SAT Pastpaper with Solutions

In the search for new impact craters on Mars, the roles of seismic monitoring and orbital imaging as data sources are________: when vibrations detected with seismic monitoring indicate roughly where an impact has occurred, researchers can use orbital images of that relatively limited area of the rocky surface to precisely locate a new crater.

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

The following text is adapted from Alice Dunbar Nelson's 1899 short story "The Fisherman of Pass Christian." Pass Christian is a city in the US state of Mississippi.

 

The swift breezes on the beach at Pass Christian meet and conflict as though

each strove for the mastery of the air. The land-breeze blows down through the

pines, resinous, fragrant, cold, bringing breath-like memories of dim, dark woods

shaded by myriad pine-needles. The breeze from the Gulf is warm and soft and

languorous, blowing up from the south with its suggestion of tropical warmth.

 

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

Researchers have long debated the origins of silver used in European coins from the 600s through the early 800s CE. Geochemical analysis by Kershaw et al. of 49 coins dating to 660-820CE provides concrete evidence that reconciles two competing theories: early coins were made from Byzantine silver, and later coins used Frankish silver, findings that provide firm details in a previously________area of study.

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

Notes from a Liar and Her Dog was Gennifer Choldenko's debut novel. It was published in 2001. A debut novel is the first book that an author has published. Debut novels are especially interesting to literary critics (people whose job it is to evaluate books) and readers because these books offer a look at new voices in the literary world.

According to the text, what is someone who professionally evaluates books called?

In a section of a 1976 essay discussing cinema of the United States, James Baldwin observed that Lady Sings the Blues (1972), a biographical film about jazz singer Billie Holiday, can be said to reflect Holiday's life and the experiences of Black Americans only "by courtesy." According to Baldwin, the failure of this film to authentically represent its subject matter is indicative of a larger trend in films of the era: rather than leveraging the medium's potential to confront difficult truths, filmmakers and studios often resorted to platitudes about contemporary US society.

 

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

Understanding juvenile sea turtles' migratory patterns is crucial for conservation efforts. While adult sea turtles are well studied, little is known about juveniles during their oceanic stage, when they spend most of their time in the open ocean. To learn about this stage, researchers tagged and released six juvenile green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) into the eastern Caribbean Sea. Their findings revealed that the majority of the turtles passively drifted with ocean currents throughout the region. However, two individuals swam against the currents, possibly in search of foraging grounds off the coast of South America.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

The following text is adapted from Daniel Defoe's 1704 nonfiction book The Storm.

 

 

If I judge right, 'tis the duty of an historian to set everything in its own light, and to

convey matter of fact upon its legitimate authority, and no other: I mean thus, (for

I would be as explicit as I can) that where a story is vouched to him with sufficient

authority, he ought to give the world the special testimonial of its proper voucher,

or else he is not just to the story: and where it comes without such sufficient

authority, he ought to say so; otherwise he is not just to himself.

 

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

Founded in 1904, the Hispanic Society of America showcases the arts and cultures of Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking regions around the world, including Latin America. It is located in New York City and has more than 18,000 objects in its museum collection. Since 2000, a number of other institutions devoted to Latino cultures have opened in the United States. A notable example is the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque. It focuses on the literature, art, and cultures of Latin America as well as of Latino communities in the United States.

Which statement about the Hispanic Society of America is best supported by the text?

The Girl Scouts of America is an organization famous for its annual sales of several varieties of cookies, including S'Mores. A student is writing an essay on the history of the organization. The student claims that from 1992 to 1995 the organization's popularity regularly peaked among participants in a certain age range before declining among older participants as Girl Scout activities began to compete with other interests.

 

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

The Underdogs is a 1915 novel by Mariano Azuela, originally written in Spanish. In the novel, Azuela depicts the character Camilla as experiencing a change in how she perceives her immediate surroundings:__________.

Which quotation from a translation of The Underdogs most effectively illustrates the claim?

