Question ID b7f79059

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: b7f79059
The following text is from Ezra Pound’s 1909 poem “Hymn III,” based on the work of Marcantonio Flaminio.
As a fragile and lovely flower unfolds its gleaming
foliage on the breast of the fostering earth, if
the dew and the rain draw it forth;
So doth my tender mind flourish, if it be fed with the
sweet dew of the fostering spirit,
Lacking this, it beginneth straightway to languish,
even as a floweret born upon dry earth, if the
dew and the rain tend it not.

Based on the text, in what way is the human mind like a flower?

A. It becomes increasingly vigorous with the passage of time.

B. It draws strength from changes in the weather.

C. It requires proper nourishment in order to thrive.

D. It perseveres despite challenging circumstances.

Question ID b5e9f3c2
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: b5e9f3c2
Ancestral Puebloans, the civilization from which present-day Pueblo tribes descended, emerged as early as 1500 B.C.E.
in an area of what is now the southwestern United States and dispersed suddenly in the late 1200s C.E., abandoning
established villages with systems for farming crops and turkeys. Recent analysis comparing turkey remains at Mesa
Verde, one such village in southern Colorado, to samples from modern turkey populations in the Rio Grande Valley of
north central New Mexico determined that the latter birds descended in part from turkeys cultivated at Mesa Verde, with
shared genetic markers appearing only after 1280. Thus, researchers concluded that ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

conditions of the terrains in the Rio Grande Valley and Mesa Verde had greater similarities in the past than they do
A. today.

some Ancestral Puebloans migrated to the Rio Grande Valley in the late 1200s and carried farming practices with
B. them.

C. Indigenous peoples living in the Rio Grande Valley primarily planted crops and did not cultivate turkeys before 1280.

the Ancestral Puebloans of Mesa Verde likely adopted the farming practices of Indigenous peoples living in other
D. regions.
Question ID 5eda42a3
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: 5eda42a3
The following text is from Maggie Pogue Johnson’s 1910 poem “Poet of Our Race.” In this poem, the speaker is
addressing Paul Laurence Dunbar, a Black author.
Thou, with stroke of mighty pen, The language of the flowers,
Hast told of joy and mirth, Thou hast read them all,
And read the hearts and souls of men And e’en the little brook
As cradled from their birth. Responded to thy call.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To praise a certain writer for being especially perceptive regarding people and nature

B. To establish that a certain writer has read extensively about a variety of topics

C. To call attention to a certain writer’s careful and elaborately detailed writing process

D. To recount fond memories of an afternoon spent in nature with a certain writer

Question ID 010fa3f0
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 010fa3f0

Simulated Change in Annual Aquifer Input and Irrigation Output if Precipitation Concentration Increases as Climate
Models Predict

% change in surface % change in

Baseline concentration of % change in water water used for groundwater used for
annual precipitation entering aquifers irrigation irrigation

Precipitation is currently
4.9 0.4 0.9
somewhat concentrated

Precipitation is currently
11.0 9.0 7.9
evenly distributed

Some climate models for the western United States predict that while total annual precipitation may remain unchanged
from the present level, precipitation will become concentrated into fewer but more intense rain and snow events.
University of Texas climate scientist Geeta Persad and her colleagues simulated how the amount of water entering
aquifers and the amount being used for irrigation purposes would change if this were to occur. Persad and her
colleagues concluded that concentration of precipitation into fewer events would result in a higher number of dry days,
triggering more irrigation, but that this change in irrigation output is highly sensitive to the baseline concentration of
precipitation that currently exists in an area.

Which choice best describes data from the table that support Persad and her colleagues’ conclusion?

If baseline precipitation is somewhat concentrated, the amount of water being used for irrigation will increase 0.4%
for surface water and 0.9% for groundwater, whereas the amount of water entering aquifers will increase 11.0% if
A. baseline precipitation is evenly distributed.

If baseline precipitation is somewhat concentrated, water use for irrigation will increase only slightly, whereas it will
B. increase 9.0% for surface water and 7.9% for groundwater if baseline precipitation is evenly distributed.

If baseline precipitation is somewhat concentrated, the amount of water entering aquifers will increase 4.9%, while
C. the amount being used for irrigation will increase 0.4% for surface water and 0.9% for groundwater.

