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Advanced Reading and Writing Practice Test 1Advanced 1
Reading and Writing
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Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 1 of 27
The following text is from Jane Austen’s 1817 novel Persuasion. Lady Russell is a friend and adviser of Sir Walter Elliot, a baronet whose family is in financial difficulty.
She was of strict integrity herself, with a delicate sense of honour; but she was as desirous of saving Sir Walter’s feelings, as solicitous for the credit of the family, as aristocratic in her ideas of what was due to them, as anybody of sense and honesty could well be. She was a benevolent, charitable, good woman, and capable of strong attachments, most correct in her conduct, strict in her notions of decorum, and with manners that were held a standard of good-breeding. She had a cultivated mind, and was, generally speaking, rational and consistent—but she had prejudices on the side of ancestry; she had a value for rank and consequence, which blinded her a little to the faults of those who possessed them.
As used in the text, what does the word “consequence” most nearly mean?
Correct choice: standing
“Consequence” is paired with “rank” as something people can possess and that Lady Russell values because of her “prejudices on the side of ancestry.” In this context it means social importance, or standing.
A: This is the common modern sense (a result), but a person cannot possess an outcome in the way the text says people possess rank and consequence.
B:Seriousness is a sense related to importance (a matter “of consequence”), but it describes the gravity of an issue, not a person’s social position.
C: The text calls Lady Russell “rational and consistent,” but “consequence” names something she values in others, not reasoning.
Watch for: Words paired in a phrase (“rank and consequence”) often share a meaning; let the partner word guide you.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 2 of 27
The following text is from Thomas Hardy’s 1878 novel The Return of the Native. The narrator describes Egdon Heath, a large expanse of dark, uncultivated land, at dusk beneath a pale, overcast sky.
In such contrast the heath wore the appearance of an instalment of night which had taken up its place before its astronomical hour was come: darkness had to a great extent arrived hereon, while day stood distinct in the sky. Looking upwards, a furze-cutter would have been inclined to continue work; looking down, he would have decided to finish his faggot and go home. The distant rims of the world and of the firmament seemed to be a division in time no less than a division in matter. The face of the heath by its mere complexion added half an hour to evening; it could in like manner retard the dawn, sadden noon, anticipate the frowning of storms scarcely generated, and intensify the opacity of a moonless midnight to a cause of shaking and dread.
As used in the text, what does the word “complexion” most nearly mean?
Correct choice: coloring
The text contrasts the dark heath with the pale sky: darkness has arrived on the land while day remains in the sky, so a worker looking down would think it later than a worker looking up. The heath adds “half an hour to evening” by its “mere complexion,” that is, simply by its dark coloring.
B: Because the heath is personified (it can “sadden noon”), temperament is tempting, and it is an older sense of complexion. But the effect described is visual: the heath looks darker than the sky and so makes the evening seem to arrive earlier.
C: The text mentions “the distant rims of the world and of the firmament,” but that boundary is not what makes the land seem darker than the hour; the effect comes from the heath’s dark color.
D: The text says nothing about how the heath is regarded by others; its effect comes from its appearance.
Watch for: When a familiar word appears in older prose, test the modern sense and the older senses against what the sentence says the thing actually does.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 3 of 27
The story of six-year-old George Washington confessing that he had damaged his father’s cherry tree first appeared in 1806, in the fifth edition of a biography by Mason Locke Weems, more than six years after Washington’s death. Weems attributed the anecdote to an unnamed elderly woman who had known the family when she was a girl, and no earlier account of the episode has ever been found. For these reasons, most historians regard the story as ______, even though it remains one of the best-known episodes of Washington’s childhood.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
Correct choice: apocryphal
The reasons given all concern where the story came from: it surfaced years after Washington’s death, rests on an unnamed source, and has no earlier record, yet it is widely retold. A story of doubtful authenticity that nonetheless circulates widely is apocryphal.
A:Specious describes something, usually an argument, that seems plausible but is actually false or misleading; the text’s evidence concerns the story’s uncertain origin, not a deceptive plausibility.
B:Anachronistic means placed in the wrong period, but nothing suggests the story is set in the wrong time; the problem is that it first appeared long after the events it describes.
C:Tendentious means written to promote a particular point of view; the text says nothing about Weems’s purpose, only about the lack of any reliable source for the story.
Watch for: Match the word to the reason the text gives: evidence about a story’s source points to doubtful authenticity, not to bias or misleading reasoning.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 4 of 27
In the mid-twentieth century, some scholars argued that Polynesia was settled largely by accident, as canoes blown off course drifted to unknown shores. Defenders of deliberate settlement cited oral traditions of planned voyages, but skeptics replied that such traditions might have been composed long after the events they describe. In 1976 the Hōkūleʻa, a voyaging canoe modeled on traditional designs, sailed from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti with navigator Mau Piailug, who used no instruments. The voyage could not show that ancient navigators had made the same trip, but it undercut a premise of the drift view: that such navigation was impossible.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
Correct choice: To explain how a voyage bore on a scholarly dispute about Polynesian settlement without settling it
The text sets out a dispute (accidental drift versus deliberate settlement), notes why one kind of evidence for deliberate settlement was contested, and then presents the 1976 voyage. Its final sentence states both what the voyage could not show and what it did accomplish: it undercut the premise that such navigation was impossible. The purpose is to explain the voyage’s bearing on the dispute without claiming that it resolved it.
B: The text reports that skeptics questioned the oral traditions and does not defend them.
C: This overstates the voyage’s significance: the text says it “could not show that ancient navigators had made the same trip.”
D: Piailug’s lack of instruments is a detail supporting the text’s point about the dispute; his methods are not described.
Watch for: In a main-purpose question, a choice that repeats the text’s strongest-sounding claim often overstates it; check the final, qualifying sentence.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 5 of 27
The following text is Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem “The Poet,” from his 1903 collection Lyrics of Love and Laughter.
He sang of life, serenely sweet, With, now and then, a deeper note. From some high peak, nigh yet remote, He voiced the world's absorbing beat.
He sang of love when earth was young, And Love, itself, was in his lays. Underlined: But ah, the world, it turned to praise A jingle in a broken tongue. End underlined.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
Correct choice: It sets the poet’s ambitious work against the slighter verse that the world chose to praise.
The first six lines describe the poet’s elevated subjects: life, love, and “the world's absorbing beat,” voiced “from some high peak.” The underlined lines turn with “But ah”: the world praised instead “a jingle in a broken tongue,” a dismissive phrase for slighter verse. The lines therefore set the poet’s serious work against what the public chose to admire.
A: The lines describe the world’s response, not a change in the poet; nothing says he abandoned his serious themes.
B: This reverses the contrast: “But ah” signals that the praise went to something other than the poet’s serious work.
C: “A jingle in a broken tongue” is disparaging, not celebratory, and the poem does not discuss multiple languages.
Watch for: A turn word such as “But ah” usually marks the poem’s central contrast; decide what is being set against what.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 6 of 27
The following text is from Virginia Woolf’s 1922 novel Jacob’s Room. The narrator is considering the character of Jacob Flanders, a young man.
It is no use trying to sum people up. One must follow hints, not exactly what is said, nor yet entirely what is done. Some, it is true, take ineffaceable impressions of character at once. Others dally, loiter, and get blown this way and that. Kind old ladies assure us that cats are often the best judges of character. A cat will always go to a good man, they say; Underlined: but then, Mrs. Whitehorn, Jacob's landlady, loathed cats. End underlined.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
Correct choice: It humorously denies the reader any verdict from the folk method just described, in keeping with the narrator’s opening claim.
The narrator begins by saying that “it is no use trying to sum people up,” then reports a folk method for doing so: cats go to good men. The underlined portion deflates that method at once. Jacob’s landlady loathed cats, so no cat’s verdict on Jacob is available. The comic dead end supports the opening claim that character cannot easily be summed up.
B: The landlady’s dislike is of cats, not a judgment of Jacob; the text reports no opinion of hers about his character.
C: The text never says that cats avoided Jacob. Their absence results from the landlady’s dislike of cats, not from anything about Jacob.
D: The narrator reports the test with gentle irony (“Kind old ladies assure us”) after declaring that “it is no use trying to sum people up,” so the text does not endorse the test as sound.
