SAT Reading & Writing: Boundaries

In botany, the term “resurrection plant” refers to any species of plant that seems to come back to life after appearing fully withered and dead. Resurrection plants do not truly return from the dead, ______ are simply exhibiting an adaptation that allows them to survive in very dry conditions for extended periods.

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

• however they

• however, they

• however. They

• however but they

Answer explanation

This is the best choice. The clause “resurrection plants…however” and the clause “they…periods” are both independent, so making them into two separate sentences is grammatically correct.

In discussing Mary Shelley’s 1818 epistolary novel Frankenstein, literary theorist Gayatri Spivak directs the reader’s attention to the character of Margaret Saville. As Spivak points out, Saville is not the protagonist of Shelley’s ______ as the recipient of the letters that frame the book’s narrative, she’s the “occasion” of it.

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

• novel

• novel,

• novel; rather,

• novel, rather,

Answer explanation

This is the best choice. “As Spivak…novel” is independent, and “rather, as the recipient…it” is also independent, so it’s correct to link them with a semicolon.

In paleontology, the term “Elvis taxon” gets applied to a newly identified living species that was once presumed to be extinct. Like an Elvis impersonator who might bear a striking resemblance to the late musical icon Elvis Presley himself, an Elvis taxon is not the real thing, ______ is a misidentified look-alike.

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

• however, it

• however it

• however but it

• however. It

With some 16,000 in attendance, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and ______ or FESTAC ‘77, as the event was more commonly known—became the largest pan-African event on record. FESTAC drew people from around the world to Lagos, Nigeria, for a monthlong celebration of Black and African art, scholarship, and activism.

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

• Culture:

• Culture,

• Culture

• Culture—

In a 2016 study, Eastern Washington University psychologist Amani El-Alayli found that, among the study participants who experienced frisson (a physiological response akin to goosebumps or getting the chills) while listening to music, there was one personality trait that they scored particularly ______ openness to experience.

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

• high on;

• high on

• high. On

• high on:

Using satellite remote sensing, Dr. Catherine Nakalembe, director of NASA’s Harvest Africa initiative, gathers important data on crop health. Nakalembe doesn’t just compile the ______ she also shares her findings with African farmers, enabling them to make data-driven decisions about managing critical food crops.

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

• information, though,

• information; though

• information, though;

• information though,

The field of geological oceanography owes much to American ______ Marie Tharp, a pioneering oceanographic cartographer whose detailed topographical maps of the ocean floor and its multiple rift valleys helped garner acceptance for the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift.

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

• geologist

• geologist:

• geologist;

• geologist,

Quantum particles of light—photons—provide an unhackable means of transmitting encryption keys over networks, as attempts to observe particles in quantum states will invariably alter the particles ______ dismantle any information they transmit.

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

• and in the process--

• and, in the process

• and in the process,

• and, in the process,

Answer explanation

This is the best choice. It uses paired punctuation in the form of two commas to set off the nonessential phrase "in the process".

People who experience chromesthesia report seeing different colors and shapes when they hear different sounds. Interestingly, studies have identified two groups of people that chromesthesia is particularly ______ musicians and composers.

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

• common in:

• common in

• common. In

• common in;

Researcher Lin Zhi developed a process for increasing the tensile strength—measured in gigapascals, or GPa—of silkworm ______ dissolving and reweaving the silk in a solution of iron metal ions, zinc, and sugar, Zhi increased the amount of force required to stretch it from approximately 0.5 GPa to 2 GPa.

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

• silk and by

• silk by

• silk, by

• silk. By

Answer explanation

This is the best answer. The independent clauses "Researcher Lin Zhi… silk" and "by dissolving… 2GPa" can be grammatically separated by a period. They can stand alone as sentences, and this is the only choice that lets them do that.