SAT Pastpaper with Solutions

The following text is adapted from Kenneth Grahame's 1908 novel The wind in the Willows. The Mole is dazed after briefly meeting a stranger while traveling with a friend.

[The] Mole stood still a moment, held in thought. As one wakened suddenly from a beautiful dream, who struggles to recall it, and can re-capture nothing but a dim sense of the beauty of it, the beauty! Till that, too, fades away in its turn.

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

There is no doubt that lrving Langmuir must have proved himself to be extraordinarily ___ understanding some of the most advanced concepts in the field of chemistry-in 1932 his remarkable talent and hard work was recognized when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "his discoveries and investigations in surface chemistry."

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

Economists have long observed that firms in related industries tend to cluster in the same area, as is the case in Leeds, UK, where many thread and yarn spinning firms as well as textile weaving firms are located. The factors causing such clustering are___: what drives firms in certain industries to cluster may not be especially relevant among other industries.

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

The following text is adapted from Adib Khorram's 2018 novel Darius the Great Is Not Okay. Darius, a teenager from the United States, is visiting his grandparents, Babou and Mamou, in Iran. They are preparing for a holiday celebration. l felt like a tourist. But Babou fussed with my cap a little more, even though Mamou had already gotten it settled. He looked me in the eye from time to time, like he was looking for something, and thought maybe---just maybe---I had it in me after all. Babou hummed to himself as he smoothed out my shoulder seams and rested his hands on them. "I am glad you are here to see this, Darioush-jan." Maybe I wasn't such a tourist.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

The food industry has long used thermal technologies to preserve food in large batches. Recent advancements in infrared heating were made through research in Mexico on the preservation of bean four Infrared heating is generally considered to bean improvement over more conventional thermal preservation methods: whereas conventional methods transfer energy from the surface of a food to its interior, infrared heating uses high-intensity infrared light to generate heat within the food itself thus reducing industrial cooking times.

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

In a large community science effort, biologist Abbigail Merill and colleagues collaborated with hundreds of students and other amateur science enthusiasts for more than three years to study how butterfly color and time of day relate to butterfly behavior. They found that butterfly color might influence behavior more than butterfly size does, and that butterflies were observed to feed more often in the morning than at any other time of day.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text？

President Richard Nixon is most famous for his participation in the 1970s Watergate political scandal, a convoluted tale of criminality and eroded ethics involving a constellation of associates such as political operative Jeb Stuart Magruder and Nixon's secretary Rose Mary Woods. But Nixon's legacy is complex: he has been praised for his role in affirming the sovereignty of tribal nations, and he once made an attempt at reforming United States health care policy that is arguably a precursor to the Affordable Care Act, which became law during the Barack Obama administration.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

Argentina, Brazil, and the United States are among the world's leading producers of maize (corn), and each country exports a certain percentage of maize each marketing year, which runs from March to February in Argentina and Brazil and from September to August in the United States. A student is researching those percentages and finds that for the marketing year 2012/2013, the percentage of maize exported by ____

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

A student is writing a research paper on the history of irrigation in the United States, situating the development of Hume Lake (created in Fresno County, California, in 1908) in a larger historical context. The student claims that California's climate renders irrigation an essential component of agriculture in some parts of the state but not in others.

Which quotation from a study of California agriculture best supports thestudent's claim?

Auxins are a class of hormones that influence plant growth, including leaf orientation (the tendency of leaves to be larger on one side of their long central axis than the other). University of California, Berkeley biologist Ciera Martinez and colleagues noted that in certain plants in which leaves grow in pairs, Auxins will typically be concentrated in opposite sides of each leaf in the pair (e.g., on the left side of one leaf in the pair and the right side of the other). Accordingly, they hypothesized that paired leaves should tend to show opposite-side orientation, and they tested their hypothesis by examining paired leaves from several species of grapevines.

Which choice best describes data from the graph that support Martinez and colleagues' hypothesis?

Danijel Jug and colleagues found that tilling---the practice of turning soil with hoes, plows, or other machines before planting crops---was associated with an increased yield of winter wheat. But some studies of other crops have found the opposite effect, raising the question of whether the increase in yield found by Jug and colleagues is specific to their study crop. However, this doesn't seem to be the case: ____

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

J.G. Ballard's 1984 novel Empire of the Sun contains elements drawn from Ballard's own life----there are many parallels between the experiences of the novels protagonist, Jim Graham, and those of Ballard---and as a result Empire of the Sun is regularly described as an autobiographical novel. This characterization can be useful, but it also presents drawbacks in terms of how the work is perceived, as it may lead readers to believe that Ballard merely fictionalized true events, which, in an artistic field where creativity and inventiveness are prized, can suggest that____

Which choice most logically completes the text?

