SAT 09/14/24 Reading and Writing – Module 2

1. For painter Jacob Lawrence, being _______ was an important part of the artistic process. Because he paid close attention to all the details of his Harlem neighborhood, Lawrence’s artwork captured nuances in the beauty and vitality of the Black experience during the Harlem Renaissance and the Great Migration.

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

2. Mônica Lopes-Ferreira and others at Brazil’s Butantan Institute are studying the freshwater stingray species Potamotrygon rex to determine whether biological characteristics such as the rays’ age and sex have _______ effect on the toxicity of their venom—that is, to see if differences in these traits are associated with considerable variations in venom potency.

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

3. Researchers have struggled to pinpoint specific causes for hiccups, which happen when a person’s diaphragm contracts _______ . However, neuroscientist Kimberley Whitehead has found that these uncontrollable contractions may play an important role in helping infants regulate their breathing.

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

4. Critics have asserted that fine art and fashion rarely _______ in a world where artists create timeless works for exhibition and designers periodically produce new styles for the public to buy. Luiseño/ Shoshone-Bannock beadwork artist and designer Jamie Okuma challenges this view: her work can be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and purchased through her online boutique.

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

5. Scholarly discussions of gender in Shakespeare’s comedies often celebrate the rebellion of the playwright’s characters against the rigid expectations _______ by Elizabethan society. Most of the comedies end in marriage, with characters returning to their socially dictated gender roles after previously defying them, but there are some notable exceptions.

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

6. In studying the use of external stimuli to reduce the itching sensation caused by an allergic histamine response, Louise Ward and colleagues found that while harmless applications of vibration or warming can provide a temporary distraction, such _______ stimuli actually offer less relief than a stimulus that seems less benign, like a mild electric shock.

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

7. The province of Xoconochco was situated on the Pacific coast, hundreds of kilometers southeast of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire. Because Xoconochco’s location within the empire was so _______ , cacao and other trade goods produced there could reach the capital only after a long overland journey.

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

8. The following text is from Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel Jane Eyre. Jane works as a governess at Thornfield Hall.

I went on with my day’s business tranquilly; but ever and anon vague suggestions kept wandering across my brain of reasons why I should quit Thornfield; and I kept involuntarily framing advertisements and pondering conjectures about new situations: these thoughts I did not think to check; they might germinate and bear fruit if they could.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

9.

Text 1

Most animals can regenerate some parts of their bodies, such as skin. But when a three-banded panther worm is cut into three pieces, each piece grows into a new worm. Researchers are investigating this feat partly to learn more about humans’ comparatively limited abilities to regenerate, and they’re making exciting progress. An especially promising discovery is that both humans and panther worms have a gene for early growth response (EGR) linked to regeneration.

Text 2

When Mansi Srivastava and her team reported that panther worms, like humans, possess a gene for EGR, it caused excitement. However, as the team pointed out, the gene likely functions very differently in humans than it does in panther worms. Srivastava has likened EGR to a switch that activates other genes involved in regeneration in panther worms, but how this switch operates in humans remains unclear.

Based on the texts, what would the author of Text 2 most likely say about Text 1’s characterization of the discovery involving EGR?

10. The following text is adapted from William Shakespeare’s 1609 poem “Sonnet 27.” The poem is addressed to a close friend as if he were physically present.

Weary with toil, I [hurry] to my bed, The dear repose for limbs with travel tired; But then begins a journey in my head To work my mind, when body’s work’s expired: For then my thoughts—from far where I abide— [Begin] a zealous pilgrimage to thee, And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,

What is the main idea of the text?

11. The following text is adapted from Lewis Carroll’s 1889 satirical novel Sylvie and Bruno. A crowd has gathered outside a room belonging to the Warden, an official who reports to the Lord Chancellor.

One man, who was more excited than the rest, flung his hat high into the air, and shouted (as well as I could make out) “Who roar for the Sub-Warden?” Everybody roared, but whether it was for the Sub-Warden, or not, did not clearly appear: some were shouting “Bread!” and some “Taxes!”, but no one seemed to know what it was they really wanted.

