Question ID 359902ae

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 359902ae
The following text is adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1837 story “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment.” The main character, a
physician, is experimenting with rehydrating a dried flower.

At first [the rose] lay lightly on the surface of the fluid, appearing to imbibe none of its moisture. Soon, however, a
singular change began to be visible. The crushed and dried petals stirred and assumed a deepening tinge of
crimson, as if the flower were reviving from a deathlike slumber.

As used in the text, what does the phrase “a singular” most nearly mean?

A. A lonely

B. A disagreeable

C. An acceptable

D. An extraordinary
Question ID 22a41819
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 22a41819
Rejecting the premise that the literary magazine Ebony and Topaz (1927) should present a unified vision of Black
American identity, editor Charles S. Johnson fostered his contributors’ diverse perspectives by promoting their authorial
autonomy. Johnson’s self-effacement diverged from the editorial stances of W.E.B. Du Bois and Alain Locke, whose
decisions for their publications were more ______.

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

A. proficient

B. dogmatic

C. ambiguous

D. unpretentious
Question ID e35d481c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: e35d481c
Some economic historians ______ that late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century households in the United States
experienced an economy of scale when it came to food purchases—they assumed that large households spent less on
food per person than did small households. Economist Trevon Logan showed, however, that a close look at the available
data disproves this supposition.

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

A. surmised

B. contrived

C. questioned

D. regretted
Question ID 5e57efec
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 5e57efec
Economist Marco Castillo and colleagues showed that nuisance costs—the time and effort people must spend to make
donations—reduce charitable giving. Charities can mitigate this effect by compensating donors for nuisance costs, but
those costs, though variable, are largely ______ donation size, so charities that compensate donors will likely favor
attracting a few large donors over many small donors.

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

A. supplemental to

B. predictive of

C. independent of

D. subsumed in
Question ID 757077f9
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 757077f9
During a 2014 archaeological dig in Spain, Vicente Lull and his team uncovered the skeleton of a woman from El Algar,
an Early Bronze Age society, buried with valuable objects signaling a high position of power. This finding may persuade
researchers who have argued that Bronze Age societies were ruled by men to ______ that women may have also held
leadership roles.

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

A. waive

B. concede

C. refute

D. require
Question ID 97e5bf55
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: 97e5bf55
Text 1
In 1916, H. Dugdale Sykes disputed claims that The Two Noble Kinsmen was coauthored by William Shakespeare and
John Fletcher. Sykes felt Fletcher’s contributions to the play were obvious—Fletcher had a distinct style in his other plays,
so much so that lines with that style were considered sufficient evidence of Fletcher’s authorship. But for the lines not
deemed to be by Fletcher, Sykes felt that their depiction of women indicated that their author was not Shakespeare but
Philip Massinger.
Text 2
Scholars have accepted The Two Noble Kinsmen as coauthored by Shakespeare since the 1970s: it appears in all major
one-volume editions of Shakespeare’s complete works. Though scholars disagree about who wrote what exactly, it is
generally held that on the basis of style, Shakespeare wrote all of the first act and most of the last, while John Fletcher
authored most of the three middle acts.

Based on the texts, both Sykes in Text 1 and the scholars in Text 2 would most likely agree with which statement?

A. John Fletcher’s writing has a unique, readily identifiable style.

B. The women characters in John Fletcher’s plays are similar to the women characters in Philip Massinger’s plays.

C. The Two Noble Kinsmen belongs in one-volume compilations of Shakespeare’s complete plays.

D. Philip Massinger’s style in the first and last acts of The Two Noble Kinsmen is an homage to Shakespeare’s style.
Question ID 84ece3f6
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 84ece3f6
The following text is adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1844 short story “Drowne’s Wooden Image.” Drowne, a young
man, is carving a wooden figure to decorate the front of a ship.
Day by day, the work assumed greater precision, and settled its irregular and misty outline into distincter grace and
beauty. The general design was now obvious to the common eye.

As used in the text, what does the word “assumed” most nearly mean?

A. Acquired

B. Acknowledged

C. Imitated

D. Speculated
Question ID 93665100
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 93665100
Seminole/Muscogee director Sterlin Harjo ______ television’s tendency to situate Native characters in the distant past: this
rejection is evident in his series Reservation Dogs, which revolves around teenagers who dress in contemporary styles and
whose dialogue is laced with current slang.

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

A. repudiates

B. proclaims

C. foretells

D. recants
Question ID e459076b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: e459076b
The following text is adapted from George Eliot’s 1871–72 novel Middlemarch.

[Mr. Brooke] had travelled in his younger years, and was held in this part of the country to have contracted a too
rambling habit of mind. Mr. Brooke’s conclusions were as difficult to predict as the weather.

As used in the text, what does the word “contracted” most nearly mean?

A. Restricted

B. Described

C. Developed

D. Settled
Question ID 4974b053
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 4974b053
Although science fiction was dominated mostly by white male authors when Octavia Butler, a Black woman, began
writing, she did not view the genre as ______: Butler broke into the field with the publication of several short stories and
her 1976 novel Patternmaster, and she later became the first science fiction writer to win a prestigious MacArthur
Fellowship.

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

A. legitimate

B. impenetrable

C. compelling

D. indecipherable
Question ID 105ea6de
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: 105ea6de
Text 1
Growth in the use of novel nanohybrids—materials created from the conjugation of multiple distinct nanomaterials, such
as iron oxide and gold nanomaterials conjugated for use in magnetic imaging—has outpaced studies of nanohybrids’
environmental risks. Unfortunately, risk evaluations based on nanohybrids’ constituents are not reliable: conjugation may
alter constituents’ physiochemical properties such that innocuous nanomaterials form a nanohybrid that is anything but.
Text 2
The potential for enhanced toxicity of nanohybrids relative to the toxicity of constituent nanomaterials has drawn
deserved attention, but the effects of nanomaterial conjugation vary by case. For instance, it was recently shown that a
nanohybrid of silicon dioxide and zinc oxide preserved the desired optical transparency of zinc oxide nanoparticles while
mitigating the nanoparticles’ potential to damage DNA.

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

A. By concurring that the risk described in Text 1 should be evaluated but emphasizing that the risk is more than offset
by the potential benefits of nanomaterial conjugation

B. By arguing that the situation described in Text 1 may not be representative but conceding that the effects of
nanomaterial conjugation are harder to predict than researchers had expected

C. By denying that the circumstance described in Text 1 is likely to occur but acknowledging that many aspects of
nanomaterial conjugation are still poorly understood

D. By agreeing that the possibility described in Text 1 is a cause for concern but pointing out that nanomaterial
conjugation does not inevitably produce that result
Question ID c4737d6a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: c4737d6a
Text 1
Africa’s Sahara region—once a lush ecosystem—began to dry out about 8,000 years ago. A change in Earth’s orbit that
affected climate has been posited as a cause of desertification, but archaeologist David Wright also attributes the shift to
Neolithic peoples. He cites their adoption of pastoralism as a factor in the region drying out: the pastoralists’ livestock
depleted vegetation, prompting the events that created the Sahara Desert.
Text 2
Research by Chris Brierley et al. challenges the idea that Neolithic peoples contributed to the Sahara’s desertification.
Using a climate-vegetation model, the team concluded that the end of the region’s humid period occurred 500 years
earlier than previously assumed. The timing suggests that Neolithic peoples didn’t exacerbate aridity in the region but, in
fact, may have helped delay environmental changes with practices (e.g., selective grazing) that preserved vegetation.

Based on the texts, how would Chris Brierley (Text 2) most likely respond to the discussion in Text 1?

A. By pointing out that given the revised timeline for the end of the Sahara’s humid period, the Neolithic peoples’ mode
of subsistence likely didn’t cause the region’s desertification

B. By claiming that pastoralism was only one of many behaviors the Neolithic peoples took part in that may have
contributed to the Sahara’s changing climate

C. By insisting that pastoralism can have both beneficial and deleterious effects on a region’s vegetation and climate

D. By asserting that more research needs to be conducted into factors that likely contributed to the desertification of the
Sahara region
Question ID a87c3925
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: a87c3925
Text 1
Soy sauce, made from fermented soybeans, is noted for its umami flavor. Umami—one of the five basic tastes along with
sweet, bitter, salty, and sour—was formally classified when its taste receptors were discovered in the 2000s. In 2007, to
define the pure umami flavor scientists Rie Ishii and Michael O’Mahony used broths made from shiitake mushrooms and
kombu seaweed, and two panels of Japanese and US judges closely agreed on a description of the taste.

Text 2
A 2022 experiment by Manon Jünger et al. led to a greater understanding of soy sauce’s flavor profile. The team initially
presented a mixture of compounds with low molecular weights to taste testers who found it was not as salty or bitter as
real soy sauce. Further analysis of soy sauce identified proteins, including dipeptides, that enhanced umami flavor and
also contributed to saltiness. The team then made a mix of 50 chemical compounds that re-created soy sauce’s flavor.

Based on the texts, if Ishii and O’Mahony (Text 1) and Jünger et al. (Text 2) were aware of the findings of both
experiments, they would most likely agree with which statement?

A. On average, the diets of people in the United States tend to have fewer foods that contain certain dipeptides than the
diets of people in Japan have.

B. Chemical compounds that activate both the umami and salty taste receptors tend to have a higher molecular weight
than those that only activate umami taste receptors.

C. Fermentation introduces proteins responsible for the increase of umami flavor in soy sauce, and those proteins also
increase the perception of saltiness.