Watch for: Words like “but then” can introduce an ironic undercut. Read the detail against the narrator’s stated view, not just against the sentence before it.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 7 of 27
Text 1
In 2018 a team led by Dirk Hoffmann dated thin mineral crusts that had formed over red paintings in three Spanish caves, using the slow radioactive decay of uranium in the crusts. Because a crust can form only after the paint beneath it, the dates, more than 64,000 years ago, set minimum ages for the paintings. The team concluded that Neanderthals must have made them, since modern humans had not yet reached Europe.
Text 2
Some archaeologists have questioned the dating. Water flowing over a cave wall can dissolve and carry away uranium from a crust after the crust has formed, and the dating method can mistake uranium lost in this way for uranium that has decayed.
Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the conclusion in Text 1?
Correct choice: By suggesting that the crusts may be younger than their dates indicate, so that the dates may not show the paintings to be old enough to rule out modern humans
If uranium lost from a crust is mistaken for uranium that has decayed, the method will overestimate how much time has passed, making a crust seem older than it is. Text 2’s author would therefore say the minimum ages might be too old, so the dates may not place the paintings before modern humans arrived.
A: Text 2 does not question the order of paint and crust, which Text 1 explains (a crust can form only over paint already there); it questions the dates themselves.
B: Text 2 says only that the method can overestimate ages; it does not give any new age for the crusts or show that Neanderthals could not have made the paintings.
D: Text 2 questions whether the dates are reliable, so its author would not accept them as reliable minimum ages; it says nothing about when modern humans arrived.
Watch for: Text 2 never says “too old”; work out what mistaking lost uranium for decayed uranium would do to the calculated age.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 8 of 27
The following text is from Zitkála-Šá’s 1921 book American Indian Stories. The narrator, a Dakota girl, describes her first breakfast at a boarding school far from her home.
A small bell was tapped, and each of the pupils drew a chair from under the table. Supposing this act meant they were to be seated, I pulled out mine and at once slipped into it from one side. But when I turned my head, I saw that I was the only one seated, and all the rest at our table remained standing. Just as I began to rise, looking shyly around to see how chairs were to be used, a second bell was sounded. All were seated at last, and I had to crawl back into my chair again. [...] Every one picked up his knife and fork and began eating. I began crying instead, for by this time I was afraid to venture anything more.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
Correct choice: Unfamiliar signals repeatedly leave the narrator out of step with the others, until she is afraid to act.
Each signal catches the narrator out. She sits when the others stand, begins to rise just as the second bell seats everyone, and has to crawl back into her chair. When the others finally begin eating, she cries “for by this time I was afraid to venture anything more.” The text is about unexplained signals leaving her repeatedly out of step until she is afraid to act.
A: No punishment is described; the narrator’s fear comes from repeatedly misreading the signals.
C: She looks around “shyly,” but the text is about misreading the bells, not about being unable to ask for help.
D: She does watch the others, but the passage ends with her too afraid to act, not with her mastering the routine.
Watch for: For a main idea, follow the sequence to its end; the final sentence often states where the pattern leads.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 9 of 27
In parts of Africa, greater honeyguides, birds that eat beeswax, lead people to wild bees’ nests; the people open the nests and take the honey, and the birds feed on the wax left behind. Yao honey hunters in northern Mozambique summon honeyguides with a distinctive call, a loud trill followed by a grunt. In 2016, zoologist Claire Spottiswoode and her colleagues reported evidence that the birds treat this particular call as a sign that a person is ready to follow them, rather than responding simply to any person making noise.
Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers’ conclusion?
Correct choice: Recordings of the trill-and-grunt call produced guiding far more often than recordings of spoken words or of another bird’s call.
The conclusion is specific: birds respond to this call, not merely to any human noise. The finding that supports it must compare the call with other sounds. Choice D does this, using recordings of spoken words and of another species’ call as controls. The trill-and-grunt call produced far more guiding.
A: Comparing the call with silence cannot separate a response to this particular call from a response to any human noise.
B: Areas with Yao hunters differ in many ways besides the call, so this does not isolate the birds’ response to it.
C: This concerns whether the source of the call matters, not whether the birds distinguish this call from other sounds.
Watch for: When a conclusion says “this, rather than that,” the best evidence includes a comparison that rules out “that.”
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 10 of 27
When touched or jolted, the leaves of the sensitive plant Mimosa pudica fold shut, a response thought to discourage plant-eating animals. In a 2014 study, ecologist Monica Gagliano and colleagues repeatedly dropped potted Mimosa plants a short distance onto a cushioned surface. At first the leaves folded after each drop, but after several drops many plants stopped folding in response. The researchers concluded that the plants had learned to ignore a harmless disturbance rather than simply having exhausted the energy needed to keep folding.
Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers’ conclusion?
Correct choice: Plants that had stopped folding after repeated drops folded their leaves fully when they were then shaken, a disturbance they had not experienced before.
The rival explanation is exhaustion: a plant that had used up the energy needed to fold could not fold in response to anything. If plants that ignored drops still folded fully when shaken, they clearly still had that energy; they had stopped responding specifically to the harmless drops, as the researchers concluded.
B: Folding again after a long rest is what exhaustion would predict, since an exhausted plant would recover its energy over time; this finding does not favor learning.
C: Plants with less energy giving up sooner fits the exhaustion explanation at least as well as the learning explanation, so it cannot show that the plants learned rather than tired.
D: How quickly plants fold after drops of different heights says nothing about why the plants eventually stopped responding to repeated drops.
Watch for: To support one explanation over a rival, look for a finding the rival cannot explain; a new disturbance that still triggers folding shows that the plants were still able to fold.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 11 of 27
Early in Earth’s history, much of the planet was molten, and dense materials, especially iron, are thought to have sunk toward its center while lighter materials rose toward the surface. The graph compares the approximate percentage by mass of four elements in Earth’s crust with their percentage in Earth as a whole. A student claims that the graph is consistent with the idea that iron became concentrated beneath the crust.
Percentage of Mass Made Up by Four Elements
Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to support the student’s claim?
Correct choice: Iron makes up only about 6% of Earth’s crust but about 32% of Earth as a whole.
If iron became concentrated beneath the crust, iron should make up a much smaller share of the crust than of the whole planet. The graph shows exactly that: about 6% of the crust but about 32% of Earth as a whole.
A: This is true (about 32% versus about 30%), but comparing iron with oxygen within the whole planet does not show that iron is scarcer in the crust than below it.
C: This has the right shape but misstates the graph: magnesium’s share rises from about 2% to about 14%, a sevenfold ratio, larger than iron’s ratio of about 5.3.
D: This is true and has the right shape, but it concerns magnesium, while the claim is about iron.
Watch for: A choice can use the right element and the right comparison and still misstate the graph; check a superlative such as “a larger ratio than for any other element” against every category.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 12 of 27
In 1854, as cholera spread through London, physician John Snow compared households supplied by two water companies whose pipes ran along the same streets. The Southwark and Vauxhall Company drew its water from a stretch of the Thames polluted by sewage; the Lambeth Company had moved its intake upstream. A student claims that, relative to the number of houses each company supplied, Southwark and Vauxhall households suffered cholera deaths at more than eight times the rate of Lambeth households.
Houses Supplied and Cholera Deaths in London by Water Supply, First Seven Weeks of the 1854 Epidemic
Water supply
Houses supplied
Deaths from cholera
Southwark and Vauxhall Company
40,046
1,263
Lambeth Company
26,107
98
Rest of London
256,423
1,422
Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to support the student’s claim?
Correct choice: Southwark and Vauxhall households had about 315 cholera deaths per 10,000 houses, compared with about 38 per 10,000 houses for Lambeth households.
The claim compares rates, so deaths must be divided by houses: 1,263 ÷ 40,046 ≈ 315 per 10,000 houses for Southwark and Vauxhall and 98 ÷ 26,107 ≈ 38 per 10,000 for Lambeth. Since 315 is about 8.4 times 38, this choice supports the claim.
A: These counts are accurate, but the companies supplied different numbers of houses, so a ratio of deaths is not a ratio of rates; the claim is about rates.
