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SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s
address to the 1869 Woman Suffrage Convention in
Washington, DC.
I urge a sixteenth amendment, because “manhood
suffrage,” or a man’s government, is civil, religious,
and social disorganization. The male element is a
destructive force, stern, selfish, aggrandizing, loving
war, violence, conquest, acquisition, breeding in the
material and moral world alike discord, disorder,
disease, and death. See what a record of blood and
cruelty the pages of history reveal! Through what
slavery, slaughter, and sacrifice, through what
inquisitions and imprisonments, pains and
persecutions, black codes and gloomy creeds, the
soul of humanity has struggled for the centuries,
while mercy has veiled her face and all hearts have
been dead alike to love and hope!
The male element has held high carnival thus far;
it has fairly run riot from the beginning,
overpowering the feminine element everywhere,
crushing out all the diviner qualities in human
nature, until we know but little of true manhood and
womanhood, of the latter comparatively nothing, for
it has scarce been recognized as a power until within
the last century. Society is but the reflection of man
himself, untempered by woman’s thought; the hard
iron rule we feel alike in the church, the state, and the
home. No one need wonder at the disorganization, at
the fragmentary condition of everything, when we
remember that man, who represents but half a
complete being, with but half an idea on every
subject, has undertaken the absolute control of all
sublunary matters.
People object to the demands of those whom they
choose to call the strong-minded, because they say
“the right of suffrage will make the women
masculine.” That is just the difficulty in which we are
involved today. Though disfranchised, we have few
women in the best sense; we have simply so many
reflections, varieties, and dilutions of the masculine
gender. The strong, natural characteristics of
womanhood are repressed and ignored in
dependence, for so long as man feeds woman she
will try to please the giver and adapt herself to his
condition. To keep a foothold in society, woman
must be as near like man as possible, reflect his ideas,
opinions, virtues, motives, prejudices, and vices. She
must respect his statutes, though they strip her of
every inalienable right, and conflict with that higher
law written by the finger of God on her own soul....
. . . [M]an has been molding woman to his ideas
by direct and positive influences, while she, if not a
negation, has used indirect means to control him,
and in most cases developed the very characteristics
both in him and herself that needed repression.
And now man himself stands appalled at the results
of his own excesses, and mourns in bitterness that
falsehood, selfishness, and violence are the law of life.
The need of this hour is not territory, gold mines,
railroads, or specie payments but a new evangel of
womanhood, to exalt purity, virtue, morality, true
religion, to lift man up into the higher realms of
thought and action.
We ask woman’s enfranchisement, as the first step
toward the recognition of that essential element in
government that can only secure the health, strength,
and prosperity of the nation. Whatever is done to lift
woman to her true position will help to usher in a
new day of peace and perfection for the race.
In speaking of the masculine element, I do not
wish to be understood to say that all men are hard,
selfish, and brutal, for many of the most beautiful
spirits the world has known have been clothed with
manhood; but I refer to those characteristics, though
often marked in woman, that distinguish what is
called the stronger sex. For example, the love of
acquisition and conquest, the very pioneers of
civilization, when expended on the earth, the sea, the
elements, the riches and forces of nature, are powers
of destruction when used to subjugate one man to
another or to sacrifice nations to ambition.
Here that great conservator of woman’s love, if
permitted to assert itself, as it naturally would in
freedom against oppression, violence, and war,
would hold all these destructive forces in check, for
woman knows the cost of life better than man does,
and not with her consent would one drop of blood
ever be shed, one life sacrificed in vain.
Question 35:
Stanton claims that which of the following was a relatively recent historical development?
A) The control of society by men
B) The spread of war and injustice
C) The domination of domestic life by men
D) The acknowledgment of women’s true character
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_2-question_35 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s
address to the 1869 Woman Suffrage Convention in
Washington, DC.
I urge a sixteenth amendment, because “manhood
suffrage,” or a man’s government, is civil, religious,
and social disorganization. The male element is a
destructive force, stern, selfish, aggrandizing, loving
war, violence, conquest, acquisition, breeding in the
material and moral world alike discord, disorder,
disease, and death. See what a record of blood and
cruelty the pages of history reveal! Through what
slavery, slaughter, and sacrifice, through what
inquisitions and imprisonments, pains and
persecutions, black codes and gloomy creeds, the
soul of humanity has struggled for the centuries,
while mercy has veiled her face and all hearts have
been dead alike to love and hope!
The male element has held high carnival thus far;
it has fairly run riot from the beginning,
overpowering the feminine element everywhere,
crushing out all the diviner qualities in human
nature, until we know but little of true manhood and
womanhood, of the latter comparatively nothing, for
it has scarce been recognized as a power until within
the last century. Society is but the reflection of man
himself, untempered by woman’s thought; the hard
iron rule we feel alike in the church, the state, and the
home. No one need wonder at the disorganization, at
the fragmentary condition of everything, when we
remember that man, who represents but half a
complete being, with but half an idea on every
subject, has undertaken the absolute control of all
sublunary matters.
People object to the demands of those whom they
choose to call the strong-minded, because they say
“the right of suffrage will make the women
masculine.” That is just the difficulty in which we are
involved today. Though disfranchised, we have few
women in the best sense; we have simply so many
reflections, varieties, and dilutions of the masculine
gender. The strong, natural characteristics of
womanhood are repressed and ignored in
dependence, for so long as man feeds woman she
will try to please the giver and adapt herself to his
condition. To keep a foothold in society, woman
must be as near like man as possible, reflect his ideas,
opinions, virtues, motives, prejudices, and vices. She
must respect his statutes, though they strip her of
every inalienable right, and conflict with that higher
law written by the finger of God on her own soul....
. . . [M]an has been molding woman to his ideas
by direct and positive influences, while she, if not a
negation, has used indirect means to control him,
and in most cases developed the very characteristics
both in him and herself that needed repression.
And now man himself stands appalled at the results
of his own excesses, and mourns in bitterness that
falsehood, selfishness, and violence are the law of life.
The need of this hour is not territory, gold mines,
railroads, or specie payments but a new evangel of
womanhood, to exalt purity, virtue, morality, true
religion, to lift man up into the higher realms of
thought and action.
We ask woman’s enfranchisement, as the first step
toward the recognition of that essential element in
government that can only secure the health, strength,
and prosperity of the nation. Whatever is done to lift
woman to her true position will help to usher in a
new day of peace and perfection for the race.
In speaking of the masculine element, I do not
wish to be understood to say that all men are hard,
selfish, and brutal, for many of the most beautiful
spirits the world has known have been clothed with
manhood; but I refer to those characteristics, though
often marked in woman, that distinguish what is
called the stronger sex. For example, the love of
acquisition and conquest, the very pioneers of
civilization, when expended on the earth, the sea, the
elements, the riches and forces of nature, are powers
of destruction when used to subjugate one man to
another or to sacrifice nations to ambition.
Here that great conservator of woman’s love, if
permitted to assert itself, as it naturally would in
freedom against oppression, violence, and war,
would hold all these destructive forces in check, for
woman knows the cost of life better than man does,
and not with her consent would one drop of blood
ever be shed, one life sacrificed in vain.
Question 33:
The central problem that Stanton describes in the passage is that women have been
A) denied equal educational opportunities, which has kept them from reaching their potential.
B) prevented from exerting their positive influence on men, which has led to societal breakdown.
C) prevented from voting, which has resulted in poor candidates winning important elections.
D) blocked by men from serving as legislators, which has allowed the creation of unjust laws.
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_2-question_33 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s
address to the 1869 Woman Suffrage Convention in
Washington, DC.
I urge a sixteenth amendment, because “manhood
suffrage,” or a man’s government, is civil, religious,
and social disorganization. The male element is a
destructive force, stern, selfish, aggrandizing, loving
war, violence, conquest, acquisition, breeding in the
material and moral world alike discord, disorder,
disease, and death. See what a record of blood and
cruelty the pages of history reveal! Through what
slavery, slaughter, and sacrifice, through what
inquisitions and imprisonments, pains and
persecutions, black codes and gloomy creeds, the
soul of humanity has struggled for the centuries,
while mercy has veiled her face and all hearts have
been dead alike to love and hope!
The male element has held high carnival thus far;
it has fairly run riot from the beginning,
overpowering the feminine element everywhere,
crushing out all the diviner qualities in human
nature, until we know but little of true manhood and
womanhood, of the latter comparatively nothing, for
it has scarce been recognized as a power until within
the last century. Society is but the reflection of man
himself, untempered by woman’s thought; the hard
iron rule we feel alike in the church, the state, and the
home. No one need wonder at the disorganization, at
the fragmentary condition of everything, when we
remember that man, who represents but half a
complete being, with but half an idea on every
subject, has undertaken the absolute control of all
sublunary matters.
People object to the demands of those whom they
choose to call the strong-minded, because they say
“the right of suffrage will make the women
masculine.” That is just the difficulty in which we are
involved today. Though disfranchised, we have few
women in the best sense; we have simply so many
reflections, varieties, and dilutions of the masculine
gender. The strong, natural characteristics of
womanhood are repressed and ignored in
dependence, for so long as man feeds woman she
will try to please the giver and adapt herself to his
condition. To keep a foothold in society, woman
must be as near like man as possible, reflect his ideas,
opinions, virtues, motives, prejudices, and vices. She
must respect his statutes, though they strip her of
every inalienable right, and conflict with that higher
law written by the finger of God on her own soul....
. . . [M]an has been molding woman to his ideas
by direct and positive influences, while she, if not a
negation, has used indirect means to control him,
and in most cases developed the very characteristics
both in him and herself that needed repression.
And now man himself stands appalled at the results
of his own excesses, and mourns in bitterness that
falsehood, selfishness, and violence are the law of life.
The need of this hour is not territory, gold mines,
railroads, or specie payments but a new evangel of
womanhood, to exalt purity, virtue, morality, true
religion, to lift man up into the higher realms of
thought and action.
We ask woman’s enfranchisement, as the first step
toward the recognition of that essential element in
government that can only secure the health, strength,
and prosperity of the nation. Whatever is done to lift
woman to her true position will help to usher in a
new day of peace and perfection for the race.
In speaking of the masculine element, I do not
wish to be understood to say that all men are hard,
selfish, and brutal, for many of the most beautiful
spirits the world has known have been clothed with
manhood; but I refer to those characteristics, though
often marked in woman, that distinguish what is
called the stronger sex. For example, the love of
acquisition and conquest, the very pioneers of
civilization, when expended on the earth, the sea, the
elements, the riches and forces of nature, are powers
of destruction when used to subjugate one man to
another or to sacrifice nations to ambition.
Here that great conservator of woman’s love, if
permitted to assert itself, as it naturally would in
freedom against oppression, violence, and war,
would hold all these destructive forces in check, for
woman knows the cost of life better than man does,
and not with her consent would one drop of blood
ever be shed, one life sacrificed in vain.
Question 37:
As used in line 24, “rule” most nearly refers to
A) a general guideline.
B) a controlling force.
C) an established habit.
D) a procedural method.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_2-question_37 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s
address to the 1869 Woman Suffrage Convention in
Washington, DC.
I urge a sixteenth amendment, because “manhood
suffrage,” or a man’s government, is civil, religious,
and social disorganization. The male element is a
destructive force, stern, selfish, aggrandizing, loving
war, violence, conquest, acquisition, breeding in the
material and moral world alike discord, disorder,
disease, and death. See what a record of blood and
cruelty the pages of history reveal! Through what
slavery, slaughter, and sacrifice, through what
inquisitions and imprisonments, pains and
persecutions, black codes and gloomy creeds, the
soul of humanity has struggled for the centuries,
while mercy has veiled her face and all hearts have
been dead alike to love and hope!
The male element has held high carnival thus far;
it has fairly run riot from the beginning,
overpowering the feminine element everywhere,
crushing out all the diviner qualities in human
nature, until we know but little of true manhood and
womanhood, of the latter comparatively nothing, for
it has scarce been recognized as a power until within
the last century. Society is but the reflection of man
himself, untempered by woman’s thought; the hard
iron rule we feel alike in the church, the state, and the
home. No one need wonder at the disorganization, at
the fragmentary condition of everything, when we
remember that man, who represents but half a
complete being, with but half an idea on every
subject, has undertaken the absolute control of all
sublunary matters.
People object to the demands of those whom they
choose to call the strong-minded, because they say
“the right of suffrage will make the women
masculine.” That is just the difficulty in which we are
involved today. Though disfranchised, we have few
women in the best sense; we have simply so many
reflections, varieties, and dilutions of the masculine
gender. The strong, natural characteristics of
womanhood are repressed and ignored in
dependence, for so long as man feeds woman she
will try to please the giver and adapt herself to his
condition. To keep a foothold in society, woman
must be as near like man as possible, reflect his ideas,
opinions, virtues, motives, prejudices, and vices. She
must respect his statutes, though they strip her of
every inalienable right, and conflict with that higher
law written by the finger of God on her own soul....
. . . [M]an has been molding woman to his ideas
by direct and positive influences, while she, if not a
negation, has used indirect means to control him,
and in most cases developed the very characteristics
both in him and herself that needed repression.
And now man himself stands appalled at the results
of his own excesses, and mourns in bitterness that
falsehood, selfishness, and violence are the law of life.
The need of this hour is not territory, gold mines,
railroads, or specie payments but a new evangel of
womanhood, to exalt purity, virtue, morality, true
religion, to lift man up into the higher realms of
thought and action.
We ask woman’s enfranchisement, as the first step
toward the recognition of that essential element in
government that can only secure the health, strength,
and prosperity of the nation. Whatever is done to lift
woman to her true position will help to usher in a
new day of peace and perfection for the race.
In speaking of the masculine element, I do not
wish to be understood to say that all men are hard,
selfish, and brutal, for many of the most beautiful
spirits the world has known have been clothed with
manhood; but I refer to those characteristics, though
often marked in woman, that distinguish what is
called the stronger sex. For example, the love of
acquisition and conquest, the very pioneers of
civilization, when expended on the earth, the sea, the
elements, the riches and forces of nature, are powers
of destruction when used to subjugate one man to
another or to sacrifice nations to ambition.
Here that great conservator of woman’s love, if
permitted to assert itself, as it naturally would in
freedom against oppression, violence, and war,
would hold all these destructive forces in check, for
woman knows the cost of life better than man does,
and not with her consent would one drop of blood
ever be shed, one life sacrificed in vain.
Question 38:
It can reasonably be inferred that “the strong-minded” (line 32) was a term generally intended to
A) praise women who fight for their long-denied rights.
B) identify women who demonstrate intellectual skill.
C) criticize women who enter male-dominated professions.
D) condemn women who agitate for the vote for their sex.
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_2-question_38 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s
address to the 1869 Woman Suffrage Convention in
Washington, DC.
I urge a sixteenth amendment, because “manhood
suffrage,” or a man’s government, is civil, religious,
and social disorganization. The male element is a
destructive force, stern, selfish, aggrandizing, loving
war, violence, conquest, acquisition, breeding in the
material and moral world alike discord, disorder,
disease, and death. See what a record of blood and
cruelty the pages of history reveal! Through what
slavery, slaughter, and sacrifice, through what
inquisitions and imprisonments, pains and
persecutions, black codes and gloomy creeds, the
soul of humanity has struggled for the centuries,
while mercy has veiled her face and all hearts have
been dead alike to love and hope!
The male element has held high carnival thus far;
it has fairly run riot from the beginning,
overpowering the feminine element everywhere,
crushing out all the diviner qualities in human
nature, until we know but little of true manhood and
womanhood, of the latter comparatively nothing, for
it has scarce been recognized as a power until within
the last century. Society is but the reflection of man
himself, untempered by woman’s thought; the hard
iron rule we feel alike in the church, the state, and the
home. No one need wonder at the disorganization, at
the fragmentary condition of everything, when we
remember that man, who represents but half a
complete being, with but half an idea on every
subject, has undertaken the absolute control of all
sublunary matters.
People object to the demands of those whom they
choose to call the strong-minded, because they say
“the right of suffrage will make the women
masculine.” That is just the difficulty in which we are
involved today. Though disfranchised, we have few
women in the best sense; we have simply so many
reflections, varieties, and dilutions of the masculine
gender. The strong, natural characteristics of
womanhood are repressed and ignored in
dependence, for so long as man feeds woman she
will try to please the giver and adapt herself to his
condition. To keep a foothold in society, woman
must be as near like man as possible, reflect his ideas,
opinions, virtues, motives, prejudices, and vices. She
must respect his statutes, though they strip her of
every inalienable right, and conflict with that higher
law written by the finger of God on her own soul....
. . . [M]an has been molding woman to his ideas
by direct and positive influences, while she, if not a
negation, has used indirect means to control him,
and in most cases developed the very characteristics
both in him and herself that needed repression.
And now man himself stands appalled at the results
of his own excesses, and mourns in bitterness that
falsehood, selfishness, and violence are the law of life.
The need of this hour is not territory, gold mines,
railroads, or specie payments but a new evangel of
womanhood, to exalt purity, virtue, morality, true
religion, to lift man up into the higher realms of
thought and action.
We ask woman’s enfranchisement, as the first step
toward the recognition of that essential element in
government that can only secure the health, strength,
and prosperity of the nation. Whatever is done to lift
woman to her true position will help to usher in a
new day of peace and perfection for the race.
In speaking of the masculine element, I do not
wish to be understood to say that all men are hard,
selfish, and brutal, for many of the most beautiful
spirits the world has known have been clothed with
manhood; but I refer to those characteristics, though
often marked in woman, that distinguish what is
called the stronger sex. For example, the love of
acquisition and conquest, the very pioneers of
civilization, when expended on the earth, the sea, the
elements, the riches and forces of nature, are powers
of destruction when used to subjugate one man to
another or to sacrifice nations to ambition.
Here that great conservator of woman’s love, if
permitted to assert itself, as it naturally would in
freedom against oppression, violence, and war,
would hold all these destructive forces in check, for
woman knows the cost of life better than man does,
and not with her consent would one drop of blood
ever be shed, one life sacrificed in vain.
Question 34:
Stanton uses the phrase “high carnival” (line 15) mainly to emphasize what she sees as the
A) utter domination of women by men.
B) freewheeling spirit of the age.
C) scandalous decline in moral values.
D) growing power of women in society.
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_2-question_34 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s
address to the 1869 Woman Suffrage Convention in
Washington, DC.
I urge a sixteenth amendment, because “manhood
suffrage,” or a man’s government, is civil, religious,
and social disorganization. The male element is a
destructive force, stern, selfish, aggrandizing, loving
war, violence, conquest, acquisition, breeding in the
material and moral world alike discord, disorder,
disease, and death. See what a record of blood and
cruelty the pages of history reveal! Through what
slavery, slaughter, and sacrifice, through what
inquisitions and imprisonments, pains and
persecutions, black codes and gloomy creeds, the
soul of humanity has struggled for the centuries,
while mercy has veiled her face and all hearts have
been dead alike to love and hope!
The male element has held high carnival thus far;
it has fairly run riot from the beginning,
overpowering the feminine element everywhere,
crushing out all the diviner qualities in human
nature, until we know but little of true manhood and
womanhood, of the latter comparatively nothing, for
it has scarce been recognized as a power until within
the last century. Society is but the reflection of man
himself, untempered by woman’s thought; the hard
iron rule we feel alike in the church, the state, and the
home. No one need wonder at the disorganization, at
the fragmentary condition of everything, when we
remember that man, who represents but half a
complete being, with but half an idea on every
subject, has undertaken the absolute control of all
sublunary matters.
People object to the demands of those whom they
choose to call the strong-minded, because they say
“the right of suffrage will make the women
masculine.” That is just the difficulty in which we are
involved today. Though disfranchised, we have few
women in the best sense; we have simply so many
reflections, varieties, and dilutions of the masculine
gender. The strong, natural characteristics of
womanhood are repressed and ignored in
dependence, for so long as man feeds woman she
will try to please the giver and adapt herself to his
condition. To keep a foothold in society, woman
must be as near like man as possible, reflect his ideas,
opinions, virtues, motives, prejudices, and vices. She
must respect his statutes, though they strip her of
every inalienable right, and conflict with that higher
law written by the finger of God on her own soul....
. . . [M]an has been molding woman to his ideas
by direct and positive influences, while she, if not a
negation, has used indirect means to control him,
and in most cases developed the very characteristics
both in him and herself that needed repression.
And now man himself stands appalled at the results
of his own excesses, and mourns in bitterness that
falsehood, selfishness, and violence are the law of life.
The need of this hour is not territory, gold mines,
railroads, or specie payments but a new evangel of
womanhood, to exalt purity, virtue, morality, true
religion, to lift man up into the higher realms of
thought and action.
We ask woman’s enfranchisement, as the first step
toward the recognition of that essential element in
government that can only secure the health, strength,
and prosperity of the nation. Whatever is done to lift
woman to her true position will help to usher in a
new day of peace and perfection for the race.
In speaking of the masculine element, I do not
wish to be understood to say that all men are hard,
selfish, and brutal, for many of the most beautiful
spirits the world has known have been clothed with
manhood; but I refer to those characteristics, though
often marked in woman, that distinguish what is
called the stronger sex. For example, the love of
acquisition and conquest, the very pioneers of
civilization, when expended on the earth, the sea, the
elements, the riches and forces of nature, are powers
of destruction when used to subjugate one man to
another or to sacrifice nations to ambition.
Here that great conservator of woman’s love, if
permitted to assert itself, as it naturally would in
freedom against oppression, violence, and war,
would hold all these destructive forces in check, for
woman knows the cost of life better than man does,
and not with her consent would one drop of blood
ever be shed, one life sacrificed in vain.
Question 42:
The sixth paragraph (lines 67-78) is primarily concerned with establishing a contrast between
A) men and women.
B) the spiritual world and the material world.
C) bad men and good men.
D) men and masculine traits.
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_2-question_42 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Geoffrey Giller, “Long a
Mystery, How 500-Meter-High Undersea Waves Form Is
Revealed.” ©2014 by Scientific American.
Some of the largest ocean waves in the world are
nearly impossible to see. Unlike other large waves,
these rollers, called internal waves, do not ride the
ocean surface. Instead, they move underwater,
undetectable without the use of satellite imagery or
sophisticated monitoring equipment. Despite their
hidden nature, internal waves are fundamental parts
of ocean water dynamics, transferring heat to the
ocean depths and bringing up cold water from below.
And they can reach staggering heights—some as tall
as skyscrapers.
Because these waves are involved in ocean mixing
and thus the transfer of heat, understanding them is
crucial to global climate modeling, says Tom
Peacock, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. Most models fail to take internal
waves into account. “If we want to have more and
more accurate climate models, we have to be able to
capture processes such as this,” Peacock says.
Peacock and his colleagues tried to do just that.
Their study, published in November in Geophysical
Research Letters, focused on internal waves generated
in the Luzon Strait, which separates Taiwan and the
Philippines. Internal waves in this region, thought to
be some of the largest in the world, can reach about
500 meters high. “That’s the same height as the
Freedom Tower that’s just been built in New York,”
Peacock says.
Although scientists knew of this phenomenon in
the South China Sea and beyond, they didn’t know
exactly how internal waves formed. To find out,
Peacock and a team of researchers from M.I.T. and
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution worked with
France’s National Center for Scientific Research
using a giant facility there called the Coriolis
Platform. The rotating platform, about 15 meters
(49.2 feet) in diameter, turns at variable speeds and
can simulate Earth’s rotation. It also has walls, which
means scientists can fill it with water and create
accurate, large-scale simulations of various
oceanographic scenarios.
Peacock and his team built a carbon-fiber resin
scale model of the Luzon Strait, including the islands
and surrounding ocean floor topography. Then they
filled the platform with water of varying salinity to
replicate the different densities found at the strait,
with denser, saltier water below and lighter, less
briny water above. Small particles were added to the
solution and illuminated with lights from below in
order to track how the liquid moved. Finally, they
re-created tides using two large plungers to see how
the internal waves themselves formed.
The Luzon Strait’s underwater topography, with a
distinct double-ridge shape, turns out to be
responsible for generating the underwater waves.
As the tide rises and falls and water moves through
the strait, colder, denser water is pushed up over the
ridges into warmer, less dense layers above it.
This action results in bumps of colder water trailed
by warmer water that generate an internal wave.
As these waves move toward land, they become
steeper—much the same way waves at the beach
become taller before they hit the shore—until they
break on a continental shelf.
The researchers were also able to devise a
mathematical model that describes the movement
and formation of these waves. Whereas the model is
specific to the Luzon Strait, it can still help
researchers understand how internal waves are
generated in other places around the world.
Eventually, this information will be incorporated into
global climate models, making them more accurate.
“It’s very clear, within the context of these [global
climate] models, that internal waves play a role in
driving ocean circulations,” Peacock says.
Question 48:
Based on information in the passage, it can reasonably be inferred that all internal waves
A) reach approximately the same height even though the locations and depths of continental shelves vary.
B) may be caused by similar factors but are influenced by the distinct topographies of different regions.
C) can be traced to inconsistencies in the tidal patterns of deep ocean water located near islands.
D) are generated by the movement of dense water over a relatively flat section of the ocean floor.
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_2-question_48 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Geoffrey Giller, “Long a
Mystery, How 500-Meter-High Undersea Waves Form Is
Revealed.” ©2014 by Scientific American.
Some of the largest ocean waves in the world are
nearly impossible to see. Unlike other large waves,
these rollers, called internal waves, do not ride the
ocean surface. Instead, they move underwater,
undetectable without the use of satellite imagery or
sophisticated monitoring equipment. Despite their
hidden nature, internal waves are fundamental parts
of ocean water dynamics, transferring heat to the
ocean depths and bringing up cold water from below.
And they can reach staggering heights—some as tall
as skyscrapers.
Because these waves are involved in ocean mixing
and thus the transfer of heat, understanding them is
crucial to global climate modeling, says Tom
Peacock, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. Most models fail to take internal
waves into account. “If we want to have more and
more accurate climate models, we have to be able to
capture processes such as this,” Peacock says.
Peacock and his colleagues tried to do just that.
Their study, published in November in Geophysical
Research Letters, focused on internal waves generated
in the Luzon Strait, which separates Taiwan and the
Philippines. Internal waves in this region, thought to
be some of the largest in the world, can reach about
500 meters high. “That’s the same height as the
Freedom Tower that’s just been built in New York,”
Peacock says.
Although scientists knew of this phenomenon in
the South China Sea and beyond, they didn’t know
exactly how internal waves formed. To find out,
Peacock and a team of researchers from M.I.T. and
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution worked with
France’s National Center for Scientific Research
using a giant facility there called the Coriolis
Platform. The rotating platform, about 15 meters
(49.2 feet) in diameter, turns at variable speeds and
can simulate Earth’s rotation. It also has walls, which
means scientists can fill it with water and create
accurate, large-scale simulations of various
oceanographic scenarios.
Peacock and his team built a carbon-fiber resin
scale model of the Luzon Strait, including the islands
and surrounding ocean floor topography. Then they
filled the platform with water of varying salinity to
replicate the different densities found at the strait,
with denser, saltier water below and lighter, less
briny water above. Small particles were added to the
solution and illuminated with lights from below in
order to track how the liquid moved. Finally, they
re-created tides using two large plungers to see how
the internal waves themselves formed.
The Luzon Strait’s underwater topography, with a
distinct double-ridge shape, turns out to be
responsible for generating the underwater waves.
As the tide rises and falls and water moves through
the strait, colder, denser water is pushed up over the
ridges into warmer, less dense layers above it.
This action results in bumps of colder water trailed
by warmer water that generate an internal wave.
As these waves move toward land, they become
steeper—much the same way waves at the beach
become taller before they hit the shore—until they
break on a continental shelf.
The researchers were also able to devise a
mathematical model that describes the movement
and formation of these waves. Whereas the model is
specific to the Luzon Strait, it can still help
researchers understand how internal waves are
generated in other places around the world.
Eventually, this information will be incorporated into
global climate models, making them more accurate.
“It’s very clear, within the context of these [global
climate] models, that internal waves play a role in
driving ocean circulations,” Peacock says.
Question 45:
According to Peacock, the ability to monitor internal waves is significant primarily because
A) it will allow scientists to verify the maximum height of such waves.
B) it will allow researchers to shift their focus to improving the quality of satellite images.
C) the study of wave patterns will enable regions to predict and prevent coastal damage.
D) the study of such waves will inform the development of key scientific models.
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_2-question_45 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Geoffrey Giller, “Long a
Mystery, How 500-Meter-High Undersea Waves Form Is
Revealed.” ©2014 by Scientific American.
Some of the largest ocean waves in the world are
nearly impossible to see. Unlike other large waves,
these rollers, called internal waves, do not ride the
ocean surface. Instead, they move underwater,
undetectable without the use of satellite imagery or
sophisticated monitoring equipment. Despite their
hidden nature, internal waves are fundamental parts
of ocean water dynamics, transferring heat to the
ocean depths and bringing up cold water from below.
And they can reach staggering heights—some as tall
as skyscrapers.
Because these waves are involved in ocean mixing
and thus the transfer of heat, understanding them is
crucial to global climate modeling, says Tom
Peacock, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. Most models fail to take internal
waves into account. “If we want to have more and
more accurate climate models, we have to be able to
capture processes such as this,” Peacock says.
Peacock and his colleagues tried to do just that.
Their study, published in November in Geophysical
Research Letters, focused on internal waves generated
in the Luzon Strait, which separates Taiwan and the
Philippines. Internal waves in this region, thought to
be some of the largest in the world, can reach about
500 meters high. “That’s the same height as the
Freedom Tower that’s just been built in New York,”
Peacock says.
Although scientists knew of this phenomenon in
the South China Sea and beyond, they didn’t know
exactly how internal waves formed. To find out,
Peacock and a team of researchers from M.I.T. and
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution worked with
France’s National Center for Scientific Research
using a giant facility there called the Coriolis
Platform. The rotating platform, about 15 meters
(49.2 feet) in diameter, turns at variable speeds and
can simulate Earth’s rotation. It also has walls, which
means scientists can fill it with water and create
accurate, large-scale simulations of various
oceanographic scenarios.
Peacock and his team built a carbon-fiber resin
scale model of the Luzon Strait, including the islands
and surrounding ocean floor topography. Then they
filled the platform with water of varying salinity to
replicate the different densities found at the strait,
with denser, saltier water below and lighter, less
briny water above. Small particles were added to the
solution and illuminated with lights from below in
order to track how the liquid moved. Finally, they
re-created tides using two large plungers to see how
the internal waves themselves formed.
The Luzon Strait’s underwater topography, with a
distinct double-ridge shape, turns out to be
responsible for generating the underwater waves.
As the tide rises and falls and water moves through
the strait, colder, denser water is pushed up over the
ridges into warmer, less dense layers above it.
This action results in bumps of colder water trailed
by warmer water that generate an internal wave.
As these waves move toward land, they become
steeper—much the same way waves at the beach
become taller before they hit the shore—until they
break on a continental shelf.
The researchers were also able to devise a
mathematical model that describes the movement
and formation of these waves. Whereas the model is
specific to the Luzon Strait, it can still help
researchers understand how internal waves are
generated in other places around the world.
Eventually, this information will be incorporated into
global climate models, making them more accurate.
“It’s very clear, within the context of these [global
climate] models, that internal waves play a role in
driving ocean circulations,” Peacock says.
Question 47:
As used in line 65, “devise” most nearly means
A) create.
B) solve.
C) imagine.
D) begin.
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_2-question_47 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Geoffrey Giller, “Long a
Mystery, How 500-Meter-High Undersea Waves Form Is
Revealed.” ©2014 by Scientific American.
Some of the largest ocean waves in the world are
nearly impossible to see. Unlike other large waves,
these rollers, called internal waves, do not ride the
ocean surface. Instead, they move underwater,
undetectable without the use of satellite imagery or
sophisticated monitoring equipment. Despite their
hidden nature, internal waves are fundamental parts
of ocean water dynamics, transferring heat to the
ocean depths and bringing up cold water from below.
And they can reach staggering heights—some as tall
as skyscrapers.
Because these waves are involved in ocean mixing
and thus the transfer of heat, understanding them is
crucial to global climate modeling, says Tom
Peacock, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. Most models fail to take internal
waves into account. “If we want to have more and
more accurate climate models, we have to be able to
capture processes such as this,” Peacock says.
Peacock and his colleagues tried to do just that.
Their study, published in November in Geophysical
Research Letters, focused on internal waves generated
in the Luzon Strait, which separates Taiwan and the
Philippines. Internal waves in this region, thought to
be some of the largest in the world, can reach about
500 meters high. “That’s the same height as the
Freedom Tower that’s just been built in New York,”
Peacock says.
Although scientists knew of this phenomenon in
the South China Sea and beyond, they didn’t know
exactly how internal waves formed. To find out,
Peacock and a team of researchers from M.I.T. and
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution worked with
France’s National Center for Scientific Research
using a giant facility there called the Coriolis
Platform. The rotating platform, about 15 meters
(49.2 feet) in diameter, turns at variable speeds and
can simulate Earth’s rotation. It also has walls, which
means scientists can fill it with water and create
accurate, large-scale simulations of various
oceanographic scenarios.
Peacock and his team built a carbon-fiber resin
scale model of the Luzon Strait, including the islands
and surrounding ocean floor topography. Then they
filled the platform with water of varying salinity to
replicate the different densities found at the strait,
with denser, saltier water below and lighter, less
briny water above. Small particles were added to the
solution and illuminated with lights from below in
order to track how the liquid moved. Finally, they
re-created tides using two large plungers to see how
the internal waves themselves formed.
The Luzon Strait’s underwater topography, with a
distinct double-ridge shape, turns out to be
responsible for generating the underwater waves.
As the tide rises and falls and water moves through
the strait, colder, denser water is pushed up over the
ridges into warmer, less dense layers above it.
This action results in bumps of colder water trailed
by warmer water that generate an internal wave.
As these waves move toward land, they become
steeper—much the same way waves at the beach
become taller before they hit the shore—until they
break on a continental shelf.
The researchers were also able to devise a
mathematical model that describes the movement
and formation of these waves. Whereas the model is
specific to the Luzon Strait, it can still help
researchers understand how internal waves are
generated in other places around the world.
Eventually, this information will be incorporated into
global climate models, making them more accurate.
“It’s very clear, within the context of these [global
climate] models, that internal waves play a role in
driving ocean circulations,” Peacock says.
Question 44:
As used in line 19, “capture” is closest in meaning to
A) control.
B) record.
C) secure.
D) absorb.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_2-question_44 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Geoffrey Giller, “Long a
Mystery, How 500-Meter-High Undersea Waves Form Is
Revealed.” ©2014 by Scientific American.
Some of the largest ocean waves in the world are
nearly impossible to see. Unlike other large waves,
these rollers, called internal waves, do not ride the
ocean surface. Instead, they move underwater,
undetectable without the use of satellite imagery or
sophisticated monitoring equipment. Despite their
hidden nature, internal waves are fundamental parts
of ocean water dynamics, transferring heat to the
ocean depths and bringing up cold water from below.
And they can reach staggering heights—some as tall
as skyscrapers.
Because these waves are involved in ocean mixing
and thus the transfer of heat, understanding them is
crucial to global climate modeling, says Tom
Peacock, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. Most models fail to take internal
waves into account. “If we want to have more and
more accurate climate models, we have to be able to
capture processes such as this,” Peacock says.
Peacock and his colleagues tried to do just that.
Their study, published in November in Geophysical
Research Letters, focused on internal waves generated
in the Luzon Strait, which separates Taiwan and the
Philippines. Internal waves in this region, thought to
be some of the largest in the world, can reach about
500 meters high. “That’s the same height as the
Freedom Tower that’s just been built in New York,”
Peacock says.
Although scientists knew of this phenomenon in
the South China Sea and beyond, they didn’t know
exactly how internal waves formed. To find out,
Peacock and a team of researchers from M.I.T. and
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution worked with
France’s National Center for Scientific Research
using a giant facility there called the Coriolis
Platform. The rotating platform, about 15 meters
(49.2 feet) in diameter, turns at variable speeds and
can simulate Earth’s rotation. It also has walls, which
means scientists can fill it with water and create
accurate, large-scale simulations of various
oceanographic scenarios.
Peacock and his team built a carbon-fiber resin
scale model of the Luzon Strait, including the islands
and surrounding ocean floor topography. Then they
filled the platform with water of varying salinity to
replicate the different densities found at the strait,
with denser, saltier water below and lighter, less
briny water above. Small particles were added to the
solution and illuminated with lights from below in
order to track how the liquid moved. Finally, they
re-created tides using two large plungers to see how
the internal waves themselves formed.
The Luzon Strait’s underwater topography, with a
distinct double-ridge shape, turns out to be
responsible for generating the underwater waves.
As the tide rises and falls and water moves through
the strait, colder, denser water is pushed up over the
ridges into warmer, less dense layers above it.
This action results in bumps of colder water trailed
by warmer water that generate an internal wave.
As these waves move toward land, they become
steeper—much the same way waves at the beach
become taller before they hit the shore—until they
break on a continental shelf.
The researchers were also able to devise a
mathematical model that describes the movement
and formation of these waves. Whereas the model is
specific to the Luzon Strait, it can still help
researchers understand how internal waves are
generated in other places around the world.
Eventually, this information will be incorporated into
global climate models, making them more accurate.
“It’s very clear, within the context of these [global
climate] models, that internal waves play a role in
driving ocean circulations,” Peacock says.
Question 43:
The first paragraph serves mainly to
A) explain how a scientific device is used.
B) note a common misconception about an event.
C) describe a natural phenomenon and address its importance.
D) present a recent study and summarize its findings.
Answer: | C | false | sat-practice_2-question_43 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is from Lydia Minatoya, The Strangeness of
Beauty. ©1999 by Lydia Minatoya. The setting is Japan in
1920. Chie and her daughter Naomi are members of the
House of Fuji, a noble family.
Akira came directly, breaking all tradition. Was
that it? Had he followed form—had he asked his
mother to speak to his father to approach a
go-between—would Chie have been more receptive?
He came on a winter’s eve. He pounded on the
door while a cold rain beat on the shuttered veranda,
so at first Chie thought him only the wind. The maid
knew better. Chie heard her soft scuttling footsteps,
the creak of the door. Then the maid brought a
calling card to the drawing room, for Chie.
Chie was reluctant to go to her guest; perhaps she
was feeling too cozy. She and Naomi were reading at
a low table set atop a charcoal brazier. A thick quilt
spread over the sides of the table so their legs were
tucked inside with the heat.
“Who is it at this hour, in this weather?” Chie
questioned as she picked the name card off the
maid’s lacquer tray.
“Shinoda, Akira. Kobe Dental College,” she read.
Naomi recognized the name. Chie heard a soft
intake of air.
“I think you should go,” said Naomi.
Akira was waiting in the entry. He was in his early
twenties, slim and serious, wearing the black
military-style uniform of a student. As he
bowed—his hands hanging straight down, a
black cap in one, a yellow oil-paper umbrella in the
other—Chie glanced beyond him. In the glistening
surface of the courtyard’s rain-drenched paving
stones, she saw his reflection like a dark double.
“Madame,” said Akira, “forgive my disruption,
but I come with a matter of urgency.”
His voice was soft, refined. He straightened and
stole a deferential peek at her face.
In the dim light his eyes shone with sincerity.
Chie felt herself starting to like him.
“Come inside, get out of this nasty night. Surely
your business can wait for a moment or two.”
“I don’t want to trouble you. Normally I would
approach you more properly but I’ve received word
of a position. I’ve an opportunity to go to America, as
dentist for Seattle’s Japanese community.”
“Congratulations,” Chie said with amusement.
“That is an opportunity, I’m sure. But how am I
involved?”
Even noting Naomi’s breathless reaction to the
name card, Chie had no idea. Akira’s message,
delivered like a formal speech, filled her with
maternal amusement. You know how children speak
so earnestly, so hurriedly, so endearingly about
things that have no importance in an adult’s mind?
That’s how she viewed him, as a child.
It was how she viewed Naomi. Even though
Naomi was eighteen and training endlessly in the arts
needed to make a good marriage, Chie had made no
effort to find her a husband.
Akira blushed.
“Depending on your response, I may stay in
Japan. I’ve come to ask for Naomi’s hand.”
Suddenly Chie felt the dampness of the night.
“Does Naomi know anything of your...
ambitions?”
“We have an understanding. Please don’t judge
my candidacy by the unseemliness of this proposal. I
ask directly because the use of a go-between takes
much time. Either method comes down to the same
thing: a matter of parental approval. If you give your
consent, I become Naomi’s yoshi.* We’ll live in the
House of Fuji. Without your consent, I must go to
America, to secure a new home for my bride.”
Eager to make his point, he’d been looking her full
in the face. Abruptly, his voice turned gentle. “I see
I’ve startled you. My humble apologies. I’ll take no
more of your evening. My address is on my card. If
you don’t wish to contact me, I’ll reapproach you in
two weeks’ time. Until then, good night.”
He bowed and left. Taking her ease, with effortless
grace, like a cat making off with a fish.
“Mother?” Chie heard Naomi’s low voice and
turned from the door. “He has asked you?”
The sight of Naomi’s clear eyes, her dark brows
gave Chie strength. Maybe his hopes were
preposterous.
“Where did you meet such a fellow? Imagine! He
thinks he can marry the Fuji heir and take her to
America all in the snap of his fingers!”
Chie waited for Naomi’s ripe laughter.
Naomi was silent. She stood a full half minute
looking straight into Chie’s eyes. Finally, she spoke.
“I met him at my literary meeting.”
Naomi turned to go back into the house, then
stopped.
“Mother.”
“Yes?”
“I mean to have him.”
Question 3:
As used in line 1 and line 65, “directly” most nearly means
A) frankly.
B) confidently.
C) without mediation.
D) with precision.
Answer: | C | false | sat-practice_1-question_3 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is from Lydia Minatoya, The Strangeness of
Beauty. ©1999 by Lydia Minatoya. The setting is Japan in
1920. Chie and her daughter Naomi are members of the
House of Fuji, a noble family.
Akira came directly, breaking all tradition. Was
that it? Had he followed form—had he asked his
mother to speak to his father to approach a
go-between—would Chie have been more receptive?
He came on a winter’s eve. He pounded on the
door while a cold rain beat on the shuttered veranda,
so at first Chie thought him only the wind. The maid
knew better. Chie heard her soft scuttling footsteps,
the creak of the door. Then the maid brought a
calling card to the drawing room, for Chie.
Chie was reluctant to go to her guest; perhaps she
was feeling too cozy. She and Naomi were reading at
a low table set atop a charcoal brazier. A thick quilt
spread over the sides of the table so their legs were
tucked inside with the heat.
“Who is it at this hour, in this weather?” Chie
questioned as she picked the name card off the
maid’s lacquer tray.
“Shinoda, Akira. Kobe Dental College,” she read.
Naomi recognized the name. Chie heard a soft
intake of air.
“I think you should go,” said Naomi.
Akira was waiting in the entry. He was in his early
twenties, slim and serious, wearing the black
military-style uniform of a student. As he
bowed—his hands hanging straight down, a
black cap in one, a yellow oil-paper umbrella in the
other—Chie glanced beyond him. In the glistening
surface of the courtyard’s rain-drenched paving
stones, she saw his reflection like a dark double.
“Madame,” said Akira, “forgive my disruption,
but I come with a matter of urgency.”
His voice was soft, refined. He straightened and
stole a deferential peek at her face.
In the dim light his eyes shone with sincerity.
Chie felt herself starting to like him.
“Come inside, get out of this nasty night. Surely
your business can wait for a moment or two.”
“I don’t want to trouble you. Normally I would
approach you more properly but I’ve received word
of a position. I’ve an opportunity to go to America, as
dentist for Seattle’s Japanese community.”
“Congratulations,” Chie said with amusement.
“That is an opportunity, I’m sure. But how am I
involved?”
Even noting Naomi’s breathless reaction to the
name card, Chie had no idea. Akira’s message,
delivered like a formal speech, filled her with
maternal amusement. You know how children speak
so earnestly, so hurriedly, so endearingly about
things that have no importance in an adult’s mind?
That’s how she viewed him, as a child.
It was how she viewed Naomi. Even though
Naomi was eighteen and training endlessly in the arts
needed to make a good marriage, Chie had made no
effort to find her a husband.
Akira blushed.
“Depending on your response, I may stay in
Japan. I’ve come to ask for Naomi’s hand.”
Suddenly Chie felt the dampness of the night.
“Does Naomi know anything of your...
ambitions?”
“We have an understanding. Please don’t judge
my candidacy by the unseemliness of this proposal. I
ask directly because the use of a go-between takes
much time. Either method comes down to the same
thing: a matter of parental approval. If you give your
consent, I become Naomi’s yoshi.* We’ll live in the
House of Fuji. Without your consent, I must go to
America, to secure a new home for my bride.”
Eager to make his point, he’d been looking her full
in the face. Abruptly, his voice turned gentle. “I see
I’ve startled you. My humble apologies. I’ll take no
more of your evening. My address is on my card. If
you don’t wish to contact me, I’ll reapproach you in
two weeks’ time. Until then, good night.”
He bowed and left. Taking her ease, with effortless
grace, like a cat making off with a fish.
“Mother?” Chie heard Naomi’s low voice and
turned from the door. “He has asked you?”
The sight of Naomi’s clear eyes, her dark brows
gave Chie strength. Maybe his hopes were
preposterous.
“Where did you meet such a fellow? Imagine! He
thinks he can marry the Fuji heir and take her to
America all in the snap of his fingers!”
Chie waited for Naomi’s ripe laughter.
Naomi was silent. She stood a full half minute
looking straight into Chie’s eyes. Finally, she spoke.
“I met him at my literary meeting.”
Naomi turned to go back into the house, then
stopped.
“Mother.”
“Yes?”
“I mean to have him.”
Question 1:
Which choice best describes what happens in the passage?
A) One character argues with another character who intrudes on her home.
B) One character receives a surprising request from another character.
C) One character reminisces about choices she has made over the years.
D) One character criticizes another character for pursuing an unexpected course of action.
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_1-question_1 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is from Lydia Minatoya, The Strangeness of
Beauty. ©1999 by Lydia Minatoya. The setting is Japan in
1920. Chie and her daughter Naomi are members of the
House of Fuji, a noble family.
Akira came directly, breaking all tradition. Was
that it? Had he followed form—had he asked his
mother to speak to his father to approach a
go-between—would Chie have been more receptive?
