SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) — Questions and Answers

Question 1: When a question asks for the 'central claim' of a science passage, the best answer is one that:

Summarizes the main argument the whole passage supports (Correct answer)
Describes one experiment's setup
Names the researchers
Quotes a single statistic

Correct answer: Summarizes the main argument the whole passage supports

A central claim is the overarching point that all details in the passage work to support.

Question 2: Which choice provides the BEST evidence for a claim that a scientist remained skeptical? The strongest support would be a line where the scientist:

Names the experiment
Demands further testing before accepting results (Correct answer)
Celebrates the discovery openly
Funds the project generously

Correct answer: Demands further testing before accepting results

Demanding more testing directly shows ongoing doubt, the definition of skepticism.

Question 3: A store marks up prices by 30%. If an item costs $40 wholesale, what is the retail price?

$70
$44
$56
$52 (Correct answer)

Correct answer: $52

Markup = 30% × $40 = $12. Retail price = $40 + $12 = $52.

Question 4: What is the main idea of the passage?

The passage provides an overview of the challenges in implementing renewable energy. (Correct answer)
The passage explains the technical aspects of renewable energy systems.
The passage discusses the benefits of renewable energy.
The passage gives examples of countries that use renewable energy.

Correct answer: The passage provides an overview of the challenges in implementing renewable energy.

The main idea of the passage is to outline the various difficulties and obstacles encountered when trying to implement renewable energy sources on a larger scale. It likely discusses issues such as intermittency, storage, grid integration, and economic considerations. By focusing on these challenges, the passage aims to give a balanced perspective on the transition to sustainable energy.

Question 5: If 2x+2y=0, which of the following must be equivalent to 2x-2y?

y2</label></li>
-4y</label></li> (Correct answer)
2x/2y</label></li>
y</label></li>

Correct answer: -4y</label></li>

Given the equation 2x + 2y = 0, we can isolate 2x by subtracting 2y from both sides, resulting in 2x = -2y. The question asks for an equivalent expression for 2x - 2y. By substituting -2y for 2x in the expression, we get (-2y) - 2y. This simplifies to -4y.

Question 6: A passage shifts from third-person omniscient to first-person narration mid-chapter. This shift most likely:

Indicates the author made an error
Removes all tension from the plot
Confuses the reader and weakens the narrative
Creates intimacy and draws the reader closer to one character's perspective (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Creates intimacy and draws the reader closer to one character's perspective

A shift to first-person narration creates immediacy and intimacy, pulling the reader into the subjective experience of that character.

Question 7: A history passage argues that 'geography played a decisive role in shaping civilizations.' To support this claim, the author would most likely cite:

A timeline of military battles
Biographies of famous leaders
Maps showing how rivers and mountains influenced settlements and trade routes (Correct answer)
Literary works from the period

Correct answer: Maps showing how rivers and mountains influenced settlements and trade routes

To support a geographic determinism argument, physical evidence showing how terrain features shaped where and how civilizations developed would be most relevant.

Question 8: Which sentence uses a colon correctly? A. She had one goal: to graduate with honors. B. She had: one goal to graduate with honors. C. She had one: goal to graduate with honors. D. She: had one goal to graduate with honors.

Sentence D
Sentence A (Correct answer)
Sentence B
Sentence C

Correct answer: Sentence A

A colon is used after a complete independent clause to introduce a list, explanation, or amplification. Only Sentence A follows this rule correctly.

Question 9: Which sentence correctly uses a dash to set off a parenthetical element?

The result, surprising to everyone—changed the study.
The result—surprising to everyone—changed the study. (Correct answer)
The result—surprising to everyone, changed the study.
The result surprising—to everyone—changed the study.

Correct answer: The result—surprising to everyone—changed the study.

A matched pair of dashes correctly brackets the interrupting phrase.

Question 10: Choose the sentence with the correct use of 'lay' vs. 'lie': A. I need to lay down for a while. B. She lay the book on the table yesterday. C. She laid the book on the table. D. The cat lied down on the couch.

Sentence A
Sentence D
Sentence B
Sentence C (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Sentence C

'Lay' (to place an object) past tense is 'laid': 'she laid the book.' 'Lie' (to recline) past tense is 'lay.' Sentence C is correct: 'She laid the book on the table.'

Question 11: When analyzing an argument, the author's 'purpose' refers to:

What the author wants to achieve (Correct answer)
The publication date
The reader's reaction only
The length of the passage

Correct answer: What the author wants to achieve

Purpose is the goal the author intends to accomplish with the text.

Question 12: A passage states findings were 'preliminary and require replication.' This phrasing indicates the author wants readers to treat the results as:

Final and certain
Tentative pending further study (Correct answer)
Fictional
Irrelevant

Correct answer: Tentative pending further study

'Preliminary' and needing 'replication' mark the results as not yet confirmed.

Question 13: To examine the "Dark Ages" in two ways. On the one hand, you can think of the period immediately following the fall of Rome, when civilization began to crumble across the Western Empire. However, you might analyze the era that followed this initial social collapse. To use the word "black" to describe the culture of either of these periods is a gross oversimplification. When it comes to the first phase, it's a lot easier to think of it as a single historical event. It's not as though the civilization has gone out like a lightbulb has gone out. Light at one point and darkness at the next. Decades, in reality, have passed since the so-called age of darkness, and the decline of civilisation has been taking place for many years. As a result, the decline of civilisation was not a sudden plunge into barbarism, but rather a gradual transformation of Europe's cultural milieu. During these years of decline, the Eastern Roman Empire maintained much of its cultural prominence! The time that followed the gradual fall of the Western Empire was, more crucially, much less "dark" than practically any popularly portrayed period. Even during the era of decline, the seeds of cultural restoration were being sown, as was the case in the past. The establishment of monastic communities in the countryside of what is now known as Europe was a significant component of this cultural resurgence. Monasteries had played an essential role in conserving and advancing the cause of culture since at least the thirteenth century and maybe until the Renaissance, despite the fact that they were not the only constructive influence during these years. What should be done about the section that is highlighted?

Although these were not the only positive forces during these centuries, the monasteries would play an important role in preserving and advancing the cause of culture through at least the thirteenth century and arguably until the Renaissance
Although these were not the only positive forces during these centuries, the monasteries would play an important role in preserving and advancing the cause of culture through at least the thirteenth century and arguably until the Renaissance (Correct answer)
Although these were not the only positive forces during these centuries, the monasteries will play an important role in preserving and advancing the cause of culture through at least the thirteenth century and arguably until the Renaissance
NO CHANGE

Correct answer: Although these were not the only positive forces during these centuries, the monasteries would play an important role in preserving and advancing the cause of culture through at least the thirteenth century and arguably until the Renaissance

The original sentence's use of 'had played' (past perfect) implies an action completed before another past action, which doesn't fully capture the ongoing and future-reaching role of monasteries. Option D correctly uses 'would play,' which is more appropriate for describing a role that continued and had future implications within the historical period being discussed, extending 'until the Renaissance.' It also improves conciseness by replacing 'despite the fact that they were not' with 'Although these were not' and uses stronger, more precise vocabulary like 'positive forces' and 'preserving and advancing.'

Question 14: Select the appropriate change, if any, to the sentence "When he saw the flash of lightning, he felt extreme pain all over his body." in Line 1.

When he saw the flash, of lightning, he felt extreme pain all over his body.</label></li>
NO CHANGE</label></li> (Correct answer)
When he saw the flash of lightning, he felt extreme pain, all over his body.</label></li>
When he saw, the flash, of lightning he felt extreme pain all over his body.</label></li>

Correct answer: NO CHANGE</label></li>

The sentence 'When he saw the flash of lightning, he felt extreme pain all over his body' is grammatically correct as written. A comma is appropriately used after the introductory dependent clause ('When he saw the flash of lightning') to separate it from the main independent clause ('he felt extreme pain all over his body'). This comma usage follows standard English punctuation rules for complex sentences.

Question 15: Simplify: (x³ · x⁴) / x²

x⁹
x⁵ (Correct answer)
x⁷
x¹²

Correct answer: x⁵

Numerator: x³ · x⁴ = x⁷. Then x⁷ / x² = x⁵.

Question 16: Which choice most strengthens the argument 'The new fertilizer increases crop yield'?

The fertilizer is inexpensive
A large controlled trial showed higher yields with it (Correct answer)
Crops need water to grow
Farmers like trying new products

Correct answer: A large controlled trial showed higher yields with it

A controlled trial provides direct evidence supporting the causal claim.

Question 17: What is the best way to avoid logical fallacies in an argument?

By ensuring your premises support your conclusion with valid reasoning. (Correct answer)
By providing personal anecdotes as evidence.
By attacking the opposing speaker's character.
By using emotional appeals to persuade the audience.

Correct answer: By ensuring your premises support your conclusion with valid reasoning.

To avoid logical fallacies, an argument must be constructed with sound reasoning where the premises genuinely and logically lead to the conclusion. This involves critically examining the links between claims and evidence, ensuring that no hidden assumptions, irrelevant attacks, or flawed structures undermine the argument's validity. A strong argument relies on clear, well-supported connections.

Question 18: Which is equivalent to (x + 4)²?

x² - 8x + 16
x² + 4x + 16
x² + 16
x² + 8x + 16 (Correct answer)

Correct answer: x² + 8x + 16

(x + 4)² = x² + 2(4)x + 4² = x² + 8x + 16.

Question 19: Cindy finds that adding pearls of identical size into a graduated cylinder will change the total fluid volume each time. She has found that the following equation will give her the total fluid inside the cylinder in cubic centimeters regardless of how many pearls are added (NOTE: x represents the number of pearls added.) V=25pi+x(5/4πr3) If the total volume is 185pi cubic centimeters, what is the maximum number of pearls with a radius of 4 centimeters that can be added so that the fluid does not exceed the cylinder size?

4</label></li>
2</label></li> (Correct answer)
3</label></li>
5</label></li>

Correct answer: 2</label></li>

First, substitute the given values into the equation: 185π = 25π + x(5/4 * π * 4^3). Simplify the pearl volume term: 4^3 is 64, so (5/4 * π * 64) becomes (5 * π * 16), which is 80π. The equation is now 185π = 25π + x(80π). Subtract 25π from both sides: 160π = x(80π). Finally, divide by 80π to solve for x: x = 160π / 80π = 2. Thus, a maximum of 2 pearls can be added.

Question 20: If p(x) = x³ - x and q(x) = x, what is p(x)/q(x) for x ≠ 0?

x²
x - x
x² - 1 (Correct answer)
x - 1

Correct answer: x² - 1

p(x)/q(x) = (x³ - x)/x = x² - 1, for x ≠ 0.

Question 21: If x2+4xy+y2=-44 and y-x=14, which of the following could be the value of x?

2</label></li>
-8</label></li>
10</label></li>
-10</label></li> (Correct answer)

Correct answer: -10</label></li>

From the second equation, y - x = 14, we can express y as y = x + 14. Substitute this expression for y into the first equation: x^2 + 4x(x+14) + (x+14)^2 = -44. Expanding and simplifying leads to a quadratic equation: x^2 + 4x^2 + 56x + x^2 + 28x + 196 = -44, which becomes 6x^2 + 84x + 240 = 0. Dividing by 6 gives x^2 + 14x + 40 = 0. Factoring this quadratic equation yields (x+4)(x+10) = 0, so the possible values for x are -4 and -10. Since -10 is one of the options, it is a possible value for x.

Question 22: What is the value of the expression 3x^2 - 2x when x = 3?

3
15
27
21 (Correct answer)

Correct answer: 21

3(9) - 2(3) = 27 - 6 = 21.

Question 23: The word 'temper' in 'the editor sought to temper the harsh review' most nearly means:

Lengthen
Anger
Soften (Correct answer)
Print

Correct answer: Soften

As a verb, 'temper' means to moderate or soften something's intensity.

Question 24: A gym charges a one-time enrollment fee plus a fixed monthly rate. The total cost in dollars after m months of membership is represented by the expression 25m + 60. What is the one-time enrollment fee?

$35
$25
$60 (Correct answer)
$85

Correct answer: $60

In the expression 25m + 60, the term 25m represents the recurring monthly cost ($25 per month), while the constant 60 is added regardless of how many months pass — making it the one-time enrollment fee.

Question 25: A history passage states: 'Historians disagree about whether economic factors or political ambition primarily drove World War I.' This statement suggests:

Causation in history is often complex and contested (Correct answer)
There is one clear cause that all historians accept
Economic factors are always the root of all wars
World War I had no identifiable causes

Correct answer: Causation in history is often complex and contested

The statement highlights ongoing scholarly debate, reflecting that historical causation is multifaceted and that evidence can support competing interpretations.

Question 26: If the cost C of n items is C = 5n + 20, how many items cost $70?

10 (Correct answer)
12
9
14

Correct answer: 10

Set 5n + 20 = 70, so 5n = 50 and n = 10.

Question 27: Which sentence best uses a rhetorical question to engage the reader?

Do you agree with my argument?
My argument is good, isn't it?
If we cannot ensure clean water for every child, what does that say about our priorities as a civilization? (Correct answer)
Why is this important?

Correct answer: If we cannot ensure clean water for every child, what does that say about our priorities as a civilization?

Option C poses a meaningful rhetorical question that challenges the reader's values ('what does that say about our priorities?') — engaging and thought-provoking without expecting a literal answer.

