emozilla/flan-t5-xl-sat-reading
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SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from George Eliot, Silas Marner.
Originally published in 1861. Silas was a weaver and a
notorious miser, but then the gold he had hoarded was
stolen. Shortly after, Silas adopted a young child, Eppie, the
daughter of an impoverished woman who had died
suddenly.
Unlike the gold which needed nothing, and must
be worshipped in close-locked solitude—which was
hidden away from the daylight, was deaf to the song
of birds, and started to no human tones—Eppie was a
creature of endless claims and ever-growing desires,
seeking and loving sunshine, and living sounds, and
living movements; making trial of everything, with
trust in new joy, and stirring the human kindness in
all eyes that looked on her. The gold had kept his
thoughts in an ever-repeated circle, leading to
nothing beyond itself; but Eppie was an object
compacted of changes and hopes that forced his
thoughts onward, and carried them far away from
their old eager pacing towards the same blank
limit—carried them away to the new things that
would come with the coming years, when Eppie
would have learned to understand how her father
Silas cared for her; and made him look for images of
that time in the ties and charities that bound together
the families of his neighbors. The gold had asked that
he should sit weaving longer and longer, deafened
and blinded more and more to all things except the
monotony of his loom and the repetition of his web;
but Eppie called him away from his weaving, and
made him think all its pauses a holiday, reawakening
his senses with her fresh life, even to the old
winter-flies that came crawling forth in the early
spring sunshine, and warming him into joy because
she had joy.
And when the sunshine grew strong and lasting,
so that the buttercups were thick in the meadows,
Silas might be seen in the sunny mid-day, or in the
late afternoon when the shadows were lengthening
under the hedgerows, strolling out with uncovered
head to carry Eppie beyond the Stone-pits to where
the flowers grew, till they reached some favorite bank
where he could sit down, while Eppie toddled to
pluck the flowers, and make remarks to the winged
things that murmured happily above the bright
petals, calling “Dad-dad’s” attention continually by
bringing him the flowers. Then she would turn her
ear to some sudden bird-note, and Silas learned to
please her by making signs of hushed stillness, that
they might listen for the note to come again: so that
when it came, she set up her small back and laughed
with gurgling triumph. Sitting on the banks in this
way, Silas began to look for the once familiar herbs
again; and as the leaves, with their unchanged outline
and markings, lay on his palm, there was a sense of
crowding remembrances from which he turned away
timidly, taking refuge in Eppie’s little world, that lay
lightly on his enfeebled spirit.
As the child’s mind was growing into knowledge,
his mind was growing into memory: as her life
unfolded, his soul, long stupefied in a cold narrow
prison, was unfolding too, and trembling gradually
into full consciousness.
It was an influence which must gather force with
every new year: the tones that stirred Silas’ heart
grew articulate, and called for more distinct answers;
shapes and sounds grew clearer for Eppie’s eyes and
ears, and there was more that “Dad-dad” was
imperatively required to notice and account for.
Also, by the time Eppie was three years old, she
developed a fine capacity for mischief, and for
devising ingenious ways of being troublesome, which
found much exercise, not only for Silas’ patience, but
for his watchfulness and penetration. Sorely was poor
Silas puzzled on such occasions by the incompatible
demands of love.
Question 3:
Which statement best describes a technique the narrator uses to represent Silas’s character before he adopted Eppie?
A) The narrator emphasizes Silas’s former obsession with wealth by depicting his gold as requiring certain behaviors on his part.
B) The narrator underscores Silas’s former greed by describing his gold as seeming to reproduce on its own.
C) The narrator hints at Silas’s former antisocial attitude by contrasting his present behavior toward his neighbors with his past behavior toward them.
D) The narrator demonstrates Silas’s former lack of self-awareness by implying that he is unable to recall life before Eppie.
Answer: | A | false | sat-practice_7-question_3 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from George Eliot, Silas Marner.
Originally published in 1861. Silas was a weaver and a
notorious miser, but then the gold he had hoarded was
stolen. Shortly after, Silas adopted a young child, Eppie, the
daughter of an impoverished woman who had died
suddenly.
Unlike the gold which needed nothing, and must
be worshipped in close-locked solitude—which was
hidden away from the daylight, was deaf to the song
of birds, and started to no human tones—Eppie was a
creature of endless claims and ever-growing desires,
seeking and loving sunshine, and living sounds, and
living movements; making trial of everything, with
trust in new joy, and stirring the human kindness in
all eyes that looked on her. The gold had kept his
thoughts in an ever-repeated circle, leading to
nothing beyond itself; but Eppie was an object
compacted of changes and hopes that forced his
thoughts onward, and carried them far away from
their old eager pacing towards the same blank
limit—carried them away to the new things that
would come with the coming years, when Eppie
would have learned to understand how her father
Silas cared for her; and made him look for images of
that time in the ties and charities that bound together
the families of his neighbors. The gold had asked that
he should sit weaving longer and longer, deafened
and blinded more and more to all things except the
monotony of his loom and the repetition of his web;
but Eppie called him away from his weaving, and
made him think all its pauses a holiday, reawakening
his senses with her fresh life, even to the old
winter-flies that came crawling forth in the early
spring sunshine, and warming him into joy because
she had joy.
And when the sunshine grew strong and lasting,
so that the buttercups were thick in the meadows,
Silas might be seen in the sunny mid-day, or in the
late afternoon when the shadows were lengthening
under the hedgerows, strolling out with uncovered
head to carry Eppie beyond the Stone-pits to where
the flowers grew, till they reached some favorite bank
where he could sit down, while Eppie toddled to
pluck the flowers, and make remarks to the winged
things that murmured happily above the bright
petals, calling “Dad-dad’s” attention continually by
bringing him the flowers. Then she would turn her
ear to some sudden bird-note, and Silas learned to
please her by making signs of hushed stillness, that
they might listen for the note to come again: so that
when it came, she set up her small back and laughed
with gurgling triumph. Sitting on the banks in this
way, Silas began to look for the once familiar herbs
again; and as the leaves, with their unchanged outline
and markings, lay on his palm, there was a sense of
crowding remembrances from which he turned away
timidly, taking refuge in Eppie’s little world, that lay
lightly on his enfeebled spirit.
As the child’s mind was growing into knowledge,
his mind was growing into memory: as her life
unfolded, his soul, long stupefied in a cold narrow
prison, was unfolding too, and trembling gradually
into full consciousness.
It was an influence which must gather force with
every new year: the tones that stirred Silas’ heart
grew articulate, and called for more distinct answers;
shapes and sounds grew clearer for Eppie’s eyes and
ears, and there was more that “Dad-dad” was
imperatively required to notice and account for.
Also, by the time Eppie was three years old, she
developed a fine capacity for mischief, and for
devising ingenious ways of being troublesome, which
found much exercise, not only for Silas’ patience, but
for his watchfulness and penetration. Sorely was poor
Silas puzzled on such occasions by the incompatible
demands of love.
Question 10:
As used in line 65, “fine” most nearly means
A) acceptable.
B) delicate.
C) ornate.
D) keen.
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_7-question_10 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from George Eliot, Silas Marner.
Originally published in 1861. Silas was a weaver and a
notorious miser, but then the gold he had hoarded was
stolen. Shortly after, Silas adopted a young child, Eppie, the
daughter of an impoverished woman who had died
suddenly.
Unlike the gold which needed nothing, and must
be worshipped in close-locked solitude—which was
hidden away from the daylight, was deaf to the song
of birds, and started to no human tones—Eppie was a
creature of endless claims and ever-growing desires,
seeking and loving sunshine, and living sounds, and
living movements; making trial of everything, with
trust in new joy, and stirring the human kindness in
all eyes that looked on her. The gold had kept his
thoughts in an ever-repeated circle, leading to
nothing beyond itself; but Eppie was an object
compacted of changes and hopes that forced his
thoughts onward, and carried them far away from
their old eager pacing towards the same blank
limit—carried them away to the new things that
would come with the coming years, when Eppie
would have learned to understand how her father
Silas cared for her; and made him look for images of
that time in the ties and charities that bound together
the families of his neighbors. The gold had asked that
he should sit weaving longer and longer, deafened
and blinded more and more to all things except the
monotony of his loom and the repetition of his web;
but Eppie called him away from his weaving, and
made him think all its pauses a holiday, reawakening
his senses with her fresh life, even to the old
winter-flies that came crawling forth in the early
spring sunshine, and warming him into joy because
she had joy.
And when the sunshine grew strong and lasting,
so that the buttercups were thick in the meadows,
Silas might be seen in the sunny mid-day, or in the
late afternoon when the shadows were lengthening
under the hedgerows, strolling out with uncovered
head to carry Eppie beyond the Stone-pits to where
the flowers grew, till they reached some favorite bank
where he could sit down, while Eppie toddled to
pluck the flowers, and make remarks to the winged
things that murmured happily above the bright
petals, calling “Dad-dad’s” attention continually by
bringing him the flowers. Then she would turn her
ear to some sudden bird-note, and Silas learned to
please her by making signs of hushed stillness, that
they might listen for the note to come again: so that
when it came, she set up her small back and laughed
with gurgling triumph. Sitting on the banks in this
way, Silas began to look for the once familiar herbs
again; and as the leaves, with their unchanged outline
and markings, lay on his palm, there was a sense of
crowding remembrances from which he turned away
timidly, taking refuge in Eppie’s little world, that lay
lightly on his enfeebled spirit.
As the child’s mind was growing into knowledge,
his mind was growing into memory: as her life
unfolded, his soul, long stupefied in a cold narrow
prison, was unfolding too, and trembling gradually
into full consciousness.
It was an influence which must gather force with
every new year: the tones that stirred Silas’ heart
grew articulate, and called for more distinct answers;
shapes and sounds grew clearer for Eppie’s eyes and
ears, and there was more that “Dad-dad” was
imperatively required to notice and account for.
Also, by the time Eppie was three years old, she
developed a fine capacity for mischief, and for
devising ingenious ways of being troublesome, which
found much exercise, not only for Silas’ patience, but
for his watchfulness and penetration. Sorely was poor
Silas puzzled on such occasions by the incompatible
demands of love.
Question 7:
What function does the second paragraph (lines 30-52) serve in the passage as a whole?
A) It presents the particular moment at which Silas realized that Eppie was changing him.
B) It highlights Silas’s love for Eppie by depicting the sacrifices that he makes for her.
C) It illustrates the effect that Eppie has on Silas by describing the interaction between them.
D) It reveals a significant alteration in the relationship between Silas and Eppie.
Answer: | C | true | sat-practice_7-question_7 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from George Eliot, Silas Marner.
Originally published in 1861. Silas was a weaver and a
notorious miser, but then the gold he had hoarded was
stolen. Shortly after, Silas adopted a young child, Eppie, the
daughter of an impoverished woman who had died
suddenly.
Unlike the gold which needed nothing, and must
be worshipped in close-locked solitude—which was
hidden away from the daylight, was deaf to the song
of birds, and started to no human tones—Eppie was a
creature of endless claims and ever-growing desires,
seeking and loving sunshine, and living sounds, and
living movements; making trial of everything, with
trust in new joy, and stirring the human kindness in
all eyes that looked on her. The gold had kept his
thoughts in an ever-repeated circle, leading to
nothing beyond itself; but Eppie was an object
compacted of changes and hopes that forced his
thoughts onward, and carried them far away from
their old eager pacing towards the same blank
limit—carried them away to the new things that
would come with the coming years, when Eppie
would have learned to understand how her father
Silas cared for her; and made him look for images of
that time in the ties and charities that bound together
the families of his neighbors. The gold had asked that
he should sit weaving longer and longer, deafened
and blinded more and more to all things except the
monotony of his loom and the repetition of his web;
but Eppie called him away from his weaving, and
made him think all its pauses a holiday, reawakening
his senses with her fresh life, even to the old
winter-flies that came crawling forth in the early
spring sunshine, and warming him into joy because
she had joy.
And when the sunshine grew strong and lasting,
so that the buttercups were thick in the meadows,
Silas might be seen in the sunny mid-day, or in the
late afternoon when the shadows were lengthening
under the hedgerows, strolling out with uncovered
head to carry Eppie beyond the Stone-pits to where
the flowers grew, till they reached some favorite bank
where he could sit down, while Eppie toddled to
pluck the flowers, and make remarks to the winged
things that murmured happily above the bright
petals, calling “Dad-dad’s” attention continually by
bringing him the flowers. Then she would turn her
ear to some sudden bird-note, and Silas learned to
please her by making signs of hushed stillness, that
they might listen for the note to come again: so that
when it came, she set up her small back and laughed
with gurgling triumph. Sitting on the banks in this
way, Silas began to look for the once familiar herbs
again; and as the leaves, with their unchanged outline
and markings, lay on his palm, there was a sense of
crowding remembrances from which he turned away
timidly, taking refuge in Eppie’s little world, that lay
lightly on his enfeebled spirit.
As the child’s mind was growing into knowledge,
his mind was growing into memory: as her life
unfolded, his soul, long stupefied in a cold narrow
prison, was unfolding too, and trembling gradually
into full consciousness.
It was an influence which must gather force with
every new year: the tones that stirred Silas’ heart
grew articulate, and called for more distinct answers;
shapes and sounds grew clearer for Eppie’s eyes and
ears, and there was more that “Dad-dad” was
imperatively required to notice and account for.
Also, by the time Eppie was three years old, she
developed a fine capacity for mischief, and for
devising ingenious ways of being troublesome, which
found much exercise, not only for Silas’ patience, but
for his watchfulness and penetration. Sorely was poor
Silas puzzled on such occasions by the incompatible
demands of love.
Question 1:
Which choice best describes a major theme of the passage?
A) The corrupting influence of a materialistic society
B) The moral purity of young children
C) The bittersweet brevity of childhood naïveté
D) The restorative power of parental love
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_7-question_1 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from George Eliot, Silas Marner.
Originally published in 1861. Silas was a weaver and a
notorious miser, but then the gold he had hoarded was
stolen. Shortly after, Silas adopted a young child, Eppie, the
daughter of an impoverished woman who had died
suddenly.
Unlike the gold which needed nothing, and must
be worshipped in close-locked solitude—which was
hidden away from the daylight, was deaf to the song
of birds, and started to no human tones—Eppie was a
creature of endless claims and ever-growing desires,
seeking and loving sunshine, and living sounds, and
living movements; making trial of everything, with
trust in new joy, and stirring the human kindness in
all eyes that looked on her. The gold had kept his
thoughts in an ever-repeated circle, leading to
nothing beyond itself; but Eppie was an object
compacted of changes and hopes that forced his
thoughts onward, and carried them far away from
their old eager pacing towards the same blank
limit—carried them away to the new things that
would come with the coming years, when Eppie
would have learned to understand how her father
Silas cared for her; and made him look for images of
that time in the ties and charities that bound together
the families of his neighbors. The gold had asked that
he should sit weaving longer and longer, deafened
and blinded more and more to all things except the
monotony of his loom and the repetition of his web;
but Eppie called him away from his weaving, and
made him think all its pauses a holiday, reawakening
his senses with her fresh life, even to the old
winter-flies that came crawling forth in the early
spring sunshine, and warming him into joy because
she had joy.
And when the sunshine grew strong and lasting,
so that the buttercups were thick in the meadows,
Silas might be seen in the sunny mid-day, or in the
late afternoon when the shadows were lengthening
under the hedgerows, strolling out with uncovered
head to carry Eppie beyond the Stone-pits to where
the flowers grew, till they reached some favorite bank
where he could sit down, while Eppie toddled to
pluck the flowers, and make remarks to the winged
things that murmured happily above the bright
petals, calling “Dad-dad’s” attention continually by
bringing him the flowers. Then she would turn her
ear to some sudden bird-note, and Silas learned to
please her by making signs of hushed stillness, that
they might listen for the note to come again: so that
when it came, she set up her small back and laughed
with gurgling triumph. Sitting on the banks in this
way, Silas began to look for the once familiar herbs
again; and as the leaves, with their unchanged outline
and markings, lay on his palm, there was a sense of
crowding remembrances from which he turned away
timidly, taking refuge in Eppie’s little world, that lay
lightly on his enfeebled spirit.
As the child’s mind was growing into knowledge,
his mind was growing into memory: as her life
unfolded, his soul, long stupefied in a cold narrow
prison, was unfolding too, and trembling gradually
into full consciousness.
It was an influence which must gather force with
every new year: the tones that stirred Silas’ heart
grew articulate, and called for more distinct answers;
shapes and sounds grew clearer for Eppie’s eyes and
ears, and there was more that “Dad-dad” was
imperatively required to notice and account for.
Also, by the time Eppie was three years old, she
developed a fine capacity for mischief, and for
devising ingenious ways of being troublesome, which
found much exercise, not only for Silas’ patience, but
for his watchfulness and penetration. Sorely was poor
Silas puzzled on such occasions by the incompatible
demands of love.
Question 4:
The narrator uses the phrase “making trial of everything” (line 7) to present Eppie as
A) friendly.
B) curious.
C) disobedient.
D) judgmental.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_7-question_4 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from George Eliot, Silas Marner.
Originally published in 1861. Silas was a weaver and a
notorious miser, but then the gold he had hoarded was
stolen. Shortly after, Silas adopted a young child, Eppie, the
daughter of an impoverished woman who had died
suddenly.
Unlike the gold which needed nothing, and must
be worshipped in close-locked solitude—which was
hidden away from the daylight, was deaf to the song
of birds, and started to no human tones—Eppie was a
creature of endless claims and ever-growing desires,
seeking and loving sunshine, and living sounds, and
living movements; making trial of everything, with
trust in new joy, and stirring the human kindness in
all eyes that looked on her. The gold had kept his
thoughts in an ever-repeated circle, leading to
nothing beyond itself; but Eppie was an object
compacted of changes and hopes that forced his
thoughts onward, and carried them far away from
their old eager pacing towards the same blank
limit—carried them away to the new things that
would come with the coming years, when Eppie
would have learned to understand how her father
Silas cared for her; and made him look for images of
that time in the ties and charities that bound together
the families of his neighbors. The gold had asked that
he should sit weaving longer and longer, deafened
and blinded more and more to all things except the
monotony of his loom and the repetition of his web;
but Eppie called him away from his weaving, and
made him think all its pauses a holiday, reawakening
his senses with her fresh life, even to the old
winter-flies that came crawling forth in the early
spring sunshine, and warming him into joy because
she had joy.