If baseline precipitation is somewhat concentrated, water use for irrigation will decline by a small amount, whereas it
D. will increase 11.0% for surface water and 9.0% for groundwater if baseline precipitation is evenly distributed.
Question ID 8fb67890
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: 8fb67890
Archaeologists have discovered a runestone in Norway that may contain the earliest example of written words in
Scandinavia. Carbon dating at the discovery site revealed that the stone was likely carved between 1 and 250 CE.
Runologist Kristel Zilmer believes the stone will be helpful in learning more about the use of runic alphabets in early Iron
Age Scandinavia.

Which choice best states the main topic of the text?

A. Battles of the Iron Age

B. A runestone found in Norway

C. A new method for dating rock samples

D. The research interests of Kristel Zilmer

Question ID 6540a976
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: 6540a976
To understand how Paleolithic artists navigated dark caves, archaeologist Mª Ángeles Medina-Alcaide and her team
tested different lighting methods in a cave in Spain using replicas of artifacts found in European caves with art. They
used three different Paleolithic light sources—torches, animal-fat lamps, and fireplaces—determining that each likely
had a specific purpose. For instance, the team learned that the animal-fat lamps were less useful than torches while
walking because the lamps didn’t illuminate the cave floor.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

Medina-Alcaide and her team’s study demonstrated that fireplaces were essential to the creators of Paleolithic cave
A. art.

Medina-Alcaide and her team discovered that Paleolithic cave artists in Spain used animal-fat lamps more often
B. than they used torches.

Medina-Alcaide and her team were reluctant to draw many conclusions from their study because of the difficulty
C. they had replicating light sources based on known artifacts.

Medina-Alcaide and her team tested Paleolithic light sources and learned some details about how Paleolithic artists
D. traveled within dark caves.
Question ID 4f9f8ea6
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: 4f9f8ea6
Birds of many species ingest foods containing carotenoids, pigmented molecules that are converted into feather
coloration. Coloration tends to be especially saturated in male birds’ feathers, and because carotenoids also confer
health benefits, the deeply saturated colors generally serve to communicate what is known as an honest signal of a
bird’s overall fitness to potential mates. However, ornithologist Allison J. Shultz and others have found that males in
several species of the tanager genus Ramphocelus use microstructures in their feathers to manipulate light, creating the
appearance of deeper saturation without the birds necessarily having to maintain a carotenoid-rich diet. These findings
suggest that ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A. individual male tanagers can engage in honest signaling without relying on carotenoid consumption.

B. feather microstructures may be less effective than deeply saturated feathers for signaling overall fitness.

C. scientists have yet to determine why tanagers have a preference for mates with colorful appearances.

D. a male tanager’s appearance may function as a dishonest signal of the individual’s overall fitness.
Question ID 2c06139b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 2c06139b

Tadpole Body Mass and Toxin Production after Three Weeks in Ponds

Average bufadienolide
Average Average number of Average amount of concentration
tadpole body distinct bufadienolide per (nanograms per
Population mass bufadienolide tadpole milligram of tadpole
density (milligrams) toxins per tadpole (nanograms) body mass)

High 193.87 22.69 5,815.51 374.22

Medium 254.56 21.65 5,525.72 230.10

Low 258.97 22.08 4,664.99 171.43

Ecologist Veronika Bókony and colleagues investigated within-species competition among common toads (Bufo bufo),
a species that secretes various unpleasant-tasting toxins called bufadienolides in response to threats. The researchers
tested B. bufo tadpoles’ responses to different levels of competition by creating ponds with different tadpole population
densities but a fixed amount of food. Based on analysis of the tadpoles after three weeks, the researchers concluded
that increased competition drove bufadienolide production at the expense of growth.

Which choice uses data from the table to most effectively support the researchers’ conclusion?

The difference in average tadpole body mass was small between the low and medium population density conditions
A. and substantially larger between the low and high population density conditions.

Tadpoles in the low and medium population density conditions had substantially lower average bufadienolide
B. concentrations but had greater average body masses than those in the high population density condition.

Tadpoles in the high population density condition displayed a relatively modest increase in the average amount of
bufadienolide but roughly double the average bufadienolide concentration compared to those in the low population
C. density condition.