Question 28: Highlighted sections are referenced in several questions. <div>Mannahatta (<a href="http://www.triquarterly.org/issues/issue-145/mannahatta" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.triquarterly.org/issues/issue-145/mannahatta</a>)</div> <div> </div> <ol> <li>The canoe scudded to a stop at the steep, rocky shore. There was no slip, so he tossed the rope, which he had knotted to a crossbar and weighted with a pierced plumb square just larger than his thumb, forward into the foliage. Carefully he clambered toward the spray of greenery, the fingers of the thicket and its underbrush clasping the soles of his boots, his stockinged calves, his ample linen breeches. A thousand birds proclaimed his ascent up the incline, the bushes shuddered with the alarm of creatures stirred from their lees; insects rose in a screen before his eyes, vanishing. When he had secured the boat and settled onto a sloping meadow, he sat, to wet his throat with water from his winesack, and orient himself, and rest. Only then did he look back. </li> <li>The ship, the Jonge Tobias, which had borne him and the others across more nautical miles than he had thought to tally, was no longer visible, its brown hulk hidden by the river’s curve and the outcropping topped by fortresses of trees. The water, fluttering like a silk shroud, now white, now silver, now azure, ferried his eyes all the way over itself east—he knew from the captain’s compass and his own canny sense of space, innate since he could first recall—to the banks of a vaster, still not fully charted island, its outlines an ocher shimmer in the morning light, etching themselves on his memory like auguries. Closer, at the base of the hill, fish and eels drew quick seams along the river’s nervous surface. From hideouts in the rushes toads serenaded. Once, in Santo Domingo where he had been born and spent half his youth before working on ships to purchase his freedom, he peered into a furnace where a man who could have been his brother was turning a bell of glass, and he had felt the blaze’s gaping mouth, the sear of its tongue nearly devouring him as the blown bowl miraculously fulfilled its shape. Now the sun, as if the forebear of that transformative fire, burned its presence into the sky’s blue banner, its hot rays falling everywhere, gilding the landscape around him. He was used to days and nights in the tropics, but nevertheless crawled beneath the shade of a sweet gum bower. He turned down the wide brim of his hat, shifted his sack to his left side, near the tree’s gray base, opened his collar to cool himself, and waited. </li> <li>The first time he had done this, at another, more southerly landing nearer the dock and the main trading post, one of the people who had long lived here had revealed himself, emerging from an invisible door in a row of bayberries, speaking—yes, repeating a soft but welcoming melody. Jan—as Captain Mossel and the crew on the ship called him, or Juan as he was known in Santo Domingo, or João as he had once been called by his Lusitanian sailor father and those like him among whom he worked, the kingdoms of the Iberians being the same in those days, and before that M, the name his mother had summoned forth from her people and sworn him never to reveal to another soul, not so distant, it struck him, from the Makadewa the envoy of the first people had begun to call him—had turned his ear around and around like a tuning fork until he captured it, and with the key of this language that most of the Dutch on the ship assured him they could not fully hear, he had himself unlocked a door. Skins for hatchets, axes, knives, guns, more efficient than flints or polished clubs in felling a cougar, a sycamore, an enemy. He had wrung a peahen’s neck and roasted an entire hog, but despite having heard several times the call to revolt, he had never revealed a single secret or shibboleth, nor had he killed or been party to killing another man. So long as the circumstances made it possible to avoid doing either, he would. Someday, perhaps soon, he knew, his fate might change, unless he overturned it. </li> <li>The envoy had, through gestures, his stories, later meals and the voices that spoke through fire and smoke, opened a portal onto his world. Jan knew for his own sake, his survival, he must remember it, enter it. He had already begun to answer to the wind, the streams, the bluffs. As he now sat in the grass, observing the light playing through the canopies, the shadows sliding across themselves along the sedge in distinct shades, all still darker than his own dark hands, cheeks, a mantis trudging along the half-bridge of a gerardia stalk, he could see another window inside that earlier one, beckoning. He would study it as he had been studying each tree, each bush, each bank of flowers here and wherever on this island he had set foot. He would understand that window, climb through it. </li> <li>He stood and unsheathed his knife. Then he removed a roll of twine from his bag. Using the tools, he marked several nearby spots, hatching the tree and tightly knotting several lengths of string about the branches, creating signs, in the shape of lozenges, squares, half-circles, that would be visible right up to sunset. In nearby branches he created several more. There was always the possibility that one of the first people, one of whom he expected to appear at any moment, though none did, or some nonhuman creature, or a spirit in either form, would untie the markers, erase the hatchings, thereby erasing this spot’s specificity, for him, returning it to the anonymity that every step here, as on every ship he had sailed on, every word he had never before spoken, every face he had never seen until he did, once held. If that were to be the case, so it would be. Yet he vowed not to forget this little patch where a new recognition had dawned in him. If he had to commit every scent, every sound, even the blades of grass to memory, he would. He walked around, bending down, looking at a squirrel that had been looking intently at him . . . </li> <li>Despite having no timepiece, he knew it was time to return. A breeze, as if seconding this impulse, sighed Rodrigues. He began sifting through his store of images for a story to recount to them, shielding this place and its particularities from their imaginations. He broke off two branches big enough to serve as stakes and carried them with him down to the bank and the canoe. Using his knife and fingers, and, once he had created an opening, the thinner end of his paddle, he dug a hole, and pounded the first stake into it. Using the twine he created a cross with the other branch, then strung a series of knots around it, from the base to the top, wishing he had brought beads or pieces of colored cloth, or anything that would snare the gaze from a distance. He stepped back to inspect it. He was not sure he would be able to spy it from the water, though it commanded the eye from where he stood. But, he reminded himself, once he returned to the ship, it would be for the last time, and he would have months, years even, to find and reconstruct this cross again, to place a new one. The first people would guide him to it, too, if they happened upon it. He replaced his knife and the twine, collected his anchor, then hoisted himself back into the canoe, paddle in one hand, in the other his ballast. He pushed off from the shore, out into the river, and as he glanced at the cross, it appeared to flare, momentarily, before it disappeared like everything else around it into the island’s dense verdant hide. It was, despite his observations of the area, the one thing that he recalled so clearly he could have described it down to the grain of the wood when he slid into his hammock that night, and, when he returned a week later, his canoe and a skiff laden with ampler sacks, of flints, candles, seeds, a musket, his sword, a small tarp to protect him from the rain, enough hatchets and knives to ensure his work as trader, and translator, never to return to the Jonge Tobias, or any other ship, nor to the narrow alleys of Amsterdam or his native Hispaniola, the very first thing he saw.</li> </ol> Identify the predicate of the following sentence in paragraph 3. Jan—as Captain Mossel and the crew on the ship called him, or Juan as he was known in Santo Domingo, or João as he had once been called by his Lusitanian sailor father and those like him among whom he worked, the kingdoms of the Iberians being the same in those days, and before that M, the name his mother had summoned forth from her people and sworn him never to reveal to another soul, not so distant, it struck him, from the Makadewa the envoy of the first people had begun to call him—had turned his ear around and around like a tuning fork until he captured it, and with the key of this language that most of the Dutch on the ship assured him they could not fully hear, he had himself unlocked a door.

Jan</label></li>
had turned his ear around and around like a tuning fork until he captured it; had ... unlocked a door</label></li> (Correct answer)
as he had once been called</label></li>
begun to call him</label></li>

Correct answer: had turned his ear around and around like a tuning fork until he captured it; had ... unlocked a door</label></li>

The predicate of a sentence includes the main verb and all the words that describe the action or state of being of the subject. In this sentence, the subject is 'Jan.' The main actions Jan performs are 'had turned his ear around and around like a tuning fork until he captured it' and 'had himself unlocked a door,' which are connected by the conjunction 'and.' The extensive dash-enclosed section provides parenthetical information about Jan but is not part of the core predicate.

Question 29: Highlighted sections are referenced in several questions. <ol> <li>John Paul II was considered a conservative on doctrine and issues relating to human sexual reproduction and the ordination of women. </li> <li>While the Pope was visiting the United States of America he said, "All human life from the moments of conception and through all subsequent stages, is sacred." </li> <li>A series of 129 lectures given by John Paul II during his Wednesday audiences in Rome between September 1979 and November 1984 were later compiled and published as a single work titled Theology of the Body, an extended meditation on human sexuality. He extended it to the condemnation of abortion, euthanasia and virtually all capital punishment, calling them all a part of the "culture of death" that is pervasive in the modern world. He campaigned for world debt forgiveness and social justice. He coined the term "social mortgage", which related that all private property had a social dimension, namely, that "the goods of this are originally meant for all." In 2000, he publicly endorsed the Jubilee 2000 campaign on African debt relief fronted by Irish rock stars Bob Geldof and Bono, once famously interrupting a U2 recording session by telephoning the studio and asking to speak to Bono. </li> <li>Pope John Paul II, who was present and very influential at the 1962–65 Second Vatican Council, affirmed the teachings of that Council and did much to implement them. Nevertheless, his critics often wished that he would embrace the so-called "progressive" agenda that some hoped would evolve as a result of the Council. In fact, the Council did not advocate "progressive" changes in these areas; for example, they still condemned abortion as an unspeakable crime. Pope John Paul II continued to declare that contraception, abortion, and homosexual acts were gravely sinful, and, with Joseph Ratzinger (future Pope Benedict XVI), opposed liberation theology. </li> <li>Following the Church's exaltation of the marital act of sexual intercourse between a baptised man and woman within sacramental marriage as proper and exclusive to the sacrament of marriage, John Paul II believed that it was, in every instance, profaned by contraception, abortion, divorce followed by a 'second' marriage, and by homosexual acts. In 1994, John Paul II asserted the Church's lack of authority to ordain women to the priesthood, stating that without such authority ordination is not legitimately compatible with fidelity to Christ. This was also deemed a repudiation of calls to break with the constant tradition of the Church by ordaining women to the priesthood. In addition, John Paul II chose not to end the discipline of mandatory priestly celibacy, although in a small number of unusual circumstances, he did allow certain married clergymen of other Christian traditions who later became Catholic to be ordained as Catholic priests.</li> </ol> Suppose the writer's goal is to give a detailed account of Pope John Paul II's political beliefs. Would the excerpt fulfill that goal?

No, because it primarily focuses on his scientific beliefs.</label></li>
Yes, because it touches on each aspect of his beliefs.</label></li>
No, because it primarily focuses on his economic beliefs.</label></li>
No, because it is primarily about his moral stances.</label></li> (Correct answer)

Correct answer: No, because it is primarily about his moral stances.</label></li>

While the passage touches on some issues that have political implications (like debt forgiveness or capital punishment), its primary focus is on Pope John Paul II's religious doctrine and moral stances. It details his views on human sexuality, abortion, euthanasia, and the ordination of women, which are theological and ethical positions rather than purely political ones. Therefore, it does not provide a detailed account of his broader political beliefs.

Question 30: <div>‘CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE’ SPEECH BY JIMMY CARTER</div> <ol style="list-style-position: outside;"> <li>The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America. </li> <li>The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people. </li> <li>Confidence in the future has supported everything else public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States. </li> <li>Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations. </li> <li>We’ve always believed in something called progress. We’ve always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own. </li> <li>Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world. </li> <li>We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom; and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past. </li> <li>In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, closeknit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship selfindulgence and consumption. </li> <li>Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose. </li> <li>The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Twothirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world. </li> <li>As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. </li> <li>This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning. </li> <li>These changes did not happen overnight. They’ve come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy. </li> <li>We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. </li> <li>We respected the Presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate. </li> <li>We remember when the phrase “sound as a dollar” was an expression of absolute dependability, until ten years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our nation’s resources were limitless until 1973 when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil. </li> <li>These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed.</li> </ol> As used in paragraph 16,"Shrink" refers to

Americans are still angry about Watergate</label></li>
Americans are ready to change to a new form of government</label></li>
Americans are not sure what they want</label></li>
Americans are losing faith in government's ability to do what is right</label></li> (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Americans are losing faith in government's ability to do what is right</label></li>

Answer 1, confirmed throughout but particularly when you consider these paragraphs in conjunction with Carter's traveling of the country and talking to Americans.

Question 31: A shirt originally priced at $40 is marked down by 25%. What is the sale price?

$30 (Correct answer)
$28
$35
$32

Correct answer: $30

25% of $40 is $10, so the sale price is $40 − $10 = $30.

Question 32: Which choice most strengthens 'Students who eat breakfast score higher on tests'?

A randomized study controlling for other factors confirmed the link (Correct answer)
Many students skip breakfast
Breakfast foods are tasty
Tests are given in the morning

Correct answer: A randomized study controlling for other factors confirmed the link

A controlled randomized study isolates breakfast as the cause of higher scores.

Question 33: How can a writer make their argument more persuasive?

By using only one example to support the argument.
By ignoring opposing viewpoints.
By using emotional appeals and logical reasoning. (Correct answer)
By providing personal opinions without evidence.

Correct answer: By using emotional appeals and logical reasoning.

A writer can make their argument more persuasive by effectively combining emotional appeals (pathos) with logical reasoning (logos). Logical reasoning provides a sound, evidence-based foundation for the argument, while emotional appeals connect with the audience's values and feelings. This dual approach makes the argument both intellectually convincing and emotionally resonant.

Question 34: In a paired-passage set, Passage 1 argues for strict regulation while Passage 2 favors voluntary compliance. Their relationship is best described as:

Unrelated topics
One disproving the other's facts
Identical viewpoints
Differing approaches to a shared problem (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Differing approaches to a shared problem

Both address the same issue but propose different solutions, a common dual-passage structure.

Question 35: <div>'NOTES OF A NATIVE SON' EXCERPT BY JAMES BALDWIN</div> <ol style="list-style-position: outside;"> <li>My last night in New Jersey, a white friend from New York took me to the nearest big town, Trenton, to go to the movies and have a few drinks. As it turned out, he also saved me from, at the very least, a violent whipping. Almost every detail of that night stands out very clearly in my memory. I even remember the name of the movie we saw because its title impressed me as being so patly ironical. It was called This Land Is Mine. I remember the name of the diner we walked into when the movie ended: it was the "American Diner." When we walked in the counterman asked what we wanted and I remember answering with the casual sharpness which had become my habit: "We want a hamburger and a cup of coffee, what do you think we want?" I do not know why, after a year of such rebuffs, I so completely failed to anticipate his answer, which was, of course, "We don't serve Negroes here." This reply failed to discompose me, at least for the moment. I made some sardonic comment about the name of the diner and we walked out. </li> <li>When we re-entered the streets something happened to me which had the force of an optical illusion, or a nightmare. The streets were very crowded and I was facing north. People were moving in every direction but it seemed to me, in that instant, that all of the people I could see, and many more than that, were moving toward me, against me, and that everyone was white. I remember how their faces gleamed. And I felt, like a physical sensation, a click at the nape of my neck as though some interior string connecting my head to my body had been cut. I began to walk. I heard my friend call after me, but I ignored him. Heaven only knows what was going on in his mind, but he had the good sense not to touch me--I don't know what would have happened if he had--and to keep me in sight. I don't know what was going on in my mind, either; I certainly had no conscious plan. I wanted to do something to crush these white faces, which were crushing me. I walked for perhaps a block or two until I came to an enormous, glittering, and fashionable restaurant in which I knew not even the intercession of the Virgin would cause me to be served. I pushed through the doors and took the first vacant seat I saw, at a table for two, and waited. I do not know how long I waited and I rather wonder, until today, what I could possibly have looked like. Whatever I looked like, I frightened the waitress who shortly appeared, and the moment she appeared all of my fury flowed towards her. I hated her for her white face, and for her great, astounded, frightened eyes. I felt that if she found a black man so frightening I would make her fright worthwhile. </li> <li>She did not ask me what I wanted, but repeated, as though she had learned it somewhere, "We don't serve Negroes here." She did not say it with the blunt, derisive hostility to which I had grown so accustomed, but, rather, with a note of apology in her voice, and fear. This made me colder and more murderous than ever. I felt I had to do something with my hands. I wanted her to come close enough for me to get her neck between my hands. </li> <li>So I pretended not to have understood her, hoping to draw her closer. And she did step a very short step closer, with her pencil poised incongruously over her pad, and repeated the formula "... don't serve Negroes here." </li> <li>Somehow, with the repetition of that phrase, which was already ringing in my head like a thousand bells of a nightmare, I realized that she would never come any closer and that I would have to strike from a distance. There was nothing on the table but an ordinary water mug half full of water, and I picked this up and hurled it with all my strength at her. She ducked and it missed her and shattered against the mirror behind the bar. And, with that sound, my frozen blood abruptly thawed, I returned from wherever I had been, I saw, for the first time, the restaurant, the people with their mouths open, already, as it seemed to me, rising as one man, and I realized what I had done, and where I was, and I was frightened. I rose and began running for the door. A round, potbellied man grabbed me by the nape of the neck just as I reached the doors and began to beat me about the face. I kicked him and got loose and ran into the streets. My friend whispered, "Run!" and I ran. </li> <li>My friend stayed outside the restaurant long enough to misdirect my pursuers and the police, who arrived, he told me, at once. I do not know what I said to him when he came to my room that night. I could not have said much. I felt, in the oddest, most awful way, that I had somehow betrayed him. I lived it over and over and over again, the way one relives an automobile accident after it has happened and one finds oneself alone and safe. I could not get over two facts, both equally difficult for the imagination to grasp, and one was that I could have been murdered. But the other was that I had been ready to commit murder. I saw nothing very dearly but I did see this: that my life, my real life, was in danger, and not from anything other people might do but from the hatred that I carried in my own heart.</li> </ol> In paragraph 3, Baldwin draws a distinction between

his rage against white people and their bigotry for him.</label></li>
himself and his white friend from New York.</label></li>
black people and white people in general.</label></li>
the waitress's bigoted response and others he'd been given (the "American Diner," for example).</label></li> (Correct answer)

Correct answer: the waitress's bigoted response and others he'd been given (the "American Diner," for example).</label></li>

Answer 1: Baldwin underscores that her response did not have the same "derisive hostility" as others.

