SAT Pastpaper with Solutions

Siemowit is said to have ruled what eventually became Poland in the 9th century. Unlike that of Bezprym or other well-attested figures from early Polish history, Siemowit's existence has been the subject of debate, as our knowledge of him is ______somewhat dubious oral traditions first written down hundreds of years after the events they describe.

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

The mihrab (or niche) is one of many features that are foundational to traditional mosque architecture and is therefore considered ______ aspect of mosque design. Even mosques that exhibit elements of multiple architectural styles, such as the Kocatepe Mosque, which incorporates elements from the Neoclassical Ottoman and modern styles, will also include several of these standard features.

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

The following text is adapted from Willa Cather's 1912 novel Alexander's Bridge.

 

For the next few days Alexander was very busy. He took a desk in the office of a [Scottish] engineering firm on Henrietta Street, and was at work almost constantly. He avoided the clubs and usually dined alone at his hotel.

 

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

A microgenre is a specialized genre consisting of a comparatively small number of stylistically similar artists. The microgenre of electronic music known as hyperpop emerged in the 2010s, with American musician Laura Les as an early exponent. Her combination of dense synthesizer arrangements and metallic percussion with vocals electronically shifted in pitch above her natural range exemplifies the hyperpop sound. More recently, British recording artist Charli XCX has contributed to that sound by incorporating pop melodies into it.

 

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence?

High-speed rail systems, in which trains can move at great speeds, are expanding in many countries because high-speed rail can reduce the number of automobiles on the road and ultimately conserve energy. In Morocco, for instance, 186 kilometers of high-speed rail lines are in operation as of 2023, and 1,287 kilometers are under construction.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

In their study of fossils of the extinct arthropod Mollisonia symmetrica, Javier Ortega-Hernández, Sarah Losso, and team reported some obvious indications of M. symmetrica's nervous system—for example, the animal's primary nerve cord. They also saw signs of what might be a synganglion, a brain-like mass of nerve tissue, in the animal's head. This evidence is exciting because it could help us better understand how M. symmetrica is related to other arthropods, such as cave crickets and krill.

 

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

In superfluorescence, electrical charges known as dipoles emit light in synchronized bursts so intense that they are visible to the eye. Until recently, this phenomenon has only been observed at extremely cold temperatures because dipoles cannot synchronize at higher temperatures. But in a study, Melike Biliroglu and colleagues observed superfluorescence at room temperature in thin films made of perovskite and other similarly crystalline materials; the researchers propose that the formation of shock-absorbing quasiparticles called polarons in the material protects dipoles from thermal interference.

Based on the text, how are polarons believed to be involved in the superfluorescence observed in Biliroglu and colleagues' study?

Tokyo has high pedestrian traffic, but other cities cannot increase their pedestrian traffic simply by replicating a single feature of Tokyo—e.g., its high population density—that is associated with walkability. As urbanist Mariela Alfonzo argues, many factors influence people's decision-making about whether to walk: some studies have shown the importance of personal preference, others have shown the importance of perceived safety, and so on, and it is clear that none of these factors in isolation fully explains pedestrian habits in a given city.

 

Based on the text, the author would most likely agree with which statement about Tokyo's "high population density"?

Meredith E. Protas and colleagues have explored how convergent evolution—a phenomenon that occurs when the same trait evolves independently in two reproductively separate lineages—can result from a genetic mechanism shared by both lineages. Meanwhile, Cynthia C. Steiner and colleagues have investigated how convergence occurs through different genetic mechanisms, but the relative prevalence of convergence through shared and different genetic processes is still poorly understood. This motivated biologists Delbert A. Green II and Cassandra G. Extavour to evaluate both types of convergence in a single study for their 2012 paper.

According to the text, what did Protas and colleagues focus on in their study?

Rows in table may not add up to 100 due to rounding.

Over the past two hundred years, the percentage of the population employed in the agricultural sector has declined in both France and the United States, while employment in the service sector (which includes jobs in retail, consulting, real estate, etc.) has risen. However, this transition happened at very different rates in the two countries. This can be seen most clearly by comparing the employment by sector in both countries in ______.

 

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

A sociology student is reading an essay on the median age of first marriage in Western countries throughout the twentieth century. The author of the essay cites factors common to these countries that the author believes caused an increase in the median age of first marriage, such as new technologies that shortened the time needed for domestic chores, making two-person households less necessary and living alone more viable. The student asserts that beyond these factors there must be additional ones specific to particular Western countries that influenced the increase of age at first marriage.

 

Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph that support the student's assertion?

Paleontologist Lucas E. Fiorelli and colleagues have reported the discovery at a mine in Brazil of several egg clutches, partially preserved single eggs, and egg shells from the Late Cretaceous period. The researchers have concluded that the area was once a nesting and breeding site for titanosaurs, a group of sauropod dinosaurs. The finding is significant given the previous lack of known nesting sites in northern regions of South America, which led many paleontologists to assume that titanosaurs migrated south to lay eggs.

 

What does the text most strongly suggest about the site discovered by the researchers?