He came on a winter’s eve. He pounded on the
door while a cold rain beat on the shuttered veranda,
so at first Chie thought him only the wind. The maid
knew better. Chie heard her soft scuttling footsteps,
the creak of the door. Then the maid brought a
calling card to the drawing room, for Chie.
Chie was reluctant to go to her guest; perhaps she
was feeling too cozy. She and Naomi were reading at
a low table set atop a charcoal brazier. A thick quilt
spread over the sides of the table so their legs were
tucked inside with the heat.
“Who is it at this hour, in this weather?” Chie
questioned as she picked the name card off the
maid’s lacquer tray.
“Shinoda, Akira. Kobe Dental College,” she read.
Naomi recognized the name. Chie heard a soft
intake of air.
“I think you should go,” said Naomi.
Akira was waiting in the entry. He was in his early
twenties, slim and serious, wearing the black
military-style uniform of a student. As he
bowed—his hands hanging straight down, a
black cap in one, a yellow oil-paper umbrella in the
other—Chie glanced beyond him. In the glistening
surface of the courtyard’s rain-drenched paving
stones, she saw his reflection like a dark double.
“Madame,” said Akira, “forgive my disruption,
but I come with a matter of urgency.”
His voice was soft, refined. He straightened and
stole a deferential peek at her face.
In the dim light his eyes shone with sincerity.
Chie felt herself starting to like him.
“Come inside, get out of this nasty night. Surely
your business can wait for a moment or two.”
“I don’t want to trouble you. Normally I would
approach you more properly but I’ve received word
of a position. I’ve an opportunity to go to America, as
dentist for Seattle’s Japanese community.”
“Congratulations,” Chie said with amusement.
“That is an opportunity, I’m sure. But how am I
involved?”
Even noting Naomi’s breathless reaction to the
name card, Chie had no idea. Akira’s message,
delivered like a formal speech, filled her with
maternal amusement. You know how children speak
so earnestly, so hurriedly, so endearingly about
things that have no importance in an adult’s mind?
That’s how she viewed him, as a child.
It was how she viewed Naomi. Even though
Naomi was eighteen and training endlessly in the arts
needed to make a good marriage, Chie had made no
effort to find her a husband.
Akira blushed.
“Depending on your response, I may stay in
Japan. I’ve come to ask for Naomi’s hand.”
Suddenly Chie felt the dampness of the night.
“Does Naomi know anything of your...
ambitions?”
“We have an understanding. Please don’t judge
my candidacy by the unseemliness of this proposal. I
ask directly because the use of a go-between takes
much time. Either method comes down to the same
thing: a matter of parental approval. If you give your
consent, I become Naomi’s yoshi.* We’ll live in the
House of Fuji. Without your consent, I must go to
America, to secure a new home for my bride.”
Eager to make his point, he’d been looking her full
in the face. Abruptly, his voice turned gentle. “I see
I’ve startled you. My humble apologies. I’ll take no
more of your evening. My address is on my card. If
you don’t wish to contact me, I’ll reapproach you in
two weeks’ time. Until then, good night.”
He bowed and left. Taking her ease, with effortless
grace, like a cat making off with a fish.
“Mother?” Chie heard Naomi’s low voice and
turned from the door. “He has asked you?”
The sight of Naomi’s clear eyes, her dark brows
gave Chie strength. Maybe his hopes were
preposterous.
“Where did you meet such a fellow? Imagine! He
thinks he can marry the Fuji heir and take her to
America all in the snap of his fingers!”
Chie waited for Naomi’s ripe laughter.
Naomi was silent. She stood a full half minute
looking straight into Chie’s eyes. Finally, she spoke.
“I met him at my literary meeting.”
Naomi turned to go back into the house, then
stopped.
“Mother.”
“Yes?”
“I mean to have him.”
Question 7:
The main purpose of the first paragraph is to
A) describe a culture.
B) criticize a tradition.
C) question a suggestion.
D) analyze a reaction.
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_1-question_7 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is from Lydia Minatoya, The Strangeness of
Beauty. ©1999 by Lydia Minatoya. The setting is Japan in
1920. Chie and her daughter Naomi are members of the
House of Fuji, a noble family.
Akira came directly, breaking all tradition. Was
that it? Had he followed form—had he asked his
mother to speak to his father to approach a
go-between—would Chie have been more receptive?
He came on a winter’s eve. He pounded on the
door while a cold rain beat on the shuttered veranda,
so at first Chie thought him only the wind. The maid
knew better. Chie heard her soft scuttling footsteps,
the creak of the door. Then the maid brought a
calling card to the drawing room, for Chie.
Chie was reluctant to go to her guest; perhaps she
was feeling too cozy. She and Naomi were reading at
a low table set atop a charcoal brazier. A thick quilt
spread over the sides of the table so their legs were
tucked inside with the heat.
“Who is it at this hour, in this weather?” Chie
questioned as she picked the name card off the
maid’s lacquer tray.
“Shinoda, Akira. Kobe Dental College,” she read.
Naomi recognized the name. Chie heard a soft
intake of air.
“I think you should go,” said Naomi.
Akira was waiting in the entry. He was in his early
twenties, slim and serious, wearing the black
military-style uniform of a student. As he
bowed—his hands hanging straight down, a
black cap in one, a yellow oil-paper umbrella in the
other—Chie glanced beyond him. In the glistening
surface of the courtyard’s rain-drenched paving
stones, she saw his reflection like a dark double.
“Madame,” said Akira, “forgive my disruption,
but I come with a matter of urgency.”
His voice was soft, refined. He straightened and
stole a deferential peek at her face.
In the dim light his eyes shone with sincerity.
Chie felt herself starting to like him.
“Come inside, get out of this nasty night. Surely
your business can wait for a moment or two.”
“I don’t want to trouble you. Normally I would
approach you more properly but I’ve received word
of a position. I’ve an opportunity to go to America, as
dentist for Seattle’s Japanese community.”
“Congratulations,” Chie said with amusement.
“That is an opportunity, I’m sure. But how am I
involved?”
Even noting Naomi’s breathless reaction to the
name card, Chie had no idea. Akira’s message,
delivered like a formal speech, filled her with
maternal amusement. You know how children speak
so earnestly, so hurriedly, so endearingly about
things that have no importance in an adult’s mind?
That’s how she viewed him, as a child.
It was how she viewed Naomi. Even though
Naomi was eighteen and training endlessly in the arts
needed to make a good marriage, Chie had made no
effort to find her a husband.
Akira blushed.
“Depending on your response, I may stay in
Japan. I’ve come to ask for Naomi’s hand.”
Suddenly Chie felt the dampness of the night.
“Does Naomi know anything of your...
ambitions?”
“We have an understanding. Please don’t judge
my candidacy by the unseemliness of this proposal. I
ask directly because the use of a go-between takes
much time. Either method comes down to the same
thing: a matter of parental approval. If you give your
consent, I become Naomi’s yoshi.* We’ll live in the
House of Fuji. Without your consent, I must go to
America, to secure a new home for my bride.”
Eager to make his point, he’d been looking her full
in the face. Abruptly, his voice turned gentle. “I see
I’ve startled you. My humble apologies. I’ll take no
more of your evening. My address is on my card. If
you don’t wish to contact me, I’ll reapproach you in
two weeks’ time. Until then, good night.”
He bowed and left. Taking her ease, with effortless
grace, like a cat making off with a fish.
“Mother?” Chie heard Naomi’s low voice and
turned from the door. “He has asked you?”
The sight of Naomi’s clear eyes, her dark brows
gave Chie strength. Maybe his hopes were
preposterous.
“Where did you meet such a fellow? Imagine! He
thinks he can marry the Fuji heir and take her to
America all in the snap of his fingers!”
Chie waited for Naomi’s ripe laughter.
Naomi was silent. She stood a full half minute
looking straight into Chie’s eyes. Finally, she spoke.
“I met him at my literary meeting.”
Naomi turned to go back into the house, then
stopped.
“Mother.”
“Yes?”
“I mean to have him.”
Question 8:
As used in line 2, “form” most nearly means
A) appearance.
B) custom.
C) structure.
D) nature.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_1-question_8 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is from Lydia Minatoya, The Strangeness of
Beauty. ©1999 by Lydia Minatoya. The setting is Japan in
1920. Chie and her daughter Naomi are members of the
House of Fuji, a noble family.
Akira came directly, breaking all tradition. Was
that it? Had he followed form—had he asked his
mother to speak to his father to approach a
go-between—would Chie have been more receptive?
He came on a winter’s eve. He pounded on the
door while a cold rain beat on the shuttered veranda,
so at first Chie thought him only the wind. The maid
knew better. Chie heard her soft scuttling footsteps,
the creak of the door. Then the maid brought a
calling card to the drawing room, for Chie.
Chie was reluctant to go to her guest; perhaps she
was feeling too cozy. She and Naomi were reading at
a low table set atop a charcoal brazier. A thick quilt
spread over the sides of the table so their legs were
tucked inside with the heat.
“Who is it at this hour, in this weather?” Chie
questioned as she picked the name card off the
maid’s lacquer tray.
“Shinoda, Akira. Kobe Dental College,” she read.
Naomi recognized the name. Chie heard a soft
intake of air.
“I think you should go,” said Naomi.
Akira was waiting in the entry. He was in his early
twenties, slim and serious, wearing the black
military-style uniform of a student. As he
bowed—his hands hanging straight down, a
black cap in one, a yellow oil-paper umbrella in the
other—Chie glanced beyond him. In the glistening
surface of the courtyard’s rain-drenched paving
stones, she saw his reflection like a dark double.
“Madame,” said Akira, “forgive my disruption,
but I come with a matter of urgency.”
His voice was soft, refined. He straightened and
stole a deferential peek at her face.
In the dim light his eyes shone with sincerity.
Chie felt herself starting to like him.
“Come inside, get out of this nasty night. Surely
your business can wait for a moment or two.”
“I don’t want to trouble you. Normally I would
approach you more properly but I’ve received word
of a position. I’ve an opportunity to go to America, as
dentist for Seattle’s Japanese community.”
“Congratulations,” Chie said with amusement.
“That is an opportunity, I’m sure. But how am I
involved?”
Even noting Naomi’s breathless reaction to the
name card, Chie had no idea. Akira’s message,
delivered like a formal speech, filled her with
maternal amusement. You know how children speak
so earnestly, so hurriedly, so endearingly about
things that have no importance in an adult’s mind?
That’s how she viewed him, as a child.
It was how she viewed Naomi. Even though
Naomi was eighteen and training endlessly in the arts
needed to make a good marriage, Chie had made no
effort to find her a husband.
Akira blushed.
“Depending on your response, I may stay in
Japan. I’ve come to ask for Naomi’s hand.”
Suddenly Chie felt the dampness of the night.
“Does Naomi know anything of your...
ambitions?”
“We have an understanding. Please don’t judge
my candidacy by the unseemliness of this proposal. I
ask directly because the use of a go-between takes
much time. Either method comes down to the same
thing: a matter of parental approval. If you give your
consent, I become Naomi’s yoshi.* We’ll live in the
House of Fuji. Without your consent, I must go to
America, to secure a new home for my bride.”
Eager to make his point, he’d been looking her full
in the face. Abruptly, his voice turned gentle. “I see
I’ve startled you. My humble apologies. I’ll take no
more of your evening. My address is on my card. If
you don’t wish to contact me, I’ll reapproach you in
two weeks’ time. Until then, good night.”
He bowed and left. Taking her ease, with effortless
grace, like a cat making off with a fish.
“Mother?” Chie heard Naomi’s low voice and
turned from the door. “He has asked you?”
The sight of Naomi’s clear eyes, her dark brows
gave Chie strength. Maybe his hopes were
preposterous.
“Where did you meet such a fellow? Imagine! He
thinks he can marry the Fuji heir and take her to
America all in the snap of his fingers!”
Chie waited for Naomi’s ripe laughter.
Naomi was silent. She stood a full half minute
looking straight into Chie’s eyes. Finally, she spoke.
“I met him at my literary meeting.”
Naomi turned to go back into the house, then
stopped.
“Mother.”
“Yes?”
“I mean to have him.”
Question 9:
Why does Akira say his meeting with Chie is “a matter of urgency” (line 32)?
A) He fears that his own parents will disapprove of Naomi.
B) He worries that Naomi will reject him and marry someone else.
C) He has been offered an attractive job in another country.
D) He knows that Chie is unaware of his feelings for Naomi.
Answer: | C | true | sat-practice_1-question_9 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is from Lydia Minatoya, The Strangeness of
Beauty. ©1999 by Lydia Minatoya. The setting is Japan in
1920. Chie and her daughter Naomi are members of the
House of Fuji, a noble family.
Akira came directly, breaking all tradition. Was
that it? Had he followed form—had he asked his
mother to speak to his father to approach a
go-between—would Chie have been more receptive?
He came on a winter’s eve. He pounded on the
door while a cold rain beat on the shuttered veranda,
so at first Chie thought him only the wind. The maid
knew better. Chie heard her soft scuttling footsteps,
the creak of the door. Then the maid brought a
calling card to the drawing room, for Chie.
Chie was reluctant to go to her guest; perhaps she
was feeling too cozy. She and Naomi were reading at
a low table set atop a charcoal brazier. A thick quilt
spread over the sides of the table so their legs were
tucked inside with the heat.
“Who is it at this hour, in this weather?” Chie
questioned as she picked the name card off the
maid’s lacquer tray.
“Shinoda, Akira. Kobe Dental College,” she read.
Naomi recognized the name. Chie heard a soft
intake of air.
“I think you should go,” said Naomi.
Akira was waiting in the entry. He was in his early
twenties, slim and serious, wearing the black
military-style uniform of a student. As he
bowed—his hands hanging straight down, a
black cap in one, a yellow oil-paper umbrella in the
other—Chie glanced beyond him. In the glistening
surface of the courtyard’s rain-drenched paving
stones, she saw his reflection like a dark double.
“Madame,” said Akira, “forgive my disruption,
but I come with a matter of urgency.”
His voice was soft, refined. He straightened and
stole a deferential peek at her face.
In the dim light his eyes shone with sincerity.
Chie felt herself starting to like him.
“Come inside, get out of this nasty night. Surely
your business can wait for a moment or two.”
“I don’t want to trouble you. Normally I would
approach you more properly but I’ve received word
of a position. I’ve an opportunity to go to America, as
dentist for Seattle’s Japanese community.”
“Congratulations,” Chie said with amusement.
“That is an opportunity, I’m sure. But how am I
involved?”
Even noting Naomi’s breathless reaction to the
name card, Chie had no idea. Akira’s message,
delivered like a formal speech, filled her with
maternal amusement. You know how children speak
so earnestly, so hurriedly, so endearingly about
things that have no importance in an adult’s mind?
That’s how she viewed him, as a child.
It was how she viewed Naomi. Even though
Naomi was eighteen and training endlessly in the arts
needed to make a good marriage, Chie had made no
effort to find her a husband.
Akira blushed.
“Depending on your response, I may stay in
Japan. I’ve come to ask for Naomi’s hand.”
Suddenly Chie felt the dampness of the night.
“Does Naomi know anything of your...
ambitions?”
“We have an understanding. Please don’t judge
my candidacy by the unseemliness of this proposal. I
ask directly because the use of a go-between takes
much time. Either method comes down to the same
thing: a matter of parental approval. If you give your
consent, I become Naomi’s yoshi.* We’ll live in the
House of Fuji. Without your consent, I must go to
America, to secure a new home for my bride.”
Eager to make his point, he’d been looking her full
in the face. Abruptly, his voice turned gentle. “I see
I’ve startled you. My humble apologies. I’ll take no
more of your evening. My address is on my card. If
you don’t wish to contact me, I’ll reapproach you in
two weeks’ time. Until then, good night.”
He bowed and left. Taking her ease, with effortless
grace, like a cat making off with a fish.
“Mother?” Chie heard Naomi’s low voice and
turned from the door. “He has asked you?”
The sight of Naomi’s clear eyes, her dark brows
gave Chie strength. Maybe his hopes were
preposterous.
“Where did you meet such a fellow? Imagine! He
thinks he can marry the Fuji heir and take her to
America all in the snap of his fingers!”
Chie waited for Naomi’s ripe laughter.
Naomi was silent. She stood a full half minute
looking straight into Chie’s eyes. Finally, she spoke.
“I met him at my literary meeting.”
Naomi turned to go back into the house, then
stopped.
“Mother.”
“Yes?”
“I mean to have him.”
Question 4:
Which reaction does Akira most fear from Chie?
A) She will consider his proposal inappropriate.
B) She will mistake his earnestness for immaturity.
C) She will consider his unscheduled visit an imposition.
D) She will underestimate the sincerity of his emotions.
Answer: | A | false | sat-practice_1-question_4 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is from Lydia Minatoya, The Strangeness of
Beauty. ©1999 by Lydia Minatoya. The setting is Japan in
1920. Chie and her daughter Naomi are members of the
House of Fuji, a noble family.
Akira came directly, breaking all tradition. Was
that it? Had he followed form—had he asked his
mother to speak to his father to approach a
go-between—would Chie have been more receptive?
He came on a winter’s eve. He pounded on the
door while a cold rain beat on the shuttered veranda,
so at first Chie thought him only the wind. The maid
knew better. Chie heard her soft scuttling footsteps,
the creak of the door. Then the maid brought a
calling card to the drawing room, for Chie.
Chie was reluctant to go to her guest; perhaps she
was feeling too cozy. She and Naomi were reading at
a low table set atop a charcoal brazier. A thick quilt
spread over the sides of the table so their legs were
tucked inside with the heat.
“Who is it at this hour, in this weather?” Chie
questioned as she picked the name card off the
maid’s lacquer tray.
“Shinoda, Akira. Kobe Dental College,” she read.
Naomi recognized the name. Chie heard a soft
intake of air.
“I think you should go,” said Naomi.
Akira was waiting in the entry. He was in his early
twenties, slim and serious, wearing the black
military-style uniform of a student. As he
bowed—his hands hanging straight down, a
black cap in one, a yellow oil-paper umbrella in the
other—Chie glanced beyond him. In the glistening
surface of the courtyard’s rain-drenched paving
stones, she saw his reflection like a dark double.
“Madame,” said Akira, “forgive my disruption,
but I come with a matter of urgency.”
His voice was soft, refined. He straightened and
stole a deferential peek at her face.
In the dim light his eyes shone with sincerity.
Chie felt herself starting to like him.
“Come inside, get out of this nasty night. Surely
your business can wait for a moment or two.”
“I don’t want to trouble you. Normally I would
approach you more properly but I’ve received word
of a position. I’ve an opportunity to go to America, as
dentist for Seattle’s Japanese community.”
“Congratulations,” Chie said with amusement.
“That is an opportunity, I’m sure. But how am I
involved?”
Even noting Naomi’s breathless reaction to the
name card, Chie had no idea. Akira’s message,
delivered like a formal speech, filled her with
maternal amusement. You know how children speak
so earnestly, so hurriedly, so endearingly about
things that have no importance in an adult’s mind?
That’s how she viewed him, as a child.
It was how she viewed Naomi. Even though
Naomi was eighteen and training endlessly in the arts
needed to make a good marriage, Chie had made no
effort to find her a husband.
Akira blushed.
“Depending on your response, I may stay in
Japan. I’ve come to ask for Naomi’s hand.”
Suddenly Chie felt the dampness of the night.
“Does Naomi know anything of your...
ambitions?”
“We have an understanding. Please don’t judge
my candidacy by the unseemliness of this proposal. I
ask directly because the use of a go-between takes
much time. Either method comes down to the same
thing: a matter of parental approval. If you give your
consent, I become Naomi’s yoshi.* We’ll live in the
House of Fuji. Without your consent, I must go to
America, to secure a new home for my bride.”
Eager to make his point, he’d been looking her full
in the face. Abruptly, his voice turned gentle. “I see
I’ve startled you. My humble apologies. I’ll take no
more of your evening. My address is on my card. If
you don’t wish to contact me, I’ll reapproach you in
two weeks’ time. Until then, good night.”
He bowed and left. Taking her ease, with effortless
grace, like a cat making off with a fish.
“Mother?” Chie heard Naomi’s low voice and
turned from the door. “He has asked you?”
The sight of Naomi’s clear eyes, her dark brows
gave Chie strength. Maybe his hopes were
preposterous.
“Where did you meet such a fellow? Imagine! He
thinks he can marry the Fuji heir and take her to
America all in the snap of his fingers!”
Chie waited for Naomi’s ripe laughter.
Naomi was silent. She stood a full half minute
looking straight into Chie’s eyes. Finally, she spoke.
“I met him at my literary meeting.”
Naomi turned to go back into the house, then
stopped.
“Mother.”
“Yes?”
“I mean to have him.”
Question 2:
Which choice best describes the developmental pattern of the passage?
A) A careful analysis of a traditional practice
B) A detailed depiction of a meaningful encounter
C) A definitive response to a series of questions
D) A cheerful recounting of an amusing anecdote
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_1-question_2 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is from Lydia Minatoya, The Strangeness of
Beauty. ©1999 by Lydia Minatoya. The setting is Japan in
1920. Chie and her daughter Naomi are members of the
House of Fuji, a noble family.
Akira came directly, breaking all tradition. Was
that it? Had he followed form—had he asked his
mother to speak to his father to approach a
go-between—would Chie have been more receptive?
He came on a winter’s eve. He pounded on the
door while a cold rain beat on the shuttered veranda,
so at first Chie thought him only the wind. The maid
knew better. Chie heard her soft scuttling footsteps,
the creak of the door. Then the maid brought a
calling card to the drawing room, for Chie.
Chie was reluctant to go to her guest; perhaps she
was feeling too cozy. She and Naomi were reading at
a low table set atop a charcoal brazier. A thick quilt
spread over the sides of the table so their legs were
tucked inside with the heat.
“Who is it at this hour, in this weather?” Chie
questioned as she picked the name card off the
maid’s lacquer tray.
“Shinoda, Akira. Kobe Dental College,” she read.
Naomi recognized the name. Chie heard a soft
intake of air.
“I think you should go,” said Naomi.
Akira was waiting in the entry. He was in his early
twenties, slim and serious, wearing the black
military-style uniform of a student. As he
bowed—his hands hanging straight down, a
black cap in one, a yellow oil-paper umbrella in the
other—Chie glanced beyond him. In the glistening
surface of the courtyard’s rain-drenched paving
stones, she saw his reflection like a dark double.
“Madame,” said Akira, “forgive my disruption,
but I come with a matter of urgency.”
His voice was soft, refined. He straightened and
stole a deferential peek at her face.
In the dim light his eyes shone with sincerity.
Chie felt herself starting to like him.
“Come inside, get out of this nasty night. Surely
your business can wait for a moment or two.”
“I don’t want to trouble you. Normally I would
approach you more properly but I’ve received word
of a position. I’ve an opportunity to go to America, as
dentist for Seattle’s Japanese community.”
“Congratulations,” Chie said with amusement.
“That is an opportunity, I’m sure. But how am I
involved?”
Even noting Naomi’s breathless reaction to the
name card, Chie had no idea. Akira’s message,
delivered like a formal speech, filled her with
maternal amusement. You know how children speak
so earnestly, so hurriedly, so endearingly about
things that have no importance in an adult’s mind?
That’s how she viewed him, as a child.
It was how she viewed Naomi. Even though
Naomi was eighteen and training endlessly in the arts
needed to make a good marriage, Chie had made no
effort to find her a husband.
Akira blushed.
“Depending on your response, I may stay in
Japan. I’ve come to ask for Naomi’s hand.”
Suddenly Chie felt the dampness of the night.
“Does Naomi know anything of your...
ambitions?”
“We have an understanding. Please don’t judge
my candidacy by the unseemliness of this proposal. I
ask directly because the use of a go-between takes
much time. Either method comes down to the same
thing: a matter of parental approval. If you give your
consent, I become Naomi’s yoshi.* We’ll live in the
House of Fuji. Without your consent, I must go to
America, to secure a new home for my bride.”
Eager to make his point, he’d been looking her full
in the face. Abruptly, his voice turned gentle. “I see
I’ve startled you. My humble apologies. I’ll take no
more of your evening. My address is on my card. If
you don’t wish to contact me, I’ll reapproach you in
two weeks’ time. Until then, good night.”
He bowed and left. Taking her ease, with effortless
grace, like a cat making off with a fish.
“Mother?” Chie heard Naomi’s low voice and
turned from the door. “He has asked you?”
The sight of Naomi’s clear eyes, her dark brows
gave Chie strength. Maybe his hopes were
preposterous.
“Where did you meet such a fellow? Imagine! He
thinks he can marry the Fuji heir and take her to
America all in the snap of his fingers!”
Chie waited for Naomi’s ripe laughter.
Naomi was silent. She stood a full half minute
looking straight into Chie’s eyes. Finally, she spoke.
“I met him at my literary meeting.”
Naomi turned to go back into the house, then
stopped.
“Mother.”
“Yes?”
“I mean to have him.”
Question 6:
In the passage, Akira addresses Chie with
A) affection but not genuine love.
B) objectivity but not complete impartiality.
C) amusement but not mocking disparagement.
D) respect but not utter deference.
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_1-question_6 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Francis J. Flynn and Gabrielle
S. Adams, "Money Can't Buy Love: Asymmetric Beliefs about
Gift Price and Feelings of Appreciation." ©2008 by Elsevier
Inc.
Every day, millions of shoppers hit the stores in
full force—both online and on foot—searching
frantically for the perfect gift. Last year, Americans
spent over $30 billion at retail stores in the month of
December alone. Aside from purchasing holiday
gifts, most people regularly buy presents for other
occasions throughout the year, including weddings,
birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and baby
showers. This frequent experience of gift-giving can
engender ambivalent feelings in gift-givers. Many
relish the opportunity to buy presents because
gift-giving offers a powerful means to build stronger
bonds with one’s closest peers. At the same time,
many dread the thought of buying gifts; they worry
that their purchases will disappoint rather than
delight the intended recipients.
Anthropologists describe gift-giving as a positive
social process, serving various political, religious, and
psychological functions. Economists, however, offer
a less favorable view. According to Waldfogel (1993),
gift-giving represents an objective waste of resources.
People buy gifts that recipients would not choose to
buy on their own, or at least not spend as much
money to purchase (a phenomenon referred to as
‘‘the deadweight loss of Christmas”). To wit, givers
are likely to spend $100 to purchase a gift that
receivers would spend only $80 to buy themselves.
This ‘‘deadweight loss” suggests that gift-givers are
not very good at predicting what gifts others will
appreciate. That in itself is not surprising to social
psychologists. Research has found that people often
struggle to take account of others’ perspectives—
their insights are subject to egocentrism, social
projection, and multiple attribution errors.
What is surprising is that gift-givers have
considerable experience acting as both gift-givers and
gift-recipients, but nevertheless tend to overspend
each time they set out to purchase a meaningful gift.
In the present research, we propose a unique
psychological explanation for this overspending
problem—i.e., that gift-givers equate how much they
spend with how much recipients will appreciate the
gift (the more expensive the gift, the stronger a
gift-recipient’s feelings of appreciation). Although a
link between gift price and feelings of appreciation
might seem intuitive to gift-givers, such an
assumption may be unfounded. Indeed, we propose
that gift-recipients will be less inclined to base their
feelings of appreciation on the magnitude of a gift
than givers assume.
Why do gift-givers assume that gift price is closely
linked to gift-recipients’ feelings of appreciation?
Perhaps givers believe that bigger (i.e., more
expensive) gifts convey stronger signals of
thoughtfulness and consideration. According to
Camerer (1988) and others, gift-giving represents a
symbolic ritual, whereby gift-givers attempt to signal
their positive attitudes toward the intended recipient
and their willingness to invest resources in a future
relationship. In this sense, gift-givers may be
motivated to spend more money on a gift in order to
send a “stronger signal” to their intended recipient.
As for gift-recipients, they may not construe smaller
and larger gifts as representing smaller and larger
signals of thoughtfulness and consideration.
The notion of gift-givers and gift-recipients being
unable to account for the other party’s perspective
seems puzzling because people slip in and out of
these roles every day, and, in some cases, multiple
times in the course of the same day. Yet, despite the
extensive experience that people have as both givers
and receivers, they often struggle to transfer
information gained from one role (e.g., as a giver)
and apply it in another, complementary role (e.g., as
a receiver). In theoretical terms, people fail to utilize
information about their own preferences and
experiences in order to produce more efficient
outcomes in their exchange relations. In practical
terms, people spend hundreds of dollars each year on
gifts, but somehow never learn to calibrate their gift
expenditures according to personal insight.
Question 19:
The authors refer to work by Camerer and others (line 56) in order to
A) offer an explanation.
B) introduce an argument.
C) question a motive.
D) support a conclusion.
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_1-question_19 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Francis J. Flynn and Gabrielle
S. Adams, "Money Can't Buy Love: Asymmetric Beliefs about
Gift Price and Feelings of Appreciation." ©2008 by Elsevier
Inc.
Every day, millions of shoppers hit the stores in
full force—both online and on foot—searching
frantically for the perfect gift. Last year, Americans
spent over $30 billion at retail stores in the month of
December alone. Aside from purchasing holiday
gifts, most people regularly buy presents for other
occasions throughout the year, including weddings,
birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and baby
showers. This frequent experience of gift-giving can
engender ambivalent feelings in gift-givers. Many
relish the opportunity to buy presents because
gift-giving offers a powerful means to build stronger
bonds with one’s closest peers. At the same time,
many dread the thought of buying gifts; they worry
that their purchases will disappoint rather than
delight the intended recipients.
Anthropologists describe gift-giving as a positive
social process, serving various political, religious, and
psychological functions. Economists, however, offer
a less favorable view. According to Waldfogel (1993),
gift-giving represents an objective waste of resources.
People buy gifts that recipients would not choose to
buy on their own, or at least not spend as much
money to purchase (a phenomenon referred to as
‘‘the deadweight loss of Christmas”). To wit, givers
are likely to spend $100 to purchase a gift that
receivers would spend only $80 to buy themselves.
This ‘‘deadweight loss” suggests that gift-givers are
not very good at predicting what gifts others will
appreciate. That in itself is not surprising to social
psychologists. Research has found that people often
struggle to take account of others’ perspectives—
their insights are subject to egocentrism, social
projection, and multiple attribution errors.
What is surprising is that gift-givers have
considerable experience acting as both gift-givers and
gift-recipients, but nevertheless tend to overspend
each time they set out to purchase a meaningful gift.
In the present research, we propose a unique
psychological explanation for this overspending
problem—i.e., that gift-givers equate how much they
spend with how much recipients will appreciate the
gift (the more expensive the gift, the stronger a
gift-recipient’s feelings of appreciation). Although a
link between gift price and feelings of appreciation
might seem intuitive to gift-givers, such an
assumption may be unfounded. Indeed, we propose
that gift-recipients will be less inclined to base their
feelings of appreciation on the magnitude of a gift
than givers assume.
Why do gift-givers assume that gift price is closely
linked to gift-recipients’ feelings of appreciation?
Perhaps givers believe that bigger (i.e., more
expensive) gifts convey stronger signals of
thoughtfulness and consideration. According to
Camerer (1988) and others, gift-giving represents a
symbolic ritual, whereby gift-givers attempt to signal
their positive attitudes toward the intended recipient
and their willingness to invest resources in a future
relationship. In this sense, gift-givers may be
motivated to spend more money on a gift in order to
send a “stronger signal” to their intended recipient.
As for gift-recipients, they may not construe smaller
and larger gifts as representing smaller and larger
signals of thoughtfulness and consideration.
The notion of gift-givers and gift-recipients being
unable to account for the other party’s perspective
seems puzzling because people slip in and out of
these roles every day, and, in some cases, multiple
times in the course of the same day. Yet, despite the
extensive experience that people have as both givers
and receivers, they often struggle to transfer
information gained from one role (e.g., as a giver)
and apply it in another, complementary role (e.g., as
a receiver). In theoretical terms, people fail to utilize
information about their own preferences and
experiences in order to produce more efficient
outcomes in their exchange relations. In practical
terms, people spend hundreds of dollars each year on
gifts, but somehow never learn to calibrate their gift
expenditures according to personal insight.
Question 15:
The “social psychologists” mentioned in paragraph 2 (lines 17-34) would likely describe the “deadweight loss” phenomenon as
A) predictable.
B) questionable.
C) disturbing.
D) unprecedented.
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_1-question_15 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Francis J. Flynn and Gabrielle
S. Adams, "Money Can't Buy Love: Asymmetric Beliefs about
Gift Price and Feelings of Appreciation." ©2008 by Elsevier
Inc.
Every day, millions of shoppers hit the stores in
full force—both online and on foot—searching
frantically for the perfect gift. Last year, Americans
spent over $30 billion at retail stores in the month of
December alone. Aside from purchasing holiday
gifts, most people regularly buy presents for other
occasions throughout the year, including weddings,
birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and baby
showers. This frequent experience of gift-giving can
engender ambivalent feelings in gift-givers. Many
relish the opportunity to buy presents because
gift-giving offers a powerful means to build stronger
bonds with one’s closest peers. At the same time,
many dread the thought of buying gifts; they worry
that their purchases will disappoint rather than
delight the intended recipients.
Anthropologists describe gift-giving as a positive
social process, serving various political, religious, and
psychological functions. Economists, however, offer
a less favorable view. According to Waldfogel (1993),
gift-giving represents an objective waste of resources.
People buy gifts that recipients would not choose to
buy on their own, or at least not spend as much
money to purchase (a phenomenon referred to as
‘‘the deadweight loss of Christmas”). To wit, givers
are likely to spend $100 to purchase a gift that
receivers would spend only $80 to buy themselves.
This ‘‘deadweight loss” suggests that gift-givers are
not very good at predicting what gifts others will
appreciate. That in itself is not surprising to social
psychologists. Research has found that people often
struggle to take account of others’ perspectives—
their insights are subject to egocentrism, social
projection, and multiple attribution errors.
What is surprising is that gift-givers have
considerable experience acting as both gift-givers and
gift-recipients, but nevertheless tend to overspend
each time they set out to purchase a meaningful gift.
In the present research, we propose a unique
psychological explanation for this overspending
problem—i.e., that gift-givers equate how much they
spend with how much recipients will appreciate the
gift (the more expensive the gift, the stronger a
gift-recipient’s feelings of appreciation). Although a
link between gift price and feelings of appreciation
might seem intuitive to gift-givers, such an
assumption may be unfounded. Indeed, we propose
that gift-recipients will be less inclined to base their
feelings of appreciation on the magnitude of a gift
than givers assume.
Why do gift-givers assume that gift price is closely
linked to gift-recipients’ feelings of appreciation?
Perhaps givers believe that bigger (i.e., more
expensive) gifts convey stronger signals of
thoughtfulness and consideration. According to
Camerer (1988) and others, gift-giving represents a
symbolic ritual, whereby gift-givers attempt to signal
their positive attitudes toward the intended recipient
and their willingness to invest resources in a future
relationship. In this sense, gift-givers may be
motivated to spend more money on a gift in order to
send a “stronger signal” to their intended recipient.
As for gift-recipients, they may not construe smaller
and larger gifts as representing smaller and larger
signals of thoughtfulness and consideration.
The notion of gift-givers and gift-recipients being
unable to account for the other party’s perspective
seems puzzling because people slip in and out of
these roles every day, and, in some cases, multiple
times in the course of the same day. Yet, despite the
extensive experience that people have as both givers
and receivers, they often struggle to transfer
information gained from one role (e.g., as a giver)
and apply it in another, complementary role (e.g., as
a receiver). In theoretical terms, people fail to utilize
information about their own preferences and
experiences in order to produce more efficient
outcomes in their exchange relations. In practical
terms, people spend hundreds of dollars each year on
gifts, but somehow never learn to calibrate their gift
expenditures according to personal insight.
Question 12:
In line 10, the word “ambivalent” most nearly means
A) unrealistic.
B) conflicted.
C) apprehensive.
D) supportive.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_1-question_12 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Francis J. Flynn and Gabrielle
S. Adams, "Money Can't Buy Love: Asymmetric Beliefs about
Gift Price and Feelings of Appreciation." ©2008 by Elsevier
Inc.
Every day, millions of shoppers hit the stores in
full force—both online and on foot—searching
frantically for the perfect gift. Last year, Americans
spent over $30 billion at retail stores in the month of
December alone. Aside from purchasing holiday
gifts, most people regularly buy presents for other
occasions throughout the year, including weddings,
birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and baby
showers. This frequent experience of gift-giving can
engender ambivalent feelings in gift-givers. Many
relish the opportunity to buy presents because
gift-giving offers a powerful means to build stronger
bonds with one’s closest peers. At the same time,
many dread the thought of buying gifts; they worry
that their purchases will disappoint rather than
delight the intended recipients.
Anthropologists describe gift-giving as a positive
social process, serving various political, religious, and
psychological functions. Economists, however, offer
a less favorable view. According to Waldfogel (1993),
gift-giving represents an objective waste of resources.
People buy gifts that recipients would not choose to
buy on their own, or at least not spend as much
money to purchase (a phenomenon referred to as
‘‘the deadweight loss of Christmas”). To wit, givers
are likely to spend $100 to purchase a gift that
receivers would spend only $80 to buy themselves.
This ‘‘deadweight loss” suggests that gift-givers are
not very good at predicting what gifts others will
appreciate. That in itself is not surprising to social
psychologists. Research has found that people often
struggle to take account of others’ perspectives—
their insights are subject to egocentrism, social
projection, and multiple attribution errors.
What is surprising is that gift-givers have
considerable experience acting as both gift-givers and
gift-recipients, but nevertheless tend to overspend
each time they set out to purchase a meaningful gift.
In the present research, we propose a unique
psychological explanation for this overspending
problem—i.e., that gift-givers equate how much they
spend with how much recipients will appreciate the
gift (the more expensive the gift, the stronger a
gift-recipient’s feelings of appreciation). Although a
link between gift price and feelings of appreciation
might seem intuitive to gift-givers, such an
assumption may be unfounded. Indeed, we propose
that gift-recipients will be less inclined to base their
feelings of appreciation on the magnitude of a gift
than givers assume.
Why do gift-givers assume that gift price is closely
linked to gift-recipients’ feelings of appreciation?
Perhaps givers believe that bigger (i.e., more
expensive) gifts convey stronger signals of
thoughtfulness and consideration. According to
Camerer (1988) and others, gift-giving represents a
symbolic ritual, whereby gift-givers attempt to signal
their positive attitudes toward the intended recipient
and their willingness to invest resources in a future
relationship. In this sense, gift-givers may be
motivated to spend more money on a gift in order to
send a “stronger signal” to their intended recipient.
As for gift-recipients, they may not construe smaller
and larger gifts as representing smaller and larger
signals of thoughtfulness and consideration.
The notion of gift-givers and gift-recipients being
unable to account for the other party’s perspective
seems puzzling because people slip in and out of
these roles every day, and, in some cases, multiple
times in the course of the same day. Yet, despite the
extensive experience that people have as both givers
and receivers, they often struggle to transfer
information gained from one role (e.g., as a giver)
and apply it in another, complementary role (e.g., as
a receiver). In theoretical terms, people fail to utilize
information about their own preferences and
experiences in order to produce more efficient
outcomes in their exchange relations. In practical
terms, people spend hundreds of dollars each year on
gifts, but somehow never learn to calibrate their gift
expenditures according to personal insight.
Question 16:
The passage indicates that the assumption made by gift-givers in lines 41-44 may be
A) insincere.
B) unreasonable.
C) incorrect.
D) substantiated.
Answer: | C | true | sat-practice_1-question_16 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Francis J. Flynn and Gabrielle
S. Adams, "Money Can't Buy Love: Asymmetric Beliefs about
Gift Price and Feelings of Appreciation." ©2008 by Elsevier
Inc.
Every day, millions of shoppers hit the stores in
full force—both online and on foot—searching
frantically for the perfect gift. Last year, Americans
spent over $30 billion at retail stores in the month of
December alone. Aside from purchasing holiday
gifts, most people regularly buy presents for other
occasions throughout the year, including weddings,
birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and baby
showers. This frequent experience of gift-giving can
engender ambivalent feelings in gift-givers. Many
relish the opportunity to buy presents because
gift-giving offers a powerful means to build stronger
bonds with one’s closest peers. At the same time,
many dread the thought of buying gifts; they worry
that their purchases will disappoint rather than
delight the intended recipients.
Anthropologists describe gift-giving as a positive
social process, serving various political, religious, and
psychological functions. Economists, however, offer
a less favorable view. According to Waldfogel (1993),
gift-giving represents an objective waste of resources.
People buy gifts that recipients would not choose to
buy on their own, or at least not spend as much
money to purchase (a phenomenon referred to as
‘‘the deadweight loss of Christmas”). To wit, givers
are likely to spend $100 to purchase a gift that
receivers would spend only $80 to buy themselves.
This ‘‘deadweight loss” suggests that gift-givers are
not very good at predicting what gifts others will
appreciate. That in itself is not surprising to social
psychologists. Research has found that people often
struggle to take account of others’ perspectives—
their insights are subject to egocentrism, social
projection, and multiple attribution errors.
What is surprising is that gift-givers have
considerable experience acting as both gift-givers and
gift-recipients, but nevertheless tend to overspend
each time they set out to purchase a meaningful gift.
In the present research, we propose a unique
psychological explanation for this overspending
problem—i.e., that gift-givers equate how much they
spend with how much recipients will appreciate the
gift (the more expensive the gift, the stronger a
gift-recipient’s feelings of appreciation). Although a
link between gift price and feelings of appreciation
might seem intuitive to gift-givers, such an
assumption may be unfounded. Indeed, we propose
that gift-recipients will be less inclined to base their
feelings of appreciation on the magnitude of a gift
than givers assume.
Why do gift-givers assume that gift price is closely
linked to gift-recipients’ feelings of appreciation?
Perhaps givers believe that bigger (i.e., more
expensive) gifts convey stronger signals of
thoughtfulness and consideration. According to
Camerer (1988) and others, gift-giving represents a
symbolic ritual, whereby gift-givers attempt to signal
their positive attitudes toward the intended recipient
and their willingness to invest resources in a future
relationship. In this sense, gift-givers may be
motivated to spend more money on a gift in order to
send a “stronger signal” to their intended recipient.
As for gift-recipients, they may not construe smaller
and larger gifts as representing smaller and larger
signals of thoughtfulness and consideration.
The notion of gift-givers and gift-recipients being
unable to account for the other party’s perspective
seems puzzling because people slip in and out of
these roles every day, and, in some cases, multiple
times in the course of the same day. Yet, despite the
extensive experience that people have as both givers
and receivers, they often struggle to transfer
information gained from one role (e.g., as a giver)
and apply it in another, complementary role (e.g., as
a receiver). In theoretical terms, people fail to utilize
information about their own preferences and
experiences in order to produce more efficient
outcomes in their exchange relations. In practical
terms, people spend hundreds of dollars each year on
gifts, but somehow never learn to calibrate their gift
expenditures according to personal insight.
Question 18:
As it is used in line 54, “convey” most nearly means
A) transport.
B) counteract.
C) exchange.
D) communicate.
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_1-question_18 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Francis J. Flynn and Gabrielle
S. Adams, "Money Can't Buy Love: Asymmetric Beliefs about
Gift Price and Feelings of Appreciation." ©2008 by Elsevier
Inc.
Every day, millions of shoppers hit the stores in
full force—both online and on foot—searching
frantically for the perfect gift. Last year, Americans
spent over $30 billion at retail stores in the month of
December alone. Aside from purchasing holiday
gifts, most people regularly buy presents for other
occasions throughout the year, including weddings,
birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and baby
showers. This frequent experience of gift-giving can
engender ambivalent feelings in gift-givers. Many
relish the opportunity to buy presents because
gift-giving offers a powerful means to build stronger
bonds with one’s closest peers. At the same time,
many dread the thought of buying gifts; they worry
that their purchases will disappoint rather than
delight the intended recipients.
Anthropologists describe gift-giving as a positive
social process, serving various political, religious, and
psychological functions. Economists, however, offer
a less favorable view. According to Waldfogel (1993),
gift-giving represents an objective waste of resources.
People buy gifts that recipients would not choose to
buy on their own, or at least not spend as much
money to purchase (a phenomenon referred to as
‘‘the deadweight loss of Christmas”). To wit, givers
are likely to spend $100 to purchase a gift that
receivers would spend only $80 to buy themselves.
This ‘‘deadweight loss” suggests that gift-givers are
not very good at predicting what gifts others will
appreciate. That in itself is not surprising to social
psychologists. Research has found that people often
struggle to take account of others’ perspectives—
their insights are subject to egocentrism, social
projection, and multiple attribution errors.
What is surprising is that gift-givers have
considerable experience acting as both gift-givers and
gift-recipients, but nevertheless tend to overspend
each time they set out to purchase a meaningful gift.
In the present research, we propose a unique
psychological explanation for this overspending
problem—i.e., that gift-givers equate how much they
spend with how much recipients will appreciate the
gift (the more expensive the gift, the stronger a
gift-recipient’s feelings of appreciation). Although a
link between gift price and feelings of appreciation
might seem intuitive to gift-givers, such an
assumption may be unfounded. Indeed, we propose
that gift-recipients will be less inclined to base their
feelings of appreciation on the magnitude of a gift
than givers assume.
Why do gift-givers assume that gift price is closely
linked to gift-recipients’ feelings of appreciation?
Perhaps givers believe that bigger (i.e., more
expensive) gifts convey stronger signals of
thoughtfulness and consideration. According to
Camerer (1988) and others, gift-giving represents a
symbolic ritual, whereby gift-givers attempt to signal
their positive attitudes toward the intended recipient
and their willingness to invest resources in a future
relationship. In this sense, gift-givers may be
motivated to spend more money on a gift in order to
send a “stronger signal” to their intended recipient.
As for gift-recipients, they may not construe smaller
and larger gifts as representing smaller and larger
signals of thoughtfulness and consideration.
The notion of gift-givers and gift-recipients being
unable to account for the other party’s perspective
seems puzzling because people slip in and out of
these roles every day, and, in some cases, multiple
times in the course of the same day. Yet, despite the
extensive experience that people have as both givers
and receivers, they often struggle to transfer
information gained from one role (e.g., as a giver)
and apply it in another, complementary role (e.g., as
a receiver). In theoretical terms, people fail to utilize
information about their own preferences and
experiences in order to produce more efficient
outcomes in their exchange relations. In practical
terms, people spend hundreds of dollars each year on
gifts, but somehow never learn to calibrate their gift
expenditures according to personal insight.
