SAT Pastpaper with Solutions

Though many _________ studies of the effect of altitude on blood chemistry focus on people who live above sea level, researchers A. Al-Sweedan and Moath Alhaj recently chose the novel path of focusing on people who live below sea level, in locations such as California towns of Salton City and Coachella.

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

The Colorado River delta system is located in northwestern Mexico, where the river drains into the Gulf of California, and is shaped by _________ factors: for example, the geography of the coastline influences sedimentary deposition, which over time alters coastal geography.

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

The following text is adapted from Virginia Woolf' s 1919 novel Night and Day.

 

In times gone by, Mrs. Hilbery had known all the poets, all the novelists. These being now either dead or secluded in their infirm glory, she made her house a meeting-place for her own relations, to whom she would lament the passing of the great days of the nineteenth century, when every department of letters and art was represented in England by two or three illustrious names.

 

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

Environmental regulations now require HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) technicians to ____________ R-22 refrigerant from existing cooling systems rather than venting it during repairs; this careful collection process prevents the ozone-depleting substance from causing atmospheric damage and allows for proper disposal or reclamation later.

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

In 1879, in an effort to determine the longevity of certain seeds left in soil, botanist William Beal buried 20 glass bottles filled with sand and seeds from a variety of plants, including Verbascum, Anthemis cotula, and Rumex crispus. Since then, some of the bottles have been retrieved in the periodic checks of seed viability researchers are conducting. After 60 years had elapsed, most of the seeds in those bottles stopped germinating, but Verbascum seeds have remained viable, including those from a bottle dug up in 2021 by Margaret Fleming, Lauren Stanley, and colleagues.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

The following text is from Eleanor H. Porter's 1913 novel Pollyanna. Nancy is picking up Pollyanna at the train station. They are meeting for the first time.

 

The little girl was standing quite by herself when Nancy finally did approach her.

"Are you Miss—Pollyanna?" she faltered. The next moment she found herself half smothered in the clasp of two gingham-clad arms.

"Oh, I'm so glad, GLAD, GLAD to see you," cried an eager voice in her ear. "Of course I'm Pollyanna, and I'm so glad you came to meet me! I hoped you would."

 

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

lan Gilligan et al. claim that during the lce Age, humans at Kamenka A in Siberia made fitted clothing by boring holes in pieces of hide and fur with a sharpened bone tool called an awl and then threading cord through the holes to bind the pieces together. Eventually, as evidenced by artifacts at Xiaogushan in East Asia, someone perforated the end of a bone awl to make an eye (hole) to hold the cord, thereby creating a sewing needle with which both steps could be performed in a single motion. This sped up the process of making clothing and, by freeing them from the need to push cord through holes manually, allowed artisans to make smaller holes and thus finer seams.

Based on the text, what can be concluded about clothing made during the Ice Age?

The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City exhibits some video games as works of art. Several games, including the 1991 game Another World, are playable at the museum, but other games, including the 2003 game Eve Online, are shown only in video footage because they are too complex to exhibit in a playable form. Although this does mean that the interactive element of such games is not fully represented, MOMA's choice to include Eve Online is likely intended to highlight important aspects of the game other than the experience of playing it.

The author of the text makes which point about MOMA's choice of games to exhibit?

In their chapter of Advancing U. S. Latino Entrepreneurship (2020), Michael J. Pisani and his coauthor analyze data on the Latino population share and the share of Latino-owned businesses (LOBs) in US metropolitan areas with Latino populations that are among the largest in the country. The authors note for nearly all the metropolitan areas included in their analysis, the Latino population share is larger than the share of LOBs. The exception is _________.

 

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

The Osage Nation, the Quapaw Tribe, and the more than thirty other tribes in Oklahoma operate numerous businesses and generate billions of dollars in revenue. An economics student is researching the tribes' collective activity as a single industry. The student wants to compare the average amount that industry contributed per employee to Oklahoma's economy with the average amount contributed per employee by three other industries. Looking at the table, the student finds that tribal economic activity contributed over $141,000 per employee, on average, ranking it __________.

 

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

Life Among the Paiutes is an 1882 autobiographical narrative by Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins. In the work, Winnemucca creates suspense by emphasizing her physical response to an event, writing ________.

Which quotation from Life Among the Paiutes most effectively illustrates the claim?

Christina Zdenek, Lachlan Bourke, and their team studied hearing in woma pythons (Aspidites ramsayi) , rough-aled death adders (Acanthophis rugosus), and pale-headed snakes (Hoplocephalus bitorquatus). They observed whether the snakes move toward or away from the source of a sound traveling through the air. The researchers concluded that woma pythons, unlike rough-scaled death adders and pale-headed snakes, were more curious than cautious about the airborne sound.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers' conclusion?

