SAT Pastpaper with Solutions

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

· Emphasis analysis and cultural analysis are two approaches to art criticism.

· Emphasis analysis examines how visual elements are weighted in an artwork's composition.

· Such an analysis of Anne Vallayer-Coster's Still Life with Lobster might consider how the painting's sharply contrasting colors place primary emphasis on the lobster in the foreground.

· Cultural analysis considers the cultural trends, beliefs, and values of an artwork's time.

· Such an analysis of Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon might consider how the painting's portrayal of fragmented human figures challenged conventions of beauty during a time of cultural upheaval (early twentieth century).

The student wants to present cultural analysis to an audience unfamiliar with the concept. 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:

· Behaviorism is a psychological theory emphasizing observable behaviors, rejecting the study of internal mental states.

· 1913: John B. Watson founded behaviorism, arguing that psychology should focus solely on stimuli and responses.

· 1957: B.F. Skinner expanded behaviorism, introducing operant conditioning (learning through rewards/punishments).

· Cognitivism emerged in the 1960s as a response to behaviorism, focusing on internal mental processes like memory and problem-solving.

· Cognitivists argue that understanding the mind is essential to explaining behavior.

The student wants to contrast Watson's behaviorism with cognitivism. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

Despite its great distance from Earth---it is 570 light-years away---the star Shaula is one of the brightest stars in the sky, ranking 23rd. Although not as bright as Shaula, the star Alsephina also ranks among the 50 brightest stars (45th, to be exact).___________Alsephina's brightness is likely due to the star's relative proximity: Alsephina is only 80 light-years from Earth.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

In an ekphrastic poem, a poet explores a work of visual art, such as a drawing, sculpture, or painting. Robert Hayden's 1994 poem "Monet's Waterlilies," for example, meditates on Claude Monet's 1899 painting Water Lilles; Sasha Pimentel's 2017 poem "The Kiss,"__________takes a painting as its subject: Gustav Klimt's 1908 work The Kiss.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Contemplating the beauty of a natural landscape, the serene speaker of William Wordsworth's poem "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey" (1798) seems wholly insulated from society. As scholars have argued, however, Wordsworth's retreat to nature was an aesthetic response to---and implicit critique of---England's rapid industrialization and urbanization at that time.___________despite its idyllic quality, the poem bears the imprint of the dramatic changes affecting English life.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Photosynthetic efficiency in plants often declines under environmental stress, leading to reduced energy production. However, recent research suggests that specific regulatory proteins help mitigate this decline. Such a compensatory mechanism________the degradation of the photosynthetic apparatus, unlike passive antioxidant measures, ensures sustained energy output.

Recent analysis of 1999 OX3---an outer solar system object orbiting the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune---has determined its color to be red, suggesting a rocky composition. Such interpretations are ultimately___________the object's red coloration may be an incidental effect of radiation, solar wind, or collisions with other objects rather than evidence of its physical makeup.

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

In his 2011 book, historian Sebouh David Aslanian quantifies the reading patterns of early modern Armenian merchants from New Julfa. Aslanian's macroanalysis__________nearly 1,000 book titles published between 1512 and 1800 shows not only the steady popularity of religious texts but also a broadening interest in secular books, especially those on history and geography.

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

If you had turned on the radio in the summer of 1961, chances are you would have heard the hit____________"A Tear" by Gene McDaniels. The song spent four straight weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart that year.

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

Included in What Absence Is Made Of, a 2017 group exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, was the work of artist Lorna Simpson, who is best known for her multimedia artworks that juxtapose images of African American women with text fragments. Her work challenges conventional notions of race, gender, history, and__________she is credited with expanding the horizons of conceptual photographic art.

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

The Austronesian language family comprises some 1,200 languages---including the__________Gilbertese and Tongan, which are spoken by 120,000 and 108,000 speakers, respectively---and accounts for one-fifth of the world's languages, making it of keen interest to linguists like Marian Klamer.

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

The editors of Home Ground: A Guide to the American Landscape turned to D.J. Waldie, a nonfiction writer, to craft the entry for "thalweg," a term referring to a line connecting the lowest points of a valley. For "cape," however, the editors chose the_________author of Inheritance.

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

Like many other genera of wild bees, bumblebees have in recent decades experienced population collapse caused by, among other factors, habitat destruction and climate variation. Bumblebees are also one of the most researched bee genera, second only to honeybees. As a result, ecologists have gained much of their insight about wild-bee declines from bumblebees. In a 2021 paper, zoologist Guillaume Ghisbain notes that bumblebees are among the relatively few wild-bee genera that display social behaviors and dietary generalism (ability to obtain nectar and pollen from a diversity of plant species), two traits that are associated with increased resilience to some specific environmental changes. Ghisbain therefore contends that_________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Electromechanical energy harvesters transform mechanical motion (vibration) into electrical energy, eliminating the need for external power sources. For instance, the oscillations of an aircraft can generate sufficient energy to operate multiple onboard sensors via this mechanism. A newly developed energy harvester utilizing a highly conductive composite electrode has demonstrated the ability to deliver consistent power output during vibration, which is essential for wirelessly operated devices to function efficiently.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the text's claim about wireless devices?