Tadpoles produced approximately the same number of different bufadienolide toxins per individual across the
D. population density conditions, but average tadpole body mass decreased as population density increased.
Question ID e99a38ec
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: e99a38ec

Humility Scores for Participants’

Scenario Responses
(higher values = more humility)

3.5
Average humility score

3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0
ing ing trol
rn rn n
lea lea co
ith o ut
e w ith
ak w
st ke
mi s ta
mi

group
Jia Hu and colleagues hypothesized that workplace leaders who reflect on lessons learned from past mistakes are likely
to exhibit more humility than leaders who don’t engage in such reflection. To test this, the team placed 301 managers in
one of three groups. Participants in two experimental groups were asked to reflect on a mistake, one group focusing on
a mistake that resulted in learning and the other group focusing on a mistake that didn’t result in learning. Participants
in a control group were asked to reflect on their daily routine. All the participants then described how they would
respond to a workplace scenario. After evaluating the responses for evidence of humility, the researchers concluded
that their hypothesis was correct.

Which choice best describes data in the graph that support the researchers’ conclusion?

A. None of the three groups’ average humility scores exceeded 3.5.

The managers in the control group exhibited only slightly less humility on average than the managers in the two
B. experimental groups did.

The managers who reflected on a past mistake that resulted in learning exhibited more humility on average than the
C. managers in the other two groups did.

D. All three groups exhibited less humility on average than the researchers expected.
Question ID 01c1d9ee
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 01c1d9ee

Swahili Speakers in Three African Countries

Approximate number of speakers (in Estimated % of

Country millions) population

Democratic Republic of the

22 25
Congo

Kenya 55 100

Tanzania 61 100

Swahili is estimated to be the first language of up to 15 million people worldwide. It’s also an officially recognized
language in Tanzania, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which means these countries use Swahili in
government documents and proceedings. But even in countries where almost everyone speaks Swahili, for many it isn’t
their first language but is instead their second, third, or even fourth language.

Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to support the underlined claim?

Tanzania has approximately 61 million Swahili speakers, which is much more than the estimated total number of
A. people worldwide for whom Swahili is their first language.

Tanzania is estimated to have at most 15 million Swahili speakers, while the country’s total population is
B. approximately 61 million people.

Approximately 100 percent of the people who speak Swahili as their first language live in Kenya, which has a total
C. population of approximately 55 million people.

Approximately 100 percent of Kenya’s population speaks Swahili, while only about 25 percent of the Democratic
D. Republic of the Congo’s population speaks Swahili.
Question ID e47d2524
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: e47d2524
Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic waste. Areas of the ocean with higher concentrations of microplastic particles
also have smaller and fewer waves. A study by Yukun Sun and colleagues found that the concentration of microplastic
particles cannot be the only reason for this reduced wave activity because the concentration of particles that would
have the observed effect is much higher than that found in these areas of the ocean. However, they found that
surfactants, chemicals often used to manufacture plastics, are released into the water from microplastics and have a
much stronger wave-reducing effect.

According to the text, what did Sun and colleagues discover about surfactants?

A. They have a much stronger effect on wave activity than microplastics alone do.

B. They are mainly composed of water.

C. They are helpful for removing microplastics from the ocean.

D. They can be used to contain microplastics within certain areas of the ocean.
Question ID 26ee16ba
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 26ee16ba
Hip-hop pedagogy is a form of teaching that’s gaining popularity across school subjects. It involves incorporating hip-
hop and rap music into lessons as well as using hip-hop elements when teaching other subject matters. For example,
Quan Neloms’s students look for college-level vocabulary and historical events in rap songs. Researchers claim that in
addition to developing students’ social justice awareness, hip-hop pedagogy encourages student success by raising
students’ interest and engagement.

Which finding, if true, would most strongly support the underlined claim?

A. Students tend to be more enthusiastic about rap music than they are about hip-hop music.

Students who are highly interested in social justice issues typically don’t sign up for courses that incorporate hip-hop
B. and rap music.

Educators report that they enjoy teaching courses that involve hip-hop and rap music more than teaching courses
C. that don’t.

