SAT Pastpaper with Solutions

The following text is adapted from John Matheus's 1925 short story "Fog." 

The fog extended its tentacles over city and river, gradually obliterating traces of familiar landscapes. At five-thirty the old Panhandle bridge, supported by massive sandstone pillars, stalwart, as when erected fifty years before to serve a generation now passed behind the portals of life, had become a spectral outline against the sky.

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

Although the government of the Soviet Union attempted to___________Georgi Vladimov's novel Faithful Ruslan, copies of the book circulated in secret among readers in several parts of the country.

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

Although the clustering of information technology firms in Northern California is often cited as typical of industrial agglomeration, Giulia Faggio et al. use UK data to show that the mix of factors driving the phenomenon is_____________across industries: while the potential for knowledge spillovers can prompt agglomeration, collocation among tube manufacturers occurs for different reasons.

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

The following text is from Anne Spencer's 1922 poem "Translation."

We trekked into a far country,
My friend and I.
Our deeper content was never spoken,
But each knew all the other said.
He told me how calm his soul was laid
By the lack of anvil and strife.
"The  wooing kestrel," I said, "mutes his mating-note
To please the harmony of this sweet silence."

Which choice best describes the function of the reference to the "wooing kestrel" (a type of bird) in the text as a whole?

The 2021 novel My Heart Is a Chainsaw confirmed that Stephen Graham Jones is one of the most talented writers of horror fiction today. By featuring main characters who are Blackfeet, like Jones himself, the novel also helped to ensure that Indigenous people have a place within the horror genre. But Jones is hardly the only Indigenous voice in horror: Lisa Fuller, a member of the Murri people of Australia, has also written in the genre. Her acclaimed 2019 young adult novel Ghost Bird is set in a Murri community in Queensland, Australia.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence?

Horizontal gene transfer involves the exchange of genetic material between organisms not in a parent-offspring relationship. It is common among prokaryotes (single-celled organisms, such as the bacteria Enterococcus cecorum and Moraxella caviae).  The process can have the effect of increasing bacterial resistance to antibiotics; as such, an understanding of how to prevent horizontal gene transfer might result in the mitigation of dangerous pathogens (organisms that cause disease).

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

In 2013 Oona M. Lönnstedt and colleagues published a study concluding that ocean acidification has a strong effect on the behavior of Pomacentrus amboinensis, a species of fish. However, Lönnstedt and colleagues' study relied on a mean sample size of only about 28 fish. In a 2022 review of various scientists' conclusions about the impacts of ocean acidification on fish behavior, Jeff C. Clements and colleagues caution that relying on such a relatively small sample size can increase the potential for biased analysis. Such analysis, in turn, can contribute to reports of exaggerated effects.

Which choice best states the main topic of the text?

Historians point to the rule of the Piast dynasty as crucial to the formation of the Polish state. However, some differentiate between members of the dynasty like Wladyslaw I Herman, who ruled as duke from 1079 to 1102, and less well-documented figures like Lestek, who is said to have ruled in the 9th and 10th centuries but whose historical actuality is disputed. Lestek appears in the Gesta principum Polonorum, a chronicle of medieval Polish history written between 1112 and 1118. However, the chronicle's documentation of Lestek relies on oral tradition, unlike its records of later rulers.

According to the text, what is a difference between how historians view Lestek and how they view Wladyslaw I Herman?

Days per Winter That Lakes Have Surface Ice



It is common for freshwater lakes near or above a latitude of north of the equator, like Lake Stechlin in Germany, to accumulate surface ice in winter. The amount and duration of ice depends on many factors, including local weather conditions as well as the lake's depth, volume, and surface area, but a climate researcher claims that the higher a lake's latitude, the more days per winter it will typically have measurable amounts of surface ice.

Which choice best describes data in the table that support the researcher's claim?

Uncle Vanya: Scenes from Country Life in Four Acts is an 1898 play by Anton Chekhov, originally written in Russian. In the play, Professor Serebrakoff and his wife Helena have come to stay at their country estate, which Vanya manages with the help of Sonia, the professor's daughter from a previous marriage. Chekhov depicts Vanya's opinion of Professor Serebrakoff as having changed significantly, as is evident when___________.

Which quotation from a translation of Uncle Vanya most effectively illustrates the claim?

Jia Hu and colleagues hypothesized that workplace leaders who reflect on lessons learned from past mistakes are likely to exhibit more humility than leaders who don't engage in such reflection. To test this, the team placed 301 managers in one of three groups. Participants in two experimental groups were asked to reflect on a mistake, one group focusing on a mistake that resulted in learning and the other group focusing on a mistake that didn't result in learning. Participants in a control group were asked to reflect on their daily routine. All the participants then described how they would respond to a workplace scenario. After evaluating the responses for evidence of humility, the researchers concluded that their hypothesis was correct.