Question 13:
The authors indicate that people value gift-giving because they feel it
A) functions as a form of self-expression.
B) is an inexpensive way to show appreciation.
C) requires the gift-recipient to reciprocate.
D) can serve to strengthen a relationship
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_1-question_13 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Francis J. Flynn and Gabrielle
S. Adams, "Money Can't Buy Love: Asymmetric Beliefs about
Gift Price and Feelings of Appreciation." ©2008 by Elsevier
Inc.
Every day, millions of shoppers hit the stores in
full force—both online and on foot—searching
frantically for the perfect gift. Last year, Americans
spent over $30 billion at retail stores in the month of
December alone. Aside from purchasing holiday
gifts, most people regularly buy presents for other
occasions throughout the year, including weddings,
birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and baby
showers. This frequent experience of gift-giving can
engender ambivalent feelings in gift-givers. Many
relish the opportunity to buy presents because
gift-giving offers a powerful means to build stronger
bonds with one’s closest peers. At the same time,
many dread the thought of buying gifts; they worry
that their purchases will disappoint rather than
delight the intended recipients.
Anthropologists describe gift-giving as a positive
social process, serving various political, religious, and
psychological functions. Economists, however, offer
a less favorable view. According to Waldfogel (1993),
gift-giving represents an objective waste of resources.
People buy gifts that recipients would not choose to
buy on their own, or at least not spend as much
money to purchase (a phenomenon referred to as
‘‘the deadweight loss of Christmas”). To wit, givers
are likely to spend $100 to purchase a gift that
receivers would spend only $80 to buy themselves.
This ‘‘deadweight loss” suggests that gift-givers are
not very good at predicting what gifts others will
appreciate. That in itself is not surprising to social
psychologists. Research has found that people often
struggle to take account of others’ perspectives—
their insights are subject to egocentrism, social
projection, and multiple attribution errors.
What is surprising is that gift-givers have
considerable experience acting as both gift-givers and
gift-recipients, but nevertheless tend to overspend
each time they set out to purchase a meaningful gift.
In the present research, we propose a unique
psychological explanation for this overspending
problem—i.e., that gift-givers equate how much they
spend with how much recipients will appreciate the
gift (the more expensive the gift, the stronger a
gift-recipient’s feelings of appreciation). Although a
link between gift price and feelings of appreciation
might seem intuitive to gift-givers, such an
assumption may be unfounded. Indeed, we propose
that gift-recipients will be less inclined to base their
feelings of appreciation on the magnitude of a gift
than givers assume.
Why do gift-givers assume that gift price is closely
linked to gift-recipients’ feelings of appreciation?
Perhaps givers believe that bigger (i.e., more
expensive) gifts convey stronger signals of
thoughtfulness and consideration. According to
Camerer (1988) and others, gift-giving represents a
symbolic ritual, whereby gift-givers attempt to signal
their positive attitudes toward the intended recipient
and their willingness to invest resources in a future
relationship. In this sense, gift-givers may be
motivated to spend more money on a gift in order to
send a “stronger signal” to their intended recipient.
As for gift-recipients, they may not construe smaller
and larger gifts as representing smaller and larger
signals of thoughtfulness and consideration.
The notion of gift-givers and gift-recipients being
unable to account for the other party’s perspective
seems puzzling because people slip in and out of
these roles every day, and, in some cases, multiple
times in the course of the same day. Yet, despite the
extensive experience that people have as both givers
and receivers, they often struggle to transfer
information gained from one role (e.g., as a giver)
and apply it in another, complementary role (e.g., as
a receiver). In theoretical terms, people fail to utilize
information about their own preferences and
experiences in order to produce more efficient
outcomes in their exchange relations. In practical
terms, people spend hundreds of dollars each year on
gifts, but somehow never learn to calibrate their gift
expenditures according to personal insight.
Question 11:
The authors most likely use the examples in lines 1-9 of the passage (“Every... showers”) to highlight the
A) regularity with which people shop for gifts.
B) recent increase in the amount of money spent on gifts.
C) anxiety gift shopping causes for consumers.
D) number of special occasions involving gift-giving.
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_1-question_11 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from J. D. Watson and F. H. C. Crick,
“Genetical Implications of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic
Acid.” ©1953 by Nature Publishing Group. Watson and Crick
deduced the structure of DNA using evidence from Rosalind
Franklin and R. G. Gosling’s X-ray crystallography diagrams
of DNA and from Erwin Chargaff’s data on the base
composition of DNA.
The chemical formula of deoxyribonucleic acid
(DNA) is now well established. The molecule is a
very long chain, the backbone of which consists of a
regular alternation of sugar and phosphate groups.
To each sugar is attached a nitrogenous base, which
can be of four different types. Two of the possible
bases—adenine and guanine—are purines, and the
other two—thymine and cytosine—are pyrimidines.
So far as is known, the sequence of bases along the
chain is irregular. The monomer unit, consisting of
phosphate, sugar and base, is known as a nucleotide.
The first feature of our structure which is of
biological interest is that it consists not of one chain,
but of two. These two chains are both coiled around
a common fiber axis. It has often been assumed that
since there was only one chain in the chemical
formula there would only be one in the structural
unit. However, the density, taken with the X-ray
evidence, suggests very strongly that there are two.
The other biologically important feature is the
manner in which the two chains are held together.
This is done by hydrogen bonds between the bases.
The bases are joined together in pairs, a single base
from one chain being hydrogen-bonded to a single
base from the other. The important point is that only
certain pairs of bases will fit into the structure.
One member of a pair must be a purine and the other
a pyrimidine in order to bridge between the two
chains. If a pair consisted of two purines, for
example, there would not be room for it.
We believe that the bases will be present almost
entirely in their most probable forms. If this is true,
the conditions for forming hydrogen bonds are more
restrictive, and the only pairs of bases possible are:
adenine with thymine, and guanine with cytosine.
Adenine, for example, can occur on either chain; but
when it does, its partner on the other chain must
always be thymine.
The phosphate-sugar backbone of our model is
completely regular, but any sequence of the pairs of
bases can fit into the structure. It follows that in a
long molecule many different permutations are
possible, and it therefore seems likely that the precise
sequence of bases is the code which carries the
genetical information. If the actual order of the bases
on one of the pair of chains were given, one could
write down the exact order of the bases on the other
one, because of the specific pairing. Thus one chain
is, as it were, the complement of the other, and it is
this feature which suggests how the deoxyribonucleic
acid molecule might duplicate itself.
\begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|c|c|}
\hline \multicolumn{5}{|c|}{ Base Composition of DNA } \\
\hline & \multicolumn{4}{|c|}{$\begin{gathered}\text { Percentage of base } \\
\text { in organism's DNA }\end{gathered}$} \\
\cline { 2 - 5 } Organism & $\begin{gathered}\text { adenine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { guanine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { cytosine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { thymine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ \\
\hline Maize & $26.8$ & $22.8$ & $23.2$ & $27.2$ \\
\hline Octopus & $33.2$ & $17.6$ & $17.6$ & $31.6$ \\
\hline Chicken & $28.0$ & $22.0$ & $21.6$ & $28.4$ \\
\hline Rat & $28.6$ & $21.4$ & $20.5$ & $28.4$ \\
\hline Human & $29.3$ & $20.7$ & $20.0$ & $30.0$ \\
\hline Grasshopper & $29.3$ & $20.5$ & $20.7$ & $29.3$ \\
\hline Sea urchin & $32.8$ & $17.7$ & $17.3$ & $32.1$ \\
\hline Wheat & $27.3$ & $22.7$ & $22.8$ & $27.1$ \\
\hline Yeast & $31.3$ & $18.7$ & $17.1$ & $32.9$ \\
\hline E. coli & $24.7$ & $26.0$ & $25.7$ & $23.6$ \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
Question 22:
The authors use the word “backbone” in lines 3 and 39 to indicate that
A) only very long chains of DNA can be taken from an organism with a spinal column.
B) the main structure of a chain in a DNA molecule is composed of repeating units.
C) a chain in a DNA molecule consists entirely of phosphate groups or of sugars.
D) nitrogenous bases form the main structural unit of DNA.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_1-question_22 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from J. D. Watson and F. H. C. Crick,
“Genetical Implications of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic
Acid.” ©1953 by Nature Publishing Group. Watson and Crick
deduced the structure of DNA using evidence from Rosalind
Franklin and R. G. Gosling’s X-ray crystallography diagrams
of DNA and from Erwin Chargaff’s data on the base
composition of DNA.
The chemical formula of deoxyribonucleic acid
(DNA) is now well established. The molecule is a
very long chain, the backbone of which consists of a
regular alternation of sugar and phosphate groups.
To each sugar is attached a nitrogenous base, which
can be of four different types. Two of the possible
bases—adenine and guanine—are purines, and the
other two—thymine and cytosine—are pyrimidines.
So far as is known, the sequence of bases along the
chain is irregular. The monomer unit, consisting of
phosphate, sugar and base, is known as a nucleotide.
The first feature of our structure which is of
biological interest is that it consists not of one chain,
but of two. These two chains are both coiled around
a common fiber axis. It has often been assumed that
since there was only one chain in the chemical
formula there would only be one in the structural
unit. However, the density, taken with the X-ray
evidence, suggests very strongly that there are two.
The other biologically important feature is the
manner in which the two chains are held together.
This is done by hydrogen bonds between the bases.
The bases are joined together in pairs, a single base
from one chain being hydrogen-bonded to a single
base from the other. The important point is that only
certain pairs of bases will fit into the structure.
One member of a pair must be a purine and the other
a pyrimidine in order to bridge between the two
chains. If a pair consisted of two purines, for
example, there would not be room for it.
We believe that the bases will be present almost
entirely in their most probable forms. If this is true,
the conditions for forming hydrogen bonds are more
restrictive, and the only pairs of bases possible are:
adenine with thymine, and guanine with cytosine.
Adenine, for example, can occur on either chain; but
when it does, its partner on the other chain must
always be thymine.
The phosphate-sugar backbone of our model is
completely regular, but any sequence of the pairs of
bases can fit into the structure. It follows that in a
long molecule many different permutations are
possible, and it therefore seems likely that the precise
sequence of bases is the code which carries the
genetical information. If the actual order of the bases
on one of the pair of chains were given, one could
write down the exact order of the bases on the other
one, because of the specific pairing. Thus one chain
is, as it were, the complement of the other, and it is
this feature which suggests how the deoxyribonucleic
acid molecule might duplicate itself.
\begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|c|c|}
\hline \multicolumn{5}{|c|}{ Base Composition of DNA } \\
\hline & \multicolumn{4}{|c|}{$\begin{gathered}\text { Percentage of base } \\
\text { in organism's DNA }\end{gathered}$} \\
\cline { 2 - 5 } Organism & $\begin{gathered}\text { adenine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { guanine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { cytosine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { thymine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ \\
\hline Maize & $26.8$ & $22.8$ & $23.2$ & $27.2$ \\
\hline Octopus & $33.2$ & $17.6$ & $17.6$ & $31.6$ \\
\hline Chicken & $28.0$ & $22.0$ & $21.6$ & $28.4$ \\
\hline Rat & $28.6$ & $21.4$ & $20.5$ & $28.4$ \\
\hline Human & $29.3$ & $20.7$ & $20.0$ & $30.0$ \\
\hline Grasshopper & $29.3$ & $20.5$ & $20.7$ & $29.3$ \\
\hline Sea urchin & $32.8$ & $17.7$ & $17.3$ & $32.1$ \\
\hline Wheat & $27.3$ & $22.7$ & $22.8$ & $27.1$ \\
\hline Yeast & $31.3$ & $18.7$ & $17.1$ & $32.9$ \\
\hline E. coli & $24.7$ & $26.0$ & $25.7$ & $23.6$ \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
Question 25:
The authors’ main purpose of including the information about X-ray evidence and density is to
A) establish that DNA is the molecule that carries the genetic information.
B) present an alternate hypothesis about the composition of a nucleotide.
C) provide support for the authors’ claim about the number of chains in a molecule of DNA.
D) confirm the relationship between the density of DNA and the known chemical formula of DNA.
Answer: | C | false | sat-practice_1-question_25 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from J. D. Watson and F. H. C. Crick,
“Genetical Implications of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic
Acid.” ©1953 by Nature Publishing Group. Watson and Crick
deduced the structure of DNA using evidence from Rosalind
Franklin and R. G. Gosling’s X-ray crystallography diagrams
of DNA and from Erwin Chargaff’s data on the base
composition of DNA.
The chemical formula of deoxyribonucleic acid
(DNA) is now well established. The molecule is a
very long chain, the backbone of which consists of a
regular alternation of sugar and phosphate groups.
To each sugar is attached a nitrogenous base, which
can be of four different types. Two of the possible
bases—adenine and guanine—are purines, and the
other two—thymine and cytosine—are pyrimidines.
So far as is known, the sequence of bases along the
chain is irregular. The monomer unit, consisting of
phosphate, sugar and base, is known as a nucleotide.
The first feature of our structure which is of
biological interest is that it consists not of one chain,
but of two. These two chains are both coiled around
a common fiber axis. It has often been assumed that
since there was only one chain in the chemical
formula there would only be one in the structural
unit. However, the density, taken with the X-ray
evidence, suggests very strongly that there are two.
The other biologically important feature is the
manner in which the two chains are held together.
This is done by hydrogen bonds between the bases.
The bases are joined together in pairs, a single base
from one chain being hydrogen-bonded to a single
base from the other. The important point is that only
certain pairs of bases will fit into the structure.
One member of a pair must be a purine and the other
a pyrimidine in order to bridge between the two
chains. If a pair consisted of two purines, for
example, there would not be room for it.
We believe that the bases will be present almost
entirely in their most probable forms. If this is true,
the conditions for forming hydrogen bonds are more
restrictive, and the only pairs of bases possible are:
adenine with thymine, and guanine with cytosine.
Adenine, for example, can occur on either chain; but
when it does, its partner on the other chain must
always be thymine.
The phosphate-sugar backbone of our model is
completely regular, but any sequence of the pairs of
bases can fit into the structure. It follows that in a
long molecule many different permutations are
possible, and it therefore seems likely that the precise
sequence of bases is the code which carries the
genetical information. If the actual order of the bases
on one of the pair of chains were given, one could
write down the exact order of the bases on the other
one, because of the specific pairing. Thus one chain
is, as it were, the complement of the other, and it is
this feature which suggests how the deoxyribonucleic
acid molecule might duplicate itself.
\begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|c|c|}
\hline \multicolumn{5}{|c|}{ Base Composition of DNA } \\
\hline & \multicolumn{4}{|c|}{$\begin{gathered}\text { Percentage of base } \\
\text { in organism's DNA }\end{gathered}$} \\
\cline { 2 - 5 } Organism & $\begin{gathered}\text { adenine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { guanine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { cytosine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { thymine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ \\
\hline Maize & $26.8$ & $22.8$ & $23.2$ & $27.2$ \\
\hline Octopus & $33.2$ & $17.6$ & $17.6$ & $31.6$ \\
\hline Chicken & $28.0$ & $22.0$ & $21.6$ & $28.4$ \\
\hline Rat & $28.6$ & $21.4$ & $20.5$ & $28.4$ \\
\hline Human & $29.3$ & $20.7$ & $20.0$ & $30.0$ \\
\hline Grasshopper & $29.3$ & $20.5$ & $20.7$ & $29.3$ \\
\hline Sea urchin & $32.8$ & $17.7$ & $17.3$ & $32.1$ \\
\hline Wheat & $27.3$ & $22.7$ & $22.8$ & $27.1$ \\
\hline Yeast & $31.3$ & $18.7$ & $17.1$ & $32.9$ \\
\hline E. coli & $24.7$ & $26.0$ & $25.7$ & $23.6$ \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
Question 27:
The authors’ use of the words “exact,” “specific,” and “complement” in lines 47-49 in the final paragraph functions mainly to
A) confirm that the nucleotide sequences are known for most molecules of DNA.
B) counter the claim that the sequences of bases along a chain can occur in any order.
C) support the claim that the phosphate-sugar backbone of the authors’ model is completely regular.
D) emphasize how one chain of DNA may serve as a template to be copied during DNA replication.
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_1-question_27 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from J. D. Watson and F. H. C. Crick,
“Genetical Implications of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic
Acid.” ©1953 by Nature Publishing Group. Watson and Crick
deduced the structure of DNA using evidence from Rosalind
Franklin and R. G. Gosling’s X-ray crystallography diagrams
of DNA and from Erwin Chargaff’s data on the base
composition of DNA.
The chemical formula of deoxyribonucleic acid
(DNA) is now well established. The molecule is a
very long chain, the backbone of which consists of a
regular alternation of sugar and phosphate groups.
To each sugar is attached a nitrogenous base, which
can be of four different types. Two of the possible
bases—adenine and guanine—are purines, and the
other two—thymine and cytosine—are pyrimidines.
So far as is known, the sequence of bases along the
chain is irregular. The monomer unit, consisting of
phosphate, sugar and base, is known as a nucleotide.
The first feature of our structure which is of
biological interest is that it consists not of one chain,
but of two. These two chains are both coiled around
a common fiber axis. It has often been assumed that
since there was only one chain in the chemical
formula there would only be one in the structural
unit. However, the density, taken with the X-ray
evidence, suggests very strongly that there are two.
The other biologically important feature is the
manner in which the two chains are held together.
This is done by hydrogen bonds between the bases.
The bases are joined together in pairs, a single base
from one chain being hydrogen-bonded to a single
base from the other. The important point is that only
certain pairs of bases will fit into the structure.
One member of a pair must be a purine and the other
a pyrimidine in order to bridge between the two
chains. If a pair consisted of two purines, for
example, there would not be room for it.
We believe that the bases will be present almost
entirely in their most probable forms. If this is true,
the conditions for forming hydrogen bonds are more
restrictive, and the only pairs of bases possible are:
adenine with thymine, and guanine with cytosine.
Adenine, for example, can occur on either chain; but
when it does, its partner on the other chain must
always be thymine.
The phosphate-sugar backbone of our model is
completely regular, but any sequence of the pairs of
bases can fit into the structure. It follows that in a
long molecule many different permutations are
possible, and it therefore seems likely that the precise
sequence of bases is the code which carries the
genetical information. If the actual order of the bases
on one of the pair of chains were given, one could
write down the exact order of the bases on the other
one, because of the specific pairing. Thus one chain
is, as it were, the complement of the other, and it is
this feature which suggests how the deoxyribonucleic
acid molecule might duplicate itself.
\begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|c|c|}
\hline \multicolumn{5}{|c|}{ Base Composition of DNA } \\
\hline & \multicolumn{4}{|c|}{$\begin{gathered}\text { Percentage of base } \\
\text { in organism's DNA }\end{gathered}$} \\
\cline { 2 - 5 } Organism & $\begin{gathered}\text { adenine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { guanine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { cytosine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { thymine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ \\
\hline Maize & $26.8$ & $22.8$ & $23.2$ & $27.2$ \\
\hline Octopus & $33.2$ & $17.6$ & $17.6$ & $31.6$ \\
\hline Chicken & $28.0$ & $22.0$ & $21.6$ & $28.4$ \\
\hline Rat & $28.6$ & $21.4$ & $20.5$ & $28.4$ \\
\hline Human & $29.3$ & $20.7$ & $20.0$ & $30.0$ \\
\hline Grasshopper & $29.3$ & $20.5$ & $20.7$ & $29.3$ \\
\hline Sea urchin & $32.8$ & $17.7$ & $17.3$ & $32.1$ \\
\hline Wheat & $27.3$ & $22.7$ & $22.8$ & $27.1$ \\
\hline Yeast & $31.3$ & $18.7$ & $17.1$ & $32.9$ \\
\hline E. coli & $24.7$ & $26.0$ & $25.7$ & $23.6$ \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
Question 26:
Based on the passage, the authors’ statement “If a pair consisted of two purines, for example, there would not be room for it” (lines 29-30) implies that a pair
A) of purines would be larger than the space between a sugar and a phosphate group.
B) of purines would be larger than a pair consisting of a purine and a pyrimidine.
C) of pyrimidines would be larger than a pair of purines.
D) consisting of a purine and a pyrimidine would be larger than a pair of pyrimidines.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_1-question_26 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from J. D. Watson and F. H. C. Crick,
“Genetical Implications of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic
Acid.” ©1953 by Nature Publishing Group. Watson and Crick
deduced the structure of DNA using evidence from Rosalind
Franklin and R. G. Gosling’s X-ray crystallography diagrams
of DNA and from Erwin Chargaff’s data on the base
composition of DNA.
The chemical formula of deoxyribonucleic acid
(DNA) is now well established. The molecule is a
very long chain, the backbone of which consists of a
regular alternation of sugar and phosphate groups.
To each sugar is attached a nitrogenous base, which
can be of four different types. Two of the possible
bases—adenine and guanine—are purines, and the
other two—thymine and cytosine—are pyrimidines.
So far as is known, the sequence of bases along the
chain is irregular. The monomer unit, consisting of
phosphate, sugar and base, is known as a nucleotide.
The first feature of our structure which is of
biological interest is that it consists not of one chain,
but of two. These two chains are both coiled around
a common fiber axis. It has often been assumed that
since there was only one chain in the chemical
formula there would only be one in the structural
unit. However, the density, taken with the X-ray
evidence, suggests very strongly that there are two.
The other biologically important feature is the
manner in which the two chains are held together.
This is done by hydrogen bonds between the bases.
The bases are joined together in pairs, a single base
from one chain being hydrogen-bonded to a single
base from the other. The important point is that only
certain pairs of bases will fit into the structure.
One member of a pair must be a purine and the other
a pyrimidine in order to bridge between the two
chains. If a pair consisted of two purines, for
example, there would not be room for it.
We believe that the bases will be present almost
entirely in their most probable forms. If this is true,
the conditions for forming hydrogen bonds are more
restrictive, and the only pairs of bases possible are:
adenine with thymine, and guanine with cytosine.
Adenine, for example, can occur on either chain; but
when it does, its partner on the other chain must
always be thymine.
The phosphate-sugar backbone of our model is
completely regular, but any sequence of the pairs of
bases can fit into the structure. It follows that in a
long molecule many different permutations are
possible, and it therefore seems likely that the precise
sequence of bases is the code which carries the
genetical information. If the actual order of the bases
on one of the pair of chains were given, one could
write down the exact order of the bases on the other
one, because of the specific pairing. Thus one chain
is, as it were, the complement of the other, and it is
this feature which suggests how the deoxyribonucleic
acid molecule might duplicate itself.
\begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|c|c|}
\hline \multicolumn{5}{|c|}{ Base Composition of DNA } \\
\hline & \multicolumn{4}{|c|}{$\begin{gathered}\text { Percentage of base } \\
\text { in organism's DNA }\end{gathered}$} \\
\cline { 2 - 5 } Organism & $\begin{gathered}\text { adenine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { guanine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { cytosine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { thymine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ \\
\hline Maize & $26.8$ & $22.8$ & $23.2$ & $27.2$ \\
\hline Octopus & $33.2$ & $17.6$ & $17.6$ & $31.6$ \\
\hline Chicken & $28.0$ & $22.0$ & $21.6$ & $28.4$ \\
\hline Rat & $28.6$ & $21.4$ & $20.5$ & $28.4$ \\
\hline Human & $29.3$ & $20.7$ & $20.0$ & $30.0$ \\
\hline Grasshopper & $29.3$ & $20.5$ & $20.7$ & $29.3$ \\
\hline Sea urchin & $32.8$ & $17.7$ & $17.3$ & $32.1$ \\
\hline Wheat & $27.3$ & $22.7$ & $22.8$ & $27.1$ \\
\hline Yeast & $31.3$ & $18.7$ & $17.1$ & $32.9$ \\
\hline E. coli & $24.7$ & $26.0$ & $25.7$ & $23.6$ \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
Question 24:
In the second paragraph (lines 12-19), what do the authors claim to be a feature of biological interest?
A) The chemical formula of DNA
B) The common fiber axis
C) The X-ray evidence
D) DNA consisting of two chains
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_1-question_24 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from J. D. Watson and F. H. C. Crick,
“Genetical Implications of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic
Acid.” ©1953 by Nature Publishing Group. Watson and Crick
deduced the structure of DNA using evidence from Rosalind
Franklin and R. G. Gosling’s X-ray crystallography diagrams
of DNA and from Erwin Chargaff’s data on the base
composition of DNA.
The chemical formula of deoxyribonucleic acid
(DNA) is now well established. The molecule is a
very long chain, the backbone of which consists of a
regular alternation of sugar and phosphate groups.
To each sugar is attached a nitrogenous base, which
can be of four different types. Two of the possible
bases—adenine and guanine—are purines, and the
other two—thymine and cytosine—are pyrimidines.
So far as is known, the sequence of bases along the
chain is irregular. The monomer unit, consisting of
phosphate, sugar and base, is known as a nucleotide.
The first feature of our structure which is of
biological interest is that it consists not of one chain,
but of two. These two chains are both coiled around
a common fiber axis. It has often been assumed that
since there was only one chain in the chemical
formula there would only be one in the structural
unit. However, the density, taken with the X-ray
evidence, suggests very strongly that there are two.
The other biologically important feature is the
manner in which the two chains are held together.
This is done by hydrogen bonds between the bases.
The bases are joined together in pairs, a single base
from one chain being hydrogen-bonded to a single
base from the other. The important point is that only
certain pairs of bases will fit into the structure.
One member of a pair must be a purine and the other
a pyrimidine in order to bridge between the two
chains. If a pair consisted of two purines, for
example, there would not be room for it.
We believe that the bases will be present almost
entirely in their most probable forms. If this is true,
the conditions for forming hydrogen bonds are more
restrictive, and the only pairs of bases possible are:
adenine with thymine, and guanine with cytosine.
Adenine, for example, can occur on either chain; but
when it does, its partner on the other chain must
always be thymine.
The phosphate-sugar backbone of our model is
completely regular, but any sequence of the pairs of
bases can fit into the structure. It follows that in a
long molecule many different permutations are
possible, and it therefore seems likely that the precise
sequence of bases is the code which carries the
genetical information. If the actual order of the bases
on one of the pair of chains were given, one could
write down the exact order of the bases on the other
one, because of the specific pairing. Thus one chain
is, as it were, the complement of the other, and it is
this feature which suggests how the deoxyribonucleic
acid molecule might duplicate itself.
\begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|c|c|}
\hline \multicolumn{5}{|c|}{ Base Composition of DNA } \\
\hline & \multicolumn{4}{|c|}{$\begin{gathered}\text { Percentage of base } \\
\text { in organism's DNA }\end{gathered}$} \\
\cline { 2 - 5 } Organism & $\begin{gathered}\text { adenine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { guanine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { cytosine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ & $\begin{gathered}\text { thymine } \\
(\%)\end{gathered}$ \\
\hline Maize & $26.8$ & $22.8$ & $23.2$ & $27.2$ \\
\hline Octopus & $33.2$ & $17.6$ & $17.6$ & $31.6$ \\
\hline Chicken & $28.0$ & $22.0$ & $21.6$ & $28.4$ \\
\hline Rat & $28.6$ & $21.4$ & $20.5$ & $28.4$ \\
\hline Human & $29.3$ & $20.7$ & $20.0$ & $30.0$ \\
\hline Grasshopper & $29.3$ & $20.5$ & $20.7$ & $29.3$ \\
\hline Sea urchin & $32.8$ & $17.7$ & $17.3$ & $32.1$ \\
\hline Wheat & $27.3$ & $22.7$ & $22.8$ & $27.1$ \\
\hline Yeast & $31.3$ & $18.7$ & $17.1$ & $32.9$ \\
\hline E. coli & $24.7$ & $26.0$ & $25.7$ & $23.6$ \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
Question 23:
A student claims that nitrogenous bases pair randomly with one another. Which of the following statements in the passage contradicts the student’s claim?
A) Lines 5-6 (“To each... types”)
B) Lines 9-10 (“So far... irregular”)
C) Lines 23-25 (“The bases... other”)
D) Lines 27-29 (“One member... chains”)
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_1-question_23 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas.
©1938 by Harcourt, Inc. Here, Woolf considers the situation
of women in English society.
Close at hand is a bridge over the River Thames,
an admirable vantage ground for us to make a
survey. The river flows beneath; barges pass, laden
with timber, bursting with corn; there on one side are
the domes and spires of the city; on the other,
Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. It is a
place to stand on by the hour, dreaming. But not
now. Now we are pressed for time. Now we are here
to consider facts; now we must fix our eyes upon the
procession—the procession of the sons of educated
men.
There they go, our brothers who have been
educated at public schools and universities,
mounting those steps, passing in and out of those
doors, ascending those pulpits, preaching, teaching,
administering justice, practising medicine,
transacting business, making money. It is a solemn
sight always—a procession, like a caravanserai
crossing a desert. . . . But now, for the past twenty
years or so, it is no longer a sight merely, a
photograph, or fresco scrawled upon the walls of
time, at which we can look with merely an esthetic
appreciation. For there, trapesing along at the tail
end of the procession, we go ourselves. And that
makes a difference. We who have looked so long at
the pageant in books, or from a curtained window
watched educated men leaving the house at about
nine-thirty to go to an office, returning to the house
at about six-thirty from an office, need look passively
no longer. We too can leave the house, can mount
those steps, pass in and out of those doors,... make
money, administer justice. . . . We who now agitate
these humble pens may in another century or two
speak from a pulpit. Nobody will dare contradict us
then; we shall be the mouthpieces of the divine
spirit—a solemn thought, is it not? Who can say
whether, as time goes on, we may not dress in
military uniform, with gold lace on our breasts,
swords at our sides, and something like the old
family coal-scuttle on our heads, save that that
venerable object was never decorated with plumes of
white horsehair. You laugh—indeed the shadow of
the private house still makes those dresses look a
little queer. We have worn private clothes so
long. . . . But we have not come here to laugh, or to
talk of fashions—men’s and women’s. We are here,
on the bridge, to ask ourselves certain questions.
And they are very important questions; and we have
very little time in which to answer them. The
questions that we have to ask and to answer about
that procession during this moment of transition are
so important that they may well change the lives of
all men and women for ever. For we have to ask
ourselves, here and now, do we wish to join that
procession, or don’t we? On what terms shall we join
that procession? Above all, where is it leading us, the
procession of educated men? The moment is short; it
may last five years; ten years, or perhaps only a
matter of a few months longer.... But, you will
object, you have no time to think; you have your
battles to fight, your rent to pay, your bazaars to
organize. That excuse shall not serve you, Madam.
As you know from your own experience, and there
are facts that prove it, the daughters of educated men
have always done their thinking from hand to
mouth; not under green lamps at study tables in the
cloisters of secluded colleges. They have thought
while they stirred the pot, while they rocked the
cradle. It was thus that they won us the right to our
brand-new sixpence. It falls to us now to go on
thinking; how are we to spend that sixpence? Think
we must. Let us think in offices; in omnibuses; while
we are standing in the crowd watching Coronations
and Lord Mayor’s Shows; let us think . . . in the
gallery of the House of Commons; in the Law Courts;
let us think at baptisms and marriages and funerals.
Let us never cease from thinking—what is this
“civilization” in which we find ourselves? What are
these ceremonies and why should we take part in
them? What are these professions and why
should we make money out of them? Where in
short is it leading us, the procession of the sons of
educated men?
Question 36:
Woolf indicates that the procession she describes in the passage
A) has come to have more practical influence in recent years.
B) has become a celebrated feature of English public life.
C) includes all of the richest and most powerful men in England.
D) has become less exclusionary in its membership in recent years.
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_1-question_36 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas.
©1938 by Harcourt, Inc. Here, Woolf considers the situation
of women in English society.
Close at hand is a bridge over the River Thames,
an admirable vantage ground for us to make a
survey. The river flows beneath; barges pass, laden
with timber, bursting with corn; there on one side are
the domes and spires of the city; on the other,
Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. It is a
place to stand on by the hour, dreaming. But not
now. Now we are pressed for time. Now we are here
to consider facts; now we must fix our eyes upon the
procession—the procession of the sons of educated
men.
There they go, our brothers who have been
educated at public schools and universities,
mounting those steps, passing in and out of those
doors, ascending those pulpits, preaching, teaching,
administering justice, practising medicine,
transacting business, making money. It is a solemn
sight always—a procession, like a caravanserai
crossing a desert. . . . But now, for the past twenty
years or so, it is no longer a sight merely, a
photograph, or fresco scrawled upon the walls of
time, at which we can look with merely an esthetic
appreciation. For there, trapesing along at the tail
end of the procession, we go ourselves. And that
makes a difference. We who have looked so long at
the pageant in books, or from a curtained window
watched educated men leaving the house at about
nine-thirty to go to an office, returning to the house
at about six-thirty from an office, need look passively
no longer. We too can leave the house, can mount
those steps, pass in and out of those doors,... make
money, administer justice. . . . We who now agitate
these humble pens may in another century or two
speak from a pulpit. Nobody will dare contradict us
then; we shall be the mouthpieces of the divine
spirit—a solemn thought, is it not? Who can say
whether, as time goes on, we may not dress in
military uniform, with gold lace on our breasts,
swords at our sides, and something like the old
family coal-scuttle on our heads, save that that
venerable object was never decorated with plumes of
white horsehair. You laugh—indeed the shadow of
the private house still makes those dresses look a
little queer. We have worn private clothes so
long. . . . But we have not come here to laugh, or to
talk of fashions—men’s and women’s. We are here,
on the bridge, to ask ourselves certain questions.
And they are very important questions; and we have
very little time in which to answer them. The
questions that we have to ask and to answer about
that procession during this moment of transition are
so important that they may well change the lives of
all men and women for ever. For we have to ask
ourselves, here and now, do we wish to join that
procession, or don’t we? On what terms shall we join
that procession? Above all, where is it leading us, the
procession of educated men? The moment is short; it
may last five years; ten years, or perhaps only a
matter of a few months longer.... But, you will
object, you have no time to think; you have your
battles to fight, your rent to pay, your bazaars to
organize. That excuse shall not serve you, Madam.
As you know from your own experience, and there
are facts that prove it, the daughters of educated men
have always done their thinking from hand to
mouth; not under green lamps at study tables in the
cloisters of secluded colleges. They have thought
while they stirred the pot, while they rocked the
cradle. It was thus that they won us the right to our
brand-new sixpence. It falls to us now to go on
thinking; how are we to spend that sixpence? Think
we must. Let us think in offices; in omnibuses; while
we are standing in the crowd watching Coronations
and Lord Mayor’s Shows; let us think . . . in the
gallery of the House of Commons; in the Law Courts;
let us think at baptisms and marriages and funerals.
Let us never cease from thinking—what is this
“civilization” in which we find ourselves? What are
these ceremonies and why should we take part in
them? What are these professions and why
should we make money out of them? Where in
short is it leading us, the procession of the sons of
educated men?
Question 40:
Which choice most closely captures the meaning of the figurative “sixpence” referred to in lines 70 and 71?
A) Tolerance
B) Knowledge
C) Opportunity
D) Perspective
Answer: | C | true | sat-practice_1-question_40 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas.
©1938 by Harcourt, Inc. Here, Woolf considers the situation
of women in English society.
Close at hand is a bridge over the River Thames,
an admirable vantage ground for us to make a
survey. The river flows beneath; barges pass, laden
with timber, bursting with corn; there on one side are
the domes and spires of the city; on the other,
Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. It is a
place to stand on by the hour, dreaming. But not
now. Now we are pressed for time. Now we are here
to consider facts; now we must fix our eyes upon the
procession—the procession of the sons of educated
men.
There they go, our brothers who have been
educated at public schools and universities,
mounting those steps, passing in and out of those
doors, ascending those pulpits, preaching, teaching,
administering justice, practising medicine,
transacting business, making money. It is a solemn
sight always—a procession, like a caravanserai
crossing a desert. . . . But now, for the past twenty
years or so, it is no longer a sight merely, a
photograph, or fresco scrawled upon the walls of
time, at which we can look with merely an esthetic
appreciation. For there, trapesing along at the tail
end of the procession, we go ourselves. And that
makes a difference. We who have looked so long at
the pageant in books, or from a curtained window
watched educated men leaving the house at about
nine-thirty to go to an office, returning to the house
at about six-thirty from an office, need look passively
no longer. We too can leave the house, can mount
those steps, pass in and out of those doors,... make
money, administer justice. . . . We who now agitate
these humble pens may in another century or two
speak from a pulpit. Nobody will dare contradict us
then; we shall be the mouthpieces of the divine
spirit—a solemn thought, is it not? Who can say
whether, as time goes on, we may not dress in
military uniform, with gold lace on our breasts,
swords at our sides, and something like the old
family coal-scuttle on our heads, save that that
venerable object was never decorated with plumes of
white horsehair. You laugh—indeed the shadow of
the private house still makes those dresses look a
little queer. We have worn private clothes so
long. . . . But we have not come here to laugh, or to
talk of fashions—men’s and women’s. We are here,
on the bridge, to ask ourselves certain questions.
And they are very important questions; and we have
very little time in which to answer them. The
questions that we have to ask and to answer about
that procession during this moment of transition are
so important that they may well change the lives of
all men and women for ever. For we have to ask
ourselves, here and now, do we wish to join that
procession, or don’t we? On what terms shall we join
that procession? Above all, where is it leading us, the
procession of educated men? The moment is short; it
may last five years; ten years, or perhaps only a
matter of a few months longer.... But, you will
object, you have no time to think; you have your
battles to fight, your rent to pay, your bazaars to
organize. That excuse shall not serve you, Madam.
As you know from your own experience, and there
are facts that prove it, the daughters of educated men
have always done their thinking from hand to
mouth; not under green lamps at study tables in the
cloisters of secluded colleges. They have thought
while they stirred the pot, while they rocked the
cradle. It was thus that they won us the right to our
brand-new sixpence. It falls to us now to go on
thinking; how are we to spend that sixpence? Think
we must. Let us think in offices; in omnibuses; while
we are standing in the crowd watching Coronations
and Lord Mayor’s Shows; let us think . . . in the
gallery of the House of Commons; in the Law Courts;
let us think at baptisms and marriages and funerals.
Let us never cease from thinking—what is this
“civilization” in which we find ourselves? What are
these ceremonies and why should we take part in
them? What are these professions and why
should we make money out of them? Where in
short is it leading us, the procession of the sons of
educated men?
Question 35:
According to the passage, Woolf chooses the setting of the bridge because it
A) is conducive to a mood of fanciful reflection.
B) provides a good view of the procession of the sons of educated men.
C) is within sight of historic episodes to which she alludes.
D) is symbolic of the legacy of past and present sons of educated men.
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_1-question_35 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas.
©1938 by Harcourt, Inc. Here, Woolf considers the situation
of women in English society.
Close at hand is a bridge over the River Thames,
an admirable vantage ground for us to make a
survey. The river flows beneath; barges pass, laden
with timber, bursting with corn; there on one side are
the domes and spires of the city; on the other,
Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. It is a
place to stand on by the hour, dreaming. But not
now. Now we are pressed for time. Now we are here
to consider facts; now we must fix our eyes upon the
procession—the procession of the sons of educated
men.
There they go, our brothers who have been
educated at public schools and universities,
mounting those steps, passing in and out of those
doors, ascending those pulpits, preaching, teaching,
administering justice, practising medicine,
transacting business, making money. It is a solemn
sight always—a procession, like a caravanserai
crossing a desert. . . . But now, for the past twenty
years or so, it is no longer a sight merely, a
photograph, or fresco scrawled upon the walls of
time, at which we can look with merely an esthetic
appreciation. For there, trapesing along at the tail
end of the procession, we go ourselves. And that
makes a difference. We who have looked so long at
the pageant in books, or from a curtained window
watched educated men leaving the house at about
nine-thirty to go to an office, returning to the house
at about six-thirty from an office, need look passively
no longer. We too can leave the house, can mount
those steps, pass in and out of those doors,... make
money, administer justice. . . . We who now agitate
these humble pens may in another century or two
speak from a pulpit. Nobody will dare contradict us
then; we shall be the mouthpieces of the divine
spirit—a solemn thought, is it not? Who can say
whether, as time goes on, we may not dress in
military uniform, with gold lace on our breasts,
swords at our sides, and something like the old
family coal-scuttle on our heads, save that that
venerable object was never decorated with plumes of
white horsehair. You laugh—indeed the shadow of
the private house still makes those dresses look a
little queer. We have worn private clothes so
long. . . . But we have not come here to laugh, or to
talk of fashions—men’s and women’s. We are here,
on the bridge, to ask ourselves certain questions.
And they are very important questions; and we have
very little time in which to answer them. The
questions that we have to ask and to answer about
that procession during this moment of transition are
so important that they may well change the lives of
all men and women for ever. For we have to ask
ourselves, here and now, do we wish to join that
procession, or don’t we? On what terms shall we join
that procession? Above all, where is it leading us, the
procession of educated men? The moment is short; it
may last five years; ten years, or perhaps only a
matter of a few months longer.... But, you will
object, you have no time to think; you have your
battles to fight, your rent to pay, your bazaars to
organize. That excuse shall not serve you, Madam.
As you know from your own experience, and there
are facts that prove it, the daughters of educated men
have always done their thinking from hand to
mouth; not under green lamps at study tables in the
cloisters of secluded colleges. They have thought
while they stirred the pot, while they rocked the
cradle. It was thus that they won us the right to our
brand-new sixpence. It falls to us now to go on
thinking; how are we to spend that sixpence? Think
we must. Let us think in offices; in omnibuses; while
we are standing in the crowd watching Coronations
and Lord Mayor’s Shows; let us think . . . in the
gallery of the House of Commons; in the Law Courts;
let us think at baptisms and marriages and funerals.
Let us never cease from thinking—what is this
“civilization” in which we find ourselves? What are
these ceremonies and why should we take part in
them? What are these professions and why
should we make money out of them? Where in
short is it leading us, the procession of the sons of
educated men?
Question 33:
The central claim of the passage is that
A) educated women face a decision about how to engage with existing institutions.
B) women can have positions of influence in English society only if they give up some of their traditional roles.
C) the male monopoly on power in English society has had grave and continuing effects.
D) the entry of educated women into positions of power traditionally held by men will transform those positions.
Answer: | A | false | sat-practice_1-question_33 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas.
©1938 by Harcourt, Inc. Here, Woolf considers the situation
of women in English society.
Close at hand is a bridge over the River Thames,
an admirable vantage ground for us to make a
survey. The river flows beneath; barges pass, laden
with timber, bursting with corn; there on one side are
the domes and spires of the city; on the other,
Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. It is a
place to stand on by the hour, dreaming. But not
now. Now we are pressed for time. Now we are here
to consider facts; now we must fix our eyes upon the
procession—the procession of the sons of educated
men.
There they go, our brothers who have been
educated at public schools and universities,
mounting those steps, passing in and out of those
doors, ascending those pulpits, preaching, teaching,
administering justice, practising medicine,
transacting business, making money. It is a solemn
sight always—a procession, like a caravanserai
crossing a desert. . . . But now, for the past twenty
years or so, it is no longer a sight merely, a
photograph, or fresco scrawled upon the walls of
time, at which we can look with merely an esthetic
appreciation. For there, trapesing along at the tail
end of the procession, we go ourselves. And that
makes a difference. We who have looked so long at
the pageant in books, or from a curtained window
watched educated men leaving the house at about
nine-thirty to go to an office, returning to the house
at about six-thirty from an office, need look passively
no longer. We too can leave the house, can mount
those steps, pass in and out of those doors,... make
money, administer justice. . . . We who now agitate
these humble pens may in another century or two
speak from a pulpit. Nobody will dare contradict us
then; we shall be the mouthpieces of the divine
spirit—a solemn thought, is it not? Who can say
whether, as time goes on, we may not dress in
military uniform, with gold lace on our breasts,
swords at our sides, and something like the old
family coal-scuttle on our heads, save that that
venerable object was never decorated with plumes of
white horsehair. You laugh—indeed the shadow of
the private house still makes those dresses look a
little queer. We have worn private clothes so
long. . . . But we have not come here to laugh, or to
talk of fashions—men’s and women’s. We are here,
on the bridge, to ask ourselves certain questions.
And they are very important questions; and we have
very little time in which to answer them. The
questions that we have to ask and to answer about
that procession during this moment of transition are
so important that they may well change the lives of
all men and women for ever. For we have to ask
ourselves, here and now, do we wish to join that
procession, or don’t we? On what terms shall we join
that procession? Above all, where is it leading us, the
procession of educated men? The moment is short; it
may last five years; ten years, or perhaps only a
matter of a few months longer.... But, you will
object, you have no time to think; you have your
battles to fight, your rent to pay, your bazaars to
organize. That excuse shall not serve you, Madam.
As you know from your own experience, and there
are facts that prove it, the daughters of educated men
have always done their thinking from hand to
mouth; not under green lamps at study tables in the
cloisters of secluded colleges. They have thought
while they stirred the pot, while they rocked the
cradle. It was thus that they won us the right to our
brand-new sixpence. It falls to us now to go on
thinking; how are we to spend that sixpence? Think
we must. Let us think in offices; in omnibuses; while
we are standing in the crowd watching Coronations
and Lord Mayor’s Shows; let us think . . . in the
gallery of the House of Commons; in the Law Courts;
let us think at baptisms and marriages and funerals.
Let us never cease from thinking—what is this
“civilization” in which we find ourselves? What are
these ceremonies and why should we take part in
them? What are these professions and why
should we make money out of them? Where in
short is it leading us, the procession of the sons of
educated men?
Question 38:
Woolf characterizes the questions in lines 53-57 (“For we... men”) as both
A) controversial and threatening.
B) weighty and unanswerable.
C) momentous and pressing.
D) provocative and mysterious.
Answer: | C | true | sat-practice_1-question_38 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas.
©1938 by Harcourt, Inc. Here, Woolf considers the situation
of women in English society.
Close at hand is a bridge over the River Thames,
an admirable vantage ground for us to make a
survey. The river flows beneath; barges pass, laden
with timber, bursting with corn; there on one side are
the domes and spires of the city; on the other,
Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. It is a
place to stand on by the hour, dreaming. But not
now. Now we are pressed for time. Now we are here
to consider facts; now we must fix our eyes upon the
procession—the procession of the sons of educated
men.
