SAT Practice Test Questions

As used in the text, what does the word “trace” most nearly mean?

• Evidence

• Blemish

• Amount

• Sketch

Many ancient sculptures of people’s heads are missing their noses. This is because the nose is the most _______ part of a sculpture of a person’s head. It is delicate and sticks out from the rest of the sculpture, making it especially easy to break. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

• recognizable

• fragile

• common

• sophisticated

K.D. Leka and colleagues found that the Sun’s corona provides an advance indication of solar flares—intense eruptions of electromagnetic radiation that emanate from active regions in the Sun’s photosphere and can interfere with telecommunications on Earth. Preceding a flare, the corona temporarily exhibits increased brightness above the region where the flare is _______. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

• antecedent

• impending

• innocuous

• perpetual

To demonstrate that the integrity of underground metal pipes can be assessed without unearthing the pipes, engineer Aroba Saleem and colleagues _______ the tendency of some metals’ internal magnetic fields to alter under stress: the team showed that such alterations can be measured from a distance and can reveal concentrations of stress in the pipes. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

• hypothesized

• discounted

• redefined

• exploited

Despite the generalizations about human behavior they have produced, many studies of behavioral psychology have used highly unrepresentative subject pools: students at the colleges and universities where the researchers are employed. To _______ this situation, it is necessary to actively recruit subjects from diverse backgrounds and locations. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

• sanction

• ameliorate

• rationalize

• postulate

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

• To compare basketball with other sports

• To provide details of how to play basketball

• To state how players will be chosen for the basketball team

• To explain why the narrator thinks she might make the basketball team

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

• To compare Spanish-language newspapers published in Texas today with ones published there during the late 1800s

• To explain that Spanish-language newspapers thrived in Texas and especially in El Paso during the late 1800s

• To argue that Spanish-language newspapers published in El Paso influenced the ones published in San Antonio during the late 1800s

• To explain why Spanish-language newspapers published in Texas were so popular in Mexico during the late 1800s

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

• To contrast the conditions in the Atacama Desert with those on Mars

• To explain why many life-forms cannot survive in the Atacama Desert

• To indicate why astrobiologists choose to conduct research in the Atacama Desert

• To describe certain limitations to conducting scientific study in the Atacama Desert

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?

• It presents an objection to the argument of Guerra et al. about transportation mode choice in urban areas of Mexico.

• It explains why it is challenging to influence transit ridership solely by altering characteristics of a transit system.

• It illustrates the claim that a characteristic associated with high transit ridership in Mexico City is not associated with high transit ridership elsewhere.

• It substantiates the assertion that population density, the spatial distribution of jobs, and demographic characteristics are important factors in transportation mode choice.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

• It describes a phenomenon that scientists do not fully understand, explains a research team’s hypothesis about that phenomenon, and then describes a finding that led the team to refine the hypothesis.

• It introduces an unresolved scientific question, presents a research team’s hypothesis pertaining to that question, and then describes an observation made by the team that conflicts with that hypothesis.

• It discusses a process that scientists are somewhat unclear about, introduces competing hypotheses about that process, and then explains how a research team concluded that one of those hypotheses is likely correct.

• It explains a hypothesis that has been the subject of scientific debate, discusses how a research team tested that hypothesis, and then presents data the team collected that validate the hypothesis.