And when the sunshine grew strong and lasting,
so that the buttercups were thick in the meadows,
Silas might be seen in the sunny mid-day, or in the
late afternoon when the shadows were lengthening
under the hedgerows, strolling out with uncovered
head to carry Eppie beyond the Stone-pits to where
the flowers grew, till they reached some favorite bank
where he could sit down, while Eppie toddled to
pluck the flowers, and make remarks to the winged
things that murmured happily above the bright
petals, calling “Dad-dad’s” attention continually by
bringing him the flowers. Then she would turn her
ear to some sudden bird-note, and Silas learned to
please her by making signs of hushed stillness, that
they might listen for the note to come again: so that
when it came, she set up her small back and laughed
with gurgling triumph. Sitting on the banks in this
way, Silas began to look for the once familiar herbs
again; and as the leaves, with their unchanged outline
and markings, lay on his palm, there was a sense of
crowding remembrances from which he turned away
timidly, taking refuge in Eppie’s little world, that lay
lightly on his enfeebled spirit.
As the child’s mind was growing into knowledge,
his mind was growing into memory: as her life
unfolded, his soul, long stupefied in a cold narrow
prison, was unfolding too, and trembling gradually
into full consciousness.
It was an influence which must gather force with
every new year: the tones that stirred Silas’ heart
grew articulate, and called for more distinct answers;
shapes and sounds grew clearer for Eppie’s eyes and
ears, and there was more that “Dad-dad” was
imperatively required to notice and account for.
Also, by the time Eppie was three years old, she
developed a fine capacity for mischief, and for
devising ingenious ways of being troublesome, which
found much exercise, not only for Silas’ patience, but
for his watchfulness and penetration. Sorely was poor
Silas puzzled on such occasions by the incompatible
demands of love.
Question 2:
As compared with Silas’s gold, Eppie is portrayed as having more
A) vitality.
B) durability.
C) protection.
D) selfsufficiency.
Answer: | A | false | sat-practice_7-question_2 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from George Eliot, Silas Marner.
Originally published in 1861. Silas was a weaver and a
notorious miser, but then the gold he had hoarded was
stolen. Shortly after, Silas adopted a young child, Eppie, the
daughter of an impoverished woman who had died
suddenly.
Unlike the gold which needed nothing, and must
be worshipped in close-locked solitude—which was
hidden away from the daylight, was deaf to the song
of birds, and started to no human tones—Eppie was a
creature of endless claims and ever-growing desires,
seeking and loving sunshine, and living sounds, and
living movements; making trial of everything, with
trust in new joy, and stirring the human kindness in
all eyes that looked on her. The gold had kept his
thoughts in an ever-repeated circle, leading to
nothing beyond itself; but Eppie was an object
compacted of changes and hopes that forced his
thoughts onward, and carried them far away from
their old eager pacing towards the same blank
limit—carried them away to the new things that
would come with the coming years, when Eppie
would have learned to understand how her father
Silas cared for her; and made him look for images of
that time in the ties and charities that bound together
the families of his neighbors. The gold had asked that
he should sit weaving longer and longer, deafened
and blinded more and more to all things except the
monotony of his loom and the repetition of his web;
but Eppie called him away from his weaving, and
made him think all its pauses a holiday, reawakening
his senses with her fresh life, even to the old
winter-flies that came crawling forth in the early
spring sunshine, and warming him into joy because
she had joy.
And when the sunshine grew strong and lasting,
so that the buttercups were thick in the meadows,
Silas might be seen in the sunny mid-day, or in the
late afternoon when the shadows were lengthening
under the hedgerows, strolling out with uncovered
head to carry Eppie beyond the Stone-pits to where
the flowers grew, till they reached some favorite bank
where he could sit down, while Eppie toddled to
pluck the flowers, and make remarks to the winged
things that murmured happily above the bright
petals, calling “Dad-dad’s” attention continually by
bringing him the flowers. Then she would turn her
ear to some sudden bird-note, and Silas learned to
please her by making signs of hushed stillness, that
they might listen for the note to come again: so that
when it came, she set up her small back and laughed
with gurgling triumph. Sitting on the banks in this
way, Silas began to look for the once familiar herbs
again; and as the leaves, with their unchanged outline
and markings, lay on his palm, there was a sense of
crowding remembrances from which he turned away
timidly, taking refuge in Eppie’s little world, that lay
lightly on his enfeebled spirit.
As the child’s mind was growing into knowledge,
his mind was growing into memory: as her life
unfolded, his soul, long stupefied in a cold narrow
prison, was unfolding too, and trembling gradually
into full consciousness.
It was an influence which must gather force with
every new year: the tones that stirred Silas’ heart
grew articulate, and called for more distinct answers;
shapes and sounds grew clearer for Eppie’s eyes and
ears, and there was more that “Dad-dad” was
imperatively required to notice and account for.
Also, by the time Eppie was three years old, she
developed a fine capacity for mischief, and for
devising ingenious ways of being troublesome, which
found much exercise, not only for Silas’ patience, but
for his watchfulness and penetration. Sorely was poor
Silas puzzled on such occasions by the incompatible
demands of love.
Question 5:
According to the narrator, one consequence of Silas adopting Eppie is that he
A) has renounced all desire for money.
B) better understands his place in nature.
C) seems more accepting of help from others.
D) looks forward to a different kind of future.
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_7-question_5 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from George Eliot, Silas Marner.
Originally published in 1861. Silas was a weaver and a
notorious miser, but then the gold he had hoarded was
stolen. Shortly after, Silas adopted a young child, Eppie, the
daughter of an impoverished woman who had died
suddenly.
Unlike the gold which needed nothing, and must
be worshipped in close-locked solitude—which was
hidden away from the daylight, was deaf to the song
of birds, and started to no human tones—Eppie was a
creature of endless claims and ever-growing desires,
seeking and loving sunshine, and living sounds, and
living movements; making trial of everything, with
trust in new joy, and stirring the human kindness in
all eyes that looked on her. The gold had kept his
thoughts in an ever-repeated circle, leading to
nothing beyond itself; but Eppie was an object
compacted of changes and hopes that forced his
thoughts onward, and carried them far away from
their old eager pacing towards the same blank
limit—carried them away to the new things that
would come with the coming years, when Eppie
would have learned to understand how her father
Silas cared for her; and made him look for images of
that time in the ties and charities that bound together
the families of his neighbors. The gold had asked that
he should sit weaving longer and longer, deafened
and blinded more and more to all things except the
monotony of his loom and the repetition of his web;
but Eppie called him away from his weaving, and
made him think all its pauses a holiday, reawakening
his senses with her fresh life, even to the old
winter-flies that came crawling forth in the early
spring sunshine, and warming him into joy because
she had joy.
And when the sunshine grew strong and lasting,
so that the buttercups were thick in the meadows,
Silas might be seen in the sunny mid-day, or in the
late afternoon when the shadows were lengthening
under the hedgerows, strolling out with uncovered
head to carry Eppie beyond the Stone-pits to where
the flowers grew, till they reached some favorite bank
where he could sit down, while Eppie toddled to
pluck the flowers, and make remarks to the winged
things that murmured happily above the bright
petals, calling “Dad-dad’s” attention continually by
bringing him the flowers. Then she would turn her
ear to some sudden bird-note, and Silas learned to
please her by making signs of hushed stillness, that
they might listen for the note to come again: so that
when it came, she set up her small back and laughed
with gurgling triumph. Sitting on the banks in this
way, Silas began to look for the once familiar herbs
again; and as the leaves, with their unchanged outline
and markings, lay on his palm, there was a sense of
crowding remembrances from which he turned away
timidly, taking refuge in Eppie’s little world, that lay
lightly on his enfeebled spirit.
As the child’s mind was growing into knowledge,
his mind was growing into memory: as her life
unfolded, his soul, long stupefied in a cold narrow
prison, was unfolding too, and trembling gradually
into full consciousness.
It was an influence which must gather force with
every new year: the tones that stirred Silas’ heart
grew articulate, and called for more distinct answers;
shapes and sounds grew clearer for Eppie’s eyes and
ears, and there was more that “Dad-dad” was
imperatively required to notice and account for.
Also, by the time Eppie was three years old, she
developed a fine capacity for mischief, and for
devising ingenious ways of being troublesome, which
found much exercise, not only for Silas’ patience, but
for his watchfulness and penetration. Sorely was poor
Silas puzzled on such occasions by the incompatible
demands of love.
Question 8:
In describing the relationship between Eppie and Silas, the narrator draws a connection between Eppie’s
A) physical vulnerability and Silas’s emotional fragility.
B) expanding awareness and Silas’s increasing engagement with life.
C) boundless energy and Silas’s insatiable desire for wealth.
D) physical growth and Silas’s painful perception of his own mortality
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_7-question_8 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from David Rotman, “How
Technology Is Destroying Jobs.” ©2013 by MIT Technology
Review.
MIT business scholars Erik Brynjolfsson and
Andrew McAfee have argued that impressive
advances in computer technology—from improved
industrial robotics to automated translation
services—are largely behind the sluggish
employment growth of the last 10 to 15 years. Even
more ominous for workers, they foresee dismal
prospects for many types of jobs as these powerful
new technologies are increasingly adopted not only
in manufacturing, clerical, and retail work but in
professions such as law, financial services, education,
and medicine.
That robots, automation, and software can replace
people might seem obvious to anyone who’s worked
in automotive manufacturing or as a travel agent. But
Brynjolfsson and McAfee’s claim is more troubling
and controversial. They believe that rapid
technological change has been destroying jobs faster
than it is creating them, contributing to the
stagnation of median income and the growth of
inequality in the United States. And, they suspect,
something similar is happening in other
technologically advanced countries.
As evidence, Brynjolfsson and McAfee point to a
chart that only an economist could love. In
economics, productivity—the amount of economic
value created for a given unit of input, such as an
hour of labor—is a crucial indicator of growth and
wealth creation. It is a measure of progress. On the
chart Brynjolfsson likes to show, separate lines
represent productivity and total employment in the
United States. For years after World War II, the
two lines closely tracked each other, with increases in
jobs corresponding to increases in productivity. The
pattern is clear: as businesses generated more value
from their workers, the country as a whole became
richer, which fueled more economic activity and
created even more jobs. Then, beginning in 2000, the
lines diverge; productivity continues to rise robustly,
but employment suddenly wilts. By 2011, a
significant gap appears between the two lines,
showing economic growth with no parallel increase
in job creation. Brynjolfsson and McAfee call it the
“great decoupling.” And Brynjolfsson says he is
confident that technology is behind both the healthy
growth in productivity and the weak growth in jobs.
It’s a startling assertion because it threatens the
faith that many economists place in technological
progress. Brynjolfsson and McAfee still believe that
technology boosts productivity and makes societies
wealthier, but they think that it can also have a dark
side: technological progress is eliminating the need
for many types of jobs and leaving the typical worker
worse off than before. Brynjolfsson can point to a
second chart indicating that median income is failing
to rise even as the gross domestic product soars. “It’s
the great paradox of our era,” he says. “Productivity
is at record levels, innovation has never been faster,
and yet at the same time, we have a falling median
income and we have fewer jobs. People are falling
behind because technology is advancing so fast and
our skills and organizations aren’t keeping up.”
While technological changes can be painful for
workers whose skills no longer match the needs of
employers, Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist,
says that no historical pattern shows these shifts
leading to a net decrease in jobs over an extended
period. Katz has done extensive research on how
technological advances have affected jobs over the
last few centuries—describing, for example, how
highly skilled artisans in the mid-19th century were
displaced by lower-skilled workers in factories.
While it can take decades for workers to acquire the
expertise needed for new types of employment, he
says, “we never have run out of jobs. There is no
long-term trend of eliminating work for people. Over
the long term, employment rates are fairly
stable. People have always been able to create new
jobs. People come up with new things to do.”
Still, Katz doesn’t dismiss the notion that there is
something different about today’s digital
technologies—something that could affect an even
broader range of work. The question, he says, is
whether economic history will serve as a useful
guide. Will the job disruptions caused by technology
be temporary as the workforce adapts, or will we see
a science-fiction scenario in which automated
processes and robots with superhuman skills take
over a broad swath of human tasks? Though Katz
expects the historical pattern to hold, it is “genuinely
a question,” he says. “If technology disrupts enough,
who knows what will happen?”
Question 14:
The primary purpose of lines 26-28 (“the amount...labor”) is to
A) describe a process.
B) highlight a dilemma.
C) clarify a claim.
D) explain a term.
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_7-question_14 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from David Rotman, “How
Technology Is Destroying Jobs.” ©2013 by MIT Technology
Review.
MIT business scholars Erik Brynjolfsson and
Andrew McAfee have argued that impressive
advances in computer technology—from improved
industrial robotics to automated translation
services—are largely behind the sluggish
employment growth of the last 10 to 15 years. Even
more ominous for workers, they foresee dismal
prospects for many types of jobs as these powerful
new technologies are increasingly adopted not only
in manufacturing, clerical, and retail work but in
professions such as law, financial services, education,
and medicine.
That robots, automation, and software can replace
people might seem obvious to anyone who’s worked
in automotive manufacturing or as a travel agent. But
Brynjolfsson and McAfee’s claim is more troubling
and controversial. They believe that rapid
technological change has been destroying jobs faster
than it is creating them, contributing to the
stagnation of median income and the growth of
inequality in the United States. And, they suspect,
something similar is happening in other
technologically advanced countries.
As evidence, Brynjolfsson and McAfee point to a
chart that only an economist could love. In
economics, productivity—the amount of economic
value created for a given unit of input, such as an
hour of labor—is a crucial indicator of growth and
wealth creation. It is a measure of progress. On the
chart Brynjolfsson likes to show, separate lines
represent productivity and total employment in the
United States. For years after World War II, the
two lines closely tracked each other, with increases in
jobs corresponding to increases in productivity. The
pattern is clear: as businesses generated more value
from their workers, the country as a whole became
richer, which fueled more economic activity and
created even more jobs. Then, beginning in 2000, the
lines diverge; productivity continues to rise robustly,
but employment suddenly wilts. By 2011, a
significant gap appears between the two lines,
showing economic growth with no parallel increase
in job creation. Brynjolfsson and McAfee call it the
“great decoupling.” And Brynjolfsson says he is
confident that technology is behind both the healthy
growth in productivity and the weak growth in jobs.
It’s a startling assertion because it threatens the
faith that many economists place in technological
progress. Brynjolfsson and McAfee still believe that
technology boosts productivity and makes societies
wealthier, but they think that it can also have a dark
side: technological progress is eliminating the need
for many types of jobs and leaving the typical worker
worse off than before. Brynjolfsson can point to a
second chart indicating that median income is failing
to rise even as the gross domestic product soars. “It’s
the great paradox of our era,” he says. “Productivity
is at record levels, innovation has never been faster,
and yet at the same time, we have a falling median
income and we have fewer jobs. People are falling
behind because technology is advancing so fast and
our skills and organizations aren’t keeping up.”
While technological changes can be painful for
workers whose skills no longer match the needs of
employers, Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist,
says that no historical pattern shows these shifts
leading to a net decrease in jobs over an extended
period. Katz has done extensive research on how
technological advances have affected jobs over the
last few centuries—describing, for example, how
highly skilled artisans in the mid-19th century were
displaced by lower-skilled workers in factories.
While it can take decades for workers to acquire the
expertise needed for new types of employment, he
says, “we never have run out of jobs. There is no
long-term trend of eliminating work for people. Over
the long term, employment rates are fairly
stable. People have always been able to create new
jobs. People come up with new things to do.”
Still, Katz doesn’t dismiss the notion that there is
something different about today’s digital
technologies—something that could affect an even
broader range of work. The question, he says, is
whether economic history will serve as a useful
guide. Will the job disruptions caused by technology
be temporary as the workforce adapts, or will we see
a science-fiction scenario in which automated
processes and robots with superhuman skills take
over a broad swath of human tasks? Though Katz
expects the historical pattern to hold, it is “genuinely
a question,” he says. “If technology disrupts enough,
who knows what will happen?”
Question 12:
According to Brynjolfsson and McAfee, advancements in technology since approximately the year 2000 have resulted in
A) low job growth in the United States.
B) global workplace changes.
C) more skilled laborers in the United States.
D) no global creation of new jobs.
Answer: | A | false | sat-practice_7-question_12 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from David Rotman, “How
Technology Is Destroying Jobs.” ©2013 by MIT Technology
Review.
MIT business scholars Erik Brynjolfsson and
Andrew McAfee have argued that impressive
advances in computer technology—from improved
industrial robotics to automated translation
services—are largely behind the sluggish
employment growth of the last 10 to 15 years. Even
more ominous for workers, they foresee dismal
prospects for many types of jobs as these powerful
new technologies are increasingly adopted not only
in manufacturing, clerical, and retail work but in
professions such as law, financial services, education,
and medicine.
That robots, automation, and software can replace
people might seem obvious to anyone who’s worked
in automotive manufacturing or as a travel agent. But
Brynjolfsson and McAfee’s claim is more troubling
and controversial. They believe that rapid
technological change has been destroying jobs faster
than it is creating them, contributing to the
stagnation of median income and the growth of
inequality in the United States. And, they suspect,
something similar is happening in other
technologically advanced countries.
As evidence, Brynjolfsson and McAfee point to a
chart that only an economist could love. In
economics, productivity—the amount of economic
value created for a given unit of input, such as an
hour of labor—is a crucial indicator of growth and
wealth creation. It is a measure of progress. On the
chart Brynjolfsson likes to show, separate lines
represent productivity and total employment in the
United States. For years after World War II, the
two lines closely tracked each other, with increases in
jobs corresponding to increases in productivity. The
pattern is clear: as businesses generated more value
from their workers, the country as a whole became
richer, which fueled more economic activity and
created even more jobs. Then, beginning in 2000, the
lines diverge; productivity continues to rise robustly,
but employment suddenly wilts. By 2011, a
significant gap appears between the two lines,
showing economic growth with no parallel increase
in job creation. Brynjolfsson and McAfee call it the
“great decoupling.” And Brynjolfsson says he is
confident that technology is behind both the healthy
growth in productivity and the weak growth in jobs.
