SAT

Digital Practice
Tests
TABLE OF CONTENT

PRACTICE TEST 1 1-49

PRACTICE TEST 2 50 - 99

PRACTICE TEST 3 100 - 146

PRACTICE TEST 4 147 - 197

PRACTICE TEST 5 198 - 250

PRACTICE TEST 6 251 - 293

Digital SAT Tests

PRACTICE
AMERICAN STUDY
TEST 1

1
 Digital SAT Tests

Practice Test 1

Reading and Writing

27 QUESTIONS

DIRECTIONS

The questions in this section address a number of important reading and writing skills. Each

question includes one or more passages, which may include a table or graph. Read each passage

and question carefully, and then choose the best answer to the question based on the passage(s).

All questions in this section are multiple-choice with four answer choices. Each question has a

single best answer.

AMERICAN STUDY
On November 5, 1966, British artist Tom Phillips was

rummaging through a warehouse full of bargain books

There was just one problem, according to scholars in

the emerging field of behavioral economics: humans

when he found an old, hardbound Victorian novel by W. aren’t rational. In the real world, people make irrational

H. Mallock. The book, which Phillips purchased for economic decisions all the time. For instance, studies of

mere pennies, was titled A Human Document , savings behavior show that many workers choose not

and he decided to make it the raw material for his next to enroll in retirement-savings plans offered by their

art project: a mixed-media book of erasure poetry. This employers even when these plans are _________ in the

project would later bloom into a decades-long workers’ interest. Behavioral economists who have

obsession, as he continued to _____ the near-forgotten studied the issue balme the “default effect,” according

novel into a kaleidoscopic work of art. to which people given a choice tend to favor the option

Which choice completes the text with the most logical presented as the default or status quo.

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

A) amend and precise word or phrase?

B) mutate A) ostentatiously

C) transform B) expansively

D) rehabilitate C) overwhelmingly

D) extravagantly

2
 Digital SAT Tests

Newcomers were always treated with indifference. Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free
Even if you were the best guitar player, or cuíca player, speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the
or composer, or cavaquinho player, in the world, you hearer as well as those of the speaker. It is just as
had to be invited to join the circle. Don’t even think criminal to rob a man of his right to speak and hear as
about joining and fighting to set the pace right it would be to rob him of his money. I have no doubt
away-newcomers only follow. The batucada-that that Boston will vindicate this right. But in order to do
glorious, improvised roda sound- was like a school of so, there must be no concessions to the enemy. When
fish, sometimes, floating serenely together, sometimes a man is allowed to speak because he is rich and
darting faster than you could keep up with, but you powerful, it aggravates the crime of denying the right
had to earn the right to lead that school. And the to the poor and humble.
songs? Don’t even think about playing a lighthearted Which choice best describes the function of the
marchinha-those were for once a year, for Carnaval, for underlined sentence in the overall structure of the text?
outsiders. Samba in the roda had mirth but it wasn’t a A) To imply that the right of speech and the
party; it was a lament. When you play samba on the protection of wealth are both essential to the

AMERICAN STUDY
roda, you laugh at your own misery. You and your pursuit of happiness.
loneliness hold hands and traipse through the music, in B) To highlight the illegality of violating free
awe of how pathetic and glorious you both are. speech by juxtaposing the violation with an
Which choice best describes the function of the acknowledged crime.
underlined sentence in the overall structure of the text? C) To point out that when individuals are denied
A) To use sensory imagery to show how a certain the right of free speech, they are also placed at
musical style became widespread. financial risk.
B) To make a comparison between different types D) To suggest that individuals should value the
of artistic expression. right of speech as much as they value the right
C) To provide an analogy to explore the effect of a to amass money.
musical style on a culture.

D) To describe an auditory experience using an

evocative visual image.

3
 Digital SAT Tests

Text 1

Earth is the only known planet that has plate tectonics, and this activity has been proposed as one necessary

condition for the evolution of life. Planetary scientist Diana Valencia and her colleagues found that as planetary

mass increases, there is an increase in the shear stress [stress parallel to a planet's surface] and a decrease in the

plate thickness. Both of these factors weaken the plates and contribute to plate subduction, which is a key

component of plate tectonics. Therefore, the scientists say, the conditions required for plate deformation and

subduction are easily met by super-Earths. Their results show that this is particularly true for the larger

super-Earths.

Text 2

Once they had an idea of what an exoplanet’s mantle and crust might look like, geochemically speaking, the

scientists were able to determine whether that exoplanet’s crust would be dense enough to sink into the mantle,

just as Earth’s oceanic plates do at places like the Cascadia subduction zone - North America’s

1,000-kilometer-long chain of volcanoes built as one plate takes a deep dive beneath another. Making the

calculation involved rigorous modeling: As pressures and temperatures mount during a plate’s descent, atoms in

AMERICAN STUDY
the plate undergo a reorganization that makes the plate denser. Should the plate remain denser than the

surrounding mantle then the plate would continue to sink. If that is the case, plate tectonics might thrive for

billions of years. But if it odess not and the plate stalls, then plate tectonics would shut down, crippling life’s

chances. The results paint a rather depressing result as far as habitability is concerned: At least two thirds of the

simulated planets build a crust that is too buoyant to sink.