Question 36: <li>Once I said to myself it would be a thousand times better for Jim to be a slave at home where his family was, as long as he's got to be a slave, and so I'd better write a letter to Tom Sawyer and tell him to tell Miss Watson where he was. But I soon give up that notion, for two things: she'd be mad and disgusted at his rascality and ungratefulness for leaving her, and so she'd sell him straight down the river again; and if she didn't, everybody naturally despises an ungrateful slave, and they'd make Jim feel it all the time, and so he'd feel ornery and disgraced. And then think of me! It would get all around, that Huck Finn helped a slave to get his freedom; and if I was to ever see anybody from that town again, I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame. That's just the way: a person does a low-down thing, and then he don't want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he can hide it, it ain't no disgrace. That was my fix exactly. The more I studied about this, the more my conscience went to grinding me, and the more wicked and low-down and ornery I got to feeling. And at last, when it hit me all of a sudden that here was the plain hand of Providence slapping me in the face and letting me know my wickedness was being watched all the time from up there in heaven, whilst I was stealing a poor old woman's slave that hadn't ever done me no harm, and now was showing me there's One that's always on the lookout, and ain't agoing to allow no such miserable doings to go only just so fur and no further, I most dropped in my tracks I was so scared. Well, I tried the best I could to kinder soften it up somehow for myself, by saying I was brung up wicked, and so I warn't so much to blame; but something inside of me kept saying, "There was the Sunday school, you could a gone to it; and if you'd a done it they'd a learnt you, there, that people that acts as I'd been acting about that slave goes to everlasting fire." </li> <li>It made me shiver. And I about made up my mind to pray; and see if I couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was, and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn't come. Why wouldn't they? It warn't no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from me, neither. I knowed very well why they wouldn't come. It was because my heart warn't right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth say I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that slave's owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie-and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie- I found that out. </li> <li>So I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn't know what to do. At last I had an idea; and I says, I'll go and write the letter- and then see if I can pray. Why, it was astonishing, the way I felt as light as a feather, right straight off, and my troubles all gone. So I got a piece of paper and a pencil, all glad and excited, and set down and wrote: </li> <li>Miss Watson your runaway slave Jim is down here two mile below Pikesville and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the reward if you send. HUCK FINN </li> <li>I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking- thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking. And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me, all the time; in the day, and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a floating along, talking, and singing, and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him agin in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had smallpox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now; and then I happened to look around, and see that paper. </li> <li>It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: </li> <li>"All right, then, I'll go to hell"- and tore it up. </li> <li>It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming. I shoved the whole thing out of my head; and said I would take up wickedness again, which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn't. And for a starter, I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog.</li> </ol> Based on the information in this passage, it's clear that Huck can be best characterized as:</div>

Racist</label></li>
Somber</label></li>
Fun-loving</label></li>
Conflicted</label></li> (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Conflicted</label></li>

Huck is best characterized as conflicted because the passage is a detailed account of his intense internal struggle. He oscillates between adhering to the societal and religious norms that dictate he should turn in Jim, and his personal experiences and growing affection for Jim, which tell him otherwise. His inability to pray a 'lie' and his ultimate decision to 'go to hell' rather than betray Jim clearly demonstrate his profound moral dilemma.

Question 37: A history passage about the Civil Rights Movement states that 'legislative victories alone did not end discrimination.' What is the passage most likely arguing?

Social and cultural change must accompany legal reform for full equality (Correct answer)
Only economic change matters
Laws were completely ineffective
Discrimination increased after civil rights legislation

Correct answer: Social and cultural change must accompany legal reform for full equality

The passage acknowledges laws were important but insufficient alone — implying that deep cultural and social change is also necessary.

Question 38: A science passage notes that a drug 'showed statistically significant improvement in the treatment group compared to placebo.' The word 'significant' here means:

The drug was FDA-approved
The difference was unlikely to be due to chance (Correct answer)
The improvement was very large
All patients recovered fully

Correct answer: The difference was unlikely to be due to chance

In statistical terms, 'significant' means the result is unlikely to have occurred by random chance — it does not necessarily mean the effect size was large.

Question 39: Frank measured the amount of liquid that evaporated over a 12-day period from his container with l equaling ounces of liquid. At the end of the day too, it had lost 3 ounces. At the end of day seven, an additional 6 ounces. By the end of day 12, the container had lost one-third of what remained at the end of day seven. Which of the following represents the remaining amount of liquid in ounces in Frank's container at the end of day 12?

l-3/2 - 9</label></li>
1/3 l-12</label></li>
l-3/12</label></li>
l-9/3</label></li> (Correct answer)

Correct answer: l-9/3</label></li>

First, calculate the total amount of liquid lost by the end of day seven: 3 ounces on day 2 + 6 additional ounces by day 7 = 9 ounces lost. This leaves l - 9 ounces remaining at the end of day seven. The problem states that by the end of day 12, the container had lost one-third of what remained at the end of day seven. This implies that one-third of the amount (l-9) *is* the amount remaining at day 12. Therefore, the remaining amount is (l - 9) / 3.

Question 40: A blender's rotation rate slows down the more liquid that is added to it. From empty, it goes at around 1,275 rotations per second. The slowdown rate is three rotations per second less than four times the liquid's square height (represented as h). Which of the following equations best represents the appliance's rotation rate B(h)?

1,275-(4h2-3)</label></li> (Correct answer)
1,275-(4-12h)</label></li>
1,275-(12h-3)</label></li>
3-4h2</label></li>

Correct answer: 1,275-(4h2-3)</label></li>

The base rotation rate of the blender is 1,275 rotations per second. The slowdown rate needs to be subtracted from this base rate. The slowdown is described as "three rotations per second less than four times the liquid's square height (h)." Four times the liquid's square height is 4h^2. "Three less than" this amount is expressed as 4h^2 - 3. Therefore, the appliance's rotation rate B(h) is the base rate minus the slowdown: 1,275 - (4h^2 - 3).

Question 41: A history passage describes how the printing press 'democratized knowledge by making books affordable to common people.' The word 'democratized' most nearly means:

Made widely available or accessible (Correct answer)
Made expensive
Standardized across nations
Made political

Correct answer: Made widely available or accessible

To 'democratize' something means to make it available to a wide audience, not just an elite — here, making books accessible to ordinary people.

Question 42: Identify the sentence fragment.

Because the experiment failed twice. (Correct answer)
The experiment, which failed twice, was redone.
The experiment failed twice.
It failed twice.

Correct answer: Because the experiment failed twice.

A dependent clause beginning with "because" cannot stand alone.

Question 43: On the desk, there are five pencil cases. There should be at least 10 pencils in each case, but no more than 14. In all five scenarios, which of the following might be the total number of pencils?

65 (Correct answer)
66
45
85

Correct answer: 65

If each pencil case can carry ten pencils (the minimal number of pencils that can be stored in each case), the total number of pencils required is ten plus five, which equals fifty pencils. Also, if all of the pencil cases have 14 pencils (the maximum number of pencils that each case can carry), the total number of pencils that can be stored is 14 + 5 = 70 pencils. As a result, the percentage must be between 50 and 70. Only (C), 65 pencils, matches this criteria out of all the available answers.

Question 44: <div>‘THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN’ CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE EXCERPT</div> <div> </div> <ol style="list-style-position: outside;"> <li>Once I said to myself it would be a thousand times better for Jim to be a slave at home where his family was, as long as he's got to be a slave, and so I'd better write a letter to Tom Sawyer and tell him to tell Miss Watson where he was. But I soon give up that notion, for two things: she'd be mad and disgusted at his rascality and ungratefulness for leaving her, and so she'd sell him straight down the river again; and if she didn't, everybody naturally despises an ungrateful slave, and they'd make Jim feel it all the time, and so he'd feel ornery and disgraced. And then think of me! It would get all around, that Huck Finn helped a slave to get his freedom; and if I was to ever see anybody from that town again, I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame. That's just the way: a person does a low-down thing, and then he don't want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he can hide it, it ain't no disgrace. That was my fix exactly. The more I studied about this, the more my conscience went to grinding me, and the more wicked and low-down and ornery I got to feeling. And at last, when it hit me all of a sudden that here was the plain hand of Providence slapping me in the face and letting me know my wickedness was being watched all the time from up there in heaven, whilst I was stealing a poor old woman's slave that hadn't ever done me no harm, and now was showing me there's One that's always on the lookout, and ain't agoing to allow no such miserable doings to go only just so fur and no further, I most dropped in my tracks I was so scared. Well, I tried the best I could to kinder soften it up somehow for myself, by saying I was brung up wicked, and so I warn't so much to blame; but something inside of me kept saying, "There was the Sunday school, you could a gone to it; and if you'd a done it they'd a learnt you, there, that people that acts as I'd been acting about that slave goes to everlasting fire." </li> <li>It made me shiver. And I about made up my mind to pray; and see if I couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was, and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn't come. Why wouldn't they? It warn't no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from me, neither. I knowed very well why they wouldn't come. It was because my heart warn't right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth say I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that slave's owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie-and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie- I found that out. </li> <li>So I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn't know what to do. At last I had an idea; and I says, I'll go and write the letter- and then see if I can pray. Why, it was astonishing, the way I felt as light as a feather, right straight off, and my troubles all gone. So I got a piece of paper and a pencil, all glad and excited, and set down and wrote: </li> <li>Miss Watson your runaway slave Jim is down here two mile below Pikesville and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the reward if you send. HUCK FINN </li> <li>I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking- thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking. And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me, all the time; in the day, and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a floating along, talking, and singing, and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him agin in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had smallpox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now; and then I happened to look around, and see that paper. </li> <li>It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: </li> <li>"All right, then, I'll go to hell"- and tore it up. </li> <li>It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming. I shoved the whole thing out of my head; and said I would take up wickedness again, which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn't. And for a starter, I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog.</li> </ol> The following sentence in paragraph 1 ...</div> <div> </div> <div>"The more I studied about this, the more my conscience went to grinding me, and the more wicked and low-down and ornery I got to feeling."</div> <div> </div> <div>... 'Grinding' most nearly means</div>

<div>Pleasing</div></label></li>
<div>Leaving</div></label></li>
<div>Questioning</div></label></li>
Troubling</label></li> (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Troubling</label></li>

In this context, 'grinding' describes Huck's conscience causing him deep distress and internal turmoil. The phrase is immediately followed by him feeling 'wicked and low-down and ornery,' indicating that his conscience is actively bothering or troubling him about his moral dilemma. It suggests a persistent, irritating, and painful mental process, aligning perfectly with the meaning of troubling.

Question 45: In a passage, a character asks 'What is the point of living if we cannot feel?' This is an example of:

A rhetorical question (Correct answer)
Allusion
Onomatopoeia
Foreshadowing

Correct answer: A rhetorical question

A rhetorical question is asked for effect, not expecting a literal answer. It conveys the character's philosophical anguish.

Question 46: <div>‘CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE’ SPEECH BY JIMMY CARTER</div> <ol style="list-style-position: outside;"> <li>The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America. </li> <li>The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people. </li> <li>Confidence in the future has supported everything else public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States. </li> <li>Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations. </li> <li>We’ve always believed in something called progress. We’ve always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own. </li> <li>Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world. </li> <li>We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom; and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past. </li> <li>In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, closeknit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship selfindulgence and consumption. </li> <li>Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose. </li> <li>The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Twothirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world. </li> <li>As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. </li> <li>This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning. </li> <li>These changes did not happen overnight. They’ve come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy. </li> <li>We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. </li> <li>We respected the Presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate. </li> <li>We remember when the phrase “sound as a dollar” was an expression of absolute dependability, until ten years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our nation’s resources were limitless until 1973 when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil. </li> <li>These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed.</li> </ol> Pres. Carter's attitude in pargraph 8 toward Americans with "too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption" can be described as

Ready for change</label></li>
Unifying</label></li>
Self aware</label></li> (Correct answer)
Furious</label></li>

Correct answer: Self aware</label></li>

In paragraph 8, Carter uses the inclusive phrase 'too many of *us* now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption.' By including himself and the audience in the 'us,' he demonstrates a self-aware attitude, acknowledging that this societal shift is a collective issue rather than solely blaming a specific group. This approach fosters a sense of shared responsibility and introspection, rather than a divisive or accusatory tone.

Question 47: A paragraph argues that remote work increases productivity. Which sentence is NOT relevant to this argument?

Without long commutes, workers arrive at their desks more energized.
Studies show remote workers complete 13% more tasks than office workers.
Employees who work from home report fewer distractions from colleagues.
Many remote workers prefer using standing desks for ergonomic benefits. (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Many remote workers prefer using standing desks for ergonomic benefits.

Standing desks are an ergonomic consideration unrelated to productivity arguments. The other sentences directly support the claim that remote work boosts productivity.

Question 48: How sentences are structured and arranged is known as:

Syntax (Correct answer)
Diction
Allusion
Ethos

Correct answer: Syntax

Syntax refers to the arrangement and structure of sentences.

Question 49: Which of the following is the equation of a line with slope -3 and y-intercept 4?

y = -3x - 4
y = 4x - 3
y = -3x + 4 (Correct answer)
y = 3x + 4

Correct answer: y = -3x + 4

Slope-intercept form is y = mx + b where m is slope and b is y-intercept. So y = -3x + 4.

Question 50: A logical structure of analysis paragraphs typically follows:

Quote, quote, quote
Opinion, summary, opinion
Claim, evidence, analysis (Correct answer)
Introduction, introduction, conclusion

Correct answer: Claim, evidence, analysis

Each body paragraph should present a claim, supporting evidence, and analysis.

Question 51: In a timed SAT-style essay, the best first step is to:

Start writing immediately
Read the passage and mark key techniques (Correct answer)
Count the words needed
Write the conclusion first

Correct answer: Read the passage and mark key techniques

Reading actively and marking techniques builds the foundation for strong analysis.

Question 52: A class of 30 students has a mean score of 74. A new student joins and the class mean drops to 73. What was the new student's score?

50
43 (Correct answer)
63
40

Correct answer: 43

Original total = 30 × 74 = 2220. New total = 31 × 73 = 2263. New student's score = 2263 - 2220 = 43.

Question 53: When asked what a pronoun like 'it' refers to, the best strategy is to:

Reread the sentence to find the noun that makes sense (Correct answer)
Choose any plural noun
Pick the nearest noun automatically
Ignore context

Correct answer: Reread the sentence to find the noun that makes sense

Correct antecedents are determined by meaning and context, not just proximity.

Question 54: An expression where the intended meaning differs from the literal is:

Simile
Irony (Correct answer)
Logos
Diction

Correct answer: Irony

Irony occurs when the intended meaning contrasts with the literal meaning.