There they go, our brothers who have been
educated at public schools and universities,
mounting those steps, passing in and out of those
doors, ascending those pulpits, preaching, teaching,
administering justice, practising medicine,
transacting business, making money. It is a solemn
sight always—a procession, like a caravanserai
crossing a desert. . . . But now, for the past twenty
years or so, it is no longer a sight merely, a
photograph, or fresco scrawled upon the walls of
time, at which we can look with merely an esthetic
appreciation. For there, trapesing along at the tail
end of the procession, we go ourselves. And that
makes a difference. We who have looked so long at
the pageant in books, or from a curtained window
watched educated men leaving the house at about
nine-thirty to go to an office, returning to the house
at about six-thirty from an office, need look passively
no longer. We too can leave the house, can mount
those steps, pass in and out of those doors,... make
money, administer justice. . . . We who now agitate
these humble pens may in another century or two
speak from a pulpit. Nobody will dare contradict us
then; we shall be the mouthpieces of the divine
spirit—a solemn thought, is it not? Who can say
whether, as time goes on, we may not dress in
military uniform, with gold lace on our breasts,
swords at our sides, and something like the old
family coal-scuttle on our heads, save that that
venerable object was never decorated with plumes of
white horsehair. You laugh—indeed the shadow of
the private house still makes those dresses look a
little queer. We have worn private clothes so
long. . . . But we have not come here to laugh, or to
talk of fashions—men’s and women’s. We are here,
on the bridge, to ask ourselves certain questions.
And they are very important questions; and we have
very little time in which to answer them. The
questions that we have to ask and to answer about
that procession during this moment of transition are
so important that they may well change the lives of
all men and women for ever. For we have to ask
ourselves, here and now, do we wish to join that
procession, or don’t we? On what terms shall we join
that procession? Above all, where is it leading us, the
procession of educated men? The moment is short; it
may last five years; ten years, or perhaps only a
matter of a few months longer.... But, you will
object, you have no time to think; you have your
battles to fight, your rent to pay, your bazaars to
organize. That excuse shall not serve you, Madam.
As you know from your own experience, and there
are facts that prove it, the daughters of educated men
have always done their thinking from hand to
mouth; not under green lamps at study tables in the
cloisters of secluded colleges. They have thought
while they stirred the pot, while they rocked the
cradle. It was thus that they won us the right to our
brand-new sixpence. It falls to us now to go on
thinking; how are we to spend that sixpence? Think
we must. Let us think in offices; in omnibuses; while
we are standing in the crowd watching Coronations
and Lord Mayor’s Shows; let us think . . . in the
gallery of the House of Commons; in the Law Courts;
let us think at baptisms and marriages and funerals.
Let us never cease from thinking—what is this
“civilization” in which we find ourselves? What are
these ceremonies and why should we take part in
them? What are these professions and why
should we make money out of them? Where in
short is it leading us, the procession of the sons of
educated men?
Question 41:
The range of places and occasions listed in lines 72-76 (“Let us... funerals”) mainly serves to emphasize how
A) novel the challenge faced by women is.
B) pervasive the need for critical reflection is.
C) complex the political and social issues of the day are.
D) enjoyable the career possibilities for women are.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_1-question_41 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas.
©1938 by Harcourt, Inc. Here, Woolf considers the situation
of women in English society.
Close at hand is a bridge over the River Thames,
an admirable vantage ground for us to make a
survey. The river flows beneath; barges pass, laden
with timber, bursting with corn; there on one side are
the domes and spires of the city; on the other,
Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. It is a
place to stand on by the hour, dreaming. But not
now. Now we are pressed for time. Now we are here
to consider facts; now we must fix our eyes upon the
procession—the procession of the sons of educated
men.
There they go, our brothers who have been
educated at public schools and universities,
mounting those steps, passing in and out of those
doors, ascending those pulpits, preaching, teaching,
administering justice, practising medicine,
transacting business, making money. It is a solemn
sight always—a procession, like a caravanserai
crossing a desert. . . . But now, for the past twenty
years or so, it is no longer a sight merely, a
photograph, or fresco scrawled upon the walls of
time, at which we can look with merely an esthetic
appreciation. For there, trapesing along at the tail
end of the procession, we go ourselves. And that
makes a difference. We who have looked so long at
the pageant in books, or from a curtained window
watched educated men leaving the house at about
nine-thirty to go to an office, returning to the house
at about six-thirty from an office, need look passively
no longer. We too can leave the house, can mount
those steps, pass in and out of those doors,... make
money, administer justice. . . . We who now agitate
these humble pens may in another century or two
speak from a pulpit. Nobody will dare contradict us
then; we shall be the mouthpieces of the divine
spirit—a solemn thought, is it not? Who can say
whether, as time goes on, we may not dress in
military uniform, with gold lace on our breasts,
swords at our sides, and something like the old
family coal-scuttle on our heads, save that that
venerable object was never decorated with plumes of
white horsehair. You laugh—indeed the shadow of
the private house still makes those dresses look a
little queer. We have worn private clothes so
long. . . . But we have not come here to laugh, or to
talk of fashions—men’s and women’s. We are here,
on the bridge, to ask ourselves certain questions.
And they are very important questions; and we have
very little time in which to answer them. The
questions that we have to ask and to answer about
that procession during this moment of transition are
so important that they may well change the lives of
all men and women for ever. For we have to ask
ourselves, here and now, do we wish to join that
procession, or don’t we? On what terms shall we join
that procession? Above all, where is it leading us, the
procession of educated men? The moment is short; it
may last five years; ten years, or perhaps only a
matter of a few months longer.... But, you will
object, you have no time to think; you have your
battles to fight, your rent to pay, your bazaars to
organize. That excuse shall not serve you, Madam.
As you know from your own experience, and there
are facts that prove it, the daughters of educated men
have always done their thinking from hand to
mouth; not under green lamps at study tables in the
cloisters of secluded colleges. They have thought
while they stirred the pot, while they rocked the
cradle. It was thus that they won us the right to our
brand-new sixpence. It falls to us now to go on
thinking; how are we to spend that sixpence? Think
we must. Let us think in offices; in omnibuses; while
we are standing in the crowd watching Coronations
and Lord Mayor’s Shows; let us think . . . in the
gallery of the House of Commons; in the Law Courts;
let us think at baptisms and marriages and funerals.
Let us never cease from thinking—what is this
“civilization” in which we find ourselves? What are
these ceremonies and why should we take part in
them? What are these professions and why
should we make money out of them? Where in
short is it leading us, the procession of the sons of
educated men?
Question 34:
Woolf uses the word “we” throughout the passage mainly to
A) reflect the growing friendliness among a group of people.
B) advance the need for candor among a group of people.
C) establish a sense of solidarity among a group of people.
D) reinforce the need for respect among a group of people.
Answer: | C | false | sat-practice_1-question_34 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas.
©1938 by Harcourt, Inc. Here, Woolf considers the situation
of women in English society.
Close at hand is a bridge over the River Thames,
an admirable vantage ground for us to make a
survey. The river flows beneath; barges pass, laden
with timber, bursting with corn; there on one side are
the domes and spires of the city; on the other,
Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. It is a
place to stand on by the hour, dreaming. But not
now. Now we are pressed for time. Now we are here
to consider facts; now we must fix our eyes upon the
procession—the procession of the sons of educated
men.
There they go, our brothers who have been
educated at public schools and universities,
mounting those steps, passing in and out of those
doors, ascending those pulpits, preaching, teaching,
administering justice, practising medicine,
transacting business, making money. It is a solemn
sight always—a procession, like a caravanserai
crossing a desert. . . . But now, for the past twenty
years or so, it is no longer a sight merely, a
photograph, or fresco scrawled upon the walls of
time, at which we can look with merely an esthetic
appreciation. For there, trapesing along at the tail
end of the procession, we go ourselves. And that
makes a difference. We who have looked so long at
the pageant in books, or from a curtained window
watched educated men leaving the house at about
nine-thirty to go to an office, returning to the house
at about six-thirty from an office, need look passively
no longer. We too can leave the house, can mount
those steps, pass in and out of those doors,... make
money, administer justice. . . . We who now agitate
these humble pens may in another century or two
speak from a pulpit. Nobody will dare contradict us
then; we shall be the mouthpieces of the divine
spirit—a solemn thought, is it not? Who can say
whether, as time goes on, we may not dress in
military uniform, with gold lace on our breasts,
swords at our sides, and something like the old
family coal-scuttle on our heads, save that that
venerable object was never decorated with plumes of
white horsehair. You laugh—indeed the shadow of
the private house still makes those dresses look a
little queer. We have worn private clothes so
long. . . . But we have not come here to laugh, or to
talk of fashions—men’s and women’s. We are here,
on the bridge, to ask ourselves certain questions.
And they are very important questions; and we have
very little time in which to answer them. The
questions that we have to ask and to answer about
that procession during this moment of transition are
so important that they may well change the lives of
all men and women for ever. For we have to ask
ourselves, here and now, do we wish to join that
procession, or don’t we? On what terms shall we join
that procession? Above all, where is it leading us, the
procession of educated men? The moment is short; it
may last five years; ten years, or perhaps only a
matter of a few months longer.... But, you will
object, you have no time to think; you have your
battles to fight, your rent to pay, your bazaars to
organize. That excuse shall not serve you, Madam.
As you know from your own experience, and there
are facts that prove it, the daughters of educated men
have always done their thinking from hand to
mouth; not under green lamps at study tables in the
cloisters of secluded colleges. They have thought
while they stirred the pot, while they rocked the
cradle. It was thus that they won us the right to our
brand-new sixpence. It falls to us now to go on
thinking; how are we to spend that sixpence? Think
we must. Let us think in offices; in omnibuses; while
we are standing in the crowd watching Coronations
and Lord Mayor’s Shows; let us think . . . in the
gallery of the House of Commons; in the Law Courts;
let us think at baptisms and marriages and funerals.
Let us never cease from thinking—what is this
“civilization” in which we find ourselves? What are
these ceremonies and why should we take part in
them? What are these professions and why
should we make money out of them? Where in
short is it leading us, the procession of the sons of
educated men?
Question 32:
The main purpose of the passage is to
A) emphasize the value of a tradition.
B) stress the urgency of an issue.
C) highlight the severity of social divisions.
D) question the feasibility of an undertaking.
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_1-question_32 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Michael Slezak, “Space Mining:
the Next Gold Rush?” ©2013 by New Scientist. Passage 2 is
from the editors of New Scientist, “Taming the Final
Frontier.” ©2013 by New Scientist.
Passage 1
Follow the money and you will end up in space.
That’s the message from a first-of-its-kind forum on
mining beyond Earth.
Convened in Sydney by the Australian Centre for
Space Engineering Research, the event brought
together mining companies, robotics experts, lunar
scientists, and government agencies that are all
working to make space mining a reality.
The forum comes hot on the heels of the
2012 unveiling of two private asteroid-mining firms.
Planetary Resources of Washington says it will
launch its first prospecting telescopes in two years,
while Deep Space Industries of Virginia hopes to be
harvesting metals from asteroids by 2020. Another
commercial venture that sprung up in 2012,
Golden Spike of Colorado, will be offering trips to
the moon, including to potential lunar miners.
Within a few decades, these firms may be
meeting earthly demands for precious metals, such as
platinum and gold, and the rare earth elements vital
for personal electronics, such as yttrium and
lanthanum. But like the gold rush pioneers who
transformed the western United States, the first space
miners won’t just enrich themselves. They also hope
to build an off-planet economy free of any bonds
with Earth, in which the materials extracted and
processed from the moon and asteroids are delivered
for space-based projects.
In this scenario, water mined from other
worlds could become the most desired commodity.
“In the desert, what’s worth more: a kilogram of gold
or a kilogram of water?” asks Kris Zacny of
HoneyBee Robotics in New York. “Gold is useless.
Water will let you live.”
Water ice from the moon’s poles could be sent to
astronauts on the International Space Station for
drinking or as a radiation shield. Splitting water into
oxygen and hydrogen makes spacecraft fuel, so
ice-rich asteroids could become interplanetary
refuelling stations.
Companies are eyeing the iron, silicon, and
aluminium in lunar soil and asteroids, which could
be used in 3D printers to make spare parts or
machinery. Others want to turn space dirt into
concrete for landing pads, shelters, and roads.
Passage 2
The motivation for deep-space travel is shifting
from discovery to economics. The past year has seen
a flurry of proposals aimed at bringing celestial riches
down to Earth. No doubt this will make a few
billionaires even wealthier, but we all stand to gain:
the mineral bounty and spin-off technologies could
enrich us all.
But before the miners start firing up their rockets,
we should pause for thought. At first glance, space
mining seems to sidestep most environmental
concerns: there is (probably!) no life on asteroids,
and thus no habitats to trash. But its consequences
—both here on Earth and in space—merit careful
consideration.
Part of this is about principles. Some will argue
that space’s “magnificent desolation” is not ours to
despoil, just as they argue that our own planet’s poles
should remain pristine. Others will suggest that
glutting ourselves on space’s riches is not an
acceptable alternative to developing more sustainable
ways of earthly life.
History suggests that those will be hard lines to
hold, and it may be difficult to persuade the public
that such barren environments are worth preserving.
After all, they exist in vast abundance, and even
fewer people will experience them than have walked
through Antarctica’s icy landscapes.
There’s also the emerging off-world economy to
consider. The resources that are valuable in orbit and
beyond may be very different to those we prize on
Earth. Questions of their stewardship have barely
been broached—and the relevant legal and regulatory
framework is fragmentary, to put it mildly.
Space miners, like their earthly counterparts, are
often reluctant to engage with such questions.
One speaker at last week’s space-mining forum in
Sydney, Australia, concluded with a plea that
regulation should be avoided. But miners have much
to gain from a broad agreement on the for-profit
exploitation of space. Without consensus, claims will
be disputed, investments risky, and the gains made
insecure. It is in all of our long-term interests to seek
one out.
Question 50:
The author of Passage 2 would most likely respond to the discussion of the future of space mining in lines 18-28, Passage 1, by claiming that such a future
A) is inconsistent with the sustainable use of space resources.
B) will be difficult to bring about in the absence of regulations.
C) cannot be attained without technologies that do not yet exist.
D) seems certain to affect Earth’s economy in a negative way.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_1-question_50 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Michael Slezak, “Space Mining:
the Next Gold Rush?” ©2013 by New Scientist. Passage 2 is
from the editors of New Scientist, “Taming the Final
Frontier.” ©2013 by New Scientist.
Passage 1
Follow the money and you will end up in space.
That’s the message from a first-of-its-kind forum on
mining beyond Earth.
Convened in Sydney by the Australian Centre for
Space Engineering Research, the event brought
together mining companies, robotics experts, lunar
scientists, and government agencies that are all
working to make space mining a reality.
The forum comes hot on the heels of the
2012 unveiling of two private asteroid-mining firms.
Planetary Resources of Washington says it will
launch its first prospecting telescopes in two years,
while Deep Space Industries of Virginia hopes to be
harvesting metals from asteroids by 2020. Another
commercial venture that sprung up in 2012,
Golden Spike of Colorado, will be offering trips to
the moon, including to potential lunar miners.
Within a few decades, these firms may be
meeting earthly demands for precious metals, such as
platinum and gold, and the rare earth elements vital
for personal electronics, such as yttrium and
lanthanum. But like the gold rush pioneers who
transformed the western United States, the first space
miners won’t just enrich themselves. They also hope
to build an off-planet economy free of any bonds
with Earth, in which the materials extracted and
processed from the moon and asteroids are delivered
for space-based projects.
In this scenario, water mined from other
worlds could become the most desired commodity.
“In the desert, what’s worth more: a kilogram of gold
or a kilogram of water?” asks Kris Zacny of
HoneyBee Robotics in New York. “Gold is useless.
Water will let you live.”
Water ice from the moon’s poles could be sent to
astronauts on the International Space Station for
drinking or as a radiation shield. Splitting water into
oxygen and hydrogen makes spacecraft fuel, so
ice-rich asteroids could become interplanetary
refuelling stations.
Companies are eyeing the iron, silicon, and
aluminium in lunar soil and asteroids, which could
be used in 3D printers to make spare parts or
machinery. Others want to turn space dirt into
concrete for landing pads, shelters, and roads.
Passage 2
The motivation for deep-space travel is shifting
from discovery to economics. The past year has seen
a flurry of proposals aimed at bringing celestial riches
down to Earth. No doubt this will make a few
billionaires even wealthier, but we all stand to gain:
the mineral bounty and spin-off technologies could
enrich us all.
But before the miners start firing up their rockets,
we should pause for thought. At first glance, space
mining seems to sidestep most environmental
concerns: there is (probably!) no life on asteroids,
and thus no habitats to trash. But its consequences
—both here on Earth and in space—merit careful
consideration.
Part of this is about principles. Some will argue
that space’s “magnificent desolation” is not ours to
despoil, just as they argue that our own planet’s poles
should remain pristine. Others will suggest that
glutting ourselves on space’s riches is not an
acceptable alternative to developing more sustainable
ways of earthly life.
History suggests that those will be hard lines to
hold, and it may be difficult to persuade the public
that such barren environments are worth preserving.
After all, they exist in vast abundance, and even
fewer people will experience them than have walked
through Antarctica’s icy landscapes.
There’s also the emerging off-world economy to
consider. The resources that are valuable in orbit and
beyond may be very different to those we prize on
Earth. Questions of their stewardship have barely
been broached—and the relevant legal and regulatory
framework is fragmentary, to put it mildly.
Space miners, like their earthly counterparts, are
often reluctant to engage with such questions.
One speaker at last week’s space-mining forum in
Sydney, Australia, concluded with a plea that
regulation should be avoided. But miners have much
to gain from a broad agreement on the for-profit
exploitation of space. Without consensus, claims will
be disputed, investments risky, and the gains made
insecure. It is in all of our long-term interests to seek
one out.
Question 52:
Which point about the resources that will be highly valued in space is implicit in Passage 1 and explicit in Passage 2?
A) They may be different resources from those that are valuable on Earth.
B) They will be valuable only if they can be harvested cheaply.
C) They are likely to be primarily precious metals and rare earth elements.
D) They may increase in value as those same resources become rare on Earth.
Answer: | A | false | sat-practice_1-question_52 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Michael Slezak, “Space Mining:
the Next Gold Rush?” ©2013 by New Scientist. Passage 2 is
from the editors of New Scientist, “Taming the Final
Frontier.” ©2013 by New Scientist.
Passage 1
Follow the money and you will end up in space.
That’s the message from a first-of-its-kind forum on
mining beyond Earth.
Convened in Sydney by the Australian Centre for
Space Engineering Research, the event brought
together mining companies, robotics experts, lunar
scientists, and government agencies that are all
working to make space mining a reality.
The forum comes hot on the heels of the
2012 unveiling of two private asteroid-mining firms.
Planetary Resources of Washington says it will
launch its first prospecting telescopes in two years,
while Deep Space Industries of Virginia hopes to be
harvesting metals from asteroids by 2020. Another
commercial venture that sprung up in 2012,
Golden Spike of Colorado, will be offering trips to
the moon, including to potential lunar miners.
Within a few decades, these firms may be
meeting earthly demands for precious metals, such as
platinum and gold, and the rare earth elements vital
for personal electronics, such as yttrium and
lanthanum. But like the gold rush pioneers who
transformed the western United States, the first space
miners won’t just enrich themselves. They also hope
to build an off-planet economy free of any bonds
with Earth, in which the materials extracted and
processed from the moon and asteroids are delivered
for space-based projects.
In this scenario, water mined from other
worlds could become the most desired commodity.
“In the desert, what’s worth more: a kilogram of gold
or a kilogram of water?” asks Kris Zacny of
HoneyBee Robotics in New York. “Gold is useless.
Water will let you live.”
Water ice from the moon’s poles could be sent to
astronauts on the International Space Station for
drinking or as a radiation shield. Splitting water into
oxygen and hydrogen makes spacecraft fuel, so
ice-rich asteroids could become interplanetary
refuelling stations.
Companies are eyeing the iron, silicon, and
aluminium in lunar soil and asteroids, which could
be used in 3D printers to make spare parts or
machinery. Others want to turn space dirt into
concrete for landing pads, shelters, and roads.
Passage 2
The motivation for deep-space travel is shifting
from discovery to economics. The past year has seen
a flurry of proposals aimed at bringing celestial riches
down to Earth. No doubt this will make a few
billionaires even wealthier, but we all stand to gain:
the mineral bounty and spin-off technologies could
enrich us all.
But before the miners start firing up their rockets,
we should pause for thought. At first glance, space
mining seems to sidestep most environmental
concerns: there is (probably!) no life on asteroids,
and thus no habitats to trash. But its consequences
—both here on Earth and in space—merit careful
consideration.
Part of this is about principles. Some will argue
that space’s “magnificent desolation” is not ours to
despoil, just as they argue that our own planet’s poles
should remain pristine. Others will suggest that
glutting ourselves on space’s riches is not an
acceptable alternative to developing more sustainable
ways of earthly life.
History suggests that those will be hard lines to
hold, and it may be difficult to persuade the public
that such barren environments are worth preserving.
After all, they exist in vast abundance, and even
fewer people will experience them than have walked
through Antarctica’s icy landscapes.
There’s also the emerging off-world economy to
consider. The resources that are valuable in orbit and
beyond may be very different to those we prize on
Earth. Questions of their stewardship have barely
been broached—and the relevant legal and regulatory
framework is fragmentary, to put it mildly.
Space miners, like their earthly counterparts, are
often reluctant to engage with such questions.
One speaker at last week’s space-mining forum in
Sydney, Australia, concluded with a plea that
regulation should be avoided. But miners have much
to gain from a broad agreement on the for-profit
exploitation of space. Without consensus, claims will
be disputed, investments risky, and the gains made
insecure. It is in all of our long-term interests to seek
one out.
Question 49:
Which statement best describes the relationship between the passages?
A) Passage 2 refutes the central claim advanced in Passage 1.
B) Passage 2 illustrates the phenomenon described in more general terms in Passage 1.
C) Passage 2 argues against the practicality of the proposals put forth in Passage 1.
D) Passage 2 expresses reservations about developments discussed in Passage 1.
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_1-question_49 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Michael Slezak, “Space Mining:
the Next Gold Rush?” ©2013 by New Scientist. Passage 2 is
from the editors of New Scientist, “Taming the Final
Frontier.” ©2013 by New Scientist.
Passage 1
Follow the money and you will end up in space.
That’s the message from a first-of-its-kind forum on
mining beyond Earth.
Convened in Sydney by the Australian Centre for
Space Engineering Research, the event brought
together mining companies, robotics experts, lunar
scientists, and government agencies that are all
working to make space mining a reality.
The forum comes hot on the heels of the
2012 unveiling of two private asteroid-mining firms.
Planetary Resources of Washington says it will
launch its first prospecting telescopes in two years,
while Deep Space Industries of Virginia hopes to be
harvesting metals from asteroids by 2020. Another
commercial venture that sprung up in 2012,
Golden Spike of Colorado, will be offering trips to
the moon, including to potential lunar miners.
Within a few decades, these firms may be
meeting earthly demands for precious metals, such as
platinum and gold, and the rare earth elements vital
for personal electronics, such as yttrium and
lanthanum. But like the gold rush pioneers who
transformed the western United States, the first space
miners won’t just enrich themselves. They also hope
to build an off-planet economy free of any bonds
with Earth, in which the materials extracted and
processed from the moon and asteroids are delivered
for space-based projects.
In this scenario, water mined from other
worlds could become the most desired commodity.
“In the desert, what’s worth more: a kilogram of gold
or a kilogram of water?” asks Kris Zacny of
HoneyBee Robotics in New York. “Gold is useless.
Water will let you live.”
Water ice from the moon’s poles could be sent to
astronauts on the International Space Station for
drinking or as a radiation shield. Splitting water into
oxygen and hydrogen makes spacecraft fuel, so
ice-rich asteroids could become interplanetary
refuelling stations.
Companies are eyeing the iron, silicon, and
aluminium in lunar soil and asteroids, which could
be used in 3D printers to make spare parts or
machinery. Others want to turn space dirt into
concrete for landing pads, shelters, and roads.
Passage 2
The motivation for deep-space travel is shifting
from discovery to economics. The past year has seen
a flurry of proposals aimed at bringing celestial riches
down to Earth. No doubt this will make a few
billionaires even wealthier, but we all stand to gain:
the mineral bounty and spin-off technologies could
enrich us all.
But before the miners start firing up their rockets,
we should pause for thought. At first glance, space
mining seems to sidestep most environmental
concerns: there is (probably!) no life on asteroids,
and thus no habitats to trash. But its consequences
—both here on Earth and in space—merit careful
consideration.
Part of this is about principles. Some will argue
that space’s “magnificent desolation” is not ours to
despoil, just as they argue that our own planet’s poles
should remain pristine. Others will suggest that
glutting ourselves on space’s riches is not an
acceptable alternative to developing more sustainable
ways of earthly life.
History suggests that those will be hard lines to
hold, and it may be difficult to persuade the public
that such barren environments are worth preserving.
After all, they exist in vast abundance, and even
fewer people will experience them than have walked
through Antarctica’s icy landscapes.
There’s also the emerging off-world economy to
consider. The resources that are valuable in orbit and
beyond may be very different to those we prize on
Earth. Questions of their stewardship have barely
been broached—and the relevant legal and regulatory
framework is fragmentary, to put it mildly.
Space miners, like their earthly counterparts, are
often reluctant to engage with such questions.
One speaker at last week’s space-mining forum in
Sydney, Australia, concluded with a plea that
regulation should be avoided. But miners have much
to gain from a broad agreement on the for-profit
exploitation of space. Without consensus, claims will
be disputed, investments risky, and the gains made
insecure. It is in all of our long-term interests to seek
one out.
Question 47:
The central claim of Passage 2 is that space mining has positive potential but
A) it will end up encouraging humanity’s reckless treatment of the environment.
B) its effects should be thoughtfully considered before it becomes a reality.
C) such potential may not include replenishing key resources that are disappearing on Earth.
D) experts disagree about the commercial viability of the discoveries it could yield.
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_1-question_47 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Michael Slezak, “Space Mining:
the Next Gold Rush?” ©2013 by New Scientist. Passage 2 is
from the editors of New Scientist, “Taming the Final
Frontier.” ©2013 by New Scientist.
Passage 1
Follow the money and you will end up in space.
That’s the message from a first-of-its-kind forum on
mining beyond Earth.
Convened in Sydney by the Australian Centre for
Space Engineering Research, the event brought
together mining companies, robotics experts, lunar
scientists, and government agencies that are all
working to make space mining a reality.
The forum comes hot on the heels of the
2012 unveiling of two private asteroid-mining firms.
Planetary Resources of Washington says it will
launch its first prospecting telescopes in two years,
while Deep Space Industries of Virginia hopes to be
harvesting metals from asteroids by 2020. Another
commercial venture that sprung up in 2012,
Golden Spike of Colorado, will be offering trips to
the moon, including to potential lunar miners.
Within a few decades, these firms may be
meeting earthly demands for precious metals, such as
platinum and gold, and the rare earth elements vital
for personal electronics, such as yttrium and
lanthanum. But like the gold rush pioneers who
transformed the western United States, the first space
miners won’t just enrich themselves. They also hope
to build an off-planet economy free of any bonds
with Earth, in which the materials extracted and
processed from the moon and asteroids are delivered
for space-based projects.
In this scenario, water mined from other
worlds could become the most desired commodity.
“In the desert, what’s worth more: a kilogram of gold
or a kilogram of water?” asks Kris Zacny of
HoneyBee Robotics in New York. “Gold is useless.
Water will let you live.”
Water ice from the moon’s poles could be sent to
astronauts on the International Space Station for
drinking or as a radiation shield. Splitting water into
oxygen and hydrogen makes spacecraft fuel, so
ice-rich asteroids could become interplanetary
refuelling stations.
Companies are eyeing the iron, silicon, and
aluminium in lunar soil and asteroids, which could
be used in 3D printers to make spare parts or
machinery. Others want to turn space dirt into
concrete for landing pads, shelters, and roads.
Passage 2
The motivation for deep-space travel is shifting
from discovery to economics. The past year has seen
a flurry of proposals aimed at bringing celestial riches
down to Earth. No doubt this will make a few
billionaires even wealthier, but we all stand to gain:
the mineral bounty and spin-off technologies could
enrich us all.
But before the miners start firing up their rockets,
we should pause for thought. At first glance, space
mining seems to sidestep most environmental
concerns: there is (probably!) no life on asteroids,
and thus no habitats to trash. But its consequences
—both here on Earth and in space—merit careful
consideration.
Part of this is about principles. Some will argue
that space’s “magnificent desolation” is not ours to
despoil, just as they argue that our own planet’s poles
should remain pristine. Others will suggest that
glutting ourselves on space’s riches is not an
acceptable alternative to developing more sustainable
ways of earthly life.
History suggests that those will be hard lines to
hold, and it may be difficult to persuade the public
that such barren environments are worth preserving.
After all, they exist in vast abundance, and even
fewer people will experience them than have walked
through Antarctica’s icy landscapes.
There’s also the emerging off-world economy to
consider. The resources that are valuable in orbit and
beyond may be very different to those we prize on
Earth. Questions of their stewardship have barely
been broached—and the relevant legal and regulatory
framework is fragmentary, to put it mildly.
Space miners, like their earthly counterparts, are
often reluctant to engage with such questions.
One speaker at last week’s space-mining forum in
Sydney, Australia, concluded with a plea that
regulation should be avoided. But miners have much
to gain from a broad agreement on the for-profit
exploitation of space. Without consensus, claims will
be disputed, investments risky, and the gains made
insecure. It is in all of our long-term interests to seek
one out.
Question 48:
As used in line 68, “hold” most nearly means
A) maintain.
B) grip.
C) restrain.
D) withstand.
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_1-question_48 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Michael Slezak, “Space Mining:
the Next Gold Rush?” ©2013 by New Scientist. Passage 2 is
from the editors of New Scientist, “Taming the Final
Frontier.” ©2013 by New Scientist.
Passage 1
Follow the money and you will end up in space.
That’s the message from a first-of-its-kind forum on
mining beyond Earth.
Convened in Sydney by the Australian Centre for
Space Engineering Research, the event brought
together mining companies, robotics experts, lunar
scientists, and government agencies that are all
working to make space mining a reality.
The forum comes hot on the heels of the
2012 unveiling of two private asteroid-mining firms.
Planetary Resources of Washington says it will
launch its first prospecting telescopes in two years,
while Deep Space Industries of Virginia hopes to be
harvesting metals from asteroids by 2020. Another
commercial venture that sprung up in 2012,
Golden Spike of Colorado, will be offering trips to
the moon, including to potential lunar miners.
Within a few decades, these firms may be
meeting earthly demands for precious metals, such as
platinum and gold, and the rare earth elements vital
for personal electronics, such as yttrium and
lanthanum. But like the gold rush pioneers who
transformed the western United States, the first space
miners won’t just enrich themselves. They also hope
to build an off-planet economy free of any bonds
with Earth, in which the materials extracted and
processed from the moon and asteroids are delivered
for space-based projects.
In this scenario, water mined from other
worlds could become the most desired commodity.
“In the desert, what’s worth more: a kilogram of gold
or a kilogram of water?” asks Kris Zacny of
HoneyBee Robotics in New York. “Gold is useless.
Water will let you live.”
Water ice from the moon’s poles could be sent to
astronauts on the International Space Station for
drinking or as a radiation shield. Splitting water into
oxygen and hydrogen makes spacecraft fuel, so
ice-rich asteroids could become interplanetary
refuelling stations.
Companies are eyeing the iron, silicon, and
aluminium in lunar soil and asteroids, which could
be used in 3D printers to make spare parts or
machinery. Others want to turn space dirt into
concrete for landing pads, shelters, and roads.
Passage 2
The motivation for deep-space travel is shifting
from discovery to economics. The past year has seen
a flurry of proposals aimed at bringing celestial riches
down to Earth. No doubt this will make a few
billionaires even wealthier, but we all stand to gain:
the mineral bounty and spin-off technologies could
enrich us all.
But before the miners start firing up their rockets,
we should pause for thought. At first glance, space
mining seems to sidestep most environmental
concerns: there is (probably!) no life on asteroids,
and thus no habitats to trash. But its consequences
—both here on Earth and in space—merit careful
consideration.
Part of this is about principles. Some will argue
that space’s “magnificent desolation” is not ours to
despoil, just as they argue that our own planet’s poles
should remain pristine. Others will suggest that
glutting ourselves on space’s riches is not an
acceptable alternative to developing more sustainable
ways of earthly life.
History suggests that those will be hard lines to
hold, and it may be difficult to persuade the public
that such barren environments are worth preserving.
After all, they exist in vast abundance, and even
fewer people will experience them than have walked
through Antarctica’s icy landscapes.
There’s also the emerging off-world economy to
consider. The resources that are valuable in orbit and
beyond may be very different to those we prize on
Earth. Questions of their stewardship have barely
been broached—and the relevant legal and regulatory
framework is fragmentary, to put it mildly.
Space miners, like their earthly counterparts, are
often reluctant to engage with such questions.
One speaker at last week’s space-mining forum in
Sydney, Australia, concluded with a plea that
regulation should be avoided. But miners have much
to gain from a broad agreement on the for-profit
exploitation of space. Without consensus, claims will
be disputed, investments risky, and the gains made
insecure. It is in all of our long-term interests to seek
one out.
Question 42:
In lines 9-17, the author of Passage 1 mentions several companies primarily to
A) note the technological advances that make space mining possible.
B) provide evidence of the growing interest in space mining.
C) emphasize the large profits to be made from space mining.
D) highlight the diverse ways to carry out space mining operations.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_1-question_42 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Michael Slezak, “Space Mining:
the Next Gold Rush?” ©2013 by New Scientist. Passage 2 is
from the editors of New Scientist, “Taming the Final
Frontier.” ©2013 by New Scientist.
Passage 1
Follow the money and you will end up in space.
That’s the message from a first-of-its-kind forum on
mining beyond Earth.
Convened in Sydney by the Australian Centre for
Space Engineering Research, the event brought
together mining companies, robotics experts, lunar
scientists, and government agencies that are all
working to make space mining a reality.
The forum comes hot on the heels of the
2012 unveiling of two private asteroid-mining firms.
Planetary Resources of Washington says it will
launch its first prospecting telescopes in two years,
while Deep Space Industries of Virginia hopes to be
harvesting metals from asteroids by 2020. Another
commercial venture that sprung up in 2012,
Golden Spike of Colorado, will be offering trips to
the moon, including to potential lunar miners.
Within a few decades, these firms may be
meeting earthly demands for precious metals, such as
platinum and gold, and the rare earth elements vital
for personal electronics, such as yttrium and
lanthanum. But like the gold rush pioneers who
transformed the western United States, the first space
miners won’t just enrich themselves. They also hope
to build an off-planet economy free of any bonds
with Earth, in which the materials extracted and
processed from the moon and asteroids are delivered
for space-based projects.
In this scenario, water mined from other
worlds could become the most desired commodity.
“In the desert, what’s worth more: a kilogram of gold
or a kilogram of water?” asks Kris Zacny of
HoneyBee Robotics in New York. “Gold is useless.
Water will let you live.”
Water ice from the moon’s poles could be sent to
astronauts on the International Space Station for
drinking or as a radiation shield. Splitting water into
oxygen and hydrogen makes spacecraft fuel, so
ice-rich asteroids could become interplanetary
refuelling stations.
Companies are eyeing the iron, silicon, and
aluminium in lunar soil and asteroids, which could
be used in 3D printers to make spare parts or
machinery. Others want to turn space dirt into
concrete for landing pads, shelters, and roads.
Passage 2
The motivation for deep-space travel is shifting
from discovery to economics. The past year has seen
a flurry of proposals aimed at bringing celestial riches
down to Earth. No doubt this will make a few
billionaires even wealthier, but we all stand to gain:
the mineral bounty and spin-off technologies could
enrich us all.
But before the miners start firing up their rockets,
we should pause for thought. At first glance, space
mining seems to sidestep most environmental
concerns: there is (probably!) no life on asteroids,
and thus no habitats to trash. But its consequences
—both here on Earth and in space—merit careful
consideration.
Part of this is about principles. Some will argue
that space’s “magnificent desolation” is not ours to
despoil, just as they argue that our own planet’s poles
should remain pristine. Others will suggest that
glutting ourselves on space’s riches is not an
acceptable alternative to developing more sustainable
ways of earthly life.
History suggests that those will be hard lines to
hold, and it may be difficult to persuade the public
that such barren environments are worth preserving.
After all, they exist in vast abundance, and even
fewer people will experience them than have walked
through Antarctica’s icy landscapes.
There’s also the emerging off-world economy to
consider. The resources that are valuable in orbit and
beyond may be very different to those we prize on
Earth. Questions of their stewardship have barely
been broached—and the relevant legal and regulatory
framework is fragmentary, to put it mildly.
Space miners, like their earthly counterparts, are
often reluctant to engage with such questions.
One speaker at last week’s space-mining forum in
Sydney, Australia, concluded with a plea that
regulation should be avoided. But miners have much
to gain from a broad agreement on the for-profit
exploitation of space. Without consensus, claims will
be disputed, investments risky, and the gains made
insecure. It is in all of our long-term interests to seek
one out.
Question 46:
What function does the discussion of water in lines 35-40 serve in Passage 1?
A) It continues an extended comparison that begins in the previous paragraph.
B) It provides an unexpected answer to a question raised in the previous paragraph.
C) It offers hypothetical examples supporting a claim made in the previous paragraph.
D) It examines possible outcomes of a proposal put forth in the previous paragraph.
Answer: | C | true | sat-practice_1-question_46 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Michael Slezak, “Space Mining:
the Next Gold Rush?” ©2013 by New Scientist. Passage 2 is
from the editors of New Scientist, “Taming the Final
Frontier.” ©2013 by New Scientist.
Passage 1
Follow the money and you will end up in space.
That’s the message from a first-of-its-kind forum on
mining beyond Earth.
Convened in Sydney by the Australian Centre for
Space Engineering Research, the event brought
together mining companies, robotics experts, lunar
scientists, and government agencies that are all
working to make space mining a reality.
The forum comes hot on the heels of the
2012 unveiling of two private asteroid-mining firms.
Planetary Resources of Washington says it will
launch its first prospecting telescopes in two years,
while Deep Space Industries of Virginia hopes to be
harvesting metals from asteroids by 2020. Another
commercial venture that sprung up in 2012,
Golden Spike of Colorado, will be offering trips to
the moon, including to potential lunar miners.
Within a few decades, these firms may be
meeting earthly demands for precious metals, such as
platinum and gold, and the rare earth elements vital
for personal electronics, such as yttrium and
lanthanum. But like the gold rush pioneers who
transformed the western United States, the first space
miners won’t just enrich themselves. They also hope
to build an off-planet economy free of any bonds
with Earth, in which the materials extracted and
processed from the moon and asteroids are delivered
for space-based projects.
In this scenario, water mined from other
worlds could become the most desired commodity.
“In the desert, what’s worth more: a kilogram of gold
or a kilogram of water?” asks Kris Zacny of
HoneyBee Robotics in New York. “Gold is useless.
Water will let you live.”
Water ice from the moon’s poles could be sent to
astronauts on the International Space Station for
drinking or as a radiation shield. Splitting water into
oxygen and hydrogen makes spacecraft fuel, so
ice-rich asteroids could become interplanetary
refuelling stations.
Companies are eyeing the iron, silicon, and
aluminium in lunar soil and asteroids, which could
be used in 3D printers to make spare parts or
machinery. Others want to turn space dirt into
concrete for landing pads, shelters, and roads.
Passage 2
The motivation for deep-space travel is shifting
from discovery to economics. The past year has seen
a flurry of proposals aimed at bringing celestial riches
down to Earth. No doubt this will make a few
billionaires even wealthier, but we all stand to gain:
the mineral bounty and spin-off technologies could
enrich us all.
But before the miners start firing up their rockets,
we should pause for thought. At first glance, space
mining seems to sidestep most environmental
concerns: there is (probably!) no life on asteroids,
and thus no habitats to trash. But its consequences
—both here on Earth and in space—merit careful
consideration.
Part of this is about principles. Some will argue
that space’s “magnificent desolation” is not ours to
despoil, just as they argue that our own planet’s poles
should remain pristine. Others will suggest that
glutting ourselves on space’s riches is not an
acceptable alternative to developing more sustainable
ways of earthly life.
History suggests that those will be hard lines to
hold, and it may be difficult to persuade the public
that such barren environments are worth preserving.
After all, they exist in vast abundance, and even
fewer people will experience them than have walked
through Antarctica’s icy landscapes.
There’s also the emerging off-world economy to
consider. The resources that are valuable in orbit and
beyond may be very different to those we prize on
Earth. Questions of their stewardship have barely
been broached—and the relevant legal and regulatory
framework is fragmentary, to put it mildly.
Space miners, like their earthly counterparts, are
often reluctant to engage with such questions.
One speaker at last week’s space-mining forum in
Sydney, Australia, concluded with a plea that
regulation should be avoided. But miners have much
to gain from a broad agreement on the for-profit
exploitation of space. Without consensus, claims will
be disputed, investments risky, and the gains made
insecure. It is in all of our long-term interests to seek
one out.
Question 43:
The author of Passage 1 indicates that space mining could have which positive effect?
A) It could yield materials important to Earth’s economy.
B) It could raise the value of some precious metals on Earth.
C) It could create unanticipated technological innovations.
D) It could change scientists’ understanding of space resources.
Answer: | A | false | sat-practice_1-question_43 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Michael Slezak, “Space Mining:
the Next Gold Rush?” ©2013 by New Scientist. Passage 2 is
from the editors of New Scientist, “Taming the Final
Frontier.” ©2013 by New Scientist.
Passage 1
Follow the money and you will end up in space.
That’s the message from a first-of-its-kind forum on
mining beyond Earth.
Convened in Sydney by the Australian Centre for
Space Engineering Research, the event brought
together mining companies, robotics experts, lunar
scientists, and government agencies that are all
working to make space mining a reality.
The forum comes hot on the heels of the
2012 unveiling of two private asteroid-mining firms.
Planetary Resources of Washington says it will
launch its first prospecting telescopes in two years,
while Deep Space Industries of Virginia hopes to be
harvesting metals from asteroids by 2020. Another
commercial venture that sprung up in 2012,
Golden Spike of Colorado, will be offering trips to
the moon, including to potential lunar miners.
Within a few decades, these firms may be
meeting earthly demands for precious metals, such as
platinum and gold, and the rare earth elements vital
for personal electronics, such as yttrium and
lanthanum. But like the gold rush pioneers who
transformed the western United States, the first space
miners won’t just enrich themselves. They also hope
to build an off-planet economy free of any bonds
with Earth, in which the materials extracted and
processed from the moon and asteroids are delivered
for space-based projects.
In this scenario, water mined from other
worlds could become the most desired commodity.
“In the desert, what’s worth more: a kilogram of gold
or a kilogram of water?” asks Kris Zacny of
HoneyBee Robotics in New York. “Gold is useless.
Water will let you live.”
Water ice from the moon’s poles could be sent to
astronauts on the International Space Station for
drinking or as a radiation shield. Splitting water into
oxygen and hydrogen makes spacecraft fuel, so
ice-rich asteroids could become interplanetary
refuelling stations.
Companies are eyeing the iron, silicon, and
aluminium in lunar soil and asteroids, which could
be used in 3D printers to make spare parts or
machinery. Others want to turn space dirt into
concrete for landing pads, shelters, and roads.
Passage 2
The motivation for deep-space travel is shifting
from discovery to economics. The past year has seen
a flurry of proposals aimed at bringing celestial riches
down to Earth. No doubt this will make a few
billionaires even wealthier, but we all stand to gain:
the mineral bounty and spin-off technologies could
enrich us all.
But before the miners start firing up their rockets,
we should pause for thought. At first glance, space
mining seems to sidestep most environmental
concerns: there is (probably!) no life on asteroids,
and thus no habitats to trash. But its consequences
—both here on Earth and in space—merit careful
consideration.
Part of this is about principles. Some will argue
that space’s “magnificent desolation” is not ours to
despoil, just as they argue that our own planet’s poles
should remain pristine. Others will suggest that
glutting ourselves on space’s riches is not an
acceptable alternative to developing more sustainable
ways of earthly life.
History suggests that those will be hard lines to
hold, and it may be difficult to persuade the public
that such barren environments are worth preserving.
After all, they exist in vast abundance, and even
fewer people will experience them than have walked
through Antarctica’s icy landscapes.
There’s also the emerging off-world economy to
consider. The resources that are valuable in orbit and
beyond may be very different to those we prize on
Earth. Questions of their stewardship have barely
been broached—and the relevant legal and regulatory
framework is fragmentary, to put it mildly.
Space miners, like their earthly counterparts, are
often reluctant to engage with such questions.
One speaker at last week’s space-mining forum in
Sydney, Australia, concluded with a plea that
regulation should be avoided. But miners have much
to gain from a broad agreement on the for-profit
exploitation of space. Without consensus, claims will
be disputed, investments risky, and the gains made
insecure. It is in all of our long-term interests to seek
one out.
Question 45:
As used in line 19, “demands” most nearly means
A) offers.
B) claims.
C) inquiries.
D) desires.
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_1-question_45 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Daniyal Mueenuddin,
“Nawabdin Electrician.” ©2009 by Daniyal Mueenuddin.
Another man might have thrown up his
hands—but not Nawabdin. His twelve daughters
acted as a spur to his genius, and he looked with
satisfaction in the mirror each morning at the face of
a warrior going out to do battle. Nawab of course
knew that he must proliferate his sources of
revenue—the salary he received from K. K. Harouni
for tending the tube wells would not even begin to
suffice. He set up a little one-room flour mill, run off
a condemned electric motor—condemned by him.
He tried his hand at fish-farming in a little pond at
the edge of his master’s fields. He bought broken
radios, fixed them, and resold them. He did not
demur even when asked to fix watches, though that
enterprise did spectacularly badly, and in fact earned
him more kicks than kudos, for no watch he took
apart ever kept time again.
K. K. Harouni rarely went to his farms, but lived
mostly in Lahore. Whenever the old man visited,
Nawab would place himself night and day at the door
leading from the servants’ sitting area into the walled
grove of ancient banyan trees where the old
farmhouse stood. Grizzled, his peculiar aviator
glasses bent and smudged, Nawab tended the
household machinery, the air conditioners, water
heaters, refrigerators, and water pumps, like an
engineer tending the boilers on a foundering steamer
in an Atlantic gale. By his superhuman efforts he
almost managed to maintain K. K. Harouni in the
same mechanical cocoon, cooled and bathed and
lighted and fed, that the landowner enjoyed in
Lahore.