Which choice best describes data in the graph that support the researchers' conclusion?

Nora Ephron's 1983 novel Heartburn is regularly described as autobiographical. That characterization is apt—there are many parallels between the experiences of the novel's narrator, Rachel Samstat, and those of Ephron—but it should not be taken to mean that all the people and events depicted in Heartburn are based on actual people and events. The novel is largely pure invention, and readers who neglect this fact and instead try to identify more and more real-life analogues thus risk__________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

What is the correct pronunciation of Kiribati? In the Gilbertese language spoken by residents of the island nation, the letter combination -ti makes the -5 sound; as a result, the country's name__________ pronounced "Kiribas."

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

A recipient of both the Wolf Prize in Chemistry and the Robert A. Welch Award, chemist Ahmed Zewail expanded the limits of measurability when he devised a novel technique in optical spectroscopy that allows researchers ____________ chemical reactions occurring within molecules at a quadrillionth of a second, or one femtosecond.

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

Both Arteaga, in the state of Coahuila, and Lagos de Moreno, in the state of Jalisco, have been designated by Mexico as pueblos mägicos (magical villages) to celebrate these________natural beauty and unique cultural traditions.

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

The size of bird eggs varies widely across species, and the researchers, ___________ computer imaging to compare the lengths of eggs from species like Chloroceryle americana and Francolinus coqui, aimed to shed light on the evolutionary basis for such variation.

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

A lady-in-waiting's account of Japanese courtly life in the tenth century. Sei Shōnagon's Pillow Book is filled with daily observations and musings. Some of these appear as____________ "Things That Arouse a Fond Memory of the Past," Shônagon catalogs her appreciation for pressed silk, a moonlit night, and dried hollyhock.

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

In his work, acclaimed Cahuilla ______________ Gerald Clarke uses basketry, acrylic paintings, and other mediums to explore Native perspectives on truth and beauty.

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

Scientists long debated the origins of chondrules, tiny glass beads that formed in meteors billions of years ago. For decades, different theories were proposed, from lightning strikes to powerful rock collisions, but none had sufficient evidentiary support. _________ scientists found strong evidence that chondrules were formed by shock waves in nearby nebulae.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Voting members of the 2006 Latin Grammys were impressed by Los Tigres del Norte's album Historias Que Contar and its contribution to the norteño genre, a form of regional Mexican music featuring accordion and bajo sexto guitar that first developed in northern Mexico in the late nineteenth century. _________ they awarded the group the Best Norteño Album award.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

As anthropologist Cristina Grasseni explains, with the rise in demand for artisanal cheeses claiming to be typical of specific Italian regions, such as Pecorino Siciliano cheese from Sicily, came the need to guarantee the veracity of such claims to consumers. __________ the European Union established DOP status, a label certifying that the cheese was made according to the region's local traditions.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
· Chromosomes are cellular structures that contain genes.
· Genes carry critical instructions for determining an organism's physical traits.
· The fennec fox and the red fox are both species of foxes.
· As a species, the fennec fox has sixty-four chromosomes.
· As a species, the red fox has thirty-four chromosomes.

The student wants to emphasize a difference between the two species of foxes. 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:
· Crown shyness is a phenomenon in which the tops (crowns) of neighboring trees grow close together but don't overlap. 
· To explain how this happens, Australian forester M.R. Jacobs proposes the mutual abrasion theory.

· According to Jacobs's theory, when trees brush against one another, branches break off. 
· Malaysian scholar Francis S.P. Ng posits the mutual shade avoidance theory. 
· According to Ng's theory, when tree branches detect shade from nearby trees' branches, they stop growing. 

The student wants to compare the causes of crown shyness proposed in the two theories. 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:
· In 2017, a research team led by Mary Caswell Stoddard determined the average lengths of eggs produced by various bird species.
· Acrocephalus scirpaceus is a species of bird in the order Passeriformes.
· Acrocephalus scirpaceus eggs had an average length of 1.80 cm.
· Alcedo atthis is a species of bird in the order Coraciiformes.
· Alcedo atthis eggs had an average length of 2.19 cm.

Which choice most effectively uses information from the given sentences to emphasize a difference between the eggs of the two species?

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
· Understanding the history of science is critical for understanding how knowledge evolves.
· Anna Vickers was a French algologist born in 1852.
· She is known for her research on algae in the Canary Islands.
· Margaret Crosfield was a British geologist born in 1859.
· She is known for her research on the hills of Northeast Wales.

Which choice most effectively uses information from the given sentences to emphasize a difference between Vickers and Crosfield?