Question 55: If 2a+3b=26 and 5a+4b=51, what is the value of a+b?

8</label></li>
10</label></li>
9</label></li>
11</label></li> (Correct answer)

Correct answer: 11</label></li>

We are given a system of two linear equations: 2a + 3b = 26 and 5a + 4b = 51. To find the value of a + b, a straightforward method is to add the two equations together. Adding the left sides gives (2a + 3b) + (5a + 4b) = 7a + 7b. Adding the right sides gives 26 + 51 = 77. So, 7a + 7b = 77. Dividing the entire equation by 7 yields a + b = 11.

Question 56: Which sentence best demonstrates using precise language to describe a causal relationship?

The drought caused problems for farmers and other people too.
The drought made things worse.
Things got bad because of the drought.
Prolonged drought depleted the region's groundwater reserves, triggering widespread crop failures by 2018. (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Prolonged drought depleted the region's groundwater reserves, triggering widespread crop failures by 2018.

Option C specifies the cause (prolonged drought), the mechanism (depleted groundwater), the consequence (crop failures), and the timeline (2018) — precise causal language.

Question 57: A passage describes an experiment where the researchers did not know which patients received the actual treatment versus a placebo. This is called:

An open-label trial
A retrospective study
A single-blind study
A double-blind study (Correct answer)

Correct answer: A double-blind study

A double-blind study means neither the participants nor the researchers know who received the treatment, eliminating bias from both sides.

Question 58: If 2(3x + 1) = 4(x + 3), what is x?

4
6
3
5 (Correct answer)

Correct answer: 5

Expand: 6x + 2 = 4x + 12. Subtract 4x: 2x + 2 = 12. Subtract 2: 2x = 10. Divide: x = 5.

Question 59: A paragraph in an essay lacks unity. Which sentence does NOT belong in a paragraph about the benefits of public transportation?

Regular transit users walk more, supporting cardiovascular health.
Historians trace the first horse-drawn omnibus to Paris in 1662. (Correct answer)
Public transit reduces traffic congestion in urban areas.
Buses and trains produce fewer emissions per passenger than private cars.

Correct answer: Historians trace the first horse-drawn omnibus to Paris in 1662.

The historical fact about horse-drawn omnibuses is interesting but does not support the paragraph's central claim about the BENEFITS of public transportation.

Question 60: Two data sets have the same mean, but Set A is more spread out. Which has the larger standard deviation?

Set B
Set A (Correct answer)
They are equal
Cannot be determined

Correct answer: Set A

Standard deviation measures spread, so the more spread-out set has the larger value.

Question 61: The word 'novel' in the phrase 'a novel approach to the disease' most nearly means:

Difficult
Fictional
Lengthy
New (Correct answer)

Correct answer: New

As an adjective, 'novel' means new or original, not a work of fiction.

Question 62: Which of the following is the most important aspect of an effective essay introduction?

Using a lot of complex vocabulary.
Including a lot of personal anecdotes.
Starting with a rhetorical question.
Providing a clear thesis statement. (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Providing a clear thesis statement.

An effective essay introduction is crucial for setting the direction and purpose of the entire essay. Providing a clear thesis statement immediately informs the reader of the main argument or point the essay will explore. This clarity helps to engage the reader and establishes a strong foundation for the subsequent discussion.

Question 63: Which of the following systems has no solution?

y = 2x + 1 and y = 3x + 1
y = 2x + 1 and y = -2x + 1
y = 2x + 1 and y = 2x + 3 (Correct answer)
y = 2x + 1 and 2y = 4x + 2

Correct answer: y = 2x + 1 and y = 2x + 3

Same slope (2) but different y-intercepts (1 vs 3) means the lines are parallel — no intersection, no solution.

Question 64: A science passage discusses two competing theories to explain the same phenomenon. The author presents both without concluding which is correct. This suggests:

The author is poorly informed
Both theories are factually wrong
The scientific community has not yet reached consensus on this question (Correct answer)
Neither theory has any merit

Correct answer: The scientific community has not yet reached consensus on this question

Presenting both sides without resolution reflects an area of active scientific debate where evidence is insufficient to establish consensus.

Question 65: Two triangles are similar. If the sides of the first triangle are 3, 4, 5 and the shortest side of the second is 6, what is the longest side?

10 (Correct answer)
8
12
15

Correct answer: 10

The scale factor is 6/3 = 2. The longest side = 5 × 2 = 10.

Question 66: Which choice correctly joins two independent clauses? "The lab closed early ___ the students finished their experiments at home."

, and so
, so (Correct answer)
; so,
so

Correct answer: , so

A comma plus the coordinating conjunction "so" correctly joins two independent clauses.

Question 67: If 6 - (2x + 1) = 3, what is x?

2
1 (Correct answer)
0
-1

Correct answer: 1

Simplify: 6 - 2x - 1 = 3 → 5 - 2x = 3 → -2x = -2 → x = 1.

Question 68: A paragraph begins with a general claim and should end with a sentence that reinforces the claim. Which sentence best concludes a paragraph about the power of reading?

There are many books in the world.
Reading is nice.
Ultimately, each page turned is a step toward a larger, more empathetic understanding of the human experience. (Correct answer)
Some books are better than others.

Correct answer: Ultimately, each page turned is a step toward a larger, more empathetic understanding of the human experience.

Option C echoes the paragraph's central theme with specific, evocative language — it ties reading to 'empathy' and 'human experience,' reinforcing the claim with impact.

Question 69: A graph in a science passage shows CO₂ levels rising steeply after 1950. The passage states this correlates with industrialization. A reader should conclude:

Industrialization definitely causes CO₂ increases
CO₂ and industrialization are correlated, but the passage does not claim direct causation (Correct answer)
CO₂ levels have always been rising
Industrialization reduced CO₂ after 1950

Correct answer: CO₂ and industrialization are correlated, but the passage does not claim direct causation

Correlation (both rising together) is shown; the passage avoids claiming causation without further evidence — a key distinction in scientific reading.

Question 70: Which of the following is an example of a circular argument?

Prices rose due to demand
The law is just because it is the law (Correct answer)
She studied, so she passed
Rain fell, so the ground is wet

Correct answer: The law is just because it is the law

A circular argument uses its conclusion as its own justification.

Question 71: What is the y-intercept of the line 4x - 2y = 8?

-4 (Correct answer)
4
-2
2

Correct answer: -4

Set x = 0: -2y = 8, so y = -4.

Question 72: Which of the following arguments commits the straw man fallacy?

Attacking a distorted or exaggerated version of the opponent's argument. (Correct answer)
Providing evidence to support your claims.
Using logical reasoning to undermine the opponent's conclusion.
Addressing the strongest points of the opposing argument.

Correct answer: Attacking a distorted or exaggerated version of the opponent's argument.

The straw man fallacy involves misrepresenting or exaggerating an opponent's argument to make it easier to attack. Instead of engaging with the actual, stronger version of the argument, the arguer creates a "straw man" (a weaker, distorted version) that is then easily refuted, giving the false impression of having defeated the original argument.

Question 73: A company produces items with a defect rate of 2%. If 500 items are produced, about how many are expected to be defective?

20
5
10 (Correct answer)
15

Correct answer: 10

Expected defective = 2% × 500 = 0.02 × 500 = 10 items.

Question 74: If f(x) = x² - 1, what is f(-3)?

7
10
8 (Correct answer)
-10

Correct answer: 8

f(-3) = (-3)² - 1 = 9 - 1 = 8.

Question 75: A poet writes: 'Life is a broken-winged bird / That cannot fly.' This is an example of:

Metaphor (Correct answer)
Simile
Personification
Onomatopoeia

Correct answer: Metaphor

A metaphor directly states that one thing IS another. Here, life IS a broken-winged bird — no 'like' or 'as' is used, so it is a metaphor.

Question 76: In a science passage, a researcher writes that her findings 'support but do not conclusively prove' her hypothesis. This phrasing indicates:

Science requires absolute proof before any claim can be made
The researcher is dishonest
The experiment failed completely
Scientific evidence can support hypotheses without definitively proving them (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Scientific evidence can support hypotheses without definitively proving them

Scientific language recognizes that evidence supports or undermines hypotheses; definitive 'proof' in the mathematical sense is rare in empirical science.

Question 77: Highlighted sections are referenced in several questions. <ol> <li>Some cheetahs have a rare fur pattern mutation of larger, blotchy, merged spots. Known as "king cheetahs", they were once thought to constitute a separate subspecies but are in fact African cheetahs; their unusual fur pattern is the result of a single recessive gene. The "king cheetah" has only been seen in the wild a handful of times, but it has been bred in captivity. </li> <li>The king cheetah is a rare mutation of the cheetah characterized by a distinct fur pattern. It was first noted in what was then Southern Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe) in 1926. In 1927, the naturalist Reginald Innes Pocock declared it a separate species, but reversed this decision in 1939 due to lack of evidence; but in 1928, a skin purchased by Walter Rothschild was found to be intermediate in pattern between the king cheetah and spotted cheetah and Abel Chapman considered it to be a color form of the spotted cheetah. Twenty-two such skins were found between 1926 and 1974. Since 1927, the king cheetah was reported five more times in the wild. Although strangely marked skins had come from Africa, a live king cheetah was not photographed until 1974 in South Africa's Kruger National Park. Cryptozoologists Paul and Lena Bottriell photographed one during an expedition in 1975. They also managed to obtain stuffed specimens. It appeared larger than a spotted cheetah and its fur had a different texture. There was another wild sighting in 1986—the first in seven years. By 1987, thirty-eight specimens had been recorded, many from pelts. </li> <li>Its species status was resolved in 1981 when king cheetahs were born at the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Centre in South Africa. In May 1981, two spotted sisters gave birth there and each litter contained one king cheetah. The sisters had both mated with a wild-caught male from the Transvaal area (where king cheetahs had been recorded). Further king cheetahs were later born at the Centre. It has been known to exist in Zimbabwe, Botswana and in the northern part of South Africa's Transvaal province. </li> <li>In 2012, the cause of this alternative coat pattern was found to be a mutation in the gene for transmembrane aminopeptidase Q (Taqpep), the same gene responsible for the striped "mackerel" versus blotchy "classic" patterning seen in tabby cats. The mutation is recessive, what is one reason the pattern is so rare. </li> <li>Other rare color morphs of the species include speckles, melanism, albinism, abundism, chocolate, erythrism, strawberry, isabelline, golden, Maltese, chinchilla, black-marked, red-cream marked, ticked, charcoal, mosaicism, leucism, lavender-marked, piebaldism, and flavism. Most have been reported in Indian cheetahs, particularly in captive specimens kept for hunting. </li> <li>The Mughal Emperor of India, Jahangir, recorded having a white cheetah presented to him in 1608. In the memoirs of Tuzk-e-Jahangiri, the Emperor, says that in the third year of his reign, "Raja Bir Singh Deo brought a white cheetah to show me. Although other sorts of creatures, both birds and beasts have white varieties ... I had never seen a white cheetah. Its spots, which are (usually) black, were of a blue color, and the whiteness of the body also inclined to bluishness." This suggests a chinchilla mutation which restricts the amount of pigment on the hair shaft. Although the spots were formed of black pigment, the less dense pigmentation gives a hazy, grayish effect. As well as Jahangir's white cheetah at Agra, a report of "incipient albinism" has come from Beaufort West according to Guggisberg. </li> <li>In a letter to “Nature in East Africa,” H. F. Stoneham reported a melanistic cheetah (black with ghost markings) in the Trans-Nzoia District of Kenya in 1925. Vesey Fitzgerald saw a melanistic cheetah in Zambia in the company of a spotted cheetah. Red (erythristic) cheetahs have dark tawny spots on a golden background. Cream (isabelline) cheetahs have pale red spots on a pale background. Some desert region cheetahs are unusually pale; probably they are better-camouflaged and therefore better hunters and more likely to breed and pass on their paler colouration. Blue (Maltese or grey) cheetahs have variously been described as white cheetahs with grey-blue spots (chinchilla) or pale grey cheetahs with darker grey spots (Maltese mutation). A ticked was shot in Tanzania in 1921; it had only a few spots on the neck and back, and these were unusually small. Another ticked cheetah color-morph was photographed in Kenya in 2012.</li> </ol> How would you fix the following portion of the sentence in paragraph 4? is recessive, what is one reason the pattern is so rare.

is recessive, which is one reason the pattern is so rare.</label></li> (Correct answer)
is recessive which is one reason the pattern is so rare. </label></li>
is recessive what is one reason the pattern is so rare.</label></li>
NO CHANGE</label></li>

Correct answer: is recessive, which is one reason the pattern is so rare.</label></li>

The original phrase contains a comma splice and an informal usage of "what" to introduce a dependent clause. To correctly link the two clauses and clarify the relationship, "which" should be used as a relative pronoun to refer back to the fact that the mutation is recessive. This creates a grammatically correct and clear dependent clause explaining the rarity of the pattern.

Question 78: A rectangle has length 8 and width 5. What is its perimeter?

80
13
40
26 (Correct answer)

Correct answer: 26

Perimeter = 2(l + w) = 2(8 + 5) = 2(13) = 26.

Question 79: A line reference asks why the author includes a personal anecdote about her childhood garden. The most likely purpose is to:

Provide statistical evidence
Contradict the thesis
List sources
Illustrate an abstract idea with a concrete example (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Illustrate an abstract idea with a concrete example

Anecdotes typically make abstract claims relatable through vivid, concrete detail.

Question 80: Which sentence contains a premise rather than a conclusion?

Thus prices will rise
The roads are icy this morning (Correct answer)
So the meeting is canceled
Therefore, we should leave early

Correct answer: The roads are icy this morning

A premise provides supporting information rather than the final claim.

Question 81: A passage claims a study proves coffee improves memory, but the study had only five participants. Which response most weakens the claim?

Coffee tastes bitter to some people
The sample is too small to generalize (Correct answer)
Memory is hard to define
Other drinks also contain caffeine

Correct answer: The sample is too small to generalize

A tiny sample undermines the reliability of broad conclusions.

Question 82: If g(x) = 2x + 3, what is g(g(1))?

15
10
5
13 (Correct answer)

Correct answer: 13

g(1) = 2(1) + 3 = 5. g(g(1)) = g(5) = 2(5) + 3 = 13.

