Question ID 5d122d45

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 5d122d45
Psychologists Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt have argued that experiencing awe—a sensation of reverence and
wonder typically brought on by perceiving something grand or powerful—can enable us to feel more connected to
others and thereby inspire us to act more altruistically. Keltner, along with Paul K. Piff, Pia Dietze, and colleagues, claims
to have found evidence for this effect in a recent study where participants were asked to either gaze up at exceptionally
tall trees in a nearby grove (reported to be a universally awe-inspiring experience) or stare at the exterior of a nearby,
nondescript building. After one minute, an experimenter deliberately spilled a box of pens nearby.

Which finding from the researchers’ study, if true, would most strongly support their claim?

Participants who had been looking at the trees helped the experimenter pick up significantly more pens than did
A. participants who had been looking at the building.

Participants who helped the experimenter pick up the pens used a greater number of positive words to describe the
B. trees and the building in a postexperiment survey than did participants who did not help the experimenter.

Participants who did not help the experimenter pick up the pens were significantly more likely to report having
C. experienced a feeling of awe, regardless of whether they looked at the building or the trees.

Participants who had been looking at the building were significantly more likely to notice that the experimenter had
D. dropped the pens than were participants who had been looking at the trees.
Question ID a95075c5
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: a95075c5

Mean Ratings for Patients after 21 Days

Mean rating for participants aware of Mean rating for participants in the
Measure taking a placebo control group

Global improvement 5.0 3.9

Symptom severity
92.00 46.00
reduction

Quality of life
11.4 5.4
improvement

To test whether a medication is effective, scientists compare outcomes for patients taking it and patients taking a
placebo (a medically inactive substance). Patients normally aren’t told they’re receiving a placebo, but a research team
conducted a study to see if there might be a medical benefit to telling them. The team used various measures to
evaluate participants, with higher ratings indicating greater well-being in each measure. Compared to the mean ratings
after 21 days for participants in the control group, the mean ratings for participants who were aware of taking a placebo
______

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

A. ranged from 5.0 to 92.00, indicating that well-being varied widely from participant to participant.

were lower for two measures, with the rating for only one measure indicating greater well-being for these
B. participants.

C. ranged from 3.9 to 46.00, with no rating indicating greater well-being in any measure for these participants.

D. were higher for all three measures, indicating greater overall well-being for these participants.
Question ID 742fd8ba
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 742fd8ba

Metal Content of Plants with

and without Kanamycin
Exposure
700
600
(parts per million)
Metal content

500
400
300
200
100
0
ycin ycin
nam nam
ka ka
ut th
tho wi
wi
Experimental condition
zinc iron
Many plants lose their leaf color when exposed to kanamycin, an antibiotic produced by some soil microorganisms.
Spelman College biologist Mentewab Ayalew and her colleagues hypothesized that plants’ response to kanamycin
exposure involves altering their uptake of metals, such as iron and zinc. The researchers grew two groups of seedlings
of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, half of which were exposed to kanamycin and half of which were a control group
without exposure to kanamycin, and measured the plants’ metal content five days after germination.

Which choice best describes data in the graph that support Ayalew and her colleagues’ hypothesis?

The control plants contained higher levels of zinc than iron, but plants exposed to kanamycin contained higher levels
A. of iron than zinc.

B. Both groups of plants contained more than 200 parts per million of both iron and zinc.

Zinc levels were around 300 parts per million in the control plants but nearly 400 parts per million in the plants
C. exposed to kanamycin.

D. The plants exposed to kanamycin showed lower levels of iron and zinc than the control plants did.
Question ID 03e5cf33
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 03e5cf33
Many insects are iridescent, or have colors that appear to shimmer and change when seen from different angles.
Scientists have assumed that this feature helps to attract mates but could also attract predators. But biologist Karin
Kjernsmo and a team had the idea that the shifting appearance of colors might actually make it harder for other animals
to see iridescent insects. To test this idea, the team put beetle forewings on leaves along a forest path and then asked
human participants to look for them. Some of the wings were naturally iridescent. Others were painted with a
nonchanging color from the iridescent spectrum, such as purple or blue.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the team’s idea?

A. On average, participants found most of the purple wings and blue wings and far fewer of the iridescent wings.

B. On average, participants found the iridescent wings faster than they found the purple wings or blue wings.

C. Some participants reported that the purple wings were easier to see than the blue wings.

D. Some participants successfully found all of the wings on the leaves.

Question ID 156ff681
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 156ff681
Many governments that regularly transfer money to individuals—to provide supplemental incomes for senior citizens,
for example—have long done so electronically, but other countries typically have distributed physical money and have
only recently developed electronic transfer infrastructure. Researchers studied the introduction of an electronic transfer
system in one such location and found that recipients of electronic transfers consumed a different array of foods than
recipients of physical transfers of the same amount did. One potential explanation for this result is that individuals
conceive of and allocate funds in physical money differently than they conceive of and allocate funds in electronic
form.

