SAT Timed Quiz 9

Artist Justin Favela explained that he wanted to reclaim the importance of the piñata as a symbol in Latinx culture. To do so, he created numerous sculptures from strips of tissue paper, which is similar to the material used to create piñatas. In 2017, Favela created an impressive life-size piñata-like sculpture of the Gypsy Rose lowrider car, which was displayed at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California. The Gypsy Rose lowrider was famously driven by Jesse Valadez, an early president of the Los Angeles Imperials Car Club.

According to the text, which piece of Favela's art was on display in the Petersen Automotive Museum in 2017?

• A. A painting of Los Angeles

• B. A painting of a piñata

• C. A sculpture of Jesse Valadez

• D. A sculpture of a lowrider car

The Milky Way galaxy is composed of millions of stars in a relatively flat structure containing a thin disk and a thick disk. Based on computer simulations and analysis of data on the brightness, position, and chemical composition of about 250,000 stars in the thick disk (collected from two telescopes, one in China and one orbiting in space), astrophysicists Maosheng Xiang and Hans-Walter Rix claim that the thick disk of the Milky Way formed in two distinct phases rather than a single one.

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

• A. There's an age difference of about 2 billion years between certain stars in the thick disk.

• B. The stars in the Milky Way tend to have very similar chemical compositions.

• C. The thin disk contains about twice as many stars that can be seen from Earth as the thick disk does.

• D. The telescopes used by the researchers have detected stars of similar ages in galaxies other than the Milky Way.

In the United States, firms often seek incentives from municipal governments to expand to those municipalities. A team of political scientists hypothesized that municipalities are much more likely to respond to firms and offer incentives if expansions can be announced in time to benefit local elected officials than if they can't. The team contacted officials in thousands of municipalities, inquiring about incentives for a firm looking to expand and indicating that the firm would announce its expansion on a date either just before or just after the next election.

Which choice best describes data from the graph that weaken the team's hypothesis?

• A. A large majority of the municipalities that received an inquiry mentioning plans for an announcement before the next election didn't respond to the inquiry.

• B. The proportion of municipalities that responded to the inquiry or offered incentives didn't substantially differ across the announcement timing conditions.

• C. Only around half the municipalities that responded to inquiries mentioning plans for an announcement before the next election offered incentives.

• D. Of the municipalities that received an inquiry mentioning plans for an announcement date after the next election, more than 1,200 didn't respond and only around 100 offered incentives.

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.

Off-off-Broadway theaters emerged in the late 1950s as a rebellion against mainstream Broadway theaters in New York, freeing artists to create productions that were more experimental than typical Broadway shows. One such artist was playwright María Irene Fornés. Working with off-off Broadway theaters enabled Fornés not only to direct her own plays but also to direct them exactly as she intended them to be staged, regardless of how strange the results might have seemed to audiences accustomed to Broadway shows. In this way, Fornés ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• A. would have been more famous if she had created plays that were mainstream instead of experimental.

• B. recognized that staging an off-off-Broadway play was more complicated than staging a Broadway play.

• C. wrote plays that would have been too expensive to produce if someone else had directed the production.

• D. illustrates the artistic opportunity offered by off-off Broadway theaters.

Researchers Suchithra Rajendran and Maximilian Popfinger modeled varying levels of passenger redistribution from short-haul flights (flights of 50 to 210 minutes, from takeoff to landing) to high-speed rail trips. Planes travel faster than trains, but air travel typically requires 3 hours of lead time for security, baggage handling, and boarding that rail travel doesn't, so short-haul routes take similar amounts of time by air and by rail. However, the model suggests that as rail passenger volumes approach current capacity limits, long lead times emerge. Therefore, for rail to remain a viable alternative to short-haul flights, ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• A. rail systems should offer fewer long-haul routes and airlines should offer more long-haul routes.

• B. rail systems may need to schedule additional trains for these routes.

• C. security, baggage handling, and boarding procedures used by airlines may need to be implemented for rail systems.

• D. passengers who travel by rail for these routes will need to accept that lead times will be similar to those for air travel.

The following text is from Booth Tarkington's 1921 novel Alice Adams.

Mrs. Adams had always been fond of vases, she said, and every year her husband's Christmas present to her was a vase of one sort or another—whatever the clerk showed him, marked at about twelve or fourteen dollars.

As used in the text, what does the word "marked" most nearly mean?

• A. stained

• B. staged

• C. watched

• D. priced

The following text is adapted from Zora Neale Hurston's 1921 short story "John Redding Goes to Sea." John wants to travel far beyond the village where he lives near his mother, Matty.

[John] had on several occasions attempted to reconcile his mother to the notion, but found it a difficult task. Matty always took refuge in self-pity and tears. Her son's desires were incomprehensible to her, that was all.

As used in the text, what does the phrase "reconcile his mother to" most nearly mean?

• A. get his mother to accept

• B. get his mother to apologize for

• C. get his mother to match

• D. get his mother to reunite with

The following text is adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1837 story "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment." The main character, a physician, is experimenting with rehydrating a dried flower.

At first [the rose] lay lightly on the surface of the fluid, appearing to imbibe none of its moisture. Soon, however, a singular change began to be visible. The crushed and dried petals stirred and assumed a deepening tinge of crimson, as if the flower were reviving from a deathlike slumber.

As used in the text, what does the phrase "a singular" most nearly mean?

• A. a lonely

• B. a disagreeable

• C. an acceptable

• D. an extraordinary

Visual artist Gabriela Alemán states that the bold colors of comics, pop art, and Latinx culture have always fascinated her. This passion for the rich history and colors of her Latinx community translates into the ______ artworks she produces.

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

• A. unknown

• B. reserved

• C. definite

• D. vivid