SAT Practice Test #3 (part 3: grammar)

If some artifacts recovered from excavations of the settlement of Kuulo Kataa, in modern Ghana, date from the thirteenth century CE, that may lend credence to claims that the settlement was founded before or around that time. There is other evidence, If some artifacts recovered from excavations of the settlement of Kuulo Kataa, in modern Ghana, date from the thirteenth century CE, that may lend credence to claims that the settlement was founded before or around that time. There is other evidence, however, strongly supporting a fourteenth century CE founding date for Kuulo Kataa. If both the artifact dates and the fourteenth century CE founding date are correct, that would imply that _______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• artifacts from the fourteenth century CE are more commonly recovered than are artifacts from the thirteenth century CE.

• the artifacts originated elsewhere and eventually reached Kuulo Kataa through trade or migration.

• Kuulo Kataa was founded by people from a different region than had previously been assumed.

• excavations at Kuulo Kataa may have inadvertently damaged some artifacts dating to the fourteenth century CE. excavations at Kuulo Kataa may have inadvertently damaged some artifacts dating to the fourteenth century CE. excavations at Kuulo Kataa may have inadvertently damaged some artifacts dating to the fourteenth century CE.

Answer explanation

Choice B is the best answer because it most logically completes the text’s

discussion of artifacts and Kuulo Kataa’s founding date. If it were true both that

Kuulo Kataa was founded in the fourteenth century CE and that artifacts found

in excavations of the settlement are from the thirteenth century CE, it would

be reasonable to conclude that the artifacts weren’t created in the Kuulo Kataa

settlement. That would suggest, then, that the artifacts originated somewhere

else and eventually reached the settlement through trading or as people

migrated.

Tags

CCSS.RI.9-10.1

CCSS.RI.9-10.2

CCSS.RI.9-10.8

CCSS.W.9-10.9

A team of biologists led by Jae-Hoon Jung, Antonio D. Barbosa, and Stephanie Hutin investigated the mechanism that allows Arabidopsis thaliana (thale A team of biologists led by Jae-Hoon Jung, Antonio D. Barbosa, and Stephanie Hutin investigated the mechanism that allows Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) plants to accelerate flowering at high cress) plants to accelerate flowering at high temperatures. They replaced the protein ELF3 in the plants with a similar protein found in another species (stiff brome) that, unlike A. thaliana, displays no cress) plants to accelerate flowering at high temperatures. They replaced the protein ELF3 in the plants with a similar protein found in another species (stiff brome) that, unlike A. thaliana, displays no temperatures. They replaced the protein ELF3 in the plants with a similar protein found in another species (stiff brome) that, unlike A. thaliana, displays no acceleration in flowering with increased temperature. A comparison of unmodified A. thaliana plants with the altered plants showed no difference in flowering at 22° Celsius, but at 27° Celsius, the unmodified plants exhibited accelerated flowering while the altered ones did not, which suggests that _______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• temperature-sensitive accelerated flowering is unique to A. thaliana.

• A. thaliana increases ELF3 production as temperatures rise.

• ELF3 enables A. thaliana to respond to increased temperatures.

• temperatures of at least 220 Celsius are required for A. thaliana to flower.

Answer explanation

Choice C is the best answer because it most logically completes the text’s discussion of accelerated flowering in A. thaliana plants. The text indicates that A. thaliana plants show accelerated flowering at high temperatures. To investigate the mechanism for this accelerated flowering, biologists replaced the ELF3 protein in one group of A. thaliana plants with a similar protein found in another plant species that doesn’t show accelerated flowering. The team then compared these modified plants to A. thaliana plants that retained their original ELF3 protein. The text states that the two samples of plants showed no difference in flowering at 22° Celsius, but at 27° Celsius the unaltered plants with ELF3 showed

accelerated flowering while the plants without ELF3 didn’t. If accelerated flowering at the higher temperature occurred in the A. thaliana plants with ELF3 but not in the plants without the protein, then ELF3 likely enables A. thaliana to respond to increased temperatures.

Tags

CCSS.RI.9-10.1

CCSS.RI.9-10.2

CCSS.RI.9-10.3

A member of the Cherokee Nation, Mary Golda Ross is renowned for her contributions to NASA's Planetary Flight Handbook, which _______ detailed mathematical guidance for missions to Mars and Venus.

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

• provided

• having provided

• to provide

• providing

Answer explanation

Choice A is the best answer. The convention being tested is the use of finite and nonfinite verb forms within a sentence. Relative clauses, such as the one beginning with “which,” require a finite verb, a verb that can function as the main verb of a clause. This choice correctly supplies the clause with the finite past tense verb “provided.”