Which finding from the study, if true, would most directly weaken the potential explanation?

Recipients of electronic transfers typically spent their funds at a slower rate than recipients of physical transfers
A. did.

Nearly every recipient of an electronic transfer withdrew the entire amount in physical money shortly after receiving
B. the transfer.

Recipients of physical transfers tended to purchase food about as frequently as recipients of electronic transfers
C. did.

Some recipients of physical transfers received small amounts of money relatively frequently, while others received
D. large amounts relatively infrequently.
Question ID 8545ccfe
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 8545ccfe
Icebergs generally appear to be mostly white or blue, depending on how the ice reflects sunlight. Ice with air bubbles
trapped in it looks white because much of the light reflects off the bubbles. Ice without air bubbles usually looks blue
because the light travels deep into the ice and only a little of it is reflected. However, some icebergs in the sea around
Antarctica appear to be green. One team of scientists hypothesized that this phenomenon is the result of yellow-tinted
dissolved organic carbon in Antarctic waters mixing with blue ice to produce the color green.

Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the team’s hypothesis?

A. White ice doesn’t change color when mixed with dissolved organic carbon due to the air bubbles in the ice.

B. Dissolved organic carbon has a stronger yellow color in Antarctic waters than it does in other places.

C. Blue icebergs and green icebergs are rarely found near each other.

D. Blue icebergs and green icebergs contain similarly small traces of dissolved organic carbon.
Question ID 40578580
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 40578580
Many scientists have believed that giraffes are solitary creatures, preferring to spend their time alone instead of with
others. But observations of giraffes and their behavior in recent years has suggested that these animals may be more
social than we once thought. For example, scientists Zoe Muller and Stephen Harris claim that giraffes may even help
each other care for one another’s newborns.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support Muller and Harris’s conclusion?

A. Female giraffes have been observed feeding young giraffes that aren’t their direct offspring.

B. Confrontations between a younger and an older male giraffe are frequently observed.

C. Some female giraffes have been observed sniffing and licking their newborn offspring.

D. Giraffes are able to make sounds but are rarely observed communicating with others.
Question ID a9ac31e4
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: a9ac31e4

Area of Three Glaciers in the

2016 Swiss Glacier Inventory
50
Area (square km)

40

30

20

10

0
Glacier

Gorner
Fiescher
Unteraar

To monitor changes to glaciers in Switzerland, the government periodically measures them for features like total area of
ice and mean ice thickness, which are then reported in the Swiss Glacier Inventory. These measurements can be used
to compare the glaciers. For example, the Gorner glacier had ______

Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to complete the example?

A. a larger area than either the Fiescher glacier or the Unteraar glacier.

B. a smaller area than the Fiescher glacier but a larger area than the Unteraar glacier.

C. a smaller area than either the Fiescher glacier or the Unteraar glacier.

D. a larger area than the Fiescher glacier but a smaller area than the Unteraar glacier.
Question ID e1504a2a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: e1504a2a
The Cretaceous pterosaur Tupandactylus navigans is known for having an anomalously oversized head crest. Until an
almost complete fossil skeleton was found in Brazil, paleontologists had been able to study only skull specimens from
T. navigans, though it was presumed that, like other pterosaurs, the species’s primary form of locomotion was powered
flight. Examining the fuller skeleton in 2016, Victor Beccari and his team determined that T. navigans had long hind legs,
short wings, and an unusually long neck—characteristics that, combined with the creature’s large-crested head, would
have made sustained flight difficult and walking upright relatively comfortable. Based on these findings the team
suggests that T. navigans likely ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A. flew for longer distances than did other pterosaur species that had oversized head crests.

B. had longer wings than other pterosaur species considered to have been comfortable walking.

C. had a smaller head than researchers expected based on the earlier T. navigans skull specimens.

D. flew for shorter distances and spent more time walking than researchers previously thought.
Question ID e946a32e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: e946a32e
Boldly mixing elements of poetry, fiction, drama, philosophy, and manifesto, Puerto Rican writer Giannina Braschi
creates cross-genre literature that explores themes such as immigration and independence. Her works have inspired
responses from individuals across different fields and in a wide range of formats, from musical compositions and a
comic book to architecture and furniture design. In an essay, a student asserts that the production of these diverse
creations by others is reflective of Braschi’s own approach to crafting literature.

Which quotation from a scholarly review of Braschi’s work best supports the student’s claim?

“Braschi is the focus of a 2020 collection of essays in which fifteen scholars from seven different countries delved
A. into the linguistic and structural patterns of her writings.”

“Braschi’s eagerness to push boundaries and blend genres within literature invites us to consider how other art
B. forms might also engage with literature.”

