SAT Prep Quiz

"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

"Lê Lương Minh became the thirteenth secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in January 2013, making ______ the first time the organization would appoint a Vietnamese leader."

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

• these

• those

• this

• some

"A turtle shell appears external to the animal, protecting its body like armor. ______ the shell is often incorrectly assumed to be an exoskeleton, a rigid outer casing like that of a crustacean or an insect, when in fact it is an endoskeleton, a part of the turtle’s internal bone structure, more akin to a spine or a pair of ribs."

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

• That being said,

• However,

• For instance,

• Hence,

"In the music video for the song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel, the singer lists 118 political and cultural references. Such iconic references, cited in rapid and frenetic procession by the musician, who is seated impassively at a dinner table, ______ key moments and personalities of the twentieth century."

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

• represents

• has represented

• was representing

• represent

"What makes the theremin a unique musical instrument? You play it without touching it. When you place your ______ the pitch will shift as your hands move through the air. "

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

• hand’s between the two antenna’s,

• hands between the two antennas,

• hands’ between the two antennas’,

• hands’ between the two antennas,

"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?

• exploited

• hypothesized

• redefined

• ignored

"A team of paleontologists has found a rich fossil deposit near Gulgong, Australia. The fossils are so well preserved that the team has been able to ______ detailed information about the life forms that left them behind, such as color patterns and how they interacted with other species."

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

• occupy

• hoard

• reserve

• obtain

" “Poetry” is a 1919 poem by Marianne Moore. The poem highlights an ambivalence toward poetry as the speaker acknowledges its merits while also expressing a sense of displeasure, writing ___."

Which quotation from “Poetry” most effectively illustrates the claim?

• “nor is it valid / to discriminate against ‘business documents and / school-books’; all these phenomena are important.”

• “One must make a distinction / however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the result is not / poetry”

• “when [poems] become so derivative as to become unintelligible, the / same thing may be said for all of us—that we / do not admire what / we cannot understand.”

• “Reading [poetry], however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers that there is in / it after all, a place for the genuine.”

"A harpsichord may look just like a piano, but the difference between the two instruments is easy to hear. When a harpsichord’s keys are pressed, the strings inside the ______ are plucked, not struck.'

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

• instrument:

• instrument

• instrument-

• instrument,

"When they were first introduced to western Europe from Byzantium in the eleventh century, table forks were met with much resistance. The Bishop of Ostia, St. Peter Damian, condemned table forks because he considered ______ dangerous and unnecessary luxury items."

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

• them

• this

• that

• it