SAT Pastpaper with Solutions

The following text is adapted from Mary Seacole's 1857 autobiography Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Mary Lands.

  That journey across the Isthmus of Panama, insignificant in distance as it was, was by no means an easy one. It seemed as if nature had determined to throw every conceivable obstacle in the way of those who should seek to join the two great oceans of the world.

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

The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City has an exhibition of video games that includes Snake from 1997, which museum visitors can play on site, and SimCity 2000 from 1994, which visitors can see only in a video presentation. MOMA claims the video presentations are only for games that would be impractical to display in a playable form, but video games are an inherently interactive medium, a feature that is grossly absent in a video-only presentation.

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

The National Heritage Fellowship was created to honor exceptional folk and traditional artists in the United States. One artist who received the fellowship is taiko drummer Seiichi Tanaka. Tanaka was chosen for his lifetime _______ the arts.

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

One way to______the importance of a scholar's research is to track how often other scholars refer to that research. For example, Yale University economist Xiaohong Chen, who studies statistical methods in economics, is among the world's most frequently cited researchers in her field, indicating that her work has been quite significant.

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

The Far Side of the World, first published in 1984, is a novel in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, which includes twenty books plus an unfinished fragment of a twenty-first. Like the rest of the books in the series. The Far Side of the World has a rather abrupt ending, but the following book, The Reverse of the Medal, picks up neatly where The Far Side of the World leaves off. Thus, the sudden ending is only an issue if one considers the books as independent texts-the Aubrey/Maturin series is best thought of as a single incredibly long work, similar to other multivolume stories, such as John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga.

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

The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse is a 2001 novel by Ojibwe writer Louise Erdrich. It explores how historical events affect families on a reservation in rural North Dakota. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse is typical of Erdrich's work. Her writing usually focuses on portrayals of everyday life in Ojibwe communities. Yet some of her novels have fantastical plots and take place outside Ojibwe communities. For example, her 1991 novel The Crown of Columbus is essentially adventure fiction, and the thrilling events in its plot are set largely on a Caribbean island.

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

The Underdogs is a 1915 novel by Mariano Azuela, originally written in Spanish. In the novel, Azuela depicts a traveling group of soldiers as having a renewed sense of agency and authority as they set off on a new stage of their journey:_____

Which quotation from a translation of The Underdogs most effectively illustrates the claim?

Zooarchaeologist Ophellie Lebrasseur and her team examined a fox skeleton discovered in 1991 at an archaeological site alongside artifacts of human habitation (like spear points) in central Argentina. Lebrasseur et al. determined that the fox was Dusicyon avus, an extinct species resembling a jackal, and radiocarbon dating placed the fox at the site at the same time as human inhabitants. (Indeed, the inhabitants may have deliberately buried the fox.) In addition, while wild foxes have a diet entirely made of meat, isotopic signatures of the skeleton's teeth indicated that the fox's diet, like that of the humans, was partly composed of plant material. Lebrasseur et al. therefore concluded that ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Can field mustard plants grow on Mars? Can pea plants? You might think the answer to these questions is obviously no, but researchers in the Netherlands recently showed that the seeds of many common plant species can germinate in soil designed to simulate Martian conditions, as long as water is supplied. In fact, some species actually did better in Martian soil than in Earth soil: 30 percent of field mustard seeds sprouted when planted in simulated Martian soil, compared with 4 percent that did when planted in soil from their home planet.

According to the text, what percentage of field mustard seeds planted in Martian soil sprouted?

A Pew Research Center survey conducted in January 2024 found that three out of ten US adults make at least one New Year's resolution (a promise for the year ahead), while half of those who make a resolution make more than one. The survey asked participants what kinds of resolutions they made and separated them into several categories. The table presents percentages of people who make particular kinds of New Year's resolutions among those who choose to make them, indexed by age bracket.

Which choice best presents a conclusion about the habits of New Year's resolution makers that is best supported by information in the text and the table?

Trade with other societies was vital to the Byzantine Empire, which reigned in the Mediterranean from around 330 CE to 1453 CE. Its people profited by selling salt, textiles, and iron, items that ________ greatly in demand.

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

Poems is an 1895 collection of poetry by Frances E.W. Harper. In one of Harper's poems, the speaker declares her intention to create art that has a universal appeal across generations, saying, ______

Which quotation from Poems most effectively illustrates the claim?