“Before settling in New York City, where she would go on to become a college professor, Braschi studied both
C. literature and philosophy in several cities around the world.”

“In addition to her creative literary works, Braschi has produced academic pieces analyzing writings by Miguel de
D. Cervantes, Federico García Lorca, and other authors.”
Question ID df34b586
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: df34b586

Singer Sewing Machine Sales

in Four Countries, 1903–1918
60,000
50,000
Machines sold

40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
03 08 13 18
19 19 19 19
Year

New Zealand
Australia
the Philippines
Turkey

By the early 1900s, the Singer Corporation, a US sewing machine manufacturer founded in 1851, began to see rapidly
increasing sales abroad, particularly in Russia, Germany, and the United Kingdom. These markets were responsible for
the bulk of Singer’s overseas sales, but demand for the company’s machines in other countries also grew significantly in
the early twentieth century. For instance, sales of their sewing machines in ______

Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to complete the example?

A. the Philippines increased dramatically from 1908 to 1918.

B. New Zealand were largely consistent from 1903 to 1918.

C. Australia increased steadily from 1903 to 1918.

D. Turkey declined substantially from 1913 to 1918.

Question ID 9fe7aafa
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: 9fe7aafa
The ancient writing system used in the Maya kingdoms of southern Mexico and Central America had a symbol for the
number zero. The earliest known example of the symbol dates to more than 2,000 years ago. At that time, almost none
of the writing systems elsewhere in the world possessed a zero symbol. And the use of zero in Mexico and Central
America may be even more ancient. Some historians suggest that Maya mathematicians inherited it from the Olmec
civilization, which flourished in the region 2,400–3,600 years ago.

According to the text, what do some historians suggest about Maya civilization?

A. Maya civilization acquired the use of zero from the Olmec civilization.

B. Maya civilization respected its historians more than it respected its mathematicians.

C. Maya civilization was highly secretive about its intellectual achievements.

D. Maya civilization tried to introduce its writing system to other civilizations.

Question ID dc87adf4
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: dc87adf4
Barchester Towers is an 1857 novel by Anthony Trollope. In the novel, Trollope’s portrayal of Dr. Proudie underscores the
character’s exaggerated sense of his own abilities: ______

Which quotation from Barchester Towers most effectively illustrates the claim?

“It must not…be taken as proved that Dr. Proudie was a man of great mental powers, or even of much capacity for
A. business, for such qualities had not been required in him.”

“[Dr. Proudie] was comparatively young, and had, as he fondly flattered himself, been selected as possessing such
B. gifts, natural and acquired, as must be sure to recommend him to a yet higher notice.”

“[Dr. Proudie’s] residence in the metropolis, rendered necessary by duties thus entrusted to him, his high connexions,
C. and the peculiar talents and nature of the man, recommended him to persons in power.”

“[Dr. Proudie] was certainly possessed of sufficient tact to answer the purpose for which he was required without
D. making himself troublesome.”
Question ID 3bfcb73b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 3bfcb73b
An archaeological team led by Piotr Bieliński and Sultan al-Bakri found remnants of a 4,000-year-old Bronze Age board
game at a site in Oman. Little is left of the game except a stone board, which is carved with a grid and has places to
hold game pieces. Some scholars claim that the game was largely played by traders.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the scholars’ claim?

Other examples of the game dating to the same period have been found in the remains of several homes in the
A. region, including in one home that may have belonged to a trader.

Similar games have been found in other sites dating to the same period that were connected to the site in Oman via
B. trade routes.

The other known examples of the game dating to the same period have been found along routes that seem to have
C. been used primarily by traders at the time.

D. Remnants of other goods have been found at the site in Oman that probably also reached the location through trade.
Question ID 53c6c179
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 53c6c179

Median Ages of First Marriage for Men

and Women in the United States and
in England and Wales, 1900–2000
35
Median marriage age

30
25
20
15
10
5
0
900 910 920 930 940 950 960 970 980 990 000
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2
Years

Women (England and Wales)

Men (United States)
Women (United States)
Men (England and Wales)

A sociology student is reading an essay on the median age of first marriage in Western countries throughout the
twentieth century. The author of the essay cites factors common to these countries that the author believes caused an
increase in the median age of first marriage, such as new technologies that shortened the time needed for domestic
chores, making two-person households less necessary and living alone more viable. The student asserts that beyond
these factors there must be additional ones specific to particular Western countries that influenced the increase of age
at first marriage.

Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph that support the student’s assertion?

Between 1970 and 2000, the median age of first marriage rose more sharply for men in England and Wales than it
A. did for men in the United States.

In England and Wales, the median age of first marriage was consistently higher for men than for women between
B. 1900 and 2000, but this was not always the case in the United States.
C. The median age of first marriage for men in England and Wales was lower in 1970 than in 1950 or 1990.