Harouni of course became familiar with this
ubiquitous man, who not only accompanied him on
his tours of inspection, but morning and night could
be found standing on the master bed rewiring the
light fixture or in the bathroom poking at the water
heater. Finally, one evening at teatime, gauging the
psychological moment, Nawab asked if he might say
a word. The landowner, who was cheerfully filing his
nails in front of a crackling rosewood fire, told him
to go ahead.
“Sir, as you know, your lands stretch from here to
the Indus, and on these lands are fully seventeen tube
wells, and to tend these seventeen tube wells there is
but one man, me, your servant. In your service I have
earned these gray hairs”—here he bowed his head to
show the gray—“and now I cannot fulfill my duties
as I should. Enough, sir, enough. I beg you, forgive
me my weakness. Better a darkened house and proud
hunger within than disgrace in the light of day.
Release me, I ask you, I beg you.”
The old man, well accustomed to these sorts of
speeches, though not usually this florid, filed away at
his nails and waited for the breeze to stop.
“What’s the matter, Nawabdin?”
“Matter, sir? O what could be the matter in your
service. I’ve eaten your salt for all my years. But sir,
on the bicycle now, with my old legs, and with the
many injuries I’ve received when heavy machinery
fell on me—I cannot any longer bicycle about like a
bridegroom from farm to farm, as I could when I
first had the good fortune to enter your employment.
I beg you, sir, let me go.”
“And what’s the solution?” asked Harouni, seeing
that they had come to the crux. He didn’t particularly
care one way or the other, except that it touched on
his comfort—a matter of great interest to him.
“Well, sir, if I had a motorcycle, then I could
somehow limp along, at least until I train up some
younger man.”
The crops that year had been good, Harouni felt
expansive in front of the fire, and so, much to the
disgust of the farm managers, Nawab received a
brand-new motorcycle, a Honda 70. He even
managed to extract an allowance for gasoline.
The motorcycle increased his status, gave him
weight, so that people began calling him “Uncle,” and
asking his opinion on world affairs, about which he
knew absolutely nothing. He could now range
further, doing a much wider business. Best of all,
now he could spend every night with his wife, who
had begged to live not on the farm but near her
family in Firoza, where also they could educate at
least the two eldest daughters. A long straight road
ran from the canal headworks near Firoza all the way
to the Indus, through the heart of the K. K. Harouni
lands. Nawab would fly down this road on his new
machine, with bags and cloths hanging from every
knob and brace, so that the bike, when he hit a bump,
seemed to be flapping numerous small vestigial
wings; and with his grinning face, as he rolled up to
whichever tube well needed servicing, with his ears
almost blown off, he shone with the speed of his
arrival.
Question 6:
Nawab uses the word “bridegroom” (line 62) mainly to emphasize that he’s no longer
A) in love.
B) naive.
C) busy.
D) young.
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_6-question_6 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Daniyal Mueenuddin,
“Nawabdin Electrician.” ©2009 by Daniyal Mueenuddin.
Another man might have thrown up his
hands—but not Nawabdin. His twelve daughters
acted as a spur to his genius, and he looked with
satisfaction in the mirror each morning at the face of
a warrior going out to do battle. Nawab of course
knew that he must proliferate his sources of
revenue—the salary he received from K. K. Harouni
for tending the tube wells would not even begin to
suffice. He set up a little one-room flour mill, run off
a condemned electric motor—condemned by him.
He tried his hand at fish-farming in a little pond at
the edge of his master’s fields. He bought broken
radios, fixed them, and resold them. He did not
demur even when asked to fix watches, though that
enterprise did spectacularly badly, and in fact earned
him more kicks than kudos, for no watch he took
apart ever kept time again.
K. K. Harouni rarely went to his farms, but lived
mostly in Lahore. Whenever the old man visited,
Nawab would place himself night and day at the door
leading from the servants’ sitting area into the walled
grove of ancient banyan trees where the old
farmhouse stood. Grizzled, his peculiar aviator
glasses bent and smudged, Nawab tended the
household machinery, the air conditioners, water
heaters, refrigerators, and water pumps, like an
engineer tending the boilers on a foundering steamer
in an Atlantic gale. By his superhuman efforts he
almost managed to maintain K. K. Harouni in the
same mechanical cocoon, cooled and bathed and
lighted and fed, that the landowner enjoyed in
Lahore.
Harouni of course became familiar with this
ubiquitous man, who not only accompanied him on
his tours of inspection, but morning and night could
be found standing on the master bed rewiring the
light fixture or in the bathroom poking at the water
heater. Finally, one evening at teatime, gauging the
psychological moment, Nawab asked if he might say
a word. The landowner, who was cheerfully filing his
nails in front of a crackling rosewood fire, told him
to go ahead.
“Sir, as you know, your lands stretch from here to
the Indus, and on these lands are fully seventeen tube
wells, and to tend these seventeen tube wells there is
but one man, me, your servant. In your service I have
earned these gray hairs”—here he bowed his head to
show the gray—“and now I cannot fulfill my duties
as I should. Enough, sir, enough. I beg you, forgive
me my weakness. Better a darkened house and proud
hunger within than disgrace in the light of day.
Release me, I ask you, I beg you.”
The old man, well accustomed to these sorts of
speeches, though not usually this florid, filed away at
his nails and waited for the breeze to stop.
“What’s the matter, Nawabdin?”
“Matter, sir? O what could be the matter in your
service. I’ve eaten your salt for all my years. But sir,
on the bicycle now, with my old legs, and with the
many injuries I’ve received when heavy machinery
fell on me—I cannot any longer bicycle about like a
bridegroom from farm to farm, as I could when I
first had the good fortune to enter your employment.
I beg you, sir, let me go.”
“And what’s the solution?” asked Harouni, seeing
that they had come to the crux. He didn’t particularly
care one way or the other, except that it touched on
his comfort—a matter of great interest to him.
“Well, sir, if I had a motorcycle, then I could
somehow limp along, at least until I train up some
younger man.”
The crops that year had been good, Harouni felt
expansive in front of the fire, and so, much to the
disgust of the farm managers, Nawab received a
brand-new motorcycle, a Honda 70. He even
managed to extract an allowance for gasoline.
The motorcycle increased his status, gave him
weight, so that people began calling him “Uncle,” and
asking his opinion on world affairs, about which he
knew absolutely nothing. He could now range
further, doing a much wider business. Best of all,
now he could spend every night with his wife, who
had begged to live not on the farm but near her
family in Firoza, where also they could educate at
least the two eldest daughters. A long straight road
ran from the canal headworks near Firoza all the way
to the Indus, through the heart of the K. K. Harouni
lands. Nawab would fly down this road on his new
machine, with bags and cloths hanging from every
knob and brace, so that the bike, when he hit a bump,
seemed to be flapping numerous small vestigial
wings; and with his grinning face, as he rolled up to
whichever tube well needed servicing, with his ears
almost blown off, he shone with the speed of his
arrival.
Question 1:
The main purpose of the first paragraph is to
A) characterize Nawab as a loving father.
B) outline the schedule of a typical day in Nawab’s life.
C) describe Nawab’s various moneymaking ventures.
D) contrast Nawab’s and Harouni’s lifestyles.
Answer: | C | false | sat-practice_6-question_1 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Daniyal Mueenuddin,
“Nawabdin Electrician.” ©2009 by Daniyal Mueenuddin.
Another man might have thrown up his
hands—but not Nawabdin. His twelve daughters
acted as a spur to his genius, and he looked with
satisfaction in the mirror each morning at the face of
a warrior going out to do battle. Nawab of course
knew that he must proliferate his sources of
revenue—the salary he received from K. K. Harouni
for tending the tube wells would not even begin to
suffice. He set up a little one-room flour mill, run off
a condemned electric motor—condemned by him.
He tried his hand at fish-farming in a little pond at
the edge of his master’s fields. He bought broken
radios, fixed them, and resold them. He did not
demur even when asked to fix watches, though that
enterprise did spectacularly badly, and in fact earned
him more kicks than kudos, for no watch he took
apart ever kept time again.
K. K. Harouni rarely went to his farms, but lived
mostly in Lahore. Whenever the old man visited,
Nawab would place himself night and day at the door
leading from the servants’ sitting area into the walled
grove of ancient banyan trees where the old
farmhouse stood. Grizzled, his peculiar aviator
glasses bent and smudged, Nawab tended the
household machinery, the air conditioners, water
heaters, refrigerators, and water pumps, like an
engineer tending the boilers on a foundering steamer
in an Atlantic gale. By his superhuman efforts he
almost managed to maintain K. K. Harouni in the
same mechanical cocoon, cooled and bathed and
lighted and fed, that the landowner enjoyed in
Lahore.
Harouni of course became familiar with this
ubiquitous man, who not only accompanied him on
his tours of inspection, but morning and night could
be found standing on the master bed rewiring the
light fixture or in the bathroom poking at the water
heater. Finally, one evening at teatime, gauging the
psychological moment, Nawab asked if he might say
a word. The landowner, who was cheerfully filing his
nails in front of a crackling rosewood fire, told him
to go ahead.
“Sir, as you know, your lands stretch from here to
the Indus, and on these lands are fully seventeen tube
wells, and to tend these seventeen tube wells there is
but one man, me, your servant. In your service I have
earned these gray hairs”—here he bowed his head to
show the gray—“and now I cannot fulfill my duties
as I should. Enough, sir, enough. I beg you, forgive
me my weakness. Better a darkened house and proud
hunger within than disgrace in the light of day.
Release me, I ask you, I beg you.”
The old man, well accustomed to these sorts of
speeches, though not usually this florid, filed away at
his nails and waited for the breeze to stop.
“What’s the matter, Nawabdin?”
“Matter, sir? O what could be the matter in your
service. I’ve eaten your salt for all my years. But sir,
on the bicycle now, with my old legs, and with the
many injuries I’ve received when heavy machinery
fell on me—I cannot any longer bicycle about like a
bridegroom from farm to farm, as I could when I
first had the good fortune to enter your employment.
I beg you, sir, let me go.”
“And what’s the solution?” asked Harouni, seeing
that they had come to the crux. He didn’t particularly
care one way or the other, except that it touched on
his comfort—a matter of great interest to him.
“Well, sir, if I had a motorcycle, then I could
somehow limp along, at least until I train up some
younger man.”
The crops that year had been good, Harouni felt
expansive in front of the fire, and so, much to the
disgust of the farm managers, Nawab received a
brand-new motorcycle, a Honda 70. He even
managed to extract an allowance for gasoline.
The motorcycle increased his status, gave him
weight, so that people began calling him “Uncle,” and
asking his opinion on world affairs, about which he
knew absolutely nothing. He could now range
further, doing a much wider business. Best of all,
now he could spend every night with his wife, who
had begged to live not on the farm but near her
family in Firoza, where also they could educate at
least the two eldest daughters. A long straight road
ran from the canal headworks near Firoza all the way
to the Indus, through the heart of the K. K. Harouni
lands. Nawab would fly down this road on his new
machine, with bags and cloths hanging from every
knob and brace, so that the bike, when he hit a bump,
seemed to be flapping numerous small vestigial
wings; and with his grinning face, as he rolled up to
whichever tube well needed servicing, with his ears
almost blown off, he shone with the speed of his
arrival.
Question 3:
The author uses the image of an engineer at sea (lines 23-28) most likely to
A) suggest that Nawab often dreams of having a more exciting profession.
B) highlight the fact that Nawab’s primary job is to tend to Harouni’s tube wells.
C) reinforce the idea that Nawab has had many different occupations in his life.
D) emphasize how demanding Nawab’s work for Harouni is.
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_6-question_3 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Daniyal Mueenuddin,
“Nawabdin Electrician.” ©2009 by Daniyal Mueenuddin.
Another man might have thrown up his
hands—but not Nawabdin. His twelve daughters
acted as a spur to his genius, and he looked with
satisfaction in the mirror each morning at the face of
a warrior going out to do battle. Nawab of course
knew that he must proliferate his sources of
revenue—the salary he received from K. K. Harouni
for tending the tube wells would not even begin to
suffice. He set up a little one-room flour mill, run off
a condemned electric motor—condemned by him.
He tried his hand at fish-farming in a little pond at
the edge of his master’s fields. He bought broken
radios, fixed them, and resold them. He did not
demur even when asked to fix watches, though that
enterprise did spectacularly badly, and in fact earned
him more kicks than kudos, for no watch he took
apart ever kept time again.
K. K. Harouni rarely went to his farms, but lived
mostly in Lahore. Whenever the old man visited,
Nawab would place himself night and day at the door
leading from the servants’ sitting area into the walled
grove of ancient banyan trees where the old
farmhouse stood. Grizzled, his peculiar aviator
glasses bent and smudged, Nawab tended the
household machinery, the air conditioners, water
heaters, refrigerators, and water pumps, like an
engineer tending the boilers on a foundering steamer
in an Atlantic gale. By his superhuman efforts he
almost managed to maintain K. K. Harouni in the
same mechanical cocoon, cooled and bathed and
lighted and fed, that the landowner enjoyed in
Lahore.
Harouni of course became familiar with this
ubiquitous man, who not only accompanied him on
his tours of inspection, but morning and night could
be found standing on the master bed rewiring the
light fixture or in the bathroom poking at the water
heater. Finally, one evening at teatime, gauging the
psychological moment, Nawab asked if he might say
a word. The landowner, who was cheerfully filing his
nails in front of a crackling rosewood fire, told him
to go ahead.
“Sir, as you know, your lands stretch from here to
the Indus, and on these lands are fully seventeen tube
wells, and to tend these seventeen tube wells there is
but one man, me, your servant. In your service I have
earned these gray hairs”—here he bowed his head to
show the gray—“and now I cannot fulfill my duties
as I should. Enough, sir, enough. I beg you, forgive
me my weakness. Better a darkened house and proud
hunger within than disgrace in the light of day.
Release me, I ask you, I beg you.”
The old man, well accustomed to these sorts of
speeches, though not usually this florid, filed away at
his nails and waited for the breeze to stop.
“What’s the matter, Nawabdin?”
“Matter, sir? O what could be the matter in your
service. I’ve eaten your salt for all my years. But sir,
on the bicycle now, with my old legs, and with the
many injuries I’ve received when heavy machinery
fell on me—I cannot any longer bicycle about like a
bridegroom from farm to farm, as I could when I
first had the good fortune to enter your employment.
I beg you, sir, let me go.”
“And what’s the solution?” asked Harouni, seeing
that they had come to the crux. He didn’t particularly
care one way or the other, except that it touched on
his comfort—a matter of great interest to him.
“Well, sir, if I had a motorcycle, then I could
somehow limp along, at least until I train up some
younger man.”
The crops that year had been good, Harouni felt
expansive in front of the fire, and so, much to the
disgust of the farm managers, Nawab received a
brand-new motorcycle, a Honda 70. He even
managed to extract an allowance for gasoline.
The motorcycle increased his status, gave him
weight, so that people began calling him “Uncle,” and
asking his opinion on world affairs, about which he
knew absolutely nothing. He could now range
further, doing a much wider business. Best of all,
now he could spend every night with his wife, who
had begged to live not on the farm but near her
family in Firoza, where also they could educate at
least the two eldest daughters. A long straight road
ran from the canal headworks near Firoza all the way
to the Indus, through the heart of the K. K. Harouni
lands. Nawab would fly down this road on his new
machine, with bags and cloths hanging from every
knob and brace, so that the bike, when he hit a bump,
seemed to be flapping numerous small vestigial
wings; and with his grinning face, as he rolled up to
whichever tube well needed servicing, with his ears
almost blown off, he shone with the speed of his
arrival.
Question 2:
As used in line 16, “kicks” most nearly means
A) thrills.
B) complaints.
C) jolts.
D) interests.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_6-question_2 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Daniyal Mueenuddin,
“Nawabdin Electrician.” ©2009 by Daniyal Mueenuddin.
Another man might have thrown up his
hands—but not Nawabdin. His twelve daughters
acted as a spur to his genius, and he looked with
satisfaction in the mirror each morning at the face of
a warrior going out to do battle. Nawab of course
knew that he must proliferate his sources of
revenue—the salary he received from K. K. Harouni
for tending the tube wells would not even begin to
suffice. He set up a little one-room flour mill, run off
a condemned electric motor—condemned by him.
He tried his hand at fish-farming in a little pond at
the edge of his master’s fields. He bought broken
radios, fixed them, and resold them. He did not
demur even when asked to fix watches, though that
enterprise did spectacularly badly, and in fact earned
him more kicks than kudos, for no watch he took
apart ever kept time again.
K. K. Harouni rarely went to his farms, but lived
mostly in Lahore. Whenever the old man visited,
Nawab would place himself night and day at the door
leading from the servants’ sitting area into the walled
grove of ancient banyan trees where the old
farmhouse stood. Grizzled, his peculiar aviator
glasses bent and smudged, Nawab tended the
household machinery, the air conditioners, water
heaters, refrigerators, and water pumps, like an
engineer tending the boilers on a foundering steamer
in an Atlantic gale. By his superhuman efforts he
almost managed to maintain K. K. Harouni in the
same mechanical cocoon, cooled and bathed and
lighted and fed, that the landowner enjoyed in
Lahore.
Harouni of course became familiar with this
ubiquitous man, who not only accompanied him on
his tours of inspection, but morning and night could
be found standing on the master bed rewiring the
light fixture or in the bathroom poking at the water
heater. Finally, one evening at teatime, gauging the
psychological moment, Nawab asked if he might say
a word. The landowner, who was cheerfully filing his
nails in front of a crackling rosewood fire, told him
to go ahead.
“Sir, as you know, your lands stretch from here to
the Indus, and on these lands are fully seventeen tube
wells, and to tend these seventeen tube wells there is
but one man, me, your servant. In your service I have
earned these gray hairs”—here he bowed his head to
show the gray—“and now I cannot fulfill my duties
as I should. Enough, sir, enough. I beg you, forgive
me my weakness. Better a darkened house and proud
hunger within than disgrace in the light of day.
Release me, I ask you, I beg you.”
The old man, well accustomed to these sorts of
speeches, though not usually this florid, filed away at
his nails and waited for the breeze to stop.
“What’s the matter, Nawabdin?”
“Matter, sir? O what could be the matter in your
service. I’ve eaten your salt for all my years. But sir,
on the bicycle now, with my old legs, and with the
many injuries I’ve received when heavy machinery
fell on me—I cannot any longer bicycle about like a
bridegroom from farm to farm, as I could when I
first had the good fortune to enter your employment.
I beg you, sir, let me go.”
“And what’s the solution?” asked Harouni, seeing
that they had come to the crux. He didn’t particularly
care one way or the other, except that it touched on
his comfort—a matter of great interest to him.
“Well, sir, if I had a motorcycle, then I could
somehow limp along, at least until I train up some
younger man.”
The crops that year had been good, Harouni felt
expansive in front of the fire, and so, much to the
disgust of the farm managers, Nawab received a
brand-new motorcycle, a Honda 70. He even
managed to extract an allowance for gasoline.
The motorcycle increased his status, gave him
weight, so that people began calling him “Uncle,” and
asking his opinion on world affairs, about which he
knew absolutely nothing. He could now range
further, doing a much wider business. Best of all,
now he could spend every night with his wife, who
had begged to live not on the farm but near her
family in Firoza, where also they could educate at
least the two eldest daughters. A long straight road
ran from the canal headworks near Firoza all the way
to the Indus, through the heart of the K. K. Harouni
lands. Nawab would fly down this road on his new
machine, with bags and cloths hanging from every
knob and brace, so that the bike, when he hit a bump,
seemed to be flapping numerous small vestigial
wings; and with his grinning face, as he rolled up to
whichever tube well needed servicing, with his ears
almost blown off, he shone with the speed of his
arrival.
Question 9:
The passage states that the farm managers react to Nawab receiving a motorcycle with
A) disgust.
B) happiness.
C) envy.
D) indifference.
Answer: | A | false | sat-practice_6-question_9 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Daniyal Mueenuddin,
“Nawabdin Electrician.” ©2009 by Daniyal Mueenuddin.
Another man might have thrown up his
hands—but not Nawabdin. His twelve daughters
acted as a spur to his genius, and he looked with
satisfaction in the mirror each morning at the face of
a warrior going out to do battle. Nawab of course
knew that he must proliferate his sources of
revenue—the salary he received from K. K. Harouni
for tending the tube wells would not even begin to
suffice. He set up a little one-room flour mill, run off
a condemned electric motor—condemned by him.
He tried his hand at fish-farming in a little pond at
the edge of his master’s fields. He bought broken
radios, fixed them, and resold them. He did not
demur even when asked to fix watches, though that
enterprise did spectacularly badly, and in fact earned
him more kicks than kudos, for no watch he took
apart ever kept time again.
K. K. Harouni rarely went to his farms, but lived
mostly in Lahore. Whenever the old man visited,
Nawab would place himself night and day at the door
leading from the servants’ sitting area into the walled
grove of ancient banyan trees where the old
farmhouse stood. Grizzled, his peculiar aviator
glasses bent and smudged, Nawab tended the
household machinery, the air conditioners, water
heaters, refrigerators, and water pumps, like an
engineer tending the boilers on a foundering steamer
in an Atlantic gale. By his superhuman efforts he
almost managed to maintain K. K. Harouni in the
same mechanical cocoon, cooled and bathed and
lighted and fed, that the landowner enjoyed in
Lahore.
Harouni of course became familiar with this
ubiquitous man, who not only accompanied him on
his tours of inspection, but morning and night could
be found standing on the master bed rewiring the
light fixture or in the bathroom poking at the water
heater. Finally, one evening at teatime, gauging the
psychological moment, Nawab asked if he might say
a word. The landowner, who was cheerfully filing his
nails in front of a crackling rosewood fire, told him
to go ahead.
“Sir, as you know, your lands stretch from here to
the Indus, and on these lands are fully seventeen tube
wells, and to tend these seventeen tube wells there is
but one man, me, your servant. In your service I have
earned these gray hairs”—here he bowed his head to
show the gray—“and now I cannot fulfill my duties
as I should. Enough, sir, enough. I beg you, forgive
me my weakness. Better a darkened house and proud
hunger within than disgrace in the light of day.
Release me, I ask you, I beg you.”
The old man, well accustomed to these sorts of
speeches, though not usually this florid, filed away at
his nails and waited for the breeze to stop.
“What’s the matter, Nawabdin?”
“Matter, sir? O what could be the matter in your
service. I’ve eaten your salt for all my years. But sir,
on the bicycle now, with my old legs, and with the
many injuries I’ve received when heavy machinery
fell on me—I cannot any longer bicycle about like a
bridegroom from farm to farm, as I could when I
first had the good fortune to enter your employment.
I beg you, sir, let me go.”
“And what’s the solution?” asked Harouni, seeing
that they had come to the crux. He didn’t particularly
care one way or the other, except that it touched on
his comfort—a matter of great interest to him.
“Well, sir, if I had a motorcycle, then I could
somehow limp along, at least until I train up some
younger man.”
The crops that year had been good, Harouni felt
expansive in front of the fire, and so, much to the
disgust of the farm managers, Nawab received a
brand-new motorcycle, a Honda 70. He even
managed to extract an allowance for gasoline.
The motorcycle increased his status, gave him
weight, so that people began calling him “Uncle,” and
asking his opinion on world affairs, about which he
knew absolutely nothing. He could now range
further, doing a much wider business. Best of all,
now he could spend every night with his wife, who
had begged to live not on the farm but near her
family in Firoza, where also they could educate at
least the two eldest daughters. A long straight road
ran from the canal headworks near Firoza all the way
to the Indus, through the heart of the K. K. Harouni
lands. Nawab would fly down this road on his new
machine, with bags and cloths hanging from every
knob and brace, so that the bike, when he hit a bump,
seemed to be flapping numerous small vestigial
wings; and with his grinning face, as he rolled up to
whichever tube well needed servicing, with his ears
almost blown off, he shone with the speed of his
arrival.
Question 4:
Which choice best supports the claim that Nawab performs his duties for Harouni well?
A) Lines 28-32 (“By his... Lahore”)
B) Lines 40-42 (“The landowner... ahead”)
C) Lines 46-49 (“In your... should”)
D) Line 58 (“I’ve... years”)
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_6-question_4 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Daniyal Mueenuddin,
“Nawabdin Electrician.” ©2009 by Daniyal Mueenuddin.
Another man might have thrown up his
hands—but not Nawabdin. His twelve daughters
acted as a spur to his genius, and he looked with
satisfaction in the mirror each morning at the face of
a warrior going out to do battle. Nawab of course
knew that he must proliferate his sources of
revenue—the salary he received from K. K. Harouni
for tending the tube wells would not even begin to
suffice. He set up a little one-room flour mill, run off
a condemned electric motor—condemned by him.
He tried his hand at fish-farming in a little pond at
the edge of his master’s fields. He bought broken
radios, fixed them, and resold them. He did not
demur even when asked to fix watches, though that
enterprise did spectacularly badly, and in fact earned
him more kicks than kudos, for no watch he took
apart ever kept time again.
K. K. Harouni rarely went to his farms, but lived
mostly in Lahore. Whenever the old man visited,
Nawab would place himself night and day at the door
leading from the servants’ sitting area into the walled
grove of ancient banyan trees where the old
farmhouse stood. Grizzled, his peculiar aviator
glasses bent and smudged, Nawab tended the
household machinery, the air conditioners, water
heaters, refrigerators, and water pumps, like an
engineer tending the boilers on a foundering steamer
in an Atlantic gale. By his superhuman efforts he
almost managed to maintain K. K. Harouni in the
same mechanical cocoon, cooled and bathed and
lighted and fed, that the landowner enjoyed in
Lahore.
Harouni of course became familiar with this
ubiquitous man, who not only accompanied him on
his tours of inspection, but morning and night could
be found standing on the master bed rewiring the
light fixture or in the bathroom poking at the water
heater. Finally, one evening at teatime, gauging the
psychological moment, Nawab asked if he might say
a word. The landowner, who was cheerfully filing his
nails in front of a crackling rosewood fire, told him
to go ahead.
“Sir, as you know, your lands stretch from here to
the Indus, and on these lands are fully seventeen tube
wells, and to tend these seventeen tube wells there is
but one man, me, your servant. In your service I have
earned these gray hairs”—here he bowed his head to
show the gray—“and now I cannot fulfill my duties
as I should. Enough, sir, enough. I beg you, forgive
me my weakness. Better a darkened house and proud
hunger within than disgrace in the light of day.
Release me, I ask you, I beg you.”
The old man, well accustomed to these sorts of
speeches, though not usually this florid, filed away at
his nails and waited for the breeze to stop.
“What’s the matter, Nawabdin?”
“Matter, sir? O what could be the matter in your
service. I’ve eaten your salt for all my years. But sir,
on the bicycle now, with my old legs, and with the
many injuries I’ve received when heavy machinery
fell on me—I cannot any longer bicycle about like a
bridegroom from farm to farm, as I could when I
first had the good fortune to enter your employment.
I beg you, sir, let me go.”
“And what’s the solution?” asked Harouni, seeing
that they had come to the crux. He didn’t particularly
care one way or the other, except that it touched on
his comfort—a matter of great interest to him.
“Well, sir, if I had a motorcycle, then I could
somehow limp along, at least until I train up some
younger man.”
The crops that year had been good, Harouni felt
expansive in front of the fire, and so, much to the
disgust of the farm managers, Nawab received a
brand-new motorcycle, a Honda 70. He even
managed to extract an allowance for gasoline.
The motorcycle increased his status, gave him
weight, so that people began calling him “Uncle,” and
asking his opinion on world affairs, about which he
knew absolutely nothing. He could now range
further, doing a much wider business. Best of all,
now he could spend every night with his wife, who
had begged to live not on the farm but near her
family in Firoza, where also they could educate at
least the two eldest daughters. A long straight road
ran from the canal headworks near Firoza all the way
to the Indus, through the heart of the K. K. Harouni
lands. Nawab would fly down this road on his new
machine, with bags and cloths hanging from every
knob and brace, so that the bike, when he hit a bump,
seemed to be flapping numerous small vestigial
wings; and with his grinning face, as he rolled up to
whichever tube well needed servicing, with his ears
almost blown off, he shone with the speed of his
arrival.
Question 7:
It can reasonably be inferred from the passage that Harouni provides Nawab with a motorcycle mainly because
A) Harouni appreciates that Nawab has to work hard to support his family.
B) Harouni sees benefit to himself from giving Nawab a motorcycle.
C) Nawab’s speech is the most eloquent that Harouni has ever heard.
D) Nawab threatens to quit if Harouni doesn’t agree to give him a motorcycle.
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_6-question_7 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Daniyal Mueenuddin,
“Nawabdin Electrician.” ©2009 by Daniyal Mueenuddin.
Another man might have thrown up his
hands—but not Nawabdin. His twelve daughters
acted as a spur to his genius, and he looked with
satisfaction in the mirror each morning at the face of
a warrior going out to do battle. Nawab of course
knew that he must proliferate his sources of
revenue—the salary he received from K. K. Harouni
for tending the tube wells would not even begin to
suffice. He set up a little one-room flour mill, run off
a condemned electric motor—condemned by him.
He tried his hand at fish-farming in a little pond at
the edge of his master’s fields. He bought broken
radios, fixed them, and resold them. He did not
demur even when asked to fix watches, though that
enterprise did spectacularly badly, and in fact earned
him more kicks than kudos, for no watch he took
apart ever kept time again.
K. K. Harouni rarely went to his farms, but lived
mostly in Lahore. Whenever the old man visited,
Nawab would place himself night and day at the door
leading from the servants’ sitting area into the walled
grove of ancient banyan trees where the old
farmhouse stood. Grizzled, his peculiar aviator
glasses bent and smudged, Nawab tended the
household machinery, the air conditioners, water
heaters, refrigerators, and water pumps, like an
engineer tending the boilers on a foundering steamer
in an Atlantic gale. By his superhuman efforts he
almost managed to maintain K. K. Harouni in the
same mechanical cocoon, cooled and bathed and
lighted and fed, that the landowner enjoyed in
Lahore.
Harouni of course became familiar with this
ubiquitous man, who not only accompanied him on
his tours of inspection, but morning and night could
be found standing on the master bed rewiring the
light fixture or in the bathroom poking at the water
heater. Finally, one evening at teatime, gauging the
psychological moment, Nawab asked if he might say
a word. The landowner, who was cheerfully filing his
nails in front of a crackling rosewood fire, told him
to go ahead.
“Sir, as you know, your lands stretch from here to
the Indus, and on these lands are fully seventeen tube
wells, and to tend these seventeen tube wells there is
but one man, me, your servant. In your service I have
earned these gray hairs”—here he bowed his head to
show the gray—“and now I cannot fulfill my duties
as I should. Enough, sir, enough. I beg you, forgive
me my weakness. Better a darkened house and proud
hunger within than disgrace in the light of day.
Release me, I ask you, I beg you.”
The old man, well accustomed to these sorts of
speeches, though not usually this florid, filed away at
his nails and waited for the breeze to stop.
“What’s the matter, Nawabdin?”
“Matter, sir? O what could be the matter in your
service. I’ve eaten your salt for all my years. But sir,
on the bicycle now, with my old legs, and with the
many injuries I’ve received when heavy machinery
fell on me—I cannot any longer bicycle about like a
bridegroom from farm to farm, as I could when I
first had the good fortune to enter your employment.
I beg you, sir, let me go.”
“And what’s the solution?” asked Harouni, seeing
that they had come to the crux. He didn’t particularly
care one way or the other, except that it touched on
his comfort—a matter of great interest to him.
“Well, sir, if I had a motorcycle, then I could
somehow limp along, at least until I train up some
younger man.”
The crops that year had been good, Harouni felt
expansive in front of the fire, and so, much to the
disgust of the farm managers, Nawab received a
brand-new motorcycle, a Honda 70. He even
managed to extract an allowance for gasoline.
The motorcycle increased his status, gave him
weight, so that people began calling him “Uncle,” and
asking his opinion on world affairs, about which he
knew absolutely nothing. He could now range
further, doing a much wider business. Best of all,
now he could spend every night with his wife, who
had begged to live not on the farm but near her
family in Firoza, where also they could educate at
least the two eldest daughters. A long straight road
ran from the canal headworks near Firoza all the way
to the Indus, through the heart of the K. K. Harouni
lands. Nawab would fly down this road on his new
machine, with bags and cloths hanging from every
knob and brace, so that the bike, when he hit a bump,
seemed to be flapping numerous small vestigial
wings; and with his grinning face, as he rolled up to
whichever tube well needed servicing, with his ears
almost blown off, he shone with the speed of his
arrival.
Question 10:
According to the passage, what does Nawab consider to be the best result of getting the motorcycle?
A) People start calling him “Uncle.”
B) He’s able to expand his business.
C) He’s able to educate his daughters.
D) He can spend more time with his wife.
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_6-question_10 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Daniyal Mueenuddin,
“Nawabdin Electrician.” ©2009 by Daniyal Mueenuddin.
Another man might have thrown up his
hands—but not Nawabdin. His twelve daughters
acted as a spur to his genius, and he looked with
satisfaction in the mirror each morning at the face of
a warrior going out to do battle. Nawab of course
knew that he must proliferate his sources of
revenue—the salary he received from K. K. Harouni
for tending the tube wells would not even begin to
suffice. He set up a little one-room flour mill, run off
a condemned electric motor—condemned by him.
He tried his hand at fish-farming in a little pond at
the edge of his master’s fields. He bought broken
radios, fixed them, and resold them. He did not
demur even when asked to fix watches, though that
enterprise did spectacularly badly, and in fact earned
him more kicks than kudos, for no watch he took
apart ever kept time again.
K. K. Harouni rarely went to his farms, but lived
mostly in Lahore. Whenever the old man visited,
Nawab would place himself night and day at the door
leading from the servants’ sitting area into the walled
grove of ancient banyan trees where the old
farmhouse stood. Grizzled, his peculiar aviator
glasses bent and smudged, Nawab tended the
household machinery, the air conditioners, water
heaters, refrigerators, and water pumps, like an
engineer tending the boilers on a foundering steamer
in an Atlantic gale. By his superhuman efforts he
almost managed to maintain K. K. Harouni in the
same mechanical cocoon, cooled and bathed and
lighted and fed, that the landowner enjoyed in
Lahore.
Harouni of course became familiar with this
ubiquitous man, who not only accompanied him on
his tours of inspection, but morning and night could
be found standing on the master bed rewiring the
light fixture or in the bathroom poking at the water
heater. Finally, one evening at teatime, gauging the
psychological moment, Nawab asked if he might say
a word. The landowner, who was cheerfully filing his
nails in front of a crackling rosewood fire, told him
to go ahead.
“Sir, as you know, your lands stretch from here to
the Indus, and on these lands are fully seventeen tube
wells, and to tend these seventeen tube wells there is
but one man, me, your servant. In your service I have
earned these gray hairs”—here he bowed his head to
show the gray—“and now I cannot fulfill my duties
as I should. Enough, sir, enough. I beg you, forgive
me my weakness. Better a darkened house and proud
hunger within than disgrace in the light of day.
Release me, I ask you, I beg you.”
The old man, well accustomed to these sorts of
speeches, though not usually this florid, filed away at
his nails and waited for the breeze to stop.
“What’s the matter, Nawabdin?”
“Matter, sir? O what could be the matter in your
service. I’ve eaten your salt for all my years. But sir,
on the bicycle now, with my old legs, and with the
many injuries I’ve received when heavy machinery
fell on me—I cannot any longer bicycle about like a
bridegroom from farm to farm, as I could when I
first had the good fortune to enter your employment.
I beg you, sir, let me go.”
“And what’s the solution?” asked Harouni, seeing
that they had come to the crux. He didn’t particularly
care one way or the other, except that it touched on
his comfort—a matter of great interest to him.
“Well, sir, if I had a motorcycle, then I could
somehow limp along, at least until I train up some
younger man.”
The crops that year had been good, Harouni felt
expansive in front of the fire, and so, much to the
disgust of the farm managers, Nawab received a
brand-new motorcycle, a Honda 70. He even
managed to extract an allowance for gasoline.
The motorcycle increased his status, gave him
weight, so that people began calling him “Uncle,” and
asking his opinion on world affairs, about which he
knew absolutely nothing. He could now range
further, doing a much wider business. Best of all,
now he could spend every night with his wife, who
had begged to live not on the farm but near her
family in Firoza, where also they could educate at
least the two eldest daughters. A long straight road
ran from the canal headworks near Firoza all the way
to the Indus, through the heart of the K. K. Harouni
lands. Nawab would fly down this road on his new
machine, with bags and cloths hanging from every
knob and brace, so that the bike, when he hit a bump,
seemed to be flapping numerous small vestigial
wings; and with his grinning face, as he rolled up to
whichever tube well needed servicing, with his ears
almost blown off, he shone with the speed of his
arrival.
Question 5:
In the context of the conversation between Nawab and Harouni, Nawab’s comments in lines 43-52 (“Sir . . . beg you”) mainly serve to
A) flatter Harouni by mentioning how vast his lands are.
B) boast to Harouni about how competent and reliable Nawab is.
C) emphasize Nawab’s diligence and loyalty to Harouni.
D) notify Harouni that Nawab intends to quit his job tending the tube wells.
Answer: | C | true | sat-practice_6-question_5 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Stephen Coleman, Scott
Anthony, and David E. Morrison, “Public Trust in the News.”
©2009 by Stephen Coleman.
The news is a form of public knowledge.
Unlike personal or private knowledge (such as the
health of one’s friends and family; the conduct of a
private hobby; a secret liaison), public knowledge
increases in value as it is shared by more people. The
date of an election and the claims of rival candidates;
the causes and consequences of an environmental
disaster; a debate about how to frame a particular
law; the latest reports from a war zone—these are all
examples of public knowledge that people are
generally expected to know in order to be considered
informed citizens. Thus, in contrast to personal or
private knowledge, which is generally left to
individuals to pursue or ignore, public knowledge is
promoted even to those who might not think it
matters to them. In short, the circulation of public
knowledge, including the news, is generally regarded
as a public good which cannot be solely
demand-driven.
The production, circulation, and reception
of public knowledge is a complex process. It is
generally accepted that public knowledge should
be authoritative, but there is not always
common agreement about what the public needs to
know, who is best placed to relate and explain it, and
how authoritative reputations should be determined
and evaluated. Historically, newspapers such as The
Times and broadcasters such as the BBC were widely
regarded as the trusted shapers of authoritative
agendas and conventional wisdom. They embodied
the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of
authority as the “power over, or title to influence, the
opinions of others.” As part of the general process of
the transformation of authority whereby there has
been a reluctance to uncritically accept traditional
sources of public knowledge, the demand has been
for all authority to make explicit the frames of value
which determine their decisions. Centres of news
production, as our focus groups show, have not been
exempt from this process. Not surprisingly perhaps
some news journalists feel uneasy about this
renegotiation of their authority:
Editors are increasingly casting a glance at the
“most read” lists on their own and other websites
to work out which stories matter to readers and
viewers. And now the audience—which used to
know its place—is being asked to act as a kind of
journalistic ombudsman, ruling on our
credibility (broadcast journalist, 2008).
The result of democratising access to TV news
could be political disengagement by the majority
and a dumbing down through a popularity
contest of stories (online news editor, 2007).
Despite the rhetorical bluster of these statements,
they amount to more than straightforward
professional defensiveness. In their reference to an
audience “which used to know its place” and
conflation between democratisation and “dumbing
down,” they are seeking to argue for a particular
mode of public knowledge: one which is shaped by
experts, immune from populist pressures; and
disseminated to attentive, but mainly passive
recipients. It is a view of citizenship that closes down
opportunities for popular involvement in the making
of public knowledge by reinforcing the professional
claims of experts. The journalists quoted above are
right to feel uneasy, for there is, at almost every
institutional level in contemporary society,
scepticism towards the epistemological authority of
expert elites. There is a growing feeling, as expressed
by several of our focus group participants, that the
news media should be “informative rather than
authoritative”; the job of journalists should be to
“give the news as raw as it is, without putting their
slant on it”; and people should be given “sufficient
information” from which “we would be able to form
opinions of our own.”
At stake here are two distinct conceptions of
authority. The journalists we have quoted are
resistant to the democratisation of news:
the supremacy of the clickstream (according to
which editors raise or lower the profile of stories
according to the number of readers clicking on them
online); the parity of popular culture with “serious”
news; the demands of some audience members for
raw news rather than constructed narratives.
Question 14:
As used in line 24, “common” most nearly means
A) numerous.
B) familiar.
C) widespread.
D) ordinary.
Answer: | C | true | sat-practice_6-question_14 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Stephen Coleman, Scott
Anthony, and David E. Morrison, “Public Trust in the News.”
©2009 by Stephen Coleman.
The news is a form of public knowledge.
Unlike personal or private knowledge (such as the
health of one’s friends and family; the conduct of a
private hobby; a secret liaison), public knowledge
increases in value as it is shared by more people. The
date of an election and the claims of rival candidates;
the causes and consequences of an environmental
disaster; a debate about how to frame a particular
law; the latest reports from a war zone—these are all
examples of public knowledge that people are
generally expected to know in order to be considered
informed citizens. Thus, in contrast to personal or
private knowledge, which is generally left to
individuals to pursue or ignore, public knowledge is
promoted even to those who might not think it
matters to them. In short, the circulation of public
knowledge, including the news, is generally regarded
as a public good which cannot be solely
demand-driven.
The production, circulation, and reception
of public knowledge is a complex process. It is
generally accepted that public knowledge should
be authoritative, but there is not always
common agreement about what the public needs to
know, who is best placed to relate and explain it, and
how authoritative reputations should be determined
and evaluated. Historically, newspapers such as The
Times and broadcasters such as the BBC were widely
regarded as the trusted shapers of authoritative
agendas and conventional wisdom. They embodied
the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of
authority as the “power over, or title to influence, the
opinions of others.” As part of the general process of
the transformation of authority whereby there has
been a reluctance to uncritically accept traditional
sources of public knowledge, the demand has been
for all authority to make explicit the frames of value
which determine their decisions. Centres of news
production, as our focus groups show, have not been
exempt from this process. Not surprisingly perhaps
some news journalists feel uneasy about this
renegotiation of their authority:
Editors are increasingly casting a glance at the
“most read” lists on their own and other websites
to work out which stories matter to readers and
viewers. And now the audience—which used to
know its place—is being asked to act as a kind of
journalistic ombudsman, ruling on our
credibility (broadcast journalist, 2008).
The result of democratising access to TV news
could be political disengagement by the majority
and a dumbing down through a popularity
contest of stories (online news editor, 2007).
Despite the rhetorical bluster of these statements,
they amount to more than straightforward
professional defensiveness. In their reference to an
audience “which used to know its place” and
conflation between democratisation and “dumbing
down,” they are seeking to argue for a particular
mode of public knowledge: one which is shaped by
experts, immune from populist pressures; and
disseminated to attentive, but mainly passive
recipients. It is a view of citizenship that closes down
opportunities for popular involvement in the making
of public knowledge by reinforcing the professional
claims of experts. The journalists quoted above are
right to feel uneasy, for there is, at almost every
institutional level in contemporary society,
scepticism towards the epistemological authority of
expert elites. There is a growing feeling, as expressed
by several of our focus group participants, that the
news media should be “informative rather than
authoritative”; the job of journalists should be to
“give the news as raw as it is, without putting their
slant on it”; and people should be given “sufficient
information” from which “we would be able to form
opinions of our own.”
At stake here are two distinct conceptions of
authority. The journalists we have quoted are
resistant to the democratisation of news:
the supremacy of the clickstream (according to
which editors raise or lower the profile of stories
according to the number of readers clicking on them
online); the parity of popular culture with “serious”
news; the demands of some audience members for
raw news rather than constructed narratives.
Question 16:
The authors indicate that the public is coming to believe that journalists’ reports should avoid
A) personal judgments about the events reported.
B) more information than is absolutely necessary.
C) quotations from authorities on the subject matter.
D) details that the subjects of news reports wish to keep private.
Answer: | A | false | sat-practice_6-question_16 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Stephen Coleman, Scott
Anthony, and David E. Morrison, “Public Trust in the News.”
©2009 by Stephen Coleman.
The news is a form of public knowledge.
Unlike personal or private knowledge (such as the
health of one’s friends and family; the conduct of a
private hobby; a secret liaison), public knowledge
increases in value as it is shared by more people. The
date of an election and the claims of rival candidates;
the causes and consequences of an environmental
disaster; a debate about how to frame a particular
law; the latest reports from a war zone—these are all
examples of public knowledge that people are
generally expected to know in order to be considered
informed citizens. Thus, in contrast to personal or
private knowledge, which is generally left to
individuals to pursue or ignore, public knowledge is
promoted even to those who might not think it
matters to them. In short, the circulation of public
knowledge, including the news, is generally regarded
as a public good which cannot be solely
demand-driven.
The production, circulation, and reception
of public knowledge is a complex process. It is
generally accepted that public knowledge should
be authoritative, but there is not always
common agreement about what the public needs to
know, who is best placed to relate and explain it, and
how authoritative reputations should be determined
and evaluated. Historically, newspapers such as The
Times and broadcasters such as the BBC were widely
regarded as the trusted shapers of authoritative
agendas and conventional wisdom. They embodied
the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of
authority as the “power over, or title to influence, the
opinions of others.” As part of the general process of
the transformation of authority whereby there has
been a reluctance to uncritically accept traditional
sources of public knowledge, the demand has been
for all authority to make explicit the frames of value
which determine their decisions. Centres of news
production, as our focus groups show, have not been
exempt from this process. Not surprisingly perhaps
some news journalists feel uneasy about this
renegotiation of their authority:
Editors are increasingly casting a glance at the
“most read” lists on their own and other websites
to work out which stories matter to readers and
viewers. And now the audience—which used to
know its place—is being asked to act as a kind of
journalistic ombudsman, ruling on our
credibility (broadcast journalist, 2008).
The result of democratising access to TV news
could be political disengagement by the majority
and a dumbing down through a popularity
contest of stories (online news editor, 2007).