Courses that incorporate hip-hop and rap music are among the courses with the highest enrollment and attendance
D. rates.
Question ID f2250478
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: f2250478
Among social animals that care for their young, such as chickens, macaque monkeys, and humans, newborns appear to
show an innate attraction to faces and face-like stimuli. Elisabetta Versace and her colleagues used an image of three
black dots arranged in the shape of eyes and a nose or mouth to test whether this trait also occurs in Testudo tortoises,
which live alone and do not engage in parental care. They found that tortoise hatchlings showed a significant preference
for the image, suggesting that ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

face-like stimuli are likely perceived as harmless by newborns of social species that practice parental care but as
A. threatening by newborns of solitary species without parental care.

researchers should not assume that an innate attraction to face-like stimuli is necessarily an adaptation related to
B. social interaction or parental care.

researchers can assume that the attraction to face-like stimuli that is seen in social species that practice parental
C. care is learned rather than innate.

D. newly hatched Testudo tortoises show a stronger preference for face-like stimuli than adult Testudo tortoises do.
Question ID 0b96fa93
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 0b96fa93

Maximum Height of Maple Trees When Fully Grown

Tree type Maximum height (feet) Native to North America

Sugar maple 75 yes

Silver maple 70 yes

Red maple 60 yes

Japanese maple 25 no

Norway maple 50 no

For a school project, a forestry student needs to recommend a maple tree that is native to North America and won’t
grow more than 60 feet in height. Based on the characteristics of five common maple trees, she has decided to select a
______

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

A. silver maple.

B. sugar maple.

C. red maple.

D. Norway maple.
Question ID d5d3ea31
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: d5d3ea31
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is an 1892 short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In the story, the narrator expresses mixed
feelings about her surroundings: ______

Which quotation from “The Yellow Wallpaper” most effectively illustrates the claim?

“This wallpaper has a kind of sub-pattern in a different shade, a particularly irritating one, for you can only see it in
A. certain lights, and not clearly then.”

B. “By moonlight—the moon shines in all night when there is a moon—I wouldn’t know it was the same paper.”

C. “I’m really getting quite fond of the big room, all but that horrid [wall]paper.”

D. “The color is repellant, almost revolting; a smouldering, unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.”
Question ID 6e0e0de1
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: 6e0e0de1
Aerogels are highly porous foams consisting mainly of tiny air pockets within a solidified gel. These lightweight
materials are often applied to spacecraft and other equipment required to withstand extreme conditions, as they provide
excellent insulation despite typically being brittle and eventually fracturing due to degradation from repeated exposure
to high heat. Now, Xiangfeng Duan of the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues have developed an
aerogel with uniquely flexible properties. Unlike earlier aerogels, Duan’s team’s material contracts rather than expands
when heated and fully recovers after compressing to just 5% of its original volume, suggesting that ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

the aerogel’s remarkable flexibility results from its higher proportion of air pockets to solidified gel as compared to
A. other aerogels.

the aerogel’s overall strength is greater than that of other insulators but its ability to withstand exposure to intense
B. heat is lower.

the aerogel will be more effective as an insulator for uses that involve gradual temperature shifts than for those that
C. involve rapid heat increases.

the aerogel will be less prone to the structural weakness that ultimately causes most other aerogels to break down
D. with use.
Question ID 493c46bc
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: 493c46bc
In the South Pacific, New Caledonian crows use two different kinds of stick tools. One tool is complex. The crows shape
a stick from a rare plant into a hook. The other tool is basic. The crows find a stick without a hook on the ground. The
hooked tool is harder to get but is much better than the basic tool at removing prey from holes. When studying New
Caledonian crows, ecologist Barbara Klump found that they hold the hooked tools in their claws when not using them, or
they carefully put them in a safe place. The crows don’t do the same with the basic tools. This suggests to Klump that
the ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A. hooked stick tools are more valuable to the crows than the stick tools without hooks.

