SAT Pastpaper with Solutions

Noah Fierer and colleagues __________ pots of sterilized soil with slurries of live microbes collected from soil in five sites across Colorado, including areas of ponderosa pine forest and dry pasture. Fierer and team then grew mustard plants in the pots to see if the different microbial slurries affected levels of spicy glucosinolates like 3-methylthiopropyl in the plants' seeds.

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

Electricians confronting century-old wiring often find themselves playing detective, tracing circuits that were modified numerous times by different hands, each addressing—with varying levels of sophistication—immediate needs with little effort to maintain overall organization. What appears to be a simple fixture replacement can reveal a network that is truly _________ .

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

Because of its salience, economists often treat the clustering of textile manufacturing firms in Manchester, UK, as __________ industrial agglomeration generally, but Giulia Faggio et al. caution against this: while the existence of labor pools drives collocation in this specific industry, data show that in other industries—the musical instrument manufacturing industry, for instance —firms may locate near one another for a variety of reasons.

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

From the mighty Thames to the humblest brook, every stream has a hyporheic zone (HZ)—a layer of sediment, small stones, and tiny creatures just below and alongside the streambed. Stream water percolates into the HZ and mixes with upwelling groundwater, creating a unique habitat "when the water from above meets the water from below" (as described in Ojibwe traditional ecological knowledge). With its distinct water chemistry, temperature, and life-forms, the HZ harbors great biodiversity, including microbes that play a key role in regulating organic matter decomposition and other critical ecological processes.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

Engineers have traditionally identified improved materials for technological applications through a combination of educated guessing and manual testing. While contemporary rapid assessment techniques have advanced this process by allowing numerous candidates to be tested quickly, these methods remain confined to examining known substances. The most extensive investigations have scrutinized only 106–107 crystalline arrangements, a large absolute number but only a small subset of theoretically possible stable chemical combinations. Additionally, these assessment-based methods lack efficient ways to find substances with prespecified characteristics.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

This text is adapted from Phillis Wheatley's 1773 poem "On Imagination."

Now here, now there, the roving Fancy flies,

Till some loved object strikes her wandering eyes,

Whose silken fetters all the senses bind,

And soft captivity involves the mind.

Imagination! who can sing thy force?

Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

In 1958, Jim Dine and several other emerging artists founded the Judson Gallery in New York City, a nurturing space where artists produced and exhibited works that were radically new at the time—from assemblages (mixed-media pieces with found objects) to "Happenings" (performance art experiences designed to be irreplicable). The gallery is still remembered for its links to artists who helped drive experimental movements, such as the pop artist Red Grooms, and for the remarkable freedom it offered artists in their explorations.

 

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

Text 1

Sir Geoffrey Luttrell commissioned the Luttrell Psalter, a celebrated document of religious songs and images of life in medieval England. Not all of Luttrell's actions were admirable, however. Most infamously, he participated in what was essentially a private war against Sempringham Priory, a monastery near his manor, even making off with 500 pounds' worth of monastery property during a raid. So Luttrell's reputation should be regarded as questionable at best.

 

 

Text 2

Some historians claim that Luttrell's poor treatment of his neighbors is as crucial to his biography as his funding of the Luttrell Psalter. But his conflict with Sempringham Priory must be seen as an indirect result of a legally ambiguous property dispute involving land on which his manor sat: he was taking property that he seems to have sincerely believed was rightfully his.

 

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the claim in the underlined sentence in Text 1?

Rates of erosion—measured in tons of matter per square kilometer per year—can be particularly high in areas that experience changes in temperature leading to snowmelt, which occurs at 0°C. It is possible, however, for an area where the presence of longstanding snow deposits is highly unlikely to experience the same rate of erosion as an area where the melting of such deposits may account for heightened erosion, since _________

 

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

By examining trait distributions across phylogenetic lineages, evolutionary biologists can determine whether trait similarities result from shared ancestry, leading to consistent presence of the trait among closely related species, or from convergent evolution under similar selective pressures, leading to the independent appearance of the trait in more distantly related species occupying similar ecological niches. Hypothesizing that orbit (eye socket) orientation in the families Canidae and Felidae (both within the order Carnivora) is primarily driven by the latter mechanism, a researcher measured frontation angles—the extent to which orbits face downward or upward—in felid and canid species occupying various habitats and preferring different substrates.

 

Assuming the data in the table are broadly representative, do the data support the researcher's hypothesis as presented in the text?

The Blazing World is a 1666 work of utopian fiction by Margaret Cavendish. In the text,a woman travels to a fantastical country where she is promoted to the position of Empress and takes an active role in promoting new policies: __________

Which quotation from The Blazing World most effectively illustrates the claim?

Thierry Fest and other researchers probed the evolutionary history of size variation in canids (wolves, foxes, dogs, and their close relatives). The researchers found that small domestic dogs (e.g., Havaneses) as well as small wild canids (e.g., foxes) tend to have a particular variant, known as the C allele, of the gene IGF1, a growth-related gene found in all mammals. Large canids (e.g., grey wolves, German shepherds), however, tend to have a different variant, known as the T allele, of IGF1. The researchers concluded that the T allele is the more recent of the two alleles to emerge.