Despite the rhetorical bluster of these statements,
they amount to more than straightforward
professional defensiveness. In their reference to an
audience “which used to know its place” and
conflation between democratisation and “dumbing
down,” they are seeking to argue for a particular
mode of public knowledge: one which is shaped by
experts, immune from populist pressures; and
disseminated to attentive, but mainly passive
recipients. It is a view of citizenship that closes down
opportunities for popular involvement in the making
of public knowledge by reinforcing the professional
claims of experts. The journalists quoted above are
right to feel uneasy, for there is, at almost every
institutional level in contemporary society,
scepticism towards the epistemological authority of
expert elites. There is a growing feeling, as expressed
by several of our focus group participants, that the
news media should be “informative rather than
authoritative”; the job of journalists should be to
“give the news as raw as it is, without putting their
slant on it”; and people should be given “sufficient
information” from which “we would be able to form
opinions of our own.”
At stake here are two distinct conceptions of
authority. The journalists we have quoted are
resistant to the democratisation of news:
the supremacy of the clickstream (according to
which editors raise or lower the profile of stories
according to the number of readers clicking on them
online); the parity of popular culture with “serious”
news; the demands of some audience members for
raw news rather than constructed narratives.
Question 12:
According to the passage, which expectation do traditional authorities now face?
A) They should be uninfluenced by commercial considerations.
B) They should be committed to bringing about positive social change.
C) They should be respectful of the difference between public and private knowledge.
D) They should be transparent about their beliefs and assumptions.
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_6-question_12 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Stephen Coleman, Scott
Anthony, and David E. Morrison, “Public Trust in the News.”
©2009 by Stephen Coleman.
The news is a form of public knowledge.
Unlike personal or private knowledge (such as the
health of one’s friends and family; the conduct of a
private hobby; a secret liaison), public knowledge
increases in value as it is shared by more people. The
date of an election and the claims of rival candidates;
the causes and consequences of an environmental
disaster; a debate about how to frame a particular
law; the latest reports from a war zone—these are all
examples of public knowledge that people are
generally expected to know in order to be considered
informed citizens. Thus, in contrast to personal or
private knowledge, which is generally left to
individuals to pursue or ignore, public knowledge is
promoted even to those who might not think it
matters to them. In short, the circulation of public
knowledge, including the news, is generally regarded
as a public good which cannot be solely
demand-driven.
The production, circulation, and reception
of public knowledge is a complex process. It is
generally accepted that public knowledge should
be authoritative, but there is not always
common agreement about what the public needs to
know, who is best placed to relate and explain it, and
how authoritative reputations should be determined
and evaluated. Historically, newspapers such as The
Times and broadcasters such as the BBC were widely
regarded as the trusted shapers of authoritative
agendas and conventional wisdom. They embodied
the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of
authority as the “power over, or title to influence, the
opinions of others.” As part of the general process of
the transformation of authority whereby there has
been a reluctance to uncritically accept traditional
sources of public knowledge, the demand has been
for all authority to make explicit the frames of value
which determine their decisions. Centres of news
production, as our focus groups show, have not been
exempt from this process. Not surprisingly perhaps
some news journalists feel uneasy about this
renegotiation of their authority:
Editors are increasingly casting a glance at the
“most read” lists on their own and other websites
to work out which stories matter to readers and
viewers. And now the audience—which used to
know its place—is being asked to act as a kind of
journalistic ombudsman, ruling on our
credibility (broadcast journalist, 2008).
The result of democratising access to TV news
could be political disengagement by the majority
and a dumbing down through a popularity
contest of stories (online news editor, 2007).
Despite the rhetorical bluster of these statements,
they amount to more than straightforward
professional defensiveness. In their reference to an
audience “which used to know its place” and
conflation between democratisation and “dumbing
down,” they are seeking to argue for a particular
mode of public knowledge: one which is shaped by
experts, immune from populist pressures; and
disseminated to attentive, but mainly passive
recipients. It is a view of citizenship that closes down
opportunities for popular involvement in the making
of public knowledge by reinforcing the professional
claims of experts. The journalists quoted above are
right to feel uneasy, for there is, at almost every
institutional level in contemporary society,
scepticism towards the epistemological authority of
expert elites. There is a growing feeling, as expressed
by several of our focus group participants, that the
news media should be “informative rather than
authoritative”; the job of journalists should be to
“give the news as raw as it is, without putting their
slant on it”; and people should be given “sufficient
information” from which “we would be able to form
opinions of our own.”
At stake here are two distinct conceptions of
authority. The journalists we have quoted are
resistant to the democratisation of news:
the supremacy of the clickstream (according to
which editors raise or lower the profile of stories
according to the number of readers clicking on them
online); the parity of popular culture with “serious”
news; the demands of some audience members for
raw news rather than constructed narratives.
Question 15:
The authors most likely include the extended quotations in lines 43-53 to
A) present contradictory examples.
B) cite representative opinions.
C) criticize typical viewpoints.
D) suggest viable alternatives.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_6-question_15 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Stephen Coleman, Scott
Anthony, and David E. Morrison, “Public Trust in the News.”
©2009 by Stephen Coleman.
The news is a form of public knowledge.
Unlike personal or private knowledge (such as the
health of one’s friends and family; the conduct of a
private hobby; a secret liaison), public knowledge
increases in value as it is shared by more people. The
date of an election and the claims of rival candidates;
the causes and consequences of an environmental
disaster; a debate about how to frame a particular
law; the latest reports from a war zone—these are all
examples of public knowledge that people are
generally expected to know in order to be considered
informed citizens. Thus, in contrast to personal or
private knowledge, which is generally left to
individuals to pursue or ignore, public knowledge is
promoted even to those who might not think it
matters to them. In short, the circulation of public
knowledge, including the news, is generally regarded
as a public good which cannot be solely
demand-driven.
The production, circulation, and reception
of public knowledge is a complex process. It is
generally accepted that public knowledge should
be authoritative, but there is not always
common agreement about what the public needs to
know, who is best placed to relate and explain it, and
how authoritative reputations should be determined
and evaluated. Historically, newspapers such as The
Times and broadcasters such as the BBC were widely
regarded as the trusted shapers of authoritative
agendas and conventional wisdom. They embodied
the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of
authority as the “power over, or title to influence, the
opinions of others.” As part of the general process of
the transformation of authority whereby there has
been a reluctance to uncritically accept traditional
sources of public knowledge, the demand has been
for all authority to make explicit the frames of value
which determine their decisions. Centres of news
production, as our focus groups show, have not been
exempt from this process. Not surprisingly perhaps
some news journalists feel uneasy about this
renegotiation of their authority:
Editors are increasingly casting a glance at the
“most read” lists on their own and other websites
to work out which stories matter to readers and
viewers. And now the audience—which used to
know its place—is being asked to act as a kind of
journalistic ombudsman, ruling on our
credibility (broadcast journalist, 2008).
The result of democratising access to TV news
could be political disengagement by the majority
and a dumbing down through a popularity
contest of stories (online news editor, 2007).
Despite the rhetorical bluster of these statements,
they amount to more than straightforward
professional defensiveness. In their reference to an
audience “which used to know its place” and
conflation between democratisation and “dumbing
down,” they are seeking to argue for a particular
mode of public knowledge: one which is shaped by
experts, immune from populist pressures; and
disseminated to attentive, but mainly passive
recipients. It is a view of citizenship that closes down
opportunities for popular involvement in the making
of public knowledge by reinforcing the professional
claims of experts. The journalists quoted above are
right to feel uneasy, for there is, at almost every
institutional level in contemporary society,
scepticism towards the epistemological authority of
expert elites. There is a growing feeling, as expressed
by several of our focus group participants, that the
news media should be “informative rather than
authoritative”; the job of journalists should be to
“give the news as raw as it is, without putting their
slant on it”; and people should be given “sufficient
information” from which “we would be able to form
opinions of our own.”
At stake here are two distinct conceptions of
authority. The journalists we have quoted are
resistant to the democratisation of news:
the supremacy of the clickstream (according to
which editors raise or lower the profile of stories
according to the number of readers clicking on them
online); the parity of popular culture with “serious”
news; the demands of some audience members for
raw news rather than constructed narratives.
Question 11:
The main purpose of the passage is to
A) analyze the technological developments that have affected the production, circulation, and reception of news stories.
B) discuss changes in the perception of the news media as a source of public knowledge.
C) show how journalists’ frames of value influence the production of news stories.
D) challenge the conventional view that news is a form of public knowledge.
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_6-question_11 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Stephen Coleman, Scott
Anthony, and David E. Morrison, “Public Trust in the News.”
©2009 by Stephen Coleman.
The news is a form of public knowledge.
Unlike personal or private knowledge (such as the
health of one’s friends and family; the conduct of a
private hobby; a secret liaison), public knowledge
increases in value as it is shared by more people. The
date of an election and the claims of rival candidates;
the causes and consequences of an environmental
disaster; a debate about how to frame a particular
law; the latest reports from a war zone—these are all
examples of public knowledge that people are
generally expected to know in order to be considered
informed citizens. Thus, in contrast to personal or
private knowledge, which is generally left to
individuals to pursue or ignore, public knowledge is
promoted even to those who might not think it
matters to them. In short, the circulation of public
knowledge, including the news, is generally regarded
as a public good which cannot be solely
demand-driven.
The production, circulation, and reception
of public knowledge is a complex process. It is
generally accepted that public knowledge should
be authoritative, but there is not always
common agreement about what the public needs to
know, who is best placed to relate and explain it, and
how authoritative reputations should be determined
and evaluated. Historically, newspapers such as The
Times and broadcasters such as the BBC were widely
regarded as the trusted shapers of authoritative
agendas and conventional wisdom. They embodied
the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of
authority as the “power over, or title to influence, the
opinions of others.” As part of the general process of
the transformation of authority whereby there has
been a reluctance to uncritically accept traditional
sources of public knowledge, the demand has been
for all authority to make explicit the frames of value
which determine their decisions. Centres of news
production, as our focus groups show, have not been
exempt from this process. Not surprisingly perhaps
some news journalists feel uneasy about this
renegotiation of their authority:
Editors are increasingly casting a glance at the
“most read” lists on their own and other websites
to work out which stories matter to readers and
viewers. And now the audience—which used to
know its place—is being asked to act as a kind of
journalistic ombudsman, ruling on our
credibility (broadcast journalist, 2008).
The result of democratising access to TV news
could be political disengagement by the majority
and a dumbing down through a popularity
contest of stories (online news editor, 2007).
Despite the rhetorical bluster of these statements,
they amount to more than straightforward
professional defensiveness. In their reference to an
audience “which used to know its place” and
conflation between democratisation and “dumbing
down,” they are seeking to argue for a particular
mode of public knowledge: one which is shaped by
experts, immune from populist pressures; and
disseminated to attentive, but mainly passive
recipients. It is a view of citizenship that closes down
opportunities for popular involvement in the making
of public knowledge by reinforcing the professional
claims of experts. The journalists quoted above are
right to feel uneasy, for there is, at almost every
institutional level in contemporary society,
scepticism towards the epistemological authority of
expert elites. There is a growing feeling, as expressed
by several of our focus group participants, that the
news media should be “informative rather than
authoritative”; the job of journalists should be to
“give the news as raw as it is, without putting their
slant on it”; and people should be given “sufficient
information” from which “we would be able to form
opinions of our own.”
At stake here are two distinct conceptions of
authority. The journalists we have quoted are
resistant to the democratisation of news:
the supremacy of the clickstream (according to
which editors raise or lower the profile of stories
according to the number of readers clicking on them
online); the parity of popular culture with “serious”
news; the demands of some audience members for
raw news rather than constructed narratives.
Question 18:
As used in line 74, “raw” most nearly means
A) unfiltered.
B) exposed.
C) harsh.
D) inexperienced.
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_6-question_18 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Elsa Youngsteadt, “Decoding a
Flower’s Message.” ©2012 by Sigma Xi, The Scientific
Research Society.
Texas gourd vines unfurl their large, flared
blossoms in the dim hours before sunrise. Until they
close at noon, their yellow petals and mild, squashy
aroma attract bees that gather nectar and shuttle
pollen from flower to flower. But “when you
advertise [to pollinators], you advertise in an
open communication network,” says chemical
ecologist Ian Baldwin of the Max Planck Institute for
Chemical Ecology in Germany. “You attract not just
the good guys, but you also attract the bad guys.” For
a Texas gourd plant, striped cucumber beetles are
among the very bad guys. They chew up pollen and
petals, defecate in the flowers and transmit the
dreaded bacterial wilt disease, an infection that can
reduce an entire plant to a heap of collapsed tissue in
mere days.
In one recent study, Nina Theis and Lynn Adler
took on the specific problem of the Texas
gourd—how to attract enough pollinators but not
too many beetles. The Texas gourd vine’s main
pollinators are honey bees and specialized squash
bees, which respond to its floral scent. The aroma
includes 10 compounds, but the most
abundant—and the only one that lures squash bees
into traps—is 1,4-dimethoxybenzene.
Intuition suggests that more of that aroma should
be even more appealing to bees. “We have this
assumption that a really fragrant flower is going to
attract a lot of pollinators,” says Theis, a chemical
ecologist at Elms College in Chicopee,
Massachusetts. But, she adds, that idea hasn’t really
been tested—and extra scent could well call in more
beetles, too. To find out, she and Adler planted
168 Texas gourd vines in an Iowa field and,
throughout the August flowering season, made half
the plants more fragrant by tucking
dimethoxybenzene-treated swabs deep inside their
flowers. Each treated flower emitted about 45 times
more fragrance than a normal one; the other half of
the plants got swabs without fragrance.
The researchers also wanted to know whether
extra beetles would impose a double cost by both
damaging flowers and deterring bees, which might
not bother to visit (and pollinate) a flower laden with
other insects and their feces. So every half hour
throughout the experiments, the team plucked all the
beetles off of half the fragrance-enhanced flowers and
half the control flowers, allowing bees to respond to
the blossoms with and without interference by
beetles.
Finally, they pollinated by hand half of the female
flowers in each of the four combinations of fragrance
and beetles. Hand-pollinated flowers should develop
into fruits with the maximum number of seeds,
providing a benchmark to see whether the
fragrance-related activities of bees and beetles
resulted in reduced pollination.
“It was very labor intensive,” says Theis.
“We would be out there at four in the morning, three
in the morning, to try and set up before these flowers
open.” As soon as they did, the team spent the next
several hours walking from flower to flower,
observing each for two-minute intervals “and writing
down everything we saw.”
What they saw was double the normal number of
beetles on fragrance-enhanced blossoms.
Pollinators, to their surprise, did not prefer the
highly scented flowers. Squash bees were indifferent,
and honey bees visited enhanced flowers less often
than normal ones. Theis thinks the bees were
repelled not by the fragrance itself, but by the
abundance of beetles: The data showed that the more
beetles on a flower, the less likely a honey bee was to
visit it.
That added up to less reproduction for
fragrance-enhanced flowers. Gourds that developed
from those blossoms weighed 9 percent less and had,
on average, 20 fewer seeds than those from normal
flowers. Hand pollination didn’t rescue the seed set,
indicating that beetles damaged flowers directly
—regardless of whether they also repelled
pollinators. (Hand pollination did rescue fruit
weight, a hard-to-interpret result that suggests that
lost bee visits did somehow harm fruit development.)
The new results provide a reason that Texas gourd
plants never evolved to produce a stronger scent: “If
you really ramp up the odor, you don’t get more
pollinators, but you can really get ripped apart by
your enemies,” says Rob Raguso, a chemical ecologist
at Cornell University who was not involved in the
Texas gourd study.
Question 30:
In describing squash bees as “indifferent” (line 68), the author most likely means that they
A) could not distinguish enhanced flowers from normal flowers.
B) visited enhanced flowers and normal flowers at an equal rate.
C) largely preferred normal flowers to enhanced flowers.
D) were as likely to visit beetle-infested enhanced flowers as to visit beetle-free enhanced flowers.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_6-question_30 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Elsa Youngsteadt, “Decoding a
Flower’s Message.” ©2012 by Sigma Xi, The Scientific
Research Society.
Texas gourd vines unfurl their large, flared
blossoms in the dim hours before sunrise. Until they
close at noon, their yellow petals and mild, squashy
aroma attract bees that gather nectar and shuttle
pollen from flower to flower. But “when you
advertise [to pollinators], you advertise in an
open communication network,” says chemical
ecologist Ian Baldwin of the Max Planck Institute for
Chemical Ecology in Germany. “You attract not just
the good guys, but you also attract the bad guys.” For
a Texas gourd plant, striped cucumber beetles are
among the very bad guys. They chew up pollen and
petals, defecate in the flowers and transmit the
dreaded bacterial wilt disease, an infection that can
reduce an entire plant to a heap of collapsed tissue in
mere days.
In one recent study, Nina Theis and Lynn Adler
took on the specific problem of the Texas
gourd—how to attract enough pollinators but not
too many beetles. The Texas gourd vine’s main
pollinators are honey bees and specialized squash
bees, which respond to its floral scent. The aroma
includes 10 compounds, but the most
abundant—and the only one that lures squash bees
into traps—is 1,4-dimethoxybenzene.
Intuition suggests that more of that aroma should
be even more appealing to bees. “We have this
assumption that a really fragrant flower is going to
attract a lot of pollinators,” says Theis, a chemical
ecologist at Elms College in Chicopee,
Massachusetts. But, she adds, that idea hasn’t really
been tested—and extra scent could well call in more
beetles, too. To find out, she and Adler planted
168 Texas gourd vines in an Iowa field and,
throughout the August flowering season, made half
the plants more fragrant by tucking
dimethoxybenzene-treated swabs deep inside their
flowers. Each treated flower emitted about 45 times
more fragrance than a normal one; the other half of
the plants got swabs without fragrance.
The researchers also wanted to know whether
extra beetles would impose a double cost by both
damaging flowers and deterring bees, which might
not bother to visit (and pollinate) a flower laden with
other insects and their feces. So every half hour
throughout the experiments, the team plucked all the
beetles off of half the fragrance-enhanced flowers and
half the control flowers, allowing bees to respond to
the blossoms with and without interference by
beetles.
Finally, they pollinated by hand half of the female
flowers in each of the four combinations of fragrance
and beetles. Hand-pollinated flowers should develop
into fruits with the maximum number of seeds,
providing a benchmark to see whether the
fragrance-related activities of bees and beetles
resulted in reduced pollination.
“It was very labor intensive,” says Theis.
“We would be out there at four in the morning, three
in the morning, to try and set up before these flowers
open.” As soon as they did, the team spent the next
several hours walking from flower to flower,
observing each for two-minute intervals “and writing
down everything we saw.”
What they saw was double the normal number of
beetles on fragrance-enhanced blossoms.
Pollinators, to their surprise, did not prefer the
highly scented flowers. Squash bees were indifferent,
and honey bees visited enhanced flowers less often
than normal ones. Theis thinks the bees were
repelled not by the fragrance itself, but by the
abundance of beetles: The data showed that the more
beetles on a flower, the less likely a honey bee was to
visit it.
That added up to less reproduction for
fragrance-enhanced flowers. Gourds that developed
from those blossoms weighed 9 percent less and had,
on average, 20 fewer seeds than those from normal
flowers. Hand pollination didn’t rescue the seed set,
indicating that beetles damaged flowers directly
—regardless of whether they also repelled
pollinators. (Hand pollination did rescue fruit
weight, a hard-to-interpret result that suggests that
lost bee visits did somehow harm fruit development.)
The new results provide a reason that Texas gourd
plants never evolved to produce a stronger scent: “If
you really ramp up the odor, you don’t get more
pollinators, but you can really get ripped apart by
your enemies,” says Rob Raguso, a chemical ecologist
at Cornell University who was not involved in the
Texas gourd study.
Question 24:
Which statement about striped cucumber beetles can most reasonably be inferred from the passage?
A) They feed primarily on Texas gourd plants.
B) They are less attracted to dimethoxybenzene than honey bees are.
C) They experience only minor negative effects as a result of carrying bacterial wilt disease.
D) They are attracted to the same compound in Texas gourd scent that squash bees are.
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_6-question_24 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Elsa Youngsteadt, “Decoding a
Flower’s Message.” ©2012 by Sigma Xi, The Scientific
Research Society.
Texas gourd vines unfurl their large, flared
blossoms in the dim hours before sunrise. Until they
close at noon, their yellow petals and mild, squashy
aroma attract bees that gather nectar and shuttle
pollen from flower to flower. But “when you
advertise [to pollinators], you advertise in an
open communication network,” says chemical
ecologist Ian Baldwin of the Max Planck Institute for
Chemical Ecology in Germany. “You attract not just
the good guys, but you also attract the bad guys.” For
a Texas gourd plant, striped cucumber beetles are
among the very bad guys. They chew up pollen and
petals, defecate in the flowers and transmit the
dreaded bacterial wilt disease, an infection that can
reduce an entire plant to a heap of collapsed tissue in
mere days.
In one recent study, Nina Theis and Lynn Adler
took on the specific problem of the Texas
gourd—how to attract enough pollinators but not
too many beetles. The Texas gourd vine’s main
pollinators are honey bees and specialized squash
bees, which respond to its floral scent. The aroma
includes 10 compounds, but the most
abundant—and the only one that lures squash bees
into traps—is 1,4-dimethoxybenzene.
Intuition suggests that more of that aroma should
be even more appealing to bees. “We have this
assumption that a really fragrant flower is going to
attract a lot of pollinators,” says Theis, a chemical
ecologist at Elms College in Chicopee,
Massachusetts. But, she adds, that idea hasn’t really
been tested—and extra scent could well call in more
beetles, too. To find out, she and Adler planted
168 Texas gourd vines in an Iowa field and,
throughout the August flowering season, made half
the plants more fragrant by tucking
dimethoxybenzene-treated swabs deep inside their
flowers. Each treated flower emitted about 45 times
more fragrance than a normal one; the other half of
the plants got swabs without fragrance.
The researchers also wanted to know whether
extra beetles would impose a double cost by both
damaging flowers and deterring bees, which might
not bother to visit (and pollinate) a flower laden with
other insects and their feces. So every half hour
throughout the experiments, the team plucked all the
beetles off of half the fragrance-enhanced flowers and
half the control flowers, allowing bees to respond to
the blossoms with and without interference by
beetles.
Finally, they pollinated by hand half of the female
flowers in each of the four combinations of fragrance
and beetles. Hand-pollinated flowers should develop
into fruits with the maximum number of seeds,
providing a benchmark to see whether the
fragrance-related activities of bees and beetles
resulted in reduced pollination.
“It was very labor intensive,” says Theis.
“We would be out there at four in the morning, three
in the morning, to try and set up before these flowers
open.” As soon as they did, the team spent the next
several hours walking from flower to flower,
observing each for two-minute intervals “and writing
down everything we saw.”
What they saw was double the normal number of
beetles on fragrance-enhanced blossoms.
Pollinators, to their surprise, did not prefer the
highly scented flowers. Squash bees were indifferent,
and honey bees visited enhanced flowers less often
than normal ones. Theis thinks the bees were
repelled not by the fragrance itself, but by the
abundance of beetles: The data showed that the more
beetles on a flower, the less likely a honey bee was to
visit it.
That added up to less reproduction for
fragrance-enhanced flowers. Gourds that developed
from those blossoms weighed 9 percent less and had,
on average, 20 fewer seeds than those from normal
flowers. Hand pollination didn’t rescue the seed set,
indicating that beetles damaged flowers directly
—regardless of whether they also repelled
pollinators. (Hand pollination did rescue fruit
weight, a hard-to-interpret result that suggests that
lost bee visits did somehow harm fruit development.)
The new results provide a reason that Texas gourd
plants never evolved to produce a stronger scent: “If
you really ramp up the odor, you don’t get more
pollinators, but you can really get ripped apart by
your enemies,” says Rob Raguso, a chemical ecologist
at Cornell University who was not involved in the
Texas gourd study.
Question 22:
The primary purpose of the passage is to
A) discuss the assumptions and reasoning behind a theory.
B) describe the aim, method, and results of an experiment.
C) present and analyze conflicting data about a phenomenon.
D) show the innovative nature of a procedure used in a study.
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_6-question_22 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Elsa Youngsteadt, “Decoding a
Flower’s Message.” ©2012 by Sigma Xi, The Scientific
Research Society.
Texas gourd vines unfurl their large, flared
blossoms in the dim hours before sunrise. Until they
close at noon, their yellow petals and mild, squashy
aroma attract bees that gather nectar and shuttle
pollen from flower to flower. But “when you
advertise [to pollinators], you advertise in an
open communication network,” says chemical
ecologist Ian Baldwin of the Max Planck Institute for
Chemical Ecology in Germany. “You attract not just
the good guys, but you also attract the bad guys.” For
a Texas gourd plant, striped cucumber beetles are
among the very bad guys. They chew up pollen and
petals, defecate in the flowers and transmit the
dreaded bacterial wilt disease, an infection that can
reduce an entire plant to a heap of collapsed tissue in
mere days.
In one recent study, Nina Theis and Lynn Adler
took on the specific problem of the Texas
gourd—how to attract enough pollinators but not
too many beetles. The Texas gourd vine’s main
pollinators are honey bees and specialized squash
bees, which respond to its floral scent. The aroma
includes 10 compounds, but the most
abundant—and the only one that lures squash bees
into traps—is 1,4-dimethoxybenzene.
Intuition suggests that more of that aroma should
be even more appealing to bees. “We have this
assumption that a really fragrant flower is going to
attract a lot of pollinators,” says Theis, a chemical
ecologist at Elms College in Chicopee,
Massachusetts. But, she adds, that idea hasn’t really
been tested—and extra scent could well call in more
beetles, too. To find out, she and Adler planted
168 Texas gourd vines in an Iowa field and,
throughout the August flowering season, made half
the plants more fragrant by tucking
dimethoxybenzene-treated swabs deep inside their
flowers. Each treated flower emitted about 45 times
more fragrance than a normal one; the other half of
the plants got swabs without fragrance.
The researchers also wanted to know whether
extra beetles would impose a double cost by both
damaging flowers and deterring bees, which might
not bother to visit (and pollinate) a flower laden with
other insects and their feces. So every half hour
throughout the experiments, the team plucked all the
beetles off of half the fragrance-enhanced flowers and
half the control flowers, allowing bees to respond to
the blossoms with and without interference by
beetles.
Finally, they pollinated by hand half of the female
flowers in each of the four combinations of fragrance
and beetles. Hand-pollinated flowers should develop
into fruits with the maximum number of seeds,
providing a benchmark to see whether the
fragrance-related activities of bees and beetles
resulted in reduced pollination.
“It was very labor intensive,” says Theis.
“We would be out there at four in the morning, three
in the morning, to try and set up before these flowers
open.” As soon as they did, the team spent the next
several hours walking from flower to flower,
observing each for two-minute intervals “and writing
down everything we saw.”
What they saw was double the normal number of
beetles on fragrance-enhanced blossoms.
Pollinators, to their surprise, did not prefer the
highly scented flowers. Squash bees were indifferent,
and honey bees visited enhanced flowers less often
than normal ones. Theis thinks the bees were
repelled not by the fragrance itself, but by the
abundance of beetles: The data showed that the more
beetles on a flower, the less likely a honey bee was to
visit it.
That added up to less reproduction for
fragrance-enhanced flowers. Gourds that developed
from those blossoms weighed 9 percent less and had,
on average, 20 fewer seeds than those from normal
flowers. Hand pollination didn’t rescue the seed set,
indicating that beetles damaged flowers directly
—regardless of whether they also repelled
pollinators. (Hand pollination did rescue fruit
weight, a hard-to-interpret result that suggests that
lost bee visits did somehow harm fruit development.)
The new results provide a reason that Texas gourd
plants never evolved to produce a stronger scent: “If
you really ramp up the odor, you don’t get more
pollinators, but you can really get ripped apart by
your enemies,” says Rob Raguso, a chemical ecologist
at Cornell University who was not involved in the
Texas gourd study.
Question 23:
As presented in the passage, Theis and Adler’s research primarily relied on which type of evidence?
A) Direct observation
B) Historical data
C) Expert testimony
D) Random sampling
Answer: | A | false | sat-practice_6-question_23 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Elsa Youngsteadt, “Decoding a
Flower’s Message.” ©2012 by Sigma Xi, The Scientific
Research Society.
Texas gourd vines unfurl their large, flared
blossoms in the dim hours before sunrise. Until they
close at noon, their yellow petals and mild, squashy
aroma attract bees that gather nectar and shuttle
pollen from flower to flower. But “when you
advertise [to pollinators], you advertise in an
open communication network,” says chemical
ecologist Ian Baldwin of the Max Planck Institute for
Chemical Ecology in Germany. “You attract not just
the good guys, but you also attract the bad guys.” For
a Texas gourd plant, striped cucumber beetles are
among the very bad guys. They chew up pollen and
petals, defecate in the flowers and transmit the
dreaded bacterial wilt disease, an infection that can
reduce an entire plant to a heap of collapsed tissue in
mere days.
In one recent study, Nina Theis and Lynn Adler
took on the specific problem of the Texas
gourd—how to attract enough pollinators but not
too many beetles. The Texas gourd vine’s main
pollinators are honey bees and specialized squash
bees, which respond to its floral scent. The aroma
includes 10 compounds, but the most
abundant—and the only one that lures squash bees
into traps—is 1,4-dimethoxybenzene.
Intuition suggests that more of that aroma should
be even more appealing to bees. “We have this
assumption that a really fragrant flower is going to
attract a lot of pollinators,” says Theis, a chemical
ecologist at Elms College in Chicopee,
Massachusetts. But, she adds, that idea hasn’t really
been tested—and extra scent could well call in more
beetles, too. To find out, she and Adler planted
168 Texas gourd vines in an Iowa field and,
throughout the August flowering season, made half
the plants more fragrant by tucking
dimethoxybenzene-treated swabs deep inside their
flowers. Each treated flower emitted about 45 times
more fragrance than a normal one; the other half of
the plants got swabs without fragrance.
The researchers also wanted to know whether
extra beetles would impose a double cost by both
damaging flowers and deterring bees, which might
not bother to visit (and pollinate) a flower laden with
other insects and their feces. So every half hour
throughout the experiments, the team plucked all the
beetles off of half the fragrance-enhanced flowers and
half the control flowers, allowing bees to respond to
the blossoms with and without interference by
beetles.
Finally, they pollinated by hand half of the female
flowers in each of the four combinations of fragrance
and beetles. Hand-pollinated flowers should develop
into fruits with the maximum number of seeds,
providing a benchmark to see whether the
fragrance-related activities of bees and beetles
resulted in reduced pollination.
“It was very labor intensive,” says Theis.
“We would be out there at four in the morning, three
in the morning, to try and set up before these flowers
open.” As soon as they did, the team spent the next
several hours walking from flower to flower,
observing each for two-minute intervals “and writing
down everything we saw.”
What they saw was double the normal number of
beetles on fragrance-enhanced blossoms.
Pollinators, to their surprise, did not prefer the
highly scented flowers. Squash bees were indifferent,
and honey bees visited enhanced flowers less often
than normal ones. Theis thinks the bees were
repelled not by the fragrance itself, but by the
abundance of beetles: The data showed that the more
beetles on a flower, the less likely a honey bee was to
visit it.
That added up to less reproduction for
fragrance-enhanced flowers. Gourds that developed
from those blossoms weighed 9 percent less and had,
on average, 20 fewer seeds than those from normal
flowers. Hand pollination didn’t rescue the seed set,
indicating that beetles damaged flowers directly
—regardless of whether they also repelled
pollinators. (Hand pollination did rescue fruit
weight, a hard-to-interpret result that suggests that
lost bee visits did somehow harm fruit development.)
The new results provide a reason that Texas gourd
plants never evolved to produce a stronger scent: “If
you really ramp up the odor, you don’t get more
pollinators, but you can really get ripped apart by
your enemies,” says Rob Raguso, a chemical ecologist
at Cornell University who was not involved in the
Texas gourd study.
Question 25:
The author indicates that it seems initially plausible that Texas gourd plants could attract more pollinators if they
A) did not have aromatic flowers.
B) targeted insects other than bees.
C) increased their floral scent.
D) emitted more varied fragrant compounds.
Answer: | C | false | sat-practice_6-question_25 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Elsa Youngsteadt, “Decoding a
Flower’s Message.” ©2012 by Sigma Xi, The Scientific
Research Society.
Texas gourd vines unfurl their large, flared
blossoms in the dim hours before sunrise. Until they
close at noon, their yellow petals and mild, squashy
aroma attract bees that gather nectar and shuttle
pollen from flower to flower. But “when you
advertise [to pollinators], you advertise in an
open communication network,” says chemical
ecologist Ian Baldwin of the Max Planck Institute for
Chemical Ecology in Germany. “You attract not just
the good guys, but you also attract the bad guys.” For
a Texas gourd plant, striped cucumber beetles are
among the very bad guys. They chew up pollen and
petals, defecate in the flowers and transmit the
dreaded bacterial wilt disease, an infection that can
reduce an entire plant to a heap of collapsed tissue in
mere days.
In one recent study, Nina Theis and Lynn Adler
took on the specific problem of the Texas
gourd—how to attract enough pollinators but not
too many beetles. The Texas gourd vine’s main
pollinators are honey bees and specialized squash
bees, which respond to its floral scent. The aroma
includes 10 compounds, but the most
abundant—and the only one that lures squash bees
into traps—is 1,4-dimethoxybenzene.
Intuition suggests that more of that aroma should
be even more appealing to bees. “We have this
assumption that a really fragrant flower is going to
attract a lot of pollinators,” says Theis, a chemical
ecologist at Elms College in Chicopee,
Massachusetts. But, she adds, that idea hasn’t really
been tested—and extra scent could well call in more
beetles, too. To find out, she and Adler planted
168 Texas gourd vines in an Iowa field and,
throughout the August flowering season, made half
the plants more fragrant by tucking
dimethoxybenzene-treated swabs deep inside their
flowers. Each treated flower emitted about 45 times
more fragrance than a normal one; the other half of
the plants got swabs without fragrance.
The researchers also wanted to know whether
extra beetles would impose a double cost by both
damaging flowers and deterring bees, which might
not bother to visit (and pollinate) a flower laden with
other insects and their feces. So every half hour
throughout the experiments, the team plucked all the
beetles off of half the fragrance-enhanced flowers and
half the control flowers, allowing bees to respond to
the blossoms with and without interference by
beetles.
Finally, they pollinated by hand half of the female
flowers in each of the four combinations of fragrance
and beetles. Hand-pollinated flowers should develop
into fruits with the maximum number of seeds,
providing a benchmark to see whether the
fragrance-related activities of bees and beetles
resulted in reduced pollination.
“It was very labor intensive,” says Theis.
“We would be out there at four in the morning, three
in the morning, to try and set up before these flowers
open.” As soon as they did, the team spent the next
several hours walking from flower to flower,
observing each for two-minute intervals “and writing
down everything we saw.”
What they saw was double the normal number of
beetles on fragrance-enhanced blossoms.
Pollinators, to their surprise, did not prefer the
highly scented flowers. Squash bees were indifferent,
and honey bees visited enhanced flowers less often
than normal ones. Theis thinks the bees were
repelled not by the fragrance itself, but by the
abundance of beetles: The data showed that the more
beetles on a flower, the less likely a honey bee was to
visit it.
That added up to less reproduction for
fragrance-enhanced flowers. Gourds that developed
from those blossoms weighed 9 percent less and had,
on average, 20 fewer seeds than those from normal
flowers. Hand pollination didn’t rescue the seed set,
indicating that beetles damaged flowers directly
—regardless of whether they also repelled
pollinators. (Hand pollination did rescue fruit
weight, a hard-to-interpret result that suggests that
lost bee visits did somehow harm fruit development.)
The new results provide a reason that Texas gourd
plants never evolved to produce a stronger scent: “If
you really ramp up the odor, you don’t get more
pollinators, but you can really get ripped apart by
your enemies,” says Rob Raguso, a chemical ecologist
at Cornell University who was not involved in the
Texas gourd study.
Question 29:
The primary function of the seventh and eighth paragraphs (lines 65-84) is to
A) summarize Theis and Adler’s findings.
B) describe Theis and Adler’s hypotheses.
C) illustrate Theis and Adler’s methods.
D) explain Theis and Adler’s reasoning.
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_6-question_29 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Elsa Youngsteadt, “Decoding a
Flower’s Message.” ©2012 by Sigma Xi, The Scientific
Research Society.
Texas gourd vines unfurl their large, flared
blossoms in the dim hours before sunrise. Until they
close at noon, their yellow petals and mild, squashy
aroma attract bees that gather nectar and shuttle
pollen from flower to flower. But “when you
advertise [to pollinators], you advertise in an
open communication network,” says chemical
ecologist Ian Baldwin of the Max Planck Institute for
Chemical Ecology in Germany. “You attract not just
the good guys, but you also attract the bad guys.” For
a Texas gourd plant, striped cucumber beetles are
among the very bad guys. They chew up pollen and
petals, defecate in the flowers and transmit the
dreaded bacterial wilt disease, an infection that can
reduce an entire plant to a heap of collapsed tissue in
mere days.
In one recent study, Nina Theis and Lynn Adler
took on the specific problem of the Texas
gourd—how to attract enough pollinators but not
too many beetles. The Texas gourd vine’s main
pollinators are honey bees and specialized squash
bees, which respond to its floral scent. The aroma
includes 10 compounds, but the most
abundant—and the only one that lures squash bees
into traps—is 1,4-dimethoxybenzene.
Intuition suggests that more of that aroma should
be even more appealing to bees. “We have this
assumption that a really fragrant flower is going to
attract a lot of pollinators,” says Theis, a chemical
ecologist at Elms College in Chicopee,
Massachusetts. But, she adds, that idea hasn’t really
been tested—and extra scent could well call in more
beetles, too. To find out, she and Adler planted
168 Texas gourd vines in an Iowa field and,
throughout the August flowering season, made half
the plants more fragrant by tucking
dimethoxybenzene-treated swabs deep inside their
flowers. Each treated flower emitted about 45 times
more fragrance than a normal one; the other half of
the plants got swabs without fragrance.
The researchers also wanted to know whether
extra beetles would impose a double cost by both
damaging flowers and deterring bees, which might
not bother to visit (and pollinate) a flower laden with
other insects and their feces. So every half hour
throughout the experiments, the team plucked all the
beetles off of half the fragrance-enhanced flowers and
half the control flowers, allowing bees to respond to
the blossoms with and without interference by
beetles.
Finally, they pollinated by hand half of the female
flowers in each of the four combinations of fragrance
and beetles. Hand-pollinated flowers should develop
into fruits with the maximum number of seeds,
providing a benchmark to see whether the
fragrance-related activities of bees and beetles
resulted in reduced pollination.
“It was very labor intensive,” says Theis.
“We would be out there at four in the morning, three
in the morning, to try and set up before these flowers
open.” As soon as they did, the team spent the next
several hours walking from flower to flower,
observing each for two-minute intervals “and writing
down everything we saw.”
What they saw was double the normal number of
beetles on fragrance-enhanced blossoms.
Pollinators, to their surprise, did not prefer the
highly scented flowers. Squash bees were indifferent,
and honey bees visited enhanced flowers less often
than normal ones. Theis thinks the bees were
repelled not by the fragrance itself, but by the
abundance of beetles: The data showed that the more
beetles on a flower, the less likely a honey bee was to
visit it.
That added up to less reproduction for
fragrance-enhanced flowers. Gourds that developed
from those blossoms weighed 9 percent less and had,
on average, 20 fewer seeds than those from normal
flowers. Hand pollination didn’t rescue the seed set,
indicating that beetles damaged flowers directly
—regardless of whether they also repelled
pollinators. (Hand pollination did rescue fruit
weight, a hard-to-interpret result that suggests that
lost bee visits did somehow harm fruit development.)
The new results provide a reason that Texas gourd
plants never evolved to produce a stronger scent: “If
you really ramp up the odor, you don’t get more
pollinators, but you can really get ripped apart by
your enemies,” says Rob Raguso, a chemical ecologist
at Cornell University who was not involved in the
Texas gourd study.
Question 31:
According to the passage, Theis and Adler’s research offers an answer to which of the following questions?
A) How can Texas gourd plants increase the number of visits they receive from pollinators?
B) Why is there an upper limit on the intensity of the aroma emitted by Texas gourd plants?
C) Why does hand pollination rescue the fruit weight of beetle-infested Texas gourd plants?
D) Why do Texas gourd plants stop producing fragrance attractive to pollinators when beetles are present?
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_6-question_31 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Elsa Youngsteadt, “Decoding a
Flower’s Message.” ©2012 by Sigma Xi, The Scientific
Research Society.
Texas gourd vines unfurl their large, flared
blossoms in the dim hours before sunrise. Until they
close at noon, their yellow petals and mild, squashy
aroma attract bees that gather nectar and shuttle
pollen from flower to flower. But “when you
advertise [to pollinators], you advertise in an
open communication network,” says chemical
ecologist Ian Baldwin of the Max Planck Institute for
Chemical Ecology in Germany. “You attract not just
the good guys, but you also attract the bad guys.” For
a Texas gourd plant, striped cucumber beetles are
among the very bad guys. They chew up pollen and
petals, defecate in the flowers and transmit the
dreaded bacterial wilt disease, an infection that can
reduce an entire plant to a heap of collapsed tissue in
mere days.
In one recent study, Nina Theis and Lynn Adler
took on the specific problem of the Texas
gourd—how to attract enough pollinators but not
too many beetles. The Texas gourd vine’s main
pollinators are honey bees and specialized squash
bees, which respond to its floral scent. The aroma
includes 10 compounds, but the most
abundant—and the only one that lures squash bees
into traps—is 1,4-dimethoxybenzene.
Intuition suggests that more of that aroma should
be even more appealing to bees. “We have this
assumption that a really fragrant flower is going to
attract a lot of pollinators,” says Theis, a chemical
ecologist at Elms College in Chicopee,
Massachusetts. But, she adds, that idea hasn’t really
been tested—and extra scent could well call in more
beetles, too. To find out, she and Adler planted
168 Texas gourd vines in an Iowa field and,
throughout the August flowering season, made half
the plants more fragrant by tucking
dimethoxybenzene-treated swabs deep inside their
flowers. Each treated flower emitted about 45 times
more fragrance than a normal one; the other half of
the plants got swabs without fragrance.
The researchers also wanted to know whether
extra beetles would impose a double cost by both
damaging flowers and deterring bees, which might
not bother to visit (and pollinate) a flower laden with
other insects and their feces. So every half hour
throughout the experiments, the team plucked all the
beetles off of half the fragrance-enhanced flowers and
half the control flowers, allowing bees to respond to
the blossoms with and without interference by
beetles.
Finally, they pollinated by hand half of the female
flowers in each of the four combinations of fragrance
and beetles. Hand-pollinated flowers should develop
into fruits with the maximum number of seeds,
providing a benchmark to see whether the
fragrance-related activities of bees and beetles
resulted in reduced pollination.
“It was very labor intensive,” says Theis.
“We would be out there at four in the morning, three
in the morning, to try and set up before these flowers
open.” As soon as they did, the team spent the next
several hours walking from flower to flower,
observing each for two-minute intervals “and writing
down everything we saw.”
What they saw was double the normal number of
beetles on fragrance-enhanced blossoms.
Pollinators, to their surprise, did not prefer the
highly scented flowers. Squash bees were indifferent,
and honey bees visited enhanced flowers less often
than normal ones. Theis thinks the bees were
repelled not by the fragrance itself, but by the
abundance of beetles: The data showed that the more
beetles on a flower, the less likely a honey bee was to
visit it.
That added up to less reproduction for
fragrance-enhanced flowers. Gourds that developed
from those blossoms weighed 9 percent less and had,
on average, 20 fewer seeds than those from normal
flowers. Hand pollination didn’t rescue the seed set,
indicating that beetles damaged flowers directly
—regardless of whether they also repelled
pollinators. (Hand pollination did rescue fruit
weight, a hard-to-interpret result that suggests that
lost bee visits did somehow harm fruit development.)
The new results provide a reason that Texas gourd
plants never evolved to produce a stronger scent: “If
you really ramp up the odor, you don’t get more
pollinators, but you can really get ripped apart by
your enemies,” says Rob Raguso, a chemical ecologist
at Cornell University who was not involved in the
Texas gourd study.
Question 27:
What did Theis and Adler do as part of their study that most directly allowed Theis to reason that “bees were repelled not by the fragrance itself” (lines 70-71)?
A) They observed the behavior of bees and beetles both before and after the flowers opened in the morning.
B) They increased the presence of 1,4-dimethoxybenzene only during the August flowering season.
C) They compared the gourds that developed from naturally pollinated flowers to the gourds that developed from hand-pollinated flowers.
D) They gave bees a chance to choose between beetle-free enhanced flowers and beetle-free normal flowers.
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_6-question_27 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Elsa Youngsteadt, “Decoding a
Flower’s Message.” ©2012 by Sigma Xi, The Scientific
Research Society.
Texas gourd vines unfurl their large, flared
blossoms in the dim hours before sunrise. Until they
close at noon, their yellow petals and mild, squashy
aroma attract bees that gather nectar and shuttle
pollen from flower to flower. But “when you
advertise [to pollinators], you advertise in an
open communication network,” says chemical
ecologist Ian Baldwin of the Max Planck Institute for
Chemical Ecology in Germany. “You attract not just
the good guys, but you also attract the bad guys.” For
a Texas gourd plant, striped cucumber beetles are
among the very bad guys. They chew up pollen and
petals, defecate in the flowers and transmit the
dreaded bacterial wilt disease, an infection that can
reduce an entire plant to a heap of collapsed tissue in
mere days.
In one recent study, Nina Theis and Lynn Adler
took on the specific problem of the Texas
gourd—how to attract enough pollinators but not
too many beetles. The Texas gourd vine’s main
pollinators are honey bees and specialized squash
bees, which respond to its floral scent. The aroma
includes 10 compounds, but the most
abundant—and the only one that lures squash bees
into traps—is 1,4-dimethoxybenzene.
Intuition suggests that more of that aroma should
be even more appealing to bees. “We have this
assumption that a really fragrant flower is going to
attract a lot of pollinators,” says Theis, a chemical
ecologist at Elms College in Chicopee,
Massachusetts. But, she adds, that idea hasn’t really
been tested—and extra scent could well call in more
beetles, too. To find out, she and Adler planted
168 Texas gourd vines in an Iowa field and,
throughout the August flowering season, made half
the plants more fragrant by tucking
dimethoxybenzene-treated swabs deep inside their
flowers. Each treated flower emitted about 45 times
more fragrance than a normal one; the other half of
the plants got swabs without fragrance.