Male orangutans typically disperse from the territory in which they were born when they reach maturity. whereas females typically do not. Beatrice Ehmann and her colleagues showed that this difference in life trajectory is reflected in the diets of immature orangutans, with females' diets overlapping more with their mothers' diets than males' diets do. For example, on average, individual 9's mother shared approximately

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

In her work as a sociocultural anthropologist, Livia Barbosa studies food and sociability in contemporary Brazil-namely, how common Brazilian foods like tareco (a disk-shaped biscuit) and coxinha (a stuffed fried dough) ________ as central mechanisms in building social relationships, values, and identities.

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

During the decades-long movement to codify the rights of Latinos in the US, certain events were pivotal: the founding of labor rights group El Teatro Campesino in________ Serna v. Portales Schools court decision in 1974, which affirmed the rights of Latino students, is another such event.

Which choice completes the text so that it conform English?

India has classified the spiraling whitefly as an invasive species that could harm some of the country's native species. But researchers Alefandro Camacho and Jason McLachlan have pointed out that "invasive" and "native" are labels that describe temporary circumstances. Changes in Earth's climate may force animals from their current ranges. Climate changes may also create good habitats in areas where a species couldn't live previously. In the case of India, these observations suggest that______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A lady-in-waiting's account of Japanese courtly life in the tenth century, Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book is filled with daily observations and musings. Some of these appear as ________ "Splendid Things," Shonagon catalogs her appreciation for a snow-covered garden, Chinese brocade fabric, and grape-colored fabric.

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

Many films in a language other than English grow to be financially successful over the course of their time in movie theaters in the United States, but some become immediate successes in their opening weekends. A journalist claims that a film's reception can greatly influence its long-term success. Indications that the film is of high quality, such as an Oscar nomination, can dramatically boost public interest in the film and thus its overall earnings, even with a relatively modest opening weekend performance: for example,________

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

As a behavioral economist, Ai Hisano of Kyoto University recognizes that people sometimes make irrational economic decisions. Hisano's research can thus address anomalies that neoclassical economic ________ assume that people are consistently rational decision-makers---cannot explain.

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

With some elements, like selenium, scientists were able to isolate a relatively pure sample of the substance shortly after discovering its existence-but this wasn't the case with all elements. ________the isolation process took a few years. The element molybdenum, for instance, was discovered in 1778 but not isolated until 1781.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Firefly luciferase (Fluc) is a distinctly evolved enzyme that can oxidize a substrate called D-luciferin to induce bioluminescence and can act as a fatty acyl-CoA synthetase (ACS) enzyme, a class of enzyme present in all insects. ______Fluc is a bifunctional enzyme whose presence indicates an insect is capable of emitting light; in contrast, the presence of ACS alone would be insufficient for determining bioluminescence.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

The Austronesian language family comprises some 1,200 languages, including Minangkabau and Ilokano, which are spoken primarily in Indonesia and the Philippines,________accounting for one-fifth of the world's languages, the Austronesian family is of keen interest to linguists like Sandra Chung.

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

• The Music by Black Composers (MBC) project aims to inspire aspiring music students by archiving and sharing information about the music of Black classical composers.

• Maurice Arnold is a Black classical music composer included in MBC's Historic Composers Directory.

• He was born in 1865 and died in 1937.

Which choice most effectively uses information from the given sentences to set up a discussion of Arnold's career for an audience already familiar with the MBC project?

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

• Sandvikens Gymnasieskola is in Sandviken, Sweden.

• It is home to a Foucault pendulum.

• The University of Oradea is in Oradea, Romania.

• It is home to a Foucault pendulum.

• A Foucault pendulum dangles from a fixed point that ensures the swing path of the pendulum doesn't change.

• To an observer, the swing path of a Foucault pendulum appears to change over time because Earth rotates beneath it.

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

• The Paralympic Games are a series of international sporting events involving athletes with an impairment.

• Swimming has been an event at the Paralympics since 1960.

• Mike Kenny competed as a Paralympic swimmer from 1976 to 1988.

• He won eighteen medals.

• Of these, sixteen were gold medals, which indicate a first-place finish.

Which choice most effectively uses information from the given sentences to emphasize the number of medals won by Kenny?

• Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist who produced more than two thousand drawings and paintings.

• His work Mater was completed in 1982 and sold at auction in 2017.

• Mater is composed of acrylic and oil stick on canvas and measures 6,048 square inches in area.

• His work Flash in Naples was completed in 1983 and sold at auction in 2009.

• Flash in Naples is composed of acrylic, oil stick, and oil on canvas and measures 3,992 square inches in area.

Which choice most effectively uses information from the given sentences to emphasize how the two works are similar?