C: These rates are accurate (1,422 ÷ 256,423 ≈ 55 per 10,000), but they compare Southwark and Vauxhall with the rest of London rather than with Lambeth.
D: This misstates Lambeth’s rate: about 55 per 10,000 is the rate for the rest of London; Lambeth’s is about 38 (98 ÷ 26,107).
Watch for: When a claim is about rates, compute deaths per house for each group before comparing; a ratio of raw counts can be far from the ratio of rates.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 13 of 27
Clark’s nutcrackers bury thousands of seeds in autumn and dig many of them up months later. In a 1982 experiment, biologist Stephen Vander Wall let captive nutcrackers bury seeds in the sand floor of an aviary scattered with rocks and logs. After the birds had cached their seeds, he shifted every object on one side of the aviary about 20 centimeters in the same direction, leaving the other side undisturbed. When the birds later searched, their probes on the undisturbed side landed on or near their caches, while their probes on the altered side missed by roughly 20 centimeters, in the direction the objects had been moved. These results suggest that the nutcrackers ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Correct choice: locate each cache by its position relative to objects near it, rather than by the arrangement of objects across the aviary as a whole.
The misses on the altered side matched the shift in the objects, so the birds were guided by objects, not by the seeds themselves. And because searches on the undisturbed side stayed accurate even though half of the aviary’s objects had moved, the birds must have used the objects near each cache rather than the layout as a whole.
B: If the birds relied on the arrangement of all the objects, moving half of them would have disturbed searches on both sides; instead, searches on the undisturbed side stayed accurate.
C: If the birds found seeds by scent, their probes on the altered side would still have landed on the caches; instead they missed by the distance the objects had moved.
D: If the birds measured from the entrance, which did not move, shifting the objects would not have displaced their probes on the altered side.
Watch for: Use both halves of the experiment: the altered side shows that objects guide the search, and the undisturbed side shows which objects.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 14 of 27
The following text is from Stephen Crane’s 1895 novel The Red Badge of Courage. The youth, a young soldier, has fled from his first battle and is walking alone through a forest.
He threw a pine cone at a jovial squirrel, and he ran with chattering fear. High in a treetop he stopped, and, poking his head cautiously from behind a branch, looked down with an air of trepidation.
The youth felt triumphant at this exhibition. There was the law, he said. Nature had given him a sign. The squirrel, immediately upon recognizing danger, had taken to his legs without ado. He did not stand stolidly baring his furry belly to the missile, and die with an upward glance at the sympathetic heavens. On the contrary, he had fled as fast as his legs could carry him; and he was but an ordinary squirrel, too—doubtless no philosopher of his race. The youth wended, feeling that Nature was of his mind. She re-enforced his argument with proofs that lived where the sun shone.
Based on the text, what can most reasonably be inferred about the youth’s conclusion that “Nature had given him a sign”?
Correct choice: It turns an ordinary animal’s reaction to a threat the youth himself created into a law that excuses his own flight.
The youth provokes the squirrel’s flight himself by throwing a pine cone, then treats that reaction as “the law” and “a sign” that fleeing danger is natural, which excuses his own flight from battle. The narrator’s phrasing is ironic: the youth feels “triumphant,” and Nature “re-enforced his argument,” implying that he wanted a conclusion and found one. The inference is that the conclusion is a self-serving generalization from a trivial event he caused.
A: The narrator frames the conclusion ironically, as a “triumphant” discovery that “re-enforced his argument,” not as genuine self-recognition about his own flight.
B: The youth uses “no philosopher of his race” to strengthen his point: even an ordinary squirrel knows to flee. He does not doubt nature’s guidance.
D: The excerpt ends with the youth still “feeling that Nature was of his mind”; he does not abandon the conclusion.
Watch for: In ironic narration, separate what a character concludes from how the narrator frames that conclusion.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 15 of 27
Charles Barbier’s “night writing,” which Louis Braille adapted in 1824, represented sounds rather than letters, and it lacked signs for features ______ numerals, and musical notation. Braille’s six-dot system supplied them.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct choice: such as punctuation,
“Such as” introduces the examples directly, so no punctuation belongs between “such as” and the first item. The items in the series are then separated by commas: “such as punctuation, numerals, and musical notation.”
A: A colon cannot follow “such as,” because “features such as” is not a complete independent clause.
B: A comma after “such as” wrongly separates it from the examples it introduces.
C: A dash after “such as” wrongly separates it from the examples it introduces.
Watch for: Do not put a colon or other punctuation directly after “such as,” “including,” or a verb that introduces a list.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 16 of 27
Many species of Hawaiian honeycreeper, a group of birds descended from a single finch-like ancestor, have already disappeared. Several surviving ______ are threatened by avian malaria, a disease carried by mosquitoes that people introduced to the islands.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct choice: species, moreover,
“Moreover” interrupts a single independent clause, “Several surviving species … are threatened by avian malaria.” An interrupting word within a clause is set off by a pair of commas.
A: A semicolon would separate “Several surviving species” from its verb, leaving a fragment before it.
B: Without a closing comma, “moreover” is not fully set off from the rest of the clause.
C: Without an opening comma, “moreover” is not fully set off from the subject.
Watch for: A conjunctive adverb takes a semicolon only when it begins a new independent clause; inside one clause, set it off with two commas.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 17 of 27
The Great Mosque of Djenné in Mali is built largely of sun-dried mud brick. Heavy seasonal rains erode its outer ______ each year, residents join in a festival to apply a fresh coat of mud plaster to the walls.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct choice: surfaces;
“Heavy seasonal rains erode its outer surfaces” and “each year, residents join in a festival …” are both independent clauses. A semicolon correctly joins two independent clauses without a conjunction.
B: A comma alone between two independent clauses creates a comma splice.
C: With no punctuation, the two independent clauses run together.
D: “Which” would begin a relative clause, but “each year, residents join …” cannot function as one, so the sentence becomes ungrammatical.
Watch for: Check whether the words on both sides of the blank could stand alone as sentences.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 18 of 27
Of the more than 600 instruments by Antonio Stradivari that survive today, the ______ in 1716 is widely considered the best preserved, having rarely been played in the three centuries since.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct choice: violin that he completed
“That he completed in 1716” is a restrictive clause: it identifies which of Stradivari’s many violins is meant. A clause introduced by “that” is always essential and is never set off with commas, and no punctuation should separate the subject from its verb, “is.”
A: A single comma after “completed” would split the clause (“that he completed … in 1716”) and wrongly separate part of the subject from the rest.
C: Paired commas would treat the “that” clause as nonessential, but a clause introduced by “that” cannot be set off with commas.
D: A comma before “that” wrongly separates “the violin” from the clause that identifies it, and the phrase is left half enclosed.
Watch for: A clause beginning with “that” is always essential; do not set it off with commas.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 19 of 27
Lyrical Ballads, the 1798 collection that opened with Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere” and closed with William Wordsworth’s “Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey,” ______ published anonymously; neither poet’s name appeared on its title page.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct choice: was
The subject is the title Lyrical Ballads, which names a single book and therefore takes the singular verb was. Neither the plural form of the title nor the two poets named in the appositive makes the subject plural.
A:Were treats Lyrical Ballads as plural because the title ends in -s, but the title names one book.
B:Is is singular, but it is in the present tense, and the book was published in 1798.
C:Are is plural and in the present tense, but the subject is a single book and the event took place in 1798.
Watch for: The title of a single work is singular even when the words in the title are plural.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 20 of 27
What Dmitri Mendeleev chose to leave blank in his 1869 table of the ______ as revealing as what he filled in: the gaps marked places for elements that had not yet been discovered, several of which were identified within two decades.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct choice: elements proved
The long noun clause “What Dmitri Mendeleev chose to leave blank in his 1869 table of the elements” is the subject of the verb “proved.” No punctuation should separate a subject from its verb, however long the subject is.
A: A single comma wrongly separates the subject clause from its verb; the length of the subject makes this error tempting.
C: A semicolon must separate independent clauses, but the subject clause cannot stand alone.
D: A single dash wrongly separates the subject from its verb, and no second dash closes an interruption.