In response to the findings stated in Text 1, what would the author of Text 2 most likely point out?

A) The crusts of the super-Earths lack the thermal energy needed to cause deformation and subduction.

B) Conditions required for plate tectonics to occur vary according to the mass of the planet.

C) The buoyancy of most super-Earths’ plates overcomes other forces that sustain ongoing plate

deformation and subduction.

D) There is no direct method for analyzing the geochemical composition of super-Earths.

4
 Digital SAT Tests

The text is adapted from a speech delivered in 1918 by

When Spribille and his colleagues analyzed Bryoria’s
Jeannette Rankin, During the First World War,
Representative Rankin spoke at a congressional debate RNA-the messenger form of DNA-they discovered
about amending the US Constitution to grant women
suffrage. something amazing. “We found that there was this
Deep down in the hearts of the American people is a third thing, riding along in every single sample,” he
living faith in democracy. Sometimes it is not expressed said, referring to the previously unknown
in the most effective way. Sometimes it seems almost basidiomycete. [...] The final proof that this was not an
forgotten. But when the test comes, we find it still elaborate hoax came when the researchers developed
there, groping and aspiring and helping men and green fluorescent markers that attach to specific RNA
women to understand each other and their common sequences in the basidiomycete, and blue markers that
needs. It is our national religion and it prompts in us attach to complementary RNA sequences in the other
the desire for that measure of justice which is based on fungus, an ascomycete. Sure enough, when they added
equal opportunity, equal protection, equal freedom for these markers to samples of lichen tissue, the cells of a
all. In our hearts we know that desire can be realized hidden fungal partner glowed under the microscope.
only when “those who submit to authority have a voice We can’t be certain the second fungus is present in all

AMERICAN STUDY
in their own government”-whether that government be lichens. Spribille’s study only looked at the lichens in
political, industrial or social. the Parmeliaceae family, the most widespread and
Based on the text, what reason would Rankin likely successful group on Earth today. But the entire lineage
suggest for why it is wrong for a democratic is vast and ancient, and it’s possible some groups split
government to deny suffrage to women? off on the evolutionary tree before the basidiomycetes
A) The full set of essential liberties and arrived on the scene.
protections in a democracy is unavailable to Based on the text, what is true about basidiomycete
those denied the right to choose elected yeast?
representatives. A) It may have been absent in distant ancestors
B) The nation’s founding documents enshrine the of the lichens that Spribille studied.
principle that a representative government is B) It may have initially developed as a result of
invalid if rights are restricted. lichen contamination during earlier studies.
C) Only if both men and women have the right to C) It may be impossible to reproduce from
vote can people address the serious problems cultures in a laboratory setting.
that arise in a democracy. D) It may be a necessary component of symbiotic
D) People’s faith in democracy is weakened when organisms other than lichens.
there is a continual need to remind national

leaders of its tenets.

5
 Digital SAT Tests

The natural-ice trade began to decline from the early decades of the twentieth century, though in more remote

areas of North America where electric power was not available but lake ice was abundant in winter, it survived as

late as the 1950s. As ice harvesting died out, the evidence of its former vast scale rapidly disappeared. There was

no alternative use for the great ice-houses, many of which simply burned down, often set alight by a spark from a

steam train-they were surprisingly flammable, as most were made of wood and kept as dry as possible to better

preserve the blocks of ice they housed. But the majority were demolished or simply rotted away.

What is the main idea of the text?

A) The natural-ice industry declined over several decades, leaving few traces of its magnitude.

B) The arrival of the steam train signaled the demise of ice harvesting.

C) Icehouses were extremely flammable and therefore few remain.

D) In the 1950s, the natural-ice industry experienced a short-lived revival.

AMERICAN STUDY

6
 Digital SAT Tests

Macdonald dated a volcanic region, called the Franklin Large Igneous Province (LIP). He discovered the Franklin

LIP became active close to when the first snowball Earth event began around 717 million years ago. Macdonald

and Robin Wordsworth used a combination of geologic evidence and modeling to test whether the Franklin LIP

could be the culprit. In a new study, they show that Franklin LIP’s volcanic activity could have caused extreme

climate change. That is because of a unique combination of factors: First, the Franklin LIP formed in an area rich

in sulfur; as it erupted, large plumes of hot gas and dust would have lofted sulfur particles kilometers into the air.

Sulfur particles block the incoming sun and also keep heat from escaping Earth, which can create either a

warming or cooling effect, depending on the location. That’s why the next piece of physical evidence is key -

geologic records show the Franklin LIP sat at the equator where Earth receives more solar energy than the

amount of heat it radiates back out to space. According to the researchers’ model, if enough sulfur particles

reached high enough into the atmosphere at this equatorial location, it would block enough of the sun’s

incoming energy to trigger runaway cooling.