D. The broths in the 2007 experiment most likely did not have a substantial amount of the dipeptides that played a key
part in the 2022 experiment.
Question ID 7bf79a90
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: 7bf79a90
Text 1
Microbes are tiny organisms in the soil, water, and air all around us. They thrive even in very harsh conditions. That’s why
Noah Fierer and colleagues were surprised when soil samples they collected from an extremely cold, dry area in
Antarctica didn’t seem to contain any life. The finding doesn’t prove that there are no microbes in that area, but the team
says it does suggest that the environment severely restricts microbes’ survival.

Text 2
Microbes are found in virtually every environment on Earth. So it’s unlikely they would be completely absent from Fierer’s
team’s study site, no matter how extreme the environment is. There were probably so few organisms in the samples that
current technology couldn’t detect them. But since a spoonful of typical soil elsewhere might contain billions of microbes,
the presence of so few in the Antarctic soil samples would show how challenging the conditions are.

Based on the texts, Fierer’s team and the author of Text 2 would most likely agree with which statement about microbes?

A. Most microbes are better able to survive in environments with extremely dry conditions than in environments with
harsh temperatures.

B. A much higher number of microbes would probably be found if another sample of soil were taken from the Antarctic
study site.

C. Microbes are likely difficult to detect in the soil at the Antarctic study site because they tend to be smaller than
microbes found in typical soil elsewhere.

D. Most microbes are probably unable to withstand the soil conditions at the Antarctic study site.
Question ID d6c77ae5
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: d6c77ae5

Text 1
Astronomer Mark Holland and colleagues examined four white dwarfs—small, dense remnants of past stars—in order to
determine the composition of exoplanets that used to orbit those stars. Studying wavelengths of light in the white dwarf
atmospheres, the team reported that traces of elements such as lithium and sodium support the presence of exoplanets
with continental crusts similar to Earth’s.

Text 2
Past studies of white dwarf atmospheres have concluded that certain exoplanets had continental crusts. Geologist Keith
Putirka and astronomer Siyi Xu argue that those studies unduly emphasize atmospheric traces of lithium and other
individual elements as signifiers of the types of rock found on Earth. The studies don’t adequately account for different
minerals made up of various ratios of those elements, and the possibility of rock types not found on Earth that contain
those minerals.

Based on the texts, how would Putirka and Xu (Text 2) most likely characterize the conclusion presented in Text 1?

A. As unexpected, because it was widely believed at the time that white dwarf exoplanets lack continental crusts

B. As premature, because researchers have only just begun trying to determine what kinds of crusts white dwarf
exoplanets had

C. As questionable, because it rests on an incomplete consideration of potential sources of the elements detected in
white dwarf atmospheres

D. As puzzling, because it’s unusual to successfully detect lithium and sodium when analyzing wavelengths of light in
white dwarf atmospheres
Question ID 5a278f24
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 5a278f24
The work of molecular biophysicist Enrique M. De La Cruz is known for ______ traditional boundaries between academic
disciplines. The university laboratory that De La Cruz runs includes engineers, biologists, chemists, and physicists, and the
research the lab produces makes use of insights and techniques from all those fields.

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

A. epitomizing

B. transcending

C. anticipating

D. reinforcing
Question ID 76e4c51d
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 76e4c51d
The güiro, a musical instrument traditionally made from a dried and hollowed gourd, is thought to have originated with
the Taíno people of Puerto Rico. Players use a wooden stick to scrape along ridges cut into the side of the gourd, creating
sounds that are highly ______: the sounds produced by güiros can differ based on the distance between the ridges, the
types of strokes the player uses, and the thickness of the gourd.

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

A. overlooked

B. powerful

C. routine

D. variable
Question ID 98364791
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 98364791
In studying the use of external stimuli to reduce the itching sensation caused by an allergic histamine response, Louise
Ward and colleagues found that while harmless applications of vibration or warming can provide a temporary distraction,
such ______ stimuli actually offer less relief than a stimulus that seems less benign, like a mild electric shock.

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

A. deceptive

B. innocuous

C. novel

D. impractical
Question ID 39d1a519
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 39d1a519
To discover which fruit varieties were grown in Italy’s Umbria region before the introduction of industrial farming,
botanist Isabella Dalla Ragione often turns to centuries-old lists of cooking ingredients. ______ she analyzes Renaissance
paintings of Umbria, as they can provide accurate representations of fruits that were grown there long ago.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. In sum,

B. Instead,

C. Thus,

D. Additionally,
Question ID 0205e563
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 0205e563
At two weeks old, the time their critical socialization period begins, wolves can smell but cannot yet see or hear.
Domesticated dogs, ______ can see, hear, and smell by the end of two weeks. This relative lack of sensory input may help
explain why wolves behave so differently around humans than dogs do: from a very young age, wolves are more wary
and less exploratory.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. in other words,

B. for instance,

C. by contrast,

D. accordingly,
Question ID eea351c4
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: eea351c4
“Wishcycling”—putting nonrecyclable items into recycling bins under the mistaken belief that those items can be
recycled—ultimately does more harm than good. Nonrecyclable items, such as greasy pizza boxes, can contaminate
recyclable materials, rendering entire batches unusable. ______ nonrecyclable products can damage recycling plants’
machinery.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Fittingly,

B. On the contrary,

C. Moreover,

D. Nevertheless,
Question ID ecb31049
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: ecb31049
The Sun and other stars are powered by nuclear fusion reactions, in which two atoms collide to form a single heavier
atom, releasing energy. Scientists have long believed that fusion has the potential to meet humanity’s clean energy
needs. ______ prior to December 2022, no fusion reaction in a laboratory setting had ever generated a net energy gain.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. For this reason,

B. Moreover,

C. Specifically,

D. That said,
Question ID fc95a352
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: fc95a352
When designing costumes for film, American artist Suttirat Larlarb typically custom fits the garments to each actor. ______
for the film Sunshine, in which astronauts must reignite a dying Sun, she designed a golden spacesuit and had a factory
reproduce it in a few standard sizes; lacking a tailor-made quality, the final creations reflected the ungainliness of actual
spacesuits.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Nevertheless,

B. Thus,

C. Likewise,

D. Moreover,
Question ID 52b31d7b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 52b31d7b
In November 1934, Amrita Sher-Gil was living in what must have seemed like the ideal city for a young artist: Paris. She
was studying firsthand the color-saturated style of France’s modernist masters and beginning to make a name for herself
as a painter. ______ Sher-Gil longed to return to her childhood home of India; only there, she believed, could her art truly
flourish.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Still,

B. Therefore,

C. Indeed,

D. Furthermore,
Question ID 2b5f4bdc
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 2b5f4bdc
In the early 1900s, Jovita Idár fought injustice on both sides of the Mexico–United States border. As a reporter for the
Texas newspaper La Crónica, she voiced support for the Mexican people’s revolt against authoritarian rule. ______ she
founded the League of Mexican Women, a group that advocated for the rights of Mexican Americans.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Additionally,

B. In conclusion,

C. For example,

D. Rather,
Question ID 480ade7e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 480ade7e
In response to adverse environmental conditions, many plants produce abscisic acid (ABA), a stress hormone. ABA
triggers a slowdown in the biological processes of most plants. ______ when the mustard plant Schrenkiella parvula
produces ABA in response to an environmental stressor, the hormone triggers accelerated growth.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Moreover,

B. In contrast,

C. For example,

D. Thus,
Question ID 82ec9628
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 82ec9628
Archaeologist Sue Brunning explains why the seventh-century ship burial site at Sutton Hoo in England was likely the
tomb of a king. First, the gold artifacts inside the ship suggest that the person buried with them was a wealthy and
respected leader. ______ the massive effort required to bury the ship would likely only have been undertaken for a king.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Instead,

B. Still,

C. Specifically,

D. Second,
Question ID 9e34720b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 9e34720b
Although those who migrated to California in 1849 dreamed of finding gold nuggets in streambeds, the state’s richest
deposits were buried deeply in rock, beyond the reach of individual prospectors. ______ by 1852, many had given up their
fortune-hunting dreams and gone to work for one of the large companies capable of managing California’s complex
mining operations.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Furthermore,

B. Still,

C. Consequently,

D. Next,
Question ID b8eec031
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: b8eec031
Researchers Helena Mihaljević-Brandt, Lucía Santamaría, and Marco Tullney report that while mathematicians may have
traditionally worked alone, evidence points to a shift in the opposite direction. ______ mathematicians are choosing to
collaborate with their peers—a trend illustrated by a rise in the number of mathematics publications credited to multiple
authors.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Similarly,

B. For this reason,

C. Furthermore,

D. Increasingly,
Question ID ad729337
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: ad729337
With its clichéd imagery of suburban lawns and power lines, John Ashbery’s 2004 poem “Ignorance of the Law Is No
Excuse” may seem barren terrain for critical analysis. ______ cultural critic Lauren Berlant finds fertile ground in just its first
two stanzas, devoting most of a book chapter to deciphering the “weight of the default space” Ashbery creates in this
poem.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Likewise,

B. Nonetheless,

C. In turn,

D. That is,
Question ID b7c404d1
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: b7c404d1
With her room-sized installation The Interstitium, Iranian American artist Laleh Mehran succeeded in creating a space that
felt, as intended, both “familiar and distant.” ______ with a video screen placed at the far end of the coal slag-encrusted
room, her installation was reminiscent of a typical movie theater—albeit one found in a subterranean coal mine.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Next,