It’s a startling assertion because it threatens the
faith that many economists place in technological
progress. Brynjolfsson and McAfee still believe that
technology boosts productivity and makes societies
wealthier, but they think that it can also have a dark
side: technological progress is eliminating the need
for many types of jobs and leaving the typical worker
worse off than before. Brynjolfsson can point to a
second chart indicating that median income is failing
to rise even as the gross domestic product soars. “It’s
the great paradox of our era,” he says. “Productivity
is at record levels, innovation has never been faster,
and yet at the same time, we have a falling median
income and we have fewer jobs. People are falling
behind because technology is advancing so fast and
our skills and organizations aren’t keeping up.”
While technological changes can be painful for
workers whose skills no longer match the needs of
employers, Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist,
says that no historical pattern shows these shifts
leading to a net decrease in jobs over an extended
period. Katz has done extensive research on how
technological advances have affected jobs over the
last few centuries—describing, for example, how
highly skilled artisans in the mid-19th century were
displaced by lower-skilled workers in factories.
While it can take decades for workers to acquire the
expertise needed for new types of employment, he
says, “we never have run out of jobs. There is no
long-term trend of eliminating work for people. Over
the long term, employment rates are fairly
stable. People have always been able to create new
jobs. People come up with new things to do.”
Still, Katz doesn’t dismiss the notion that there is
something different about today’s digital
technologies—something that could affect an even
broader range of work. The question, he says, is
whether economic history will serve as a useful
guide. Will the job disruptions caused by technology
be temporary as the workforce adapts, or will we see
a science-fiction scenario in which automated
processes and robots with superhuman skills take
over a broad swath of human tasks? Though Katz
expects the historical pattern to hold, it is “genuinely
a question,” he says. “If technology disrupts enough,
who knows what will happen?”
Question 15:
As used in line 35, “clear” most nearly means
A) pure.
B) keen.
C) untroubled.
D) unmistakable.
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_7-question_15 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from David Rotman, “How
Technology Is Destroying Jobs.” ©2013 by MIT Technology
Review.
MIT business scholars Erik Brynjolfsson and
Andrew McAfee have argued that impressive
advances in computer technology—from improved
industrial robotics to automated translation
services—are largely behind the sluggish
employment growth of the last 10 to 15 years. Even
more ominous for workers, they foresee dismal
prospects for many types of jobs as these powerful
new technologies are increasingly adopted not only
in manufacturing, clerical, and retail work but in
professions such as law, financial services, education,
and medicine.
That robots, automation, and software can replace
people might seem obvious to anyone who’s worked
in automotive manufacturing or as a travel agent. But
Brynjolfsson and McAfee’s claim is more troubling
and controversial. They believe that rapid
technological change has been destroying jobs faster
than it is creating them, contributing to the
stagnation of median income and the growth of
inequality in the United States. And, they suspect,
something similar is happening in other
technologically advanced countries.
As evidence, Brynjolfsson and McAfee point to a
chart that only an economist could love. In
economics, productivity—the amount of economic
value created for a given unit of input, such as an
hour of labor—is a crucial indicator of growth and
wealth creation. It is a measure of progress. On the
chart Brynjolfsson likes to show, separate lines
represent productivity and total employment in the
United States. For years after World War II, the
two lines closely tracked each other, with increases in
jobs corresponding to increases in productivity. The
pattern is clear: as businesses generated more value
from their workers, the country as a whole became
richer, which fueled more economic activity and
created even more jobs. Then, beginning in 2000, the
lines diverge; productivity continues to rise robustly,
but employment suddenly wilts. By 2011, a
significant gap appears between the two lines,
showing economic growth with no parallel increase
in job creation. Brynjolfsson and McAfee call it the
“great decoupling.” And Brynjolfsson says he is
confident that technology is behind both the healthy
growth in productivity and the weak growth in jobs.
It’s a startling assertion because it threatens the
faith that many economists place in technological
progress. Brynjolfsson and McAfee still believe that
technology boosts productivity and makes societies
wealthier, but they think that it can also have a dark
side: technological progress is eliminating the need
for many types of jobs and leaving the typical worker
worse off than before. Brynjolfsson can point to a
second chart indicating that median income is failing
to rise even as the gross domestic product soars. “It’s
the great paradox of our era,” he says. “Productivity
is at record levels, innovation has never been faster,
and yet at the same time, we have a falling median
income and we have fewer jobs. People are falling
behind because technology is advancing so fast and
our skills and organizations aren’t keeping up.”
While technological changes can be painful for
workers whose skills no longer match the needs of
employers, Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist,
says that no historical pattern shows these shifts
leading to a net decrease in jobs over an extended
period. Katz has done extensive research on how
technological advances have affected jobs over the
last few centuries—describing, for example, how
highly skilled artisans in the mid-19th century were
displaced by lower-skilled workers in factories.
While it can take decades for workers to acquire the
expertise needed for new types of employment, he
says, “we never have run out of jobs. There is no
long-term trend of eliminating work for people. Over
the long term, employment rates are fairly
stable. People have always been able to create new
jobs. People come up with new things to do.”
Still, Katz doesn’t dismiss the notion that there is
something different about today’s digital
technologies—something that could affect an even
broader range of work. The question, he says, is
whether economic history will serve as a useful
guide. Will the job disruptions caused by technology
be temporary as the workforce adapts, or will we see
a science-fiction scenario in which automated
processes and robots with superhuman skills take
over a broad swath of human tasks? Though Katz
expects the historical pattern to hold, it is “genuinely
a question,” he says. “If technology disrupts enough,
who knows what will happen?”
Question 16:
Which of the following best characterizes Katz’s attitude toward “today’s digital technologies” (lines 81-82)?
A) He is alarmed about countries’ increasing reliance on them.
B) He is unconcerned about their effect on the economy.
C) He is uncertain how they might affect job growth.
D) He is optimistic that they will spur job creation to a degree not seen since the mid-nineteenth century.
Answer: | C | true | sat-practice_7-question_16 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from David Rotman, “How
Technology Is Destroying Jobs.” ©2013 by MIT Technology
Review.
MIT business scholars Erik Brynjolfsson and
Andrew McAfee have argued that impressive
advances in computer technology—from improved
industrial robotics to automated translation
services—are largely behind the sluggish
employment growth of the last 10 to 15 years. Even
more ominous for workers, they foresee dismal
prospects for many types of jobs as these powerful
new technologies are increasingly adopted not only
in manufacturing, clerical, and retail work but in
professions such as law, financial services, education,
and medicine.
That robots, automation, and software can replace
people might seem obvious to anyone who’s worked
in automotive manufacturing or as a travel agent. But
Brynjolfsson and McAfee’s claim is more troubling
and controversial. They believe that rapid
technological change has been destroying jobs faster
than it is creating them, contributing to the
stagnation of median income and the growth of
inequality in the United States. And, they suspect,
something similar is happening in other
technologically advanced countries.
As evidence, Brynjolfsson and McAfee point to a
chart that only an economist could love. In
economics, productivity—the amount of economic
value created for a given unit of input, such as an
hour of labor—is a crucial indicator of growth and
wealth creation. It is a measure of progress. On the
chart Brynjolfsson likes to show, separate lines
represent productivity and total employment in the
United States. For years after World War II, the
two lines closely tracked each other, with increases in
jobs corresponding to increases in productivity. The
pattern is clear: as businesses generated more value
from their workers, the country as a whole became
richer, which fueled more economic activity and
created even more jobs. Then, beginning in 2000, the
lines diverge; productivity continues to rise robustly,
but employment suddenly wilts. By 2011, a
significant gap appears between the two lines,
showing economic growth with no parallel increase
in job creation. Brynjolfsson and McAfee call it the
“great decoupling.” And Brynjolfsson says he is
confident that technology is behind both the healthy
growth in productivity and the weak growth in jobs.
It’s a startling assertion because it threatens the
faith that many economists place in technological
progress. Brynjolfsson and McAfee still believe that
technology boosts productivity and makes societies
wealthier, but they think that it can also have a dark
side: technological progress is eliminating the need
for many types of jobs and leaving the typical worker
worse off than before. Brynjolfsson can point to a
second chart indicating that median income is failing
to rise even as the gross domestic product soars. “It’s
the great paradox of our era,” he says. “Productivity
is at record levels, innovation has never been faster,
and yet at the same time, we have a falling median
income and we have fewer jobs. People are falling
behind because technology is advancing so fast and
our skills and organizations aren’t keeping up.”
While technological changes can be painful for
workers whose skills no longer match the needs of
employers, Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist,
says that no historical pattern shows these shifts
leading to a net decrease in jobs over an extended
period. Katz has done extensive research on how
technological advances have affected jobs over the
last few centuries—describing, for example, how
highly skilled artisans in the mid-19th century were
displaced by lower-skilled workers in factories.
While it can take decades for workers to acquire the
expertise needed for new types of employment, he
says, “we never have run out of jobs. There is no
long-term trend of eliminating work for people. Over
the long term, employment rates are fairly
stable. People have always been able to create new
jobs. People come up with new things to do.”
Still, Katz doesn’t dismiss the notion that there is
something different about today’s digital
technologies—something that could affect an even
broader range of work. The question, he says, is
whether economic history will serve as a useful
guide. Will the job disruptions caused by technology
be temporary as the workforce adapts, or will we see
a science-fiction scenario in which automated
processes and robots with superhuman skills take
over a broad swath of human tasks? Though Katz
expects the historical pattern to hold, it is “genuinely
a question,” he says. “If technology disrupts enough,
who knows what will happen?”
Question 11:
The main purpose of the passage is to
A) examine the role of technology in workers’ lives during the last century.
B) advocate for better technology to enhance workplace conditions.
C) argue for changes in how technology is deployed in the workplace.
D) assess the impact of advancements in technology on overall job growth.
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_7-question_11 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from David Rotman, “How
Technology Is Destroying Jobs.” ©2013 by MIT Technology
Review.
MIT business scholars Erik Brynjolfsson and
Andrew McAfee have argued that impressive
advances in computer technology—from improved
industrial robotics to automated translation
services—are largely behind the sluggish
employment growth of the last 10 to 15 years. Even
more ominous for workers, they foresee dismal
prospects for many types of jobs as these powerful
new technologies are increasingly adopted not only
in manufacturing, clerical, and retail work but in
professions such as law, financial services, education,
and medicine.
That robots, automation, and software can replace
people might seem obvious to anyone who’s worked
in automotive manufacturing or as a travel agent. But
Brynjolfsson and McAfee’s claim is more troubling
and controversial. They believe that rapid
technological change has been destroying jobs faster
than it is creating them, contributing to the
stagnation of median income and the growth of
inequality in the United States. And, they suspect,
something similar is happening in other
technologically advanced countries.
As evidence, Brynjolfsson and McAfee point to a
chart that only an economist could love. In
economics, productivity—the amount of economic
value created for a given unit of input, such as an
hour of labor—is a crucial indicator of growth and
wealth creation. It is a measure of progress. On the
chart Brynjolfsson likes to show, separate lines
represent productivity and total employment in the
United States. For years after World War II, the
two lines closely tracked each other, with increases in
jobs corresponding to increases in productivity. The
pattern is clear: as businesses generated more value
from their workers, the country as a whole became
richer, which fueled more economic activity and
created even more jobs. Then, beginning in 2000, the
lines diverge; productivity continues to rise robustly,
but employment suddenly wilts. By 2011, a
significant gap appears between the two lines,
showing economic growth with no parallel increase
in job creation. Brynjolfsson and McAfee call it the
“great decoupling.” And Brynjolfsson says he is
confident that technology is behind both the healthy
growth in productivity and the weak growth in jobs.
It’s a startling assertion because it threatens the
faith that many economists place in technological
progress. Brynjolfsson and McAfee still believe that
technology boosts productivity and makes societies
wealthier, but they think that it can also have a dark
side: technological progress is eliminating the need
for many types of jobs and leaving the typical worker
worse off than before. Brynjolfsson can point to a
second chart indicating that median income is failing
to rise even as the gross domestic product soars. “It’s
the great paradox of our era,” he says. “Productivity
is at record levels, innovation has never been faster,
and yet at the same time, we have a falling median
income and we have fewer jobs. People are falling
behind because technology is advancing so fast and
our skills and organizations aren’t keeping up.”
While technological changes can be painful for
workers whose skills no longer match the needs of
employers, Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist,
says that no historical pattern shows these shifts
leading to a net decrease in jobs over an extended
period. Katz has done extensive research on how
technological advances have affected jobs over the
last few centuries—describing, for example, how
highly skilled artisans in the mid-19th century were
displaced by lower-skilled workers in factories.
While it can take decades for workers to acquire the
expertise needed for new types of employment, he
says, “we never have run out of jobs. There is no
long-term trend of eliminating work for people. Over
the long term, employment rates are fairly
stable. People have always been able to create new
jobs. People come up with new things to do.”
Still, Katz doesn’t dismiss the notion that there is
something different about today’s digital
technologies—something that could affect an even
broader range of work. The question, he says, is
whether economic history will serve as a useful
guide. Will the job disruptions caused by technology
be temporary as the workforce adapts, or will we see
a science-fiction scenario in which automated
processes and robots with superhuman skills take
over a broad swath of human tasks? Though Katz
expects the historical pattern to hold, it is “genuinely
a question,” he says. “If technology disrupts enough,
who knows what will happen?”
Question 18:
As used in line 83, “range” most nearly means
A) region.
B) scope.
C) distance.
D) position.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_7-question_18 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Patricia Waldron, “Why Birds
Fly in a V Formation.” ©2014 by American Association for
the Advancement of Science.
Anyone watching the autumn sky knows that
migrating birds fly in a V formation, but scientists
have long debated why. A new study of ibises finds
that these big-winged birds carefully position their
wingtips and sync their flapping, presumably to catch
the preceding bird’s updraft—and save energy
during flight.
There are two reasons birds might fly in a
V formation: It may make flight easier, or they’re
simply following the leader. Squadrons of planes can
save fuel by flying in a V formation, and many
scientists suspect that migrating birds do the same.
Models that treated flapping birds like fixed-wing
airplanes estimate that they save energy by drafting
off each other, but currents created by airplanes are
far more stable than the oscillating eddies coming off
of a bird. “Air gets pretty unpredictable behind a
flapping wing,” says James Usherwood, a locomotor
biomechanist at the Royal Veterinary College at the
University of London in Hatfield, where the research
took place.
The study, published in Nature, took advantage of
an existing project to reintroduce endangered
northern bald ibises (Geronticus eremita) to Europe.
Scientists used a microlight plane to show
hand-raised birds their ancestral migration route
from Austria to Italy. A flock of 14 juveniles carried
data loggers specially built by Usherwood and his lab.
The device’s GPS determined each bird’s flight
position to within 30 cm, and an accelerometer
showed the timing of the wing flaps.
Just as aerodynamic estimates would predict, the
birds positioned themselves to fly just behind and to
the side of the bird in front, timing their wing beats
to catch the uplifting eddies. When a bird flew
directly behind another, the timing of the flapping
reversed so that it could minimize the effects of the
downdraft coming off the back of the bird’s body.
“We didn’t think this was possible,” Usherwood
says, considering that the feat requires careful
flight and incredible awareness of one’s neighbors.
“Perhaps these big V formation birds can be thought
of quite like an airplane with wings that go up and
down.”
The findings likely apply to other long-winged
birds, such as pelicans, storks, and geese, Usherwood
says. Smaller birds create more complex wakes that
would make drafting too difficult. The researchers
did not attempt to calculate the bird’s energy savings
because the necessary physiological measurements
would be too invasive for an endangered species.
Previous studies estimate that birds can use
20 percent to 30 percent less energy while
flying in a V.
“From a behavioral perspective it’s really a
breakthrough,” says David Lentink, a mechanical
engineer at Stanford University in Palo Alto,
California, who was not involved in the work.
“Showing that birds care about syncing their wing
beats is definitely an important insight that we didn’t
have before.”
Scientists do not know how the birds find
that aerodynamic sweet spot, but they suspect that
the animals align themselves either by sight or
by sensing air currents through their feathers.
Alternatively, they may move around until they find
the location with the least resistance. In future
studies, the researchers will switch to more common
birds, such as pigeons or geese. They plan to
investigate how the animals decide who sets the
course and the pace, and whether a mistake made by
the leader can ripple through the rest of the flock to
cause traffic jams.
“It’s a pretty impressive piece of work as it is, but
it does suggest that there’s a lot more to learn,”
says Ty Hedrick, a biologist at the University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who studies flight
aerodynamics in birds and insects. However they do
it, he says, “birds are awfully good hang-glider
pilots.”
Question 30:
The author uses the phrase “aerodynamic sweet spot” in line 63 most likely to
A) describe how the proper structural design of an airplane helps to save fuel.
B) show that flying can be an exhilarating experience.
C) describe the birds’ synchronized wing movement.
D) suggest that a certain position in a V formation has the least amount of wind resistance.
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_7-question_30 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Patricia Waldron, “Why Birds
Fly in a V Formation.” ©2014 by American Association for
the Advancement of Science.
Anyone watching the autumn sky knows that
migrating birds fly in a V formation, but scientists
have long debated why. A new study of ibises finds
that these big-winged birds carefully position their
wingtips and sync their flapping, presumably to catch
the preceding bird’s updraft—and save energy
during flight.
There are two reasons birds might fly in a
V formation: It may make flight easier, or they’re
simply following the leader. Squadrons of planes can
save fuel by flying in a V formation, and many
scientists suspect that migrating birds do the same.
Models that treated flapping birds like fixed-wing
airplanes estimate that they save energy by drafting
off each other, but currents created by airplanes are
far more stable than the oscillating eddies coming off
of a bird. “Air gets pretty unpredictable behind a
flapping wing,” says James Usherwood, a locomotor
biomechanist at the Royal Veterinary College at the
University of London in Hatfield, where the research
took place.
The study, published in Nature, took advantage of
an existing project to reintroduce endangered
northern bald ibises (Geronticus eremita) to Europe.
Scientists used a microlight plane to show
hand-raised birds their ancestral migration route
from Austria to Italy. A flock of 14 juveniles carried
data loggers specially built by Usherwood and his lab.
The device’s GPS determined each bird’s flight
position to within 30 cm, and an accelerometer
showed the timing of the wing flaps.
Just as aerodynamic estimates would predict, the
birds positioned themselves to fly just behind and to
the side of the bird in front, timing their wing beats
to catch the uplifting eddies. When a bird flew
directly behind another, the timing of the flapping
reversed so that it could minimize the effects of the
downdraft coming off the back of the bird’s body.
“We didn’t think this was possible,” Usherwood
says, considering that the feat requires careful
flight and incredible awareness of one’s neighbors.