Bio-electrochemical cells (BECs) utilize specific bacteria capable of metabolizing minerals, releasing electrons in the process. These microbes form a thick microbial layer on an electron-harvesting anode. However, transferring electrons from the bacterial cells to an external circuit involves inefficient electron transfer steps involving oxidation and reduction, limiting power output to typically under 0.30 mW/cm². In a trial, scientists incorporated silver nanoparticles into a graphite-coated anode substrate. This modification increased power density to 0.66 mW/cm². Given that silver possesses superior electron conductivity, the researchers proposed that ________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Chesapeake Bay seagrass meadows constitute crucial habitats for many aquatic species. Historically, eelgrass has been predominant, but widgeon grass is proving better suited to recent increases in sea temperature, tolerating heat better and growing faster than eelgrass does. However, the number of all type of seagrass was drop sharply in 2019.

Which statement, if true, would account for data shown in the graph and would illustrate the point made by the researchers?

The ratio of methane to other atmospheric constituents---represented by a measure called the methane mole fraction---influences a varlety of meteorological phenomena, notably precipitation and humidity. For Titan, Saturn's largest moon, the observational data that exist are too sparse and discrepant to fully constrain the range of the methane mole fraction at various atmospheric levels. Juan Lora and colleagues point out that outputs of the IPSL atmospheric model of Titan, which track closely to observations in some respects, reflect how the model's developers responded to this challenge: by prescribing a uniform methane mole fraction for the lowest level of the atmosphere. It is therefore important to note that__________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Text 1

Hycean planets are a class of exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) with oceans of liquid water-critical to supporting life-and atmospheres rich in hydrogen. Computer models have determined that for potential hycean planets, the range of the habitable zone (HZ) , the distance from a star that allows a planet to retain liquid water on its surface, begins at about 1 astronomical unit (AU). In 2021, Nikku Madhusudhan et al. identified K2-18 b as a hycean candidate, noting that the planet is located right on the inner edge of the HZ.

Text 2

In a 2023 paper, Shang-Min Tsai et al. claimed that the hydrogen-rich atmospheres of K2-18 b and other hycean candidates admit wavelengths of light that cause elevated surface temperatures and increased water evaporation. Unlike earlier assessments, Tsai et al.'s calculations therefore placed the inner edge for these planets' HZ as far out as85 AU.

Based on the texts, how would Tsai et al. (Text 2) most likely respond to Madhusudhan et al.'s research, as presented in Text 1?

Researchers César A. Hidalgo, Elisa Castañer, and Andres Sevtsuk created a computer model to predict the mix of hotels, bicycle stores, and other businesses found in a given neighborhood. How we define a neighborhood and its boundaries is subjective, so the team used a clustering algorithm to locate dense groupings of amenities that represent human-identified neighborhoods like Boston's North End. The predictive model, which incorporates this algorithm, is sure to be invaluable in determining the optimal mix of a city's amenities.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

Mexican architect Luis Barragan's prolific career, which spanned the 1920s to the 1980s, evolved through distinct phases. After traveling to the United States and Europe in the early 1930s and immersing himself in a broader architectural discourse, Barragán shifted his style to incorporate principles of modernism, as seen in the Pizarro Suárez House. The project's unadorned geometric forms, typical of the modernist aesthetic, contrasted with the historically inspired architecture seen in his earlier projects in Guadalajara, such as the house in Calle Pedro Loza.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

The following text is adapted from George Eliot's 1857 short story "The Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos Barton." Mr. Ely is a clergyman in the town of Milby.

By the laity of Milby and its neighbourhood [Mr. Ely] was regarded as a man of quite remarkable powers and learning, who must make a considerable sensation in London pulpits and drawing-rooms on his occasional visit to the metropolis; and by his brother clergy he was regarded as a discreet and agreeable fellow. Mr. Ely never got into a warm discussion; he suggested what might be thought, but rarely said what he thought himself; he never let either men or women see that he was laughing at them, and he never gave any one an opportunity of laughing at him.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

When Kenyan writer Ngügĩ wa Thiong'o, who had previously published four novels in English, began writing in his native language, Gîkũyũ, in the 1970s, several fellow writers and critics cautioned that doing so might make his works inaccessible outside his own community. Some noted that Kiswahili---widely spoken in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa---would be a more practical choice. Rejecting their arguments, Ngügĩ went on to author dozens of acclaimed works in Gîkũyũ that have been translated into a total of more than thirty languages.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

In a study by Mika R. Moran, Daniel A. Rodriguez, and colleagues, residents of Quito, Ecuador, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, were surveyed about parks in their cities. Of the 618 respondents from Quito, 82.9% indicated that they use the city's parks, and of the 683 respondents from Buenos Aires, 69.9% indicated using city parks. Given that the percentage of Quito respondents who reported having access to other desired amenities near parks was much lower than that reported by Buenos Aires respondents, the difference in park use can't be explained by Quito residents having more access to desired nonpark amenities near parks.

Which choice best describes the main idea of the text?

Often, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is given to a single person, such as Richard Martin Willstätter in 1915. But sometimes the Nobel Committee wants to reward work attributed to two or three individuals, in which case, the award is given___________.For instance, in 2020, Jennifer Doudna was among those awarded for "the development of a method for genome editing."

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

Many of late nineteenth-century artist James McNeill Whistler's oil paintings and lithographs depict the streets of European cities. While his contemporaries' approaches to these subjects were often sentimental, Whistler's eye seemed__________. In this way, he anticipated the early twentieth-century photographs of Walker Evans, which create the illusion of being objective documentations of life.

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

As with other river deltas, the Krishna River delta is__________: it is a constantly evolving network of channels and strips of land that change in size and shape as the river deposits new sedimentary particles where the river meets the waters of the Bay of Bengal.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?