B. Nevertheless,

C. Indeed,

D. Instead,
Question ID f114cbf0
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: f114cbf0
A firefly uses specialized muscles to draw oxygen into its lower abdomen through narrow tubes, triggering a chemical
reaction whereby the oxygen combines with chemicals in the firefly’s abdomen to produce a glow. ______ when the firefly
stops drawing in oxygen, the reaction—and the glow—cease.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. For instance,

B. By contrast,

C. Specifically,

D. In conclusion,
Question ID 4fde4454
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 4fde4454
One poll taken after the first 1960 presidential debate suggested that John Kennedy lost badly: only 21 percent of those
who listened on the radio rated him the winner. ______ the debate was ultimately considered a victory for the telegenic
young senator, who rated higher than his opponent, Vice President Richard Nixon, among those watching on the new
medium of television.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. In other words,

B. Therefore,

C. Likewise,

D. Nevertheless,
Question ID 0c13dea9
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 0c13dea9
The chemical trimethylamine N-oxide not only gives fish their fishy smell but also protects them from crushing
hydrostatic pressure in deep waters. Trimethylamine N-oxide strengthens the bonds between water molecules in a fish’s
body. ______ these water molecules maintain their linked structure at extreme depths, thus preventing pressure-related
damage.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Nevertheless,

B. As a result,

C. However,

D. For instance,
Question ID 1c6e1d55
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 1c6e1d55
Historically, most conductors of major orchestras and opera companies have been European men, but a new, more
diverse generation of artists is stepping up to the podium. Mexico’s Alondra de la Parra took over as conductor for the
Queensland Symphony Orchestra in 2017, ______ and Colombia’s Lina Gonzalez-Granados did the same for the Los
Angeles Opera in 2022.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. in addition,

B. lastly,

C. granted,

D. for instance,
Question ID 8622320e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 8622320e
Earth’s auroras—colorful displays of light seen above the northern and southern poles—result, broadly speaking, from
the Sun’s activity. ______ the Sun releases charged particles that are captured by Earth’s magnetic field and channeled
toward the poles. These particles then collide with atoms in the atmosphere, causing the atoms to emit auroral light.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Specifically,

B. Similarly,

C. Nevertheless,

D. Hence,
Question ID 9f1a0d91
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 9f1a0d91
“Tulip mania”—the rapid rise and sudden fall of the price of tulip bulbs in seventeenth-century Amsterdam—is often
cited as an example of the perils of rampant market speculation. However, recent research has demonstrated that the
episode was neither as frenzied nor as disastrous as has been thought. The popular myth surrounding it, ______ should be
regarded with some skepticism.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. for example,

B. by contrast,

C. nevertheless,

D. therefore,
Question ID 17e49403
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 17e49403
When, in the 1800s, geologists first realized that much of Earth had once been covered by great sheets of ice, some
theorized that the phenomenon was cyclical, occurring at regular intervals. Each Ice Age is so destructive, though, that it
largely erases the geological evidence of its predecessor. ______ geologists were unable to confirm the theory of cyclical
Ice Ages until the 1960s.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Hence,

B. Moreover,

C. Nevertheless,

D. Next,
Question ID d54e16ee
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: d54e16ee
Originally coined by economist Joan Robinson to refer to markets with multiple sellers of a product but only one buyer,
the term “monopsony” can also refer to markets where demand for labor is limited. In a product monopsony, the single
buyer can force sellers to lower their prices. ______ in a labor monopsony, employers can force workers to accept lower
wages.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Earlier,

B. Instead,

C. Similarly,

D. In particular,
Question ID 47e238be
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 47e238be
Seismologists Kaiqing Yuan and Barbara Romanowicz have proposed that the magma fueling Iceland’s more than 30
active volcano systems emerges from deep within Earth. The great depths involved—nearly 3,000 km—mark Iceland’s
volcanoes as extreme outliers; ______ many of Earth’s volcanoes are fed by shallow pockets of magma found less than 15
km below the surface.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. indeed,

B. nevertheless,

C. in addition,

D. consequently,
Question ID 129089b5
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 129089b5
In 1933, the Twentieth Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified. The amendment mandates that presidential
inaugurations be held on January 20, approximately ten weeks after the November election. ______ this amendment
requires newly elected US senators and representatives to be sworn into their respective offices on January 3.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Instead,

B. For instance,

C. Specifically,

D. In addition,
Question ID 9502ec65
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 9502ec65
When soil becomes contaminated by toxic metals, it can be removed from the ground and disposed of in a landfill. ______
contaminated soil can be detoxified via phytoremediation: plants that can withstand high concentrations of metals
absorb the pollutants and store them in their shoots, which are then cut off and safely disposed of, preserving the health
of the plants.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Alternatively,

B. Specifically,

C. For example,

D. As a result,
Question ID 2df7b582
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 2df7b582
Plato believed material objects to be crude representations of unseen ideal forms. In his view, such abstract, nonmaterial
forms are the ultimate source of knowledge. Aristotle disagreed, positing that knowledge is best obtained through direct
engagement with the material world; ______ sensory experience of the material is the ultimate source of knowledge.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. regardless,

B. admittedly,

C. in other words,

D. meanwhile,
Question ID e1b00a70
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: e1b00a70
The more diverse and wide ranging an animal’s behaviors, the larger and more energy demanding the animal’s brain
tends to be. ______ from an evolutionary perspective, animals that perform only basic actions should allocate fewer
resources to growing and maintaining brain tissue. The specialized subtypes of ants within colonies provide an
opportunity to explore this hypothesis.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Subsequently,

B. Besides,

C. Nevertheless,

D. Thus,
Question ID 08be6347
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 08be6347
In his 1925 book The Morphology of Landscape, US geographer Carl Sauer challenged prevailing views about how natural
landscapes influence human cultures. ______ Sauer argued that instead of being shaped entirely by their natural
surroundings, cultures play an active role in their own development by virtue of their interactions with the environment.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Similarly,

B. Finally,

C. Therefore,

D. Specifically,
Question ID 00e0170f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 00e0170f
Magnetic levitation (maglev) trains are suspended above a track by powerful electromagnets, reducing friction and thus
allowing for much faster speeds. Though maglev advocates in the US have long imagined these trains crisscrossing the
country, their dream remains unrealized. ______ of the handful of maglev trains currently in operation, all are in Asia.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. In fact,

B. To that end,

C. Nevertheless,

D. That said,
Question ID c071eca2
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: c071eca2
Iraqi artist Nazik Al-Malaika, celebrated as the first Arabic poet to write in free verse, didn’t reject traditional forms
entirely; her poem “Elegy for a Woman of No Importance” consists of two ten-line stanzas and a standard number of
syllables. Even in this superficially traditional work, ______ Al-Malaika was breaking new ground by memorializing an
anonymous woman rather than a famous man.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. therefore,

B. in fact,

C. moreover,

D. though,
Question ID 176edca6
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 176edca6
A 2017 study of sign language learners tested the role of iconicity—the similarity of a sign to the thing it represents—in
language acquisition. The study found that the greater the iconicity of a sign, the more likely it was to have been learned.
______ the correlation between acquisition and iconicity was lower than that between acquisition and another factor
studied: sign frequency.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. In fact,

B. In other words,

C. Granted,

D. As a result,
Question ID 388b45aa
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 388b45aa
Establishing Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is no easy task. Each month, readings of a single second from atomic
clocks around the world are taken and sent to the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) in France. ______
BIPM metrologists perform the meticulous work of assembling these minutely disparate readings into a globally shared
time standard.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. There,

B. In particular,

C. For example,

D. Conversely,
Question ID a819d8b6
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: a819d8b6
In 1873, Spanish scientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal observed that brain fibers have distinct boundaries with clear end
points, a finding that went against earlier assumptions about the brain. ______ scientists had assumed that the brain was a
continuous web of fused fibers, not a vast network of distinct, individual cells.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. However,

B. Previously,

C. As a result,

D. Likewise,
Question ID 326017ce
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 326017ce
For years, biologists have experimented with using grime-eating bacteria rather than harsh chemicals to clean artworks,
and results have been impressive overall. ______ these bacterial strains—which can metabolize centuries’ worth of oil,
glue, dirt, and other surface impurities without creating harmful byproducts—have proven more effective than traditional
chemical cleaning methods.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. However,

B. In many cases,

C. As a result,

D. Additionally,
Question ID 221ecf0f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 221ecf0f
Alexander Lawrence Posey (1873–1908) varied his focus and tone depending on the genre in which he was writing. In his
poetry, he used heartfelt language to evoke the beauty and peacefulness of his natural surroundings; in his journalism,
______ he employed humor and satire to comment on political issues affecting his Muskogee Creek community.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. that is,

B. granted,

C. similarly,

D. by contrast,
Question ID 97e2e364
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 97e2e364
Okot p’Bitek’s poem Song of Lawino (1966) explores postcolonial Ugandan life through the eyes of a woman living in a
rural village. With its vibrant imagery, bitingly satiric tone, and dexterous use of traditional Acholi song and phraseology,
the poem inspired a generation of East African writers. ______ those who adopted its style are often referred to as Okot
School poets.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Nevertheless,

B. Fittingly,

C. By comparison,

D. Instead,
Question ID 11df9b99
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 11df9b99
Because an achiral molecule is symmetrical, flipping it yields a structurally identical molecule. A flipped chiral molecule,
______ can be compared to a glove that has been turned inside out: it produces a structurally inverted molecule rather
than an identical one.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. in other words,