All stainless steel contains varying amounts of iron, carbon, and corrosion-inhibiting chromium. However, ferritic stainless steel, often used for induction cookers, contains a higher percentage of chromium (at least 10.5%)than does austenitic stainless steel and a higher concentration of iron, which is responsible for its magnetic properties. Unlike ferritic stainless steel, austenitic stainless steel has a face-centered cubic crystalline structure resulting from the addition of nickel to the alloy. Austenitic stainless steel has two subtypes: the 300 series, often used for aerospace tubing, and the 200 series, which has less nickel and more manganese than the 300 series and is used for dishwashers. Thus, stainless steel used to manufacture ____

Which choice most logically completes the text?

In her large-scale sculpture Casa-Isla, artist Edra Soto included references to her childhood in Puerto Rico. For example, the sculpture's steel panels have a crisscrossing pattern inspired by the iron gates____

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

By analyzing the level of radioactive decay within a fossil specimen, scientists can establish the age of that fossil with a high degree of precision. When radioactive elements aren't present, scientists turn to__analysis of Earth's sediment layers (strata)---to estimate how old a fossil is based on the age of the strata in which the fossil is found.

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

As an object-oriented computer programming language, Perl is used by coders like Black Girls Code founder Kimberly Bryant _____ programs by manipulating"objects"(that is, specifically defined variables or combinations of variables)into interacting with each other. Conversely, Pascal, used in software development and educational instruction, is not an object-oriented language.

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

Many of the cities and__are known by nicknames that correspond to one of their notable features, like landscape, climate, famous residents, or chief exports. For example, the Puerto Rican municipality of Hatillo has also been called "the Blue Coast of Puerto Rico, "a nickname that alludes to what the area is well known for: the pristine blue ocean that surrounds it.

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

Anthony van Dyck, a Flemish mannerist painter whose works are distinctive for their precise yet exaggerated details,___frequently included in the seventeenth-century art movement the Antwerp School, whose members were known for depicting rural life in the Low Countries.

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

Recognized as a National Heritage Area by the United States Congress in 1996, the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area ___ a region of Pennsylvania that has long been known for its unique natural, cultural, and historical attributes.

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

As a behavioral economist, Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School examines human economic behavior through a lens that, ___ elements of psychology and economics, illuminates how and why (and to what effect) people make particular choices.

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

In his essay "of Smells,"French philosopher Michel de Montaigne explores a relatively light subject, but he addresses heavier fare in"Of the Punishment of Cowardice."Regardless of subject matter, Montaigne works to question his own perspective throughout his essays. ___ his personal motto was "What do I know?"

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, Brazil, in 2014. The event, which is held every four years, has expanded greatly since it was played in ltaly in 1934. __ the World Cup included only 16 teams, most from Europe and the Americas. 

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

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

• In 1897, twenty Black US Army infantrymen rode bicycles from Montana to Missouri.

• The 1,900-mile journey took forty-one days.

• The goal was to test the idea of forming a military bicycle corps.

• In 2022, Erick Cedeno, a Black long-distance cyclist, reenacted the journey.

• Cedeno wanted to honor the infantrymen on the journey's 125thanniversary.

The student wants to emphasize how far the infantrymen traveled. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goaI?

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

• Mary Kang is a Korean American portrait photographer.

• She is based in New York City and in Austin, Texas.

• One of Kang's photographs features artist Dominique Fung.

• In the portrait, Fung is seated on the floor.

• Five of Fung's paintings are resting against the wall behind her.

The student wants to describe where Fung is in the photograph to an audience already familiar with Kang and Fung. 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:

• Somalia is a country in East Africa.

• A high percentage of Somalia's population (46.4 percent) is under fifteen years old.

• It has the sixth-largest under-fifteen population in the world.

• Roughly 40 percent of Africa's population is under fifteen years old-the highest of any continent.

The student wants to emphasize the global rank of Somalia's youth population. 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 Future of Nostalgia is a scholarly book by literary theorist Svetlana Boym.

• The book explores the concept of nostalgia from various angles.

• Chapter 3 explores nostalgia in the 1993 sci-fi action movie Jurassic Park.

• Chapter 16 discusses the nostalgic home décor of Russian émigrés.

• In chapter 16, Boym writes, "Their rooms filled with diasporic souvenirs are not altars to their unhappiness, but rather places for communication."

The student wants to explain what Svetlana Boym writes about in chapter 3, Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?