Tags

CCSS.L.9-10.1

Typically, underlines, scribbles, and notes left in the margins by a former owner lower a book’s _______ when the former owner is a famous poet like Walt Whitman, such markings, known as marginalia, can be a gold mine to literary scholars.

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

• value, but

• value

• value,

• value but

Answer explanation

Choice A is the best answer. The convention being tested is the coordination of clauses within a sentence. This choice correctly uses a comma and the coordinating conjunction “but” to join a main clause (“Typically...value”) and a subordinate clause (“when...Whitman”) that precedes a main clause (“such... scholars”).

Tags

CCSS.L.9-10.1

CCSS.L.9-10.2

After the United Kingdom began rolling out taxes equivalent to a few cents on single-use plastic grocery bags in 2011, plastic-bag consumption decreased by up to ninety _______ taxes are subject to what economists call the “rebound effect”: as the change became normalized, plastic-bag use started to creep back up.

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

• percent, such

• percent and such

• percent. Such

• percent such

Answer explanation

Choice C is the best answer. The convention being tested is punctuation use between sentences. In this choice, the period after “percent” is used correctly to mark the boundary between one sentence (“After... percent”) and another (“Such...up”).

Tags

CCSS.L.9-10.1

CCSS.L.9-10.2

CCSS.W.9-10.4

As British scientist Peter Whibberley has observed, “the Earth is not a very good timekeeper.” Earth’s slightly irregular rotation rate means that measurements of time must be periodically adjusted. Specifically, an extra “leap second” (the 86,401st second of the day) is _______ time based on the planet’s rotation lags a full nine-tenths of a second behind time kept by precise atomic clocks.

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

• added, whenever

• added; whenever

• added. Whenever

• added whenever

Answer explanation

Choice D is the best answer. The convention being tested is punctuation between

a verb and a preposition. When, as in this case, a verb (“is added”) is immediately

followed by a preposition (“whenever”), no punctuation is needed.

Tags

CCSS.L.9-10.1

CCSS.L.9-10.2

CCSS.L.9-10.2A

Bengali author Toru Dutt's A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields (1876), a volume of English translations of French poems, _______ scholars’ understanding of the transnational and multilingual contexts in which Dutt lived and worked.

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

• has enhanced

• are enhancing

• have enhanced

• enhance

Answer explanation

Choice A is the best answer. The convention being tested is subject-verb agreement. The singular verb “has enhanced” agrees in number with the singular subject “A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields,” which is the title of a book of poems.

Tags

CCSS.L.9-10.1

Journalists have dubbed Gil Scott-Heron the “godfather of rap,” a title that has appeared in hundreds of articles about him since the 1990s. ScottHeron himself resisted the godfather _______ feeling that it didn’t encapsulate his devotion to the broader African American blues music tradition as well as “bluesologist,” the moniker he preferred.

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

• nickname, however

• nickname, however;

• nickname, however,

• nickname; however,

Answer explanation

Choice C is the best answer. The convention being tested is punctuation use between a main clause and two supplementary elements. In this choice, the commas after “nickname” and “however” are correctly used to separate the supplementary adverb “however” from the main clause (“Scott-Heron... nickname”) on one side and the supplementary participial phrase (“feeling...

bluesologist”) on the other.

Tags

CCSS.L.9-10.1

CCSS.L.9-10.2

CCSS.L.9-10.2A

CCSS.L.9-10.4

From afar, African American fiber artist Bisa Butler’s portraits look like paintings, their depictions of human faces, bodies, and clothing so intricate that it seems only a fine brush could have rendered them. When viewed up close, however, the portraits reveal themselves to be _______ stitching barely visible among the thousands of pieces of printed, microcut fabric.

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

• quilts, and the

• quilts, the

• quilts; the

• quilts. The

Answer explanation

Choice B is the best answer. The convention being tested is punctuation use between a main clause and a supplementary phrase. This choice correctly uses a comma to mark the boundary between the main clause (“the portraits...quilts”) and the supplementary noun phrase (“the stitching...fabric”) that provides a further description of how the portraits can be identified as quilts.

Tags

CCSS.L.9-10.1

CCSS.L.9-10.2

CCSS.L.9-10.2A

Most conifers (trees belonging to the phylum Coniferophyta) are evergreen. That is, they keep their green leaves or needles year-round. However, not all conifer species are evergreen. Larch trees, ______ lose their needles every fall.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

• for instance,

• nevertheless,

• meanwhile,

• in addition,

Answer explanation

Choice A is the best answer. “For instance” logically signals that the information in this sentence—that larch trees lose their needles every fall—is an example supporting the claim in the previous sentence (that not all conifer species keep their leaves or needles year-round).

Tags

CCSS.W.9-10.2C