B. by contrast,

C. for example,

D. similarly,
Question ID 30438650
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 30438650
Jhumpa Lahiri’s story collection Interpreter of Maladies features multiple stories about romantic relationships. In “This
Blessed House,” newlyweds argue over whether to replace items left by the previous owners of their new home. ______ in
“A Temporary Matter,” a husband and wife attempt to rekindle their relationship during a four-night blackout.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Granted,

B. For example,

C. Likewise,

D. Hence,
Question ID fd24f48f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: fd24f48f
Before California’s 1911 election to approve a proposition granting women the right to vote, activists across the state
sold tea to promote the cause of suffrage. In San Francisco, the Woman’s Suffrage Party sold Equality Tea at local fairs.
______ in Los Angeles, activist Nancy Tuttle Craig, who ran one of California’s largest grocery store firms, distributed Votes
for Women Tea.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. For example,

B. To conclude,

C. Similarly,

D. In other words,
Question ID 1a8126aa
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 1a8126aa
In 2019, researcher Patricia Jurado Gonzalez and food historian Nawal Nasrallah prepared a stew from a 4,000-year-old
recipe found on a Mesopotamian clay tablet. When they tasted the dish, known as pašrūtum (“unwinding”), they found
that it had a mild taste and inspired a sense of calm. ______ the researchers, knowing that dishes were sometimes named
after their intended effects, theorized that the dish’s name, “unwinding,” referred to its function: to help ancient diners
relax.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Therefore,

B. Alternately,

C. Nevertheless,

D. Likewise,
Question ID 8e9677e6
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 8e9677e6
In 2009, the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles hosted a special exhibition, Sueños/Yume, showcasing the works
of local sculptor Dora de Larios. As suggested by the show’s title (sueños and yume mean “dreams” in Spanish and
Japanese, respectively), de Larios’s art reflects a mix of cultural influences. ______ her work is grounded in the artistic
traditions of both Mexico and Japan.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. In addition,

B. In contrast,

C. Specifically,

D. Therefore,
Question ID 6e0c60da
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 6e0c60da
When one looks at the dark craggy vistas in Hitoshi Fugo’s evocative photo series, one’s mind might wander off to the
cratered surfaces of faraway planets. ______ it’s the series’ title, Flying Frying Pan, that brings one back to Earth, reminding
the viewer that each photo is actually a close-up view of a familiar household object: a frying pan.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Consequently,

B. Alternatively,

C. Ultimately,

D. Additionally,
Question ID 8634bf4a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 8634bf4a
Diego Velázquez was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain during the seventeenth century, but his
influence was hardly ______ Spain: realist and impressionist painters around the world employed his techniques and
echoed elements of his style.

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

A. derived from

B. recognized in

C. confined to

D. repressed by
Question ID e8fb0744
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: e8fb0744
As an undergraduate researcher in anthropology, Jennifer C. Chen contributed to a groundbreaking study challenging
the accepted view that among prehistoric peoples, female participation in hunting was ______. The research team’s review
of data from late Pleistocene and early Holocene burials in the Americas revealed that, in fact, as many as half of the
hunters in those populations were female.

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

A. inevitable

B. satisfactory

C. negligible

D. commonplace
Question ID c843d63c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: c843d63c
The artisans of the Igun Eronmwon guild in Benin City, Nigeria, typically ______ the bronze- and brass-casting techniques
that have been passed down through their families since the thirteenth century, but they don’t strictly observe every
tradition; for example, guild members now use air-conditioning motors instead of handheld bellows to help heat their
forges.

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

A. experiment with

B. adhere to

C. improve on

D. grapple with
Question ID 4d2736f0
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 4d2736f0
In her poetry collection Thomas and Beulah, Rita Dove interweaves the titular characters’ personal stories with broader
historical narratives. She places Thomas’s journey from the American South to the Midwest in the early 1900s within the
larger context of the Great Migration. ______ Dove sets events from Beulah’s personal life against the backdrop of the US
Civil Rights Movement.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Specifically,

B. Thus,

C. Regardless,

D. Similarly,
Question ID e3edc138
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: e3edc138
In a heated debate in biogeography, the field is divided between dispersalists and vicariancists. ______ there are those
who argue that dispersal is the most crucial determining factor in a species’ distribution, and those who insist that
vicariance (separation due to geographic barriers) is. Biogeographer Isabel Sanmartín counts herself among neither.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. Furthermore,

B. By contrast,

C. Similarly,

D. That is,
Question ID a40c7aa3
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: a40c7aa3
Most of the planets that have been discovered outside our solar system orbit G-type stars, like our Sun. In 2014, ______
researchers identified a planet orbiting KELT-9, a B-type star more than twice as massive and nearly twice as hot as the
Sun. Called KELT-9b, it is one of the hottest planets ever discovered.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. likewise,

B. however,

C. therefore,

D. for example,
Question ID af89fa02
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: af89fa02
The Babylonian king Hammurabi achieved much during his forty-year reign. He conquered all of Mesopotamia and built
Babylon into one of the most powerful cities of the ancient world. Today, ______ he is mainly remembered for a code of
laws inscribed on a seven-foot-tall block of stone: the Code of Hammurabi.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. therefore,

B. likewise,

C. however,

D. for instance,
Question ID 00221c00
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 00221c00
In 1815, while in exile in Jamaica, Venezuelan revolutionary Simón Bolívar penned a letter praising England’s republican
government and expressing hope that Latin American nations seeking independence from Spain might achieve
something similar. The letter was addressed to a local merchant, Henry Cullen; ______ though, Bolívar’s goal was to
persuade political leaders from England and Europe to support his cause.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. additionally,

B. ultimately,

C. accordingly,

D. consequently,
Question ID 601b9d18
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: 601b9d18
Some members of the US Supreme Court have resisted calls to televise the court’s oral arguments, concerned that the
participants would be tempted to perform for the cameras (and thus lower the quality of the discourse). ______ the
justices worry that most viewers would not even watch the full deliberations, only short clips that could be misinterpreted
and mischaracterized.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. However,

B. Additionally,

C. In comparison,

D. For example,
Question ID ec3d7605
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Expression of Ideas Transitions

ID: ec3d7605
Award-winning travel writer Linda Watanabe McFerrin considers the background research she conducts on destinations
featured in her travel books to be its own reward. ______ McFerrin admits to finding the research phase of her work just as
fascinating and engaging as exploring a location in person.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. By contrast,

B. Likewise,

C. Besides,

D. In fact,
Question ID 9c35759f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 9c35759f
Novelist N. K. Jemisin declines to ______ the conventions of the science fiction genre in which she writes, and she has
suggested that her readers appreciate her work precisely because of this willingness to thwart expectations and avoid
formulaic plots and themes.

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

A. question

B. react to

C. perceive

D. conform to
Question ID 6a1194e8
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 6a1194e8
Rydra Wong, the protagonist of Samuel R. Delany’s 1966 novel Babel-17, is a poet, an occupation which, in Delany’s work,
is not ______: nearly a dozen of the characters that populate his novels are poets or writers.

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

A. infallible

B. atypical

C. lucrative

D. tedious
Question ID 4fa7e50e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 4fa7e50e
According to a US tax policy expert, state taxes are ______ other factors when considering an interstate move. Even
significant differences in state taxation have almost no effect on most people’s decisions, while differences in
employment opportunities, housing availability, and climate are strong influences.

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

A. consistent with

B. representative of

C. overshadowed by

D. irrelevant to
Question ID 94eb800d
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 94eb800d
For a 2020 exhibition, photographer and neurobiologist Okunola Jeyifous ______ a series of new images based on a series
of alphabet posters from the 1970s known as the “Black ABCs,” which featured Black children from Chicago. Jeyifous
photographed the now-adult models and layered the photos over magnified images of the models’ cells, resulting in
what he called “micro and macro portraiture.”

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

A. validated

B. created

C. challenged

D. restored
Question ID 6977d22b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: 6977d22b

Text 1
Ecologists have long wondered how thousands of microscopic phytoplankton species can live together near ocean
surfaces competing for the same resources. According to conventional wisdom, one species should emerge after
outcompeting the rest. So why do so many species remain? Ecologists’ many efforts to explain this phenomenon still
haven’t uncovered a satisfactory explanation.

Text 2
Ecologist Michael Behrenfeld and colleagues have connected phytoplankton’s diversity to their microscopic size. Because
these organisms are so tiny, they are spaced relatively far apart from each other in ocean water and, moreover,
experience that water as a relatively dense substance. This in turn makes it hard for them to move around and interact
with one another. Therefore, says Behrenfeld’s team, direct competition among phytoplankton probably happens much
less than previously thought.

Based on the texts, how would Behrenfeld and colleagues (Text 2) most likely respond to the “conventional wisdom”
discussed in Text 1?

A. By arguing that it is based on a misconception about phytoplankton species competing with one another

B. By asserting that it fails to recognize that routine replenishment of ocean nutrients prevents competition between
phytoplankton species

C. By suggesting that their own findings help clarify how phytoplankton species are able to compete with larger
organisms

D. By recommending that more ecologists focus their research on how competition among phytoplankton species is
increased with water density
Question ID 571cf537
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 571cf537
The author’s claim about the relationship between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens is ______, as it fails to account for
several recent archaeological discoveries. To be convincing, his argument would need to address recent finds of
additional hominid fossils, such as the latest Denisovan specimens and Homo longi.

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

A. disorienting

B. tenuous

C. nuanced

D. unoriginal
Question ID dba9eaf8
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: dba9eaf8
Within baleen whale species, some individuals develop an accessory spleen—a seemingly functionless formation of
splenetic tissue outside the normal spleen. Given the formation’s greater prevalence among whales known to make
deeper dives, some researchers hypothesize that its role isn’t ______; rather, the accessory spleen may actively support
diving mechanisms.