In a study of groove (defined as the degree to which participants wanted to move with the music), researchers expected that a song with a moderate-complexity rhythm, such as "Space Cowboy" by the Steve Miller Band, would elicit higher groove ratings than would a song with a high-complexity rhythm, such as "Soul Man" by Sam & Dave. This hypothesis was based on findings about a specific form of rhythmic complexity known as syncopation (when beats played in the rhythm deviate from the steady, underlying pulse of a song), which suggested that moderate syncopation was associated with the highest groove ratings. Contrary to the hypothesis, the groove ratings participants gave for "Space Cowboy" were generally __________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Countries whose electricity grids are heavily dependent on renewable energy—Kenya, for instance, obtains over 90% of its energy from such sources—often struggle to meet consumer demand during peak hours (times of the day when electricity use is very high). Concerns about electrical supply limitations have led some nations to utilize demand-response systems (DRS) that motivate consumers to change habits through lower electricity prices during off-peak hours. These efforts reflect an assumption that __________

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Montenegro, Hungary, and the other member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, share a commitment to the principle of collective defense, each NATO member ____________ to defend the others if necessary.

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

It was the kind of challenge that would set any art curator's mind into __________ that elusive thread that could link artists as disparate as Nigerian expressionist painter Emmanuel Odita, Flemish mannerist painter Anthony van Dyck, and ltalian Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna.

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

Seawater contains many trace elements that can be categorized in one of three ways based on their significance in sustaining living organisms: essential, possibly essential, or nonessential. Molybdenum, whose chemical symbol is ________ is classified as an essential element.

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

Karl Popper's argument that scientific hypotheses must be theoretically refutable, termed the criterion of falsifiability, rejects the confirmationist __________ verifiability as the essential criterion for scientific hypotheses. To Popper, a statement like "all cheetahs have spots" is scientific not because it can be verified, or proved true, but because it can theoretically be proved false.

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

Professional American football player Fred Cox invented one of the world's most popular toys. In the 1970s, he came up with the idea for the Nerf football, which ________ of the harder and heavier regulation football.

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

Ellen Wood first published her novel East Lynne in The New Monthly Magazine, where it was serialized in eight installments between January 1860 and September 1861 — a format that required Wood to sustain readers' interest over a period of fifteen months. _________ Wood crafted the novel's narrative to build suspense, leaving readers eager to discover what would befall Lady lsabel Vane and the book's other characters in the next installment.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

During many historic New York City parades, including the 1936 ticker-tape parade for US Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens, the ribbonlike swirls descending on the scene were paper spools from "tickers," telegraph machines that were used to transmit stock prices. _________ the tickers had long since been retired by the time of the parade for the New York Rangers in 1994. Then, shredded standard paper enriched the celebration.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

When constructing bridges with reinforced concrete, engineers anticipate that the material will develop cracks under heavy loads; the reinforcing lattice of steel bars embedded within the concrete is meant to accommodate this inevitability rather than thwart it entirely. __________ it is only upon cracking that reinforced concrete can actuate the full support of the steel. Until then, the steel's role is largely passive, and the concrete behaves more or less like unreinforced concrete.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

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

 

·A 2022 study analyzed geotagged social media posts to assess the effect of parks on happiness in 25 US cities.

·The happiness benefit of a city's parks was the numeric difference between the calculated happiness scores of posts made in parks and posts made elsewhere.

·A benefit above 0 indicates a positive effect.

·The park happiness benefit in San Francisco, California, was greater than 0.10.

·The park happiness benefit in Columbus, Ohio, was greater than 0 but less than 0.10.

·The average happiness benefit of parks across all cities was 0.10.

 

The student wants to make a generalization based on the study's findings. 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:

 

·Tapio Lehtinen is a Finnish sailor who completed a true circumnavigation of the globe in 2019.

·One of the requirements of a true circumnavigation is that the journey must begin and end in the same port.

·Lehtinen's circumnavigation began and ended in the port of Les Sables d'Olonne, France.

·On his joumey, Lehtinen passed the three great capes of the Southern Ocean.

·His journey took 322 days.

 

The student wants to provide evidence that Lehtinen's journey was a true circumnavigation. 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 a 2021 study, researchers showed participants forty-seven sets of images.

·Each set contained an unaltered image of a different character or logo alongside two slightly altered versions.

·Participants were asked to identify the correct version in each set.

·In forty sets, the majority of participants selected the correct version.

·In the set containing Winnie the Pooh, 63.9% of participants selected the correct version, and 36.1% selected an altered version.

·In seven sets, the majority of participants selected an altered version.

 

The student wants to summarize the study's results. 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?