Based on the text, which additional finding, if true, would most likely help validate Macdonald and Wordsworth’s

hypothesis?

AMERICAN STUDY
A) Several volcanic regions extending beyond the Franklin LIP were also found to be rich in sulfur.

B) The amount of sulfur emitted during volcanic eruptions in the Franklin LIP was less than the amount of

carbon dioxide emitted.

C) Volcanic eruptions in the Franklin LIP were powerful enough to propel sulfur particles to an altitude

where they could redirect solar energy.

D) Volcanic activity occurring in the Franklin LIP caused the breakup of Rodinia into several smaller

landmasses.

7
 Digital SAT Tests

A study published in 2014 in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services asked apparel merchandise buyers to

rate (from 1 to 4) the factors they take into account when making purchases. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a product’s

AMERICAN STUDY
seasonal appropriateness received the highest average rating, at 3.39. Other factors that buyers gave the highest

ratings illustrate the wide range of expertise that Surveyke and others in the field must bring to their work. For

instance, understanding the target customer and ____________

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

A) current fashion trends each received an average rating of 3.20.

B) The product brand image showed a wide split in priorities among buyers.

C) recognizing a brand’s position in the market received essentially the same ratings.

D) scouting competitors’ products were given ratings below 3.21.

8
 Digital SAT Tests

AMERICAN STUDY
Comparing the population data collected using box traps with the camera traps, the researchers found that the

camera traps were able to provide information about more species of reptiles than the box traps did. The box

traps were able to capture just 3 species, all of which were snakes, and 7 total reptiles. In contrast, the camera

traps detected ___________ and 150 total reptiles. Although the camera traps were unable to detect some of the

snake species identified using the box traps, they were able to provide information on several lizard species that

researchers suspected were able to evade the box traps.

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

A) 144 species of lizards, 6 species of snakes,

B) 4 species of lizards, 6 species of snakes,

C) 6 species, including both snakes and lizards,

D) 27 lizards, 6 species of snakes,

9
 Digital SAT Tests

AMERICAN STUDY
Roboticist Masahio Mori speculated that likability plummets for robots in the 75 to 90 percent human

resemblance range __________________________ Mori’s name for this proposed zone of decreased likability-the

uncanny valley-alludes to the eeriness and unfaminilarity evoked by these almost-but-not-quite-human robots.

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

A) but that the drop occurs only if the robots are moving.

B) and that the drop is more pronounced for moving robots.

C) but that the change in likability is identical for moving and still robots.

D) and that still robots in this range are the least likable.

10
 Digital SAT Tests

AMERICAN STUDY

A 2014 study found that 50 percent of those surveyed believed that businesses sometimes write negative reviews

about competitors, and a further 18 percent believed businesses did so often. The individuals surveyed also

thought that businesses write positive reviews of their own products or services, with 43 percent of respondents

saying this happens sometimes and 36 percent saying it happens often. And even when they did not suspect

direct interference from the businesses respondents ________________ 48 percent thought that individuals

sometimes write online reviews without purchasing the products or services, and 16 percent thought that this

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

A) rarely considered whether reviews were honest:

B) had doubts about the validity of customer reviews:

C) did not purchase products or services with fraudulent reviews:

D) preferred products or services with higher numbers of reviews:

11
 Digital SAT Tests

Researchers have long warned of salinization, the increasing concentration of dissolved salts, in freshwater

ecosystems. Less attention, however, has been paid to the role of alkalinization, or rising pH, in the salinization

process. As observed in a 2018 study led by University of Maryland geology professor Sujay Kaushal,

alkalinization and salinization are crucially linked occurrences in North American fresh waterways. Given the

environmental threat of what Kaushal terms “freshwater salinization syndrome,” it is imperative that scientists

______________________

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A) take a more holistic approach and account for alkalinization processes when studying waterway

salinization.

B) keep in mind that the syndrome is most prevalent in densely populated areas when studying waterway

salinization.

C) recognize symptoms of the syndrome, such as infrastructure corrosion and contaminant mobilization

when studying waterway salinization.

D) consider the research methods and technologies used when studying waterway salinization.

AMERICAN STUDY
It would be helpful for Shira Suveyke to be able to foresee the future. As a retail merchandise buyer for online

fashion retailer the Outnet, Suveyke can only do her best to predict which pieces of clothing will appeal to

customers in order to decide which products will be sold on the company’s website. Suveyke must make key

purchasing decisions that balance both market and aesthetic ___________ ensure that the right items are in stock

when customers want them.

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

A) considerations. To

B) considerations, to

C) considerations to

D) considerations; to

12
 Digital SAT Tests

Scottish artist Katie Paterson creates conceptual art projects that invite viewers to consider their relationship to

nature, focusing on the immensity of space and time. For her piece Inside this desert lies the tiniest grain of sand,

she asked nanotechnology experts to fashion the world’s tiniest fragment of sand, which she then buried in the

vast wastelands of the Sahara. Her Fossil Necklace is a necklace of 170 fossils, each symbolizing a different

milestone in the development of life on Earth over billions of years. Paterson’s new work, Future Library, explores

the links between the natural world, time, and human activity in an exciting new _______ the project involves

planting a small forest and, one hundred years later, turning it into a book.