“Perhaps these big V formation birds can be thought
of quite like an airplane with wings that go up and
down.”
The findings likely apply to other long-winged
birds, such as pelicans, storks, and geese, Usherwood
says. Smaller birds create more complex wakes that
would make drafting too difficult. The researchers
did not attempt to calculate the bird’s energy savings
because the necessary physiological measurements
would be too invasive for an endangered species.
Previous studies estimate that birds can use
20 percent to 30 percent less energy while
flying in a V.
“From a behavioral perspective it’s really a
breakthrough,” says David Lentink, a mechanical
engineer at Stanford University in Palo Alto,
California, who was not involved in the work.
“Showing that birds care about syncing their wing
beats is definitely an important insight that we didn’t
have before.”
Scientists do not know how the birds find
that aerodynamic sweet spot, but they suspect that
the animals align themselves either by sight or
by sensing air currents through their feathers.
Alternatively, they may move around until they find
the location with the least resistance. In future
studies, the researchers will switch to more common
birds, such as pigeons or geese. They plan to
investigate how the animals decide who sets the
course and the pace, and whether a mistake made by
the leader can ripple through the rest of the flock to
cause traffic jams.
“It’s a pretty impressive piece of work as it is, but
it does suggest that there’s a lot more to learn,”
says Ty Hedrick, a biologist at the University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who studies flight
aerodynamics in birds and insects. However they do
it, he says, “birds are awfully good hang-glider
pilots.”
Question 24:
What can reasonably be inferred about the reason Usherwood used northern bald ibises as the subjects of his study?
A) The ibises were well acquainted with their migration route.
B) Usherwood knew the ibises were familiar with carrying data loggers during migration.
C) The ibises have a body design that is similar to that of a modern airplane.
D) The ibises were easily accessible for Usherwood and his team to track and observe.
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_7-question_24 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Patricia Waldron, “Why Birds
Fly in a V Formation.” ©2014 by American Association for
the Advancement of Science.
Anyone watching the autumn sky knows that
migrating birds fly in a V formation, but scientists
have long debated why. A new study of ibises finds
that these big-winged birds carefully position their
wingtips and sync their flapping, presumably to catch
the preceding bird’s updraft—and save energy
during flight.
There are two reasons birds might fly in a
V formation: It may make flight easier, or they’re
simply following the leader. Squadrons of planes can
save fuel by flying in a V formation, and many
scientists suspect that migrating birds do the same.
Models that treated flapping birds like fixed-wing
airplanes estimate that they save energy by drafting
off each other, but currents created by airplanes are
far more stable than the oscillating eddies coming off
of a bird. “Air gets pretty unpredictable behind a
flapping wing,” says James Usherwood, a locomotor
biomechanist at the Royal Veterinary College at the
University of London in Hatfield, where the research
took place.
The study, published in Nature, took advantage of
an existing project to reintroduce endangered
northern bald ibises (Geronticus eremita) to Europe.
Scientists used a microlight plane to show
hand-raised birds their ancestral migration route
from Austria to Italy. A flock of 14 juveniles carried
data loggers specially built by Usherwood and his lab.
The device’s GPS determined each bird’s flight
position to within 30 cm, and an accelerometer
showed the timing of the wing flaps.
Just as aerodynamic estimates would predict, the
birds positioned themselves to fly just behind and to
the side of the bird in front, timing their wing beats
to catch the uplifting eddies. When a bird flew
directly behind another, the timing of the flapping
reversed so that it could minimize the effects of the
downdraft coming off the back of the bird’s body.
“We didn’t think this was possible,” Usherwood
says, considering that the feat requires careful
flight and incredible awareness of one’s neighbors.
“Perhaps these big V formation birds can be thought
of quite like an airplane with wings that go up and
down.”
The findings likely apply to other long-winged
birds, such as pelicans, storks, and geese, Usherwood
says. Smaller birds create more complex wakes that
would make drafting too difficult. The researchers
did not attempt to calculate the bird’s energy savings
because the necessary physiological measurements
would be too invasive for an endangered species.
Previous studies estimate that birds can use
20 percent to 30 percent less energy while
flying in a V.
“From a behavioral perspective it’s really a
breakthrough,” says David Lentink, a mechanical
engineer at Stanford University in Palo Alto,
California, who was not involved in the work.
“Showing that birds care about syncing their wing
beats is definitely an important insight that we didn’t
have before.”
Scientists do not know how the birds find
that aerodynamic sweet spot, but they suspect that
the animals align themselves either by sight or
by sensing air currents through their feathers.
Alternatively, they may move around until they find
the location with the least resistance. In future
studies, the researchers will switch to more common
birds, such as pigeons or geese. They plan to
investigate how the animals decide who sets the
course and the pace, and whether a mistake made by
the leader can ripple through the rest of the flock to
cause traffic jams.
“It’s a pretty impressive piece of work as it is, but
it does suggest that there’s a lot more to learn,”
says Ty Hedrick, a biologist at the University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who studies flight
aerodynamics in birds and insects. However they do
it, he says, “birds are awfully good hang-glider
pilots.”
Question 22:
The main purpose of the passage is to
A) describe how squadrons of planes can save fuel by flying in a V formation.
B) discuss the effects of downdrafts on birds and airplanes.
C) explain research conducted to study why some birds fly in a V formation.
D) illustrate how birds sense air currents through their feathers.
Answer: | C | false | sat-practice_7-question_22 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Patricia Waldron, “Why Birds
Fly in a V Formation.” ©2014 by American Association for
the Advancement of Science.
Anyone watching the autumn sky knows that
migrating birds fly in a V formation, but scientists
have long debated why. A new study of ibises finds
that these big-winged birds carefully position their
wingtips and sync their flapping, presumably to catch
the preceding bird’s updraft—and save energy
during flight.
There are two reasons birds might fly in a
V formation: It may make flight easier, or they’re
simply following the leader. Squadrons of planes can
save fuel by flying in a V formation, and many
scientists suspect that migrating birds do the same.
Models that treated flapping birds like fixed-wing
airplanes estimate that they save energy by drafting
off each other, but currents created by airplanes are
far more stable than the oscillating eddies coming off
of a bird. “Air gets pretty unpredictable behind a
flapping wing,” says James Usherwood, a locomotor
biomechanist at the Royal Veterinary College at the
University of London in Hatfield, where the research
took place.
The study, published in Nature, took advantage of
an existing project to reintroduce endangered
northern bald ibises (Geronticus eremita) to Europe.
Scientists used a microlight plane to show
hand-raised birds their ancestral migration route
from Austria to Italy. A flock of 14 juveniles carried
data loggers specially built by Usherwood and his lab.
The device’s GPS determined each bird’s flight
position to within 30 cm, and an accelerometer
showed the timing of the wing flaps.
Just as aerodynamic estimates would predict, the
birds positioned themselves to fly just behind and to
the side of the bird in front, timing their wing beats
to catch the uplifting eddies. When a bird flew
directly behind another, the timing of the flapping
reversed so that it could minimize the effects of the
downdraft coming off the back of the bird’s body.
“We didn’t think this was possible,” Usherwood
says, considering that the feat requires careful
flight and incredible awareness of one’s neighbors.
“Perhaps these big V formation birds can be thought
of quite like an airplane with wings that go up and
down.”
The findings likely apply to other long-winged
birds, such as pelicans, storks, and geese, Usherwood
says. Smaller birds create more complex wakes that
would make drafting too difficult. The researchers
did not attempt to calculate the bird’s energy savings
because the necessary physiological measurements
would be too invasive for an endangered species.
Previous studies estimate that birds can use
20 percent to 30 percent less energy while
flying in a V.
“From a behavioral perspective it’s really a
breakthrough,” says David Lentink, a mechanical
engineer at Stanford University in Palo Alto,
California, who was not involved in the work.
“Showing that birds care about syncing their wing
beats is definitely an important insight that we didn’t
have before.”
Scientists do not know how the birds find
that aerodynamic sweet spot, but they suspect that
the animals align themselves either by sight or
by sensing air currents through their feathers.
Alternatively, they may move around until they find
the location with the least resistance. In future
studies, the researchers will switch to more common
birds, such as pigeons or geese. They plan to
investigate how the animals decide who sets the
course and the pace, and whether a mistake made by
the leader can ripple through the rest of the flock to
cause traffic jams.
“It’s a pretty impressive piece of work as it is, but
it does suggest that there’s a lot more to learn,”
says Ty Hedrick, a biologist at the University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who studies flight
aerodynamics in birds and insects. However they do
it, he says, “birds are awfully good hang-glider
pilots.”
Question 29:
What is a main idea of the seventh paragraph (lines 62-73)?
A) Different types of hierarchies exist in each flock of birds.
B) Mistakes can happen when long-winged birds create a V formation.
C) Future research will help scientists to better understand V formations.
D) Long-winged birds watch the lead bird closely to keep a V formation intact.
Answer: | C | true | sat-practice_7-question_29 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Patricia Waldron, “Why Birds
Fly in a V Formation.” ©2014 by American Association for
the Advancement of Science.
Anyone watching the autumn sky knows that
migrating birds fly in a V formation, but scientists
have long debated why. A new study of ibises finds
that these big-winged birds carefully position their
wingtips and sync their flapping, presumably to catch
the preceding bird’s updraft—and save energy
during flight.
There are two reasons birds might fly in a
V formation: It may make flight easier, or they’re
simply following the leader. Squadrons of planes can
save fuel by flying in a V formation, and many
scientists suspect that migrating birds do the same.
Models that treated flapping birds like fixed-wing
airplanes estimate that they save energy by drafting
off each other, but currents created by airplanes are
far more stable than the oscillating eddies coming off
of a bird. “Air gets pretty unpredictable behind a
flapping wing,” says James Usherwood, a locomotor
biomechanist at the Royal Veterinary College at the
University of London in Hatfield, where the research
took place.
The study, published in Nature, took advantage of
an existing project to reintroduce endangered
northern bald ibises (Geronticus eremita) to Europe.
Scientists used a microlight plane to show
hand-raised birds their ancestral migration route
from Austria to Italy. A flock of 14 juveniles carried
data loggers specially built by Usherwood and his lab.
The device’s GPS determined each bird’s flight
position to within 30 cm, and an accelerometer
showed the timing of the wing flaps.
Just as aerodynamic estimates would predict, the
birds positioned themselves to fly just behind and to
the side of the bird in front, timing their wing beats
to catch the uplifting eddies. When a bird flew
directly behind another, the timing of the flapping
reversed so that it could minimize the effects of the
downdraft coming off the back of the bird’s body.
“We didn’t think this was possible,” Usherwood
says, considering that the feat requires careful
flight and incredible awareness of one’s neighbors.
“Perhaps these big V formation birds can be thought
of quite like an airplane with wings that go up and
down.”
The findings likely apply to other long-winged
birds, such as pelicans, storks, and geese, Usherwood
says. Smaller birds create more complex wakes that
would make drafting too difficult. The researchers
did not attempt to calculate the bird’s energy savings
because the necessary physiological measurements
would be too invasive for an endangered species.
Previous studies estimate that birds can use
20 percent to 30 percent less energy while
flying in a V.
“From a behavioral perspective it’s really a
breakthrough,” says David Lentink, a mechanical
engineer at Stanford University in Palo Alto,
California, who was not involved in the work.
“Showing that birds care about syncing their wing
beats is definitely an important insight that we didn’t
have before.”
Scientists do not know how the birds find
that aerodynamic sweet spot, but they suspect that
the animals align themselves either by sight or
by sensing air currents through their feathers.
Alternatively, they may move around until they find
the location with the least resistance. In future
studies, the researchers will switch to more common
birds, such as pigeons or geese. They plan to
investigate how the animals decide who sets the
course and the pace, and whether a mistake made by
the leader can ripple through the rest of the flock to
cause traffic jams.
“It’s a pretty impressive piece of work as it is, but
it does suggest that there’s a lot more to learn,”
says Ty Hedrick, a biologist at the University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who studies flight
aerodynamics in birds and insects. However they do
it, he says, “birds are awfully good hang-glider
pilots.”
Question 27:
What does the author imply about pelicans, storks, and geese flying in a V formation?
A) They communicate with each other in the same way as do ibises.
B) They have the same migration routes as those of ibises.
C) They create a similar wake to that of ibises.
D) They expend more energy than do ibises.
Answer: | C | false | sat-practice_7-question_27 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Patricia Waldron, “Why Birds
Fly in a V Formation.” ©2014 by American Association for
the Advancement of Science.
Anyone watching the autumn sky knows that
migrating birds fly in a V formation, but scientists
have long debated why. A new study of ibises finds
that these big-winged birds carefully position their
wingtips and sync their flapping, presumably to catch
the preceding bird’s updraft—and save energy
during flight.
There are two reasons birds might fly in a
V formation: It may make flight easier, or they’re
simply following the leader. Squadrons of planes can
save fuel by flying in a V formation, and many
scientists suspect that migrating birds do the same.
Models that treated flapping birds like fixed-wing
airplanes estimate that they save energy by drafting
off each other, but currents created by airplanes are
far more stable than the oscillating eddies coming off
of a bird. “Air gets pretty unpredictable behind a
flapping wing,” says James Usherwood, a locomotor
biomechanist at the Royal Veterinary College at the
University of London in Hatfield, where the research
took place.
The study, published in Nature, took advantage of
an existing project to reintroduce endangered
northern bald ibises (Geronticus eremita) to Europe.
Scientists used a microlight plane to show
hand-raised birds their ancestral migration route
from Austria to Italy. A flock of 14 juveniles carried
data loggers specially built by Usherwood and his lab.
The device’s GPS determined each bird’s flight
position to within 30 cm, and an accelerometer
showed the timing of the wing flaps.
Just as aerodynamic estimates would predict, the
birds positioned themselves to fly just behind and to
the side of the bird in front, timing their wing beats
to catch the uplifting eddies. When a bird flew
directly behind another, the timing of the flapping
reversed so that it could minimize the effects of the
downdraft coming off the back of the bird’s body.
“We didn’t think this was possible,” Usherwood
says, considering that the feat requires careful
flight and incredible awareness of one’s neighbors.
“Perhaps these big V formation birds can be thought
of quite like an airplane with wings that go up and
down.”
The findings likely apply to other long-winged
birds, such as pelicans, storks, and geese, Usherwood
says. Smaller birds create more complex wakes that
would make drafting too difficult. The researchers
did not attempt to calculate the bird’s energy savings
because the necessary physiological measurements
would be too invasive for an endangered species.
Previous studies estimate that birds can use
20 percent to 30 percent less energy while
flying in a V.
“From a behavioral perspective it’s really a
breakthrough,” says David Lentink, a mechanical
engineer at Stanford University in Palo Alto,
California, who was not involved in the work.
“Showing that birds care about syncing their wing
beats is definitely an important insight that we didn’t
have before.”
Scientists do not know how the birds find
that aerodynamic sweet spot, but they suspect that
the animals align themselves either by sight or
by sensing air currents through their feathers.
Alternatively, they may move around until they find
the location with the least resistance. In future
studies, the researchers will switch to more common
birds, such as pigeons or geese. They plan to
investigate how the animals decide who sets the
course and the pace, and whether a mistake made by
the leader can ripple through the rest of the flock to
cause traffic jams.
“It’s a pretty impressive piece of work as it is, but
it does suggest that there’s a lot more to learn,”
says Ty Hedrick, a biologist at the University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who studies flight
aerodynamics in birds and insects. However they do
it, he says, “birds are awfully good hang-glider
pilots.”
Question 26:
What is the most likely reason the author includes the 30 cm measurement in line 30?
A) To demonstrate the accuracy with which the data loggers collected the data
B) To present recorded data about how far an ibis flies between successive wing flaps
C) To provide the wingspan length of a juvenile ibis
D) To show how far behind the microlight plane each ibis flew
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_7-question_26 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Patricia Waldron, “Why Birds
Fly in a V Formation.” ©2014 by American Association for
the Advancement of Science.
Anyone watching the autumn sky knows that
migrating birds fly in a V formation, but scientists
have long debated why. A new study of ibises finds
that these big-winged birds carefully position their
wingtips and sync their flapping, presumably to catch
the preceding bird’s updraft—and save energy
during flight.
There are two reasons birds might fly in a
V formation: It may make flight easier, or they’re
simply following the leader. Squadrons of planes can
save fuel by flying in a V formation, and many
scientists suspect that migrating birds do the same.
Models that treated flapping birds like fixed-wing
airplanes estimate that they save energy by drafting
off each other, but currents created by airplanes are
far more stable than the oscillating eddies coming off
of a bird. “Air gets pretty unpredictable behind a
flapping wing,” says James Usherwood, a locomotor
biomechanist at the Royal Veterinary College at the
University of London in Hatfield, where the research
took place.
The study, published in Nature, took advantage of
an existing project to reintroduce endangered
northern bald ibises (Geronticus eremita) to Europe.
Scientists used a microlight plane to show
hand-raised birds their ancestral migration route
from Austria to Italy. A flock of 14 juveniles carried
data loggers specially built by Usherwood and his lab.
The device’s GPS determined each bird’s flight
position to within 30 cm, and an accelerometer
showed the timing of the wing flaps.
Just as aerodynamic estimates would predict, the
birds positioned themselves to fly just behind and to
the side of the bird in front, timing their wing beats
to catch the uplifting eddies. When a bird flew
directly behind another, the timing of the flapping
reversed so that it could minimize the effects of the
downdraft coming off the back of the bird’s body.
“We didn’t think this was possible,” Usherwood
says, considering that the feat requires careful
flight and incredible awareness of one’s neighbors.
“Perhaps these big V formation birds can be thought
of quite like an airplane with wings that go up and
down.”
The findings likely apply to other long-winged
birds, such as pelicans, storks, and geese, Usherwood
says. Smaller birds create more complex wakes that
would make drafting too difficult. The researchers
did not attempt to calculate the bird’s energy savings
because the necessary physiological measurements
would be too invasive for an endangered species.
Previous studies estimate that birds can use
20 percent to 30 percent less energy while
flying in a V.
“From a behavioral perspective it’s really a
breakthrough,” says David Lentink, a mechanical
engineer at Stanford University in Palo Alto,
California, who was not involved in the work.
“Showing that birds care about syncing their wing
beats is definitely an important insight that we didn’t
have before.”
Scientists do not know how the birds find
that aerodynamic sweet spot, but they suspect that
the animals align themselves either by sight or
by sensing air currents through their feathers.