All this I saw from the open window of the Warden’s breakfast-saloon, looking across the shoulder of the Lord Chancellor.

“What can it all mean?” he kept repeating to himself. “I never heard such shouting before—and at this time of the morning, too! And with such unanimity!”

Based on the text, how does the Lord Chancellor respond to the crowd?

12. O Pioneers! is a 1913 novel by Willa Cather. In the novel, Cather portrays Alexandra Bergson as having a deep emotional connection to her natural surroundings: _______

Which quotation from O Pioneers! most effectively illustrates the claim?

13. Approximate Rates of Speech and Information Conveyed for Five Languages

A group of researchers working in Europe, Asia, and Oceania conducted a study to determine how quickly different Eurasian languages are typically spoken (in syllables per second) and how much information they can effectively convey (in bits per second). They found that, although languages vary widely in the speed at which they are spoken, the amount of information languages can effectively convey tends to vary much less. Thus, they claim that two languages with very different spoken rates can nonetheless convey the same amount of information in a given amount of time.

Which choice best describes data from the table that support the researchers’ claim?

14. Psychologists Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt have argued that experiencing awe—a sensation of reverence and wonder typically brought on by perceiving something grand or powerful—can enable us to feel more connected to others and thereby inspire us to act more altruistically. Keltner, along with Paul K. Piff, Pia Dietze, and colleagues, claims to have found evidence for this effect in a recent study where participants were asked to either gaze up at exceptionally tall trees in a nearby grove (reported to be a universally awe-inspiring experience) or stare at the exterior of a nearby, nondescript building. After one minute, an experimenter deliberately spilled a box of pens nearby.

Which finding from the researchers’ study, if true, would most strongly support their claim?

15. Employment by Sector in France and the United States, 1800–2012 (% of total employment)

Rows in table may not add up to 100 due to rounding.

Over the past two hundred years, the percentage of the population employed in the agricultural sector has declined in both France and the United States, while employment in the service sector (which includes jobs in retail, consulting, real estate, etc.) has risen. However, this transition happened at very different rates in the two countries. This can be seen most clearly by comparing the employment by sector in both countries in _______

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

16. Many archaeologists will tell you that categorizing excavated fragments of pottery by style, period, and what objects they belong to relies not only on standard criteria, but also on instinct developed over years of practice. In a recent study, however, researchers trained a deep-learning computer model on thousands of images of pottery fragments and found that it could categorize them as accurately as a team of expert archaeologists. Some archaeologists have expressed concern that they might be replaced by such computer models, but the researchers claim that outcome is highly unlikely.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers’ claim?

17. Although military veterans make up a small proportion of the total population of the United States, they occupy a significantly higher proportion of the jobs in the civilian government. One possible explanation for this disproportionate representation is that military service familiarizes people with certain organizational structures that are also reflected in the civilian government bureaucracy, and this familiarity thus _______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

18. Birds of many species ingest foods containing carotenoids, pigmented molecules that are converted into feather coloration. Coloration tends to be especially saturated in male birds’ feathers, and because carotenoids also confer health benefits, the deeply saturated colors generally serve to communicate what is known as an honest signal of a bird’s overall fitness to potential mates. However, ornithologist Allison J. Shultz and others have found that males in several species of the tanager genus Ramphocelus use microstructures in their feathers to manipulate light, creating the appearance of deeper saturation without the birds necessarily having to maintain a carotenoid-rich diet. These findings suggest that _______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

19. When writing The Other Black Girl (2021), novelist Zakiya Dalila Harris drew on her own experiences working at a publishing office. The award-winning book is Harris’s first novel, but her writing _______ honored before. At the age of twelve, she entered a contest to have a story published in American Girl magazine—and won.

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

20. The Alvarez theory, developed in 1980 by physicist Luis Walter Alvarez and his geologist son Walter Alvarez, maintained that the secondary effects of an asteroid impact caused many dinosaurs and other animals to die _______ it left unexplored the question of whether unrelated volcanic activity might have also contributed to the mass extinctions.