Outi Tervo and team studied the effect of human-caused noise on narwhals (Monodon monoceros), arctic marine mammals that are sensitive to acoustic changes in their environment. Hypothesizing that elevated sound levels affect foraging among narwhals, Tervo's team compared narwhal diving behaviors in natural sound conditions with those behaviors in two human-caused sound exposure conditions—ship sounds and ship sounds coupled with sonic pulses. Both exposure conditions resulted in significant decreases in the number and target depth of deep dives (associated with foraging) relative to natural conditions. However, differences between diving behaviors in the two exposure types were negligible, a finding that could be attributed to the fact that_______.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

The Umpila language of Australia has 21 vowel and consonant sounds. In contrast, the Taa language of southern Africa has over 100. Why would languages differ in this way? One researcher has claimed that when modern humans arose in Africa, they spoke a single language, but as humans gradually spread throughout Africa and then around the globe, that language developed into new languages. Those developed into still more languages as small bands of humans spread even farther, with each new language retaining fewer sounds from humanity's original language.

Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the researcher's claim?

Antonia Olivia Dolan and colleagues had musicians and nonmusicians with clinically average hearing listen to recordings of nature sounds and music in popular genres like pop and classic rock and adjust the volume to optimize their listening enjoyment. The researchers found that for a given recording that a musician and nonmusician identified as their favorite among those included in the study, optimal volume tended to be higher for the musician than for the nonmusician. Thus, if a musician and nonmusician both identified Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" as their favorite recording and the musician preferred to listen to it at a volume of 84.8 decibels, the nonmusician would be expected to_________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Museo Casa Canales, a history museum in Jayuya, Puerto Rico, is one of more than eighty museums in the US territory. These museums present a wide range of information about Puerto Rico, showcasing everything from the territory's history to_________architecture to its coffee.

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

The atomic structure of an element__________the element's place on the periodic table.

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

On January 11, 1996, the space shuttle Endeavour blasted off into space, commencing Mission__________eight days and twenty-two 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?

As an archaeologist, Dr. Rubén G._________studies historical locations all across the US Southwest and Mesoamerica, a region that includes ancient Maya sites like Ek' Balam in Mexico.

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

In a chemical equation, the value known as molar mass is useful for converting between the mass of the reactants and the mass of the product. The liquid__________have molar masses of 186.06 and 156.31 g/mol, respectively.

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

Growing as large as three meters in diameter, the leaves of the giant Amazonian waterlily feature a complex network of radiating veins that provide structural__________in thickness from the center to the edges, these veins allow the leaves to maintain their large size and buoyancy with minimal material, optimizing light capture and photosynthesis.

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

Recordings of electrical activity in the brain,_________increased activity in brain areas associated with suppressing motor functions.

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

Brain imaging research led by neuroscientist Dwaynica Greaves found that actors showed suppressed responses in the left anterior prefrontal cortex (the portion of the brain associated with self-awareness) when their names were called during performances;__________the actors' responses were normal in nonacting contexts. These findings suggest that when embodying characters, performers may temporarily set aside their personal identities.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

As lestyn Barr and his team of researchers discovered when establishing the glacial timeline of Antarctica, the Transantarctic Mountains—a 3,500-km mountain range spanning the continent—are home to glaciers of at least 60 million years in age. __________the researchers concluded, Antarctica had glaciers long before the formation of its continent-wide ice sheet 34 million years ago.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

While some researchers have identified the planet Kepler-1552b as potentially habitable, it's unlikely that humanity will be able to take advantage of its favorable conditions anytime soon—it's 2,507 light years away. __________humanity must first focus on making planets within our solar system more habitable.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Artists' palettes—the surfaces on which painters arrange and mix their paints—can provide valuable insights into the painters' creative processes. In her 2024 book The Artist's Palette, Alexandra Loske analyzes the palettes of 50 different painters across 500 years. ________Loske reveals clues about the techniques and practices of such artists as Kerry James Marshall, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Vincent van Gogh.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

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

· An isthmus is a strip of land that connects two larger pieces of land across an expanse of water.

· It is also known as a land bridge.

· The Isthmus of lerapetra connects the Siteia municipality to the rest of the island of Crete.

· The Isthmus of lerapetra is located in the Mediterranean Sea.

The student wants to indicate the location of the Isthmus of Ierapetra. 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:

· Lighthouses send out crucial light signals to help ships and other watercraft navigate at night.

· Before automation, lighthouses were run by lighthouse keepers.

· Fannie May Salter was the lighthouse keeper at Turkey Point Light in Maryland.

· She held this position for twenty-two years (1925-1947).

· Ida Lewis was the lighthouse keeper at Lime Rock Light in Rhode Island.

· She held this position for fifty-four years (1857-1911).

The student wants to compare the length of time Fannie May Salter and Ida Lewis worked as lighthouse keepers. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?