The researchers also wanted to know whether
extra beetles would impose a double cost by both
damaging flowers and deterring bees, which might
not bother to visit (and pollinate) a flower laden with
other insects and their feces. So every half hour
throughout the experiments, the team plucked all the
beetles off of half the fragrance-enhanced flowers and
half the control flowers, allowing bees to respond to
the blossoms with and without interference by
beetles.
Finally, they pollinated by hand half of the female
flowers in each of the four combinations of fragrance
and beetles. Hand-pollinated flowers should develop
into fruits with the maximum number of seeds,
providing a benchmark to see whether the
fragrance-related activities of bees and beetles
resulted in reduced pollination.
“It was very labor intensive,” says Theis.
“We would be out there at four in the morning, three
in the morning, to try and set up before these flowers
open.” As soon as they did, the team spent the next
several hours walking from flower to flower,
observing each for two-minute intervals “and writing
down everything we saw.”
What they saw was double the normal number of
beetles on fragrance-enhanced blossoms.
Pollinators, to their surprise, did not prefer the
highly scented flowers. Squash bees were indifferent,
and honey bees visited enhanced flowers less often
than normal ones. Theis thinks the bees were
repelled not by the fragrance itself, but by the
abundance of beetles: The data showed that the more
beetles on a flower, the less likely a honey bee was to
visit it.
That added up to less reproduction for
fragrance-enhanced flowers. Gourds that developed
from those blossoms weighed 9 percent less and had,
on average, 20 fewer seeds than those from normal
flowers. Hand pollination didn’t rescue the seed set,
indicating that beetles damaged flowers directly
—regardless of whether they also repelled
pollinators. (Hand pollination did rescue fruit
weight, a hard-to-interpret result that suggests that
lost bee visits did somehow harm fruit development.)
The new results provide a reason that Texas gourd
plants never evolved to produce a stronger scent: “If
you really ramp up the odor, you don’t get more
pollinators, but you can really get ripped apart by
your enemies,” says Rob Raguso, a chemical ecologist
at Cornell University who was not involved in the
Texas gourd study.
Question 26:
As used in line 38, “treated” most nearly means
A) altered.
B) restored.
C) provided.
D) preserved.
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_6-question_26 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Abraham Lincoln, “Address to the
Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois.” Originally
delivered in 1838. Passage 2 is from Henry David Thoreau,
“Resistance to Civil Government.” Originally published
in 1849.
Passage 1
Let every American, every lover of liberty, every
well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the
Revolution, never to violate in the least particular,
the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their
violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did
to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so
to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every
American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred
honor;—let every man remember that to violate the
law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to
tear the character of his own, and his children’s
liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by
every American mother, to the lisping babe, that
prattles on her lap—let it be taught in schools, in
seminaries, and in colleges;—let it be written in
Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;—let it be
preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative
halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short,
let it become the political religion of the nation;
and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor,
the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and
colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its
altars....
When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of
all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there
are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise,
for the redress of which, no legal provisions have
been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do
mean to say, that, although bad laws, if they exist,
should be repealed as soon as possible, still while they
continue in force, for the sake of example, they
should be religiously observed. So also in unprovided
cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be
made for them with the least possible delay; but, till
then, let them if not too intolerable, be borne with.
There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress
by mob law. In any case that arises, as for instance,
the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two
positions is necessarily true; that is, the thing is right
within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of
all law and all good citizens; or, it is wrong, and
therefore proper to be prohibited by legal
enactments; and in neither case, is the interposition
of mob law, either necessary, justifiable, or excusable.
Passage 2
Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey
them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey
them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress
them at once? Men generally, under such a
government as this, think that they ought to wait
until they have persuaded the majority to alter them.
They think that, if they should resist, the remedy
would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the
government itself that the remedy is worse than the
evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to
anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not
cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist
before it is hurt?...
If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of
the machine of government, let it go, let it go;
perchance it will wear smooth—certainly the
machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or
a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself,
then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy
will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a
nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice
to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be
a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have
to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to
the wrong which I condemn.
As for adopting the ways which the State has
provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such
ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will
be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into
this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to
live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has
not everything to do, but something; and because he
cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he
should do something wrong....
I do not hesitate to say, that those who call
themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually
withdraw their support, both in person and property,
from the government . . . and not wait till they
constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the
right to prevail through them. I think that it is
enough if they have God on their side, without
waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more
right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one
already.
Question 35:
As used in line 24, “urge” most nearly means
A) hasten.
B) stimulate.
C) require.
D) advocate.
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_6-question_35 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Abraham Lincoln, “Address to the
Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois.” Originally
delivered in 1838. Passage 2 is from Henry David Thoreau,
“Resistance to Civil Government.” Originally published
in 1849.
Passage 1
Let every American, every lover of liberty, every
well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the
Revolution, never to violate in the least particular,
the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their
violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did
to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so
to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every
American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred
honor;—let every man remember that to violate the
law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to
tear the character of his own, and his children’s
liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by
every American mother, to the lisping babe, that
prattles on her lap—let it be taught in schools, in
seminaries, and in colleges;—let it be written in
Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;—let it be
preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative
halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short,
let it become the political religion of the nation;
and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor,
the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and
colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its
altars....
When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of
all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there
are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise,
for the redress of which, no legal provisions have
been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do
mean to say, that, although bad laws, if they exist,
should be repealed as soon as possible, still while they
continue in force, for the sake of example, they
should be religiously observed. So also in unprovided
cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be
made for them with the least possible delay; but, till
then, let them if not too intolerable, be borne with.
There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress
by mob law. In any case that arises, as for instance,
the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two
positions is necessarily true; that is, the thing is right
within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of
all law and all good citizens; or, it is wrong, and
therefore proper to be prohibited by legal
enactments; and in neither case, is the interposition
of mob law, either necessary, justifiable, or excusable.
Passage 2
Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey
them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey
them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress
them at once? Men generally, under such a
government as this, think that they ought to wait
until they have persuaded the majority to alter them.
They think that, if they should resist, the remedy
would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the
government itself that the remedy is worse than the
evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to
anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not
cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist
before it is hurt?...
If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of
the machine of government, let it go, let it go;
perchance it will wear smooth—certainly the
machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or
a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself,
then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy
will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a
nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice
to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be
a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have
to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to
the wrong which I condemn.
As for adopting the ways which the State has
provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such
ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will
be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into
this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to
live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has
not everything to do, but something; and because he
cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he
should do something wrong....
I do not hesitate to say, that those who call
themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually
withdraw their support, both in person and property,
from the government . . . and not wait till they
constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the
right to prevail through them. I think that it is
enough if they have God on their side, without
waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more
right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one
already.
Question 36:
The sentence in lines 24-28 (“When... made”) primarily serves which function in Passage 1?
A) It raises and refutes a potential counterargument to Lincoln’s argument.
B) It identifies and concedes a crucial shortcoming of Lincoln’s argument.
C) It acknowledges and substantiates a central assumption of Lincoln’s argument.
D) It anticipates and corrects a possible misinterpretation of Lincoln’s argument.
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_6-question_36 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Abraham Lincoln, “Address to the
Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois.” Originally
delivered in 1838. Passage 2 is from Henry David Thoreau,
“Resistance to Civil Government.” Originally published
in 1849.
Passage 1
Let every American, every lover of liberty, every
well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the
Revolution, never to violate in the least particular,
the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their
violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did
to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so
to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every
American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred
honor;—let every man remember that to violate the
law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to
tear the character of his own, and his children’s
liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by
every American mother, to the lisping babe, that
prattles on her lap—let it be taught in schools, in
seminaries, and in colleges;—let it be written in
Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;—let it be
preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative
halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short,
let it become the political religion of the nation;
and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor,
the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and
colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its
altars....
When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of
all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there
are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise,
for the redress of which, no legal provisions have
been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do
mean to say, that, although bad laws, if they exist,
should be repealed as soon as possible, still while they
continue in force, for the sake of example, they
should be religiously observed. So also in unprovided
cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be
made for them with the least possible delay; but, till
then, let them if not too intolerable, be borne with.
There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress
by mob law. In any case that arises, as for instance,
the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two
positions is necessarily true; that is, the thing is right
within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of
all law and all good citizens; or, it is wrong, and
therefore proper to be prohibited by legal
enactments; and in neither case, is the interposition
of mob law, either necessary, justifiable, or excusable.
Passage 2
Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey
them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey
them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress
them at once? Men generally, under such a
government as this, think that they ought to wait
until they have persuaded the majority to alter them.
They think that, if they should resist, the remedy
would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the
government itself that the remedy is worse than the
evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to
anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not
cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist
before it is hurt?...
If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of
the machine of government, let it go, let it go;
perchance it will wear smooth—certainly the
machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or
a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself,
then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy
will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a
nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice
to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be
a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have
to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to
the wrong which I condemn.
As for adopting the ways which the State has
provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such
ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will
be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into
this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to
live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has
not everything to do, but something; and because he
cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he
should do something wrong....
I do not hesitate to say, that those who call
themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually
withdraw their support, both in person and property,
from the government . . . and not wait till they
constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the
right to prevail through them. I think that it is
enough if they have God on their side, without
waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more
right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one
already.
Question 40:
The primary purpose of each passage is to
A) make an argument about the difference between legal duties and moral imperatives.
B) discuss how laws ought to be enacted and changed in a democracy.
C) advance a view regarding whether individuals should follow all of the country’s laws.
D) articulate standards by which laws can be evaluated as just or unjust.
Answer: | C | false | sat-practice_6-question_40 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Abraham Lincoln, “Address to the
Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois.” Originally
delivered in 1838. Passage 2 is from Henry David Thoreau,
“Resistance to Civil Government.” Originally published
in 1849.
Passage 1
Let every American, every lover of liberty, every
well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the
Revolution, never to violate in the least particular,
the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their
violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did
to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so
to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every
American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred
honor;—let every man remember that to violate the
law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to
tear the character of his own, and his children’s
liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by
every American mother, to the lisping babe, that
prattles on her lap—let it be taught in schools, in
seminaries, and in colleges;—let it be written in
Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;—let it be
preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative
halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short,
let it become the political religion of the nation;
and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor,
the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and
colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its
altars....
When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of
all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there
are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise,
for the redress of which, no legal provisions have
been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do
mean to say, that, although bad laws, if they exist,
should be repealed as soon as possible, still while they
continue in force, for the sake of example, they
should be religiously observed. So also in unprovided
cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be
made for them with the least possible delay; but, till
then, let them if not too intolerable, be borne with.
There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress
by mob law. In any case that arises, as for instance,
the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two
positions is necessarily true; that is, the thing is right
within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of
all law and all good citizens; or, it is wrong, and
therefore proper to be prohibited by legal
enactments; and in neither case, is the interposition
of mob law, either necessary, justifiable, or excusable.
Passage 2
Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey
them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey
them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress
them at once? Men generally, under such a
government as this, think that they ought to wait
until they have persuaded the majority to alter them.
They think that, if they should resist, the remedy
would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the
government itself that the remedy is worse than the
evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to
anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not
cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist
before it is hurt?...
If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of
the machine of government, let it go, let it go;
perchance it will wear smooth—certainly the
machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or
a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself,
then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy
will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a
nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice
to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be
a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have
to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to
the wrong which I condemn.
As for adopting the ways which the State has
provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such
ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will
be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into
this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to
live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has
not everything to do, but something; and because he
cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he
should do something wrong....
I do not hesitate to say, that those who call
themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually
withdraw their support, both in person and property,
from the government . . . and not wait till they
constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the
right to prevail through them. I think that it is
enough if they have God on their side, without
waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more
right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one
already.
Question 42:
Based on the passages, one commonality in the stances Lincoln and Thoreau take toward abolitionism is that
A) both authors see the cause as warranting drastic action.
B) both authors view the cause as central to their argument.
C) neither author expects the cause to win widespread acceptance.
D) neither author embraces the cause as his own.
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_6-question_42 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Abraham Lincoln, “Address to the
Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois.” Originally
delivered in 1838. Passage 2 is from Henry David Thoreau,
“Resistance to Civil Government.” Originally published
in 1849.
Passage 1
Let every American, every lover of liberty, every
well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the
Revolution, never to violate in the least particular,
the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their
violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did
to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so
to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every
American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred
honor;—let every man remember that to violate the
law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to
tear the character of his own, and his children’s
liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by
every American mother, to the lisping babe, that
prattles on her lap—let it be taught in schools, in
seminaries, and in colleges;—let it be written in
Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;—let it be
preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative
halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short,
let it become the political religion of the nation;
and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor,
the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and
colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its
altars....
When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of
all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there
are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise,
for the redress of which, no legal provisions have
been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do
mean to say, that, although bad laws, if they exist,
should be repealed as soon as possible, still while they
continue in force, for the sake of example, they
should be religiously observed. So also in unprovided
cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be
made for them with the least possible delay; but, till
then, let them if not too intolerable, be borne with.
There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress
by mob law. In any case that arises, as for instance,
the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two
positions is necessarily true; that is, the thing is right
within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of
all law and all good citizens; or, it is wrong, and
therefore proper to be prohibited by legal
enactments; and in neither case, is the interposition
of mob law, either necessary, justifiable, or excusable.
Passage 2
Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey
them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey
them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress
them at once? Men generally, under such a
government as this, think that they ought to wait
until they have persuaded the majority to alter them.
They think that, if they should resist, the remedy
would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the
government itself that the remedy is worse than the
evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to
anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not
cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist
before it is hurt?...
If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of
the machine of government, let it go, let it go;
perchance it will wear smooth—certainly the
machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or
a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself,
then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy
will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a
nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice
to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be
a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have
to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to
the wrong which I condemn.
As for adopting the ways which the State has
provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such
ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will
be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into
this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to
live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has
not everything to do, but something; and because he
cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he
should do something wrong....
I do not hesitate to say, that those who call
themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually
withdraw their support, both in person and property,
from the government . . . and not wait till they
constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the
right to prevail through them. I think that it is
enough if they have God on their side, without
waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more
right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one
already.
Question 38:
In Passage 2, Thoreau indicates that some unjust aspects of government are
A) superficial and can be fixed easily.
B) subtle and must be studied carefully.
C) self-correcting and may be beneficial.
D) inevitable and should be endured.
Answer: | D | false | sat-practice_6-question_38 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Abraham Lincoln, “Address to the
Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois.” Originally
delivered in 1838. Passage 2 is from Henry David Thoreau,
“Resistance to Civil Government.” Originally published
in 1849.
Passage 1
Let every American, every lover of liberty, every
well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the
Revolution, never to violate in the least particular,
the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their
violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did
to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so
to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every
American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred
honor;—let every man remember that to violate the
law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to
tear the character of his own, and his children’s
liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by
every American mother, to the lisping babe, that
prattles on her lap—let it be taught in schools, in
seminaries, and in colleges;—let it be written in
Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;—let it be
preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative
halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short,
let it become the political religion of the nation;
and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor,
the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and
colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its
altars....
When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of
all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there
are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise,
for the redress of which, no legal provisions have
been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do
mean to say, that, although bad laws, if they exist,
should be repealed as soon as possible, still while they
continue in force, for the sake of example, they
should be religiously observed. So also in unprovided
cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be
made for them with the least possible delay; but, till
then, let them if not too intolerable, be borne with.
There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress
by mob law. In any case that arises, as for instance,
the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two
positions is necessarily true; that is, the thing is right
within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of
all law and all good citizens; or, it is wrong, and
therefore proper to be prohibited by legal
enactments; and in neither case, is the interposition
of mob law, either necessary, justifiable, or excusable.
Passage 2
Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey
them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey
them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress
them at once? Men generally, under such a
government as this, think that they ought to wait
until they have persuaded the majority to alter them.
They think that, if they should resist, the remedy
would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the
government itself that the remedy is worse than the
evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to
anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not
cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist
before it is hurt?...
If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of
the machine of government, let it go, let it go;
perchance it will wear smooth—certainly the
machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or
a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself,
then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy
will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a
nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice
to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be
a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have
to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to
the wrong which I condemn.
As for adopting the ways which the State has
provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such
ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will
be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into
this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to
live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has
not everything to do, but something; and because he
cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he
should do something wrong....
I do not hesitate to say, that those who call
themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually
withdraw their support, both in person and property,
from the government . . . and not wait till they
constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the
right to prevail through them. I think that it is
enough if they have God on their side, without
waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more
right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one
already.
Question 33:
In Passage 1, Lincoln contends that breaking the law has which consequence?
A) It slows the repeal of bad laws.
B) It undermines and repudiates the nation’s values.
C) It leads slowly but inexorably to rule by the mob.
D) It creates divisions between social groups.
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_6-question_33 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Abraham Lincoln, “Address to the
Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois.” Originally
delivered in 1838. Passage 2 is from Henry David Thoreau,
“Resistance to Civil Government.” Originally published
in 1849.
Passage 1
Let every American, every lover of liberty, every
well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the
Revolution, never to violate in the least particular,
the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their
violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did
to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so
to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every
American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred
honor;—let every man remember that to violate the
law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to
tear the character of his own, and his children’s
liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by
every American mother, to the lisping babe, that
prattles on her lap—let it be taught in schools, in
seminaries, and in colleges;—let it be written in
Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;—let it be
preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative
halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short,
let it become the political religion of the nation;
and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor,
the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and
colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its
altars....
When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of
all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there
are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise,
for the redress of which, no legal provisions have
been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do
mean to say, that, although bad laws, if they exist,
should be repealed as soon as possible, still while they
continue in force, for the sake of example, they
should be religiously observed. So also in unprovided
cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be
made for them with the least possible delay; but, till
then, let them if not too intolerable, be borne with.
There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress
by mob law. In any case that arises, as for instance,
the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two
positions is necessarily true; that is, the thing is right
within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of
all law and all good citizens; or, it is wrong, and
therefore proper to be prohibited by legal
enactments; and in neither case, is the interposition
of mob law, either necessary, justifiable, or excusable.
Passage 2
Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey
them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey
them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress
them at once? Men generally, under such a
government as this, think that they ought to wait
until they have persuaded the majority to alter them.
They think that, if they should resist, the remedy
would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the
government itself that the remedy is worse than the
evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to
anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not
cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist
before it is hurt?...
If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of
the machine of government, let it go, let it go;
perchance it will wear smooth—certainly the
machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or
a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself,
then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy
will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a
nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice
to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be
a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have
to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to
the wrong which I condemn.
As for adopting the ways which the State has
provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such
ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will
be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into
this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to
live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has
not everything to do, but something; and because he
cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he
should do something wrong....
I do not hesitate to say, that those who call
themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually
withdraw their support, both in person and property,
from the government . . . and not wait till they
constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the
right to prevail through them. I think that it is
enough if they have God on their side, without
waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more
right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one
already.
Question 37:
As used in line 32, “observed” most nearly means
A) followed.
B) scrutinized.
C) contemplated.
D) noticed.
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_6-question_37 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Passage 1 is adapted from Abraham Lincoln, “Address to the
Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois.” Originally
delivered in 1838. Passage 2 is from Henry David Thoreau,
“Resistance to Civil Government.” Originally published
in 1849.
Passage 1
Let every American, every lover of liberty, every
well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the
Revolution, never to violate in the least particular,
the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their
violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did
to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so
to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every
American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred
honor;—let every man remember that to violate the
law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to
tear the character of his own, and his children’s
liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by
every American mother, to the lisping babe, that
prattles on her lap—let it be taught in schools, in
seminaries, and in colleges;—let it be written in
Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;—let it be
preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative
halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short,
let it become the political religion of the nation;
and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor,
the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and
colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its
altars....
When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of
all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there
are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise,
for the redress of which, no legal provisions have
been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do
mean to say, that, although bad laws, if they exist,
should be repealed as soon as possible, still while they
continue in force, for the sake of example, they
should be religiously observed. So also in unprovided
cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be
made for them with the least possible delay; but, till
then, let them if not too intolerable, be borne with.
There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress
by mob law. In any case that arises, as for instance,
the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two
positions is necessarily true; that is, the thing is right
within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of
all law and all good citizens; or, it is wrong, and
therefore proper to be prohibited by legal
enactments; and in neither case, is the interposition
of mob law, either necessary, justifiable, or excusable.
Passage 2
Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey
them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey
them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress
them at once? Men generally, under such a
government as this, think that they ought to wait
until they have persuaded the majority to alter them.
They think that, if they should resist, the remedy
would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the
government itself that the remedy is worse than the
evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to
anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not
cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist
before it is hurt?...
If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of
the machine of government, let it go, let it go;
perchance it will wear smooth—certainly the
machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or
a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself,
then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy
will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a
nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice
to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be
a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have
to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to
the wrong which I condemn.
As for adopting the ways which the State has
provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such
ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will
be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into
this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to
live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has
not everything to do, but something; and because he
cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he
should do something wrong....
I do not hesitate to say, that those who call
themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually
withdraw their support, both in person and property,
from the government . . . and not wait till they
constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the
right to prevail through them. I think that it is
enough if they have God on their side, without
waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more
right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one
already.
Question 41:
Based on the passages, Lincoln would most likely describe the behavior that Thoreau recommends in lines 64-66 (“if it... law”) as
A) an excusable reaction to an intolerable situation.
B) a rejection of the country’s proper forms of remedy.
C) an honorable response to an unjust law.
D) a misapplication of a core principle of the Constitution.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_6-question_41 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Kevin Bullis, “What Tech Is
Next for the Solar Industry?” ©2013 by MIT Technology
Review.
Solar panel installations continue to grow quickly,
but the solar panel manufacturing industry is in the
doldrums because supply far exceeds demand. The
poor market may be slowing innovation, but
advances continue; judging by the mood this week at
the IEEE Photovoltaics Specialists Conference in
Tampa, Florida, people in the industry remain
optimistic about its long-term prospects.
The technology that’s surprised almost everyone
is conventional crystalline silicon. A few years ago,
silicon solar panels cost $4 per watt, and
Martin Green, professor at the University of
New South Wales and one of the leading silicon solar
panel researchers, declared that they’d never go
below $1 a watt. “Now it’s down to something like
50 cents a watt, and there’s talk of hitting 36 cents per
watt,” he says.
The U.S. Department of Energy has set a goal of
reaching less than $1 a watt—not just for the solar
panels, but for complete, installed systems—by 2020.
Green thinks the solar industry will hit that target
even sooner than that. If so, that would bring the
direct cost of solar power to six cents per
kilowatt-hour, which is cheaper than the average cost
expected for power from new natural gas power
plants.
All parts of the silicon solar panel industry have
been looking for ways to cut costs and improve the
power output of solar panels, and that’s led to steady
cost reductions. Green points to something as
mundane as the pastes used to screen-print some of
the features on solar panels. Green’s lab built a solar
cell in the 1990s that set a record efficiency for silicon
solar cells—a record that stands to this day. To
achieve that record, he had to use expensive
lithography techniques to make fine wires for
collecting current from the solar cell. But gradual
improvements have made it possible to use screen
printing to produce ever-finer lines. Recent research
suggests that screen-printing techniques can produce
lines as thin as 30 micrometers—about the width of
the lines Green used for his record solar cells, but at
costs far lower than his lithography techniques.
Meanwhile, researchers at the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory have made flexible solar cells on a
new type of glass from Corning called Willow Glass,
which is thin and can be rolled up. The type of solar
cell they made is the only current challenger to
silicon in terms of large-scale production—thin-film
cadmium telluride. Flexible solar cells could lower
the cost of installing solar cells, making solar power
cheaper.
One of Green’s former students and colleagues,
Jianhua Zhao, cofounder of solar panel manufacturer
China Sunergy, announced this week that he is
building a pilot manufacturing line for a two-sided
solar cell that can absorb light from both the front
and back. The basic idea, which isn’t new, is that
during some parts of the day, sunlight falls on the
land between rows of solar panels in a solar power
plant. That light reflects onto the back of the panels
and could be harvested to increase the power output.
This works particularly well when the solar panels
are built on sand, which is highly reflective. Where a
one-sided solar panel might generate 340 watts, a
two-sided one might generate up to 400 watts. He
expects the panels to generate 10 to 20 percent more
electricity over the course of a year.
Even longer-term, Green is betting on silicon,
aiming to take advantage of the huge reductions in
cost already seen with the technology. He hopes to
greatly increase the efficiency of silicon solar panels
by combining silicon with one or two other
semiconductors, each selected to efficiently convert a
part of the solar spectrum that silicon doesn’t convert
efficiently. Adding one semiconductor could boost
efficiencies from the 20 to 25 percent range to
around 40 percent. Adding another could make
efficiencies as high as 50 percent feasible, which
would cut in half the number of solar panels needed
for a given installation. The challenge is to produce
good connections between these semiconductors,
something made challenging by the arrangement of
silicon atoms in crystalline silicon.
Question 45:
It can most reasonably be inferred from the passage that many people in the solar panel industry believe that
A) consumers don’t understand how solar panels work.
B) two-sided cells have weaknesses that have not yet been discovered.
C) the cost of solar panels is too high and their power output too low.
D) Willow Glass is too inefficient to be marketable.
Answer: | C | false | sat-practice_6-question_45 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Kevin Bullis, “What Tech Is
Next for the Solar Industry?” ©2013 by MIT Technology
Review.
Solar panel installations continue to grow quickly,
but the solar panel manufacturing industry is in the
doldrums because supply far exceeds demand. The
poor market may be slowing innovation, but
advances continue; judging by the mood this week at
the IEEE Photovoltaics Specialists Conference in
Tampa, Florida, people in the industry remain
optimistic about its long-term prospects.
The technology that’s surprised almost everyone
is conventional crystalline silicon. A few years ago,
silicon solar panels cost $4 per watt, and
Martin Green, professor at the University of
New South Wales and one of the leading silicon solar
panel researchers, declared that they’d never go
below $1 a watt. “Now it’s down to something like
50 cents a watt, and there’s talk of hitting 36 cents per
watt,” he says.
The U.S. Department of Energy has set a goal of
reaching less than $1 a watt—not just for the solar
panels, but for complete, installed systems—by 2020.
Green thinks the solar industry will hit that target
even sooner than that. If so, that would bring the
direct cost of solar power to six cents per
kilowatt-hour, which is cheaper than the average cost
expected for power from new natural gas power
plants.
All parts of the silicon solar panel industry have
been looking for ways to cut costs and improve the
power output of solar panels, and that’s led to steady
cost reductions. Green points to something as
mundane as the pastes used to screen-print some of
the features on solar panels. Green’s lab built a solar
cell in the 1990s that set a record efficiency for silicon
solar cells—a record that stands to this day. To
achieve that record, he had to use expensive
lithography techniques to make fine wires for
collecting current from the solar cell. But gradual
improvements have made it possible to use screen
printing to produce ever-finer lines. Recent research
suggests that screen-printing techniques can produce
lines as thin as 30 micrometers—about the width of
the lines Green used for his record solar cells, but at
costs far lower than his lithography techniques.
Meanwhile, researchers at the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory have made flexible solar cells on a
new type of glass from Corning called Willow Glass,
which is thin and can be rolled up. The type of solar
cell they made is the only current challenger to
silicon in terms of large-scale production—thin-film
cadmium telluride. Flexible solar cells could lower
the cost of installing solar cells, making solar power
cheaper.
One of Green’s former students and colleagues,
Jianhua Zhao, cofounder of solar panel manufacturer
China Sunergy, announced this week that he is
building a pilot manufacturing line for a two-sided
solar cell that can absorb light from both the front
and back. The basic idea, which isn’t new, is that
during some parts of the day, sunlight falls on the
land between rows of solar panels in a solar power
plant. That light reflects onto the back of the panels
and could be harvested to increase the power output.
This works particularly well when the solar panels
are built on sand, which is highly reflective. Where a
one-sided solar panel might generate 340 watts, a
two-sided one might generate up to 400 watts. He
expects the panels to generate 10 to 20 percent more
electricity over the course of a year.
Even longer-term, Green is betting on silicon,
aiming to take advantage of the huge reductions in
cost already seen with the technology. He hopes to
greatly increase the efficiency of silicon solar panels
by combining silicon with one or two other
semiconductors, each selected to efficiently convert a
part of the solar spectrum that silicon doesn’t convert
efficiently. Adding one semiconductor could boost
efficiencies from the 20 to 25 percent range to
around 40 percent. Adding another could make
efficiencies as high as 50 percent feasible, which
would cut in half the number of solar panels needed
for a given installation. The challenge is to produce
good connections between these semiconductors,
something made challenging by the arrangement of
silicon atoms in crystalline silicon.
Question 47:
According to the passage, two-sided solar panels will likely raise efficiency by
A) requiring little energy to operate.
B) absorbing reflected light.
C) being reasonably inexpensive to manufacture.
D) preventing light from reaching the ground.
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_6-question_47 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Kevin Bullis, “What Tech Is
Next for the Solar Industry?” ©2013 by MIT Technology
Review.
Solar panel installations continue to grow quickly,
but the solar panel manufacturing industry is in the
doldrums because supply far exceeds demand. The
poor market may be slowing innovation, but
advances continue; judging by the mood this week at
the IEEE Photovoltaics Specialists Conference in
Tampa, Florida, people in the industry remain
optimistic about its long-term prospects.
The technology that’s surprised almost everyone
is conventional crystalline silicon. A few years ago,
silicon solar panels cost $4 per watt, and
Martin Green, professor at the University of
New South Wales and one of the leading silicon solar
panel researchers, declared that they’d never go
below $1 a watt. “Now it’s down to something like
50 cents a watt, and there’s talk of hitting 36 cents per
watt,” he says.
The U.S. Department of Energy has set a goal of
reaching less than $1 a watt—not just for the solar
panels, but for complete, installed systems—by 2020.
Green thinks the solar industry will hit that target
even sooner than that. If so, that would bring the
direct cost of solar power to six cents per
kilowatt-hour, which is cheaper than the average cost
expected for power from new natural gas power
plants.
All parts of the silicon solar panel industry have
been looking for ways to cut costs and improve the
power output of solar panels, and that’s led to steady
cost reductions. Green points to something as
mundane as the pastes used to screen-print some of
the features on solar panels. Green’s lab built a solar
cell in the 1990s that set a record efficiency for silicon
solar cells—a record that stands to this day. To
achieve that record, he had to use expensive
lithography techniques to make fine wires for
collecting current from the solar cell. But gradual
improvements have made it possible to use screen
printing to produce ever-finer lines. Recent research
suggests that screen-printing techniques can produce
lines as thin as 30 micrometers—about the width of
the lines Green used for his record solar cells, but at
costs far lower than his lithography techniques.
Meanwhile, researchers at the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory have made flexible solar cells on a
new type of glass from Corning called Willow Glass,
which is thin and can be rolled up. The type of solar
cell they made is the only current challenger to
silicon in terms of large-scale production—thin-film
cadmium telluride. Flexible solar cells could lower
the cost of installing solar cells, making solar power
cheaper.
One of Green’s former students and colleagues,
Jianhua Zhao, cofounder of solar panel manufacturer
China Sunergy, announced this week that he is
building a pilot manufacturing line for a two-sided
solar cell that can absorb light from both the front
and back. The basic idea, which isn’t new, is that
during some parts of the day, sunlight falls on the
land between rows of solar panels in a solar power
plant. That light reflects onto the back of the panels
and could be harvested to increase the power output.
This works particularly well when the solar panels
are built on sand, which is highly reflective. Where a
one-sided solar panel might generate 340 watts, a
two-sided one might generate up to 400 watts. He
expects the panels to generate 10 to 20 percent more
electricity over the course of a year.
Even longer-term, Green is betting on silicon,
aiming to take advantage of the huge reductions in
cost already seen with the technology. He hopes to
greatly increase the efficiency of silicon solar panels
by combining silicon with one or two other
semiconductors, each selected to efficiently convert a
part of the solar spectrum that silicon doesn’t convert
efficiently. Adding one semiconductor could boost
efficiencies from the 20 to 25 percent range to
around 40 percent. Adding another could make
efficiencies as high as 50 percent feasible, which
would cut in half the number of solar panels needed
for a given installation. The challenge is to produce
good connections between these semiconductors,
something made challenging by the arrangement of
silicon atoms in crystalline silicon.
Question 49:
As used in line 69, “betting on” most nearly means
A) dabbling in.
B) gambling with.
C) switching from.
D) optimistic about.
Answer: | D | true | sat-practice_6-question_49 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Kevin Bullis, “What Tech Is
Next for the Solar Industry?” ©2013 by MIT Technology
Review.
Solar panel installations continue to grow quickly,
but the solar panel manufacturing industry is in the
doldrums because supply far exceeds demand. The
poor market may be slowing innovation, but
advances continue; judging by the mood this week at
the IEEE Photovoltaics Specialists Conference in
Tampa, Florida, people in the industry remain
optimistic about its long-term prospects.
The technology that’s surprised almost everyone
is conventional crystalline silicon. A few years ago,
silicon solar panels cost $4 per watt, and
Martin Green, professor at the University of
New South Wales and one of the leading silicon solar
panel researchers, declared that they’d never go
below $1 a watt. “Now it’s down to something like
50 cents a watt, and there’s talk of hitting 36 cents per
watt,” he says.
The U.S. Department of Energy has set a goal of
reaching less than $1 a watt—not just for the solar
panels, but for complete, installed systems—by 2020.
Green thinks the solar industry will hit that target
even sooner than that. If so, that would bring the
direct cost of solar power to six cents per
kilowatt-hour, which is cheaper than the average cost
expected for power from new natural gas power
plants.
All parts of the silicon solar panel industry have
been looking for ways to cut costs and improve the
power output of solar panels, and that’s led to steady
cost reductions. Green points to something as
mundane as the pastes used to screen-print some of
the features on solar panels. Green’s lab built a solar
cell in the 1990s that set a record efficiency for silicon
solar cells—a record that stands to this day. To
achieve that record, he had to use expensive
lithography techniques to make fine wires for
collecting current from the solar cell. But gradual
improvements have made it possible to use screen
printing to produce ever-finer lines. Recent research
suggests that screen-printing techniques can produce
lines as thin as 30 micrometers—about the width of
the lines Green used for his record solar cells, but at
costs far lower than his lithography techniques.
Meanwhile, researchers at the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory have made flexible solar cells on a
new type of glass from Corning called Willow Glass,
which is thin and can be rolled up. The type of solar
cell they made is the only current challenger to
silicon in terms of large-scale production—thin-film
cadmium telluride. Flexible solar cells could lower
the cost of installing solar cells, making solar power
cheaper.
One of Green’s former students and colleagues,
Jianhua Zhao, cofounder of solar panel manufacturer
China Sunergy, announced this week that he is
building a pilot manufacturing line for a two-sided
solar cell that can absorb light from both the front
and back. The basic idea, which isn’t new, is that
during some parts of the day, sunlight falls on the
land between rows of solar panels in a solar power
plant. That light reflects onto the back of the panels
and could be harvested to increase the power output.
This works particularly well when the solar panels
are built on sand, which is highly reflective. Where a
one-sided solar panel might generate 340 watts, a
two-sided one might generate up to 400 watts. He
expects the panels to generate 10 to 20 percent more
electricity over the course of a year.
Even longer-term, Green is betting on silicon,
aiming to take advantage of the huge reductions in
cost already seen with the technology. He hopes to
greatly increase the efficiency of silicon solar panels
by combining silicon with one or two other
semiconductors, each selected to efficiently convert a
part of the solar spectrum that silicon doesn’t convert
efficiently. Adding one semiconductor could boost
efficiencies from the 20 to 25 percent range to
around 40 percent. Adding another could make
efficiencies as high as 50 percent feasible, which
would cut in half the number of solar panels needed
for a given installation. The challenge is to produce
good connections between these semiconductors,
something made challenging by the arrangement of
silicon atoms in crystalline silicon.
Question 44:
As used in line 4, “poor” most nearly means
A) weak.
B) humble.
C) pitiable.
D) obsolete.
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_6-question_44 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Kevin Bullis, “What Tech Is
Next for the Solar Industry?” ©2013 by MIT Technology
Review.
Solar panel installations continue to grow quickly,
but the solar panel manufacturing industry is in the
doldrums because supply far exceeds demand. The
poor market may be slowing innovation, but
advances continue; judging by the mood this week at
the IEEE Photovoltaics Specialists Conference in
Tampa, Florida, people in the industry remain
optimistic about its long-term prospects.
The technology that’s surprised almost everyone
is conventional crystalline silicon. A few years ago,
silicon solar panels cost $4 per watt, and
Martin Green, professor at the University of
New South Wales and one of the leading silicon solar
panel researchers, declared that they’d never go
below $1 a watt. “Now it’s down to something like
50 cents a watt, and there’s talk of hitting 36 cents per
watt,” he says.
The U.S. Department of Energy has set a goal of
reaching less than $1 a watt—not just for the solar
panels, but for complete, installed systems—by 2020.
Green thinks the solar industry will hit that target
even sooner than that. If so, that would bring the
direct cost of solar power to six cents per
kilowatt-hour, which is cheaper than the average cost
expected for power from new natural gas power
plants.
All parts of the silicon solar panel industry have
been looking for ways to cut costs and improve the
power output of solar panels, and that’s led to steady
cost reductions. Green points to something as
mundane as the pastes used to screen-print some of
the features on solar panels. Green’s lab built a solar
cell in the 1990s that set a record efficiency for silicon
solar cells—a record that stands to this day. To
achieve that record, he had to use expensive
lithography techniques to make fine wires for
collecting current from the solar cell. But gradual
improvements have made it possible to use screen
printing to produce ever-finer lines. Recent research
suggests that screen-printing techniques can produce
lines as thin as 30 micrometers—about the width of
the lines Green used for his record solar cells, but at
costs far lower than his lithography techniques.
Meanwhile, researchers at the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory have made flexible solar cells on a
new type of glass from Corning called Willow Glass,
which is thin and can be rolled up. The type of solar
cell they made is the only current challenger to
silicon in terms of large-scale production—thin-film
cadmium telluride. Flexible solar cells could lower
the cost of installing solar cells, making solar power
cheaper.
One of Green’s former students and colleagues,
Jianhua Zhao, cofounder of solar panel manufacturer
China Sunergy, announced this week that he is
building a pilot manufacturing line for a two-sided
solar cell that can absorb light from both the front
and back. The basic idea, which isn’t new, is that
during some parts of the day, sunlight falls on the
land between rows of solar panels in a solar power
plant. That light reflects onto the back of the panels
and could be harvested to increase the power output.
This works particularly well when the solar panels
are built on sand, which is highly reflective. Where a
one-sided solar panel might generate 340 watts, a
two-sided one might generate up to 400 watts. He
expects the panels to generate 10 to 20 percent more
electricity over the course of a year.
Even longer-term, Green is betting on silicon,
aiming to take advantage of the huge reductions in
cost already seen with the technology. He hopes to
greatly increase the efficiency of silicon solar panels
by combining silicon with one or two other
semiconductors, each selected to efficiently convert a
part of the solar spectrum that silicon doesn’t convert
efficiently. Adding one semiconductor could boost
efficiencies from the 20 to 25 percent range to
around 40 percent. Adding another could make
efficiencies as high as 50 percent feasible, which
would cut in half the number of solar panels needed
for a given installation. The challenge is to produce
good connections between these semiconductors,
something made challenging by the arrangement of
silicon atoms in crystalline silicon.
Question 50:
The last sentence of the passage mainly serves to
A) express concern about the limitations of a material.
B) identify a hurdle that must be overcome.
C) make a prediction about the effective use of certain devices.
D) introduce a potential new area of study.
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_6-question_50 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Kevin Bullis, “What Tech Is
Next for the Solar Industry?” ©2013 by MIT Technology
Review.
Solar panel installations continue to grow quickly,
but the solar panel manufacturing industry is in the
doldrums because supply far exceeds demand. The
poor market may be slowing innovation, but
advances continue; judging by the mood this week at
the IEEE Photovoltaics Specialists Conference in
Tampa, Florida, people in the industry remain
optimistic about its long-term prospects.
The technology that’s surprised almost everyone
is conventional crystalline silicon. A few years ago,
silicon solar panels cost $4 per watt, and
Martin Green, professor at the University of
New South Wales and one of the leading silicon solar
panel researchers, declared that they’d never go
below $1 a watt. “Now it’s down to something like
50 cents a watt, and there’s talk of hitting 36 cents per
watt,” he says.
The U.S. Department of Energy has set a goal of
reaching less than $1 a watt—not just for the solar
panels, but for complete, installed systems—by 2020.
Green thinks the solar industry will hit that target
even sooner than that. If so, that would bring the
direct cost of solar power to six cents per
kilowatt-hour, which is cheaper than the average cost
expected for power from new natural gas power
plants.
All parts of the silicon solar panel industry have
been looking for ways to cut costs and improve the
power output of solar panels, and that’s led to steady
cost reductions. Green points to something as
mundane as the pastes used to screen-print some of
the features on solar panels. Green’s lab built a solar
cell in the 1990s that set a record efficiency for silicon
solar cells—a record that stands to this day. To
achieve that record, he had to use expensive
lithography techniques to make fine wires for
collecting current from the solar cell. But gradual
improvements have made it possible to use screen
printing to produce ever-finer lines. Recent research
suggests that screen-printing techniques can produce
lines as thin as 30 micrometers—about the width of
the lines Green used for his record solar cells, but at
costs far lower than his lithography techniques.
Meanwhile, researchers at the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory have made flexible solar cells on a
new type of glass from Corning called Willow Glass,
which is thin and can be rolled up. The type of solar
cell they made is the only current challenger to
silicon in terms of large-scale production—thin-film
cadmium telluride. Flexible solar cells could lower
the cost of installing solar cells, making solar power
cheaper.
One of Green’s former students and colleagues,
Jianhua Zhao, cofounder of solar panel manufacturer
China Sunergy, announced this week that he is
building a pilot manufacturing line for a two-sided
solar cell that can absorb light from both the front
and back. The basic idea, which isn’t new, is that
during some parts of the day, sunlight falls on the
land between rows of solar panels in a solar power
plant. That light reflects onto the back of the panels
and could be harvested to increase the power output.
This works particularly well when the solar panels
are built on sand, which is highly reflective. Where a
one-sided solar panel might generate 340 watts, a
two-sided one might generate up to 400 watts. He
expects the panels to generate 10 to 20 percent more
electricity over the course of a year.
Even longer-term, Green is betting on silicon,
aiming to take advantage of the huge reductions in
cost already seen with the technology. He hopes to
greatly increase the efficiency of silicon solar panels
by combining silicon with one or two other
semiconductors, each selected to efficiently convert a
part of the solar spectrum that silicon doesn’t convert
efficiently. Adding one semiconductor could boost
efficiencies from the 20 to 25 percent range to
around 40 percent. Adding another could make
efficiencies as high as 50 percent feasible, which
would cut in half the number of solar panels needed
for a given installation. The challenge is to produce
good connections between these semiconductors,
something made challenging by the arrangement of
silicon atoms in crystalline silicon.
Question 43:
The passage is written from the point of view of a
A) consumer evaluating a variety of options.
B) scientist comparing competing research methods.
C) journalist enumerating changes in a field.
D) hobbyist explaining the capabilities of new technology.
Answer: | C | false | sat-practice_6-question_43 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Saki, “The
Schartz-Metterklume Method.” Originally published in 1911.
Lady Carlotta stepped out on to the platform of
the small wayside station and took a turn or two up
and down its uninteresting length, to kill time till the
train should be pleased to proceed on its way. Then,
in the roadway beyond, she saw a horse struggling
with a more than ample load, and a carter of the sort
that seems to bear a sullen hatred against the animal
that helps him to earn a living. Lady Carlotta
promptly betook her to the roadway, and put rather a
different complexion on the struggle. Certain of her
acquaintances were wont to give her plentiful
admonition as to the undesirability of interfering on
behalf of a distressed animal, such interference being
“none of her business.” Only once had she put the
doctrine of non-interference into practice, when one
of its most eloquent exponents had been besieged for
nearly three hours in a small and extremely
uncomfortable may-tree by an angry boar-pig, while
Lady Carlotta, on the other side of the fence, had
proceeded with the water-colour sketch she was
engaged on, and refused to interfere between the
boar and his prisoner. It is to be feared that she lost
the friendship of the ultimately rescued lady. On this
occasion she merely lost the train, which gave way to
the first sign of impatience it had shown throughout
the journey, and steamed off without her. She bore
the desertion with philosophical indifference; her
friends and relations were thoroughly well used to
the fact of her luggage arriving without her.
She wired a vague non-committal message to her
destination to say that she was coming on “by
another train.” Before she had time to think what her
next move might be she was confronted by an
imposingly attired lady, who seemed to be taking a
prolonged mental inventory of her clothes and looks.
“You must be Miss Hope, the governess I’ve come
to meet,” said the apparition, in a tone that admitted
of very little argument.
“Very well, if I must I must,” said Lady Carlotta to
herself with dangerous meekness.
“I am Mrs. Quabarl,” continued the lady; “and
where, pray, is your luggage?”
“It’s gone astray,” said the alleged governess,
falling in with the excellent rule of life that the absent
are always to blame; the luggage had, in point of fact,
behaved with perfect correctitude. “I’ve just
telegraphed about it,” she added, with a nearer
approach to truth.
“How provoking,” said Mrs. Quabarl; “these
railway companies are so careless. However, my
maid can lend you things for the night,” and she led
the way to her car.
During the drive to the Quabarl mansion
Lady Carlotta was impressively introduced to the
nature of the charge that had been thrust upon her;
she learned that Claude and Wilfrid were delicate,
sensitive young people, that Irene had the artistic
temperament highly developed, and that Viola was
something or other else of a mould equally
commonplace among children of that class and type
in the twentieth century.
“I wish them not only to be TAUGHT,” said Mrs.
Quabarl, “but INTERESTED in what they learn. In
their history lessons, for instance, you must try to
make them feel that they are being introduced to the
life-stories of men and women who really lived, not
merely committing a mass of names and dates to
memory. French, of course, I shall expect you to talk
at meal-times several days in the week.”
“I shall talk French four days of the week and
Russian in the remaining three.”
“Russian? My dear Miss Hope, no one in the
house speaks or understands Russian.”
“That will not embarrass me in the least,” said
Lady Carlotta coldly.
Mrs. Quabarl, to use a colloquial expression, was
knocked off her perch. She was one of those
imperfectly self-assured individuals who are
magnificent and autocratic as long as they are not
seriously opposed. The least show of unexpected
resistance goes a long way towards rendering them
cowed and apologetic. When the new governess
failed to express wondering admiration of the large
newly-purchased and expensive car, and lightly
alluded to the superior advantages of one or two
makes which had just been put on the market, the
discomfiture of her patroness became almost abject.
