PSAT Prep: Reading & Writing

The following text is adapted from Amy Lowell’s 1912 poem “Summer.” It is summer, glorious, deep-toned summer, The very crown of nature’s changing year When all her surging life is at its full. To me alone it is a time of pause, A void and silent space between two worlds, When inspiration lags, and feeling sleeps, Gathering strength for efforts yet to come. As used in the text, what does the phrase “a void” most nearly mean?

• A) A useless

• B) An empty

• C) A forgotten

• D) An incomplete

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In the 1960s, Sam Gilliam, a Black painter from the southern United States, became the first artist to drape painted canvases into flowing shapes. He later explored a different style, ______ quilt-like paintings inspired by the patchwork quilting tradition of Black communities in the South. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

• A) predicting

• B) refusing

• C) hiding

• D) creating

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Studying how workload affects productivity, Maryam Kouchaki and colleagues found that people who chose to do relatively easy tasks first were less ______ compared to those who did hard tasks first. Finishing easy tasks gave participants a sense of accomplishment, but those who tackled hard tasks first actually became more skilled and productive workers over time. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

• secretive

• efficient

• outgoing

• unsympathetic

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The following text is from Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. The narrator is being driven in a carriage through a remote region at night. "The baying of the wolves sounded nearer and nearer, as though they were closing round on us from every side. I grew dreadfully afraid, and the horses shared my fear. The driver, however, was not in the least disturbed; he kept turning his head to left and right, but I could not see anything through the darkness." As used in the text, what does the word “disturbed” most nearly mean?

• Disorganized

• Alarmed

• Offended

• Interrupted

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The following text is adapted from Sadakichi Hartmann’s 1894 short story “Magnolia Blossoms.” The narrator is standing on the deck of a boat. "What a night it was! My soul had left its body to lose itself in the wild unrestrained beauty around me—from where it came—and only left a trembling suggestion of its existence within me. The other passengers moved around me like shadows, and again and again my eyes drank in all the glory and wealth of that night." As used in the text, what does the word “suggestion” most nearly mean?

• Trace

• Opinion

• Dispute

• Command

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The following text is from Lucy Maud Montgomery’s 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables. Anne, an eleven-year-old girl, has come to live on a farm with a woman named Marilla in Nova Scotia, Canada. Anne reveled in the world of color about her. “Oh, Marilla,” she exclaimed one Saturday morning, coming dancing in with her arms full of gorgeous boughs, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn’t it? Look at these maple branches. Don’t they give you a thrill—several thrills? I’m going to decorate my room with them.” “Messy things,” said Marilla, whose aesthetic sense was not noticeably developed. “You clutter up your room entirely too much with out-of-doors stuff, Anne. Bedrooms were made to sleep in.” Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

• To demonstrate that Anne has a newly developed appreciation of nature

• To describe an argument that Anne and Marilla often have

• To emphasize Marilla’s disapproval of how Anne has decorated her room

• To show that Anne and Marilla have very different personalities

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Early in the Great Migration of 1910–1970, which involved the mass migration of Black people from the southern to the northern United States, political activist and Chicago Defender writer Fannie Barrier Williams was instrumental in helping other Black women establish themselves in the North. Many women hoped for better employment opportunities in the North because, in the South, they faced much competition for domestic employment and men tended to get agricultural work. To aid with this transition, Barrier Williams helped secure job placement in the North for many women before they even began their journey. Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

• To introduce and illustrate Barrier Williams’s integral role in supporting other Black women as their circumstances changed during part of the Great Migration

• To establish that Barrier Williams used her professional connections to arrange employment for other Black women, including jobs with the Chicago Defender

• To demonstrate that the factors that motivated the start of the Great Migration were different for Black women than they were for Black men

• To provide an overview of the employment challenges faced by Black women in the agricultural and domestic spheres in the southern United States

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“How lifelike are they?” Many computer animators prioritize this question as they strive to create ever more realistic environments and lighting. Generally, while characters in computer-animated films appear highly exaggerated, environments and lighting are carefully engineered to mimic reality. But some animators, such as Pixar’s Sanjay Patel, are focused on a different question. Rather than asking first whether the environments and lighting they’re creating are convincingly lifelike, Patel and others are asking whether these elements reflect their films’ unique stories. Which choice best describes the function of the underlined question in the text as a whole?

• It reflects a primary goal that many computer animators have for certain components of the animations they produce.

• It represents a concern of computer animators who are more interested in creating unique backgrounds and lighting effects than realistic ones.

• It conveys the uncertainty among many computer animators about how to create realistic animations using current technology.

• It illustrates a reaction that audiences typically have to the appearance of characters created by computer animators.

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The field of study called affective neuroscience seeks instinctive, physiological causes for feelings such as pleasure or displeasure. Because these sensations are linked to a chemical component (for example, the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain when one receives or expects a reward), they can be said to have a partly physiological basis. These processes have been described in mammals, but Jingnan Huang and his colleagues have recently observed that some behaviors of honeybees (such as foraging) are also motivated by a dopamine-based signaling process. What choice best describes the main purpose of the text?

• It describes an experimental method of measuring the strength of physiological responses in humans.

• It illustrates processes by which certain insects can express how they are feeling.

• It summarizes a finding suggesting that some mechanisms in the brains of certain insects resemble mechanisms in mammalian brains.

• It presents research showing that certain insects and mammals behave similarly when there is a possibility of a reward for their actions.

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In 2019, 20 previously unknown moons were confirmed to be orbiting Saturn. Three of the moons have prograde orbits (orbiting in the direction the planet spins), and the other 17 have retrograde orbits (orbiting in the opposite direction of the planet’s spin). All but one of the 20 moons are thought to be remnants of bodies that orbited Saturn until they broke apart in collisions. Although the one exceptional moon orbits in the same direction as the planet’s spin, its orbit is highly eccentric compared to the rest, which may suggest that it has a different origin than the other 19 moons. Based on the text, which choice best describes the moon with the eccentric orbit?

• It doesn’t have a retrograde orbit, but it likely has the same origin as the moons with retrograde orbits.

• Its orbit is so tilted with respect to the other moons’ orbits that it’s neither prograde nor retrograde.

• It has a prograde orbit that is likely the result of having collided with another body orbiting Saturn.

• It has a prograde orbit and may not be a remnant of an earlier body that orbited Saturn.

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