B. hooked stick tools are easier for most of the crows to hold than the stick tools without hooks.

C. crows prefer to share their hooked stick tools but don’t share the stick tools without hooks.

D. crows realize that both kinds of stick tools are less effective than their claws are at removing prey from holes.
Question ID b074cc05
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: b074cc05

Employment in Technology in
Hawaii in 2010 and 2019
Approximate number of jobs

7
6
(in thousands)

5
4
3
2
1
0
2010 2019
Year

engineering services
technical consulting services
computer services

A student in Hawaii is interested in pursuing a career in technology and decides to do some research on local trends.
The student notices that the number of jobs in computer services in 2010 was ______

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

higher than the number of jobs in technical consulting services, and in 2019 was about the same as the number of
A. jobs in engineering services.

about the same as the number of jobs in engineering services, and in 2019 was about the same as the number of
B. jobs in technical consulting services.

lower than the number of jobs in engineering services, but in 2019 was higher than the number of jobs in engineering
C. services.

about the same as the number of jobs in technical consulting services, but in 2019 was lower than the number of
D. jobs in technical consulting services.
Question ID 1db1a9a6
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 1db1a9a6

Cantaloupe Yield
45
Yield (pounds per acre)

40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
2017 2018 2019
Year
control nitrogen fertilizer
To test the effects of a nitrogen fertilizer on cantaloupe production, researchers grew cantaloupe plants and harvested
their fruit over three years. In each year, half the plants were grown using a nitrogen fertilizer, and the other half were
grown using a control fertilizer that contained no nitrogen. The researchers concluded that the nitrogen fertilizer
increases cantaloupe yield.

Which choice best describes data in the graph that support the researchers’ conclusion?

A. In every year of the experiment, plants treated with the nitrogen fertilizer had a yield of at least 30 pounds per acre.

In every year of the experiment, plants treated with the nitrogen fertilizer had a greater yield than did plants treated
B. with the control fertilizer.

The 2018 yield for plants treated with the control fertilizer was greater than was the 2019 yield for plants treated
C. with the nitrogen fertilizer.

D. The yield for plants treated with the nitrogen fertilizer increased from 2017 to 2018.
Question ID 16a4a83b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 16a4a83b
An Ideal Husband is an 1895 play by Oscar Wilde. In the play, which is a satire, Wilde suggests that a character named
Lady Gertrude Chiltern is perceived as both extremely virtuous and unforgiving, as is evident when another character
says ______

Which quotation from An Ideal Husband most effectively illustrates the claim?

“Lady Chiltern is a woman of the very highest principles, I am glad to say. I am a little too old now, myself, to trouble
A. about setting a good example, but I always admire people who do.”

“Do you know, [Lady Chiltern], I don’t mind your talking morality a bit. Morality is simply the attitude we adopt
B. towards people whom we personally dislike.”

“[Lady Chiltern] does not know what weakness or temptation is. I am of clay like other men. She stands apart as
C. good women do—pitiless in her perfection—cold and stern and without mercy.”

D. “Lady Chiltern, you are a sensible woman, the most sensible woman in London, the most sensible woman I know.”
Question ID 0b696a0c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: 0b696a0c
NASA’s Cassini probe has detected an unusual wobble in the rotation of Mimas, Saturn’s smallest moon. Using a
computer model to study Mimas’s gravitational interactions with Saturn and tidal forces, geophysicist Alyssa Rhoden
and colleagues have proposed that this wobble could be due to a liquid ocean moving beneath the moon’s icy surface.
The researchers believe other moons should be examined to see if they too might have oceans hidden beneath their
surfaces.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

A. Rhoden and colleagues were the first to confirm that several of Saturn’s moons contain hidden oceans.

B. Research has failed to identify signs that there is an ocean hidden beneath the surface of Mimas.

Rhoden and colleagues created a new computer model that identifies moons with hidden oceans without needing to
C. analyze the moons’ rotation.

Research has revealed that an oddity in the rotation of Mimas could be explained by an ocean hidden beneath its
D. surface.
Question ID 37a49687
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 37a49687

Number of Young Fish Collected at

Mangrove Sites in the Egyptian Red Sea
During Three Seasons of 2010
Number of individual young fish

40

30

20

10

0
er ing ll
int r Fa
W Sp
Season

Common silver-biddy
Red Sea goatfish
Milkfish

Mangroves are trees or bushes that grow on the coastlines of seas and rivers. Areas with mangroves are great places
for young fish since they help keep these fish fed and protected while they grow. To study the importance of mangroves
to young fish, researchers Mohamed A.Abu El-Regal and Nesreen K. Ibrahim collected and identified young fish from
three different mangrove sites in the Egyptian Red Sea. They collected fish in the winter, spring, and autumn of 2010,
collecting a total of 269 fish from 21 different species. For some species, more fish were collected in the winter than the
other two seasons, for instance: ______