Alternatively, they may move around until they find
the location with the least resistance. In future
studies, the researchers will switch to more common
birds, such as pigeons or geese. They plan to
investigate how the animals decide who sets the
course and the pace, and whether a mistake made by
the leader can ripple through the rest of the flock to
cause traffic jams.
“It’s a pretty impressive piece of work as it is, but
it does suggest that there’s a lot more to learn,”
says Ty Hedrick, a biologist at the University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who studies flight
aerodynamics in birds and insects. However they do
it, he says, “birds are awfully good hang-glider
pilots.”
Question 31:
As used in line 72, “ripple” most nearly means
A) fluctuate.
B) spread.
C) wave.
D) undulate.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_7-question_31 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Patricia Waldron, “Why Birds
Fly in a V Formation.” ©2014 by American Association for
the Advancement of Science.
Anyone watching the autumn sky knows that
migrating birds fly in a V formation, but scientists
have long debated why. A new study of ibises finds
that these big-winged birds carefully position their
wingtips and sync their flapping, presumably to catch
the preceding bird’s updraft—and save energy
during flight.
There are two reasons birds might fly in a
V formation: It may make flight easier, or they’re
simply following the leader. Squadrons of planes can
save fuel by flying in a V formation, and many
scientists suspect that migrating birds do the same.
Models that treated flapping birds like fixed-wing
airplanes estimate that they save energy by drafting
off each other, but currents created by airplanes are
far more stable than the oscillating eddies coming off
of a bird. “Air gets pretty unpredictable behind a
flapping wing,” says James Usherwood, a locomotor
biomechanist at the Royal Veterinary College at the
University of London in Hatfield, where the research
took place.
The study, published in Nature, took advantage of
an existing project to reintroduce endangered
northern bald ibises (Geronticus eremita) to Europe.
Scientists used a microlight plane to show
hand-raised birds their ancestral migration route
from Austria to Italy. A flock of 14 juveniles carried
data loggers specially built by Usherwood and his lab.
The device’s GPS determined each bird’s flight
position to within 30 cm, and an accelerometer
showed the timing of the wing flaps.
Just as aerodynamic estimates would predict, the
birds positioned themselves to fly just behind and to
the side of the bird in front, timing their wing beats
to catch the uplifting eddies. When a bird flew
directly behind another, the timing of the flapping
reversed so that it could minimize the effects of the
downdraft coming off the back of the bird’s body.
“We didn’t think this was possible,” Usherwood
says, considering that the feat requires careful
flight and incredible awareness of one’s neighbors.
“Perhaps these big V formation birds can be thought
of quite like an airplane with wings that go up and
down.”
The findings likely apply to other long-winged
birds, such as pelicans, storks, and geese, Usherwood
says. Smaller birds create more complex wakes that
would make drafting too difficult. The researchers
did not attempt to calculate the bird’s energy savings
because the necessary physiological measurements
would be too invasive for an endangered species.
Previous studies estimate that birds can use
20 percent to 30 percent less energy while
flying in a V.
“From a behavioral perspective it’s really a
breakthrough,” says David Lentink, a mechanical
engineer at Stanford University in Palo Alto,
California, who was not involved in the work.
“Showing that birds care about syncing their wing
beats is definitely an important insight that we didn’t
have before.”
Scientists do not know how the birds find
that aerodynamic sweet spot, but they suspect that
the animals align themselves either by sight or
by sensing air currents through their feathers.
Alternatively, they may move around until they find
the location with the least resistance. In future
studies, the researchers will switch to more common
birds, such as pigeons or geese. They plan to
investigate how the animals decide who sets the
course and the pace, and whether a mistake made by
the leader can ripple through the rest of the flock to
cause traffic jams.
“It’s a pretty impressive piece of work as it is, but
it does suggest that there’s a lot more to learn,”
says Ty Hedrick, a biologist at the University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who studies flight
aerodynamics in birds and insects. However they do
it, he says, “birds are awfully good hang-glider
pilots.”
Question 23:
The author includes the quotation “Air gets pretty unpredictable behind a flapping wing” (lines 17-18) to
A) explain that the current created by a bird differs from that of an airplane.
B) stress the amount of control exerted by birds flying in a V formation.
C) indicate that wind movement is continuously changing.
D) emphasize that the flapping of a bird’s wings is powerful.
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_7-question_23 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy
in America, Volume 2. Originally published in 1840. Passage 2
is adapted from Harriet Taylor Mill, “Enfranchisement of
Women.” Originally published in 1851. As United States and
European societies grew increasingly democratic during the
nineteenth century, debates arose about whether freedoms
enjoyed by men should be extended to women as well.
Passage 1
I have shown how democracy destroys or
modifies the different inequalities which originate in
society; but is this all? or does it not ultimately affect
that great inequality of man and woman which has
seemed, up to the present day, to be eternally based
in human nature? I believe that the social changes
which bring nearer to the same level the father and
son, the master and servant, and superiors and
inferiors generally speaking, will raise woman and
make her more and more the equal of man. But here,
more than ever, I feel the necessity of making myself
clearly understood; for there is no subject on which
the coarse and lawless fancies of our age have taken a
freer range.
There are people in Europe who, confounding
together the different characteristics of the sexes,
would make of man and woman beings not only
equal but alike. They would give to both the same
functions, impose on both the same duties, and grant
to both the same rights; they would mix them in all
things—their occupations, their pleasures, their
business. It may readily be conceived, that by thus
attempting to make one sex equal to the other, both
are degraded; and from so preposterous a medley of
the works of nature nothing could ever result but
weak men and disorderly women.
It is not thus that the Americans understand that
species of democratic equality which may be
established between the sexes. They admit, that as
nature has appointed such wide differences between
the physical and moral constitution of man and
woman, her manifest design was to give a distinct
employment to their various faculties; and they hold
that improvement does not consist in making beings
so dissimilar do pretty nearly the same things, but in
getting each of them to fulfill their respective tasks in
the best possible manner. The Americans have
applied to the sexes the great principle of political
economy which governs the manufactures of our age,
by carefully dividing the duties of man from those of
woman, in order that the great work of society may
be the better carried on.
Passage 2
As society was constituted until the last few
generations, inequality was its very basis; association
grounded on equal rights scarcely existed; to be
equals was to be enemies; two persons could hardly
coöperate in anything, or meet in any amicable
relation, without the law’s appointing that one of
them should be the superior of the other.
Mankind have outgrown this state, and all things
now tend to substitute, as the general principle of
human relations, a just equality, instead of the
dominion of the strongest. But of all relations, that
between men and women, being the nearest and
most intimate, and connected with the greatest
number of strong emotions, was sure to be the last to
throw off the old rule, and receive the new; for,
in proportion to the strength of a feeling is the
tenacity with which it clings to the forms and
circumstances with which it has even accidentally
become associated....
. . . The proper sphere for all human beings is the
largest and highest which they are able to attain to.
What this is, cannot be ascertained without complete
liberty of choice. . . . Let every occupation be open to
all, without favor or discouragement to any, and
employments will fall into the hands of those men or
women who are found by experience to be most
capable of worthily exercising them. There need be
no fear that women will take out of the hands of men
any occupation which men perform better than they.
Each individual will prove his or her capacities, in the
only way in which capacities can be proved,—by
trial; and the world will have the benefit of the best
faculties of all its inhabitants. But to interfere
beforehand by an arbitrary limit, and declare that
whatever be the genius, talent, energy, or force of
mind, of an individual of a certain sex or class, those
faculties shall not be exerted, or shall be exerted only
in some few of the many modes in which others are
permitted to use theirs, is not only an injustice to the
individual, and a detriment to society, which loses
what it can ill spare, but is also the most effectual way
of providing that, in the sex or class so fettered, the
qualities which are not permitted to be exercised
shall not exist.
Question 36:
In Passage 2, Mill most strongly suggests that gender roles are resistant to change because they
A) have long served as the basis for the formal organization of society.
B) are matters of deeply entrenched tradition.
C) can be influenced by legislative reforms only indirectly.
D) benefit the groups and institutions currently in power.
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_7-question_36 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy
in America, Volume 2. Originally published in 1840. Passage 2
is adapted from Harriet Taylor Mill, “Enfranchisement of
Women.” Originally published in 1851. As United States and
European societies grew increasingly democratic during the
nineteenth century, debates arose about whether freedoms
enjoyed by men should be extended to women as well.
Passage 1
I have shown how democracy destroys or
modifies the different inequalities which originate in
society; but is this all? or does it not ultimately affect
that great inequality of man and woman which has
seemed, up to the present day, to be eternally based
in human nature? I believe that the social changes
which bring nearer to the same level the father and
son, the master and servant, and superiors and
inferiors generally speaking, will raise woman and
make her more and more the equal of man. But here,
more than ever, I feel the necessity of making myself
clearly understood; for there is no subject on which
the coarse and lawless fancies of our age have taken a
freer range.
There are people in Europe who, confounding
together the different characteristics of the sexes,
would make of man and woman beings not only
equal but alike. They would give to both the same
functions, impose on both the same duties, and grant
to both the same rights; they would mix them in all
things—their occupations, their pleasures, their
business. It may readily be conceived, that by thus
attempting to make one sex equal to the other, both
are degraded; and from so preposterous a medley of
the works of nature nothing could ever result but
weak men and disorderly women.
It is not thus that the Americans understand that
species of democratic equality which may be
established between the sexes. They admit, that as
nature has appointed such wide differences between
the physical and moral constitution of man and
woman, her manifest design was to give a distinct
employment to their various faculties; and they hold
that improvement does not consist in making beings
so dissimilar do pretty nearly the same things, but in
getting each of them to fulfill their respective tasks in
the best possible manner. The Americans have
applied to the sexes the great principle of political
economy which governs the manufactures of our age,
by carefully dividing the duties of man from those of
woman, in order that the great work of society may
be the better carried on.
Passage 2
As society was constituted until the last few
generations, inequality was its very basis; association
grounded on equal rights scarcely existed; to be
equals was to be enemies; two persons could hardly
coöperate in anything, or meet in any amicable
relation, without the law’s appointing that one of
them should be the superior of the other.
Mankind have outgrown this state, and all things
now tend to substitute, as the general principle of
human relations, a just equality, instead of the
dominion of the strongest. But of all relations, that
between men and women, being the nearest and
most intimate, and connected with the greatest
number of strong emotions, was sure to be the last to
throw off the old rule, and receive the new; for,
in proportion to the strength of a feeling is the
tenacity with which it clings to the forms and
circumstances with which it has even accidentally
become associated....
. . . The proper sphere for all human beings is the
largest and highest which they are able to attain to.
What this is, cannot be ascertained without complete
liberty of choice. . . . Let every occupation be open to
all, without favor or discouragement to any, and
employments will fall into the hands of those men or
women who are found by experience to be most
capable of worthily exercising them. There need be
no fear that women will take out of the hands of men
any occupation which men perform better than they.
Each individual will prove his or her capacities, in the
only way in which capacities can be proved,—by
trial; and the world will have the benefit of the best
faculties of all its inhabitants. But to interfere
beforehand by an arbitrary limit, and declare that
whatever be the genius, talent, energy, or force of
mind, of an individual of a certain sex or class, those
faculties shall not be exerted, or shall be exerted only
in some few of the many modes in which others are
permitted to use theirs, is not only an injustice to the
individual, and a detriment to society, which loses
what it can ill spare, but is also the most effectual way
of providing that, in the sex or class so fettered, the
qualities which are not permitted to be exercised
shall not exist.
Question 39:
Tocqueville in Passage 1 would most likely characterize the position taken by Mill in lines 65-69 in Passage 2 (“Let... them”) as
A) less radical about gender roles than it might initially seem.
B) persuasive in the abstract but difficult to implement in practice.
C) ill-advised but consistent with a view held by some other advocates of gender equality.
D) compatible with economic progress in the United States but not in Europe.
Answer: | C | true | sat-practice_7-question_39 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy
in America, Volume 2. Originally published in 1840. Passage 2
is adapted from Harriet Taylor Mill, “Enfranchisement of
Women.” Originally published in 1851. As United States and
European societies grew increasingly democratic during the
nineteenth century, debates arose about whether freedoms
enjoyed by men should be extended to women as well.
Passage 1
I have shown how democracy destroys or
modifies the different inequalities which originate in
society; but is this all? or does it not ultimately affect
that great inequality of man and woman which has
seemed, up to the present day, to be eternally based
in human nature? I believe that the social changes
which bring nearer to the same level the father and
son, the master and servant, and superiors and
inferiors generally speaking, will raise woman and
make her more and more the equal of man. But here,
more than ever, I feel the necessity of making myself
clearly understood; for there is no subject on which
the coarse and lawless fancies of our age have taken a
freer range.
There are people in Europe who, confounding
together the different characteristics of the sexes,
would make of man and woman beings not only
equal but alike. They would give to both the same
functions, impose on both the same duties, and grant
to both the same rights; they would mix them in all
things—their occupations, their pleasures, their
business. It may readily be conceived, that by thus
attempting to make one sex equal to the other, both
are degraded; and from so preposterous a medley of
the works of nature nothing could ever result but
weak men and disorderly women.
It is not thus that the Americans understand that
species of democratic equality which may be
established between the sexes. They admit, that as
nature has appointed such wide differences between
the physical and moral constitution of man and
woman, her manifest design was to give a distinct
employment to their various faculties; and they hold
that improvement does not consist in making beings
so dissimilar do pretty nearly the same things, but in
getting each of them to fulfill their respective tasks in
the best possible manner. The Americans have
applied to the sexes the great principle of political
economy which governs the manufactures of our age,
by carefully dividing the duties of man from those of
woman, in order that the great work of society may
be the better carried on.
Passage 2
As society was constituted until the last few
generations, inequality was its very basis; association
grounded on equal rights scarcely existed; to be
equals was to be enemies; two persons could hardly
coöperate in anything, or meet in any amicable
relation, without the law’s appointing that one of
them should be the superior of the other.
Mankind have outgrown this state, and all things
now tend to substitute, as the general principle of
human relations, a just equality, instead of the
dominion of the strongest. But of all relations, that
between men and women, being the nearest and
most intimate, and connected with the greatest
number of strong emotions, was sure to be the last to
throw off the old rule, and receive the new; for,
in proportion to the strength of a feeling is the
tenacity with which it clings to the forms and
circumstances with which it has even accidentally
become associated....
. . . The proper sphere for all human beings is the
largest and highest which they are able to attain to.
What this is, cannot be ascertained without complete
liberty of choice. . . . Let every occupation be open to
all, without favor or discouragement to any, and
employments will fall into the hands of those men or
women who are found by experience to be most
capable of worthily exercising them. There need be
no fear that women will take out of the hands of men
any occupation which men perform better than they.
Each individual will prove his or her capacities, in the
only way in which capacities can be proved,—by
trial; and the world will have the benefit of the best
faculties of all its inhabitants. But to interfere
beforehand by an arbitrary limit, and declare that
whatever be the genius, talent, energy, or force of
mind, of an individual of a certain sex or class, those
faculties shall not be exerted, or shall be exerted only
in some few of the many modes in which others are
permitted to use theirs, is not only an injustice to the
individual, and a detriment to society, which loses
what it can ill spare, but is also the most effectual way
of providing that, in the sex or class so fettered, the
qualities which are not permitted to be exercised
shall not exist.
Question 35:
As used in line 53, “dominion” most nearly means
A) omnipotence.
B) supremacy.
C) ownership.
D) territory
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_7-question_35 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy
in America, Volume 2. Originally published in 1840. Passage 2
is adapted from Harriet Taylor Mill, “Enfranchisement of
Women.” Originally published in 1851. As United States and
European societies grew increasingly democratic during the
nineteenth century, debates arose about whether freedoms
enjoyed by men should be extended to women as well.
Passage 1
I have shown how democracy destroys or
modifies the different inequalities which originate in
society; but is this all? or does it not ultimately affect
that great inequality of man and woman which has
seemed, up to the present day, to be eternally based
in human nature? I believe that the social changes
which bring nearer to the same level the father and
son, the master and servant, and superiors and
inferiors generally speaking, will raise woman and
make her more and more the equal of man. But here,
more than ever, I feel the necessity of making myself
clearly understood; for there is no subject on which
the coarse and lawless fancies of our age have taken a
freer range.
There are people in Europe who, confounding
together the different characteristics of the sexes,
would make of man and woman beings not only
equal but alike. They would give to both the same
functions, impose on both the same duties, and grant
to both the same rights; they would mix them in all
things—their occupations, their pleasures, their
business. It may readily be conceived, that by thus
attempting to make one sex equal to the other, both
are degraded; and from so preposterous a medley of
the works of nature nothing could ever result but
weak men and disorderly women.
It is not thus that the Americans understand that
species of democratic equality which may be
established between the sexes. They admit, that as
nature has appointed such wide differences between
the physical and moral constitution of man and
woman, her manifest design was to give a distinct
employment to their various faculties; and they hold
that improvement does not consist in making beings
so dissimilar do pretty nearly the same things, but in
getting each of them to fulfill their respective tasks in
the best possible manner. The Americans have
applied to the sexes the great principle of political
economy which governs the manufactures of our age,
by carefully dividing the duties of man from those of
woman, in order that the great work of society may
be the better carried on.
Passage 2
As society was constituted until the last few
generations, inequality was its very basis; association
grounded on equal rights scarcely existed; to be
equals was to be enemies; two persons could hardly
coöperate in anything, or meet in any amicable
relation, without the law’s appointing that one of
them should be the superior of the other.
Mankind have outgrown this state, and all things
now tend to substitute, as the general principle of
human relations, a just equality, instead of the
dominion of the strongest. But of all relations, that
between men and women, being the nearest and
most intimate, and connected with the greatest
number of strong emotions, was sure to be the last to
throw off the old rule, and receive the new; for,
in proportion to the strength of a feeling is the
tenacity with which it clings to the forms and
circumstances with which it has even accidentally
become associated....
. . . The proper sphere for all human beings is the
largest and highest which they are able to attain to.
What this is, cannot be ascertained without complete
liberty of choice. . . . Let every occupation be open to
all, without favor or discouragement to any, and
employments will fall into the hands of those men or
women who are found by experience to be most
capable of worthily exercising them. There need be
no fear that women will take out of the hands of men
any occupation which men perform better than they.
