Question ID 1f2d6173

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 1f2d6173
Scholarly accounts of the Chicano movement—a movement that advocated for the social, political, and cultural
empowerment of Mexican Americans and reached its zenith in the 1960s and 1970s—tend to focus on the most militant,
outspoken figures in the movement, making it seem uniformly radical. Geographer Juan Herrera has shown, however,
that if we shift our focus toward the way the movement manifested in comparatively low-profile neighborhood
institutions and projects, we see participants espousing an array of political orientations and approaches to community
activism.

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

It presents a trend in scholarship on the Chicano movement that the text claims has been reevaluated by researchers
A. in light of Herrera’s work on the movement’s participants.

It identifies an aspect of the Chicano movement that the text implies was overemphasized by scholars due to their
B. own political orientations.

It describes a common approach to studying the Chicano movement that, according to the text, obscures the
C. ideological diversity of the movement’s participants.

It summarizes the conventional method for analyzing the Chicano movement, which the text suggests creates a
D. misleading impression of the effectiveness of neighborhood institutions and projects.
Question ID 4eee64fa
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: 4eee64fa
Space scientists Anna-Lisa Paul, Stephen M. Elardo, and Robert Ferl planted seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana in samples of
lunar regolith—the surface material of the Moon—and, serving as a control group, in terrestrial soil. They found that while
all the seeds germinated, the roots of the regolith-grown plants were stunted compared with those in the control group.
Moreover, unlike the plants in the control group, the regolith-grown plants exhibited red pigmentation, reduced leaf size,
and inhibited growth rates—indicators of stress that were corroborated by postharvest molecular analysis.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

It describes an experiment that addressed an unresolved question about the extent to which lunar regolith resembles
A. terrestrial soils.

B. It compares two distinct methods of assessing indicators of stress in plants grown in a simulated lunar environment.

C. It presents evidence in support of the hypothesis that seed germination in lunar habitats is an unattainable goal.

D. It discusses the findings of a study that evaluated the effects of exposing a plant species to lunar soil conditions.
Question ID a70cbc53
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: a70cbc53
Raymond Antrobus, an accomplished poet and writer of prose, recently released his debut spoken word poetry album,
The First Time I Wore Hearing Aids, in collaboration with producer Ian Brennan. The album contains both autobiographical
and reflective pieces combining Antrobus’s spoken words with Brennan’s fragmented audio elements and pieces of
music to convey how people who are deaf may experience sound, both its presence and absence. Some critics suggest
that the album questions the function of sound in the world, highlighting that the experience of sound is multifaceted.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

It introduces a collaborative spoken word poetry project, details the approach taken to produce the work, and then
A. provides an example of critique the album received upon release.

It mentions a collection of spoken word poems, distinguishes one poem as being an exemplar on the album, and then
B. offers a summary of the subject matter of the whole collection.

It summarizes the efforts to produce a collection of spoken word poems, presents biographies of two people who
C. worked on the album, and speculates about the meaning behind the poetry.

It connects two artists to the same spoken word poetry project, explains the extent of their collaboration on each
D. poem, and then provides an overview of the technique used to produce the work.
Question ID 3d658a5a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 3d658a5a
Some foraging models predict that the distance bees travel when foraging will decline as floral density increases, but
biologists Shalene Jha and Claire Kremen showed that bees’ behavior is inconsistent with this prediction if flowers in
dense patches are ______: bees will forage beyond patches of low species richness to acquire multiple resource types.

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

A. depleted

B. homogeneous

C. immature

D. dispersed
Question ID 17bf10de
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

ID: 17bf10de
Text 1
Despite its beautiful prose, The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman’s 1962 analysis of the start of World War I, has certain
weaknesses as a work of history. It fails to address events in Eastern Europe just before the outbreak of hostilities,
thereby giving the impression that Germany was the war’s principal instigator. Had Tuchman consulted secondary works
available to her by scholars such as Luigi Albertini, she would not have neglected the influence of events in Eastern
Europe on Germany’s actions.
Text 2
Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August is an engrossing if dated introduction to World War I. Tuchman’s analysis of
primary documents is laudable, but her main thesis that European powers committed themselves to a catastrophic
outcome by refusing to deviate from military plans developed prior to the conflict is implausibly reductive.

Which choice best describes a difference in how the authors of Text 1 and Text 2 view Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of
August?

The author of Text 1 argues that Tuchman should have relied more on the work of other historians, while the author of
A. Text 2 implies that Tuchman’s most interesting claims result from her original research.

The author of Text 1 believes that the scope of Tuchman’s research led her to an incorrect interpretation, while the
B. author of Text 2 believes that Tuchman’s central argument is overly simplistic.

The author of Text 1 asserts that the writing style of The Guns of August makes it worthwhile to read despite any
perceived deficiency in Tuchman’s research, while the author of Text 2 focuses exclusively on the weakness of
C. Tuchman’s interpretation of events.