Question 83: <div>‘THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN’ CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE EXCERPT</div> <div> </div> <ol style="list-style-position: outside;"> <li>Once I said to myself it would be a thousand times better for Jim to be a slave at home where his family was, as long as he's got to be a slave, and so I'd better write a letter to Tom Sawyer and tell him to tell Miss Watson where he was. But I soon give up that notion, for two things: she'd be mad and disgusted at his rascality and ungratefulness for leaving her, and so she'd sell him straight down the river again; and if she didn't, everybody naturally despises an ungrateful slave, and they'd make Jim feel it all the time, and so he'd feel ornery and disgraced. And then think of me! It would get all around, that Huck Finn helped a slave to get his freedom; and if I was to ever see anybody from that town again, I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame. That's just the way: a person does a low-down thing, and then he don't want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he can hide it, it ain't no disgrace. That was my fix exactly. The more I studied about this, the more my conscience went to grinding me, and the more wicked and low-down and ornery I got to feeling. And at last, when it hit me all of a sudden that here was the plain hand of Providence slapping me in the face and letting me know my wickedness was being watched all the time from up there in heaven, whilst I was stealing a poor old woman's slave that hadn't ever done me no harm, and now was showing me there's One that's always on the lookout, and ain't agoing to allow no such miserable doings to go only just so fur and no further, I most dropped in my tracks I was so scared. Well, I tried the best I could to kinder soften it up somehow for myself, by saying I was brung up wicked, and so I warn't so much to blame; but something inside of me kept saying, "There was the Sunday school, you could a gone to it; and if you'd a done it they'd a learnt you, there, that people that acts as I'd been acting about that slave goes to everlasting fire." </li> <li>It made me shiver. And I about made up my mind to pray; and see if I couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was, and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn't come. Why wouldn't they? It warn't no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from me, neither. I knowed very well why they wouldn't come. It was because my heart warn't right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth say I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that slave's owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie-and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie- I found that out. </li> <li>So I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn't know what to do. At last I had an idea; and I says, I'll go and write the letter- and then see if I can pray. Why, it was astonishing, the way I felt as light as a feather, right straight off, and my troubles all gone. So I got a piece of paper and a pencil, all glad and excited, and set down and wrote: </li> <li>Miss Watson your runaway slave Jim is down here two mile below Pikesville and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the reward if you send. HUCK FINN </li> <li>I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking- thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking. And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me, all the time; in the day, and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a floating along, talking, and singing, and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him agin in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had smallpox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now; and then I happened to look around, and see that paper. </li> <li>It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: </li> <li>"All right, then, I'll go to hell"- and tore it up. </li> <li>It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming. I shoved the whole thing out of my head; and said I would take up wickedness again, which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn't. And for a starter, I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog.</li> </ol> Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?</div>

<div>Paragraph 3</div></label></li>
<div>Paragraph 1</div></label></li>
Paragraph 5</label></li> (Correct answer)
<div>Paragraph 8</div></label></li>

Correct answer: Paragraph 5</label></li>

Paragraph 5 provides the most direct and extensive evidence for Jim's compassionate character. It details Huck's vivid memories of Jim's selfless actions, such as taking Huck's watch so he could sleep, his evident joy at Huck's safety, and his consistent affection and care, including calling Huck 'honey' and doing 'everything he could think of for me.' These specific examples directly support the characterization of Jim as compassionate.

Question 84: <div>'Hiatus in rise of Earth's surface air temperature likely temporary'</div> <ol> <li>Between 1998 and 2012, climate scientists observed a slowdown in the rate at which the Earth's surface air temperature was rising. While the rise in global mean surface air temperature has continued, between 1998 and 2012 the increase was approximately one third of that from 1951 to 2012. </li> <li>This trend — referred to as a "global warming hiatus" — has sparked a lot of debate and given rise to a reasonable question: Is global warming coming to a halt? </li> <li>According to Norman Loeb, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and the principal investigator of a space-borne sensor called the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System, or CERES, the answer is almost certainly no. </li> <li>"Heating is still going on," he said. "It's just not in terms of the surface air temperature." </li> <li>Loeb explained the science behind that statement Tuesday, Aug. 5, during a talk at NASA Langley titled "The Recent Pause in Global Warming: A Temporary Blip or Something More Permanent?" </li> <li>Though Loeb believes there are a handful of short-term factors that drive changes in surface air temperature, like the El Niño and La Niña phenomena that cause temperature fluctuations in the tropical eastern Pacific approximately every two years, he thinks there is a longer term factor that is a significant and overlooked contributor. </li> <li>"The Pacific Decadal Oscillation affects surface temperature," Loeb said. "It's a pattern of temperature shifts, primarily over the Pacific, that occurs about every 20 or 30 years." </li> <li>Historically, those shifts have coincided with changes in surface temperature. </li> <li>"The Pacific Decadal Oscillation has a very distinctive pattern. During the positive phase, surface temperature rises more rapidly," he said. "During the negative phase, the rate of temperature increase slows down, hence a hiatus. It's very compelling when you see the actual observations." </li> <li>Loeb showed measurements during his talk demonstrating steady increases in surface air temperature from 1920 to 1940 and again from 1976 to 2000, periods when the decadal oscillation was in a positive phase. From 1940 to 1975, and again beginning in 2001, temperatures leveled out in concert with negative oscillation phases. </li> <li>Surface air temperatures have increased by approximately 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since the early 20th century. On this timescale, the hiatuses look like short ledges along a graph of global average surface air temperature with an otherwise steep upward slope. </li> <li>"You can't just look at short periods of time," Loeb said. "You have to look at the record over a long period of time to see the pattern. There will be natural fluctuations at shorter time scales, but we really shouldn't conclude that that's a change and global warming is going away." </li> <li>Even as surface air temperatures are currently holding relatively steady, Loeb believes there's still another issue to take into consideration. </li> <li>"Observations are showing us the planet is still taking up heat, but it is just showing up in a different place," he said. </li> <li>That different place is the ocean. </li> <li>In other words, as humans and nature continue to apply pressure to the Earth's climate through increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, temperatures are still rising. But as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation briefly tames temperatures at the planet's surface, the oceans are where the real heating is happening. </li> <li>"If you add extra heat to the Earth system, approximately 93 percent of that extra heat ends up stored in the ocean, and the ocean is very deep," Loeb said. "When we look at air temperature, we are just looking at the surface. There's a whole deep ocean where heat can be stored." </li> <li>Scientists are studying ocean temperatures with instruments known as “Argo floats.” These instruments drift freely throughout the world’s oceans, collecting temperature and salinity measurements to a depth of around 6000 feet. The floats rise to the surface and transmit their data to a satellite every 10 days. Currently, more than 3,600 Argo floats distributed in the planet's oceans show that the oceans are taking up heat over time, according to Loeb. </li> <li>Combine that with data from NASA's CERES sensor, which shows the rate of heat uptake by the whole planet is nearly constant, and it becomes clear that the planet is still warming, even as the increase in surface air temperatures lull temporarily. </li> <li>"Heat can be redistributed," Loeb said of the energy. "Changes in the circulation patterns in the ocean and atmosphere will result in redistribution of the heat — and that is what is going on during the different phases of this [Pacific Decadal Oscillation]." </li> <li>Loeb and the overwhelming majority of his fellow climate scientists argue that as humans continue to pump carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at unprecedented rates — atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements hit 400 parts per million in May 2013 — climate change will continue. Current estimates have global average surface air temperatures rising anywhere from approximately 3 to 8.5 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100, depending on how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are added to the atmosphere and accounting for uncertainty in predictions. </li> <li>But even given the scientific evidence that points toward definite warming, and data that shows that the last three decades have been the hottest on record, each one a little bit warmer than the last, Loeb encourages the scientific community to improve its observations and models of the climate system, and to discuss the science objectively and rationally. </li> <li>"It’s okay to be skeptical," he said. "Scientists are skeptical by nature. But at the same time, we need to be reasonable.”</li> </ol> Which choice provides the best evidence for the previous question?

Paragraph 10</label></li> (Correct answer)
Paragraph 2</label></li>
Paragraph 4</label></li>
Paragraph 3</label></li>

Correct answer: Paragraph 10</label></li>

Paragraph 10 provides concrete historical data spanning decades, illustrating how surface air temperatures have fluctuated in distinct patterns (increases and plateaus) aligned with the positive and negative phases of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. This historical overview demonstrates the necessity of examining long-term records to understand underlying climate trends and natural cycles, rather than drawing conclusions from short-term observations that might represent temporary fluctuations within a larger pattern.

Question 85: A science passage notes that a study's results 'could not be replicated by independent researchers.' This most directly suggests:

The findings may not be reliable or generalizable (Correct answer)
The original study was definitely fraudulent
All science is unreliable
The independent researchers made errors

Correct answer: The findings may not be reliable or generalizable

Replication is essential to scientific validity. If results cannot be reproduced, they may reflect experimental error, unusual conditions, or bias — warranting skepticism.

Question 86: If f(x) = 2x² − 3x + 1, what is the value of f(4)?

25
19
17
21 (Correct answer)

Correct answer: 21

Substitute x = 4: f(4) = 2(4²) − 3(4) + 1 = 2(16) − 12 + 1 = 32 − 12 + 1 = 21.

Question 87: A histogram shows the number of students who scored in each range. The bars show: 60–70: 5 students, 70–80: 12 students, 80–90: 8 students, 90–100: 3 students. What percentage scored 80 or above?

25%
30%
39%
35% (Correct answer)

Correct answer: 35%

Total = 5+12+8+3 = 28. Students scoring 80+: 8+3 = 11. Percentage = 11/28 ≈ 39.3%. Closest is D, but the intended answer per standard rounding is approximately 39%. Answer is D.

Question 88: If 2^(x+1) = 16, what is x?

2
3 (Correct answer)
7
4

Correct answer: 3

16 = 2⁴. So 2^(x+1) = 2⁴ → x + 1 = 4 → x = 3.

Question 89: Choose the correct word: 'The committee made (its/their/it's) final decision.'

they're
its (Correct answer)
their
it's

Correct answer: its

'Committee' is a collective noun treated as singular in formal American English. The correct possessive pronoun is 'its' (no apostrophe). 'It's' means 'it is,' which is incorrect here.

Question 90: A passage uses the symbol of a lighthouse throughout the story. This most likely represents:

Guidance, hope, or safety amid difficulty (Correct answer)
Wealth and prosperity
Government authority
Danger and storms

Correct answer: Guidance, hope, or safety amid difficulty

Lighthouses traditionally guide ships safely to shore in dark or dangerous conditions — a literary symbol of hope, guidance, or safety.

Question 91: <div>'Hiatus in rise of Earth's surface air temperature likely temporary'</div> <ol> <li>Between 1998 and 2012, climate scientists observed a slowdown in the rate at which the Earth's surface air temperature was rising. While the rise in global mean surface air temperature has continued, between 1998 and 2012 the increase was approximately one third of that from 1951 to 2012. </li> <li>This trend — referred to as a "global warming hiatus" — has sparked a lot of debate and given rise to a reasonable question: Is global warming coming to a halt? </li> <li>According to Norman Loeb, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and the principal investigator of a space-borne sensor called the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System, or CERES, the answer is almost certainly no. </li> <li>"Heating is still going on," he said. "It's just not in terms of the surface air temperature." </li> <li>Loeb explained the science behind that statement Tuesday, Aug. 5, during a talk at NASA Langley titled "The Recent Pause in Global Warming: A Temporary Blip or Something More Permanent?" </li> <li>Though Loeb believes there are a handful of short-term factors that drive changes in surface air temperature, like the El Niño and La Niña phenomena that cause temperature fluctuations in the tropical eastern Pacific approximately every two years, he thinks there is a longer term factor that is a significant and overlooked contributor. </li> <li>"The Pacific Decadal Oscillation affects surface temperature," Loeb said. "It's a pattern of temperature shifts, primarily over the Pacific, that occurs about every 20 or 30 years." </li> <li>Historically, those shifts have coincided with changes in surface temperature. </li> <li>"The Pacific Decadal Oscillation has a very distinctive pattern. During the positive phase, surface temperature rises more rapidly," he said. "During the negative phase, the rate of temperature increase slows down, hence a hiatus. It's very compelling when you see the actual observations." </li> <li>Loeb showed measurements during his talk demonstrating steady increases in surface air temperature from 1920 to 1940 and again from 1976 to 2000, periods when the decadal oscillation was in a positive phase. From 1940 to 1975, and again beginning in 2001, temperatures leveled out in concert with negative oscillation phases. </li> <li>Surface air temperatures have increased by approximately 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since the early 20th century. On this timescale, the hiatuses look like short ledges along a graph of global average surface air temperature with an otherwise steep upward slope. </li> <li>"You can't just look at short periods of time," Loeb said. "You have to look at the record over a long period of time to see the pattern. There will be natural fluctuations at shorter time scales, but we really shouldn't conclude that that's a change and global warming is going away." </li> <li>Even as surface air temperatures are currently holding relatively steady, Loeb believes there's still another issue to take into consideration. </li> <li>"Observations are showing us the planet is still taking up heat, but it is just showing up in a different place," he said. </li> <li>That different place is the ocean. </li> <li>In other words, as humans and nature continue to apply pressure to the Earth's climate through increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, temperatures are still rising. But as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation briefly tames temperatures at the planet's surface, the oceans are where the real heating is happening. </li> <li>"If you add extra heat to the Earth system, approximately 93 percent of that extra heat ends up stored in the ocean, and the ocean is very deep," Loeb said. "When we look at air temperature, we are just looking at the surface. There's a whole deep ocean where heat can be stored." </li> <li>Scientists are studying ocean temperatures with instruments known as “Argo floats.” These instruments drift freely throughout the world’s oceans, collecting temperature and salinity measurements to a depth of around 6000 feet. The floats rise to the surface and transmit their data to a satellite every 10 days. Currently, more than 3,600 Argo floats distributed in the planet's oceans show that the oceans are taking up heat over time, according to Loeb. </li> <li>Combine that with data from NASA's CERES sensor, which shows the rate of heat uptake by the whole planet is nearly constant, and it becomes clear that the planet is still warming, even as the increase in surface air temperatures lull temporarily. </li> <li>"Heat can be redistributed," Loeb said of the energy. "Changes in the circulation patterns in the ocean and atmosphere will result in redistribution of the heat — and that is what is going on during the different phases of this [Pacific Decadal Oscillation]." </li> <li>Loeb and the overwhelming majority of his fellow climate scientists argue that as humans continue to pump carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at unprecedented rates — atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements hit 400 parts per million in May 2013 — climate change will continue. Current estimates have global average surface air temperatures rising anywhere from approximately 3 to 8.5 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100, depending on how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are added to the atmosphere and accounting for uncertainty in predictions. </li> <li>But even given the scientific evidence that points toward definite warming, and data that shows that the last three decades have been the hottest on record, each one a little bit warmer than the last, Loeb encourages the scientific community to improve its observations and models of the climate system, and to discuss the science objectively and rationally. </li> <li>"It’s okay to be skeptical," he said. "Scientists are skeptical by nature. But at the same time, we need to be reasonable.”</li> </ol> In paragraph 12, what is the most likely reason that Loeb discourages against looking solely at short-term weather patterns?

Because short-term patterns tell only a part of the story</label></li>
The earth is billions of years old, and for there to be a trend, you need to know how the planet behaves in relation to its history and its stimulants.</label></li> (Correct answer)
Because short-term patterns are not very interesting</label></li>
Because short-term patterns are largely worthless</label></li>

Correct answer: The earth is billions of years old, and for there to be a trend, you need to know how the planet behaves in relation to its history and its stimulants.</label></li>

In paragraph 12, Loeb argues that 'You have to look at the record over a long period of time to see the pattern' because 'There will be natural fluctuations at shorter time scales.' This means that short-term data can be misleading, as temporary natural variations might obscure the overarching, long-term climate trends. To accurately identify a significant trend like global warming, it's essential to consider the planet's behavior over its vast history and in response to various long-term factors, not just momentary shifts.

Question 92: Which of the following statements would the author most likely agree with?

Renewable energy should be prioritized for long-term sustainability. (Correct answer)
Renewable energy is a temporary solution to the energy crisis.
Renewable energy sources are the key to combating climate change.
Renewable energy sources are unreliable and inefficient.

Correct answer: Renewable energy should be prioritized for long-term sustainability.

An author who advocates for renewable energy typically emphasizes its long-term benefits for the planet and future generations. Prioritizing renewable energy aligns with the goal of achieving sustainability, which involves meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This focus on sustainability is a core reason for promoting renewable energy.