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

A. replicable

B. predetermined

C. operative

D. latent
Question ID a756aa95
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: a756aa95
The province of Xoconochco was situated on the Pacific coast, hundreds of kilometers southeast of Tenochtitlan, the
capital of the Aztec Empire. Because Xoconochco’s location within the empire was so ______, cacao and other trade goods
produced there could reach the capital only after a long overland journey.

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

A. unobtrusive

B. concealed

C. approximate

D. peripheral
Question ID 35e21b06
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: 35e21b06
Text 1
Dominique Potvin and colleagues captured five Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen) to test a new design for
attaching tracking devices to birds. As the researchers fitted each magpie with a tracker attached by a small harness, they
noticed some magpies without trackers pecking at another magpie’s tracker until it broke off. The researchers suggest
that this behavior could be evidence of magpies attempting to help another magpie without benefiting themselves.

Text 2
It can be tempting to think that animals are deliberately providing help when we see them removing trackers and other
equipment from one another, especially when a species is known to exhibit other cooperative behaviors. At the same
time, it can be difficult to exclude the possibility that individuals are simply interested in the equipment because of its
novelty, curiously pawing or pecking at it until it detaches.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the researchers’ perspective in Text 1 on the
behavior of the magpies without trackers?

A. That behavior might have been due to the novelty of the magpies’ captive setting rather than to the novelty of the
tracker.

B. That behavior likely indicates that the magpies were deliberately attempting to benefit themselves by obtaining the
tracker.

C. That behavior may not be evidence of selflessness in Gymnorhina tibicen because not all the captured magpies
demonstrated it.

D. That behavior might be adequately explained without suggesting that the magpies were attempting to assist the
other magpie.
Question ID f52cc78c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: f52cc78c
Text 1
Polar bears sustain themselves primarily by hunting seals on the Arctic sea ice, but rising ocean temperatures are causing
the ice to diminish, raising concerns about polar bear population declines as these large predators’ seal-hunting habitats
continue to shrink. A 2020 study examining polar bear populations across the Arctic concluded that populations affected
by sea-ice loss are at great risk of extinction by the end of the twenty-first century.
Text 2
Monitoring carried out by researchers from the Norwegian Polar Institute shows that the polar bear population on the
Arctic archipelago of Svalbard remains stable and well nourished despite rapidly declining sea ice in recent years. The
researchers attribute this population’s resilience in part to a shift in feeding strategies: in addition to hunting seals, the
Svalbard polar bears have begun relying on a diet of reindeer meat and birds’ eggs.

Based on the texts, how would the researchers in Text 2 most likely respond to the conclusion presented in the
underlined portion of Text 1?

A. By noting that it neglects the possibility of some polar bear populations adapting to changes in their environment

B. By suggesting that it is likely incorrect about the rates at which warming ocean temperatures have caused sea ice to
melt in the Arctic

C. By asserting that it overlooks polar bear populations that have not yet been affected by loss of seal-hunting habitats

D. By arguing that it fails to account for polar bears’ reliance on a single seal-hunting strategy
Question ID f653b273
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: f653b273

Text 1
A tiny, unusual fossil in a piece of 99-million-year-old amber is of the extinct species Oculudentavis khaungraae. The O.
khaungraae fossil consists of a rounded skull with a thin snout and a large eye socket. Because these features look like
they are avian, or related to birds, researchers initially thought that the fossil might be the smallest avian dinosaur ever
found.

Text 2
Paleontologists were excited to discover a second small fossil that is similar to the strange O. khaungraae fossil but has
part of the lower body along with a birdlike skull. Detailed studies of both fossils revealed several traits that are found in
lizards but not in dinosaurs or birds. Therefore, paleontologists think the two creatures were probably unusual lizards,
even though the skulls looked avian at first.

Based on the texts, what would the paleontologists in Text 2 most likely say about the researchers’ initial thought in Text
1?

A. It is understandable because the fossil does look like it could be related to birds, even though O. khaungraae is
probably a lizard.

B. It is confusing because it isn’t clear what caused the researchers to think that O. khaungraae might be related to birds.

C. It is flawed because the researchers mistakenly assumed that O. khaungraae must be a lizard.

D. It is reasonable because the O. khaungraae skull is about the same size as the skull of the second fossil but is shaped
differently.
Question ID e56b66e5
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: e56b66e5
Set in a world where science fiction tropes exist as everyday realities, Charles Yu’s 2010 novel How to Live Safely in a
Science Fictional Universe traces a time traveler’s quest to find his father. Because the journey at the novel’s center is so
______, with the protagonist ricocheting chaotically across time, the reader often wonders whether the pair will ever be
reunited.

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

A. haphazard

B. premeditated

C. inspirational

D. fruitless
Question ID bce627d9
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: bce627d9
Mineralogical differences are detectable in samples collected from two locations on the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, but
such differences may not indicate substantial compositional variations in the asteroid. Cosmochemist Kazuhide
Nagashima and colleagues note that at the small scale of the samples, the distribution of minerals is unlikely to be ______.

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

A. neglected

B. redundant

C. ongoing

D. uniform
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 1fbf276a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 1fbf276a
Interruptions in the supply chain for microchips used in personal electronics have challenged an economist’s assertion
that retailers can expect robust growth in sales of those devices in the coming months. The delays are unlikely to ______
her projection entirely but will almost certainly extend its time frame.

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

A. dispute

B. withdraw

C. underscore

D. invalidate
Question ID f4166aae
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: f4166aae
In addition to being an accomplished psychologist himself, Francis Cecil Sumner was a ______ increasing the opportunity
for Black students to study psychology, helping to found the psychology department at Howard University, a historically
Black university, in 1930.

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

A. proponent of

B. supplement to

C. beneficiary of

D. distraction for
Question ID d7dccee7
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: d7dccee7
In a 2019 study, Jeremy Gunawardena and colleagues found that the single-celled protozoan Stentor roeseli not only uses
strategies to escape irritating stimuli but also switches strategies when one fails. This evidence of protozoans
sophisticatedly “changing their minds” demonstrates that single-celled organisms may not be limited to ______ behaviors.

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

A. aggressive

B. rudimentary

C. evolving

D. advantageous
Question ID 27d9bb69
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: 27d9bb69
Text 1
Many studies in psychology have shown that people seek out information even when they know in advance that they
have no immediate use for it and that they won’t directly benefit from it. Such findings support the consensus view
among researchers of curiosity: namely, that curiosity is not instrumental but instead represents a drive to acquire
information for its own sake.
Text 2
While acknowledging that acquiring information is a powerful motivator, Rachit Dubey and colleagues ran an experiment
to test whether emphasizing the usefulness of scientific information could increase curiosity about it. They found that
when research involving rats and fruit flies was presented as having medical applications for humans, participants
expressed greater interest in learning about it than when the research was not presented as useful.

Based on the texts, how would Dubey and colleagues (Text 2) most likely respond to the consensus view discussed in Text
1?

A. By suggesting that curiosity may not be exclusively motivated by the desire to merely acquire information

B. By conceding that people may seek out information that serves no immediate purpose only because they think they
can use it later

C. By pointing out that it is challenging to determine when information-seeking serves no goal beyond acquiring
information

D. By disputing the idea that curiosity can help explain apparently purposeless information-seeking behaviors
Question ID c885c38b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

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?

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

B. By disputing the idea that developments in social structures have followed a linear progression through distinct
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
Question ID de2c2f57
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: de2c2f57
Text 1
The fossil record suggests that mammoths went extinct around 11 thousand years (kyr) ago. In a 2021 study of
environmental DNA (eDNA)—genetic material shed into the environment by organisms—in the Arctic, Yucheng Wang
and colleagues found mammoth eDNA in sedimentary layers formed millennia later, around 4 kyr ago. To account for this
discrepancy, Joshua H. Miller and Carl Simpson proposed that arctic temperatures could preserve a mammoth carcass on
the surface, allowing it to leach DNA into the environment, for several thousand years.
Text 2
Wang and colleagues concede that eDNA contains DNA from both living organisms and carcasses, but for DNA to leach
from remains over several millennia requires that the remains be perpetually on the surface. Scavengers and weathering
in the Arctic, however, are likely to break down surface remains well before a thousand years have passed.

Which choice best describes how Text 1 and Text 2 relate to each other?

A. Text 1 discusses two approaches to studying mammoth extinction without advocating for either, whereas Text 2
advocates for one approach over the other.

B. Text 1 presents findings by Wang and colleagues and gives another research team’s attempt to explain those findings,
whereas Text 2 provides additional detail that calls that explanation into question.

C. Text 1 describes Wang and colleagues’ study and a critique of their methodology, whereas Text 2 offers additional
details showing that methodology to be sound.

D. Text 1 argues that new research has undermined the standard view of when mammoths went extinct, whereas Text 2
suggests a way to reconcile the standard view with that new research.
Question ID 3f753a8e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 3f753a8e
Investigating whether shared false visual memories—specific but inaccurate and widely held recollections of images such
as product logos—are caused by people’s previous ______ incorrect renditions of the images, researchers Deepasri Prasad
and Wilma Bainbridge found that, in fact, such memories are often not explained by familiarity with erroneous versions of
the images.

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

A. compliance with

B. exposure to

C. criteria for

D. forfeiture of
Question ID 79fe7550
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 79fe7550
Researcher Haesung Jung led a 2020 study showing that individual acts of kindness can ______ prosocial behavior across a
larger group. Jung and her team found that bystanders who witness a helpful act become more likely to offer help to
someone else, and in doing so, can inspire still others to act.