Each individual will prove his or her capacities, in the
only way in which capacities can be proved,—by
trial; and the world will have the benefit of the best
faculties of all its inhabitants. But to interfere
beforehand by an arbitrary limit, and declare that
whatever be the genius, talent, energy, or force of
mind, of an individual of a certain sex or class, those
faculties shall not be exerted, or shall be exerted only
in some few of the many modes in which others are
permitted to use theirs, is not only an injustice to the
individual, and a detriment to society, which loses
what it can ill spare, but is also the most effectual way
of providing that, in the sex or class so fettered, the
qualities which are not permitted to be exercised
shall not exist.
Question 40:
Which choice best describes the ways that the two authors conceive of the individual’s proper position in society?
A) Tocqueville believes that an individual’s position should be defined in important ways by that individual’s sex, while Mill believes that an individual’s abilities should be the determining factor.
B) Tocqueville believes that an individual’s economic class should determine that individual’s position, while Mill believes that class is not a legitimate consideration.
C) Tocqueville believes that an individual’s temperament should determine that individual’s position, while Mill believes that temperament should not be a factor in an individual’s position.
D) Tocqueville believes that an individual’s position should be determined by what is most beneficial to society, while Mill believes it should be determined by what an individual finds most rewarding.
Answer: | A | false | sat-practice_7-question_40 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy
in America, Volume 2. Originally published in 1840. Passage 2
is adapted from Harriet Taylor Mill, “Enfranchisement of
Women.” Originally published in 1851. As United States and
European societies grew increasingly democratic during the
nineteenth century, debates arose about whether freedoms
enjoyed by men should be extended to women as well.
Passage 1
I have shown how democracy destroys or
modifies the different inequalities which originate in
society; but is this all? or does it not ultimately affect
that great inequality of man and woman which has
seemed, up to the present day, to be eternally based
in human nature? I believe that the social changes
which bring nearer to the same level the father and
son, the master and servant, and superiors and
inferiors generally speaking, will raise woman and
make her more and more the equal of man. But here,
more than ever, I feel the necessity of making myself
clearly understood; for there is no subject on which
the coarse and lawless fancies of our age have taken a
freer range.
There are people in Europe who, confounding
together the different characteristics of the sexes,
would make of man and woman beings not only
equal but alike. They would give to both the same
functions, impose on both the same duties, and grant
to both the same rights; they would mix them in all
things—their occupations, their pleasures, their
business. It may readily be conceived, that by thus
attempting to make one sex equal to the other, both
are degraded; and from so preposterous a medley of
the works of nature nothing could ever result but
weak men and disorderly women.
It is not thus that the Americans understand that
species of democratic equality which may be
established between the sexes. They admit, that as
nature has appointed such wide differences between
the physical and moral constitution of man and
woman, her manifest design was to give a distinct
employment to their various faculties; and they hold
that improvement does not consist in making beings
so dissimilar do pretty nearly the same things, but in
getting each of them to fulfill their respective tasks in
the best possible manner. The Americans have
applied to the sexes the great principle of political
economy which governs the manufactures of our age,
by carefully dividing the duties of man from those of
woman, in order that the great work of society may
be the better carried on.
Passage 2
As society was constituted until the last few
generations, inequality was its very basis; association
grounded on equal rights scarcely existed; to be
equals was to be enemies; two persons could hardly
coöperate in anything, or meet in any amicable
relation, without the law’s appointing that one of
them should be the superior of the other.
Mankind have outgrown this state, and all things
now tend to substitute, as the general principle of
human relations, a just equality, instead of the
dominion of the strongest. But of all relations, that
between men and women, being the nearest and
most intimate, and connected with the greatest
number of strong emotions, was sure to be the last to
throw off the old rule, and receive the new; for,
in proportion to the strength of a feeling is the
tenacity with which it clings to the forms and
circumstances with which it has even accidentally
become associated....
. . . The proper sphere for all human beings is the
largest and highest which they are able to attain to.
What this is, cannot be ascertained without complete
liberty of choice. . . . Let every occupation be open to
all, without favor or discouragement to any, and
employments will fall into the hands of those men or
women who are found by experience to be most
capable of worthily exercising them. There need be
no fear that women will take out of the hands of men
any occupation which men perform better than they.
Each individual will prove his or her capacities, in the
only way in which capacities can be proved,—by
trial; and the world will have the benefit of the best
faculties of all its inhabitants. But to interfere
beforehand by an arbitrary limit, and declare that
whatever be the genius, talent, energy, or force of
mind, of an individual of a certain sex or class, those
faculties shall not be exerted, or shall be exerted only
in some few of the many modes in which others are
permitted to use theirs, is not only an injustice to the
individual, and a detriment to society, which loses
what it can ill spare, but is also the most effectual way
of providing that, in the sex or class so fettered, the
qualities which are not permitted to be exercised
shall not exist.
Question 38:
Both authors would most likely agree that the changes in gender roles that they describe would be
A) part of a broad social shift toward greater equality.
B) unlikely to provide benefits that outweigh their costs.
C) inevitable given the economic advantages of gender equality.
D) at odds with the principles of American democracy.
Answer: | A | false | sat-practice_7-question_38 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy
in America, Volume 2. Originally published in 1840. Passage 2
is adapted from Harriet Taylor Mill, “Enfranchisement of
Women.” Originally published in 1851. As United States and
European societies grew increasingly democratic during the
nineteenth century, debates arose about whether freedoms
enjoyed by men should be extended to women as well.
Passage 1
I have shown how democracy destroys or
modifies the different inequalities which originate in
society; but is this all? or does it not ultimately affect
that great inequality of man and woman which has
seemed, up to the present day, to be eternally based
in human nature? I believe that the social changes
which bring nearer to the same level the father and
son, the master and servant, and superiors and
inferiors generally speaking, will raise woman and
make her more and more the equal of man. But here,
more than ever, I feel the necessity of making myself
clearly understood; for there is no subject on which
the coarse and lawless fancies of our age have taken a
freer range.
There are people in Europe who, confounding
together the different characteristics of the sexes,
would make of man and woman beings not only
equal but alike. They would give to both the same
functions, impose on both the same duties, and grant
to both the same rights; they would mix them in all
things—their occupations, their pleasures, their
business. It may readily be conceived, that by thus
attempting to make one sex equal to the other, both
are degraded; and from so preposterous a medley of
the works of nature nothing could ever result but
weak men and disorderly women.
It is not thus that the Americans understand that
species of democratic equality which may be
established between the sexes. They admit, that as
nature has appointed such wide differences between
the physical and moral constitution of man and
woman, her manifest design was to give a distinct
employment to their various faculties; and they hold
that improvement does not consist in making beings
so dissimilar do pretty nearly the same things, but in
getting each of them to fulfill their respective tasks in
the best possible manner. The Americans have
applied to the sexes the great principle of political
economy which governs the manufactures of our age,
by carefully dividing the duties of man from those of
woman, in order that the great work of society may
be the better carried on.
Passage 2
As society was constituted until the last few
generations, inequality was its very basis; association
grounded on equal rights scarcely existed; to be
equals was to be enemies; two persons could hardly
coöperate in anything, or meet in any amicable
relation, without the law’s appointing that one of
them should be the superior of the other.
Mankind have outgrown this state, and all things
now tend to substitute, as the general principle of
human relations, a just equality, instead of the
dominion of the strongest. But of all relations, that
between men and women, being the nearest and
most intimate, and connected with the greatest
number of strong emotions, was sure to be the last to
throw off the old rule, and receive the new; for,
in proportion to the strength of a feeling is the
tenacity with which it clings to the forms and
circumstances with which it has even accidentally
become associated....
. . . The proper sphere for all human beings is the
largest and highest which they are able to attain to.
What this is, cannot be ascertained without complete
liberty of choice. . . . Let every occupation be open to
all, without favor or discouragement to any, and
employments will fall into the hands of those men or
women who are found by experience to be most
capable of worthily exercising them. There need be
no fear that women will take out of the hands of men
any occupation which men perform better than they.
Each individual will prove his or her capacities, in the
only way in which capacities can be proved,—by
trial; and the world will have the benefit of the best
faculties of all its inhabitants. But to interfere
beforehand by an arbitrary limit, and declare that
whatever be the genius, talent, energy, or force of
mind, of an individual of a certain sex or class, those
faculties shall not be exerted, or shall be exerted only
in some few of the many modes in which others are
permitted to use theirs, is not only an injustice to the
individual, and a detriment to society, which loses
what it can ill spare, but is also the most effectual way
of providing that, in the sex or class so fettered, the
qualities which are not permitted to be exercised
shall not exist.
Question 33:
In Passage 1, Tocqueville implies that treatment of men and women as identical in nature would have which consequence?
A) Neither sex would feel oppressed.
B) Both sexes would be greatly harmed.
C) Men would try to reclaim their lost authority.
D) Men and women would have privileges they do not need.
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_7-question_33 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy
in America, Volume 2. Originally published in 1840. Passage 2
is adapted from Harriet Taylor Mill, “Enfranchisement of
Women.” Originally published in 1851. As United States and
European societies grew increasingly democratic during the
nineteenth century, debates arose about whether freedoms
enjoyed by men should be extended to women as well.
Passage 1
I have shown how democracy destroys or
modifies the different inequalities which originate in
society; but is this all? or does it not ultimately affect
that great inequality of man and woman which has
seemed, up to the present day, to be eternally based
in human nature? I believe that the social changes
which bring nearer to the same level the father and
son, the master and servant, and superiors and
inferiors generally speaking, will raise woman and
make her more and more the equal of man. But here,
more than ever, I feel the necessity of making myself
clearly understood; for there is no subject on which
the coarse and lawless fancies of our age have taken a
freer range.
There are people in Europe who, confounding
together the different characteristics of the sexes,
would make of man and woman beings not only
equal but alike. They would give to both the same
functions, impose on both the same duties, and grant
to both the same rights; they would mix them in all
things—their occupations, their pleasures, their
business. It may readily be conceived, that by thus
attempting to make one sex equal to the other, both
are degraded; and from so preposterous a medley of
the works of nature nothing could ever result but
weak men and disorderly women.
It is not thus that the Americans understand that
species of democratic equality which may be
established between the sexes. They admit, that as
nature has appointed such wide differences between
the physical and moral constitution of man and
woman, her manifest design was to give a distinct
employment to their various faculties; and they hold
that improvement does not consist in making beings
so dissimilar do pretty nearly the same things, but in
getting each of them to fulfill their respective tasks in
the best possible manner. The Americans have
applied to the sexes the great principle of political
economy which governs the manufactures of our age,
by carefully dividing the duties of man from those of
woman, in order that the great work of society may
be the better carried on.
Passage 2
As society was constituted until the last few
generations, inequality was its very basis; association
grounded on equal rights scarcely existed; to be
equals was to be enemies; two persons could hardly
coöperate in anything, or meet in any amicable
relation, without the law’s appointing that one of
them should be the superior of the other.
Mankind have outgrown this state, and all things
now tend to substitute, as the general principle of
human relations, a just equality, instead of the
dominion of the strongest. But of all relations, that
between men and women, being the nearest and
most intimate, and connected with the greatest
number of strong emotions, was sure to be the last to
throw off the old rule, and receive the new; for,
in proportion to the strength of a feeling is the
tenacity with which it clings to the forms and
circumstances with which it has even accidentally
become associated....
. . . The proper sphere for all human beings is the
largest and highest which they are able to attain to.
What this is, cannot be ascertained without complete
liberty of choice. . . . Let every occupation be open to
all, without favor or discouragement to any, and
employments will fall into the hands of those men or
women who are found by experience to be most
capable of worthily exercising them. There need be
no fear that women will take out of the hands of men
any occupation which men perform better than they.
Each individual will prove his or her capacities, in the
only way in which capacities can be proved,—by
trial; and the world will have the benefit of the best
faculties of all its inhabitants. But to interfere
beforehand by an arbitrary limit, and declare that
whatever be the genius, talent, energy, or force of
mind, of an individual of a certain sex or class, those
faculties shall not be exerted, or shall be exerted only
in some few of the many modes in which others are
permitted to use theirs, is not only an injustice to the
individual, and a detriment to society, which loses
what it can ill spare, but is also the most effectual way
of providing that, in the sex or class so fettered, the
qualities which are not permitted to be exercised
shall not exist.
Question 41:
Based on Passage 2, Mill would most likely say that the application of the “great principle of political economy” (lines 38-39, Passage 1) to gender roles has which effect?
A) It prevents many men and women from developing to their full potential.
B) It makes it difficult for men and women to sympathize with each other.
C) It unintentionally furthers the cause of gender equality.
D) It guarantees that women take occupations that men are better suited to perform.
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_7-question_41 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy
in America, Volume 2. Originally published in 1840. Passage 2
is adapted from Harriet Taylor Mill, “Enfranchisement of
Women.” Originally published in 1851. As United States and
European societies grew increasingly democratic during the
nineteenth century, debates arose about whether freedoms
enjoyed by men should be extended to women as well.
Passage 1
I have shown how democracy destroys or
modifies the different inequalities which originate in
society; but is this all? or does it not ultimately affect
that great inequality of man and woman which has
seemed, up to the present day, to be eternally based
in human nature? I believe that the social changes
which bring nearer to the same level the father and
son, the master and servant, and superiors and
inferiors generally speaking, will raise woman and
make her more and more the equal of man. But here,
more than ever, I feel the necessity of making myself
clearly understood; for there is no subject on which
the coarse and lawless fancies of our age have taken a
freer range.
There are people in Europe who, confounding
together the different characteristics of the sexes,
would make of man and woman beings not only
equal but alike. They would give to both the same
functions, impose on both the same duties, and grant
to both the same rights; they would mix them in all
things—their occupations, their pleasures, their
business. It may readily be conceived, that by thus
attempting to make one sex equal to the other, both
are degraded; and from so preposterous a medley of
the works of nature nothing could ever result but
weak men and disorderly women.
It is not thus that the Americans understand that
species of democratic equality which may be
established between the sexes. They admit, that as
nature has appointed such wide differences between
the physical and moral constitution of man and
woman, her manifest design was to give a distinct
employment to their various faculties; and they hold
that improvement does not consist in making beings
so dissimilar do pretty nearly the same things, but in
getting each of them to fulfill their respective tasks in
the best possible manner. The Americans have
applied to the sexes the great principle of political
economy which governs the manufactures of our age,
by carefully dividing the duties of man from those of
woman, in order that the great work of society may
be the better carried on.
Passage 2
As society was constituted until the last few
generations, inequality was its very basis; association
grounded on equal rights scarcely existed; to be
equals was to be enemies; two persons could hardly
coöperate in anything, or meet in any amicable
relation, without the law’s appointing that one of
them should be the superior of the other.
Mankind have outgrown this state, and all things
now tend to substitute, as the general principle of
human relations, a just equality, instead of the
dominion of the strongest. But of all relations, that
between men and women, being the nearest and
most intimate, and connected with the greatest
number of strong emotions, was sure to be the last to
throw off the old rule, and receive the new; for,
in proportion to the strength of a feeling is the
tenacity with which it clings to the forms and
circumstances with which it has even accidentally
become associated....
. . . The proper sphere for all human beings is the
largest and highest which they are able to attain to.
What this is, cannot be ascertained without complete
liberty of choice. . . . Let every occupation be open to
all, without favor or discouragement to any, and
employments will fall into the hands of those men or
women who are found by experience to be most
capable of worthily exercising them. There need be
no fear that women will take out of the hands of men
any occupation which men perform better than they.
Each individual will prove his or her capacities, in the
only way in which capacities can be proved,—by
trial; and the world will have the benefit of the best
faculties of all its inhabitants. But to interfere
beforehand by an arbitrary limit, and declare that
whatever be the genius, talent, energy, or force of
mind, of an individual of a certain sex or class, those
faculties shall not be exerted, or shall be exerted only
in some few of the many modes in which others are
permitted to use theirs, is not only an injustice to the
individual, and a detriment to society, which loses
what it can ill spare, but is also the most effectual way
of providing that, in the sex or class so fettered, the
qualities which are not permitted to be exercised
shall not exist.
Question 32:
As used in line 9, “raise” most nearly means
A) increase.
B) cultivate.
C) nurture.
D) elevate.
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_7-question_32 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Brian Greene, “How the Higgs
Boson Was Found.” ©2013 by Smithsonian Institution. The
Higgs boson is an elementary particle associated with the
Higgs field. Experiments conducted in 2012–2013
tentatively confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson and
thus of the Higgs field.
Nearly a half-century ago, Peter Higgs and a
handful of other physicists were trying to understand
the origin of a basic physical feature: mass. You can
think of mass as an object’s heft or, a little more
precisely, as the resistance it offers to having its
motion changed. Push on a freight train (or a
feather) to increase its speed, and the resistance you
feel reflects its mass. At a microscopic level, the
freight train’s mass comes from its constituent
molecules and atoms, which are themselves built
from fundamental particles, electrons and quarks.
But where do the masses of these and other
fundamental particles come from?
When physicists in the 1960s modeled the
behavior of these particles using equations rooted in
quantum physics, they encountered a puzzle. If they
imagined that the particles were all massless, then
each term in the equations clicked into a perfectly
symmetric pattern, like the tips of a perfect
snowflake. And this symmetry was not just
mathematically elegant. It explained patterns evident
in the experimental data. But—and here’s the
puzzle—physicists knew that the particles did have
mass, and when they modified the equations to
account for this fact, the mathematical harmony was
spoiled. The equations became complex and
unwieldy and, worse still, inconsistent.
What to do? Here’s the idea put forward by Higgs.
Don’t shove the particles’ masses down the throat of
the beautiful equations. Instead, keep the equations
pristine and symmetric, but consider them operating
within a peculiar environment. Imagine that all of
space is uniformly filled with an invisible
substance—now called the Higgs field—that exerts a
drag force on particles when they accelerate through
it. Push on a fundamental particle in an effort to
increase its speed and, according to Higgs, you would
feel this drag force as a resistance. Justifiably, you
would interpret the resistance as the particle’s mass.
For a mental toehold, think of a ping-pong ball
submerged in water. When you push on the
ping-pong ball, it will feel much more massive than it
does outside of water. Its interaction with the watery
environment has the effect of endowing it with mass.
So with particles submerged in the Higgs field.
In 1964, Higgs submitted a paper to a prominent
physics journal in which he formulated this idea
mathematically. The paper was rejected. Not because
it contained a technical error, but because the
premise of an invisible something permeating space,
interacting with particles to provide their mass, well,
it all just seemed like heaps of overwrought
speculation. The editors of the journal deemed it “of
no obvious relevance to physics.”
