SAT Reading and Writing

“Mr. Cornelius Johnson, Office-Seeker” is a 1900 short story by Paul Laurence Dunbar. In the story, the narrator describes Mr.Cornelius Johnson’s appearance as conveying his exaggerated sense of his importance: ______

Which quotation from “Mr. Cornelius Johnson, Office-Seeker” most effectively illustrates the claim?

• “He carried himself always as if he were passing under his own triumphal arch.”

• “The grey Prince Albert was scrupulously buttoned about his form, and a shiny top hat replaced the felt of the afternoon.”

• “It was a beautiful day in balmy May and the sun shone pleasantly on Mr. Cornelius Johnson’s very spruce Prince Albertsuit of grey as he alighted from the train in Washington.”

  D.

• “Mr. Cornelius Johnson always spoke in a large and important tone.”

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Text 1

Films and television shows commonly include a long list of credits naming the people involved in a production. Credit sequences may not be exciting, but they generally ensure that everyone’s contributions are duly acknowledged. Because they are highly standardized, film and television credits are also valuable to anyone researching the careers of pioneering cast and crew members who have worked in the mediums.

Text 2

Video game scholars face a major challenge in the industry’s failure to consistently credit the artists, designers, and other contributors involved in making video games. Without a reliable record of which people worked on which games, questions about the medium’s development can be difficult to answer, and the accomplishments of all but its best-known innovators can be difficult to trace.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 1 most likely respond to the discussion in Text 2?

A.

• By recommending that the scholars mentioned in Text 2 consider employing the methods regularly used by film and television researchers

• By pointing out that credits have a different intended purpose in film and television than in the medium addressed by the scholars mentioned in Text 2

• By suggesting that the scholars mentioned in Text 2 rely more heavily on credits as a source of information than film and television researchers do

• By observing that a widespread practice in film and television largely prevents the kind of problem faced by the scholars mentioned in Text 2

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Nan Gao and her team conducted multiple surveys to determine participants’ levels of comfort in a room where the temperature was regulated by a commercial climate control system. Participants filled out surveys several times a day to indicate their level of comfort on a scale from −3

(very cold) to +3

(very hot), with 0 indicating neutral (neither warm nor cool), and to indicate how they would prefer the temperature to be adjusted. The table shows three participants’ responses in one of the surveys. According to the table, all three participants wanted the room to be cooler, ______

Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement?

• and they each reported the same level of comfort.

• even though each participant’s ratings varied throughout the day.

• but participant 20 reported feeling significantly colder than the other two participants did.

• but participant 1 reported feeling warmer than the other two participants did.

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Detroit natives Timothy Paule and Nicole Lindsey have combined their two passions, Detroit and beekeeping, to improve thehealth of their city’s fl owers and other vegetation. In 2017, the couple converted a vacant lot in the city into an ______

in the years that followed they acquired nine additional lots and established more than 35 hives.

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

• apiary,

• apiary, and

• apiary and

• apiary

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Stephen Hannock’s luminous landscape paintings are appealing to viewers but have elicited little commentary from contemporary critics, a phenomenon that may be due to the very fact that the paintings seem so ______

. Many critics focus their attention on art that is cryptic or overtly challenging.

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

• innovative

• subversive

• profound

• accessible

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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?

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

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

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

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

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Lying on the bank of the Yamuna River in northern India is one of the world's most famous and beautiful buildings - the Taj Mahal. Built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a burial home for his favorite consort, Arjumand Banu Bagam (known as Mumtaz Mahal, "the Elect of the Palace"), ___________ soon after her death in 1631. The mausoleum was completed by 1643, and the surrounding complex of buildings and gardens was completed about 10 yeas later.

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

• construction of this ornate tomb started

• this ornate tomb begin being constructed

• plans for this ornate tomb's construction started

• this ornate tomb's construction started

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Some psychologists claim that humans have developed a unique nervous system that is capable of recognizing different emotional expressions out of necessity, due to the weight of such recognition in human communication. To test this theory, researchers showed photographs of people displaying emotions of joy, anger, and surprise to as group of trained pigeons. The birds were not only able to distinguish between expressions but were also able to correctly match each image to photographs of other human faces displaying the same expressions. While the experiment's results do not conclusively prove that the pigeons can comprehend the meaning of the tested expressions, __________

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• the results do cast upon the theory proposed by the psychologists.

• psychologists will likely reject the attempt to draw conclusions, about humans based on a study about birds.

• the results do suggest that the nervous systems of humans and birds are essentially identical.

• the results prove that emotions are important in human communication.

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Ludonarrative dissonance is a term used in the study and design of video games. It refers to an ______ the narrative of a game's story, told through cut-scenes of dialogue, and the narrative created by the gameplay. For example, the story might ostensibly be about a thief struggling with the morality of stealing to provide for her family. However, if the fun of gameplay is centered on stealth, sneaking past guards to rob a safe or steal famous artwork, then a clash is created between what the story and gameplay are saying about theft.

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

• ambivalent toward

• expunging of

• incompatability between

• objectification of

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The following text is adapted from L.M. Montgomery's 1926 novel The Blue Castle. Throughout the story, Mrs. Frederick, refers to her adult daughter Valancy by the nickname Doss.

[Valancy] marched to the tool-room in the barn for her garden knife and she went at the rosebush viciously. a few minutes later horrified Mrs. Frederick came out to the verandah and beheld her daughter slashing insanely among the rosebuds boughs. Half of them were already strewn on the walk. The bush looked sadly dismantled.

"Doss, what on earth are you doing? Have you gone crazy?"

"No,", said Valancy. She meant to say it defiantly, but habit was too strong for her. She said it deprecatingly. "I - I just made up my mind to cut this bush down. It is no good. It never blooms - never will bloom."

"That is no reason for destroying it, " said Mrs. Frederick sternly. "It was a beautiful bush and quite ornamental. You have made a sorry-0lookiing thing of it... Really, I'm surprised at you. And to do it without consulting me!"

Based on the text, which of the following best describes Valancy's usual way of interacting with her mother?

• Rebelliously

• Amicably

• Argumentatively

• Submissively

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