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

A) way:

B) way and

C) way,

D) way; as

AMERICAN STUDY
British artist Tom Phillips never planned to read Traditional salinization tests that solely _______ on

Mallock’s book; instead, he would “treat” it. In this sodium chloride, a salt often used to decide roads, are

process, Phillips _______ the book to a random page inadequate in studying the increased salinity and pH of

then erase, cross out, paint over, or otherwise freshwater systems. Sodium chloride does not make

manipulate the text so that the carefully selected water more alkaline, but other salts-such as those

remaining words would create a unique, poetic containing positive ions of calcium, potassium, and

message. In one of his earliest treatments, he folded magnesium-do. Such salts are released by numerous

the title page of Mallock’s novel, truncating “A Human processes, including mining, agriculture, and,

Document” to “A Humument.” counterintuitively, acid rain.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to

the conventions of Standard English? the conventions of Standard English?

A) would open A) focus

B) had opened B) were focusing

C) opens C) will focus

D) opened D) had been focused

13
 Digital SAT Tests

Together, alkalinization and salinization pose a double Classical economic theory is predicated on a bedrock

threat to the health of freshwater ecosystems and the assumption about human behavior: people make

animals that rely on them. Among ____ many effects, economic decisions rationally and in their own

higher salinity can cause greater levels of phosphates self-interest. The law of supply and demand, for

to be leached into rivers and streams, fostering the example, which holds that as the supply of an item

growth of harmful algae and bacteria. Elevated pH, increases, its price decreases, assumes that each

meanwhile, can cause ammonium, a nutrient already shopper will strive to pay as little as possible for the

present in water, to convert into toxic ammonia gas, item. From the nineteenth century until quite recently,

resulting in decreased biodiversity. _______________________ formed the basis of most

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to economic models.

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

A) its the conventions of Standard English?

B) it’s A) there was this rational “economic man”; Homo

economicus
C) their

AMERICAN STUDY
B) this rational “economic man,” Homo
D) they’re
economicus,
C) “economic man,” being the rational Homo
economicus,
D) Homo economicus was a rational “economic

man” and

14
 Digital SAT Tests

In 1970, _____________ _ proposed a hypothesis to Species throughout time have been shaped by

account for an emerging challenge in his field-namely, divergent evolution, in which a population becomes

that people react negatively to robots that closely more distinct from the rest of its species as it adapts to

resemble human beings. The problem, he argued, is a habitat. Biologists have long assumed that most

that a robot’s likability has a nonlinear relationship with organisms will initially struggle to survive when faced

the degree to which it resembles a human. That is, with an unfamiliar environment. _______ a recent study

robots bearing little or no resemblance to humans by biologists Daniel Bolnick and William Stutz at the

elicit little response, and as robots resemble humans University of Texas at Austin shows how newcomers to

more closely, their likeability increases, with moving an ecosystem can thrive, allowing locally rare traits to

robots that completely resemble humans being the persist and keeping different populations within the

most likable. same species genetically closer together.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to Which choice completes the text with the most logical

the conventions of Standard English? transition?

A) roboticist, Masahiro Mori A) However,

AMERICAN STUDY
B) roboticist Masahiro Mori, B) In addition,

C) roboticist Masahiro Mori C) Therefore,

D) roboticist, Masahiro Mori, D) Moreover,

15
 Digital SAT Tests

In a study published in the Journal of Comparative An individual who wants to purchase a new laptop

Psychology in 2018, Bräuer and Belger sought to learn computer can get reviews of the available models from

if dogs mentally represent what they smell. __________ one of the many websites where customers post their

the scientists wondered whether dogs have own reviews. However, many consumers are concerned

expectations of what they search for or whether they about the trustworthiness of anonymous customer

simply follow a trail of positive stimuli. appraisals or are simply overwhelmed by the countless,

Which choice completes the text with the most logical often conflicting ______ there is growing demand for the

transition? objective, reputable reviews provided by a professional

A) In other words, reviewing service. Those who enjoy trying new

B) Nevertheless, products and sharing their opinions may even consider

C) However, becoming professional reviewers who conduct

D) As a result, extensive product research and report on their

findings.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical

AMERICAN STUDY
transition?

A) reviews,

B) reviews; now that

C) reviews, so

D) reviews, therefore,

Although there are countless neutrinos in the universe emphasizes how numerous neutrinos are, actually

detecting them is a formidable task. Neutrinos carry no electrical charge, are practically weightless, and travel at

nearly the speed of light. Neutrinos are rarely affected by matter or electromagnetic fields. ____________ many

neutrinos have been travelling through space unimpeded for billions of years.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A) For this purpose,

B) In contrast,

C) Besides,

D) In fact,

16
 Digital SAT Tests

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

● Started in 1925, the Scripps National Spelling Bee is a US-based spelling competition.

● The words used in the competition have diverse linguistic origins.