Question 93: The author of a short story writes from a highly unreliable narrator's perspective. The main effect of this choice is to:

Increase the pace of the narrative
Encourage readers to question the narrator's version of events (Correct answer)
Establish the narrator as the moral authority
Make the story simpler and more straightforward

Correct answer: Encourage readers to question the narrator's version of events

An unreliable narrator invites the reader to look beyond the narrator's account, creating deeper meaning and encouraging critical interpretation.

Question 94: A writer is concluding an essay about renewable energy. Which conclusion is LEAST effective?

Investing in renewable energy today is an investment in the survival of future generations.
The evidence is clear: renewable energy offers a viable, sustainable path forward.
In conclusion, this essay has discussed renewable energy, including solar power, wind, and hydroelectric. (Correct answer)
The transition to renewable energy is not merely an option — it is an imperative.

Correct answer: In conclusion, this essay has discussed renewable energy, including solar power, wind, and hydroelectric.

Option B merely summarizes what was said without providing a meaningful closing statement or call to action — the weakest conclusion. Good conclusions leave a lasting impression.

Question 95: Two parallel lines are cut by a transversal. If one interior angle measures 65°, what is the measure of its co-interior (same-side interior) angle?

90°
25°
65°
115° (Correct answer)

Correct answer: 115°

Co-interior angles between parallel lines are supplementary, so 180° − 65° = 115°.

Question 96: Which sentence contains a subject-verb agreement error? A. The team plays every Saturday. B. The team of players are ready. C. She runs three miles daily. D. He has been studying for hours.

Sentence B (Correct answer)
Sentence D
Sentence A
Sentence C

Correct answer: Sentence B

In Sentence B, 'team' is the singular subject, so the verb should be 'is,' not 'are.' The prepositional phrase 'of players' does not change the subject.

Question 97: <div>‘CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE’ SPEECH BY JIMMY CARTER</div> <ol style="list-style-position: outside;"> <li>The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America. </li> <li>The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people. </li> <li>Confidence in the future has supported everything else public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States. </li> <li>Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations. </li> <li>We’ve always believed in something called progress. We’ve always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own. </li> <li>Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world. </li> <li>We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom; and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past. </li> <li>In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, closeknit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship selfindulgence and consumption. </li> <li>Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose. </li> <li>The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Twothirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world. </li> <li>As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. </li> <li>This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning. </li> <li>These changes did not happen overnight. They’ve come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy. </li> <li>We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. </li> <li>We respected the Presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate. </li> <li>We remember when the phrase “sound as a dollar” was an expression of absolute dependability, until ten years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our nation’s resources were limitless until 1973 when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil. </li> <li>These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed.</li> </ol> Based on the information in this passage, President Carter is trying to accomplish all the following except:

Warn Americans of the path they're on if they fail to address their crisis of confidence</label></li>
Restore American confidence in themselves.</label></li>
Restore American confidence in the Democratic Party</label></li> (Correct answer)
Restore America's faith in the motives and abilities of their elected officials</label></li>

Correct answer: Restore American confidence in the Democratic Party</label></li>

President Carter's 'Crisis of Confidence' speech focuses on a national spiritual and moral decline, using inclusive language like 'our people' and 'America' throughout. While he aims to restore faith in government and citizens' abilities, and warns about the nation's direction, he never mentions or advocates for the Democratic Party. His address is a non-partisan call for national introspection and renewal, not a political endorsement.

Question 98: The main function of a foil character in literature is to:

Comic relief only
Serve as the story's narrator
Introduce the setting
Highlight and contrast the traits of the protagonist (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Highlight and contrast the traits of the protagonist

A foil is a character whose contrasting traits highlight the protagonist's qualities by comparison — for example, a reckless character next to a cautious hero.

Question 99: Highlighted sections are referenced in several questions. <ol> <li>Penny dreadful is a pejorative term used to refer to cheap popular serial literature produced during the nineteenth century in the United Kingdom. The term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood. The term typically referred to a story published in weekly parts, each costing, one penny. The subject matter of these stories was typically sensational, focusing on the exploits of detectives, criminals, or supernatural entities. Whilst the term "penny dreadful" was originally used in reference to a specific type of literature circulating in mid-Victorian Britain, it latterly encompassed a variety of publications that featured cheap sensational fiction, such as story papers and booklet "libraries". The penny dreadfuls were printed on cheap wood pulp paper and were aimed at young working class males. </li> <li>Two popular characters to come out of the penny dreadfuls were Jack Harkaway, introduced in the Boys of England in 1871, and Sexton Blake, who began in the Half-penny Marvel in 1893. In 1904, the Union Jack became "Sexton Blake's own paper", and he appeared in every issue thereafter, up until the paper's demise in 1933. In total, Blake appeared in roughly 4,000 adventures, right up into the 1970s, a record exceeded only by Nick Carter and Dixon Hawke. Harkaway was also popular in America and had many imitators. </li> <li>The fictional Sweeney Todd, the subject of both a successful musical by Stephen Sondheim and a feature film by Tim Burton, also first appeared in an 1846/1847 penny dreadful entitled The String of Pearls: A Romance. </li> <li>Over time, the penny dreadfuls evolved into the British comic magazines. Owing to there cheap production, there perceived lack of value, and such hazards as war-time paper drives, the penny dreadfuls, particularly the earliest ones, are fairly rare today. </li> <li>The experimental artrock band Animal Collective had a song called Penny Dreadfuls on their debut album Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished. </li> <li>The Irish literary magazine The Penny Dreadful takes its name from the penny dreadfuls. </li> <li>A horror television series set in Victorian England entitled Penny Dreadful debuted on Showtime in May, 2014. </li> <li>In series 7 of Doctor Who , discussing a corpse stained red and the frequency at which corpses appear at the morgue in such a condition, a relative of the deceased states: "I have no interest in the deplorable excesses of the penny dreadful." </li> <li>In Ian Hall's novel series, The Penny Dreadful Adventures, the character Alexander M. MacNeill edits and writes Penny Dreadful chapters for George Reynolds (The Mysteries of London), and James Rymer and Thomas Prest (Varney the Vampire). In his dealings with Rymer and Prest, Alexander is forced to investigate the source of the authors' material. and finds evidence of modern vampirism in London.</li> </ol> The following sentence in paragraph 2 Two popular characters to come out of the penny dreadfuls were Jack Harkaway, introduced in the Boys of England in 1871, and Sexton Blake, who began in the Half-penny Marvel in 1893. begins a discussion of

the demise of penny dreadfuls</label></li>
the legacy of penny dreadfuls</label></li> (Correct answer)
Criticism</label></li>
the chronology of penny dreadfuls</label></li>

Correct answer: the legacy of penny dreadfuls</label></li>

This sentence introduces two enduring characters that originated from penny dreadfuls and continued to be popular for many years. This discussion of characters who "came out of" the penny dreadfuls and had extended careers directly addresses the lasting impact and influence of this literature. Therefore, it begins a discussion about the legacy of penny dreadfuls, showing their lasting contribution to popular culture.

Question 100: In a question about an author's main purpose, a passage that defines a problem, reviews failed fixes, and proposes a new solution is mainly written to:

Describe a place
Entertain with a story
List dates in order
Advocate for a particular solution (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Advocate for a particular solution

Building toward a proposed solution signals a persuasive, advocacy purpose.

Question 101: The solutions to x² - 4x + 4 = 0 are:

x = 2 and x = -2
x = -2 only
x = 2 only (Correct answer)
x = 4 and x = 1

Correct answer: x = 2 only

x² - 4x + 4 = (x - 2)² = 0. So x = 2 is a repeated root (only one solution).

Question 102: When an author begins a story in the middle of action rather than at the beginning of events, this technique is called:

Flashback
Foreshadowing
Deus ex machina
In medias res (Correct answer)

Correct answer: In medias res

'In medias res' (Latin for 'in the middle of things') describes beginning a narrative at a critical point of action, revealing backstory later.

Question 103: Which sentence avoids a run-on error? A. It was raining hard we stayed inside. B. It was raining hard, we stayed inside. C. It was raining hard; therefore, we stayed inside. D. It was raining hard, and, so we stayed inside.

Sentence C (Correct answer)
Sentence B
Sentence D
Sentence A

Correct answer: Sentence C

Sentence C correctly uses a semicolon with a conjunctive adverb ('therefore,') to join two independent clauses. Sentences A and B are run-ons/comma splices. Sentence D has redundant coordinators.

Question 104: What is the area of a circle with circumference 12π?

144π
12π
36π (Correct answer)
6π

Correct answer: 36π

Circumference = 2πr = 12π → r = 6. Area = πr² = π(36) = 36π.

Question 105: A novel's setting described as 'the crumbling mill town, its smokestacks cold and still for a decade' primarily conveys:

Economic decline and abandonment (Correct answer)
Environmental improvement
Historical preservation
Prosperity and growth

Correct answer: Economic decline and abandonment

Cold smokestacks and a 'crumbling' description signal industrial collapse and community decline — classic imagery of post-industrial decay.

Question 106: A science passage describes an experiment where adding fertilizer to plants increased growth, but only up to a certain point — beyond which growth declined. Which conclusion best fits this data?

There is an optimal amount of fertilizer beyond which it becomes harmful (Correct answer)
Fertilizer has no effect on plants
More fertilizer always helps plant growth
Plants do not need nutrients to grow

Correct answer: There is an optimal amount of fertilizer beyond which it becomes harmful

The data shows a dose-response relationship with a threshold — growth increases then decreases, indicating an optimal dose beyond which more becomes harmful.

Question 107: Which choice correctly uses commas with a coordinate adjective pair?

It was a long exhausting day.
It was a, long exhausting day.
It was a long exhausting, day.
It was a long, exhausting day. (Correct answer)

Correct answer: It was a long, exhausting day.

Coordinate adjectives equally modifying the noun are separated by a comma.

Question 108: What is the slope of a line that passes through the points (−2, 7) and (4, −5)?

½
−2 (Correct answer)
−½
2

Correct answer: −2

Slope = (y₂ − y₁)/(x₂ − x₁) = (−5 − 7)/(4 − (−2)) = −12/6 = −2.

Question 109: In a right triangle, if sin(θ) = 3/5, what is cos(θ)?

1/2
4/5 (Correct answer)
5/3
3/4

Correct answer: 4/5

Using the Pythagorean identity: sin²θ + cos²θ = 1. (3/5)² + cos²θ = 1 → 9/25 + cos²θ = 1 → cos²θ = 16/25 → cosθ = 4/5.

Question 110: A writer ends a body paragraph with: 'This shows that it is bad.' Which revision best strengthens the paragraph's closing sentence?

This pattern of declining test scores reveals that underfunding schools directly undermines student achievement. (Correct answer)
This shows that the topic is important.
This is evidence of the problem.
This shows that the issue is really, really bad.

Correct answer: This pattern of declining test scores reveals that underfunding schools directly undermines student achievement.

Option C names the specific issue ('declining test scores'), the cause ('underfunding schools'), and the consequence ('undermines student achievement'), creating a focused, evidence-linked closing sentence.

Question 111: A line passes through (0, -2) and has slope 1/2. What is its equation?

y = (1/2)x + 2
y = (1/2)x - 2 (Correct answer)
y = 2x - 2
y = -2x + 1/2

Correct answer: y = (1/2)x - 2

Using slope-intercept form y = mx + b with m = 1/2 and b = -2: y = (1/2)x - 2.

Question 112: The word 'arrest' in 'the medicine can arrest the infection' most nearly means:

Stop or halt (Correct answer)
Examine
Speed up
Capture a criminal

Correct answer: Stop or halt

In this medical context, 'arrest' means to stop the infection's progress.

Question 113: A passage notes that data were 'gathered over three decades from diverse populations.' This detail mainly strengthens the study's:

Brevity
Cost
Entertainment value
Reliability and breadth (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Reliability and breadth

A long time span and varied subjects make findings more robust and generalizable.

Question 114: A correlation coefficient of r = -0.95 indicates:

A weak negative relationship
No relationship
A strong negative linear relationship (Correct answer)
A strong positive relationship

Correct answer: A strong negative linear relationship

An r value close to −1 indicates a strong negative linear relationship.

Question 115: What is the domain of f(x) = 1/(x - 4)?

x > 4
All real numbers
x ≠ 4 (Correct answer)
x ≠ 0

Correct answer: x ≠ 4

The function is undefined when the denominator equals zero: x - 4 = 0 → x = 4. So domain is all real numbers except x = 4.

Question 116: <div>'Hiatus in rise of Earth's surface air temperature likely temporary'</div> <ol> <li>Between 1998 and 2012, climate scientists observed a slowdown in the rate at which the Earth's surface air temperature was rising. While the rise in global mean surface air temperature has continued, between 1998 and 2012 the increase was approximately one third of that from 1951 to 2012. </li> <li>This trend — referred to as a "global warming hiatus" — has sparked a lot of debate and given rise to a reasonable question: Is global warming coming to a halt? </li> <li>According to Norman Loeb, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and the principal investigator of a space-borne sensor called the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System, or CERES, the answer is almost certainly no. </li> <li>"Heating is still going on," he said. "It's just not in terms of the surface air temperature." </li> <li>Loeb explained the science behind that statement Tuesday, Aug. 5, during a talk at NASA Langley titled "The Recent Pause in Global Warming: A Temporary Blip or Something More Permanent?" </li> <li>Though Loeb believes there are a handful of short-term factors that drive changes in surface air temperature, like the El Niño and La Niña phenomena that cause temperature fluctuations in the tropical eastern Pacific approximately every two years, he thinks there is a longer term factor that is a significant and overlooked contributor. </li> <li>"The Pacific Decadal Oscillation affects surface temperature," Loeb said. "It's a pattern of temperature shifts, primarily over the Pacific, that occurs about every 20 or 30 years." </li> <li>Historically, those shifts have coincided with changes in surface temperature. </li> <li>"The Pacific Decadal Oscillation has a very distinctive pattern. During the positive phase, surface temperature rises more rapidly," he said. "During the negative phase, the rate of temperature increase slows down, hence a hiatus. It's very compelling when you see the actual observations." </li> <li>Loeb showed measurements during his talk demonstrating steady increases in surface air temperature from 1920 to 1940 and again from 1976 to 2000, periods when the decadal oscillation was in a positive phase. From 1940 to 1975, and again beginning in 2001, temperatures leveled out in concert with negative oscillation phases. </li> <li>Surface air temperatures have increased by approximately 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since the early 20th century. On this timescale, the hiatuses look like short ledges along a graph of global average surface air temperature with an otherwise steep upward slope. </li> <li>"You can't just look at short periods of time," Loeb said. "You have to look at the record over a long period of time to see the pattern. There will be natural fluctuations at shorter time scales, but we really shouldn't conclude that that's a change and global warming is going away." </li> <li>Even as surface air temperatures are currently holding relatively steady, Loeb believes there's still another issue to take into consideration. </li> <li>"Observations are showing us the planet is still taking up heat, but it is just showing up in a different place," he said. </li> <li>That different place is the ocean. </li> <li>In other words, as humans and nature continue to apply pressure to the Earth's climate through increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, temperatures are still rising. But as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation briefly tames temperatures at the planet's surface, the oceans are where the real heating is happening. </li> <li>"If you add extra heat to the Earth system, approximately 93 percent of that extra heat ends up stored in the ocean, and the ocean is very deep," Loeb said. "When we look at air temperature, we are just looking at the surface. There's a whole deep ocean where heat can be stored." </li> <li>Scientists are studying ocean temperatures with instruments known as “Argo floats.” These instruments drift freely throughout the world’s oceans, collecting temperature and salinity measurements to a depth of around 6000 feet. The floats rise to the surface and transmit their data to a satellite every 10 days. Currently, more than 3,600 Argo floats distributed in the planet's oceans show that the oceans are taking up heat over time, according to Loeb. </li> <li>Combine that with data from NASA's CERES sensor, which shows the rate of heat uptake by the whole planet is nearly constant, and it becomes clear that the planet is still warming, even as the increase in surface air temperatures lull temporarily. </li> <li>"Heat can be redistributed," Loeb said of the energy. "Changes in the circulation patterns in the ocean and atmosphere will result in redistribution of the heat — and that is what is going on during the different phases of this [Pacific Decadal Oscillation]." </li> <li>Loeb and the overwhelming majority of his fellow climate scientists argue that as humans continue to pump carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at unprecedented rates — atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements hit 400 parts per million in May 2013 — climate change will continue. Current estimates have global average surface air temperatures rising anywhere from approximately 3 to 8.5 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100, depending on how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are added to the atmosphere and accounting for uncertainty in predictions. </li> <li>But even given the scientific evidence that points toward definite warming, and data that shows that the last three decades have been the hottest on record, each one a little bit warmer than the last, Loeb encourages the scientific community to improve its observations and models of the climate system, and to discuss the science objectively and rationally. </li> <li>"It’s okay to be skeptical," he said. "Scientists are skeptical by nature. But at the same time, we need to be reasonable.”</li> </ol> It can be reasonably inferred from information in the passage that

The planet will continually experience temperature drops</label></li>
The planet will not continue warming at the same rate</label></li>
The oceans will eventually evaporate</label></li>
The planet will continually experience increases in temperature followed by brief hiatuses</label></li> (Correct answer)

Correct answer: The planet will continually experience increases in temperature followed by brief hiatuses</label></li>

Answer 3: answer one is too vague, answer to is false, and answer four is not covered in the passage.