The author of Text 1 claims that Tuchman would agree that World War I was largely due to events in Eastern Europe,
while the author of Text 2 maintains that Tuchman would say that Eastern European leaders were not committed to
D. military plans in the same way that other leaders were.
Question ID d0198544
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

ID: d0198544
Text 1
In 2007, a team led by Alice Storey analyzed a chicken bone found in El Arenal, Chile, dating it to 1321–1407 CE—over a
century before Europeans invaded the region, bringing their own chickens. Storey also found that the El Arenal chicken
shared a unique genetic mutation with the ancient chicken breeds of the Polynesian Islands in the Pacific. Thus,
Polynesian peoples, not later Europeans, probably first introduced chickens to South America.
Text 2
An Australian research team weakened the case for a Polynesian origin for the El Arenal chicken by confirming that the
mutation identified by Storey has occurred in breeds from around the world. More recently, though, a team led by Agusto
Luzuriaga-Neira found that South American chicken breeds and Polynesian breeds share other genetic markers that
European breeds lack. Thus, the preponderance of evidence now favors a Polynesian origin.

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

By broadly agreeing with the claim but objecting that the timeline it presupposes conflicts with the findings of the
A. genetic analysis conducted by Storey’s team

By faulting the claim for implying that domestic animals couldn’t have been transferred from South America to the
B. Polynesian Islands as well

By critiquing the claim for being based on an assumption that before the European invasion of South America, the
C. chickens of Europe were genetically uniform

By noting that while the claim is persuasive, the findings of Luzuriaga-Neira’s team provide stronger evidence for it
D. than the findings of the genetic analysis conducted by Storey do
Question ID 7afb470b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 7afb470b
Diadromous fish migrate between freshwater and marine biomes during their life cycle. The migration’s obligate nature is
why diadromous fish can be ______ those that are merely euryhaline (able to tolerate high salinity): the euryhaline
blackchin tilapia can survive high salinity, but its life cycle does not involve relocation to a different biome, as does that of
the diadromous wild salmon.

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

A. demarcated from

B. reconstituted as

C. conflated with

D. derived from
Question ID f83f0aab
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: f83f0aab
Some scientists have suggested that mammals in the Mesozoic era were not a very ______ group, but paleontologist Zhe-
Xi Luo’s research suggests that early mammals living in the shadow of dinosaurs weren’t all ground-dwelling
insectivores. Fossils of various plant-eating mammals have been found in China, including species like Vilevolodon
diplomylos, which Luo says could glide like a flying squirrel.

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

A. predatory

B. obscure

C. diverse

D. localized
Question ID a1d2c4d0
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose

ID: a1d2c4d0
Pteropods are small swimming snails with thin, delicate calcium carbonate shells. These animals are thought to be
especially vulnerable to ocean acidification due to calcium carbonate’s susceptibility to dissolution at lower pH values.
Victoria L. Peck and colleagues recently found that the periostracum (a protective coating on pteropods’ outer shells)
prevents this dissolution when intact. Moreover, the team was surprised to discover that even when the periostracum is
breached, pteropods can still mitigate damage by rebuilding the inner shell wall.

Which choice best describes the main purpose of the text?

A. To call for additional research on biological mechanisms that improve pteropod survival rates

B. To discuss a conclusion drawn in a study of calcium carbonate’s role in protecting the periostracum of pteropods

C. To address some of the ways ocean acidification has altered pteropod behavior over time

To present findings that suggest that a concern about the effects of ocean acidification on pteropod shells may be
D. unwarranted
Question ID c885c38b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

ID: c885c38b
Text 1
Conventional wisdom long held that human social systems evolved in stages, beginning with hunter-gatherers forming
small bands of members with roughly equal status. The shift to agriculture about 12,000 years ago sparked population
growth that led to the emergence of groups with hierarchical structures: associations of clans first, then chiefdoms, and
finally, bureaucratic states.
Text 2
In a 2021 book, anthropologist David Graeber and archaeologist David Wengrow maintain that humans have always been
socially flexible, alternately forming systems based on hierarchy and collective ones with decentralized leadership. The
authors point to evidence that as far back as 50,000 years ago some hunter-gatherers adjusted their social structures
seasonally, at times dispersing in small groups but also assembling into communities that included esteemed
individuals.

Based on the texts, how would Graeber and Wengrow (Text 2) most likely respond to the “conventional wisdom”
presented in Text 1?

By conceding the importance of hierarchical systems but asserting the greater significance of decentralized
A. collective societies

By disputing the idea that developments in social structures have followed a linear progression through distinct
B. stages

C. By acknowledging that hierarchical roles likely weren’t a part of social systems before the rise of agriculture

D. By challenging the assumption that groupings of hunter-gatherers were among the earliest forms of social structure