● In 2008, Sameer Mishra won by correctly spelling the word “guerdon.”

● “Guerdon” derives from the Anglo-French word “guerdun.”

● In 2009, Kavya Shivashankar won by correctly spelling the word “Laodicean.”

● “Laodicean” derives from the ancient Greek word “Laodíkeia.”

The student wants to emphasize a difference in the origins of the two words. Which choice most effectively uses

relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

A) “Guerdon,” the final word of the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee, is of Anglo-French origin, while the

following year’s final word, “Laodicean,” derives from ancient Greek.

B) In 2008, Sameer Mishra won the Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling the word “guerdon”;

however, the following year, Kavya Shivashankar won based on spelling the word “Laodicean.”

C) Kavya Shivashankar won the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling “Laodicean,” which

AMERICAN STUDY
derives from the ancient Greek word “Laodíkeia.”

D) The Scripps National Spelling Bee uses words from diverse linguistic origins, such as “guerdon” and

“Laodicean.”

17
 Digital SAT Tests

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

● In 2013, archaeologists studied cat bone fragments they had found in the ruins of Cancun, a Chinese

farming village.

● The fragments were estimated to be 5,300 years old.

● A chemical analysis of the fragments revealed that the cats had consumed large amounts of grain.

● The grain consumption is evidence that the Quan Ucun cats may have been domesticated.

The student wants to present the Quanhucun study and its conclusions. Which choice most effectively uses

relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

A) As part of a 2013 study of cat domestication, a chemical analysis was conducted on cat bone fragments

found in Quanhucun, China.

B) A 2013 analysis of cat bone fragments found in Quanhucun, China, suggests that cats there may have

been domesticated 5,300 years ago.

C) In 2013, archaeologists studied what cats in Quanhucun, China, had eaten more than 5,000 years ago.

D) Cat bone fragments estimated to be 5,300 years old were found in Quanhucun, China, in 2013.

AMERICAN STUDY

STOP

If you finish before time is called, you may check your work on this module only. Do not turn to

any other module in the test.

18
Digital SAT Tests

Reading and Writing

27 QUESTIONS

DIRECTIONS

The questions in this section address a number of important reading and writing skills. Each

question includes one or more passages, which may include a table or graph. Read each passage

and question carefully, and then choose the best answer to the question based on the passage(s).

All questions in this section are multiple-choice with four answer choices. Each question has a

single best answer

AMERICAN STUDY
Conservation ecologists and biologists need effective methods of collecting information about animal

populations. Traditional methods for gathering these data include using ________ box traps to capture

animals, but recent technological advances have made camera trapping-a data-collection method in which

remote cameras are triggered by animals’ presence or set to take pictures at regular intervals-a viable

alternative.

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

A) humane

B) benevolent

C) civilized

D) kind

19
Digital SAT Tests

Over the last few decades the number of institutions around the world offering entrepreneurship education

(EE) programs has grown to over three thousand. Research shows that many of these programs use the

standard lecture format to teach students how to successfully develop and manage new business ______ but

modern scholars studying EE note that entrepreneurs learn best through hands-on experience. Therefore,

although there is a place in the EE curriculum for traditional instruction, the emphasis needs to be on

activities that allow students to practice real entrepreneurship, both inside and outside the classroom.

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

A) ventures,

B) speculations,

C) missions,

D) exertions,

Superhero films-the best ones, at least-ruminate on As the story goes, it was 1948, and musicologist

AMERICAN STUDY
the nature of power and responsibility, and the Remo Giazotto was about to _____ a stack of

hero-versus-evil-counterpart formula is a means to unneeded documents from his research on Venetian

facilitate such contemplation. The striking composer Tomaso Albinoni when a stray scrap of

similarities between T’Challa and Killmonger paper fell to the floor. On the Paper, Giazotto

emphasize the profound differences in their claimed, was a fragment of notated music. Dating to

attitudes toward their powers. At the start of the the early 1700s and written by Albinoni himself

film, T’Challa believes that he must use his powers Anxious to bring this lost piece of music back to life,

to keep Wakanda safe from the turmoil of the Giazotto set to work on a creative reconstruction that

outside world; Killmonger, on the other hand, seeks he would eventually publish in 1958 under the title

to use his, along with Wakanda’s vast resources, to Adagio in G Minor for Strings and Organ on Two

_______ centuries of injustice, even if that means Thematic Ideas and on a Figured Bass by Tomaso

subjugating the world in the process. Albinoni.

Which choice completes the text with the most Which choice completes the text with the most

logical and precise word or phrase? logical and precise word or phrase?

A) revise A) junk

B) tailor B) do away with

C) rectify C) banish

D) alter D) discard

20
Digital SAT Tests

By sequencing and comparing the genomes of red The first bar code was composed of four white lines

siskins, red factor canaries, yellow canaries, and wild set at specific distances from each other on a black

green canaries, the team identified over 15,000 background. The first line was always present.

genetic variants that are associated with red color, Depending on the presence or absence of the

most of which are confined to two small stretches of remaining three lines, up to seven different

DNA. One of these regions contains a gene called arrangements were _______ and, therefore, seven

CYP2/19, which is switched on in the birds’ skin and different encodings. Today, twenty-nine white lines

liver, and is a thousand times more active in the red make more than half a billion encodings possible.

canaries than the yellow ones. That’s an important Which choice completes the text with the most

clue. logical and precise word or phrase?

