SAT Pastpaper with Solutions

The term "agglomeration economies" refers to the economic benefits enjoyed by firms in the same industry that ______ in a region. For example, in the game and toy manufacturing industry in the United Kingdom, firms that locate near one another can more readily take advantage of increased potential for information sharing among firms that fosters greater technological innovation.

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

October, painted in the realist style by Jules Bastien-Lepage, depicts peasant women picking potatoes. The realists' emphasis on accurately portraying the experiences of average working people was largely a rejection of the romantic style evident in many paintings by Jean-Victor Schnetz, which instead ______ their subjects' beauty or heroism while hiding all imperfection.

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

Any effort to raise the toll that drivers must pay to use the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge, which spans the Niagara River to connect New York State and Ontario, Canada, should explain why a higher toll is necessary; no amount of justification, however, is likely to persuade some drivers who believe the current toll is _______ .

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

In the decades after Mexico won its independence from Spain, literature became a medium through which the new nation ________ its autonomous identity, with authors like Manuel Jose Othon and Angel del Campo helping to shape what would become a distinctly Mexican literary tradition.

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

Text 1

In the past, music albums were created to be played back on physical formats like records. A typical record holds only about twenty-five minutes of music on each of its shiny black sides. This forced artists and producers to think carefully about what music to include on an album and what to leave out. Today's artists don't have to worry as much about fitting their music on physical formats. For this reason, many of today's artists are making albums that are much longer than albums from decades past.

Text 2

In today's digital age, most music is created to be streamed from online services. These services remove the limitations of physical formats like records and CDs. This may be why many new albums are longer and have more songs than albums crafted for physical formats. Unfortunately, many of these longer albums suffer from a lack of focus.

Based on the texts, the author of Text 1 and the author of Text 2 would most likely agree with which statement about many new albums?

Researchers examining data from the New Horizons space probe, which passed Pluto in 2015, were puzzled by a 27 -mile-long crater on Pluto's icy surface. Although Pluto is mostly covered in frozen methane and nitrogen, the surface near the crater seemed to show the presence of water ice and ammonia-both of which are associated with eruptions from ice volcanoes. Additionally, the shape and appearance of the crater did not suggest that it was formed by impact. Based on this evidence, scientist Dale Cruikshank and his team hypothesized that the crater was likely once a massive ice volcano.

 

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

Toads and macaque monkeys can see in three dimensions (3D), which helps them perceive distance and depth. Octopuses and squid are thought to lack 3D vision. Many researchers once thought the same about cuttlefish, but Trevor Wardill and his team wanted to test whether this assumption was true. The team studied how cuttlefish wearing 3D glasses reacted to 3D images of shrimp (a favorite prey) projected on a tank wall. Cuttlefish changed their striking position to match the 3D images, suggesting that their vision is more like that of toads and macaque monkeys than that of octopuses or squid.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

It has long been thought that the original author of the US Pledge of Allegiance was Francis Bellamy, who said that he wrote the pledge one evening in August of 1892. But a historian recently discovered a newspaper article that was published several months before August 1892. The article describes students reciting the same pledge that Bellamy claims he first wrote in August. This means that Bellamy may not have created the pledge after all.

Based on the text, what piece of knowledge about the Pledge of Allegiance has recently become uncertain?

The following text is from Anthony Trollope's 1855 novel The Warden. Tom Towers is a writer for the newspaper The Jupiter.

It is true that in far-off provinces men did not talk daily of Tom Towers but they read The Jupiter, and acknowledged that without The Jupiter life was not worth having. This kind of hidden but still conscious glory suited the nature of the man. He loved to sit silent in a corner of his club and listen to the loud chattering of politicians, and to think how they all were in his power;---how he could smite the loudest of them, were it worth his while to raise his pen for such a purpose.

What does the text most strongly suggest about Tom Towers?

The nearly forty tribes located in Oklahoma, including the Chickasaw Nation and the Seminole Nation, operate numerous businesses and generate billions of dollars in revenue. A student in an economics class is researching the tribes' collective activity as a single industry. The student wants to compare that industry's contribution to Oklahoma's overall economy in 2017 with the contributions made by three other industries in the state. Looking at the table, the student finds that tribal economic activity totaled over $7.3 billion billion, ranking it above _______

 

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

Researchers Carolina Laura Morales and Anna Traveset gathered data about flowering plants growing alongside each other in various locations. In each case, the researchers identified one plant as a "target species" and a nearby plant as a "neighboring species." The researchers then calculated a value to show how the neighboring species affected pollinator visits to the target species. The table shows that the prickly pear had an effect value of _____.