Nautilids are marine mollusks that begin growing their shells before emerging from their eggs and continue to add shell segments throughout their lifetimes. The walls between their shells' chambers are called septa, and the concentration of the isotope oxygen-18 they contain exactly reflects the isotope's concentration in the water at the depth at which the septa formed. Paleontologist Amane Tajika and colleagues examined each of the septa in two nautilid shells; finding that sample F13 had a higher concentration of the isotope than sample M03 did, the researchers concluded that F13 must have formed at a significantly lower temperature than M03 did.

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

Studies have demonstrated that positive feedback enhances real-world exercise performance and exercisers' psychological experience of physical activity. Nicole Trewick and team tested their prediction that positive feedback would produce analogous results among participants cycling on a stationary bike in a virtual reality environment. After monitoring participants' pedaling rate and heart rate to determine the effects on their physical endurance (e.g., their ability to sustain a certain target pedaling and heart rate) of feedback (positive, negative, or neutral) delivered at regular intervals, the researchers used participants' questionnaire responses to assess their psychological experience of the task.

Assuming participants had similar baseline fitness levels, which finding from the study, if true, would most strongly suggest that positive feedback had the predicted psychological effect but not the predicted physical effect?

Blue holes—large marine sinkholes, like Watling's Blue Hole near San Salvador Island—can be hundreds of meters deep and are sometimes part of widespread subterranean networks of passageways. In 2021, researchers conducted the first formal study of the Taam Ja' Blue Hole (TJBH), located in a bay of fresh water and salt water on Mexico's coast, and reported a maximum depth of 274 meters. Oscar F. Reyes-Mendoza and colleagues later reinvestigated the depth of the TJBH, determining that it exceeded 400 meters; additionally, they detected variations in characteristics across water layers. Layers more than 400 meters deep began to show density and salinity conditions akin to those of the nearby Caribbean Sea. Reyes-Mendoza and colleagues therefore suggest that ______.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

When attempting to determine a fault's seismic history, geophysicists like Dr. Estella Atekwana at the University of Delaware rely in part on data about the fault's physical dimensions and geological features. For example, data from the US Geological Survey show the ______and most recent deformation (less than 130 thousand years ago) of the Kawich Range fault in Nye County, Nevada.

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

Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (1818) is considered a satire of another novel popular at the time: Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), which Austen's heroine, Catherine Morland, is depicted reading. However, the similarity of the ______experiences—the predicaments of both Catherine and Radcliffe's Emily St. Aubert result from men's greed—suggests that underlying the satire is a social critique.

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

The foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana) known as RCR 1, located in the United States, is one of the oldest known trees in the world, at 1,666 years old. With almost two millennia of climate data in its tree ______single tree like this, claims dendrochronologist Valerie Trouet, can tell the history of the world.

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

When the electrons of a chemical element change energy states, they release certain wavelengths of light that are unique to that element. This means that the emission of light with a wavelength of 516.7 nanometers (nm), which falls in the 500–570 nm range defining the green portion of the visible spectrum, ______the element iron as the source of the light.

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

Their Last Ride was first released in 2022. This short ______is about the environmental issues affecting wild and domestic horses, was directed by Cherokee filmmaker Neta Rhyne.

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

With its clichéd imagery of suburban lawns and power lines, John Ashbery's 2004 poem "Ignorance of the Law Is No Excuse" may seem barren terrain for critical analysis. ______ cultural critic Lauren Berlant finds fertile ground in just its first two stanzas, devoting most of a book chapter to deciphering the "weight of the default space" Ashbery creates in this poem.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

The World Cup of men's soccer, one of the biggest sporting events on the planet, brought 32 national teams from six continents to the host country, Qatar, in 2022. The event, which is held every four years, used to be much smaller and more limited geographically. ______the 1950 World Cup in Brazil included only 13 teams, all from Europe and the Americas.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

In response to adverse environmental conditions, many plants produce abscisic acid (ABA), a stress hormone. ABA triggers a slowdown in the biological processes of most plants. ______ when the mustard plant Schrenkiella parvula produces ABA in response to an environmental stressor, the hormone triggers accelerated growth.  

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

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

·The Madeira River is in South America.

·It ranks No. 21 among the longest rivers in the world.

·It is 3,380 kilometers long.

·The Amur River is in Asia.

·It ranks No. 10 among the longest rivers in the world.

·It is 4,444 kilometers long.

The student wants to compare the lengths of the two rivers. 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 A.M. Turing Award is a prestigious award given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

·The ACM gives the award for "major contributions of lasting importance to computing."

·It is named after groundbreaking British mathematician Alan Turing.

·Judea Pearl won the award in 2011.

 

The student wants to explain whom the award is named for and identify one recipient of it. 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:

·Ducklings expend up to 62.8% less energy when swimming in a line behind their mother than when swimming alone.

·The physics behind this energy savings hasn't always been well understood.

·Naval architect Zhiming Yuan used computer simulations to study the effect of the mother duck's wake.

·The study revealed that ducklings are pushed in a forward direction by the wake's waves.

·Yuan determined this push reduces the effect of wave drag on the ducklings by 158%.

The student wants to present the study and its methodology. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?