As used in the text, what does the phrase “confined A) susceptible

to” most nearly mean? B) responsible

A) resigned to C) possible

B) trapped in D) capable

AMERICAN STUDY
C) restricted to

D) captured by

21
Digital SAT Tests

To create a barcode scanner, Woodland and Silver My roses are not your average hybrid-tea roses

adapted technology from an optical movie sound (those long-stemmed, special occasion roses with

system. Their prototype scanner used a 500-watt well-formed buds). Mine are antique roses, old or

bulb, a photomultiplier tube (a device that detects heirloom varieties that have existed in gardens

light), and an oscilloscope (a device that translates worldwide for centuries. Compared to vibrant

electronic signals into readable information). hybrid-tea colors, antique rose colors tend to be

Although successful, the _______ was both large and _______. Their stems are also shorter, and their buds

costly. As a result, progress stalled until the 1970s, are a bit droopier. Their fragrance, however, is

when laser technology (both more compact and less unmatched. And unlike the hybrid-tea whose long

expensive) became available. stems make for a rosebush that is rather scraggly

Which choice completes the text with the most looking, antique rose bushes are lush and shapely,

logical and precise word or phrase? handsomely landscaping gardens.

A) concoction Which choice completes the text with the most

B) contraption logical and precise word or phrase?

AMERICAN STUDY
C) substance A) silenced

D) stuff B) reduced

C) muted

D) Lower

22
Digital SAT Tests

My last Duchess is a 1842 poem by Robert My Heart’s in the Highlands is a 1789 song and a

Browning. This poem is loosely based on historical poem by Robert Burns. In the poem, the poet or the

events involving Alfonso, the Duke of Ferrara, who narrator longs for the Highlands: _______

lived in the 16th century. The Duke is the speaker of Which quotation from the poem most effectively

the poem, and he sees himself as reasonable: ______ illustrates the claim?

Which quotation from the poem most effectively A) “Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the

illustrates the claim? North”

A) “-E’en then would be some stooping: and I B) “The hills of the Highlands forever I love”

choose/Never to stoop. Oh sir, , she smiled, C) “Farewell to the mountains high cover’d with

no doubt,/Whene’er I passed her, but who snow”

passed without/ Much the same smile?” D) “My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go”

B) “...I repeat/ The Count your master’s known

munificence/ Is ample warrant that no one

just pretense/ Of mine for dowry will be

AMERICAN STUDY
disallowed;”

C) “...She thanked men—good! but thanked/

Somehow—I know not how—as if she

ranked/My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old

name/With anybody’s gift.”

D) “A heart—how shall I say?—too soon made

glad,/Too easily impressed; she liked

whate’er/She looked on, and her looks went

everywhere./Sir, ‘twas all one!”

23
Digital SAT Tests

This text is adapted from the memoir The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart (©2001 by T.E.
Carhart).
His attitude about how people treated their pianos seemed to mirror his philosophy of life. While regretting

the depredations worked by children on keyboards and strings, he regarded them as tolerable because the

piano was at least used and, as he put it, “au sein de la famille” (“at the heart of the family”). It was more

than just any piece of furniture, but it was that, too, and if drinks were spilled and stains bit into shiny

finishes, it was the price one paid for initiating the young to a joy that should stem from familiarity rather

than reverence.

According to the text, what is true about Luc’s philosophy of life?

A) It’s better to live a full and imperfect life than not participate because something might go wrong.

B) Life is a fragile gift that must be cherished and kept safe at all times.

C) Living well is like playing the piano well; it requires dedication and practice.

D) It’s important not to take life’s opportunities for granted because they may not come a second time.

AMERICAN STUDY

24
Digital SAT Tests

When Shelly Palmer-the CEO of a technology and

Doug Chiang had a problem with his spaceship.
marketing company-returned home from a
Designed for the 2016 film Rogue One, the vehicle
meeting, he found that a family member had
sketched out by Chiang and his team of concept
cleaned and organized his notoriously messy desk.
artists-professionals who help filmmakers and video
Palmer quickly realized that he could not find the
game producers translate ideas from page to
materials he needed and that the space was poorly
screen-looked a little too out of this world. In any
suited to the way he was used to working. Such
other film, perhaps the futuristic design would have
imposition of order onto a worker’s desk occurs on a
sufficed, but Chiang wasn’t working on just any film.
larger scale in many traditional offices, where
He was working on the latest installment of Star
employers implement “clean desk policies” based on
Wars, a franchise of science-fantasy films whose
the notion that having too many items on and
_______________
around one’s desk can be distracting, hampering an
Which choice most logically completes the text?
employee’s performance. __________________
A) merchandise includes toy versions of the
Which choice most logically completes the text?
spaceship Millennium Falcon.