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

A. require

B. remember

C. foster

D. discourage
Question ID 1fa751f1
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 1fa751f1
Handedness, a preferential use of either the right or left hand, typically is easy to observe in humans. Because this trait is
present but less ______ in many other animals, animal-behavior researchers often employ tasks specially designed to
reveal individual animals’ preferences for a certain hand or paw.

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

A. recognizable

B. intriguing

C. significant

D. useful
Question ID 62a18353
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 62a18353
The following text is adapted from Zora Neale Hurston’s 1921 short story “John Redding Goes to Sea.” John wants to
travel far beyond the village where he lives near his mother, Matty.

[John] had on several occasions attempted to reconcile his mother to the notion, but found it a difficult task. Matty
always took refuge in self-pity and tears. Her son’s desires were incomprehensible to her, that was all.

As used in the text, what does the phrase “reconcile his mother to” most nearly mean?

A. Get his mother to accept

B. Get his mother to apologize for

C. Get his mother to match

D. Get his mother to reunite with

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 cd2ce51f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: cd2ce51f
Like the 1945 play it reimagines—Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba—Marcus Gardley’s 2014 play The
House That Will Not Stand prominently features women. In both plays, the all-female cast ______ an array of female
characters, including a strong mother and several daughters dealing with individual struggles.

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

A. engulfs

B. encourages

C. comprises

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

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

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?

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

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

C. 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
Tuchman’s interpretation of events.

D. 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
military plans in the same way that other leaders were.
Question ID b4c6cff6
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: b4c6cff6
The following text is adapted from Karel Čapek’s 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), translated by Paul Selver
and Nigel Playfair in 1923. Fabry and Busman are telling Miss Glory why their company manufactures robots.
FABRY: One Robot can replace two and a half workmen. The human machine, Miss Glory, was terribly imperfect. It had
to be removed sooner or later.
BUSMAN: It was too expensive.
FABRY: It was not effective. It no longer answers the requirements of modern engineering. Nature has no idea of
keeping pace with modern labor.

As used in the text, what does the word “answers” most nearly mean?

A. Explains

B. Rebuts

C. Defends

D. Fulfills
Question ID d8d1ecaa
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: d8d1ecaa
Business researcher Melanie Brucks and colleagues found that remote video conference meetings may be less conducive
to brainstorming than in-person meetings are. The researchers suspect that video meeting participants are focused on
staring at the speaker on the screen and don’t allow their eyes or mind to wander as much, which may ultimately ______
creativity.

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

A. recommend

B. criticize

C. impede

D. construct
Question ID d0198544
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

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?

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

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

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

D. By noting that while the claim is persuasive, the findings of Luzuriaga-Neira’s team provide stronger evidence for it
than the findings of the genetic analysis conducted by Storey do
Question ID ab56a107
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: ab56a107

Text 1
Digital art, the use of digital technology to create or display images, isn’t really art at all. It doesn’t require as much skill as
creating physical art. “Painting” with a tablet and stylus is much easier than using paint and a brush: the technology is
doing most of the work.

Text 2
The painting programs used to create digital art involve more than just pressing a few buttons. In addition to knowing
the fundamentals of art, digital artists need to be familiar with sophisticated software. Many artists will start by drawing
an image on paper before transforming the piece to a digital format, where they can apply a variety of colors and
techniques that would otherwise require many different traditional tools.

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

A. By arguing that a piece of art created digitally can still be displayed traditionally

B. By explaining that it’s actually much harder to use a tablet and stylus to create art than to use paint and a brush

C. By insisting that digital art requires artistic abilities and skill even if it employs less traditional tools

D. By admitting that most digital artists don’t think fundamental drawing skills are important
Question ID e37b9e34
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: e37b9e34
Some researchers believe that the genes that enable groundhogs and certain other mammals to hibernate through the
winter by slowing their breathing and heart rates and lowering their body temperature may be ______ in humans: present
yet having essentially no effect on our bodily processes.

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

A. decisive

B. lacking

C. variable

D. dormant
Question ID 12d81fc1
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: 12d81fc1
Text 1
Because literacy in Nahuatl script, the writing system of the Aztec Empire, was lost after Spain invaded central Mexico in
the 1500s, it is unclear exactly how meaning was encoded in the script’s symbols. Although many scholars had assumed
that the symbols signified entire words, linguist Alfonso Lacadena theorized in 2008 that they signified units of language
smaller than words: individual syllables.

Text 2
The growing consensus among scholars of Nahuatl script is that many of its symbols could signify either words or
syllables, depending on syntax and content at any given site within a text. For example, the symbol signifying the word
huipil (blouse) in some contexts could signify the syllable “pil” in others, as in the place name “Chipiltepec.” Thus, for the
Aztecs, reading required a determination of how such symbols functioned each time they appeared in a text.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely characterize Lacadena’s theory, as described in Text 1?

A. By praising the theory for recognizing that the script’s symbols could represent entire words

B. By arguing that the theory is overly influenced by the work of earlier scholars

C. By approving of the theory’s emphasis on how the script changed over time

D. By cautioning that the theory overlooks certain important aspects of how the script functioned
Question ID e4f312c5
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: e4f312c5
While most animals are incapable of passing somatic mutations—genetic alterations that arise in an organism’s
nonreproductive cells—on to their offspring, elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) presents an intriguing ______: in a 2022
study, researchers found that elkhorn coral produced offspring that inherited somatic mutations from a parent.

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

A. hypothesis

B. affinity

C. anomaly

D. corroboration
Question ID 5e101c70
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: 5e101c70

Text 1
Most animals can regenerate some parts of their bodies, such as skin. But when a three-banded panther worm is cut into
three pieces, each piece grows into a new worm. Researchers are investigating this feat partly to learn more about
humans’ comparatively limited abilities to regenerate, and they’re making exciting progress. An especially promising
discovery is that both humans and panther worms have a gene for early growth response (EGR) linked to regeneration.

Text 2
When Mansi Srivastava and her team reported that panther worms, like humans, possess a gene for EGR, it caused
excitement. However, as the team pointed out, the gene likely functions very differently in humans than it does in
panther worms. Srivastava has likened EGR to a switch that activates other genes involved in regeneration in panther
worms, but how this switch operates in humans remains unclear.

Based on the texts, what would the author of Text 2 most likely say about Text 1’s characterization of the discovery
involving EGR?

A. It is reasonable given that Srivastava and her team have identified how EGR functions in both humans and panther
worms.

B. It is overly optimistic given additional observations from Srivastava and her team.

C. It is unexpected given that Srivastava and her team’s findings were generally met with enthusiasm.

D. It is unfairly dismissive given the progress that Srivastava and her team have reported.
Question ID f99847ed
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: f99847ed
For her 2021 art installation Anthem, Wu Tsang joined forces with singer and composer Beverly Glenn-Copeland to
produce a piece that critics found truly ______: they praised Tsang for creatively transforming a museum rotunda into a
dynamic exhibit by projecting filmed images of Glenn-Copeland onto a massive 84-foot curtain and filling the space with
the sounds of his and other voices singing.

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

A. restrained

B. inventive

C. inexplicable

D. mystifying
Question ID 5dce6cab
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 5dce6cab
Given that the conditions in binary star systems should make planetary formation nearly impossible, it’s not surprising
that the existence of planets in such systems has lacked ______ explanation. Roman Rafikov and Kedron Silsbee shed light
on the subject when they used modeling to determine a complex set of factors that could support planets’ development.

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

A. a discernible

B. a straightforward

C. an inconclusive

D. an unbiased
Question ID 6a1dc7c5
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: 6a1dc7c5
Text 1
Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel Orlando is an oddity within her body of work. Her other major novels consist mainly of scenes
of everyday life and describe their characters’ interior states in great detail, whereas Orlando propels itself through a
series of fantastical events and considers its characters’ psychology more superficially. Woolf herself sometimes regarded
the novel as a minor work, even admitting once that she “began it as a joke.”

Text 2
Like Woolf’s other great novels, Orlando portrays how people’s memories inform their experience of the present. Like
those works, it examines how people navigate social interactions shaped by gender and social class. Though it is lighter
in tone—more entertaining, even—this literary “joke” nonetheless engages seriously with the themes that motivated the
four or five other novels by Woolf that have achieved the status of literary classics.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the assessment of Orlando presented in Text 1?

A. By conceding that Woolf’s talents were best suited to serious novels but asserting that the humor in Orlando is often
effective

B. By agreeing that Orlando is less impressive than certain other novels by Woolf but arguing that it should still be
regarded as a classic

C. By acknowledging that Orlando clearly differs from Woolf’s other major novels but insisting on its centrality to her
body of work nonetheless

D. By concurring that the reputation of Orlando as a minor work has led readers to overlook this novel but maintaining
that the reputation is unearned
Question ID e4e2aeb3
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: e4e2aeb3
Text 1
Like the work of Ralph Ellison before her, Toni Morrison’s novels feature scenes in which characters deliver sermons of
such length and verbal dexterity that for a time, the text exchanges the formal parameters of fiction for those of oral
literature. Given the many other echoes of Ellison in Morrison’s novels, both in structure and prose style, these scenes
suggest Ellison’s direct influence on Morrison.
Text 2
In their destabilizing effect on literary form, the sermons in Morrison’s works recall those in Ellison’s. Yet literature by
Black Americans abounds in moments where interpolated speech erodes the division between oral and written forms that
literature in English has traditionally observed. Morrison’s use of the sermon is attributable not only to the influence of
Ellison but also to a community-wide strategy of resistance to externally imposed literary conventions.

