robusta and D. subobscura. Drosophila body size (for which wing centroid size serves as a proxy measure) correlates with reproductive fitness. Banu Sebnem Onder and Cansu Fidan Aksoy measured the wing sizes of members of a D. robusta population in Yesiloz, Turkey, that were collected monthly between May and October over three years. Their research suggests that Drosophila collected in relatively warmer months should tend to have greater reproductive fitness, as is illustrated by the finding that_________.

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

Alicia Montesinos-Navarro, Isabelle Storer, and Rocio Perez-Barrales recently examined several plots within a diverse plant community in southeast Spain. The researchers calculated that if individual plants were randomly distributed on this particular landscape, only about 15% would be with other plants in patches of vegetation. They counted the number of juvenile plants of five species growing in patches of vegetation and the number growing alone on bare ground and compared those numbers to what would be expected if the plants were randomly distributed. Based on these results, they claim that plants of these species that grow in close proximity to other plants gain an advantage at an early developmental stage.

Which choice best describes data from the table that support the researchers' claim?

Cane is a 1923 novel by Jean Toomer. In the novel, Toomer mentions a road in rural Georgia called Dixie Pike and describes it as having a deep connection to a faraway place, writing,__________.

Which quotation from Cane most effectively illustrates the claim?

Coffee farming around the world has changed greatly over time. Originally, coffee plants grew in the shade of tropical forests. Today coffee is often grown without shade cover. This is because full-sun coffee farms can produce more coffee beans. But the lack of trees on such farms means a lack of spaces for many species of birds to roost. Therefore, compared with full-sun coffee farms, shaded farms tend to__________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

When digging for clams, their primary food, sea otters damage the roots of eelgrass plants growing on the seafloor. Near Vancouver Island in Canada, the otter population is large and well established, yet the eelgrass meadows are healthier than those found elsewhere off Canada's coast. To explain this, conservation scientist Erin Foster and colleagues compared the Vancouver Island meadows to meadows where otters are absent or were reintroduced only recently. Finding that the Vancouver Island meadows have a more diverse gene pool than the others do, Foster hypothesized that damage to eelgrass roots increases the plant's rate of sexual reproduction; this, in turn, boosts genetic diversity, which benefits the meadow's health overall.

Which finding, if true, would most directly undermine Foster's hypothesis?

Studies have shown that when we listen to high-tempo music (songs with a high number of beats per minute, or bpm) during endurance exercise, we perceive our effort as lower than it actually is, which leads to an increased pace and a higher heart rate. Researchers recently designed a follow-up study in which participants jogged outdoors for 30 minutes while listening to Aerosmith's "Livin' on the Edge"(169 bpm) continuously. The next day, participants performed the same activity while listening to Ella Fitzgerald's "From This Moment On"(93 bpm). As expected, listening to that song resulted in participants__________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Many folktales that originate in the Hindi language start with a phrase that roughly translates to "in one era." Many tales that originate in English use "once upon a time." Such phrases, known as story starters,__________ from language to language.

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

Cycads are palmlike plants with cones. ________plants were abundant throughout the Mesozoic Era (66 to 252 million years ago).

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

Dating to around 1500, the Unicorn Tapestries are seven large tapestries depicting a unicorn hunt that hang in The Cloisters, a museum of medieval art in New York City. Attempting to explain the tapestries' symbolism, art historian and former Cloisters head curator Margaret B. ________that while some have interpreted the tapestries as a Christian allegory, unicorns in that era were typically featured in secular rather than religious contexts.

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

As jazz singer Sarah Vaughan honed her vocal abilities—acquiring a sophisticated timbre and precise control over pitch, dynamics, and_________ she earned comparisons to opera icon Leontyne Price, one of her personal heroes. The comparisons highlight how Vaughan, a jazz star, had transcended genre boundaries with her singing prowess.

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

When searching for clues about how Neolithic peoples lived, British archaeologist Lisa-Marie Shillito starts by examining____________trash. Buried trash deposits (known as middens) are a rich source of information for archaeologists like Shillito.

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

Few stories in art history rival the gilded drama of James McNeill Whistler's Peacock Room. This sumptuous dining space became the setting of a spectacular falling-out between Whistler, who transformed the somber room into a golden aviary, and shipping magnate Frederick Leyland, who commissioned the work but refused to pay for what he________as a tasteless, gaudy design.

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

In 1845, the United States District Court for the state of lowa was established. Initially, the court's jurisdiction was a single district that encompassed the entire state, but as lowa's population grew, this single district began to struggle to serve the needs of everyone in the state.________the court's jurisdiction was subdivided into two districts, each with its own district court.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

KCUW-LP is a Native-run radio station broadcasting from the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon. In 2004, Loris Taylor wanted to make sure that stations like KCUW-LP continued to thrive._________she founded Native Public Media, a support system for Native radio stations that now includes around sixty stations.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Because of its bulky body, the world's first airplane,the 1903 Wright Flyer, was not very aerodynamic. Modern planes, like the Northrop F-5 jet, have much sleeker, more streamlined bodies. _______they are much more aerodynamic.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

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

· The Incarnations (2015) is an epistolary novel by English author Susan Barker.

· Epistolary novels are novels written primarily as a series of fictional documents.

· These documents can be letters, journal entries,newspaper clippings, and more.

· The Incarnations consists primarily of letters.

· The letters are sent between a taxi driver named Wang Jun and a mysterious woman.

The student wants to provide an example of an epistolary novel. 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 in Utah is one of the world's saltiest bodies of water.

· The northern portion of the lake has a higher concentration of salt than the southern portion.

· Crustaceans called Artemia franciscana live in the southern portion.

· Bacteria called Coccochloris live in the southern portion.

The student wants to emphasize a difference between Arternia franciscana and Coccochloris. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

· The Highpointers Club is a hiking club.

· One of the main goals among club members is to reach the highest points in all fifty US states.

· Those who achieve this are called 50 Completers.

· In Suk Han became a 50 Completer on November 15, 2013.

· The highest point in Wisconsin is Timms Hill, at 1,951 ft.

· The highest point in Wyoming is Gannett Peak, at 13,809 ft.

Which choice most effectively uses information from the given sentences to explain the 50 Completers hiking challenge to a new audience?

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

· The Vistula River is in Europe.

· It is the eighth longest river in Europe.

· It crosses the countries Belarus and Poland.

· It ranks No. 133 among the longest rivers in the worid.

· It is 1,213 kilometers long.

The student wants to specify how many kilometers long the Vistula River is. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?