Between 1900 and 2000, the median age of first marriage for women in England and Wales was consistently higher
D. than for women in the United States, as was the case for men.
Question ID 55688b3c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: 55688b3c
Dutch painters in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries often showed tables filled with large wheels of cheese or
carved shards of butter. Some art historians, noting that dairy products were a major component of the Dutch diet,
interpret these depictions as reflections of everyday Dutch eating habits. However, a group of researchers recently
reviewed hundreds of food-related paintings and found that lemons—which could only be acquired in the Netherlands at
great cost, since they had to be imported from warmer climates—feature in Dutch paintings of the period more than
three times as frequently as dairy products do, thereby casting doubt on the idea that ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A. dairy products were a more significant component of the Dutch diet of the period than lemons were.

food was a more popular subject among Dutch painters than it was among painters from other countries at the
B. time.

depictions of food in Dutch paintings of the period should be taken as realistic representations of Dutch eating
C. habits.

Dutch painters of the period may have depicted foods for symbolic reasons rather than to show what Dutch people
D. typically ate.
Question ID ed586475
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: ed586475
There Is Confusion is a 1924 novel by Jessie Redmon Fauset. In the novel, the narrator portrays the character Joanna
as someone who admires ambition in other people to the exclusion of all other qualities: ______

Which quotation from There Is Confusion most effectively illustrates the claim?

A. “Joanna was mightily interested in people who had a ‘purpose’ in life. Otherwise not at all.”

B. “Indeed from the very beginning Joanna showed her preference for her father.”

C. “Joanna was like her father not only so far as ambition was concerned but also in her willingness to work.”

“She had a good sense of logic, a strong power of concentration, and a remarkably retentive and visualizing
D. memory.”
Question ID 1bf2173e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: 1bf2173e
In a three-year study of parasitic infections by Anomotaenia brevis tapeworms in Temnothorax nylanderi ants,
entomologist Susanne Foitzik and colleagues found something unexpected: rather than reducing its host’s fitness, as is
typical of parasites, A. brevis greatly extends the lifespan of a T. nylanderi worker ant and seems to halt the effects of
aging. Furthermore, those infected receive special treatment, ceasing their share of labor to sustain the colony and
remaining in the nest as uninfected workers feed, groom, and transport them. By contrast, the researchers observed
that uninfected workers in parasitized colonies have shortened lifespans, most likely because the ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

uninfected workers are at high risk for direct exposure to A. brevis in the course of providing social care to the
A. infected workers in the nest.

need to compensate for reduced contributions within the colony while also caring for infected workers is
B. burdensome to the uninfected workers.

high level of activity maintained by the uninfected workers makes them better able than infected workers to quickly
C. disperse when the nest is attacked by a predator.

average lifespan of T. nylanderi worker ants in colonies without parasitic activity typically falls well below three
D. years, the range covered by the study.
Question ID df91532e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: df91532e
In the “language nest” model of education, Indigenous children learn the language of their people by using it as the
medium of instruction and socialization at pre-K or elementary levels. In their 2016 study of a school in an Anishinaabe
community in Ontario, Canada, scholars Lindsay Morcom and Stephanie Roy (who are Anishinaabe themselves) found
that the model not only imparted fluency in the Anishinaabe language but also enhanced students’ pride in Anishinaabe
culture overall. Given these positive effects, Morcom and Roy predict that the model increases the probability that as
adults, former students of the school will transmit the language to younger generations in their community.

Which finding, if true, would most strongly support the researchers’ prediction?

Anishinaabe adults who didn’t attend the school feel roughly the same degree of cultural pride as the former
A. students of the school feel.

After transferring to the school, new students experience an increase in both fluency and academic performance
B. overall.

As adults, former students of the school are just as likely to continue living in their community as individuals who
C. didn’t attend the school.

As they complete secondary and higher education, former students of the school experience no loss of fluency or
D. cultural pride.
Question ID 81af81d4
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 81af81d4
“Often Rebuked, Yet Always Back Returning” is an 1846 poem by Emily Brontë. The poem conveys the speaker’s
determination to experience the countryside around her: ______

Which quotation from the poem most effectively illustrates the claim?

“Often rebuked, yet always back returning / To those first feelings that were born with me, / And leaving busy chase
A. of wealth and learning / For idle dreams of things which cannot be.”

“I’ll walk, but not in old heroic traces, / And not in paths of high morality, / And not among the half-distinguished
B. faces, / The clouded forms of long-past history.”

“I’ll walk where my own nature would be leading: / It vexes me to choose another guide: / Where the grey flocks in
C. ferny glens are feeding; / Where the wild wind blows on the mountain side.”

“To-day, I will seek not the shadowy region; / Its unsustaining vastness waxes drear; / And visions rising, legion after
D. legion, / Bring the unreal world too strangely near.”