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

A. more common silver-biddy and milkfish were collected in the winter than in either of the other two seasons.

B. the common silver-biddy was collected more frequently than the other two species in all three seasons.

C. in the spring, researchers collected more Red Sea goldfish than they collected from the other two species.

D. in the fall, researchers collected 10 common silver-biddy but collected no milkfish or Red Sea goatfish.
Question ID 0113152f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 0113152f
American fashion designer Patrick Kelly was known for his love of colorful buttons. Many of his signature dresses
feature bold assortments of buttons throughout the garment. In a paper, a fashion design student claims that Kelly’s use
of buttons as decoration was inspired by his childhood observations of the styles and actions of the women in his
family.

Which quotation from a work by a historian would be the most effective evidence for the student to include in support of
this claim?

“Although some of the assortments of buttons appear to be mismatched pieces scattered randomly throughout
A. Kelly’s dresses, his most famous designs feature carefully crafted patterns of matching buttons.”

“Many of Kelly’s contemporaries were inspired by his designs to incorporate buttons, as well as zippers and snaps,
B. as decorative items in their work.”

“Kelly’s grandmother, who would repair clothing when he was a child, frequently added mismatched buttons to the
C. clothes to draw attention away from any flaws in the garments.”

“Kelly was destined to be a designer from a young age: he learned how to sew clothing from his aunt Bertha, and his
D. love of drawing was developed by his mother.”
Question ID 3a1f02b0
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: 3a1f02b0
The following text is adapted from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 novel The Secret Garden. Mary, a young girl, recently
found an overgrown hidden garden.
Mary was an odd, determined little person, and now she had something interesting to be determined about, she was
very much absorbed, indeed. She worked and dug and pulled up weeds steadily, only becoming more pleased with her
work every hour instead of tiring of it. It seemed to her like a fascinating sort of play.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

A. Mary hides in the garden to avoid doing her chores.

B. Mary is getting bored with pulling up so many weeds in the garden.

C. Mary is clearing out the garden to create a space to play.

D. Mary feels very satisfied when she’s taking care of the garden.
Question ID f38b40ac
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: f38b40ac
In addition to her technical skill and daring feats, American stunt pilot Bessie Coleman was also known for dazzling the
crowds that came to watch her air shows in the 1920s with her exuberant personality. During her career, she was careful
and purposeful about how she crafted her public persona. An aviation researcher has claimed that Coleman
intentionally defied social norms of the time by how she chose to present herself to the public.

Which quotation from an article about Coleman would most directly support the aviation researcher’s claim?

“For her air shows, Coleman frequently used the Curtiss JN-4, or ‘Jenny,’ which at that time was one of the most well-
A. known types of planes.”

“While Coleman was beloved by spectators for her charisma, she had a more complicated relationship with her
B. managers and staff, who at times found her behavior too impulsive and demanding.”

“Coleman once considered leaving her career as a stunt pilot to focus her efforts on giving speeches, which she felt
C. would better support her public image.”

“Although female pilots were typically expected to wear traditional but impractical attire that included dresses or
D. skirts, photographs of Coleman show her wearing pants and leather jackets.”
Question ID a0b58ef0
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: a0b58ef0
The Younger Dryas was a period of extreme cooling from 11,700 to 12,900 years ago in the Northern Hemisphere. Some
scientists argue that a comet fragment hitting Earth brought about the cooling. Others disagree, partly because there is
no known crater from such an impact that dates to the beginning of the period. In 2015, a team led by Kurt Kjær
detected a 19-mile-wide crater beneath a glacier in Greenland. The scientists who believe an impact caused the Younger
Dryas claim that this discovery supports their view. However, Kjær’s team hasn’t yet been able to determine the age of
the crater. Therefore, the team suggests that ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A. it can’t be concluded that the impact that made the crater was connected to the beginning of the Younger Dryas.