AMERICAN STUDY
A) As it turns out, the state of an employee’s
B) characters frequently travel from planet to
desk can reflect a number of things about
planet in spaceships.
an employee’s personality.
C) themes are drawn from fairy tales and
B) As experts confirm, employees can work
myths.
more efficiently by organizing their
D) Visual aesthetics draws more heavily on the
materials according to how frequently they
past than on the future.
use them.

C) Some companies have gone to the extreme

of distributing detailed handbooks

explaining what employees should and

should not keep at their desks.

D) Researchers have been challenging that

idea, however-and employers would be

wise to listen.

25
Digital SAT Tests

Dogs have long been famous for their powerful Patsy Takemoto Mink was born to Japanese
noses. For millennia, humans across many hunting American parents in Hawaii in 1927 and came of age
cultures have employed dogs as trackers, marveling during World War II, a time when the United States
at their keen sense of smell. Today, scientific placed thousands of Japanese Americans into
research has only confirmed the common internment camps. During the war, no Japanese
knowledge that the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) Americans served in the legislature of Hawaii, then a
is endowed with olfactory capabilities more acute US territory. However, in 1952, fewer than a decade
than the average human’s-up to 100,000 times after the war, seventeen Japanese American men
more, in fact. In a 2005 study led by behavioral were elected to Hawaii’s House of Representatives.
psychologists in Northern Ireland, dogs proved they Despite this greater political representation for Asian
just needed five footsteps to determine by smell Americans, Mink faced discrimination throughout
which direction a person had walked on a given trail. her educational and professional life. She became a
When there may be little dispute regarding dogs’ lawyer in 1953, but firms would not hire her because
impressive abilities to track scents, ___________ of her gender and interracial marriage. Her

AMERICAN STUDY
Which choice most logically completes the text? determination to fight such prejudice
A) how dogs themselves perceive odors ____________________________ .
remains a tantalizing topic of inquiry. Which choice most logically completes the text?
B) why dogs eat what they eat may be A) had taken shape during her early childhood
explained by the fact that dogs have in a small sugar-plantation community.
considerably fewer taste buds than humans B) ultimately led her to become the first Asian
do. American woman elected to the US
C) dogs are among a small group of animals Congress.
that exhibit voluntary unselfish kindness C) was evident in her public speeches, which
toward others. were widely praised over the course of her
D) studies show dogs may even track scents in career.
their dreams. D) inspired countless people, many of whom

are advocates for social justice today.

26
Digital SAT Tests

In a 2013 study, Katherine Milkman and two As the story goes, it was 1948, and musicologist
co-authors examined what they call “temptation Remo Giazotto was about to discard a stack of
________ a so-called “want experience” (in this case, unneeded documents from his research on
listening to a favorite audiobook) with a so-called ___________ when a stray scrap of paper fell to the
“should behavior” (exercising at a gym). Milkman floor. On the Paper, Giazotto claimed, was a fragment
found that participants who limited their audiobook of notated music dating to the early 1700s and
listening to time spent at the gym worked out 51 written by Albinoni himself Anxious to bring this lost
percent more frequently than the control piece of music back to life, Giazotto set to work on a
participants, and 61 percent of those in the creative reconstruction that he would eventually
experimental group even purchased gym-only publish in 1958 under the title Adagio in G Minor for
access to audiobooks. Strings and Organs on Two Thematic Ideas and on a
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms Figured Bass by Tomaso Albinoni.
to the conventions of Standard English? Which choice completes the text so that it conforms
A) bundling”: tying to the conventions of Standard English?

AMERICAN STUDY
B) bundling” tying: A) Venetian composer, Tomaso Albinoni
C) bundling,” tying; B) Venetian composer Tomaso Albinoni
D) bundling”; tying C) Venetian composer Tomaso Albinoni,

D) Venetian composer: Tomaso Albinoni,

27
Digital SAT Tests

The mood Giazotto set for Alhinnni’s fragment is One reviewer of the 2017 film Justice League invoked
somber and pierced with yearning. The Adagio the hypothesis to criticize the ___________ mustache
begins with the double bass (the Lowest of the under a clean-shaven computer-generated imagery
stringed instruments) marking a brooding, (CGI) mouth, writing that the actor had “an
dirge-like rhythm, while the pipe organ ___ a gentle uncanny-valley thesis statement resting on his top
introduction tune above it. When the rest of the lip.” Even though the idea of the uncanny valley has
ensemble-violins, volas, and cellos-joins in, the become a convenient shorthand for describing
melody cascades in an emotionally evocative torrent off-putting CGI, critics who casually employ the
of sound. concept should remember that roboticist Masahiro
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms Mori’s original graph does not represent actual data
to the conventions of Standard English? collected in a scientific study.
A) play Which choice completes the text so that it conforms
B) are playing to the conventions of Standard English?
C) plays A) filmmakers’ decision to hide an actor’s

AMERICAN STUDY
D) have played B) filmmakers’ decision to hide an actors’