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

A. As failing to consider Ellison’s and Morrison’s equivalent uses of the sermon within the wider cultural context in which
they wrote

B. As misunderstanding the function of sermons in novels by Black American writers other than Ellison and Morrison

C. As disregarding points of structural and stylistic divergence between the works of Ellison and those of Morrison

D. As being indebted to the tradition of resisting literary conventions that privilege written forms, such as novels, over
sermons and other oral forms
Question ID fce80a36
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: fce80a36
In 2008 a complete set of ancient pessoi (glass game pieces) was uncovered from beneath a paving stone in modern-day
Israel. Due to their small size, pessoi were easily misplaced, making a whole set a rare find. This has led some experts to
suggest that the set may have been buried intentionally; however, without clear evidence, archaeologists are left to ______
what happened.

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

A. speculate about

B. dismiss

C. expand on

D. catalog
Question ID c14daa3c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: c14daa3c
Close analysis of the painting Girl with a Flute, long attributed to the seventeenth-century Dutch painter Johannes
Vermeer, has revealed subtle deviations from the artist’s signature techniques. These variations suggest that the work
may be that of a student under Vermeer’s tutelage—potentially ______ our understanding of Vermeer as a solitary artist.

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

A. negating

B. prefiguring

C. entrenching

D. substantiating
Question ID 03080769
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: 03080769
Text 1
Philosopher G.E. Moore’s most influential work entails the concept of common sense. He asserts that there are certain
beliefs that all people, including philosophers, know instinctively to be true, whether or not they profess otherwise:
among them, that they have bodies, or that they exist in a world with other objects that have three dimensions. Moore’s
careful work on common sense may seem obvious but was in fact groundbreaking.

Text 2
External world skepticism is a philosophical stance supposing that we cannot be sure of the existence of anything outside
our own minds. During a lecture, G.E. Moore once offered a proof refuting this stance by holding out his hands and
saying, “Here is one hand, and here is another.” Many philosophers reflexively reject this proof (Annalisa Coliva called it
“an obviously annoying failure”) but have found it a challenge to articulate exactly why the proof fails.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 1 most likely respond to proponents of the philosophical stance
outlined in Text 2?

A. By agreeing with those proponents that Moore’s treatment of positions that contradict his own is fundamentally
unserious

B. By suggesting that an instinctive distaste for Moore’s position is preventing external world skeptics from constructing
a sufficiently rigorous refutation of Moore

C. By arguing that if it is valid to assert that some facts are true based on instinct, it is also valid to assert that some
proofs are inadequate based on instinct

D. By pointing out that Moore would assert that external world skepticism is at odds with other beliefs those proponents
must unavoidably hold
Question ID a60b0004
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: a60b0004
Scholarly discussions of gender in Shakespeare’s comedies often celebrate the rebellion of the playwright’s characters
against the rigid expectations ______ by Elizabethan society. Most of the comedies end in marriage, with characters
returning to their socially dictated gender roles after previously defying them, but there are some notable exceptions.

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

A. interjected

B. committed

C. illustrated

D. prescribed
Question ID eae66bf9
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: eae66bf9
Text 1
In 2021, a team led by Amir Siraj hypothesized that the Chicxulub impactor—the object that struck the Yucatán Peninsula
sixty-six million years ago, precipitating the mass extinction of the dinosaurs—was likely a member of the class of long-
period comets. As evidence, Siraj cited the carbonaceous chondritic composition of samples from the Chicxulub impact
crater as well as of samples obtained from long-period comet Wild 2 in 2006.

Text 2
Although long-period comets contain carbonaceous chondrites, asteroids are similarly rich in these materials.
Furthermore, some asteroids are rich in iridium, as Natalia Artemieva points out, whereas long-period comets are not.
Given the prevalence of iridium at the crater and, more broadly, in geological layers deposited worldwide following the
impact, Artemieva argues that an asteroid is a more plausible candidate for the Chicxulub impactor.

Based on the texts, how would Artemieva likely respond to Siraj’s hypothesis, as presented in Text 1?

A. By insisting that it overestimates how representative Wild 2 is of long-period comets as a class

B. By arguing that it does not account for the amount of iridium found in geological layers dating to the Chicxulub
impact

C. By praising it for connecting the composition of Chicxulub crater samples to the composition of certain asteroids

D. By concurring that carbonaceous chondrites are prevalent in soil samples from sites distant from the Chicxulub crater
Question ID e7d37666
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: e7d37666
It is by no means ______ to recognize the influence of Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch on Ali Banisadr’s paintings;
indeed, Banisadr himself cites Bosch as an inspiration. However, some scholars have suggested that the ancient
Mesopotamian poem Epic of Gilgamesh may have had a far greater impact on Banisadr’s work.

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

A. substantial

B. satisfying

C. unimportant

D. appropriate
Question ID f1c9d2c1
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: f1c9d2c1
Text 1
Stage lighting theorist Adolphe Appia was perhaps the first to argue that light must be considered alongside all the
various elements of a stage to create a single, unified performance. Researcher Kelly Bremner, however, has noted that
Appia lacked technical expertise in the use of light in the theater. As a result of Appia’s inexperience, Bremner argues,
Appia’s theory of light called for lighting practices that weren’t possible until after the advent of electricity around 1881.

Text 2
Adolphe Appia was not an amateur in the practice of lighting. Instead, it is precisely his exposure to lighting techniques
at the time that contributed to his theory on the importance of light. When working as an apprentice for a lighting
specialist in his youth, Appia observed the use of portable lighting devices that could be operated by hand. This
experience developed his understanding of what was possible in the coordination of elements on the stage.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the claim about Appia’s level of technical
expertise made by Bremner in Text 1?

A. Many lighting technicians dismissed Appia’s ideas about light on the stage.

B. Appia likely gained a level of technical expertise during his time as an apprentice.

C. Theater practitioners who worked with Appia greatly admired his work.

D. Appia was unfamiliar with the use of music and sound in theater.
Question ID 3566120b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 3566120b
The following text is adapted from Oscar Wilde’s 1895 play The Importance of Being Earnest.
CECILY: Have we got to part?
ALGERNON: I am afraid so. It’s a very painful parting.
CECILY: It is always painful to part from people whom one has known for a very brief space of time. The absence of old
friends one can endure with equanimity. But even a momentary separation from anyone to whom one has just been
introduced is almost unbearable.

As used in the text, what does the word “endure” most nearly mean?

A. Regret

B. Persist

C. Tolerate

D. Encourage
Question ID 81a3a607
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 81a3a607
In the Indigenous intercropping system known as the Three Sisters, maize, squash, and beans form an ______ web of
relations: maize provides the structure on which the bean vines grow; the squash vines cover the soil, discouraging
competition from weeds; and the beans aid their two “sisters” by enriching the soil with essential nitrogen.

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

A. indecipherable

B. ornamental

C. obscure

D. intricate
Question ID 84dbd633
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: 84dbd633
Text 1
The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction event is usually attributed solely to an asteroid impact near Chicxulub,
Mexico. Some scientists argue that volcanic activity was the true cause, as the K-Pg event occurred relatively early in a
long period of eruption of the Deccan Traps range that initially produced huge amounts of climate-altering gases. These
dissenters note that other mass extinctions have coincided with large volcanic eruptions, while only the K-Pg event lines
up with an asteroid strike.

Text 2
In a 2020 study, Pincelli Hull and her colleagues analyzed ocean core samples and modeled climate changes around the
K-Pg event. The team concluded that Deccan Traps gases did affect global conditions prior to the event, but that the
climate returned to normal well before the extinctions began—extinctions that instead closely align with the Chicxulub
impact.

Based on the texts, how would Hull’s team (Text 2) most likely respond to the argument in the underlined portion of Text
1?

A. By agreeing that the Chicxulub impact changed the climate and that the Deccan Traps eruption caused the K-Pg event

B. By declaring that the changes in climate caused by the Deccan Traps eruption weren’t the main cause of the K-Pg
event

C. By questioning why those scientists assume that the Chicxulub impact caused the Deccan Traps eruption

D. By asserting that the Deccan Traps eruption had a more significant effect on global conditions than those scientists
claim
Question ID c5b1afe5
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: c5b1afe5
Bicycle sharing systems allow users to rent a bicycle at one location within a city and return it to any other designated
location in that city, which can cause serious problems of bicycle supply and user demand within the city’s system. Tohru
Ikeguchi uses open-source data and statistical modeling to identify when a high number of users making one-way trips is
likely to leave some locations within the system ______ bicycles and other areas with insufficient supply.

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

A. susceptible to

B. contingent on

C. saturated with

D. depleted of
Question ID d3ca5d59
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: d3ca5d59
Stephen Hannock’s luminous landscape paintings are appealing to viewers but have elicited little commentary from
contemporary critics, a phenomenon that may be due to the very fact that the paintings seem so ______. Many critics
focus their attention on art that is cryptic or overtly challenging.

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

A. innovative

B. subversive

C. profound

D. accessible
Question ID 9aa44886
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 9aa44886
The following text is from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby.

[Jay Gatsby] was balancing himself on the dashboard of his car with that resourcefulness of movement that is so
peculiarly American—that comes, I suppose, with the absence of lifting work in youth and, even more, with the
formless grace of our nervous, sporadic games. This quality was continually breaking through his punctilious
manner in the shape of restlessness.

