SAT Review

Summary of Global Strategy

For every SAT question that is not Standard English Conventions (grammar) or vocabulary, follow these steps:

1. Read the passage and questioncompletely and carefully
2. Paraphrase what you have read simply
3. THEN look at the answer options and see if one matches your paraphrase
4. Do a process of elimination to be sure of your answer
5. REMEMBER - if it's not 100% right - it's 100% wrong!

Multiple Choice

Although many transposons, DNA sequences that move within an organism’s genome through shuffling or duplication have become corrupted and inactive over time, those from the long interspersed nuclear elements (LINE) family appear to remain active in the genomes of some species. In humans, they are functionally important within the hippocampus, a brain structure that supports complex cognitive processes. When the results of molecular analysis of two species of octopus—an animal known for its intelligence—were announced in 2022, the confirmation of a LINE transposon Octopus vulgaris and Octopus bimaculoides genomes prompted researchers to hypothesize that that transposon family is tied to a species’ capacity for advanced cognition.

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

• The LINE transposon in O. vulgaris and O. bimaculoides genomes is active in an octopus brain structure that functions similarly to the human hippocampus.

• A consistent number of copies of LINE transposons is present across the genomes of most octopus species, with few known corruptions.

• The human genome contains multiple transposons from the LINE family that are all primarily active in the hippocampus.

• O. vulgaris and O. bimaculoides have smaller brains than humans do relative to body size, but their genomes contain sequences from a wider variety of transposon families.

Multiple Choice

Accomplished printmaker and sculptor Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012) used her art to explore the Black experience in the United States. In a paper for an art history class, a student claims that Catlett had a particular talent for unifying various artistic traditions and styles in her work.

Which quotation from a scholar describing Catlett’s work would best support the student’s claim?

• 
  “In Mother and Child, a sculpture of two Black figures, Catlett used an ancient Indigenous sculpting technique a

  combined the visual aesthetic of modern Mexican muralists with that of German artist Kathe Kollwitz.”

• “Created in 1968, Catlett’s sculpture Black Unity, a stylized fist sculpted from mahogany and measuring two feet across, remains an important piece and has received renewed and well-deserved attention in recent years.”

• “In her collage New Generation, Catlett overlaid fabric onto the canvas to represent the clothing of a father and his toddler, positioned to evoke classic images of a mother and child.”

• “One series of Catlett’s prints, made by the artist using the linoleum cut method, depicts several notable African American women, including Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth.”

Multiple Choice

A student is examining a long, challenging poem that was initially published in a quarterly journal without explanatory notes, then later republished in a stand-alone volume containing only that poem and accompanying explanatory notes written by the poet. The student asserts that the explanatory notes were included in the republication primarily as a marketing device to help sell the stand-alone volume.

Which statement, if true, would most directly support the student’s claim?

• The text of the poem as published in the quarterly journal is not identical to the text of the poem published in the stand-alone volume.

• The publishers of the stand-alone volume requested the explanatory notes from the poet in order to make the book attractive to readers who already had a copy of the poem in a journal issue.

• Many critics believe that the poet’s explanatory notes remove certain ambiguities of the poem and make it less interesting as a result.

• Correspondence between the poet and the publisher reveals that the poet’s explanatory notes went through several drafts.

Multiple Choice

NASA’s Cassini probe has detected an unusual wobble in the rotation of Mimas, Saturn’s smallest moon. Using a computer model to study Mimas’s gravitational interactions with Saturn and tidal forces, geophysicist Alyssa Rhoden and colleagues have proposed that this wobble could be due to a liquid ocean moving beneath the moon’s icy surface. The researchers believe other moons should be examined to see if they too might have oceans hidden beneath their surfaces.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

• Rhoden and colleagues were the first to confirm that several of Saturn’s moons contain hidden oceans.

• Rhoden and colleagues created a new computer model that identifies moons with hidden oceans without needing to analyze the moons’ rotation.

• Research has failed to identify signs that there is an ocean hidden beneath the surface of Mimas.

• Research has revealed that an oddity in the rotation of Mimas could be explained by an ocean hidden beneath itssurface.

Multiple Choice

In 2022, researchers rediscovered ancient indigenous glyphs, or drawings, on the walls of a cave in Alabama. The cave’s ceiling was only a few feet high, affording no position from which the glyphs, being as wide as ten feet, could be viewed or photographed in their entirety. However, the researchers used a technique called photogrammetry to assemble numerous photos of the walls into a 3D model. They then worked with representatives of tribes originally from the region,including the Chickasaw Nation, to understand the significance of the animal and humanoid figures adorning the cave.

According to the text, what challenge did the researchers have to overcome to examine the glyphs?

• The cave was so remote that the researchers couldn’t easily reach it.

• The researchers were unable to create a 3D model of the cave.

• Some of the glyphs were so faint that they couldn’t be photographed.

• The cave’s dimensions prevented the researchers from fully viewing the glyphs.