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

21. In winter, the diets of Japanese macaques, also known as snow monkeys, are influenced more by food availability than by food preference. Although the monkeys prefer to eat vegetation and land-dwelling invertebrates, those food sources may become unavailable because of extensive snow and ice cover, _______ the monkeys to hunt for marine animals in any streams that have not frozen over.

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

22. Lucía Michel of the University of Chile observed that alkaline soils contain an insoluble form of iron that blueberry plants cannot absorb, thus inhibiting blueberry growth. If these plants were grown in alkaline soil alongside grasses that aid in iron solubilization, _______ Michel was determined to find out.

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

23. In his 1963 exhibition Exposition of Music—Electronic Television, Korean American artist Nam June Paik showed how television images could be manipulated to express an artist’s perspective. Today, Paik _______ considered the first video artist.

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

24. The first computerized spreadsheet, Dan Bricklin’s VisiCalc, improved financial recordkeeping not only by providing users with an easy means of adjusting data in spreadsheets but also by automatically updating all calculations that were dependent on these _______ to VisiCalc’s release, changing a paper spreadsheet often required redoing the entire sheet by hand, a process that could take days.

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

25. In order to prevent nonnative fish species from moving freely between the Mediterranean and Red Seas, marine biologist Bella Galil has proposed that a saline lock system be installed along the Suez Canal in Egypt’s Great Bitter Lakes. The lock would increase the salinity of the lakes and _______ a natural barrier of water most marine creatures would be unable to cross.

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

26. Despite being cheap, versatile, and easy to produce, _______ they are made from nonrenewable petroleum, and most do not biodegrade in landfills.

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

27. Stomata, tiny pore structures in a leaf that absorb gases needed for plant growth, open when guard cells surrounding each pore swell with water. In a pivotal 2007 article, plant cell _______ showed that lipid molecules called phosphatidylinositol phosphates are responsible for signaling guard cells to open stomata.

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

28. Small, flat structures called spatulae are found at the tips of the hairs on a spider’s leg. These spatulae temporarily bond with the atoms of whatever they touch. _______ spiders are able to cling to and climb almost any surface.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

29. In November 1934, Amrita Sher-Gil was living in what must have seemed like the ideal city for a young artist: Paris. She was studying firsthand the color-saturated style of France’s modernist masters and beginning to make a name for herself as a painter. _______ Sher-Gil longed to return to her childhood home of India; only there, she believed, could her art truly flourish.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

30. Before California’s 1911 election to approve a proposition granting women the right to vote, activists across the state sold tea to promote the cause of suffrage. In San Francisco, the Woman’s Suffrage Party sold Equality Tea at local fairs. _______ in Los Angeles, activist Nancy Tuttle Craig, who ran one of California’s largest grocery store firms, distributed Votes for Women Tea.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

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

• The Seikan Tunnel is a rail tunnel in Japan.
• It connects the island of Honshu to the island of Hokkaido.
• It is roughly 33 miles long.
• The Channel Tunnel is a rail tunnel in Europe.
• It connects Folkestone, England, to Coquelles, France.
• It is about 31 miles long.

The student wants to compare the lengths of the two rail tunnels. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

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

• Jon Ching is a Los Angeles-based painter.
• He uses the term “flauna” to describe the plantanimal hybrids that he depicts in his surreal paintings.
• “Flauna” is a combination of the words “flora” and “fauna.”
• His painting Nectar depicts a parrot with leaves for feathers.
• His painting Primaveral depicts a snow leopard whose fur sprouts flowers.

The student wants to provide an explanation and example of “flauna.” Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

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

• In the midst of the US Civil War, Susie Taylor escaped slavery and fled to Union-army-occupied St. Simons Island off the Georgia coast.
• She began working for an all-Black army regiment as a nurse and teacher.
• In 1902, she published a book about the time she spent with the regiment.
• Her book was the only Civil War memoir to be published by a Black woman.
• It is still available to readers in print and online.

The student wants to emphasize the uniqueness of Taylor’s accomplishment. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?