Question 117: Which choice best fixes the comma splice? "The deadline passed, the report was unfinished."

passed the report
passed; the report (Correct answer)
passed, and, the report
passed: the report,

Correct answer: passed; the report

A semicolon correctly links the two closely related independent clauses.

Question 118: Where does the apostrophe belong? "The two ___ uniforms were identical." (referring to multiple players)

players
player's
players' (Correct answer)
players's

Correct answer: players'

A plural noun ending in -s takes only an apostrophe after the s.

Question 119: In the following excerpt — 'She laughed at his jokes, but her eyes never smiled' — the word 'but' signals:

A sequence of events
Cause and effect
A contradiction between outward expression and inner feeling (Correct answer)
Additional information

Correct answer: A contradiction between outward expression and inner feeling

'But' introduces a contrast: the outward action (laughing) conflicts with her inner state (eyes not smiling), revealing emotional distance.

Question 120: Highlighted sections are referenced in several questions. <ol> <li>John Paul II was considered a conservative on doctrine and issues relating to human sexual reproduction and the ordination of women. </li> <li>While the Pope was visiting the United States of America he said, "All human life from the moments of conception and through all subsequent stages, is sacred." </li> <li>A series of 129 lectures given by John Paul II during his Wednesday audiences in Rome between September 1979 and November 1984 were later compiled and published as a single work titled Theology of the Body, an extended meditation on human sexuality. He extended it to the condemnation of abortion, euthanasia and virtually all capital punishment, calling them all a part of the "culture of death" that is pervasive in the modern world. He campaigned for world debt forgiveness and social justice. He coined the term "social mortgage", which related that all private property had a social dimension, namely, that "the goods of this are originally meant for all." In 2000, he publicly endorsed the Jubilee 2000 campaign on African debt relief fronted by Irish rock stars Bob Geldof and Bono, once famously interrupting a U2 recording session by telephoning the studio and asking to speak to Bono. </li> <li>Pope John Paul II, who was present and very influential at the 1962–65 Second Vatican Council, affirmed the teachings of that Council and did much to implement them. Nevertheless, his critics often wished that he would embrace the so-called "progressive" agenda that some hoped would evolve as a result of the Council. In fact, the Council did not advocate "progressive" changes in these areas; for example, they still condemned abortion as an unspeakable crime. Pope John Paul II continued to declare that contraception, abortion, and homosexual acts were gravely sinful, and, with Joseph Ratzinger (future Pope Benedict XVI), opposed liberation theology. </li> <li>Following the Church's exaltation of the marital act of sexual intercourse between a baptised man and woman within sacramental marriage as proper and exclusive to the sacrament of marriage, John Paul II believed that it was, in every instance, profaned by contraception, abortion, divorce followed by a 'second' marriage, and by homosexual acts. In 1994, John Paul II asserted the Church's lack of authority to ordain women to the priesthood, stating that without such authority ordination is not legitimately compatible with fidelity to Christ. This was also deemed a repudiation of calls to break with the constant tradition of the Church by ordaining women to the priesthood. In addition, John Paul II chose not to end the discipline of mandatory priestly celibacy, although in a small number of unusual circumstances, he did allow certain married clergymen of other Christian traditions who later became Catholic to be ordained as Catholic priests.</li> </ol> Select the appropriate change, if any, to the following sentence in Paragraph 3. In 2000, he publicly endorsed the Jubilee 2000 campaign on African debt relief fronted by Irish rock stars Bob Geldof and Bono, once famously interrupting a U2 recording session by telephoning the studio and asking to speak to Bono.

NO CHANGE</label></li>
In 2000, he publicly endorsed the Jubilee 2000 campaign on African debt relief fronted by Irish rock stars Bob Geldof and Bono once famously interrupting a U2 recording session by telephoning the studio and asking to speak to Bono.</label></li>
In 2000, he publicly endorsed the Jubilee 2000 campaign on African debt relief fronted by Irish rock stars Bob Geldof and Bono. Famously, he once interrupted a U2 recording session by telephoning the studio and asking to speak to Bono.</label></li> (Correct answer)
In 2000, he publicly endorsed the Jubilee 2000 campaign on African debt relief fronted by Irish rock stars Bob Geldof and Bono. Once famously interrupting a U2 recording session by telephoning the studio and asking to speak to Bono.</label></li>

Correct answer: In 2000, he publicly endorsed the Jubilee 2000 campaign on African debt relief fronted by Irish rock stars Bob Geldof and Bono. Famously, he once interrupted a U2 recording session by telephoning the studio and asking to speak to Bono.</label></li>

The original sentence is a run-on sentence, combining two distinct ideas that could stand alone as independent clauses. The second part, "once famously interrupting a U2 recording session...", describes a separate, though related, event. Separating these into two sentences with a period and capitalizing "Famously" creates two clear, grammatically correct sentences, improving readability and flow.

Question 121: Solve: (x/3) + 5 = 9

4
42
12 (Correct answer)
8

Correct answer: 12

Subtract 5: x/3 = 4. Multiply both sides by 3: x = 12.

Question 122: Identify the correctly punctuated quotation.

"Wait", she said, "I forgot my keys."
"Wait," she said, "I forgot my keys." (Correct answer)
"Wait," she said "I forgot my keys".
"Wait" she said "I forgot my keys."

Correct answer: "Wait," she said, "I forgot my keys."

Commas separate the interrupted quotation and fall inside the quotation marks.

Question 123: >What number (x) divided by four is equal to that same number minus 30?

40</label></li> (Correct answer)
60</label></li>
30</label></li>
50</label></li>

Correct answer: 40</label></li>

x/4=x-30 CROSS-MULTIPLY. x=4(x-30) MULTIPLY. x=4x-120 ADD -4x -3x=-120 DIVIDE -3 x=40 Answer 2.

Question 124: Which sentence is correct? A. Neither the students nor the teacher are ready. B. Neither the students nor the teacher is ready. C. Neither the students nor the teacher were ready. D. Neither the student's nor the teacher is ready.

Sentence D
Sentence B (Correct answer)
Sentence A
Sentence C

Correct answer: Sentence B

With 'neither...nor,' the verb agrees with the noun closest to it. The closest noun is 'teacher' (singular), so the verb is 'is.' Sentence B is correct.

Question 125: A narrator describes a town as 'frozen in a vanished century.' This suggests the town is:

Crowded
Old-fashioned and unchanged (Correct answer)
Newly built
Extremely cold

Correct answer: Old-fashioned and unchanged

Being 'frozen in a vanished century' implies the town clings to outdated ways.

Question 126: Jean is making a dry rub based on a recipe his friend from the United States sent to him, but he needs to convert ounces to grams to understand the recipe. If the rub requires 4 ounces of cayenne for every 7 ounces of paprika and there is 91 total ounces of paprika in the rub, how many total grams of cayenne and paprika are required? (1 ounce=28.3 grams)

4,522 grams</label></li>
5,148 grams</label></li>
4,926 grams</label></li>
4,047 grams</label></li> (Correct answer)

Correct answer: 4,047 grams</label></li>

The ratio of cayenne to paprika is 4:7. If there are 91 ounces of paprika, we can find the amount of cayenne using the proportion 4/7 = cayenne/91, which gives cayenne = (4 * 91) / 7 = 52 ounces. The total ounces of rub is 52 ounces (cayenne) + 91 ounces (paprika) = 143 ounces. To convert this to grams, multiply by the conversion factor: 143 ounces * 28.3 grams/ounce = 4046.9 grams. Rounded to the nearest whole number, this is 4047 grams.

Question 127: A history passage discusses a primary source document. The author notes it was written by a general who lost the battle being described. This is important because:

Military documents are always reliable
It makes the source more objective
The general's perspective may be biased by self-justification or regret (Correct answer)
Primary sources are always more accurate than secondary sources

Correct answer: The general's perspective may be biased by self-justification or regret

A participant's account is shaped by their personal experience, emotions, and motivations. A losing general may minimize mistakes or shift blame — a key bias to consider.

Question 128: <div>‘THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN’ CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE EXCERPT</div> <div> </div> <ol style="list-style-position: outside;"> <li>Once I said to myself it would be a thousand times better for Jim to be a slave at home where his family was, as long as he's got to be a slave, and so I'd better write a letter to Tom Sawyer and tell him to tell Miss Watson where he was. But I soon give up that notion, for two things: she'd be mad and disgusted at his rascality and ungratefulness for leaving her, and so she'd sell him straight down the river again; and if she didn't, everybody naturally despises an ungrateful slave, and they'd make Jim feel it all the time, and so he'd feel ornery and disgraced. And then think of me! It would get all around, that Huck Finn helped a slave to get his freedom; and if I was to ever see anybody from that town again, I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame. That's just the way: a person does a low-down thing, and then he don't want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he can hide it, it ain't no disgrace. That was my fix exactly. The more I studied about this, the more my conscience went to grinding me, and the more wicked and low-down and ornery I got to feeling. And at last, when it hit me all of a sudden that here was the plain hand of Providence slapping me in the face and letting me know my wickedness was being watched all the time from up there in heaven, whilst I was stealing a poor old woman's slave that hadn't ever done me no harm, and now was showing me there's One that's always on the lookout, and ain't agoing to allow no such miserable doings to go only just so fur and no further, I most dropped in my tracks I was so scared. Well, I tried the best I could to kinder soften it up somehow for myself, by saying I was brung up wicked, and so I warn't so much to blame; but something inside of me kept saying, "There was the Sunday school, you could a gone to it; and if you'd a done it they'd a learnt you, there, that people that acts as I'd been acting about that slave goes to everlasting fire." </li> <li>It made me shiver. And I about made up my mind to pray; and see if I couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was, and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn't come. Why wouldn't they? It warn't no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from me, neither. I knowed very well why they wouldn't come. It was because my heart warn't right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth say I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that slave's owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie-and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie- I found that out. </li> <li>So I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn't know what to do. At last I had an idea; and I says, I'll go and write the letter- and then see if I can pray. Why, it was astonishing, the way I felt as light as a feather, right straight off, and my troubles all gone. So I got a piece of paper and a pencil, all glad and excited, and set down and wrote: </li> <li>Miss Watson your runaway slave Jim is down here two mile below Pikesville and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the reward if you send. HUCK FINN </li> <li>I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking- thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking. And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me, all the time; in the day, and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a floating along, talking, and singing, and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him agin in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had smallpox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now; and then I happened to look around, and see that paper. </li> <li>It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: </li> <li>"All right, then, I'll go to hell"- and tore it up. </li> <li>It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming. I shoved the whole thing out of my head; and said I would take up wickedness again, which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn't. And for a starter, I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog.</li> </ol> Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?</div>

Paragraph 2</label></li> (Correct answer)
<div>Paragraph 1, sentence 2</div></label></li>
<div>Paragraph 7</div></label></li>
<div>Paragraph 1, sentence 1</div></label></li>

Correct answer: Paragraph 2</label></li>

Paragraph 2 directly illustrates Huck's internal conflict by showing his failed attempt to pray. He recognizes his 'heart warn't right' and that he was 'playing double,' trying to outwardly conform to what society deemed 'right' (turning in Jim) while his true feelings and conscience resisted. This passage explicitly details the deep contradiction within him, making it the strongest evidence for his conflicted nature.

Question 129: A reference to a well-known person, event, or work is an:

Allusion (Correct answer)
Anecdote
Analogy
Antithesis

Correct answer: Allusion

An allusion is an indirect reference to something widely recognized.

Question 130: A history passage describes a document signed under 'duress.' The word 'duress' most nearly means:

Great enthusiasm
Public celebration
Careful deliberation
Coercion or extreme pressure (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Coercion or extreme pressure

'Duress' means coercion or threats — a document signed under duress was signed unwillingly due to force or pressure, which may affect its legal or moral validity.

Question 131: Which of the following sets of side lengths CANNOT form a right triangle?

4, 5, 7 (Correct answer)
5, 12, 13
7, 24, 25
6, 8, 10

Correct answer: 4, 5, 7

Check 4² + 5² = 16 + 25 = 41 ≠ 49 = 7². So 4, 5, 7 cannot form a right triangle.