Watch for: Find the main verb. If everything before it is the subject, add no punctuation between them.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 21 of 27
A Fresnel lens, a design that French physicist Augustin Fresnel and his colleagues on France’s lighthouse commission developed in the 1820s, replaces the single thick curve of a conventional lens with a thin, stepped surface of glass. Because ______ far less than a conventional lens of the same diameter, lighthouse builders could install much larger and brighter lenses.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct choice: it weighs
The sentence compares a Fresnel lens with a conventional lens of the same diameter, so the pronoun must refer to the singular “A Fresnel lens”: “it weighs.” The plural “Fresnel and his colleagues” comes between the pronoun and its antecedent, but people are not what is being compared with a lens.
A: “They” is plural and would refer to Fresnel and his colleagues, who are not what the sentence compares with a conventional lens.
B: “Those” is plural and has the same problem as “they.”
C: “These” is plural and likewise points back to the people named rather than to the lens.
Watch for: When a plural noun comes between a pronoun and its antecedent, find the noun that the sentence’s logic, here a comparison with a lens, requires.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 22 of 27
Early telescopic observers generally assumed that Saturn’s rings were solid or liquid sheets. In an 1859 essay, physicist James Clerk Maxwell showed mathematically that a solid ring of that size would be torn apart by the forces acting on it, and that a liquid ring would break up as well. ______, he argued, the rings must consist of countless separate particles, each orbiting the planet on its own.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
Correct choice: Instead
Maxwell ruled out solid and liquid rings. The final sentence offers the alternative that replaces them: separate orbiting particles. Instead signals that one possibility takes the place of rejected ones.
A: “Nonetheless” signals that something holds despite what came before, but Maxwell’s particle model follows from his rejection of the other models rather than holding in spite of it.
C: The particle model is not an example of the rejected sheet models.
D: “Likewise” would present the particle model as parallel to the rejected models, not as their replacement.
Watch for: Contrast transitions differ: instead replaces a rejected option, while nonetheless keeps a claim despite an obstacle.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 23 of 27
After decades of work, scholars of ancient Maya writing can now read the great majority of surviving inscriptions. ______, some signs remain undeciphered, and the readings of others are still debated. Those uncertainties, however, usually affect individual words rather than the overall meaning of a text.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
Correct choice: Admittedly
The second sentence concedes a limitation to the first sentence’s claim of success, and the third sentence (“however”) returns to minimize that limitation. Admittedly is the transition that introduces such a concession.
A: Undeciphered signs are not a result of scholars’ being able to read most inscriptions.
B: The second sentence does not give details of the success described in the first; it notes exceptions to it.
C: The second sentence does not restate the first; it qualifies it.
Watch for: A concession transition is often confirmed by a later “however” that turns back toward the main claim.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 24 of 27
Lichens are imperfect indicators of air quality: some species disappear where the bark they grow on is too dry or too acidic, whether or not the air is polluted. ______, the pattern across many species at once is hard to explain without pollution. When sensitive lichens vanish from every kind of surface in a region while tolerant species remain, dry or acidic bark alone cannot account for it.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
Correct choice: Still
The first sentence concedes a weakness of lichens as indicators. The next sentence returns to the author’s point despite that weakness: the pattern across many species still points to pollution. Still marks this return after a concession.
A: “Granted” introduces a concession, but the concession has already been made; the sentence after the blank is the author’s counterpoint.
B: “Indeed” would reinforce the first sentence’s point about imperfection, but the next sentence argues the other way.
D: The imperfection of lichens is not a reason the multispecies pattern points to pollution.
Watch for: Place a concession transition (granted, admittedly) at the concession itself, and a transition such as still at the point where the argument resumes.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 25 of 27
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
Tyrian purple was a dye produced in the ancient Mediterranean from secretions of certain sea snails.
Indigo is a blue dye obtained from the leaves of plants such as Indigofera tinctoria.
The main component of Tyrian purple is chemically related to indigo: it is a form of indigo that contains bromine.
Neither dye dissolves in water, so dyers converted each into a soluble form in a vat before dipping the cloth.
In both cases, the color developed as the dyed cloth was exposed to air.
Producing Tyrian purple required thousands of snails for a small amount of dye, and the color was associated with royalty.
The student wants to emphasize how the two dyes were applied to cloth in the same way. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
Correct choice: Both dyes were made soluble in a vat before cloth was dipped, and in both the color developed in air.
The goal asks for a similarity in application. Choice B describes the shared vat process and the color’s shared development on exposure to air, both steps in applying the dyes to cloth.
A: This states a difference in source, not a similarity in application.
C: This states two genuine similarities, but both concern the dyes’ chemistry, not how they were applied to cloth.
D: This concerns only Tyrian purple’s production and status.
Watch for: When a goal specifies the kind of similarity (here, application), a similarity of another kind does not meet it.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 26 of 27
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
Air bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice preserve samples of the ancient atmosphere.
Researchers analyze the bubbles to measure past concentrations of carbon dioxide.
The EPICA Dome C ice core extends back about 800,000 years.
Over that period, carbon dioxide levels in the core rose and fell in step with temperature estimates from the same core.
A correlation alone does not show whether carbon dioxide changes drove temperature changes or the reverse.
The air in a core’s bubbles is younger than the surrounding ice, because air keeps moving through snow until the snow is buried deeply.
The student wants to present the core’s main finding about carbon dioxide and temperature while noting what that correlation cannot show. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
Correct choice: Carbon dioxide in the EPICA Dome C core rose and fell with temperature for 800,000 years, though this correlation alone does not show which drove the other.
The main finding is that carbon dioxide and temperature rose and fell together. The limit on what that finding shows is that a correlation does not establish which change drove the other. Choice A states both; B pairs the finding with a limitation of a different kind, and C gives the right limit without the finding.
B: This states the finding, but its caveat concerns the dating of the air, not what the correlation between carbon dioxide and temperature cannot show.
C: This states the right limit, but only in general terms; it never presents what the EPICA Dome C core showed.
D: This states the finding but omits any limit on it.
Watch for: A limit on a finding must qualify that finding itself; a caveat about a different aspect of the evidence does not meet the goal.
Reading and Writing · Module 1 · Question 27 of 27
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
Kintsugi is a Japanese method of repairing broken ceramics.
Repairers join the broken pieces with urushi, a lacquer made from tree sap.
The lacquered seams are often dusted or mixed with powdered gold.
The method leaves the lines of breakage visible rather than hiding them.
Some historians trace the practice to the fifteenth century.
The student wants to introduce kintsugi to an audience unfamiliar with it and emphasize how the method treats evidence of damage. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
Correct choice: Kintsugi, a Japanese method of repairing broken ceramics, leaves the lines of breakage visible, often highlighted with gold, rather than hiding them.
Choice C identifies kintsugi for an unfamiliar audience (“a Japanese method of repairing broken ceramics”) and emphasizes its treatment of damage: the lines of breakage are left visible, even highlighted with gold. It meets both parts of the goal.
A: This explains the materials, but it does not state the method’s key treatment of damage: that the breaks are left visible.
B: This gives a date and a material but neither explains what kintsugi is nor how it treats damage.
D: This emphasizes the treatment of damage, but it never tells an unfamiliar audience what kintsugi is.
Watch for: “An audience unfamiliar with it” requires the choice to identify the subject, not just mention its name.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 1 of 27
When their surroundings dry out, many tardigrades, tiny animals less than a millimeter long, draw in their legs, lose nearly all their body water, and slow their metabolism to an undetectable level. The condition is sometimes called “hidden life,” because the animals’ life is ______ rather than absent: though no activity can be detected, they resume normal activity when water returns, sometimes after years.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
Correct choice: latent
The text contrasts life that is “absent” with life that is present but undetectable and able to resume. Latent means present but not active or visible, which matches “hidden life.”
B:Residual means remaining after most has gone. The animals do lose most of their water, but the text’s contrast is between hidden and absent life, not between a remnant and a whole.
C:Tenuous means weak or slight; the text stresses that life is hidden and can fully resume, not that it is weak.
D:Nascent means just beginning to exist, which does not describe animals that resume a life already under way.