B. it can’t be determined whether a comet fragment could make a crater as large as 19 miles wide.

C. scientists have ignored the possibility that something other than a comet fragment could have made the crater.

the scientists who believe an impact caused the Younger Dryas have made incorrect assumptions about when the
D. period began.
Question ID 89f71526
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 89f71526

Deformation Rate of Five Volcanoes

3.5
(centimeters per month)

3.0
Deformation rate

2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0
edo aule dina aya egra
Al
c M nan Pac N
r ra
Fe er
Si

volcano

When magma moves underneath a volcano, it causes the surface of the volcano to change. This is known as
deformation. Researchers recently calculated the amount of deformation occurring each month for five volcanoes in
Latin America. Although Sierra Negra experienced a lot of deformation, its deformation rate was still lower than that of
______

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

A. Alcedo.

B. Pacaya.

C. Fernandina.

D. Maule.
Question ID 3430be35
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 3430be35

Mean Ticket Prices Chosen in Two Studies

of Participative Pricing Messaging
80
Mean chosen price ($)

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1 2
Study

pay what you can

pay what you think it’s worth
pay what you want

Participative pricing, in which purchasers choose the prices they pay for products, can enable sellers to capitalize on the
heterogeneous values consumers assign to the same goods and services, but doing so requires careful messaging.
Annie Peng Cui and Jennifer Wiggins recruited 171 participants (ages 18–60) online for an initial study and 83 students
(ages 18–31) at a state university for a second study to test the effect of three different messages—“pay what you can,”
“pay what you think it’s worth,” and “pay what you want”—on how much participants would pay for concert tickets. Their
results illustrate both the heterogeneity of consumer valuations and how sellers can benefit by prompting consumers to
consider their own valuations: ______

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

the students tended to value the concert tickets more highly than did the more age-diverse group recruited online,
but when considering what they could afford to pay, the students tended to choose a lower price than did the other
A. group.

in all three messaging conditions, the group of participants recruited online tended to choose lower prices than did
the students, but both groups tended to choose prices closest to the actual cost of the tickets when prompted to
B. consider the tickets’ value.

the students tended to value the concert tickets more highly than did the more age-diverse group recruited online,
but both groups tended to choose a higher price when considering the value of the tickets than when considering
C. what they could afford or wanted to pay.
 within each group of participants, there was wide variation in the value that individuals assigned to the concert
tickets, but the students tended to assign a higher value to the tickets than did the more age-diverse group recruited
D. online.
Question ID 7f293254
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 7f293254
Art collectives, like the United States- and Vietnam-based collective The Propeller Group or Cuba’s Los Carpinteros, are
groups of artists who agree to work together: perhaps for stylistic reasons, or to advance certain shared political ideals,
or to help mitigate the costs of supplies and studio space. Regardless of the reasons, art collectives usually involve
some collaboration among the artists. Based on a recent series of interviews with various art collectives, an arts
journalist claims that this can be difficult for artists who are often used to having sole control over their work.

Which quotation from the interviews best illustrates the journalist’s claim?

“The first collective I joined included many amazingly talented artists, and we enjoyed each other’s company, but
A. because we had a hard time sharing credit and responsibility for our work, the collective didn’t last.”

“We work together, but that doesn’t mean that individual projects are equally the work of all of us. Many of our
B. projects are primarily the responsibility of whoever originally proposed the work to the group.”

“Having worked as a member of a collective for several years, it’s sometimes hard to recall what it was like to work
C. alone without the collective’s support. But that support encourages my individual expression rather than limits it.”

“Sometimes an artist from outside the collective will choose to collaborate with us on a project, but all of those
D. projects fit within the larger themes of the work the collective does on its own.”
Question ID 3ae2638c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: 3ae2638c
In documents called judicial opinions, judges explain the reasoning behind their legal rulings, and in those explanations
they sometimes cite and discuss historical and contemporary philosophers. Legal scholar and philosopher Anita L.
Allen argues that while judges are naturally inclined to mention philosophers whose views align with their own positions,
the strongest judicial opinions consider and rebut potential objections; discussing philosophers whose views conflict
with judges’ views could therefore ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A. allow judges to craft judicial opinions without needing to consult philosophical works.

B. help judges improve the arguments they put forward in their judicial opinions.

C. make judicial opinions more comprehensible to readers without legal or philosophical training.

D. bring judicial opinions in line with views that are broadly held among philosophers.