But Higgs persevered (and his revised paper
appeared later that year in another journal), and
physicists who took the time to study the proposal
gradually realized that his idea was a stroke of genius,
one that allowed them to have their cake and eat it
too. In Higgs’s scheme, the fundamental equations
can retain their pristine form because the dirty work
of providing the particles’ masses is relegated to the
environment.
While I wasn’t around to witness the initial
rejection of Higgs’s proposal in 1964 (well, I was
around, but only barely), I can attest that by the
mid-1980s, the assessment had changed. The physics
community had, for the most part, fully bought into
the idea that there was a Higgs field permeating
space. In fact, in a graduate course I took that
covered what’s known as the Standard Model of
Particle Physics (the quantum equations physicists
have assembled to describe the particles of matter
and the dominant forces by which they influence
each other), the professor presented the Higgs field
with such certainty that for a long while I had no idea
it had yet to be established experimentally.
On occasion, that happens in physics. Mathematical
equations can sometimes tell such a convincing tale,
they can seemingly radiate reality so strongly, that
they become entrenched in the vernacular of
working physicists, even before there’s data to
confirm them.
Question 48:
Which statement best describes the technique the author uses to advance the main point of the last paragraph?
A) He recounts a personal experience to illustrate a characteristic of the discipline of physics.
B) He describes his own education to show how physics has changed during his career.
C) He provides autobiographical details to demonstrate how Higgs’s theory was confirmed.
D) He contrasts the status of Higgs’s theory at two time periods to reveal how the details of the theory evolved.
Answer: | A | false | sat-practice_7-question_48 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Brian Greene, “How the Higgs
Boson Was Found.” ©2013 by Smithsonian Institution. The
Higgs boson is an elementary particle associated with the
Higgs field. Experiments conducted in 2012–2013
tentatively confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson and
thus of the Higgs field.
Nearly a half-century ago, Peter Higgs and a
handful of other physicists were trying to understand
the origin of a basic physical feature: mass. You can
think of mass as an object’s heft or, a little more
precisely, as the resistance it offers to having its
motion changed. Push on a freight train (or a
feather) to increase its speed, and the resistance you
feel reflects its mass. At a microscopic level, the
freight train’s mass comes from its constituent
molecules and atoms, which are themselves built
from fundamental particles, electrons and quarks.
But where do the masses of these and other
fundamental particles come from?
When physicists in the 1960s modeled the
behavior of these particles using equations rooted in
quantum physics, they encountered a puzzle. If they
imagined that the particles were all massless, then
each term in the equations clicked into a perfectly
symmetric pattern, like the tips of a perfect
snowflake. And this symmetry was not just
mathematically elegant. It explained patterns evident
in the experimental data. But—and here’s the
puzzle—physicists knew that the particles did have
mass, and when they modified the equations to
account for this fact, the mathematical harmony was
spoiled. The equations became complex and
unwieldy and, worse still, inconsistent.
What to do? Here’s the idea put forward by Higgs.
Don’t shove the particles’ masses down the throat of
the beautiful equations. Instead, keep the equations
pristine and symmetric, but consider them operating
within a peculiar environment. Imagine that all of
space is uniformly filled with an invisible
substance—now called the Higgs field—that exerts a
drag force on particles when they accelerate through
it. Push on a fundamental particle in an effort to
increase its speed and, according to Higgs, you would
feel this drag force as a resistance. Justifiably, you
would interpret the resistance as the particle’s mass.
For a mental toehold, think of a ping-pong ball
submerged in water. When you push on the
ping-pong ball, it will feel much more massive than it
does outside of water. Its interaction with the watery
environment has the effect of endowing it with mass.
So with particles submerged in the Higgs field.
In 1964, Higgs submitted a paper to a prominent
physics journal in which he formulated this idea
mathematically. The paper was rejected. Not because
it contained a technical error, but because the
premise of an invisible something permeating space,
interacting with particles to provide their mass, well,
it all just seemed like heaps of overwrought
speculation. The editors of the journal deemed it “of
no obvious relevance to physics.”
But Higgs persevered (and his revised paper
appeared later that year in another journal), and
physicists who took the time to study the proposal
gradually realized that his idea was a stroke of genius,
one that allowed them to have their cake and eat it
too. In Higgs’s scheme, the fundamental equations
can retain their pristine form because the dirty work
of providing the particles’ masses is relegated to the
environment.
While I wasn’t around to witness the initial
rejection of Higgs’s proposal in 1964 (well, I was
around, but only barely), I can attest that by the
mid-1980s, the assessment had changed. The physics
community had, for the most part, fully bought into
the idea that there was a Higgs field permeating
space. In fact, in a graduate course I took that
covered what’s known as the Standard Model of
Particle Physics (the quantum equations physicists
have assembled to describe the particles of matter
and the dominant forces by which they influence
each other), the professor presented the Higgs field
with such certainty that for a long while I had no idea
it had yet to be established experimentally.
On occasion, that happens in physics. Mathematical
equations can sometimes tell such a convincing tale,
they can seemingly radiate reality so strongly, that
they become entrenched in the vernacular of
working physicists, even before there’s data to
confirm them.
Question 49:
As used in line 77, “established” most nearly means
A) validated.
B) founded.
C) introduced.
D) enacted.
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_7-question_49 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Brian Greene, “How the Higgs
Boson Was Found.” ©2013 by Smithsonian Institution. The
Higgs boson is an elementary particle associated with the
Higgs field. Experiments conducted in 2012–2013
tentatively confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson and
thus of the Higgs field.
Nearly a half-century ago, Peter Higgs and a
handful of other physicists were trying to understand
the origin of a basic physical feature: mass. You can
think of mass as an object’s heft or, a little more
precisely, as the resistance it offers to having its
motion changed. Push on a freight train (or a
feather) to increase its speed, and the resistance you
feel reflects its mass. At a microscopic level, the
freight train’s mass comes from its constituent
molecules and atoms, which are themselves built
from fundamental particles, electrons and quarks.
But where do the masses of these and other
fundamental particles come from?
When physicists in the 1960s modeled the
behavior of these particles using equations rooted in
quantum physics, they encountered a puzzle. If they
imagined that the particles were all massless, then
each term in the equations clicked into a perfectly
symmetric pattern, like the tips of a perfect
snowflake. And this symmetry was not just
mathematically elegant. It explained patterns evident
in the experimental data. But—and here’s the
puzzle—physicists knew that the particles did have
mass, and when they modified the equations to
account for this fact, the mathematical harmony was
spoiled. The equations became complex and
unwieldy and, worse still, inconsistent.
What to do? Here’s the idea put forward by Higgs.
Don’t shove the particles’ masses down the throat of
the beautiful equations. Instead, keep the equations
pristine and symmetric, but consider them operating
within a peculiar environment. Imagine that all of
space is uniformly filled with an invisible
substance—now called the Higgs field—that exerts a
drag force on particles when they accelerate through
it. Push on a fundamental particle in an effort to
increase its speed and, according to Higgs, you would
feel this drag force as a resistance. Justifiably, you
would interpret the resistance as the particle’s mass.
For a mental toehold, think of a ping-pong ball
submerged in water. When you push on the
ping-pong ball, it will feel much more massive than it
does outside of water. Its interaction with the watery
environment has the effect of endowing it with mass.
So with particles submerged in the Higgs field.
In 1964, Higgs submitted a paper to a prominent
physics journal in which he formulated this idea
mathematically. The paper was rejected. Not because
it contained a technical error, but because the
premise of an invisible something permeating space,
interacting with particles to provide their mass, well,
it all just seemed like heaps of overwrought
speculation. The editors of the journal deemed it “of
no obvious relevance to physics.”
But Higgs persevered (and his revised paper
appeared later that year in another journal), and
physicists who took the time to study the proposal
gradually realized that his idea was a stroke of genius,
one that allowed them to have their cake and eat it
too. In Higgs’s scheme, the fundamental equations
can retain their pristine form because the dirty work
of providing the particles’ masses is relegated to the
environment.
While I wasn’t around to witness the initial
rejection of Higgs’s proposal in 1964 (well, I was
around, but only barely), I can attest that by the
mid-1980s, the assessment had changed. The physics
community had, for the most part, fully bought into
the idea that there was a Higgs field permeating
space. In fact, in a graduate course I took that
covered what’s known as the Standard Model of
Particle Physics (the quantum equations physicists
have assembled to describe the particles of matter
and the dominant forces by which they influence
each other), the professor presented the Higgs field
with such certainty that for a long while I had no idea
it had yet to be established experimentally.
On occasion, that happens in physics. Mathematical
equations can sometimes tell such a convincing tale,
they can seemingly radiate reality so strongly, that
they become entrenched in the vernacular of
working physicists, even before there’s data to
confirm them.
Question 46:
The author notes that one reason Higgs’s theory gained acceptance was that it
A) let scientists accept two conditions that had previously seemed irreconcilable.
B) introduced an innovative approach that could be applied to additional problems.
C) answered a question that earlier scientists had not even raised.
D) explained why two distinct phenomena were being misinterpreted as one phenomenon.
Answer: | A | false | sat-practice_7-question_46 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Brian Greene, “How the Higgs
Boson Was Found.” ©2013 by Smithsonian Institution. The
Higgs boson is an elementary particle associated with the
Higgs field. Experiments conducted in 2012–2013
tentatively confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson and
thus of the Higgs field.
Nearly a half-century ago, Peter Higgs and a
handful of other physicists were trying to understand
the origin of a basic physical feature: mass. You can
think of mass as an object’s heft or, a little more
precisely, as the resistance it offers to having its
motion changed. Push on a freight train (or a
feather) to increase its speed, and the resistance you
feel reflects its mass. At a microscopic level, the
freight train’s mass comes from its constituent
molecules and atoms, which are themselves built
from fundamental particles, electrons and quarks.
But where do the masses of these and other
fundamental particles come from?
When physicists in the 1960s modeled the
behavior of these particles using equations rooted in
quantum physics, they encountered a puzzle. If they
imagined that the particles were all massless, then
each term in the equations clicked into a perfectly
symmetric pattern, like the tips of a perfect
snowflake. And this symmetry was not just
mathematically elegant. It explained patterns evident
in the experimental data. But—and here’s the
puzzle—physicists knew that the particles did have
mass, and when they modified the equations to
account for this fact, the mathematical harmony was
spoiled. The equations became complex and
unwieldy and, worse still, inconsistent.
What to do? Here’s the idea put forward by Higgs.
Don’t shove the particles’ masses down the throat of
the beautiful equations. Instead, keep the equations
pristine and symmetric, but consider them operating
within a peculiar environment. Imagine that all of
space is uniformly filled with an invisible
substance—now called the Higgs field—that exerts a
drag force on particles when they accelerate through
it. Push on a fundamental particle in an effort to
increase its speed and, according to Higgs, you would
feel this drag force as a resistance. Justifiably, you
would interpret the resistance as the particle’s mass.
For a mental toehold, think of a ping-pong ball
submerged in water. When you push on the
ping-pong ball, it will feel much more massive than it
does outside of water. Its interaction with the watery
environment has the effect of endowing it with mass.
So with particles submerged in the Higgs field.
In 1964, Higgs submitted a paper to a prominent
physics journal in which he formulated this idea
mathematically. The paper was rejected. Not because
it contained a technical error, but because the
premise of an invisible something permeating space,
interacting with particles to provide their mass, well,
it all just seemed like heaps of overwrought
speculation. The editors of the journal deemed it “of
no obvious relevance to physics.”
But Higgs persevered (and his revised paper
appeared later that year in another journal), and
physicists who took the time to study the proposal
gradually realized that his idea was a stroke of genius,
one that allowed them to have their cake and eat it
too. In Higgs’s scheme, the fundamental equations
can retain their pristine form because the dirty work
of providing the particles’ masses is relegated to the
environment.
While I wasn’t around to witness the initial
rejection of Higgs’s proposal in 1964 (well, I was
around, but only barely), I can attest that by the
mid-1980s, the assessment had changed. The physics
community had, for the most part, fully bought into
the idea that there was a Higgs field permeating
space. In fact, in a graduate course I took that
covered what’s known as the Standard Model of
Particle Physics (the quantum equations physicists
have assembled to describe the particles of matter
and the dominant forces by which they influence
each other), the professor presented the Higgs field
with such certainty that for a long while I had no idea
it had yet to be established experimentally.
On occasion, that happens in physics. Mathematical
equations can sometimes tell such a convincing tale,
they can seemingly radiate reality so strongly, that
they become entrenched in the vernacular of
working physicists, even before there’s data to
confirm them.
Question 42:
Over the course of the passage, the main focus shifts from
A) a technical account of the Higgs field to a description of it aimed at a broad audience.
B) a review of Higgs’s work to a contextualization of that work within Higgs’s era.
C) an explanation of the Higgs field to a discussion of the response to Higgs’s theory.
D) an analysis of the Higgs field to a suggestion of future discoveries that might build upon it.
Answer: | C | false | sat-practice_7-question_42 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Brian Greene, “How the Higgs
Boson Was Found.” ©2013 by Smithsonian Institution. The
Higgs boson is an elementary particle associated with the
Higgs field. Experiments conducted in 2012–2013
tentatively confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson and
thus of the Higgs field.
Nearly a half-century ago, Peter Higgs and a
handful of other physicists were trying to understand
the origin of a basic physical feature: mass. You can
think of mass as an object’s heft or, a little more
precisely, as the resistance it offers to having its
motion changed. Push on a freight train (or a
feather) to increase its speed, and the resistance you
feel reflects its mass. At a microscopic level, the
freight train’s mass comes from its constituent
molecules and atoms, which are themselves built
from fundamental particles, electrons and quarks.
But where do the masses of these and other
fundamental particles come from?
When physicists in the 1960s modeled the
behavior of these particles using equations rooted in
quantum physics, they encountered a puzzle. If they
imagined that the particles were all massless, then
each term in the equations clicked into a perfectly
symmetric pattern, like the tips of a perfect
snowflake. And this symmetry was not just
mathematically elegant. It explained patterns evident
in the experimental data. But—and here’s the
puzzle—physicists knew that the particles did have
mass, and when they modified the equations to
account for this fact, the mathematical harmony was
spoiled. The equations became complex and
unwieldy and, worse still, inconsistent.
What to do? Here’s the idea put forward by Higgs.
Don’t shove the particles’ masses down the throat of
the beautiful equations. Instead, keep the equations
pristine and symmetric, but consider them operating
within a peculiar environment. Imagine that all of
space is uniformly filled with an invisible
substance—now called the Higgs field—that exerts a
drag force on particles when they accelerate through
it. Push on a fundamental particle in an effort to
increase its speed and, according to Higgs, you would
feel this drag force as a resistance. Justifiably, you
would interpret the resistance as the particle’s mass.
For a mental toehold, think of a ping-pong ball
submerged in water. When you push on the
ping-pong ball, it will feel much more massive than it
does outside of water. Its interaction with the watery
environment has the effect of endowing it with mass.
So with particles submerged in the Higgs field.
In 1964, Higgs submitted a paper to a prominent
physics journal in which he formulated this idea
mathematically. The paper was rejected. Not because
it contained a technical error, but because the
premise of an invisible something permeating space,
interacting with particles to provide their mass, well,
it all just seemed like heaps of overwrought
speculation. The editors of the journal deemed it “of
no obvious relevance to physics.”
But Higgs persevered (and his revised paper
appeared later that year in another journal), and
physicists who took the time to study the proposal
gradually realized that his idea was a stroke of genius,
one that allowed them to have their cake and eat it
too. In Higgs’s scheme, the fundamental equations
can retain their pristine form because the dirty work
of providing the particles’ masses is relegated to the
environment.
While I wasn’t around to witness the initial
rejection of Higgs’s proposal in 1964 (well, I was
around, but only barely), I can attest that by the
mid-1980s, the assessment had changed. The physics
community had, for the most part, fully bought into
the idea that there was a Higgs field permeating
space. In fact, in a graduate course I took that
covered what’s known as the Standard Model of
Particle Physics (the quantum equations physicists
have assembled to describe the particles of matter
and the dominant forces by which they influence
each other), the professor presented the Higgs field
with such certainty that for a long while I had no idea
it had yet to be established experimentally.
On occasion, that happens in physics. Mathematical
equations can sometimes tell such a convincing tale,
they can seemingly radiate reality so strongly, that
they become entrenched in the vernacular of
working physicists, even before there’s data to
confirm them.
Question 44:
The author most strongly suggests that the reason the scientific community initially rejected Higgs’s idea was that the idea
A) addressed a problem unnoticed by other physicists.
B) only worked if the equations were flawless.
C) rendered accepted theories in physics obsolete.
D) appeared to have little empirical basis.
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_7-question_44 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Brian Greene, “How the Higgs
Boson Was Found.” ©2013 by Smithsonian Institution. The
Higgs boson is an elementary particle associated with the
Higgs field. Experiments conducted in 2012–2013
tentatively confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson and
thus of the Higgs field.
Nearly a half-century ago, Peter Higgs and a
handful of other physicists were trying to understand
the origin of a basic physical feature: mass. You can
think of mass as an object’s heft or, a little more
precisely, as the resistance it offers to having its
motion changed. Push on a freight train (or a
feather) to increase its speed, and the resistance you
feel reflects its mass. At a microscopic level, the
freight train’s mass comes from its constituent
molecules and atoms, which are themselves built
from fundamental particles, electrons and quarks.
But where do the masses of these and other
fundamental particles come from?
When physicists in the 1960s modeled the
behavior of these particles using equations rooted in
quantum physics, they encountered a puzzle. If they
imagined that the particles were all massless, then
each term in the equations clicked into a perfectly
symmetric pattern, like the tips of a perfect
snowflake. And this symmetry was not just
mathematically elegant. It explained patterns evident
in the experimental data. But—and here’s the
puzzle—physicists knew that the particles did have
mass, and when they modified the equations to
account for this fact, the mathematical harmony was
spoiled. The equations became complex and
unwieldy and, worse still, inconsistent.
What to do? Here’s the idea put forward by Higgs.
Don’t shove the particles’ masses down the throat of
the beautiful equations. Instead, keep the equations
pristine and symmetric, but consider them operating
within a peculiar environment. Imagine that all of
space is uniformly filled with an invisible
substance—now called the Higgs field—that exerts a
drag force on particles when they accelerate through
it. Push on a fundamental particle in an effort to
increase its speed and, according to Higgs, you would
feel this drag force as a resistance. Justifiably, you
would interpret the resistance as the particle’s mass.