Watch for: Use the passage’s own contrast (“rather than absent”) and its label (“hidden life”) to pick among words that all suggest something reduced.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 2 of 27
When Emily Dickinson’s poems were first published in 1890, several years after her death, many reviewers conceded their originality. Yet that praise was often ______: reviewers acknowledged the poems’ force of thought only while faulting her irregular rhymes, unusual grammar, and dashes as signs of careless form.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
Correct choice: grudging
The reviewers “conceded” the poems’ originality and praised them “only while faulting” their form. Praise given reluctantly and with reservations is grudging.
B:Perfunctory means done routinely and without care or interest. The reviewers’ praise came with reservations, but nothing suggests it was careless or routine.
C:Effusive means unrestrained and gushing, the opposite of praise given only with objections.
D:Disingenuous means insincere. The text suggests the praise was reluctant, not that the reviewers did not mean it.
Watch for: Several choices can describe imperfect praise; the text’s verbs (“conceded,” “only while”) point to reluctance specifically.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 3 of 27
In 1912 astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt reported that certain pulsating stars, now called Cepheid variables, take longer to brighten and dim the more luminous they truly are, a relationship later used to estimate distances to other galaxies. In 1952 Walter Baade showed that Cepheids, previously treated as a single group, belong to two distinct types, one intrinsically fainter than the other. Baade’s work did not discard Leavitt’s relationship; rather, it ______ it, showing that each type follows its own version of the relationship and that estimated distances to other galaxies had to be roughly doubled.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
Correct choice: qualified
Baade kept Leavitt’s relationship but showed that it holds separately for two types of Cepheids, which forced a large correction to galactic distances. To qualify a claim is to limit or modify it without rejecting it, which matches both “did not discard” and the change Baade required.
A: To corroborate is to confirm without change, but Baade’s work required a major revision: distances had to be roughly doubled.
B: To supplant is to replace, which contradicts the statement that Baade’s work “did not discard” the relationship.
C: To extrapolate is to extend a relationship beyond the range where it was established; Baade instead divided it according to type of star.
Watch for:Qualify here means limit or modify, not make eligible. “Did not discard … rather” signals a word between full acceptance and replacement.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 4 of 27
The following text is from George Eliot’s 1871–72 novel Middlemarch. Rosamond Vincy believes that recent events, including her brother’s illness, have been arranged to bring her together with Tertius Lydgate, a young doctor.
Your pier-glass or extensive surface of polished steel made to be rubbed by a housemaid, will be minutely and multitudinously scratched in all directions; but place now against it a lighted candle as a centre of illumination, and lo! the scratches will seem to arrange themselves in a fine series of concentric circles round that little sun. It is demonstrable that the scratches are going everywhere impartially and it is only your candle which produces the flattering illusion of a concentric arrangement, its light falling with an exclusive optical selection. Underlined: These things are a parable. End underlined. The scratches are events, and the candle is the egoism of any person now absent—of Miss Vincy, for example.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
Correct choice: It marks a turn from an optical illustration to an account of how self-regard shapes a person’s view of events.
The text first describes a physical effect: scratches going in every direction appear to form circles around a candle. The underlined sentence announces that this description is a parable. The final sentence then applies it: events are the scratches, and a person’s egoism is the candle that makes them seem arranged around that person. The underlined sentence marks the turn from illustration to application.
B: The parable concerns the egoism of “any person now absent,” with Miss Vincy as the example; it does not claim that the reader’s egoism blocks understanding of her.
C: Calling the image a parable does the opposite: it announces that the image carries an argument about people.
D: This reverses the text’s point: the concentric arrangement is a “flattering illusion” produced by the candle, not an independent order.
Watch for: A short sentence between an image and its explanation often signals a change in how the reader should take what came before.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 5 of 27
The following text is from A. E. Housman’s 1896 poem “Is my team ploughing,” from his collection A Shropshire Lad. The poem alternates between questions asked by a young man who has died and answers given by his friend, who is still living. Two stanzas have been omitted.
“Is my team ploughing, That I was used to drive And hear the harness jingle When I was man alive?”
Ay, the horses trample, The harness jingles now; No change though you lie under The land you used to plough.
[...]
“Is my girl happy, That I thought hard to leave, And has she tired of weeping As she lies down at eve?”
Ay, she lies down lightly, She lies not down to weep: Your girl is well contented. Be still, my lad, and sleep.
“Is my friend hearty, Now I am thin and pine, And has he found to sleep in A better bed than mine?”
Underlined: Yes, lad, I lie easy, End underlined. Underlined: I lie as lads would choose; End underlined. Underlined: I cheer a dead man’s sweetheart, End underlined. Underlined: Never ask me whose. End underlined.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
Correct choice: It implies that the friend has taken the dead man’s place with his sweetheart, casting the earlier report that she is “well contented” in a new light.
In the last stanza the friend admits that he now “cheer[s] a dead man’s sweetheart” and tells the dead man not to ask whose. The only dead man whose sweetheart is at issue is the speaker, so the friend has taken his place. That changes how the earlier answer (“Your girl is well contented”) reads: she is content because of the friend.
A: The stanza does continue the pattern of life going on, but “a dead man’s sweetheart” and “Never ask me whose” add a revelation that makes it more than another sign of recovery.
C: The friend does withhold the name, but he says “I lie easy,” which does not suggest shame; the point is the revelation itself, not the friend’s guilt.
D: “Never ask me whose” deflects one question, but nothing suggests resentment of the questions; the line conceals an uncomfortable truth rather than cutting the conversation short.
Watch for: A final stanza can recast earlier lines; reread the friend’s earlier answer about the sweetheart once you understand the last stanza.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 6 of 27
In 1971 researchers moved five pairs of Italian wall lizards from the small Croatian island of Pod Kopište to the nearby island of Pod Mrčaru, where the species did not then live. When biologists visited Pod Mrčaru in 2004, they found a thriving population whose members, compared with lizards on Pod Kopište, had larger heads, stronger bites, and diets containing far more plant matter. Underlined: Genetic analysis showed that these lizards descended from the transplanted animals rather than from some other population that had reached the island unnoticed. End underlined. Many of them had also developed cecal valves, muscular folds in the gut that slow the passage of food so that tough plant material can be broken down, and that are rare in this lizard family.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
Correct choice: It rules out a possibility that would make the differences between the two islands’ lizard populations far less remarkable than they appear.
The differences would be striking only if the Pod Mrčaru lizards descended from the 1971 transplants; if another population had arrived, the differences could simply reflect that population’s ancestry. By ruling that out, the sentence shows the differences arose within the transplanted lineage in about three decades.
B: The genetic analysis concerned the lizards’ ancestry, not whether their traits are inherited; the text does not address whether the differences are genetic or a response to diet.
C: The sentence concerns where the lizards came from; it says nothing about whether their diet caused the changes in head size and bite strength.
D: The sentence identifies the population’s ancestors but does not explain how the population managed to thrive on the island.
Watch for: A sentence about genetic analysis need not be about inheritance; check what question the analysis actually answers in the text.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 7 of 27
Text 1
The Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain, a line of volcanic islands and undersea mountains on the Pacific floor, bends sharply at a point that formed about 47 million years ago. The chain is thought to have grown as the Pacific plate moved over a hot spot, a plume of hot rock rising from deep in the mantle. Treating that hot spot as fixed in place, geologists long read the bend as a record of an abrupt change in the direction of the plate’s motion.
Text 2
In 2003 geophysicist John Tarduno and colleagues analyzed the magnetism preserved in lava drilled from several of the older Emperor seamounts. Because this magnetism records the latitude at which the lava cooled, it showed that the seamounts had formed well north of Hawaii’s present latitude—and farther north the older they were.
Based on the texts, how would Tarduno’s team (Text 2) most likely respond to the reading of the bend described in Text 1?
Correct choice: They would question it, because it assumes a stationary hot spot, whereas their data indicate that the hot spot moved while the Emperor seamounts were forming.
If the hot spot had stayed in place, every seamount would have formed at the hot spot’s latitude, near Hawaii’s. Text 2 finds that the older Emperor seamounts formed progressively farther north, which implies that the hot spot drifted south over time. That undercuts the fixed-hot-spot assumption on which Text 1’s reading depends.
A: Text 2 shows that the hot spot moved, which weakens Text 1’s reading, but it does not show a change in the hot spot’s direction and does not rule out a change in the plate’s; this goes beyond what the data show.