C) filmmakers’ decision to hide an actors

D) filmmakers decision to hide an actor’s

28
Digital SAT Tests

In 1948, graduate _______________ took on a problem In the ninety-year history of the Santa Fe Indian
that had troubled retailers for years: how to keep _______________________ 2011 event marked the first
track of store inventories. Inspired by the dots and time a basket won best of show. The creator of the
dashes of Morse code, Woodland and Silver created piece, thirty-three-year-old Passamaquoddy Indian
a system of lines that could encode data. Called a Jeremy Frey from Princeton, Maine, looked on as the
symbology, the pattern created by the spacing and basket sold at auction for $16,000. Frey describes his
widths of the lines encodes information by baskets as “cutting-edge traditional.”
representing different characters. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
to the conventions of Standard English? A) Market-the largest Indian art festival in the
A) students, Norman Woodland and Bernard nation-
Silver, B) Market the largest Indian art festival - in the
B) students, Norman Woodland and Bernard nation -
Silver C) Market, the largest Indian art festival in the

AMERICAN STUDY
C) students Norman Woodland and Bernard nation
Silver D) Market, the largest Indian art festival in the
D) students Norman Woodland and Bernard nation
Silver,

29
Digital SAT Tests

Nine hundred years ___________ ordered the design The high drama of the Adagio proved to be popular,
and construction of a clock more accurate than any especially in the film industry. The piece has provided
other. This would be no simple timepiece. Because the musical backdrop to dozens of films, from
Chinese dynasties adhered to astrology, they relied Flashdance (1983) to Manchester by the Sea (2016).
on complicated clocks that not only kept time but _______ it has saturated the soundtracks of so many
also helped track stars, planets, the sun, and the movies that New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane
moon. An eminent scientist and bureaucrat named jessted that the work should be banned on-screen
Sue Song led Zhezong’s ambitious project. altogether. While its use in films may border on
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms ciché, the Adagio has become the most well-known
to the conventions of Standard English? piece of music associated with Albinoni.
A) ago, Emperor Zhezong of China, Which choice completes the text with the most
B) ago, Emperor Zhezong, of China logical transition?
C) ago, Emperor Zhezong of China A) In fact,
D) ago Emperor Zhezong of China, B) Even so,

AMERICAN STUDY
C) In addition,

D) All the while,

30
Digital SAT Tests

Musicologist Carolyn Gianturco revealed in 1982 In Dubai, Escrogima worked as an Arabic-language

that other scholarship of Giazotto’s is spokesperson, often appearing on local and
suspect-littered with falsified sources and pan-Arab television as a representative of the US
misleading claims. While Giazotto had long government. Her next postings took her back to
maintained that the Adagio was an inspired tribute, ________ to Washington, DC, as advisor to
he finally admitted that he was indeed its only Undersecretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman
author. ______ Adagio in G Minor is now attributed on issues related to Iran and the Middle East, and
solely to Giazotto. With decades of mislabeled then home to New York, where she was appointed
recordings perpetuating the error, however, the Diplomat in Residence at City College of New York.
fiction of Giazotto’s great discovery lives On. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms
Which choice completes the text with the most to the conventions of Standard English?
logical transition? A) US; first
A) In contrast, B) US: first
B) Nevertheless, C) US first,

AMERICAN STUDY
C) Furthermore, D) US first
D) Consequently,

31
Digital SAT Tests

Su Song created a spectacular timepiece housed While researching a topic, a student has taken the
within an ornate forty-foot-tall tower. At the tower’s following notes:
top sat an armillary sphere - a nest of metal rings ● Ancient Native American and Australian
representing celestial reference points such as the Aboriginal cultures described the Pleiades
horizon and the sun’s path - that rotated in sync star cluster as having seven stars.
with the earth, enabling precise astronomical ● It was referred to as the Seven Sisters in the
observations. Inside the tower, a sphere depicting mythology of ancient Greece.
the sky revolved to display the stars that were ● Today, the cluster appears to have only six
overhead. ______ below the star sphere, the tower’s stars.
open sides exposed a detailed model of a five-story ● Two of the stars have moved so close
pagoda. Automated figurines would appear in the together that they now appear as one.
pagoda’s doorways and ring bells, they announced The student wants to specify the reason the Pleiades’
hours, sunsets, seasons, and other chronological appearance changed. Which choice most effectively
events. uses relevant information from the notes to

AMERICAN STUDY
Which choice completes the text with the most accomplish this goal?
logical transition? A) Ancient Native American and Australian
A) Besides, Aboriginal cultures described the Pleiades,
B) Sooner or later, which was referred to in Greek mythology as
C) Lastly, the Seven Sisters, as having seven stars.
D) Thus, B) Although once referred to as the Seven

Sisters, the Pleiades appears to have only six

stars today.

C) In the time since ancient cultures described

the Pleiades as having seven stars, two of

the cluster’s stars have moved so close

together that they now appear as one.

D) The Pleiades has seven stars, but two are so

close together that they appear to be a

single star.

32