For a mental toehold, think of a ping-pong ball
submerged in water. When you push on the
ping-pong ball, it will feel much more massive than it
does outside of water. Its interaction with the watery
environment has the effect of endowing it with mass.
So with particles submerged in the Higgs field.
In 1964, Higgs submitted a paper to a prominent
physics journal in which he formulated this idea
mathematically. The paper was rejected. Not because
it contained a technical error, but because the
premise of an invisible something permeating space,
interacting with particles to provide their mass, well,
it all just seemed like heaps of overwrought
speculation. The editors of the journal deemed it “of
no obvious relevance to physics.”
But Higgs persevered (and his revised paper
appeared later that year in another journal), and
physicists who took the time to study the proposal
gradually realized that his idea was a stroke of genius,
one that allowed them to have their cake and eat it
too. In Higgs’s scheme, the fundamental equations
can retain their pristine form because the dirty work
of providing the particles’ masses is relegated to the
environment.
While I wasn’t around to witness the initial
rejection of Higgs’s proposal in 1964 (well, I was
around, but only barely), I can attest that by the
mid-1980s, the assessment had changed. The physics
community had, for the most part, fully bought into
the idea that there was a Higgs field permeating
space. In fact, in a graduate course I took that
covered what’s known as the Standard Model of
Particle Physics (the quantum equations physicists
have assembled to describe the particles of matter
and the dominant forces by which they influence
each other), the professor presented the Higgs field
with such certainty that for a long while I had no idea
it had yet to be established experimentally.
On occasion, that happens in physics. Mathematical
equations can sometimes tell such a convincing tale,
they can seemingly radiate reality so strongly, that
they become entrenched in the vernacular of
working physicists, even before there’s data to
confirm them.
Question 43:
The main purpose of the analogy of the ping-pong ball (line 40) is to
A) popularize a little-known fact.
B) contrast competing scientific theories.
C) criticize a widely accepted explanation.
D) clarify an abstract concept.
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_7-question_43 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is from Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Angel’s Game.
©2008 by Dragonworks, S.L. Translation ©2009 by
Lucia Graves. The narrator, a writer, recalls his childhood in
early twentieth-century Barcelona.
Even then my only friends were made of paper
and ink. At school I had learned to read and write
long before the other children. Where my school
friends saw notches of ink on incomprehensible
pages, I saw light, streets, and people. Words and the
mystery of their hidden science fascinated me, and I
saw in them a key with which I could unlock a
boundless world, a safe haven from that home, those
streets, and those troubled days in which even I
could sense that only a limited fortune awaited me.
My father didn’t like to see books in the house.
There was something about them—apart from the
letters he could not decipher—that offended him.
He used to tell me that as soon as I was ten he would
send me off to work and that I’d better get rid of all
my scatterbrained ideas if I didn’t want to end up a
loser, a nobody. I used to hide my books under the
mattress and wait for him to go out or fall asleep so
that I could read. Once he caught me reading at night
and flew into a rage. He tore the book from my
hands and flung it out of the window.
“If I catch you wasting electricity again, reading
all this nonsense, you’ll be sorry.”
My father was not a miser and, despite the
hardships we suffered, whenever he could he gave me
a few coins so that I could buy myself some treats like
the other children. He was convinced that I spent
them on licorice sticks, sunflower seeds, or sweets,
but I would keep them in a coffee tin under the bed,
and when I’d collected four or five reales I’d secretly
rush out to buy myself a book.
My favorite place in the whole city was the
Sempere & Sons bookshop on Calle Santa Ana. It
smelled of old paper and dust and it was my
sanctuary, my refuge. The bookseller would let me sit
on a chair in a corner and read any book I liked to
my heart’s content. He hardly ever allowed me to pay
for the books he placed in my hands, but when he
wasn’t looking I’d leave the coins I’d managed to
collect on the counter before I left. It was only small
change—if I’d had to buy a book with that pittance, I
would probably have been able to afford only a
booklet of cigarette papers. When it was time for me
to leave, I would do so dragging my feet, a weight on
my soul. If it had been up to me, I would have stayed
there forever.
One Christmas Sempere gave me the best gift I
have ever received. It was an old volume, read and
experienced to the full.
“Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens,” I read
on the cover.
I was aware that Sempere knew a few authors who
frequented his establishment and, judging by the care
with which he handled the volume, I thought
perhaps this Mr. Dickens was one of them.
“A friend of yours?”
“A lifelong friend. And from now on, he’s your
friend too.”
That afternoon I took my new friend home,
hidden under my clothes so that my father wouldn’t
see it. It was a rainy winter, with days as gray as lead,
and I read Great Expectations about nine times,
partly because I had no other book at hand, partly
because I did not think there could be a better one in
the whole world and I was beginning to suspect that
Mr. Dickens had written it just for me. Soon I was
convinced that I didn’t want to do anything else in
life but learn to do what Mr. Dickens had done.
Question 3:
With which of the following statements about his father would the narrator most likely agree?
A) He lacked affection for the narrator.
B) He disliked any unnecessary use of money.
C) He would not have approved of Sempere’s gift.
D) He objected to the writings of Charles Dickens.
Answer: | C | false | sat-practice_8-question_3 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is from Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Angel’s Game.
©2008 by Dragonworks, S.L. Translation ©2009 by
Lucia Graves. The narrator, a writer, recalls his childhood in
early twentieth-century Barcelona.
Even then my only friends were made of paper
and ink. At school I had learned to read and write
long before the other children. Where my school
friends saw notches of ink on incomprehensible
pages, I saw light, streets, and people. Words and the
mystery of their hidden science fascinated me, and I
saw in them a key with which I could unlock a
boundless world, a safe haven from that home, those
streets, and those troubled days in which even I
could sense that only a limited fortune awaited me.
My father didn’t like to see books in the house.
There was something about them—apart from the
letters he could not decipher—that offended him.
He used to tell me that as soon as I was ten he would
send me off to work and that I’d better get rid of all
my scatterbrained ideas if I didn’t want to end up a
loser, a nobody. I used to hide my books under the
mattress and wait for him to go out or fall asleep so
that I could read. Once he caught me reading at night
and flew into a rage. He tore the book from my
hands and flung it out of the window.
“If I catch you wasting electricity again, reading
all this nonsense, you’ll be sorry.”
My father was not a miser and, despite the
hardships we suffered, whenever he could he gave me
a few coins so that I could buy myself some treats like
the other children. He was convinced that I spent
them on licorice sticks, sunflower seeds, or sweets,
but I would keep them in a coffee tin under the bed,
and when I’d collected four or five reales I’d secretly
rush out to buy myself a book.
My favorite place in the whole city was the
Sempere & Sons bookshop on Calle Santa Ana. It
smelled of old paper and dust and it was my
sanctuary, my refuge. The bookseller would let me sit
on a chair in a corner and read any book I liked to
my heart’s content. He hardly ever allowed me to pay
for the books he placed in my hands, but when he
wasn’t looking I’d leave the coins I’d managed to
collect on the counter before I left. It was only small
change—if I’d had to buy a book with that pittance, I
would probably have been able to afford only a
booklet of cigarette papers. When it was time for me
to leave, I would do so dragging my feet, a weight on
my soul. If it had been up to me, I would have stayed
there forever.
One Christmas Sempere gave me the best gift I
have ever received. It was an old volume, read and
experienced to the full.
“Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens,” I read
on the cover.
I was aware that Sempere knew a few authors who
frequented his establishment and, judging by the care
with which he handled the volume, I thought
perhaps this Mr. Dickens was one of them.
“A friend of yours?”
“A lifelong friend. And from now on, he’s your
friend too.”
That afternoon I took my new friend home,
hidden under my clothes so that my father wouldn’t
see it. It was a rainy winter, with days as gray as lead,
and I read Great Expectations about nine times,
partly because I had no other book at hand, partly
because I did not think there could be a better one in
the whole world and I was beginning to suspect that
Mr. Dickens had written it just for me. Soon I was
convinced that I didn’t want to do anything else in
life but learn to do what Mr. Dickens had done.
Question 1:
Over the course of the passage, the main focus shifts from a
A) general discussion of the narrator’s love of reading to a portrayal of an influential incident.
B) depiction of the narrator’s father to an examination of an author with whom the narrator becomes enchanted.
C) symbolic representation of a skill the narrator possesses to an example of its application.
D) tale about the hardships of the narrator’s childhood to an analysis of the effects of those hardships.
Answer: | A | false | sat-practice_8-question_1 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is from Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Angel’s Game.
©2008 by Dragonworks, S.L. Translation ©2009 by
Lucia Graves. The narrator, a writer, recalls his childhood in
early twentieth-century Barcelona.
Even then my only friends were made of paper
and ink. At school I had learned to read and write
long before the other children. Where my school
friends saw notches of ink on incomprehensible
pages, I saw light, streets, and people. Words and the
mystery of their hidden science fascinated me, and I
saw in them a key with which I could unlock a
boundless world, a safe haven from that home, those
streets, and those troubled days in which even I
could sense that only a limited fortune awaited me.
My father didn’t like to see books in the house.
There was something about them—apart from the
letters he could not decipher—that offended him.
He used to tell me that as soon as I was ten he would
send me off to work and that I’d better get rid of all
my scatterbrained ideas if I didn’t want to end up a
loser, a nobody. I used to hide my books under the
mattress and wait for him to go out or fall asleep so
that I could read. Once he caught me reading at night
and flew into a rage. He tore the book from my
hands and flung it out of the window.
“If I catch you wasting electricity again, reading
all this nonsense, you’ll be sorry.”
My father was not a miser and, despite the
hardships we suffered, whenever he could he gave me
a few coins so that I could buy myself some treats like
the other children. He was convinced that I spent
them on licorice sticks, sunflower seeds, or sweets,
but I would keep them in a coffee tin under the bed,
and when I’d collected four or five reales I’d secretly
rush out to buy myself a book.
My favorite place in the whole city was the
Sempere & Sons bookshop on Calle Santa Ana. It
smelled of old paper and dust and it was my
sanctuary, my refuge. The bookseller would let me sit
on a chair in a corner and read any book I liked to
my heart’s content. He hardly ever allowed me to pay
for the books he placed in my hands, but when he
wasn’t looking I’d leave the coins I’d managed to
collect on the counter before I left. It was only small
change—if I’d had to buy a book with that pittance, I
would probably have been able to afford only a
booklet of cigarette papers. When it was time for me
to leave, I would do so dragging my feet, a weight on
my soul. If it had been up to me, I would have stayed
there forever.
One Christmas Sempere gave me the best gift I
have ever received. It was an old volume, read and
experienced to the full.
“Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens,” I read
on the cover.
I was aware that Sempere knew a few authors who
frequented his establishment and, judging by the care
with which he handled the volume, I thought
perhaps this Mr. Dickens was one of them.
“A friend of yours?”
“A lifelong friend. And from now on, he’s your
friend too.”
That afternoon I took my new friend home,
hidden under my clothes so that my father wouldn’t
see it. It was a rainy winter, with days as gray as lead,
and I read Great Expectations about nine times,
partly because I had no other book at hand, partly
because I did not think there could be a better one in
the whole world and I was beginning to suspect that
Mr. Dickens had written it just for me. Soon I was
convinced that I didn’t want to do anything else in
life but learn to do what Mr. Dickens had done.
Question 2:
The main purpose of lines 1-10 (“Even... awaited me”) is to
A) introduce the characters who play a part in the narrator’s story.
B) list the difficult conditions the narrator endured in childhood.
C) describe the passion that drives the actions the narrator recounts.
D) depict the narrator’s aspirations before he met Sempere.
Answer: | C | true | sat-practice_8-question_2 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is from Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Angel’s Game.
©2008 by Dragonworks, S.L. Translation ©2009 by
Lucia Graves. The narrator, a writer, recalls his childhood in
early twentieth-century Barcelona.
Even then my only friends were made of paper
and ink. At school I had learned to read and write
long before the other children. Where my school
friends saw notches of ink on incomprehensible
pages, I saw light, streets, and people. Words and the
mystery of their hidden science fascinated me, and I
saw in them a key with which I could unlock a
boundless world, a safe haven from that home, those
streets, and those troubled days in which even I
could sense that only a limited fortune awaited me.
My father didn’t like to see books in the house.
There was something about them—apart from the
letters he could not decipher—that offended him.
He used to tell me that as soon as I was ten he would
send me off to work and that I’d better get rid of all
my scatterbrained ideas if I didn’t want to end up a
loser, a nobody. I used to hide my books under the
mattress and wait for him to go out or fall asleep so
that I could read. Once he caught me reading at night
and flew into a rage. He tore the book from my
hands and flung it out of the window.
“If I catch you wasting electricity again, reading
all this nonsense, you’ll be sorry.”
My father was not a miser and, despite the
hardships we suffered, whenever he could he gave me
a few coins so that I could buy myself some treats like
the other children. He was convinced that I spent
them on licorice sticks, sunflower seeds, or sweets,
but I would keep them in a coffee tin under the bed,
and when I’d collected four or five reales I’d secretly
rush out to buy myself a book.
My favorite place in the whole city was the
Sempere & Sons bookshop on Calle Santa Ana. It
smelled of old paper and dust and it was my
sanctuary, my refuge. The bookseller would let me sit
on a chair in a corner and read any book I liked to
my heart’s content. He hardly ever allowed me to pay
for the books he placed in my hands, but when he
wasn’t looking I’d leave the coins I’d managed to
collect on the counter before I left. It was only small
change—if I’d had to buy a book with that pittance, I
would probably have been able to afford only a
booklet of cigarette papers. When it was time for me
to leave, I would do so dragging my feet, a weight on
my soul. If it had been up to me, I would have stayed
there forever.
One Christmas Sempere gave me the best gift I
have ever received. It was an old volume, read and
experienced to the full.
“Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens,” I read
on the cover.
I was aware that Sempere knew a few authors who
frequented his establishment and, judging by the care
with which he handled the volume, I thought
perhaps this Mr. Dickens was one of them.
“A friend of yours?”
“A lifelong friend. And from now on, he’s your
friend too.”
That afternoon I took my new friend home,
hidden under my clothes so that my father wouldn’t
see it. It was a rainy winter, with days as gray as lead,
and I read Great Expectations about nine times,
partly because I had no other book at hand, partly
because I did not think there could be a better one in
the whole world and I was beginning to suspect that
Mr. Dickens had written it just for me. Soon I was
convinced that I didn’t want to do anything else in
life but learn to do what Mr. Dickens had done.
Question 7:
The narrator indicates that he pays Sempere
A) less than Sempere expects him to pay for the books.
B) nothing, because Sempere won’t take his money.
C) the money he makes selling sweets to the other children.
D) much less for the books than they are worth.
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_8-question_7 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is from Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Angel’s Game.
©2008 by Dragonworks, S.L. Translation ©2009 by
Lucia Graves. The narrator, a writer, recalls his childhood in
early twentieth-century Barcelona.
Even then my only friends were made of paper
and ink. At school I had learned to read and write
long before the other children. Where my school
friends saw notches of ink on incomprehensible
pages, I saw light, streets, and people. Words and the
mystery of their hidden science fascinated me, and I
saw in them a key with which I could unlock a
boundless world, a safe haven from that home, those
streets, and those troubled days in which even I
could sense that only a limited fortune awaited me.
My father didn’t like to see books in the house.
There was something about them—apart from the
letters he could not decipher—that offended him.
He used to tell me that as soon as I was ten he would
send me off to work and that I’d better get rid of all
my scatterbrained ideas if I didn’t want to end up a
loser, a nobody. I used to hide my books under the
mattress and wait for him to go out or fall asleep so
that I could read. Once he caught me reading at night
and flew into a rage. He tore the book from my
hands and flung it out of the window.
“If I catch you wasting electricity again, reading
all this nonsense, you’ll be sorry.”
My father was not a miser and, despite the
hardships we suffered, whenever he could he gave me
a few coins so that I could buy myself some treats like
the other children. He was convinced that I spent
them on licorice sticks, sunflower seeds, or sweets,
but I would keep them in a coffee tin under the bed,
and when I’d collected four or five reales I’d secretly
rush out to buy myself a book.
My favorite place in the whole city was the
Sempere & Sons bookshop on Calle Santa Ana. It
smelled of old paper and dust and it was my
sanctuary, my refuge. The bookseller would let me sit
on a chair in a corner and read any book I liked to
my heart’s content. He hardly ever allowed me to pay
for the books he placed in my hands, but when he
wasn’t looking I’d leave the coins I’d managed to
collect on the counter before I left. It was only small
change—if I’d had to buy a book with that pittance, I
would probably have been able to afford only a
booklet of cigarette papers. When it was time for me
to leave, I would do so dragging my feet, a weight on
my soul. If it had been up to me, I would have stayed
there forever.
One Christmas Sempere gave me the best gift I
have ever received. It was an old volume, read and
experienced to the full.
“Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens,” I read
on the cover.
I was aware that Sempere knew a few authors who
frequented his establishment and, judging by the care
with which he handled the volume, I thought
perhaps this Mr. Dickens was one of them.
“A friend of yours?”
“A lifelong friend. And from now on, he’s your
friend too.”
That afternoon I took my new friend home,
hidden under my clothes so that my father wouldn’t
see it. It was a rainy winter, with days as gray as lead,
and I read Great Expectations about nine times,
partly because I had no other book at hand, partly
because I did not think there could be a better one in
the whole world and I was beginning to suspect that
Mr. Dickens had written it just for me. Soon I was
convinced that I didn’t want to do anything else in
life but learn to do what Mr. Dickens had done.
Question 8:
As used in line 44, “weight” most nearly means
A) bulk.
B) burden.
C) force.
D) clout.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_8-question_8 |
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Dataset Card for "sat-reading"
This dataset contains the passages and questions from the Reading part of ten publicly available SAT Practice Tests. For more information see the blog post Language Models vs. The SAT Reading Test.
For each question, the reading passage from the section it is contained in is prefixed.
Then, the question is prompted with Question #:, followed by the four possible answers.
Each entry ends with Answer:.
Questions which reference a diagram, chart, table, etc. have been removed (typically three per test).
In addition, there is a boolean requires_line feature, which indiciates if the question references specific lines within the passage.
To maintain generalizability in finetuning scenarios, SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST appears at the beginning of each entry -- it may be desireable to remove this depending on your intentions.
Eight tests appear in the training split; one each in the validation and test splits.
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