As used in the text, what does the word “quality” most nearly mean?

A. Standard

B. Prestige

C. Characteristic

D. Accomplishment
Question ID e1befb41
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: e1befb41

Text 1
In a study of the benefits of having free time, Marissa Sharif found that the reported sense of life satisfaction tended to
plateau when participants had two hours of free time per day and actually began to fall when they had five hours of free
time per day. After further research, Sharif concluded that this dip in life satisfaction mainly occurred when individuals
spent all their free time unproductively, such as by watching TV or playing games.

Text 2
Psychologist James Maddux cautions against suggesting an ideal amount of free time. The human desire for both free
time and productivity is universal, but Maddux asserts that individuals have unique needs for life satisfaction.
Furthermore, he points out that there is no objective definition for what constitutes productivity; reading a book might
be considered a productive activity by some, but idleness by others.

Based on the texts, how would Maddux (Text 2) most likely respond to the conclusion Sharif (Text 1) reached after her
further research?

A. By acknowledging that free time is more likely to enhance life satisfaction when it is spent productively than when it is
spent unproductively

B. By challenging the reasoning in Text 1, as it has not been proved that productivity commonly contributes to
individuals’ life satisfaction

C. By warning against making an overly broad assumption, as there is no clear consensus in distinguishing between
productive and unproductive activities

D. By claiming that the specific activities named in Text 1 are actually examples of productive activities rather than
unproductive ones
Question ID f3c45b4f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: f3c45b4f
Text 1
Fossils of the hominin Australopithecus africanus have been found in the Sterkfontein Caves of South Africa, but assigning
an age to the fossils is challenging because of the unreliability of dating methods in this context. The geology of
Sterkfontein has caused soil layers from different periods to mix, impeding stratigraphic dating, and dates cannot be
reliably imputed from those of nearby animal bones since the bones may have been relocated by flooding.
Text 2
Archaeologists used new cosmogenic nuclide dating techniques to reevaluate the ages of A. africanus fossils found in the
Sterkfontein Caves. This technique involves analyzing the cosmogenic nucleotides in the breccia—the matrix of rock
fragments immediately surrounding the fossils. The researchers assert that this approach avoids the potential for
misdating associated with assigning ages based on Sterkfontein’s soil layers or animal bones.

Based on the texts, how would the researchers in Text 2 most likely respond to the underlined portion in Text 1?

A. They would emphasize the fact that the A. africanus fossils found in the Sterkfontein Caves may have been corrupted
in some way over the years.

B. They would contend that if analyses of surrounding layers and bones in the Sterkfontein Caves were combined, then
the dating of the fossils there would be more accurate.

C. They would argue that their techniques are better suited than other methods to the unique challenges posed by the
Sterkfontein Caves.

D. They would claim that cosmogenic nuclide dating is reliable in the context of the Sterkfontein Caves because it is
applied to the fossils directly.
Question ID e8c26398
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: e8c26398
To develop a method for measuring snow depth with laser beams, NASA physicist Yongxiang Hu relied on ______;
identifying broad similarities between two seemingly different phenomena, Hu used information about how ants move
inside colonies to calculate how the particles of light that make up laser beams travel through snow.

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

A. a collaboration

B. an accessory

C. a contradiction

D. an analogy
Question ID 7bc05fa2
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 7bc05fa2
Whether the reign of a French monarch such as Hugh Capet or Henry I was historically consequential or relatively
uneventful, its trajectory was shaped by questions of legitimacy and therefore cannot be understood without a corollary
understanding of the factors that allowed the monarch to ______ his right to hold the throne.

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

A. disengage

B. annotate

C. buttress

D. reciprocate
Question ID f7c02e89
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: f7c02e89

Text 1
Films and television shows commonly include a long list of credits naming the people involved in a production. Credit
sequences may not be exciting, but they generally ensure that everyone’s contributions are duly acknowledged. Because
they are highly standardized, film and television credits are also valuable to anyone researching the careers of pioneering
cast and crew members who have worked in the mediums.

Text 2
Video game scholars face a major challenge in the industry’s failure to consistently credit the artists, designers, and other
contributors involved in making video games. Without a reliable record of which people worked on which games,
questions about the medium’s development can be difficult to answer, and the accomplishments of all but its best-
known innovators can be difficult to trace.

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

A. By recommending that the scholars mentioned in Text 2 consider employing the methods regularly used by film and
television researchers

B. By pointing out that credits have a different intended purpose in film and television than in the medium addressed by
the scholars mentioned in Text 2

C. By suggesting that the scholars mentioned in Text 2 rely more heavily on credits as a source of information than film
and television researchers do

D. By observing that a widespread practice in film and television largely prevents the kind of problem faced by the
scholars mentioned in Text 2
Question ID 82c05b34
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: 82c05b34
Text 1
The live music festival business is growing in event size and genre variety. With so many consumer options, organizers
are finding ways to cement festival attendance as a special experience worth sharing. This phenomenon is linked to the
growing “experiential economy,” where many find it gratifying to purchase lived experiences. To ensure a profitable
event, venues need to consider the overall consumer experience, not just the band lineup.
Text 2
Music festival appearances are becoming a more important part of musicians’ careers. One factor in this shift is the rising
use of streaming services that allow access to huge numbers of songs for a monthly fee, subsequently reducing sales of
full-length albums. With this shift in consumer behavior, musicians are increasingly dependent on revenue from live
performances.

Based on the texts, both authors would most likely agree with which statement?

A. Consumers are more interested in paying subscription fees to stream music than in attending music festivals in
person.

B. Consumers’ growing interest in purchasing experiences is mostly confined to the music industry.

C. Changing consumer behaviors are leading to changes in music-related businesses.

D. The rising consumer demand for live music festivals also generates higher demand for music streaming platforms.
Question ID 8b46bb51
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 8b46bb51
A journalist and well-respected art critic of nineteenth-century Britain, Lady Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake did not hesitate to
publish reviews that went against popular opinion. One of her most divisive works was an essay questioning the idea of
photography as an emerging medium for fine art: in the essay, Eastlake ______ that the value of photographs was
informational rather than creative.

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

A. exposed

B. asserted

C. discovered

D. doubted
Question ID aaa3ee7c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: aaa3ee7c
Critics have asserted that fine art and fashion rarely ______ in a world where artists create timeless works for exhibition
and designers periodically produce new styles for the public to buy. Luiseño/Shoshone-Bannock beadwork artist and
designer Jamie Okuma challenges this view: her work can be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and purchased
through her online boutique.

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

A. prevail

B. succumb

C. diverge

D. intersect
Question ID a06c434d
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: a06c434d
The work of Kiowa painter T.C. Cannon derives its power in part from the tension among his ______ influences: classic
European portraiture, with its realistic treatment of faces; the American pop art movement, with its vivid colors; and
flatstyle, the intertribal painting style that rejects the effect of depth typically achieved through shading and perspective.

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

A. complementary

B. unknown

C. disparate

D. interchangeable
Question ID b411eb09
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: b411eb09
New and interesting research conducted by Suleiman A. Al-Sweedan and Moath Alhaj is inspired by their observation
that though there have been many studies of the effect of high altitude on blood chemistry, there is a ______ studies of
the effect on blood chemistry of living in locations below sea level, such as the California towns of Salton City and Seeley.

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

A. quarrel about

B. paucity of

C. profusion of

D. verisimilitude in
Question ID 8de51658
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: 8de51658
Text 1
The idea that time moves in only one direction is instinctively understood, yet it puzzles physicists. According to the
second law of thermodynamics, at a macroscopic level some processes of heat transfer are irreversible due to the
production of entropy—after a transfer we cannot rewind time and place molecules back exactly where they were before,
just as we cannot unbreak dropped eggs. But laws of physics at a microscopic or quantum level hold that those
processes should be reversible.

Text 2
In 2015, physicists Tiago Batalhão et al. performed an experiment in which they confirmed the irreversibility of
thermodynamic processes at a quantum level, producing entropy by applying a rapidly oscillating magnetic field to a
system of carbon-13 atoms in liquid chloroform. But the experiment “does not pinpoint ... what causes [irreversibility] at
the microscopic level,” coauthor Mauro Paternostro said.

Based on the texts, what would the author of Text 1 most likely say about the experiment described in Text 2?

A. It would suggest an interesting direction for future research were it not the case that two of the physicists who
conducted the experiment disagree on the significance of its findings.

B. It provides empirical evidence that the current understanding of an aspect of physics at a microscopic level must be
incomplete.

C. It is consistent with the current understanding of physics at a microscopic level but not at a macroscopic level.

D. It supports a claim about an isolated system of atoms in a laboratory, but that claim should not be extrapolated to a
general claim about the universe.
Question ID e0656211
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: e0656211
In Nature Poem (2017), Kumeyaay poet Tommy Pico portrays his ______ the natural world by honoring the centrality of
nature within his tribe’s traditional beliefs while simultaneously expressing his distaste for being in wilderness settings
himself.

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

A. responsiveness to

B. ambivalence toward

C. renunciation of

D. mastery over
Question ID 54804e10
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Words in Context

ID: 54804e10
While scholars believe many Mesoamerican cities influenced each other, direct evidence of such influence is difficult to
ascertain. However, recent excavations in a sector of Tikal (Guatemala) unearthed a citadel that shows ______ Teotihuacán
(Mexico) architecture—including a near replica of a famed Teotihuacán temple—providing tangible evidence of outside
influence in portions of Tikal.

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

A. refinements of

B. precursors of

C. commonalities with

D. animosities toward