SAT Pastpaper with Solutions

Seminole/Muscogee director Sterlin Harjo ______ television's tendency to situate Native characters in the distant past: this rejection is evident in his series Reservation Dogs, which revolves around teenagers who dress in contemporary styles and whose dialogue is laced with current slang.

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

The following text is adapted from George Eliot's 1871–72 novel Middlemarch.

[Mr. Brooke] had travelled in his younger years, and was held in this part of the country to have contracted a too rambling habit of mind. Mr. Brooke's conclusions were as difficult to predict as the weather.

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

The güiro, a musical instrument traditionally made from a dried and hollowed gourd, is thought to have originated with the Taíno people of Puerto Rico. Players use a wooden stick to scrape along ridges cut into the side of the gourd,creating sounds that are highly ______: the sounds produced by güiros can differ based on the distance between the

ridges, the types of strokes the player uses, and the thickness of the gourd.

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

The field of study called affective neuroscience seeks instinctive, physiological causes for feelings such as pleasure or displeasure. Because these sensations are linked to a chemical component (for example, the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain when one receives or expects a reward), they can be said to have a partly physiological basis. These processes have been described in mammals, but Jingnan Huang and his colleagues have recently observed that some behaviors of honeybees (such as foraging) are also motivated by a dopamine-based signaling process.

What choice best describes the main purpose of the text?

Text 1

In 1916, H. Dugdale Sykes disputed claims that The Two Noble Kinsmen was coauthored by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher. Sykes felt Fletcher's contributions to the play were obvious—Fletcher had a distinct style in his other plays, so much so that lines with that style were considered sufficient evidence of Fletcher's authorship. But for the lines not deemed to be by Fletcher, Sykes felt that their depiction of women indicated that their author was not Shakespeare but Philip Massinger.

 

Text 2

Scholars have accepted The Two Noble Kinsmen as coauthored by Shakespeare since the 1970s: it appears in all major one-volume editions of Shakespeare's complete works. Though scholars disagree about who wrote what exactly, it is generally held that on the basis of style, Shakespeare wrote all of the first act and most of the last, while John Fletcher authored most of the three middle acts.

 

Based on the texts, both Sykes in Text 1 and the scholars in Text 2 would most likely agree with which statement?

Vertical gene transfer involves the transmission of genetic material from a parent to offspring; horizontal gene transfer, on the other hand, involves the exchange of genetic material between organisms not in a parent-offspring relationship. While horizontal gene transfer is common among prokaryotes—single-celled organisms, such as the bacteria Brevibacillus borstelensis and Lactobacillus curvatus—it has rarely been observed among eukaryotes (multicellular organisms). However, new studies suggest that horizontal gene transfer is more common in eukaryotes than originally thought.

 

Which choice best states the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

Studying late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century artifacts from an agricultural and domestic site in Texas, archaeologist Ayana O. Flewellen found that Black women employed as farm workers utilized hook-and-eye closures to fasten their clothes at the waist, giving themselves a silhouette similar to the one that was popular in contemporary fashion and typically achieved through more restrictive garments such as corsets. Flewellen argues that this sartorial practice shows that these women balanced hegemonic ideals of femininity with the requirements of their physically demanding occupation.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

Biologist Abbigail Merrill and colleagues conducted a study of how butterfly color and weather conditions relate to butterfly behavior, which wouldn't have been possible without data gathered by students and other amateur science enthusiasts in the community. Considering over three years'worth of data, the researchers found that orange butterflies were observed in the evening more often than any other butterflies, and that butterflies tended to prefer orange and red flowers on cloudy days and multicolor flowers

on partly cloudy days.

According to the text, which factors seemed to be linked to the behavior of butterflies in Abbigail Merrill and colleagues'study?

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 El-Badry 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 second sentence in the overall structure of the text?

Marta Coll and colleagues' 2010 Mediterranean Sea biodiversity census reported approximately 17,000 species, nearly double the number reported in Carlo Bianchi and Carla Morri's 2000 census—a difference only partly attributable to the description of new invertebrate species in the interim. Another factor is that the morphological variability of microorganisms is poorly understood compared to that of vertebrates, invertebrates, plants, and algae, creating uncertainty about how to evaluate microorganisms as species. Researchers' decisions on such matters therefore can be highly consequential. Indeed, the two censuses reported similar counts of vertebrate, plant, and algal species, suggesting that______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

The most recent iteration of the immersive theater experience Sleep No More, which premiered in New York City in 2011, transforms its performance space—a five-story warehouse—into a 1930s-era hotel. Audience members, who wander through the labyrinthine venue at their own pace and follow the actors as they play out simultaneous, interweaving narrative loops, confront the impossibility of experiencing the production in its entirety. The play's refusal of narrative coherence thus hinges on the sense of spatial fragmentation that the venue's immense and intricate layout generates.

What does the text most strongly suggest about Sleep No More's use of its performance space? 

In the United States, firms often seek incentives from municipal governments to expand to those municipalities. A team of political scientists hypothesized that municipalities are much more likely to respond to firms and offer incentives if expansions can be announced in time to benefit local elected officials than if they can't. The team contacted officials in thousands of municipalities, inquiring about incentives for a firm looking to expand and indicating that the firm would announce its expansion on a date either just before or just after the next election. 