Her feelings were those which might have animated a
general of ancient warfaring days, on beholding his
heaviest battle-elephant ignominiously driven off the
field by slingers and javelin throwers.
Question 6:
In line 55, “charge” most nearly means
A) responsibility.
B) attack.
C) fee.
D) expense.
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_3-question_6 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Saki, “The
Schartz-Metterklume Method.” Originally published in 1911.
Lady Carlotta stepped out on to the platform of
the small wayside station and took a turn or two up
and down its uninteresting length, to kill time till the
train should be pleased to proceed on its way. Then,
in the roadway beyond, she saw a horse struggling
with a more than ample load, and a carter of the sort
that seems to bear a sullen hatred against the animal
that helps him to earn a living. Lady Carlotta
promptly betook her to the roadway, and put rather a
different complexion on the struggle. Certain of her
acquaintances were wont to give her plentiful
admonition as to the undesirability of interfering on
behalf of a distressed animal, such interference being
“none of her business.” Only once had she put the
doctrine of non-interference into practice, when one
of its most eloquent exponents had been besieged for
nearly three hours in a small and extremely
uncomfortable may-tree by an angry boar-pig, while
Lady Carlotta, on the other side of the fence, had
proceeded with the water-colour sketch she was
engaged on, and refused to interfere between the
boar and his prisoner. It is to be feared that she lost
the friendship of the ultimately rescued lady. On this
occasion she merely lost the train, which gave way to
the first sign of impatience it had shown throughout
the journey, and steamed off without her. She bore
the desertion with philosophical indifference; her
friends and relations were thoroughly well used to
the fact of her luggage arriving without her.
She wired a vague non-committal message to her
destination to say that she was coming on “by
another train.” Before she had time to think what her
next move might be she was confronted by an
imposingly attired lady, who seemed to be taking a
prolonged mental inventory of her clothes and looks.
“You must be Miss Hope, the governess I’ve come
to meet,” said the apparition, in a tone that admitted
of very little argument.
“Very well, if I must I must,” said Lady Carlotta to
herself with dangerous meekness.
“I am Mrs. Quabarl,” continued the lady; “and
where, pray, is your luggage?”
“It’s gone astray,” said the alleged governess,
falling in with the excellent rule of life that the absent
are always to blame; the luggage had, in point of fact,
behaved with perfect correctitude. “I’ve just
telegraphed about it,” she added, with a nearer
approach to truth.
“How provoking,” said Mrs. Quabarl; “these
railway companies are so careless. However, my
maid can lend you things for the night,” and she led
the way to her car.
During the drive to the Quabarl mansion
Lady Carlotta was impressively introduced to the
nature of the charge that had been thrust upon her;
she learned that Claude and Wilfrid were delicate,
sensitive young people, that Irene had the artistic
temperament highly developed, and that Viola was
something or other else of a mould equally
commonplace among children of that class and type
in the twentieth century.
“I wish them not only to be TAUGHT,” said Mrs.
Quabarl, “but INTERESTED in what they learn. In
their history lessons, for instance, you must try to
make them feel that they are being introduced to the
life-stories of men and women who really lived, not
merely committing a mass of names and dates to
memory. French, of course, I shall expect you to talk
at meal-times several days in the week.”
“I shall talk French four days of the week and
Russian in the remaining three.”
“Russian? My dear Miss Hope, no one in the
house speaks or understands Russian.”
“That will not embarrass me in the least,” said
Lady Carlotta coldly.
Mrs. Quabarl, to use a colloquial expression, was
knocked off her perch. She was one of those
imperfectly self-assured individuals who are
magnificent and autocratic as long as they are not
seriously opposed. The least show of unexpected
resistance goes a long way towards rendering them
cowed and apologetic. When the new governess
failed to express wondering admiration of the large
newly-purchased and expensive car, and lightly
alluded to the superior advantages of one or two
makes which had just been put on the market, the
discomfiture of her patroness became almost abject.
Her feelings were those which might have animated a
general of ancient warfaring days, on beholding his
heaviest battle-elephant ignominiously driven off the
field by slingers and javelin throwers.
Question 3:
The passage most clearly implies that other people regarded Lady Carlotta as
A) outspoken.
B) tactful.
C) ambitious.
D) unfriendly.
Answer: | A | false | sat-practice_3-question_3 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Saki, “The
Schartz-Metterklume Method.” Originally published in 1911.
Lady Carlotta stepped out on to the platform of
the small wayside station and took a turn or two up
and down its uninteresting length, to kill time till the
train should be pleased to proceed on its way. Then,
in the roadway beyond, she saw a horse struggling
with a more than ample load, and a carter of the sort
that seems to bear a sullen hatred against the animal
that helps him to earn a living. Lady Carlotta
promptly betook her to the roadway, and put rather a
different complexion on the struggle. Certain of her
acquaintances were wont to give her plentiful
admonition as to the undesirability of interfering on
behalf of a distressed animal, such interference being
“none of her business.” Only once had she put the
doctrine of non-interference into practice, when one
of its most eloquent exponents had been besieged for
nearly three hours in a small and extremely
uncomfortable may-tree by an angry boar-pig, while
Lady Carlotta, on the other side of the fence, had
proceeded with the water-colour sketch she was
engaged on, and refused to interfere between the
boar and his prisoner. It is to be feared that she lost
the friendship of the ultimately rescued lady. On this
occasion she merely lost the train, which gave way to
the first sign of impatience it had shown throughout
the journey, and steamed off without her. She bore
the desertion with philosophical indifference; her
friends and relations were thoroughly well used to
the fact of her luggage arriving without her.
She wired a vague non-committal message to her
destination to say that she was coming on “by
another train.” Before she had time to think what her
next move might be she was confronted by an
imposingly attired lady, who seemed to be taking a
prolonged mental inventory of her clothes and looks.
“You must be Miss Hope, the governess I’ve come
to meet,” said the apparition, in a tone that admitted
of very little argument.
“Very well, if I must I must,” said Lady Carlotta to
herself with dangerous meekness.
“I am Mrs. Quabarl,” continued the lady; “and
where, pray, is your luggage?”
“It’s gone astray,” said the alleged governess,
falling in with the excellent rule of life that the absent
are always to blame; the luggage had, in point of fact,
behaved with perfect correctitude. “I’ve just
telegraphed about it,” she added, with a nearer
approach to truth.
“How provoking,” said Mrs. Quabarl; “these
railway companies are so careless. However, my
maid can lend you things for the night,” and she led
the way to her car.
During the drive to the Quabarl mansion
Lady Carlotta was impressively introduced to the
nature of the charge that had been thrust upon her;
she learned that Claude and Wilfrid were delicate,
sensitive young people, that Irene had the artistic
temperament highly developed, and that Viola was
something or other else of a mould equally
commonplace among children of that class and type
in the twentieth century.
“I wish them not only to be TAUGHT,” said Mrs.
Quabarl, “but INTERESTED in what they learn. In
their history lessons, for instance, you must try to
make them feel that they are being introduced to the
life-stories of men and women who really lived, not
merely committing a mass of names and dates to
memory. French, of course, I shall expect you to talk
at meal-times several days in the week.”
“I shall talk French four days of the week and
Russian in the remaining three.”
“Russian? My dear Miss Hope, no one in the
house speaks or understands Russian.”
“That will not embarrass me in the least,” said
Lady Carlotta coldly.
Mrs. Quabarl, to use a colloquial expression, was
knocked off her perch. She was one of those
imperfectly self-assured individuals who are
magnificent and autocratic as long as they are not
seriously opposed. The least show of unexpected
resistance goes a long way towards rendering them
cowed and apologetic. When the new governess
failed to express wondering admiration of the large
newly-purchased and expensive car, and lightly
alluded to the superior advantages of one or two
makes which had just been put on the market, the
discomfiture of her patroness became almost abject.
Her feelings were those which might have animated a
general of ancient warfaring days, on beholding his
heaviest battle-elephant ignominiously driven off the
field by slingers and javelin throwers.
Question 1:
Which choice best summarizes the passage?
A) A woman weighs the positive and negative aspects of accepting a new job.
B) A woman does not correct a stranger who mistakes her for someone else.
C) A woman impersonates someone else to seek revenge on an acquaintance.
D) A woman takes an immediate dislike to her new employer.
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_3-question_1 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Saki, “The
Schartz-Metterklume Method.” Originally published in 1911.
Lady Carlotta stepped out on to the platform of
the small wayside station and took a turn or two up
and down its uninteresting length, to kill time till the
train should be pleased to proceed on its way. Then,
in the roadway beyond, she saw a horse struggling
with a more than ample load, and a carter of the sort
that seems to bear a sullen hatred against the animal
that helps him to earn a living. Lady Carlotta
promptly betook her to the roadway, and put rather a
different complexion on the struggle. Certain of her
acquaintances were wont to give her plentiful
admonition as to the undesirability of interfering on
behalf of a distressed animal, such interference being
“none of her business.” Only once had she put the
doctrine of non-interference into practice, when one
of its most eloquent exponents had been besieged for
nearly three hours in a small and extremely
uncomfortable may-tree by an angry boar-pig, while
Lady Carlotta, on the other side of the fence, had
proceeded with the water-colour sketch she was
engaged on, and refused to interfere between the
boar and his prisoner. It is to be feared that she lost
the friendship of the ultimately rescued lady. On this
occasion she merely lost the train, which gave way to
the first sign of impatience it had shown throughout
the journey, and steamed off without her. She bore
the desertion with philosophical indifference; her
friends and relations were thoroughly well used to
the fact of her luggage arriving without her.
She wired a vague non-committal message to her
destination to say that she was coming on “by
another train.” Before she had time to think what her
next move might be she was confronted by an
imposingly attired lady, who seemed to be taking a
prolonged mental inventory of her clothes and looks.
“You must be Miss Hope, the governess I’ve come
to meet,” said the apparition, in a tone that admitted
of very little argument.
“Very well, if I must I must,” said Lady Carlotta to
herself with dangerous meekness.
“I am Mrs. Quabarl,” continued the lady; “and
where, pray, is your luggage?”
“It’s gone astray,” said the alleged governess,
falling in with the excellent rule of life that the absent
are always to blame; the luggage had, in point of fact,
behaved with perfect correctitude. “I’ve just
telegraphed about it,” she added, with a nearer
approach to truth.
“How provoking,” said Mrs. Quabarl; “these
railway companies are so careless. However, my
maid can lend you things for the night,” and she led
the way to her car.
During the drive to the Quabarl mansion
Lady Carlotta was impressively introduced to the
nature of the charge that had been thrust upon her;
she learned that Claude and Wilfrid were delicate,
sensitive young people, that Irene had the artistic
temperament highly developed, and that Viola was
something or other else of a mould equally
commonplace among children of that class and type
in the twentieth century.
“I wish them not only to be TAUGHT,” said Mrs.
Quabarl, “but INTERESTED in what they learn. In
their history lessons, for instance, you must try to
make them feel that they are being introduced to the
life-stories of men and women who really lived, not
merely committing a mass of names and dates to
memory. French, of course, I shall expect you to talk
at meal-times several days in the week.”
“I shall talk French four days of the week and
Russian in the remaining three.”
“Russian? My dear Miss Hope, no one in the
house speaks or understands Russian.”
“That will not embarrass me in the least,” said
Lady Carlotta coldly.
Mrs. Quabarl, to use a colloquial expression, was
knocked off her perch. She was one of those
imperfectly self-assured individuals who are
magnificent and autocratic as long as they are not
seriously opposed. The least show of unexpected
resistance goes a long way towards rendering them
cowed and apologetic. When the new governess
failed to express wondering admiration of the large
newly-purchased and expensive car, and lightly
alluded to the superior advantages of one or two
makes which had just been put on the market, the
discomfiture of her patroness became almost abject.
Her feelings were those which might have animated a
general of ancient warfaring days, on beholding his
heaviest battle-elephant ignominiously driven off the
field by slingers and javelin throwers.
Question 2:
In line 2, “turn” most nearly means
A) slight movement.
B) change in rotation.
C) short walk.
D) course correction.
Answer: | C | true | sat-practice_3-question_2 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Saki, “The
Schartz-Metterklume Method.” Originally published in 1911.
Lady Carlotta stepped out on to the platform of
the small wayside station and took a turn or two up
and down its uninteresting length, to kill time till the
train should be pleased to proceed on its way. Then,
in the roadway beyond, she saw a horse struggling
with a more than ample load, and a carter of the sort
that seems to bear a sullen hatred against the animal
that helps him to earn a living. Lady Carlotta
promptly betook her to the roadway, and put rather a
different complexion on the struggle. Certain of her
acquaintances were wont to give her plentiful
admonition as to the undesirability of interfering on
behalf of a distressed animal, such interference being
“none of her business.” Only once had she put the
doctrine of non-interference into practice, when one
of its most eloquent exponents had been besieged for
nearly three hours in a small and extremely
uncomfortable may-tree by an angry boar-pig, while
Lady Carlotta, on the other side of the fence, had
proceeded with the water-colour sketch she was
engaged on, and refused to interfere between the
boar and his prisoner. It is to be feared that she lost
the friendship of the ultimately rescued lady. On this
occasion she merely lost the train, which gave way to
the first sign of impatience it had shown throughout
the journey, and steamed off without her. She bore
the desertion with philosophical indifference; her
friends and relations were thoroughly well used to
the fact of her luggage arriving without her.
She wired a vague non-committal message to her
destination to say that she was coming on “by
another train.” Before she had time to think what her
next move might be she was confronted by an
imposingly attired lady, who seemed to be taking a
prolonged mental inventory of her clothes and looks.
“You must be Miss Hope, the governess I’ve come
to meet,” said the apparition, in a tone that admitted
of very little argument.
“Very well, if I must I must,” said Lady Carlotta to
herself with dangerous meekness.
“I am Mrs. Quabarl,” continued the lady; “and
where, pray, is your luggage?”
“It’s gone astray,” said the alleged governess,
falling in with the excellent rule of life that the absent
are always to blame; the luggage had, in point of fact,
behaved with perfect correctitude. “I’ve just
telegraphed about it,” she added, with a nearer
approach to truth.
“How provoking,” said Mrs. Quabarl; “these
railway companies are so careless. However, my
maid can lend you things for the night,” and she led
the way to her car.
During the drive to the Quabarl mansion
Lady Carlotta was impressively introduced to the
nature of the charge that had been thrust upon her;
she learned that Claude and Wilfrid were delicate,
sensitive young people, that Irene had the artistic
temperament highly developed, and that Viola was
something or other else of a mould equally
commonplace among children of that class and type
in the twentieth century.
“I wish them not only to be TAUGHT,” said Mrs.
Quabarl, “but INTERESTED in what they learn. In
their history lessons, for instance, you must try to
make them feel that they are being introduced to the
life-stories of men and women who really lived, not
merely committing a mass of names and dates to
memory. French, of course, I shall expect you to talk
at meal-times several days in the week.”
“I shall talk French four days of the week and
Russian in the remaining three.”
“Russian? My dear Miss Hope, no one in the
house speaks or understands Russian.”
“That will not embarrass me in the least,” said
Lady Carlotta coldly.
Mrs. Quabarl, to use a colloquial expression, was
knocked off her perch. She was one of those
imperfectly self-assured individuals who are
magnificent and autocratic as long as they are not
seriously opposed. The least show of unexpected
resistance goes a long way towards rendering them
cowed and apologetic. When the new governess
failed to express wondering admiration of the large
newly-purchased and expensive car, and lightly
alluded to the superior advantages of one or two
makes which had just been put on the market, the
discomfiture of her patroness became almost abject.
Her feelings were those which might have animated a
general of ancient warfaring days, on beholding his
heaviest battle-elephant ignominiously driven off the
field by slingers and javelin throwers.
Question 9:
As presented in the passage, Mrs. Quabarl is best described as
A) superficially kind but actually selfish.
B) outwardly imposing but easily defied.
C) socially successful but irrationally bitter.
D) naturally generous but frequently imprudent.
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_3-question_9 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Saki, “The
Schartz-Metterklume Method.” Originally published in 1911.
Lady Carlotta stepped out on to the platform of
the small wayside station and took a turn or two up
and down its uninteresting length, to kill time till the
train should be pleased to proceed on its way. Then,
in the roadway beyond, she saw a horse struggling
with a more than ample load, and a carter of the sort
that seems to bear a sullen hatred against the animal
that helps him to earn a living. Lady Carlotta
promptly betook her to the roadway, and put rather a
different complexion on the struggle. Certain of her
acquaintances were wont to give her plentiful
admonition as to the undesirability of interfering on
behalf of a distressed animal, such interference being
“none of her business.” Only once had she put the
doctrine of non-interference into practice, when one
of its most eloquent exponents had been besieged for
nearly three hours in a small and extremely
uncomfortable may-tree by an angry boar-pig, while
Lady Carlotta, on the other side of the fence, had
proceeded with the water-colour sketch she was
engaged on, and refused to interfere between the
boar and his prisoner. It is to be feared that she lost
the friendship of the ultimately rescued lady. On this
occasion she merely lost the train, which gave way to
the first sign of impatience it had shown throughout
the journey, and steamed off without her. She bore
the desertion with philosophical indifference; her
friends and relations were thoroughly well used to
the fact of her luggage arriving without her.
She wired a vague non-committal message to her
destination to say that she was coming on “by
another train.” Before she had time to think what her
next move might be she was confronted by an
imposingly attired lady, who seemed to be taking a
prolonged mental inventory of her clothes and looks.
“You must be Miss Hope, the governess I’ve come
to meet,” said the apparition, in a tone that admitted
of very little argument.
“Very well, if I must I must,” said Lady Carlotta to
herself with dangerous meekness.
“I am Mrs. Quabarl,” continued the lady; “and
where, pray, is your luggage?”
“It’s gone astray,” said the alleged governess,
falling in with the excellent rule of life that the absent
are always to blame; the luggage had, in point of fact,
behaved with perfect correctitude. “I’ve just
telegraphed about it,” she added, with a nearer
approach to truth.
“How provoking,” said Mrs. Quabarl; “these
railway companies are so careless. However, my
maid can lend you things for the night,” and she led
the way to her car.
During the drive to the Quabarl mansion
Lady Carlotta was impressively introduced to the
nature of the charge that had been thrust upon her;
she learned that Claude and Wilfrid were delicate,
sensitive young people, that Irene had the artistic
temperament highly developed, and that Viola was
something or other else of a mould equally
commonplace among children of that class and type
in the twentieth century.
“I wish them not only to be TAUGHT,” said Mrs.
Quabarl, “but INTERESTED in what they learn. In
their history lessons, for instance, you must try to
make them feel that they are being introduced to the
life-stories of men and women who really lived, not
merely committing a mass of names and dates to
memory. French, of course, I shall expect you to talk
at meal-times several days in the week.”
“I shall talk French four days of the week and
Russian in the remaining three.”
“Russian? My dear Miss Hope, no one in the
house speaks or understands Russian.”
“That will not embarrass me in the least,” said
Lady Carlotta coldly.
Mrs. Quabarl, to use a colloquial expression, was
knocked off her perch. She was one of those
imperfectly self-assured individuals who are
magnificent and autocratic as long as they are not
seriously opposed. The least show of unexpected
resistance goes a long way towards rendering them
cowed and apologetic. When the new governess
failed to express wondering admiration of the large
newly-purchased and expensive car, and lightly
alluded to the superior advantages of one or two
makes which had just been put on the market, the
discomfiture of her patroness became almost abject.
Her feelings were those which might have animated a
general of ancient warfaring days, on beholding his
heaviest battle-elephant ignominiously driven off the
field by slingers and javelin throwers.
Question 7:
The narrator indicates that Claude, Wilfrid, Irene, and Viola are
A) similar to many of their peers.
B) unusually creative and intelligent.
C) hostile to the idea of a governess.
D) more educated than others of their age.
Answer: | A | false | sat-practice_3-question_7 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Saki, “The
Schartz-Metterklume Method.” Originally published in 1911.
Lady Carlotta stepped out on to the platform of
the small wayside station and took a turn or two up
and down its uninteresting length, to kill time till the
train should be pleased to proceed on its way. Then,
in the roadway beyond, she saw a horse struggling
with a more than ample load, and a carter of the sort
that seems to bear a sullen hatred against the animal
that helps him to earn a living. Lady Carlotta
promptly betook her to the roadway, and put rather a
different complexion on the struggle. Certain of her
acquaintances were wont to give her plentiful
admonition as to the undesirability of interfering on
behalf of a distressed animal, such interference being
“none of her business.” Only once had she put the
doctrine of non-interference into practice, when one
of its most eloquent exponents had been besieged for
nearly three hours in a small and extremely
uncomfortable may-tree by an angry boar-pig, while
Lady Carlotta, on the other side of the fence, had
proceeded with the water-colour sketch she was
engaged on, and refused to interfere between the
boar and his prisoner. It is to be feared that she lost
the friendship of the ultimately rescued lady. On this
occasion she merely lost the train, which gave way to
the first sign of impatience it had shown throughout
the journey, and steamed off without her. She bore
the desertion with philosophical indifference; her
friends and relations were thoroughly well used to
the fact of her luggage arriving without her.
She wired a vague non-committal message to her
destination to say that she was coming on “by
another train.” Before she had time to think what her
next move might be she was confronted by an
imposingly attired lady, who seemed to be taking a
prolonged mental inventory of her clothes and looks.
“You must be Miss Hope, the governess I’ve come
to meet,” said the apparition, in a tone that admitted
of very little argument.
“Very well, if I must I must,” said Lady Carlotta to
herself with dangerous meekness.
“I am Mrs. Quabarl,” continued the lady; “and
where, pray, is your luggage?”
“It’s gone astray,” said the alleged governess,
falling in with the excellent rule of life that the absent
are always to blame; the luggage had, in point of fact,
behaved with perfect correctitude. “I’ve just
telegraphed about it,” she added, with a nearer
approach to truth.
“How provoking,” said Mrs. Quabarl; “these
railway companies are so careless. However, my
maid can lend you things for the night,” and she led
the way to her car.
During the drive to the Quabarl mansion
Lady Carlotta was impressively introduced to the
nature of the charge that had been thrust upon her;
she learned that Claude and Wilfrid were delicate,
sensitive young people, that Irene had the artistic
temperament highly developed, and that Viola was
something or other else of a mould equally
commonplace among children of that class and type
in the twentieth century.
“I wish them not only to be TAUGHT,” said Mrs.
Quabarl, “but INTERESTED in what they learn. In
their history lessons, for instance, you must try to
make them feel that they are being introduced to the
life-stories of men and women who really lived, not
merely committing a mass of names and dates to
memory. French, of course, I shall expect you to talk
at meal-times several days in the week.”
“I shall talk French four days of the week and
Russian in the remaining three.”
“Russian? My dear Miss Hope, no one in the
house speaks or understands Russian.”
“That will not embarrass me in the least,” said
Lady Carlotta coldly.
Mrs. Quabarl, to use a colloquial expression, was
knocked off her perch. She was one of those
imperfectly self-assured individuals who are
magnificent and autocratic as long as they are not
seriously opposed. The least show of unexpected
resistance goes a long way towards rendering them
cowed and apologetic. When the new governess
failed to express wondering admiration of the large
newly-purchased and expensive car, and lightly
alluded to the superior advantages of one or two
makes which had just been put on the market, the
discomfiture of her patroness became almost abject.
Her feelings were those which might have animated a
general of ancient warfaring days, on beholding his
heaviest battle-elephant ignominiously driven off the
field by slingers and javelin throwers.
Question 8:
The narrator implies that Mrs. Quabarl favors a form of education that emphasizes
A) traditional values.
B) active engagement.
C) artistic experimentation.
D) factual retention.
Answer: | B | false | sat-practice_3-question_8 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Saki, “The
Schartz-Metterklume Method.” Originally published in 1911.
Lady Carlotta stepped out on to the platform of
the small wayside station and took a turn or two up
and down its uninteresting length, to kill time till the
train should be pleased to proceed on its way. Then,
in the roadway beyond, she saw a horse struggling
with a more than ample load, and a carter of the sort
that seems to bear a sullen hatred against the animal
that helps him to earn a living. Lady Carlotta
promptly betook her to the roadway, and put rather a
different complexion on the struggle. Certain of her
acquaintances were wont to give her plentiful
admonition as to the undesirability of interfering on
behalf of a distressed animal, such interference being
“none of her business.” Only once had she put the
doctrine of non-interference into practice, when one
of its most eloquent exponents had been besieged for
nearly three hours in a small and extremely
uncomfortable may-tree by an angry boar-pig, while
Lady Carlotta, on the other side of the fence, had
proceeded with the water-colour sketch she was
engaged on, and refused to interfere between the
boar and his prisoner. It is to be feared that she lost
the friendship of the ultimately rescued lady. On this
occasion she merely lost the train, which gave way to
the first sign of impatience it had shown throughout
the journey, and steamed off without her. She bore
the desertion with philosophical indifference; her
friends and relations were thoroughly well used to
the fact of her luggage arriving without her.
She wired a vague non-committal message to her
destination to say that she was coming on “by
another train.” Before she had time to think what her
next move might be she was confronted by an
imposingly attired lady, who seemed to be taking a
prolonged mental inventory of her clothes and looks.
“You must be Miss Hope, the governess I’ve come
to meet,” said the apparition, in a tone that admitted
of very little argument.
“Very well, if I must I must,” said Lady Carlotta to
herself with dangerous meekness.
“I am Mrs. Quabarl,” continued the lady; “and
where, pray, is your luggage?”
“It’s gone astray,” said the alleged governess,
falling in with the excellent rule of life that the absent
are always to blame; the luggage had, in point of fact,
behaved with perfect correctitude. “I’ve just
telegraphed about it,” she added, with a nearer
approach to truth.
“How provoking,” said Mrs. Quabarl; “these
railway companies are so careless. However, my
maid can lend you things for the night,” and she led
the way to her car.
During the drive to the Quabarl mansion
Lady Carlotta was impressively introduced to the
nature of the charge that had been thrust upon her;
she learned that Claude and Wilfrid were delicate,
sensitive young people, that Irene had the artistic
temperament highly developed, and that Viola was
something or other else of a mould equally
commonplace among children of that class and type
in the twentieth century.
“I wish them not only to be TAUGHT,” said Mrs.
Quabarl, “but INTERESTED in what they learn. In
their history lessons, for instance, you must try to
make them feel that they are being introduced to the
life-stories of men and women who really lived, not
merely committing a mass of names and dates to
memory. French, of course, I shall expect you to talk
at meal-times several days in the week.”
“I shall talk French four days of the week and
Russian in the remaining three.”
“Russian? My dear Miss Hope, no one in the
house speaks or understands Russian.”
“That will not embarrass me in the least,” said
Lady Carlotta coldly.
Mrs. Quabarl, to use a colloquial expression, was
knocked off her perch. She was one of those
imperfectly self-assured individuals who are
magnificent and autocratic as long as they are not
seriously opposed. The least show of unexpected
resistance goes a long way towards rendering them
cowed and apologetic. When the new governess
failed to express wondering admiration of the large
newly-purchased and expensive car, and lightly
alluded to the superior advantages of one or two
makes which had just been put on the market, the
discomfiture of her patroness became almost abject.
Her feelings were those which might have animated a
general of ancient warfaring days, on beholding his
heaviest battle-elephant ignominiously driven off the
field by slingers and javelin throwers.
Question 5:
The description of how Lady Carlotta “put the doctrine of non-interference into practice” (lines 14-15) mainly serves to
A) foreshadow her capacity for deception.
B) illustrate the subtle cruelty in her nature.
C) provide a humorous insight into her character.
D) explain a surprising change in her behavior.
Answer: | C | true | sat-practice_3-question_5 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Taras Grescoe, Straphanger:
Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile. ©2012
by Taras Grescoe.
Though there are 600 million cars on the planet,
and counting, there are also seven billion people,
which means that for the vast majority of us getting
around involves taking buses, ferryboats, commuter
trains, streetcars, and subways. In other words,
traveling to work, school, or the market means being
a straphanger: somebody who, by choice or necessity,
relies on public transport, rather than a privately
owned automobile.
Half the population of New York, Toronto, and
London do not own cars. Public transport is how
most of the people of Asia and Africa, the world’s
most populous continents, travel. Every day, subway
systems carry 155 million passengers, thirty-four
times the number carried by all the world’s airplanes,
and the global public transport market is now valued
at $428 billion annually. A century and a half after
the invention of the internal combustion engine,
private car ownership is still an anomaly.
And yet public transportation, in many minds, is
the opposite of glamour—a squalid last resort for
those with one too many impaired driving charges,
too poor to afford insurance, or too decrepit to get
behind the wheel of a car. In much of North
America, they are right: taking transit is a depressing
experience. Anybody who has waited far too long on
a street corner for the privilege of boarding a
lurching, overcrowded bus, or wrestled luggage onto
subways and shuttles to get to a big city airport,
knows that transit on this continent tends to be
underfunded, ill-maintained, and ill-planned. Given
the opportunity, who wouldn’t drive? Hopping in a
car almost always gets you to your destination more
quickly.
It doesn’t have to be like this. Done right, public
transport can be faster, more comfortable, and
cheaper than the private automobile. In Shanghai,
German-made magnetic levitation trains skim over
elevated tracks at 266 miles an hour, whisking people
to the airport at a third of the speed of sound. In
provincial French towns, electric-powered streetcars
run silently on rubber tires, sliding through narrow
streets along a single guide rail set into cobblestones.
From Spain to Sweden, Wi-Fi equipped high-speed
trains seamlessly connect with highly ramified metro
networks, allowing commuters to work on laptops as
they prepare for same-day meetings in once distant
capital cities. In Latin America, China, and India,
working people board fast-loading buses that move
like subway trains along dedicated busways, leaving
the sedans and SUVs of the rich mired in
dawn-to-dusk traffic jams. And some cities have
transformed their streets into cycle-path freeways,
making giant strides in public health and safety and
the sheer livability of their neighborhoods—in the
process turning the workaday bicycle into a viable
form of mass transit.
If you credit the demographers, this transit trend
has legs. The “Millenials,” who reached adulthood
around the turn of the century and now outnumber
baby boomers, tend to favor cities over suburbs, and
are far more willing than their parents to ride buses
and subways. Part of the reason is their ease with
iPads, MP3 players, Kindles, and smartphones: you
can get some serious texting done when you’re not
driving, and earbuds offer effective insulation from
all but the most extreme commuting annoyances.
Even though there are more teenagers in the country
than ever, only ten million have a driver’s license
(versus twelve million a generation ago). Baby
boomers may have been raised in Leave It to Beaver
suburbs, but as they retire, a significant contingent is
favoring older cities and compact towns where they
have the option of walking and riding bikes. Seniors,
too, are more likely to use transit, and by 2025, there
will be 64 million Americans over the age of
sixty-five. Already, dwellings in older neighborhoods
in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Denver, especially
those near light-rail or subway stations, are
commanding enormous price premiums over
suburban homes. The experience of European and
Asian cities shows that if you make buses, subways,
and trains convenient, comfortable, fast, and safe, a
surprisingly large percentage of citizens will opt to
ride rather than drive.
Question 14:
The central idea of the fourth paragraph (lines 35-57) is that
A) European countries excel at public transportation.
B) some public transportation systems are superior to travel by private automobile.
C) Americans should mimic foreign public transportation systems when possible.
D) much international public transportation is engineered for passengers to work while on board.
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_3-question_14 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Taras Grescoe, Straphanger:
Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile. ©2012
by Taras Grescoe.
Though there are 600 million cars on the planet,
and counting, there are also seven billion people,
which means that for the vast majority of us getting
around involves taking buses, ferryboats, commuter
trains, streetcars, and subways. In other words,
traveling to work, school, or the market means being
a straphanger: somebody who, by choice or necessity,
relies on public transport, rather than a privately
owned automobile.
Half the population of New York, Toronto, and
London do not own cars. Public transport is how
most of the people of Asia and Africa, the world’s
most populous continents, travel. Every day, subway
systems carry 155 million passengers, thirty-four
times the number carried by all the world’s airplanes,
and the global public transport market is now valued
at $428 billion annually. A century and a half after
the invention of the internal combustion engine,
private car ownership is still an anomaly.
And yet public transportation, in many minds, is
the opposite of glamour—a squalid last resort for
those with one too many impaired driving charges,
too poor to afford insurance, or too decrepit to get
behind the wheel of a car. In much of North
America, they are right: taking transit is a depressing
experience. Anybody who has waited far too long on
a street corner for the privilege of boarding a
lurching, overcrowded bus, or wrestled luggage onto
subways and shuttles to get to a big city airport,
knows that transit on this continent tends to be
underfunded, ill-maintained, and ill-planned. Given
the opportunity, who wouldn’t drive? Hopping in a
car almost always gets you to your destination more
quickly.
It doesn’t have to be like this. Done right, public
transport can be faster, more comfortable, and
cheaper than the private automobile. In Shanghai,
German-made magnetic levitation trains skim over
elevated tracks at 266 miles an hour, whisking people
to the airport at a third of the speed of sound. In
provincial French towns, electric-powered streetcars
run silently on rubber tires, sliding through narrow
streets along a single guide rail set into cobblestones.
From Spain to Sweden, Wi-Fi equipped high-speed
trains seamlessly connect with highly ramified metro
networks, allowing commuters to work on laptops as
they prepare for same-day meetings in once distant
capital cities. In Latin America, China, and India,
working people board fast-loading buses that move
like subway trains along dedicated busways, leaving
the sedans and SUVs of the rich mired in
dawn-to-dusk traffic jams. And some cities have
transformed their streets into cycle-path freeways,
making giant strides in public health and safety and
the sheer livability of their neighborhoods—in the
process turning the workaday bicycle into a viable
form of mass transit.
If you credit the demographers, this transit trend
has legs. The “Millenials,” who reached adulthood
around the turn of the century and now outnumber
baby boomers, tend to favor cities over suburbs, and
are far more willing than their parents to ride buses
and subways. Part of the reason is their ease with
iPads, MP3 players, Kindles, and smartphones: you
can get some serious texting done when you’re not
driving, and earbuds offer effective insulation from
all but the most extreme commuting annoyances.
Even though there are more teenagers in the country
than ever, only ten million have a driver’s license
(versus twelve million a generation ago). Baby
boomers may have been raised in Leave It to Beaver
suburbs, but as they retire, a significant contingent is
favoring older cities and compact towns where they
have the option of walking and riding bikes. Seniors,
too, are more likely to use transit, and by 2025, there
will be 64 million Americans over the age of
sixty-five. Already, dwellings in older neighborhoods
in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Denver, especially
those near light-rail or subway stations, are
commanding enormous price premiums over
suburban homes. The experience of European and
Asian cities shows that if you make buses, subways,
and trains convenient, comfortable, fast, and safe, a
surprisingly large percentage of citizens will opt to
ride rather than drive.
Question 12:
Which choice does the author explicitly cite as an advantage of automobile travel in North America?
A) Environmental impact
B) Convenience
C) Speed
D) Cost
Answer: | C | false | sat-practice_3-question_12 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Taras Grescoe, Straphanger:
Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile. ©2012
by Taras Grescoe.
Though there are 600 million cars on the planet,
and counting, there are also seven billion people,
which means that for the vast majority of us getting
around involves taking buses, ferryboats, commuter
trains, streetcars, and subways. In other words,
traveling to work, school, or the market means being
a straphanger: somebody who, by choice or necessity,
relies on public transport, rather than a privately
owned automobile.
Half the population of New York, Toronto, and
London do not own cars. Public transport is how
most of the people of Asia and Africa, the world’s
most populous continents, travel. Every day, subway
systems carry 155 million passengers, thirty-four
times the number carried by all the world’s airplanes,
and the global public transport market is now valued
at $428 billion annually. A century and a half after
the invention of the internal combustion engine,
private car ownership is still an anomaly.
And yet public transportation, in many minds, is
the opposite of glamour—a squalid last resort for
those with one too many impaired driving charges,
too poor to afford insurance, or too decrepit to get
behind the wheel of a car. In much of North
America, they are right: taking transit is a depressing
experience. Anybody who has waited far too long on
a street corner for the privilege of boarding a
lurching, overcrowded bus, or wrestled luggage onto
subways and shuttles to get to a big city airport,
knows that transit on this continent tends to be
underfunded, ill-maintained, and ill-planned. Given
the opportunity, who wouldn’t drive? Hopping in a
car almost always gets you to your destination more
quickly.
It doesn’t have to be like this. Done right, public
transport can be faster, more comfortable, and
cheaper than the private automobile. In Shanghai,
German-made magnetic levitation trains skim over
elevated tracks at 266 miles an hour, whisking people
to the airport at a third of the speed of sound. In
provincial French towns, electric-powered streetcars
run silently on rubber tires, sliding through narrow
streets along a single guide rail set into cobblestones.
From Spain to Sweden, Wi-Fi equipped high-speed
trains seamlessly connect with highly ramified metro
networks, allowing commuters to work on laptops as
they prepare for same-day meetings in once distant
capital cities. In Latin America, China, and India,
working people board fast-loading buses that move
like subway trains along dedicated busways, leaving
the sedans and SUVs of the rich mired in
dawn-to-dusk traffic jams. And some cities have
transformed their streets into cycle-path freeways,
making giant strides in public health and safety and
the sheer livability of their neighborhoods—in the
process turning the workaday bicycle into a viable
form of mass transit.
If you credit the demographers, this transit trend
has legs. The “Millenials,” who reached adulthood
around the turn of the century and now outnumber
baby boomers, tend to favor cities over suburbs, and
are far more willing than their parents to ride buses
and subways. Part of the reason is their ease with
iPads, MP3 players, Kindles, and smartphones: you
can get some serious texting done when you’re not
driving, and earbuds offer effective insulation from
all but the most extreme commuting annoyances.
Even though there are more teenagers in the country
than ever, only ten million have a driver’s license
(versus twelve million a generation ago). Baby
boomers may have been raised in Leave It to Beaver
suburbs, but as they retire, a significant contingent is
favoring older cities and compact towns where they
have the option of walking and riding bikes. Seniors,
too, are more likely to use transit, and by 2025, there
will be 64 million Americans over the age of
sixty-five. Already, dwellings in older neighborhoods
in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Denver, especially
those near light-rail or subway stations, are
commanding enormous price premiums over
suburban homes. The experience of European and
Asian cities shows that if you make buses, subways,
and trains convenient, comfortable, fast, and safe, a
surprisingly large percentage of citizens will opt to
ride rather than drive.
Question 16:
As used in line 58, “credit” most nearly means
A) endow.
B) attribute.
C) believe.
D) honor.
Answer: | C | true | sat-practice_3-question_16 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Taras Grescoe, Straphanger:
Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile. ©2012
by Taras Grescoe.
Though there are 600 million cars on the planet,
and counting, there are also seven billion people,
which means that for the vast majority of us getting
around involves taking buses, ferryboats, commuter
trains, streetcars, and subways. In other words,
traveling to work, school, or the market means being
a straphanger: somebody who, by choice or necessity,
relies on public transport, rather than a privately
owned automobile.
Half the population of New York, Toronto, and
London do not own cars. Public transport is how
most of the people of Asia and Africa, the world’s
most populous continents, travel. Every day, subway
systems carry 155 million passengers, thirty-four
times the number carried by all the world’s airplanes,
and the global public transport market is now valued
at $428 billion annually. A century and a half after
the invention of the internal combustion engine,
private car ownership is still an anomaly.
And yet public transportation, in many minds, is
the opposite of glamour—a squalid last resort for
those with one too many impaired driving charges,
too poor to afford insurance, or too decrepit to get
behind the wheel of a car. In much of North
America, they are right: taking transit is a depressing
experience. Anybody who has waited far too long on
a street corner for the privilege of boarding a
lurching, overcrowded bus, or wrestled luggage onto
subways and shuttles to get to a big city airport,
knows that transit on this continent tends to be
underfunded, ill-maintained, and ill-planned. Given
the opportunity, who wouldn’t drive? Hopping in a
car almost always gets you to your destination more
quickly.
It doesn’t have to be like this. Done right, public
transport can be faster, more comfortable, and
cheaper than the private automobile. In Shanghai,
German-made magnetic levitation trains skim over
elevated tracks at 266 miles an hour, whisking people
to the airport at a third of the speed of sound. In
provincial French towns, electric-powered streetcars
run silently on rubber tires, sliding through narrow
streets along a single guide rail set into cobblestones.
From Spain to Sweden, Wi-Fi equipped high-speed
trains seamlessly connect with highly ramified metro
networks, allowing commuters to work on laptops as
they prepare for same-day meetings in once distant
capital cities. In Latin America, China, and India,
working people board fast-loading buses that move
like subway trains along dedicated busways, leaving
the sedans and SUVs of the rich mired in
dawn-to-dusk traffic jams. And some cities have
transformed their streets into cycle-path freeways,
making giant strides in public health and safety and
the sheer livability of their neighborhoods—in the
process turning the workaday bicycle into a viable
form of mass transit.
If you credit the demographers, this transit trend
has legs. The “Millenials,” who reached adulthood
around the turn of the century and now outnumber
baby boomers, tend to favor cities over suburbs, and
are far more willing than their parents to ride buses
and subways. Part of the reason is their ease with
iPads, MP3 players, Kindles, and smartphones: you
can get some serious texting done when you’re not
driving, and earbuds offer effective insulation from
all but the most extreme commuting annoyances.
Even though there are more teenagers in the country
than ever, only ten million have a driver’s license
(versus twelve million a generation ago). Baby
boomers may have been raised in Leave It to Beaver
suburbs, but as they retire, a significant contingent is
favoring older cities and compact towns where they
have the option of walking and riding bikes. Seniors,
too, are more likely to use transit, and by 2025, there
will be 64 million Americans over the age of
sixty-five. Already, dwellings in older neighborhoods
in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Denver, especially
those near light-rail or subway stations, are
commanding enormous price premiums over
suburban homes. The experience of European and
Asian cities shows that if you make buses, subways,
and trains convenient, comfortable, fast, and safe, a
surprisingly large percentage of citizens will opt to
ride rather than drive.
Question 18:
Which choice best supports the conclusion that public transportation is compatible with the use of personal electronic devices?
A) Lines 59-63 (“The... subways”)
B) Lines 63-67 (“Part... annoyances”)
C) Lines 68-70 (“Even... ago”)
D) Lines 77-81 (“Already... homes”)
Answer: | B | true | sat-practice_3-question_18 |
SAT READING COMPREHENSION TEST
This passage is adapted from Taras Grescoe, Straphanger:
Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile. ©2012
by Taras Grescoe.
Though there are 600 million cars on the planet,
and counting, there are also seven billion people,
which means that for the vast majority of us getting
around involves taking buses, ferryboats, commuter
trains, streetcars, and subways. In other words,
traveling to work, school, or the market means being
a straphanger: somebody who, by choice or necessity,
relies on public transport, rather than a privately
owned automobile.
Half the population of New York, Toronto, and
London do not own cars. Public transport is how
most of the people of Asia and Africa, the world’s
most populous continents, travel. Every day, subway
systems carry 155 million passengers, thirty-four
times the number carried by all the world’s airplanes,
and the global public transport market is now valued
at $428 billion annually. A century and a half after
the invention of the internal combustion engine,
private car ownership is still an anomaly.
And yet public transportation, in many minds, is
the opposite of glamour—a squalid last resort for
those with one too many impaired driving charges,
too poor to afford insurance, or too decrepit to get
behind the wheel of a car. In much of North
America, they are right: taking transit is a depressing
experience. Anybody who has waited far too long on
a street corner for the privilege of boarding a
lurching, overcrowded bus, or wrestled luggage onto
subways and shuttles to get to a big city airport,
knows that transit on this continent tends to be
underfunded, ill-maintained, and ill-planned. Given
the opportunity, who wouldn’t drive? Hopping in a
car almost always gets you to your destination more
quickly.
It doesn’t have to be like this. Done right, public
transport can be faster, more comfortable, and
cheaper than the private automobile. In Shanghai,
German-made magnetic levitation trains skim over
elevated tracks at 266 miles an hour, whisking people
to the airport at a third of the speed of sound. In
provincial French towns, electric-powered streetcars
run silently on rubber tires, sliding through narrow
streets along a single guide rail set into cobblestones.
From Spain to Sweden, Wi-Fi equipped high-speed
trains seamlessly connect with highly ramified metro
networks, allowing commuters to work on laptops as
they prepare for same-day meetings in once distant
capital cities. In Latin America, China, and India,
working people board fast-loading buses that move
like subway trains along dedicated busways, leaving
the sedans and SUVs of the rich mired in
dawn-to-dusk traffic jams. And some cities have
transformed their streets into cycle-path freeways,
making giant strides in public health and safety and
the sheer livability of their neighborhoods—in the
process turning the workaday bicycle into a viable
form of mass transit.
If you credit the demographers, this transit trend
has legs. The “Millenials,” who reached adulthood
around the turn of the century and now outnumber
baby boomers, tend to favor cities over suburbs, and
are far more willing than their parents to ride buses
and subways. Part of the reason is their ease with
iPads, MP3 players, Kindles, and smartphones: you
can get some serious texting done when you’re not
driving, and earbuds offer effective insulation from
all but the most extreme commuting annoyances.
Even though there are more teenagers in the country
than ever, only ten million have a driver’s license
(versus twelve million a generation ago). Baby
boomers may have been raised in Leave It to Beaver
suburbs, but as they retire, a significant contingent is
favoring older cities and compact towns where they
have the option of walking and riding bikes. Seniors,
too, are more likely to use transit, and by 2025, there
will be 64 million Americans over the age of
sixty-five. Already, dwellings in older neighborhoods
in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Denver, especially
those near light-rail or subway stations, are
commanding enormous price premiums over
suburban homes. The experience of European and
Asian cities shows that if you make buses, subways,
and trains convenient, comfortable, fast, and safe, a
surprisingly large percentage of citizens will opt to
ride rather than drive.
Question 11:
What function does the third paragraph (lines 20-34) serve in the passage as a whole?
A) It acknowledges that a practice favored by the author of the passage has some limitations.
B) It illustrates with detail the arguments made in the first two paragraphs of the passage.
C) It gives an overview of a problem that has not been sufficiently addressed by the experts mentioned in the passage.
D) It advocates for abandoning a practice for which the passage as a whole provides mostly favorable data.
Answer: | A | true | sat-practice_3-question_11 |