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

Digital art—or art composed of computer software, computerized hardware, televisions, or other electronic media—has proven difficult for even well-funded institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and the Art Institute of Chicago to conserve. For example, Sun Yuan and Peng Yu's Can't Help Myself (2016), which is housed at the Guggenheim, consists of a large robotic arm that sweeps dark fluid over a gallery floor. This work could prove difficult to set up, store, and maintain. Early works of digital art, such as Nam June Paik's Family of Robot (1986) figures, consist of fragile old-model televisions. Indeed, successful conservation of digital art is likely to require _________

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Gustav Frank and Madleen Podewski have observed that although serialized publication and a continuous publication cycle mark periodicals as quite distinct from other objects of literary analysis, the periodical is insufficiently theorized as a unique form, leaving scholars heavily reliant on methods of literary criticism developed for analyzing other types of texts, as well as methods arising from other fields entirely, such as communication studies. However, literary-critical methodologies in particular make assumptions about authorial control that to be tenable must be restricted to forms like novels, poems, and plays. Frank and Podewski thus caution that even as periodical studies has emerged as an independent discipline, it __________

Which choice most logically completes the text?

In 2010, archaeologist Noel Hidalgo Tan was visiting the twelfth-century temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia when he noticed markings of red paint on the temple ______ the help of digital imaging techniques, he discovered the markings to be part of an elaborate mural containing over 200 paintings.

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

To humans, it does not appear that the golden orb-weaver spider uses camouflage to capture its ______ the brightly colored arachnid seems to wait conspicuously in the center of its large circular web for insects to approach. Researcher Po Peng of the University of Melbourne has explained that the spider's distinctive coloration may in fact be part of its appeal.

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

A pioneer in the field of taphonomy (the study of how organic remains become fossils), ______ may be just as prevalent in the fossil record as those of thick-shelled organisms.

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

Emory Sekaquaptewa, a Hopi anthropologist and lexicographer, helped compile a bilingual Hopi-English dictionary published in 1998. Containing almost 30,000 entries, _______

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

In the early 1900s, Jovita Idár fought injustice on both sides of the Mexico–United States border. As a reporter for the Texas newspaper La Crónica, she voiced support for the Mexican people's revolt against authoritarian rule. ______ she founded the League of Mexican Women, a group that advocated for the rights of Mexican Americans.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

In November 1934, Amrita Sher-Gil was living in what must have seemed like the ideal city for a young artist: Paris. She was studying firsthand the color-saturated style of France's modernist masters and beginning to make a name for herself as a painter. ______ Sher-Gil longed to return to her childhood home of India; only there, she believed, could her art truly flourish.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

"Wishcycling"—putting nonrecyclable items into recycling bins under the mistaken belief that those items can be recycled—ultimately does more harm than good. Nonrecyclable items, such as greasy pizza boxes, can contaminate recyclable materials, rendering entire batches unusable. ______ nonrecyclable products can damage recycling plants' machinery.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

At two weeks old, the time their critical socialization period begins, wolves can smell but cannot yet see or hear. Domesticated dogs, ______ can see, hear, and smell by the end of two weeks. This relative lack of sensory input may help explain why wolves behave so differently around humans than dogs do: from a very young age, wolves are more wary and less exploratory.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

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

 

·Sam Maloof (1916–2009) was an American woodworker and furniture designer.

·He was the son of Lebanese immigrants.

·He received a "genius grant" from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1985.

·The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, owns a rocking chair that Maloof made from walnut wood.

·The armrests and the seat of the chair are sleek and contoured, and the back consists of seven spindle-like slats.

 

The student wants to describe the rocking chair to an audience unfamiliar with Sam Maloof. 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:

 

·Species belonging to the Orchidaceae (orchid) family can be found in both tropical and temperate environments.

·Orchidaceae species diversity has not been well studied in temperate forests, such as those in Oaxaca, Mexico.

·Arelee Estefanía Muñoz-Hernández led a study to determine how many different Orchidaceae species are present in the forests of Oaxaca.

·Muñoz-Hernández and her team collected orchids each month for a year at a site in Oaxaca.

·Seventy-four Orchidaceae species were present at the site.

 

The student wants to present the study and its 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:

 

·Just like states have state flags, some cities have city flags.

·Over one hundred US cities have redesigned their flags since 2015.

·The city of Pocatello, Idaho, redesigned its flag after it was named the most poorly designed flag in North America.

·Pocatello's new flag better represents the city's mountainous geography and civic priorities.

·Residents consider the new flag to be a meaningful symbol of civic pride.

 

The student wants to make and support a generalization about the effect of redesigning a city flag. 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:

 

·Some sandstone arches in Utah's Arches National Park have been defaced by tourists' carvings.

·Park rangers can smooth away some carvings using power grinders.

·For deep carvings, power grinding is not always feasible because it can greatly alter or damage the rock.

·Park rangers can use an infilling technique, which involves filling in carvings with ground sandstone and a bonding agent.

·This technique is minimally invasive.

 

The student wants to explain an advantage of the infilling technique. which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?