 

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

Mariana Lopes Barata and Pedro Simões Coelho collected data from 324 music-streaming service users to identify factors that influence users to opt for paid (premium) versions of music streaming services, like Apple Music. They hypothesized that performance expectancy (how much the use of a service is perceived to benefit the consumer) would be positively correlated with users' intentions to adopt premium versions. The researchers asked participants to rate statements such as "Using paid music streaming services increases my productivity." They found that, indeed, performance expectancy positively influences the intention to adopt premium streaming service versions, which suggests that _______.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Assessing the role of forests as sinks for airborne microplastics that would otherwise continue to disperse in the atmosphere, Akane Miyazaki and her team measured concentrations of plastic particulates on leaves from konara oak trees in Japan. The team used three separate extraction methods: an ultrapure water rinse, a rinse combined with ultrasonic waves, and an alkaline solution treatment that removes epicuticular wax (a surface coating on most land plants to which particles can adhere). The concentrations of particulates recovered were 7.6 percent for water extraction, 38.4 percent for ultrasonic extraction, and 53.8 percent for alkaline extraction, leading the team to conclude that previous assessments have likely underestimated forest canopies' capacity as sinks.

Which detail, if true, would most directly support the team's conclusion?

Topographical prominence is a measure of a mountain's independence from other mountains. Having 11,486 feet of prominence, ______

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

On January 24, 2013, the Navajo Times ______ a profile of Cornfields Chapter (K'ilitsoitah), which is one of the 110 chapters of the Navajo Nation (Naabeehó Bináhásdzo). The article was later included in a book series called Exploring the Navajo Nation Chapter by Chapter.

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

The colors of Navajo (Diné) weaver Melissa Cody's work World Traveler (2014) recall both the Germantown revival, a weaving style developed by Navajo Nation _____ ago, and the color palette of the video games that Cody played as a child.

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

According to the original text of the US Constitution, written in 1787, the presidential candidate receiving the second-most Electoral College votes becomes vice president. The 12th amendment, ratified in _______ separated the elections for the two offices.

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

The small celestial body known as 55576 Amycus is expected to have a relatively short lifetime in the outer solar system. Within just a few million years, 55576 Amycus is likely to migrate into the inner solar system or be destroyed, according to _______ trajectory.

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

A groundbreaking visual artist of her day, ______ including artists Vasily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian.

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

Using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology, Tulane University archaeologists scanned and mapped the ancient Mayan city of Tikal, which lies deep in the Guatemalan rainforest. Some of Tikal's old stones are intertwined with the roots of surrounding trees, rendering parts of the complex physically inaccessible to researchers. ________ the LiDAR's penetrating light waves were the only way to reveal some previously unknown aspects of the Mayan city.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Vikash Gayah, a civil engineering professor at Penn State, advocates for a road policy that will reduce accidents and traffic in high-congestion parts of ________ left turns. Most accidents on city streets occur due to driver misjudgement when turning left and vehicles wait longer to turn left, increasing commute times and increasing carbon emissions. Gayah concedes that this left-turn ban works best in cities that use a grid system, as "three right turns equals a left."

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

One proposed boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space is the Kármán line, 100 km above sea level. Based on the work of physicist Theodore von Kármán, this line marks the theoretical height at which an aircraft no longer remains aloft using the force of lift. ______ an aircraft sustains flight past this altitude primarily by its velocity, reaching a speed sufficient to maintain an orbit but not to generate enough lift from the thin air.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Imagine a magazine that a reader has thrown away. This magazine is post-consumer waste, as it became waste after reaching the consumer. ______ the paper scraps left over from printing the magazine are pre-consumer waste, as they became waste before reaching the consumer.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

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

●Merle Oberon (1911-1979) was an actress born in Mumbai (then known as Bombay), India.

●She was of Indian, Maori, and Irish heritage.

●She was the first Indian-born actress to be nominated for an Academy Award.

●Early in her career, she played many nameless, uncredited roles, such as her role in Strange Evidence (1933).

●Later, she played many named, credited roles, such as Jill Baker in That Uncertain Feeling (1941).

The student wants to emphasize a similarity between the two films. 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 Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library in New York City.

●It was named for Arturo Alfonso Schomburg.

●It was founded in 1925.

The student wants to indicate the year the Schomburg Center was founded. 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:

●Kale is a vegetable that contains ascorbic acid, an essential nutrient for humans.

●Grapes are fruits that contain ascorbic acid.

●There is 120 milligrams (mg) of ascorbic acid in every 100 grams (g) of kale.

●There is 10 mg of ascorbic acid in every 100 g of grapes.

●Humans cannot make ascorbic acid in their bodies, so they must get it from foods, including fruits and vegetables.

●Ascorbic acid is also known as vitamin C.

The student wants to compare the vitamin C content of kale and grapes. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?