SAT RW Test 2

Martin Dančák, Wewin Tjiasmanto, and colleagues have identified a new carnivorous plant species (Nepenthes pudica) in Indonesia. Like other carnivorous plants, N. pudica has pitfall traps, or pitchers, that capture prey, but unlike others, the pitchers of N. pudica are located underground. The researchers unearthed the new species on fairly dry ridges with surfaces that host few other plants and animals. Therefore, the researchers hypothesize that the N. pudica species likely ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• A. is buried by nearby animals as they forage along the ridges for food.

• B. evolved to have underground traps to access more prey than would surface traps.

• C. formed pitchers early in development to absorb more moisture.

• D. represents one of many undiscovered carnivorous plant species in the region.

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Gestures in painting are typically thought of as bold, expressive brushstrokes. In the 1970s, American painter Jack Whitten built a 12-foot (3.7-meter) tool he named the "developer" to apply paint to an entire canvas in one motion, resulting in his series of "slab" paintings from that decade. Whitten described this process as making an entire painting in "one gesture," signaling a clear departure from the prevalence of gestures in his work from the 1960s. Some art historians claim this shift represents "removing gesture" from the process. Therefore, regardless of whether using the developer constitutes a gesture, both Whitten and these art historians likely agree that ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• A. any tool that a painter uses to create an artwork is capable of creating gestures.

• B. Whitten's work from the 1960s exhibits many more gestures than his work from the 1970s does.

• C. Whitten became less interested in exploring the role of gesture in his work as his career progressed.

• D. Whitten's work from the 1960s is much more realistic than his work from the 1970s is.

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As the name suggests, dramaturges originated in theater, where they continue to serve a variety of functions: conducting historical research for directors, compiling character biographies for actors, and perhaps most importantly, helping writers of plays and musicals to hone the works' stories and characters. Performance scholar Susan Manning observes that many choreographers, like playwrights and musical theater writers, are concerned with storytelling and characterization. In fact, some choreographers describe the dances they create as expressions of narrative through movement; it is therefore unsurprising that ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• A. some directors and actors rely too heavily on dramaturges to complete certain research tasks.

• B. choreographers developing dances with narrative elements frequently engage dramaturges to assist in refining those elements.

• C. dramaturges can have a profound impact on the artistic direction of plays and musicals.

• D. dances by choreographers who incorporate narrative elements are more accessible to audiences than dances by choreographers who do not.

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In many cultures, a handshake can create trust between people. Engineer Jo?o Avelino and his team are designing a robot to shake hands with a human in order to improve human-robot interactions. The robot hand adjusts its movements and pressure to better imitate the feel of a human hand. The researchers want the robot's handshake to feel realistic because ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• A. people are less likely to interact with robots that don't look like humans.

• B. it's easier to program a robot to perform handshakes than it is to program a robot to perform some other types of greetings.

• C. the robot in the researchers' study may have uses other than interacting with humans.

• D. lifelike handshakes may make people more comfortable interacting with robots.

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Disco remains one of the most ridiculed popular music genres of the late twentieth century. But as scholars have argued, the genre is far less superficial than many people believe. Take the case of disco icon Donna Summer: she may have been associated with popular songs about love and heartbreak (subjects hardly unique to disco, by the way), but like many Black women singers before her, much of her music also reflects concerns about community and identity. These concerns are present in many of the genre's greatest songs, and they generally don't require much digging to reveal.

What does the text most strongly suggest about the disco genre?

• A. It gave rise to a Black women's musical tradition that has endured even though the genre itself faded in the late twentieth century.

• B. It has been unjustly ignored by most scholars despite the importance of the themes addressed by many of the genre's songs.

• C. It has been unfairly dismissed for the inclusion of subject matter that is also found in other musical genres.

• D. It evolved over time from a superficial genre focused on romance to a genre focused on more serious concerns.

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The following text is adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel Treasure Island. Bill is a sailor staying at the Admiral Benbow, an inn run by the narrator's parents.

Every day when [Bill] came back from his stroll he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the road. At first we thought it was the want of company of his own kind that made him ask this question, but at last we began to see he was desirous to avoid them. When a seaman did [stay] at the Admiral Benbow (as now and then some did) he would look in at him through the curtained door before he entered the parlour; and he was always sure to be as silent as a mouse when any such was present.

According to the text, why does Bill regularly ask about "seafaring men"?

• A. He isn't sure that other guests at the inn will be welcoming of sailors.

• B. He's trying to secure a job as part of the crew on a new ship.

• C. He's hoping to find an old friend and fellow sailor.

• D. He doesn't want to encounter any other sailor unexpectedly.

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The following text is adapted from María Cristina Mena's 1914 short story "The Vine-Leaf."

It is a saying in the capital of Mexico that Dr. Malsufrido carries more family secrets under his hat than any archbishop. The doctor's hat is, appropriately enough, uncommonly capacious, rising very high, and sinking so low that it seems to be supported by his ears and eyebrows, and it has a furry look, as if it had been brushed the wrong way, which is perhaps what happens to it if it is ever brushed at all. When the doctor takes it off, the family secrets do not fly out like a flock of parrots, but remain nicely bottled up beneath a dome of old and highly polished ivory.

Based on the text, how do people in the capital of Mexico most likely regard Dr. Malsufrido?

• A. Few feel concerned that he will divulge their confidences.

• B. Many have come to tolerate him despite his disheveled appearance.

• C. Most would be unimpressed by him were it not for his professional expertise.

• D. Some dislike how freely he discusses his own family.

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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?

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

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

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

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

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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 in 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?

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

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

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

• D. 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.

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Investigative journalists research and report about fraud, corruption, public hazards, and more. The graph shows the number of investigative articles published in the Albuquerque Journal newspaper from 2010 to 2019. According to an analyst, although the number of investigative articles published in this newspaper has varied significantly over the period shown, the number overall has fallen since 2010.

Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to justify the underlined claim?

• A. The newspaper published approximately 1,000 investigative articles in 2010 and approximately 500 in 2019.

• B. The smallest annual number of investigative articles published in the newspaper during the period shown is approximately 1,600 in 2013.

• C. The greatest annual number of investigative articles published in the newspaper during the period shown is approximately 1,000 in 2017.

• D. The newspaper published approximately 1,000 investigative articles in 2010 and approximately 1,600 in 2013.

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