Which choice best describes data from the graph that weaken the team's hypothesis?

High levels of public uncertainty about which economic policies a country will adopt can make planning difficult for businesses, but measures of such uncertainty have not tended to be very detailed. Recently, however, economist Sandile Hlatshwayo analyzed trends in news reports to derive measures not only for general economic policy uncertainty but also for uncertainty related to specific areas of economic policy, like tax or trade policy. One revelation of her work is that a general measure may not fully reflect uncertainty about specific areas of policy, as in the case of the United Kingdom,where general economic policy uncertainty________.

Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to illustrate the claim?

Researchers recently found that disruptions to an enjoyable experience, like a short series of advertisements during a television show, often increase viewers' reported enjoyment. Suspecting that disruptions to an unpleasant experience would have the opposite effect, the researchers had participants listen to construction noise for 30 minutes and anticipated that those whose listening experience was frequently interrupted with short breaks of silence would thus______.

 

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Many of William Shakespeare's tragedies address broad themes that still appeal to today's audiences. For instance, Romeo and Juliet, which is set in the Italy of Shakespeare's time, tackles the themes of parents versus children and love versus hate, and the play continues to be read and produced widely around the world. But understanding Shakespeare's so-called history plays can require a knowledge of several centuries of English history. Consequently, __________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Though processed sugar has taken the brunt of the blame, a common bacteria is what mainly causes tooth decay. Of the hundreds of bacteria that are normally present in human mouths, the one that causes us so much dental pain is Streptococcus mutans. These bacteria break down tooth_________colonizing the surface of teeth and using sugars to form corrosive acid.

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

Miniature golf, also known as peewee golf, rose to popularity during the Great Depression as it offered benefits for operators and_________minimal land as well as low set-up costs for the former, and affordable, outdoor entertainment for the latter.

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

In the search for a renewable, combustible fuel that does not release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, many researchers have been working with_________although many engine designs have led to irregular combustion, which would therefore hinder the practical application of ammonia in vehicles. Researchers at Japan's Sophia University claim to have made a breakthrough that solves the combustion problem, allowing for greater use of ammonia-powered engines.

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

Despite its remote location in the South Pacific, Henderson Island, an uninhabited atoll measuring less than fifteen square___________highest density of plastic pollution in the world. This stems from its location within a strong oceanic current and the island's predicament underscores the severity of global plastic pollution.

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

In the early 1990s, Texas-born Robert Rodriguez was desperately trying to make a feature__________that if he filmed in Mexico with a Spanish language cast he could have more on screen for less money, Rodriguez came up with the idea for El Mariachi, which would have an initial production budget of only seven thousand dollars. When released in 1992, El Mariachi would end up an indie success and launch Rodriguez's filmmaking career.

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

In her poetry collection Thomas and Beulah, Rita Dove interweaves the titular characters' personal stories with broader historical narratives. She places Thomas's journey from the American South to the Midwest in the early 1900s within the larger context of the Great Migration._________Dove sets events from Beulah's personal life against the backdrop of the US Civil Rights Movement.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

In a heated debate in biogeography, the field is divided between dispersalists and vicariancists.__________there are those who argue that dispersal is the most crucial determining factor in a species' distribution, and those who insist that vicariance (separation due to geographic barriers) is. Biogeographer Isabel Sanmartín counts herself among neither.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

In 1815, while in exile in Jamaica, Venezuelan revolutionary Simón Bolívar penned a letter praising England's republican government and expressing hope that Latin American nations seeking independence from Spain might achieve something similar. The letter was addressed to a local merchant, Henry Cullen;_________though, Bolívar's goal was to persuade political leaders from England and Europe to support his cause.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

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

·The Atlantic Monthly magazine was first published in 1857.

·The magazine focused on politics, art, and literature.

·In 2019, historian Cathryn Halverson published the book Faraway Women and the "Atlantic Monthly."

·Its subject is female authors whose autobiographies appeared in the magazine in the early 1900s.

·One of the authors discussed is Juanita Harrison.

The student wants to introduce Cathryn Halverson's book to an audience already familiar with the Atlantic Monthly. 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 Million Song Dataset (MSD) includes main audio features and descriptive tags for popular songs.

·Audio features include acoustic traits such as loudness and pitch intervals.

·Many algorithms use these audio features to predict a new song's popularity.

·These algorithms may fail to accurately identify main audio features of a song with varying acoustic traits.

·Algorithms based on descriptive tags that describe fixed traits such as genre are more reliable predictors of song popularity.

The student wants to explain a disadvantage of relying on audio features to predict a song's popularity. 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 powerful works of literature have so influenced readers that new legislation has been passed as a result.

·The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789) is the autobiography of a man who endured slavery on both sides of the Atlantic.

·Equiano's book contributed to the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807.

·The Jungle (1906) is a fictional work by Upton Sinclair that describes unsanitary conditions in US meatpacking plants.

·Sinclair's book contributed to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906.

The student wants to emphasize a difference between the two books. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?