B: The magnetism records where the lava cooled, not where the seamounts sit now. A plate carrying seamounts away from a fixed hot spot would still produce seamounts that all formed at the same latitude.
D: A single hot spot that moved would also produce seamounts that formed at different latitudes, so the data do not require a second hot spot.
Watch for: Distinguish where a seamount formed (what the magnetism records) from where it is now; only the first bears on whether the hot spot moved.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 8 of 27
Linear B, a script found on clay tablets at Knossos on Crete and at sites on the Greek mainland, resisted decipherment for decades after tablets bearing it were unearthed in 1900. In the 1940s, classicist Alice Kober did not try to name the language the script recorded or to assign sounds to its signs. Instead, she compared words that appeared in several forms and showed that their endings changed in regular patterns, evidence that the language was inflected. Those patterns allowed signs likely to share consonants or vowels to be grouped, groundwork on which architect Michael Ventris built when he showed in 1952 that the script recorded an early form of Greek.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
Correct choice: Kober’s study of word patterns, made without naming the language or its sounds, laid the groundwork for decipherment.
The text centers on Kober’s method: she set aside the questions of language and sound and analyzed changing word endings. That analysis revealed inflection and let signs be grouped, which the text calls the groundwork for Ventris’s decipherment.
A: This is accurate, but it centers on Ventris’s result, which the text presents as building on Kober’s work, the focus of the passage.
B: This is accurate, but it states only her finding and omits both her method and its role in the decipherment, which the text emphasizes.
C: The text does not attribute the delay to the location of the tablets.
Watch for: Words like “instead” and “groundwork” often mark the method and contribution a text is built around.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 9 of 27
The following text is from Herman Melville’s 1853 short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener.” The narrator is a lawyer in New York City. John Jacob Astor was one of the wealthiest Americans of his time.
I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best. [...] I am one of those unambitious lawyers who never addresses a jury, or in any way draws down public applause; but in the cool tranquility of a snug retreat, do a snug business among rich men’s bonds and mortgages and title-deeds. All who know me, consider me an eminently safe man. [...] I do not speak it in vanity, but simply record the fact, that I was not unemployed in my profession by the late John Jacob Astor; a name which, I admit, I love to repeat, for it hath a rounded and orbicular sound to it, and rings like unto bullion.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
Correct choice: The narrator presents himself as a cautious, unambitious lawyer, though his relish for Astor’s name suggests a vanity he claims not to have.
The narrator describes himself as devoted to “the easiest way of life,” an “unambitious” and “safe” lawyer. Yet after insisting that he does “not speak it in vanity,” he admits that he loves to repeat Astor’s name, which “rings like unto bullion.” The text presents a cautious man whose own words reveal the vanity he disclaims.
A: This captures the narrator’s self-portrait but leaves out what the passage builds to: his relish for Astor’s name undercuts his claim that he speaks without vanity, so a main idea that omits it is incomplete.
B: The narrator denies vanity (“I do not speak it in vanity”); he never admits to it or apologizes, so the vanity is revealed rather than confessed.
C: The narrator avoids “public applause” by preference, not with regret, so the text does not suggest that his caution cost him recognition he wanted.
Watch for: When a narrator denies a motive (“I do not speak it in vanity”), check whether the rest of the passage bears the denial out.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 10 of 27
Desert ants of the genus Cataglyphis forage far across open sand and then return straight to their nests. To study how they judge distance, Matthias Wittlinger and colleagues trained ants to walk along a channel to a feeder 10 meters from the nest. At the feeder, some ants were fitted with stilts made of pig bristles, lengthening their legs, while others had their legs shortened. Released to walk home, ants on stilts walked past the nest before searching for it, and ants with shortened legs stopped short of it. The researchers proposed that the ants gauge distance by keeping track of their strides and that the errors arose because the altered legs took strides of a different length on the way home than on the way out.
Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers’ proposal?
Correct choice: Ants whose legs were altered before they left the nest, so that they walked both to the feeder and back on altered legs, stopped at the nest.
The proposal says the errors come from a mismatch between outbound and homeward strides. Ants that walked both ways on altered legs have no such mismatch, so the proposal predicts that they will find the nest. That result would also rule out a rival explanation—that altered legs simply disrupt navigation—since those ants would still err.
A: Longer legs would be expected to produce faster walking under any account, and ants judging distance by time would also overshoot if they walked faster, so this does not favor the stride proposal.
C: If ants counted strides, a mismatch in stride length should produce larger errors over longer distances; errors of the same size at 10 and 20 meters would count against the proposal.
D: Where the ants searched after they stopped says nothing about why they stopped where they did.
Watch for: The strongest support often comes from a condition the proposal predicts will remove the effect: matched strides both ways should mean no error.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 11 of 27
The solubility of a salt is the greatest mass of it that can dissolve in a given amount of water. The graph shows the approximate solubility of three salts, in grams per 100 grams of water, at four temperatures. A student claims that potassium nitrate, which is the least soluble of the three salts at lower temperatures, becomes the most soluble of the three once the water is warm enough.
Solubility of Three Salts in Water
Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to support the student’s claim?
Correct choice: At 20°C, potassium nitrate’s solubility of about 32 grams is the lowest of the three, but at 40°C its 64 grams is the highest.
The claim requires potassium nitrate to be least soluble at a lower temperature and most soluble at a warmer one. At 20°C its solubility (32 grams) is below potassium chloride’s (34) and sodium chloride’s (36). At 40°C its solubility (64 grams) is above potassium chloride’s (40) and sodium chloride’s (36). Choice C shows the change in ranking.
A: This shows potassium nitrate is the most soluble at 60°C but never shows it being least soluble at a lower temperature, so it supports only half the claim.
B: This is true, but it compares amounts of change rather than rankings, so it does not show potassium nitrate moving from least to most soluble.
D: This has the key’s shape but misreads the graph: at 20°C potassium nitrate (32 grams) is still the least soluble, below potassium chloride (34) and sodium chloride (36).
Watch for: When bars are close in height, read the labeled values; a claim about ranking depends on every bar at that temperature.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 12 of 27
In 1954 more than a million schoolchildren took part in a field trial of Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine, which was run in two ways. In some areas, second graders whose parents consented were vaccinated, and first and third graders were observed for comparison. In other areas, only children whose parents consented took part, and they were randomly assigned to receive either the vaccine or a placebo. A student claims that children whose parents consented were more likely to contract polio than other children—a difference that would make the grade-based comparison understate the vaccine’s benefit.
Polio Cases per 100,000 Children in the 1954 Salk Vaccine Field Trial
Trial areas
Group
Polio cases per 100,000 children
Placebo-controlled
Vaccinated
28
Placebo-controlled
Placebo
71
Placebo-controlled
Parents did not consent
46
Grade-based
Second graders, vaccinated
25
Grade-based
First and third graders
54
Grade-based
Second graders, parents did not consent
44
Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to support the student’s claim?
Correct choice: In the placebo-controlled areas, children who received a placebo had 71 cases per 100,000, compared with 46 per 100,000 among children whose parents did not consent.
The claim compares children whose parents consented with other children, so the fair comparison is between two unvaccinated groups that differ only in consent. In the placebo-controlled areas, placebo children (consent, no vaccine) had 71 cases per 100,000, while children whose parents did not consent had 46.
A: This compares vaccinated and placebo children, both from consenting families; it shows the vaccine’s effect, not a difference between consenting and nonconsenting families.
B: This reverses the table: children who received a placebo had 71 cases per 100,000, and children whose parents did not consent had 46; as stated, the comparison would point the opposite way from the claim.
D: Comparing nonconsenting children with vaccinated children mixes the effect of consent with the effect of the vaccine, so it cannot show that consent itself marked higher risk.
Watch for: To isolate one factor, compare groups that differ only in that factor; here both groups must be unvaccinated.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 13 of 27
Earthquake waves called P waves bend sharply as they pass through Earth’s liquid outer core, leaving a “shadow zone,” a band of distances from an earthquake where waves traveling directly through the core were not expected to arrive. After a 1929 earthquake in New Zealand, seismologist Inge Lehmann found distinct P waves recorded at stations within the shadow zone. Some seismologists attributed such arrivals to waves bending around the edge of the core, which would be weak and would fade farther into the zone. Lehmann found the arrivals too strong for that explanation, and in 1936 she proposed an inner core in which P waves travel faster, bending them into the shadow zone. Had Lehmann instead found only weak arrivals that faded farther into the zone, the arrivals would have ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Correct choice: been consistent with waves bending around the edge of the core and would not by themselves have required an inner core.
The rival explanation predicted exactly what the counterfactual describes: weak arrivals that fade farther into the zone. Lehmann’s case against it rested on the arrivals’ being too strong. If they had instead been weak and fading, they would have fit the rival explanation, and no inner core would have been needed to account for them.
B: Weak, fading arrivals would say nothing about wave speeds in an inner core; they would remove the need for an inner core at all.
C: This reverses the logic: weak, fading arrivals are what the bending-around-the-edge explanation predicts, so they would support it.
D: Nothing in the text links weak arrivals to a solid outer core; the shadow zone itself depends on the outer core’s being liquid.
Watch for: In a counterfactual, identify which explanation predicted the imagined observation; the observation then supports that explanation.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 14 of 27
Cane toads at the leading edge of the species’ spread across northern Australia have longer legs and travel farther each night than toads in long-established populations. Researchers have noted that in each generation, the toads that happen to move fastest are the first to reach newly invaded ground, where the toads they meet and breed with are mostly other fast movers, and that the offspring of these pairings tend to inherit long legs. This process suggests that the increase in leg length at the front ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Correct choice: could occur even if long-legged toads at the front survived and reproduced no better than their short-legged neighbors.
The process described sorts toads by where they end up: the fastest arrive first, breed mostly with one another, and pass long legs to their offspring, who are again among the fastest. Nothing in it requires long legs to improve survival or reproduction, so leg length at the front could rise even without such an advantage.
A: This is the intuitive explanation, but the process the researchers describe works through who breeds with whom at the front and does not require any survival advantage.
B: The text says fast toads breed at the newly invaded ground, so their offspring begin life at the front, not behind it.
C: The text says offspring “tend to inherit long legs,” which concerns inherited traits, not legs that parents developed by traveling.
Watch for: A process that sorts individuals by location can change a trait at the front without that trait helping individuals survive; do not assume an advantage the text does not state.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 15 of 27
Reassembled from hundreds of ivory fragments found in a cave in southern Germany, ______ The figure combines a human body with the head of a cave lion.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct choice: the Lion Man figurine is estimated to be about 40,000 years old.
The introductory phrase “Reassembled from hundreds of ivory fragments …” must describe the noun that immediately follows it. Only the figurine was reassembled, so “the Lion Man figurine” must be the subject: “the Lion Man figurine is estimated to be about 40,000 years old.”
A: This makes the archaeologists the ones reassembled from ivory fragments.
C: Here the subject is the figurine’s age, and an age cannot be reassembled from fragments; the possessive leaves the figurine out of the subject position.
D: This makes the years the thing reassembled from ivory fragments.
Watch for: A possessive such as “the figurine’s age” does not make “figurine” the subject; the modifier attaches to the head noun (“age”).
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 16 of 27
In 1928 Alexander Fleming noticed that a mold contaminating one of his culture plates had killed the bacteria growing near it. Had he thrown the plate away as spoiled, as many researchers would have done, he ______ the substance he went on to name penicillin.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct choice: might never have identified
Had he thrown the plate away is an inverted form of If he had thrown the plate away, a condition contrary to past fact. Its result clause needs might (or would) have plus the past participle: might never have identified.
A:Might never identify refers to the present or future, but the unreal result concerns the past, when Fleming made his discovery.
B:Had never identified is the form used in the condition, not in the result; the result clause of a past unreal conditional requires might have or would have.
D:Would never identify also refers to the present or future; a result contrary to past fact needs would have identified.
Watch for: A sentence beginning Had he … is a past unreal condition; its result clause takes would have, could have, or might have plus a past participle.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 17 of 27
The Oxford Electric Bell, an experimental device at the University of Oxford, has rung almost continuously since 1840, powered by the same pair of dry batteries, whose exact composition remains unknown. If it keeps ringing until 2040, the bell ______ for two full centuries.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct choice: will have rung
The sentence looks ahead to a point in the future (2040) and describes ringing that will be complete by then. After a real condition in the present tense (If it keeps ringing), the future perfect, will have rung, expresses an action completed by a future time.
B:Has rung describes ringing up to the present, but the two full centuries will be reached only in 2040.
C:Would have rung belongs with an unreal past condition (if it had kept ringing), not with the real, open condition if it keeps ringing.
D:Had rung places the ringing before a past time, but the sentence refers to a future date.
Watch for: Match the result clause to the condition: “If it keeps …, it will have …” for a real future; “If it had kept …, it would have …” for an unreal past.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 18 of 27
The Golden Record, a phonograph record carried aboard both Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977, contains greetings in 55 languages; sounds of wind, rain, and ______ music ranging from works by Johann Sebastian Bach to Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.”
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct choice: surf; and
The sentence lists three items, and the second item (“sounds of wind, rain, and surf”) contains its own commas. In such a list, semicolons separate the main items, as the semicolon after “languages” already does. A semicolon must therefore also precede the final item: “surf; and music.”
A: A comma here would make the list ambiguous, suggesting that “music” is a fourth sound in the inner list of sounds rather than a third main item.
B: Without punctuation, “music” joins the inner list of sounds, and the pattern set by the first semicolon is broken.
C: A colon cannot separate items in a list.
Watch for: Once a list uses semicolons between items, keep using them up to the last item.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 19 of 27
Among the instruments displayed in the museum’s gallery of early electronic music ______ a theremin, which a performer plays by moving the hands near two metal antennas without ever touching the instrument.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct choice: is
The sentence is inverted: the subject, “a theremin,” follows the verb. Because the subject is singular, the verb must be singular: “is.” The plural “instruments” belongs to the introductory prepositional phrase and is not the subject.
A: “Are” is plural and agrees with “instruments,” which is not the subject.
C: “Were” is plural and also shifts to the past tense, although the instruments are displayed now.
D: “Have been” is plural and does not agree with the singular subject “a theremin.”
Watch for: In a sentence that begins with a prepositional phrase, look after the verb for the subject.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 20 of 27
The collection of diaries, letters, and photographs that members of Ernest Shackleton’s 1914–1917 expedition brought home from the Antarctic, as well as the memoirs several of them later published, ______ historians to reconstruct how the crew survived after the ice crushed their ship, the Endurance.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct choice: allows
The subject is “the collection,” which is singular. The phrase “of diaries, letters, and photographs …” modifies it, and “as well as the memoirs …” does not create a compound subject. The sentence needs a finite singular verb: “allows.”
A: “Allow” is plural, agreeing with the nearby plurals (“photographs,” “members,” “memoirs”) or treating the “as well as” phrase as part of the subject.
B: “Have allowed” is also a plural verb, so it too agrees with the nearby plurals rather than with “the collection.”
D: “Allowing” is not a finite verb, so the sentence would have no main verb.
Watch for: Strip away prepositional phrases and relative clauses to find the true subject before choosing the verb.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 21 of 27
The thousands of life-size clay soldiers buried near the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor, were originally painted in bright colors, but the paint often begins to curl and flake within minutes of exposure to air. For that reason, every fragment and every flake of pigment recovered from the pits ______ recorded before conservators attempt to reassemble a figure.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct choice: is
When every introduces each part of a compound subject joined by and, the subject is treated as singular: every fragment and every flake … is recorded. The present tense also matches attempt.
A:Are treats the compound subject as plural, but every … and every … takes a singular verb.
B:Was is singular, but it shifts to the past tense, although the sentence describes current practice (conservators attempt).
C:Were is plural, and it also shifts to the past tense although the sentence describes current practice (conservators attempt).
Watch for:Every X and every Y (or each X and each Y) is singular even though two nouns are joined by and.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 22 of 27
Mapmakers have long recognized that the projection Gerardus Mercator introduced in 1569 greatly enlarges regions far from the equator; Greenland, for instance, appears roughly as large as Africa. ______, the projection remained standard for nautical charts for centuries, because a straight line drawn on it corresponds to a course of constant compass bearing.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
Correct choice: Nonetheless
The projection’s distortion is a drawback, yet the projection remained standard for navigation because of a different advantage. Nonetheless signals that it continued to be used despite the drawback.
B: “Meanwhile” signals something happening at the same time, but the sentence reports what continued despite the distortion, not a simultaneous development.
C: “Rather” corrects or replaces a preceding statement, usually a negative one, but the first sentence is not being corrected; the projection stayed in use despite its distortion.
D: The distortion is not a reason the projection remained standard; its usefulness for navigation is, and that reason is given after the blank.
Watch for: Contrast transitions differ: nonetheless keeps a claim despite an obstacle, while rather replaces a statement that has been set aside.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 23 of 27
Many owls hunt in near silence. The leading edge of an owl’s outer wing feathers has a comb-like fringe that breaks up the flow of air, reducing the noise the wing makes as it moves. ______, the trailing edges of the feathers end in soft fringes, which further muffle the sound of air passing over the wing.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
Correct choice: Likewise
The fringed trailing edges work in the same way as the comb-like leading edges: both reduce the noise of flight. Likewise introduces a parallel feature.
A: “Conversely” signals an opposite relationship, but the trailing edges reinforce the effect of the leading edges.
C: “Even so” signals a contrast with what came before, but the trailing edges work in the same direction as the leading edges.
D: The trailing edges are not an example of the leading edges’ fringe; they are a second, similar feature.
Watch for: Distinguish a second parallel feature (likewise) from an instance of a general claim (for example).
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 24 of 27
Jean-François Champollion’s knowledge of Coptic, a late form of the Egyptian language written with a largely Greek-based alphabet, helped him decipher hieroglyphs in the 1820s. ______, it was indispensable: because Coptic descended from the language the hieroglyphs recorded, it let him recognize the sounds and meanings behind many signs.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
Correct choice: In fact
The second sentence strengthens the first: Coptic did not merely help, it was indispensable. In fact introduces a stronger version of a claim just made.
B: “Rather” corrects a preceding negative statement (“not X; rather, Y”), but the first sentence makes a positive claim that the second builds on.
C: The second sentence does not describe a separate, similar case.
D: “Nevertheless” signals a contrast, but being indispensable is consistent with having helped.
Watch for:In fact intensifies a claim; rather replaces a claim that has been denied.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 25 of 27
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
Most firefly species flash independently of one another.
In a few species, males flash in unison.
Photinus carolinus, found in the Great Smoky Mountains of the southeastern United States, is one such species.
Synchronous flashing has also been documented in some species in Southeast Asia, such as Pteroptyx malaccae.
Researchers have proposed that synchrony may help females recognize the flash pattern of their own species.
The student wants to present synchronous flashing as a behavior found in species on more than one continent while making clear that it is uncommon among fireflies. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
Correct choice: Though most fireflies flash independently, a few species flash in unison, including one in the southeastern United States and some in Southeast Asia.
Choice C meets both conditions: it marks synchrony as uncommon (“most fireflies flash independently … a few species”) and places it on two continents (the southeastern United States and Southeast Asia).
A: This places synchrony on two continents but never indicates that it is uncommon among fireflies.
B: This makes clear that the behavior is uncommon, but it names only a Southeast Asian species.
D: This covers two continents and adds a proposed function, but it does not say that synchrony is rare.
Watch for: For a two-condition goal, the strongest lures each satisfy exactly one condition; check both.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 26 of 27
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
Glacial rocks formed during two ice ages between about 717 million and 635 million years ago are found in places that magnetic evidence in the rocks shows were then near the equator.
In 1992 geologist Joseph Kirschvink proposed that Earth was then covered almost entirely in ice, a hypothesis he called “Snowball Earth.”
In many places these glacial rocks are directly overlain by thick layers of carbonate rock, a kind of rock that usually forms in warm water.
In 1998 Paul Hoffman and colleagues argued that these “cap carbonates” record a rapid shift to hot conditions after carbon dioxide from volcanoes built up in the atmosphere during the freeze and finally melted the ice.
Some researchers argue that a band of open water may have persisted near the equator, making Earth a “slushball” rather than a snowball.
The student wants to explain what the cap carbonates suggest about how the global freeze ended and why warm-water rock lies directly on top of glacial rock. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
Correct choice: The cap carbonates suggest that the freeze ended abruptly: volcanic carbon dioxide built up until the ice melted and conditions turned hot enough for warm-water rock to form.
The goal has two parts: how the freeze ended, and why warm-water rock sits directly on glacial rock. Hoffman’s interpretation answers both: volcanic carbon dioxide built up until the ice melted and conditions shifted abruptly to hot, so warm-water carbonate formed right on top of the glacial deposits.
A: This explains why warm conditions followed the glaciations, but not how the freeze ended or why the change was abrupt enough to leave carbonate directly on glacial rock.
B: This explains how the Snowball Earth hypothesis arose but does not mention the cap carbonates or how the freeze ended.
C: This concerns how complete the freeze was, not how it ended, and it does not mention the cap carbonates.
Watch for: A choice can mention the right evidence and a true consequence yet stop short of the specific point the goal asks for—here, how the freeze ended.
Reading and Writing · Module 2 · Question 27 of 27
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
For much of the twentieth century, many archaeologists held that the first people in the Americas were the makers of distinctive stone spear points known as Clovis points, which date to about 13,000 years ago.
People are thought to have first entered the Americas from Asia by way of the far north, near present-day Alaska.
Monte Verde is an archaeological site in southern Chile.
Excavations at Monte Verde led by archaeologist Tom Dillehay uncovered the remains of wooden huts, stone tools, and food plants dated to about 14,500 years ago.
Waterlogged soil at the site had preserved materials, such as wood and animal hide, that usually decay.
In 1997 a group of archaeologists, including some who had doubted the site’s age, visited Monte Verde and afterward agreed that its early date was valid.
The student wants to explain why Monte Verde’s location made its early date especially damaging to the view that Clovis toolmakers were the first people in the Americas. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
Correct choice: Since people probably entered the Americas through the far north, Monte Verde’s age of about 14,500 years, so far south in Chile, implies an arrival well before Clovis points were made.
The goal asks why the site’s location strengthened the challenge. If people entered through the far north, reaching southern South America by 14,500 years ago means they must have arrived even earlier, long before Clovis points. Only this choice draws that inference from the location.
A: This places the location and the date side by side but never draws the inference that an early southern site implies an even earlier arrival, and it does not mention Clovis.
B: This shows that Monte Verde is older than Clovis points, which challenges the Clovis view, but it says nothing about why the site’s location matters.
D: This reports the site’s acceptance by former skeptics and mentions its location, but it does not explain how the location bears on the Clovis view.
Watch for: Placing two relevant facts side by side is not the same as explaining how one strengthens the other; look for the choice that states the inference.
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Answer from the passage. Read each passage or set of notes and select the single best answer. Use only the text and figures provided; no outside subject knowledge is required. Do not use a dictionary, search engine, or outside notes.
Work within the current module. Answer, skip, flag, and revisit questions until you submit the module or its timer expires. Submitted modules are locked. Read the next module's directions, then press Start Module when ready.
Review after finishing. Answers and explanations become available after the full test. Your result is the number correct, not an SAT scaled score.
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Module directions
Full section directions
Answer from the passage. Read each passage or set of notes and select the single best answer. Use only the text and figures provided; no outside subject knowledge is required. Do not use a dictionary, search engine, or outside notes.
Work within the current module. Answer, skip, flag, and revisit questions until you submit the module or its timer expires. Submitted modules are locked. Read the next module's directions, then press Start Module when ready.
Review after finishing. Answers and explanations become available after the full test. Your result is the number correct, not an SAT scaled score.
How this practice differs from the SAT
How this differs from the real SAT
The modules in this practice are fixed. On the real exam the second module gets harder or easier depending on how you did on the first.
You can pause whenever you want, and your answers save in this browser, so you can close the tab and come back. The real exam gives you one ten-minute break and no pause, unless you are approved for breaks as needed.
Every question here counts, and you get counts of right, wrong and blank rather than a score on the 400 to 1600 scale.