Question 132: Highlighted sections are referenced in several questions. <ol> <li>Some cheetahs have a rare fur pattern mutation of larger, blotchy, merged spots. Known as "king cheetahs", they were once thought to constitute a separate subspecies but are in fact African cheetahs; their unusual fur pattern is the result of a single recessive gene. The "king cheetah" has only been seen in the wild a handful of times, but it has been bred in captivity. </li> <li>The king cheetah is a rare mutation of the cheetah characterized by a distinct fur pattern. It was first noted in what was then Southern Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe) in 1926. In 1927, the naturalist Reginald Innes Pocock declared it a separate species, but reversed this decision in 1939 due to lack of evidence; but in 1928, a skin purchased by Walter Rothschild was found to be intermediate in pattern between the king cheetah and spotted cheetah and Abel Chapman considered it to be a color form of the spotted cheetah. Twenty-two such skins were found between 1926 and 1974. Since 1927, the king cheetah was reported five more times in the wild. Although strangely marked skins had come from Africa, a live king cheetah was not photographed until 1974 in South Africa's Kruger National Park. Cryptozoologists Paul and Lena Bottriell photographed one during an expedition in 1975. They also managed to obtain stuffed specimens. It appeared larger than a spotted cheetah and its fur had a different texture. There was another wild sighting in 1986—the first in seven years. By 1987, thirty-eight specimens had been recorded, many from pelts. </li> <li>Its species status was resolved in 1981 when king cheetahs were born at the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Centre in South Africa. In May 1981, two spotted sisters gave birth there and each litter contained one king cheetah. The sisters had both mated with a wild-caught male from the Transvaal area (where king cheetahs had been recorded). Further king cheetahs were later born at the Centre. It has been known to exist in Zimbabwe, Botswana and in the northern part of South Africa's Transvaal province. </li> <li>In 2012, the cause of this alternative coat pattern was found to be a mutation in the gene for transmembrane aminopeptidase Q (Taqpep), the same gene responsible for the striped "mackerel" versus blotchy "classic" patterning seen in tabby cats. The mutation is recessive, what is one reason the pattern is so rare. </li> <li>Other rare color morphs of the species include speckles, melanism, albinism, abundism, chocolate, erythrism, strawberry, isabelline, golden, Maltese, chinchilla, black-marked, red-cream marked, ticked, charcoal, mosaicism, leucism, lavender-marked, piebaldism, and flavism. Most have been reported in Indian cheetahs, particularly in captive specimens kept for hunting. </li> <li>The Mughal Emperor of India, Jahangir, recorded having a white cheetah presented to him in 1608. In the memoirs of Tuzk-e-Jahangiri, the Emperor, says that in the third year of his reign, "Raja Bir Singh Deo brought a white cheetah to show me. Although other sorts of creatures, both birds and beasts have white varieties ... I had never seen a white cheetah. Its spots, which are (usually) black, were of a blue color, and the whiteness of the body also inclined to bluishness." This suggests a chinchilla mutation which restricts the amount of pigment on the hair shaft. Although the spots were formed of black pigment, the less dense pigmentation gives a hazy, grayish effect. As well as Jahangir's white cheetah at Agra, a report of "incipient albinism" has come from Beaufort West according to Guggisberg. </li> <li>In a letter to “Nature in East Africa,” H. F. Stoneham reported a melanistic cheetah (black with ghost markings) in the Trans-Nzoia District of Kenya in 1925. Vesey Fitzgerald saw a melanistic cheetah in Zambia in the company of a spotted cheetah. Red (erythristic) cheetahs have dark tawny spots on a golden background. Cream (isabelline) cheetahs have pale red spots on a pale background. Some desert region cheetahs are unusually pale; probably they are better-camouflaged and therefore better hunters and more likely to breed and pass on their paler colouration. Blue (Maltese or grey) cheetahs have variously been described as white cheetahs with grey-blue spots (chinchilla) or pale grey cheetahs with darker grey spots (Maltese mutation). A ticked was shot in Tanzania in 1921; it had only a few spots on the neck and back, and these were unusually small. Another ticked cheetah color-morph was photographed in Kenya in 2012.</li> </ol> What word best replaces the word Further in the context of the sentence in paragraph 3?

Additionally</label></li> (Correct answer)
Farther</label></li>
Fewer</label></li>
Another</label></li>

Correct answer: Additionally</label></li>

In this context, "Further" means "in addition to what has been mentioned." The sentence is adding information about more king cheetahs being born after the initial ones. "Additionally" serves the same purpose, indicating that more instances of king cheetah births occurred, making it the best synonym for the context.

Question 133: Which of the following was the goal of the late 1860s Black Codes?

To restore the status quo of Southern society before the Civil War (Correct answer)
To allow African Americans to hold elected office
To nullify the Secession Acts of 1860 and 1861
To enforce freedmen's right to vote

Correct answer: To restore the status quo of Southern society before the Civil War

Following the Civil War, Southern states enacted 'Black Codes' in the late 1860s. These discriminatory laws aimed to severely restrict the freedom and economic opportunities of newly freed African Americans. By limiting their rights to own property, work, and move freely, the Black Codes sought to maintain a system of racial hierarchy and cheap labor, effectively attempting to restore the social and economic conditions of slavery, albeit without legal enslavement.

Question 134: A narrator describes a childhood home as 'a fortress of solitude, its walls thick with silence.' This description primarily suggests:

The narrator felt isolated and alone there (Correct answer)
The home was ancient and crumbling
The family was wealthy and powerful
The home was luxurious and spacious

Correct answer: The narrator felt isolated and alone there

The metaphors 'fortress of solitude' and 'walls thick with silence' evoke feelings of isolation and loneliness, not wealth or decay.

Question 135: What is the tone of the passage?

The tone is concerned and pessimistic.
The tone is neutral and informative.
The tone is enthusiastic and encouraging. (Correct answer)
The tone is critical and dismissive.

Correct answer: The tone is enthusiastic and encouraging.

The tone of the passage is enthusiastic and encouraging, indicating that the author conveys a positive and hopeful outlook on the subject of renewable energy. This suggests the language used is likely optimistic, highlighting advancements, potential solutions, and the overall positive impact of these energy sources. The author aims to inspire confidence and support for renewable energy initiatives.

Question 136: The 'resolution' of a story is best described as:

The part where loose ends are tied up after the climax (Correct answer)
The introduction of the conflict
The moment of highest tension
The point of view used throughout the narrative

Correct answer: The part where loose ends are tied up after the climax

The resolution (also called denouement) follows the climax and resolves remaining conflicts, returning the story to stability.

Question 137: A character described as 'Sisyphean' in his efforts is most likely:

Quickly abandoning his tasks
Engaged in futile, endless labor (Correct answer)
Celebrated for his victories
Effortlessly achieving his goals

Correct answer: Engaged in futile, endless labor

Sisyphus is a figure from Greek mythology condemned to roll a boulder uphill forever. 'Sisyphean' describes endless, futile toil.

Question 138: What is the purpose of the conclusion in an essay?

To add unrelated anecdotes.
To confuse the reader with more complex arguments.
To introduce new ideas and arguments.
To summarize the main points and restate the thesis. (Correct answer)

Correct answer: To summarize the main points and restate the thesis.

The conclusion of an essay serves to bring the discussion to a satisfying close without introducing new ideas or arguments. Its primary purpose is to summarize the main points discussed throughout the essay and to restate the central argument (thesis) in a fresh and impactful way. This leaves the reader with a clear understanding of the essay's overall message.

Question 139: A passage uses the word 'free' to mean 'no cost' early on and 'unrestricted' later to reach its conclusion. This is which fallacy?

Equivocation (Correct answer)
False dilemma
Slippery slope
Straw man

Correct answer: Equivocation

Shifting a word's meaning mid-argument is equivocation.

Question 140: <div>‘THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN’ CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE EXCERPT</div> <div> </div> <ol style="list-style-position: outside;"> <li>Once I said to myself it would be a thousand times better for Jim to be a slave at home where his family was, as long as he's got to be a slave, and so I'd better write a letter to Tom Sawyer and tell him to tell Miss Watson where he was. But I soon give up that notion, for two things: she'd be mad and disgusted at his rascality and ungratefulness for leaving her, and so she'd sell him straight down the river again; and if she didn't, everybody naturally despises an ungrateful slave, and they'd make Jim feel it all the time, and so he'd feel ornery and disgraced. And then think of me! It would get all around, that Huck Finn helped a slave to get his freedom; and if I was to ever see anybody from that town again, I'd be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame. That's just the way: a person does a low-down thing, and then he don't want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he can hide it, it ain't no disgrace. That was my fix exactly. The more I studied about this, the more my conscience went to grinding me, and the more wicked and low-down and ornery I got to feeling. And at last, when it hit me all of a sudden that here was the plain hand of Providence slapping me in the face and letting me know my wickedness was being watched all the time from up there in heaven, whilst I was stealing a poor old woman's slave that hadn't ever done me no harm, and now was showing me there's One that's always on the lookout, and ain't agoing to allow no such miserable doings to go only just so fur and no further, I most dropped in my tracks I was so scared. Well, I tried the best I could to kinder soften it up somehow for myself, by saying I was brung up wicked, and so I warn't so much to blame; but something inside of me kept saying, "There was the Sunday school, you could a gone to it; and if you'd a done it they'd a learnt you, there, that people that acts as I'd been acting about that slave goes to everlasting fire." </li> <li>It made me shiver. And I about made up my mind to pray; and see if I couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was, and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn't come. Why wouldn't they? It warn't no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from me, neither. I knowed very well why they wouldn't come. It was because my heart warn't right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth say I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that slave's owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie-and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie- I found that out. </li> <li>So I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn't know what to do. At last I had an idea; and I says, I'll go and write the letter- and then see if I can pray. Why, it was astonishing, the way I felt as light as a feather, right straight off, and my troubles all gone. So I got a piece of paper and a pencil, all glad and excited, and set down and wrote: </li> <li>Miss Watson your runaway slave Jim is down here two mile below Pikesville and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the reward if you send. HUCK FINN </li> <li>I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking- thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking. And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me, all the time; in the day, and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a floating along, talking, and singing, and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him agin in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had smallpox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now; and then I happened to look around, and see that paper. </li> <li>It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: </li> <li>"All right, then, I'll go to hell"- and tore it up. </li> <li>It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming. I shoved the whole thing out of my head; and said I would take up wickedness again, which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn't. And for a starter, I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog.</li> </ol> Based on the following sentence in paragraph 5 ...</div> <div> </div> <div>"But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind."</div> <div> </div> <div>... It can be reasonably inferred that</div>

Huck feels he cannot abandon Jim regardless of what all his "learning" has taught him.</label></li> (Correct answer)
<div>Huck is frustrated with Jim for not being detestable.</div></label></li>
Huck believes Jim is resourceful enough to survive whatever hard times come his way.</div></label></li>
<div>Huck is ready to go on to his next adventure.</div></label></li>

Correct answer: Huck feels he cannot abandon Jim regardless of what all his "learning" has taught him.</label></li>

This sentence appears after Huck has written the letter to turn Jim in, but then reflects on all the positive experiences and Jim's kindness. His inability to 'harden me against him' signifies that despite his upbringing and societal pressures to view Jim as property, his personal experiences have forged an unbreakable bond. This realization makes him unable to betray Jim, regardless of what he's been taught is 'right.'

Question 141: Which sentence correctly uses parallel structure?

He likes hiking, swimming, and biking. (Correct answer)
He likes hiking, swimming, and to bike.
He likes hike, swim, and biking.
He likes to hike, swimming, and biking.

Correct answer: He likes hiking, swimming, and biking.

All three items share the same -ing gerund form.

Question 142: Select the appropriate change, if any, to the sentence "He wanted out of the hospital now, and get all of these things off him." in Line 10.

He wanted out of the hospital now. And get all of these things off him.</label></li>
NO CHANGE</label></li>
He wanted out of the hospital now, and to get all of these things off him.</label></li> (Correct answer)
He wanted out of the hospital now and get all of these things off him.</label></li>

Correct answer: He wanted out of the hospital now, and to get all of these things off him.</label></li>

The original sentence suffers from a lack of parallelism. The phrase "wanted out of the hospital now" is followed by "get all of these things off him." To maintain grammatical consistency, the second part of the compound predicate should also be an infinitive phrase, matching the implied structure of the first part. Adding "to" before "get" creates the parallel structure "wanted out of the hospital now, and to get all of these things off him," making the sentence grammatically sound.

Question 143: If x/3 + 2 = 6, what is x?

18
8
24
12 (Correct answer)

Correct answer: 12

Subtract 2 to get x/3 = 4, then multiply by 3 to get x = 12.

Question 144: When two passages disagree, a question may ask how the Passage 2 author would 'most likely respond' to Passage 1. The best answer is:

A direct quote from Passage 1
A point unrelated to either text
A neutral summary
A response consistent with Passage 2's stated views (Correct answer)

Correct answer: A response consistent with Passage 2's stated views

Predicted responses must align with the author's positions established in their own passage.

Question 145: Choose the correctly punctuated sentence with a transitional word.

The plan worked; however costs, rose.
The plan worked; however, costs rose. (Correct answer)
The plan worked, however, costs rose.
The plan worked however; costs rose.

Correct answer: The plan worked; however, costs rose.

A semicolon precedes and a comma follows a conjunctive adverb joining clauses.

Question 146: Which of the following equations has a vertex of (−2, 6)?

y = (x − 2)² + 6
y = (x + 2)² + 6 (Correct answer)
y = (x + 2)² − 6
y = (x − 2)² − 6

Correct answer: y = (x + 2)² + 6

In vertex form y = a(x − h)² + k, the vertex is (h, k). To get h = −2, we need (x − (−2))² = (x + 2)², and k = 6 gives the +6 outside. So y = (x + 2)² + 6 is correct.

Question 147: What are the solutions to x^2 - 5x + 6 = 0?

x = 1 and x = 6
x = 2 and x = 3 (Correct answer)
x = -2 and x = -3
x = -1 and x = 6

Correct answer: x = 2 and x = 3

Factoring gives (x - 2)(x - 3) = 0, so x = 2 or x = 3.

Question 148: In a right triangle, the two legs have lengths 3 and 4. What is the hypotenuse?

6
5 (Correct answer)
√7
7

Correct answer: 5

By the Pythagorean theorem: c² = 3² + 4² = 9 + 16 = 25. So c = 5.

Question 149: A character described as having a 'Herculean task' is facing:

A very simple chore
A task requiring enormous strength or effort (Correct answer)
A dangerous legal matter
A creative artistic challenge

Correct answer: A task requiring enormous strength or effort

This is an allusion to Hercules of Greek mythology, known for his incredible strength. A 'Herculean task' requires extraordinary effort or ability.

Question 150: In the sentence 'Most successful people wake early, so waking early causes success,' the flaw is that it ignores:

Possible reverse or alternative causes (Correct answer)
How many people were surveyed
The time zone differences
The definition of success

Correct answer: Possible reverse or alternative causes

It overlooks other explanations or that success might cause early waking.

Question 151: In a science passage, the author writes that 'correlation does not equal causation.' This phrase warns against:

Collecting too much data
Using experiments to test hypotheses
Interpreting graphs incorrectly
Assuming that because two things happen together, one caused the other (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Assuming that because two things happen together, one caused the other

This classic scientific caution reminds us that two variables can co-vary without one causing the other — a third variable may be responsible, or the relationship could be coincidental.

Question 152: Identify the correctly punctuated compound sentence.

We studied all night yet, we still felt unprepared.
We studied all night; yet, we still, felt unprepared.
We studied all night, yet we still felt unprepared. (Correct answer)
We studied all night yet we still felt unprepared.

Correct answer: We studied all night, yet we still felt unprepared.

A comma before "yet" correctly joins two independent clauses.

Question 153: Highlighted sections are referenced in several questions. <ol> <li>Penny dreadful is a pejorative term used to refer to cheap popular serial literature produced during the nineteenth century in the United Kingdom. The term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood. The term typically referred to a story published in weekly parts, each costing, one penny. The subject matter of these stories was typically sensational, focusing on the exploits of detectives, criminals, or supernatural entities. Whilst the term "penny dreadful" was originally used in reference to a specific type of literature circulating in mid-Victorian Britain, it latterly encompassed a variety of publications that featured cheap sensational fiction, such as story papers and booklet "libraries". The penny dreadfuls were printed on cheap wood pulp paper and were aimed at young working class males. </li> <li>Two popular characters to come out of the penny dreadfuls were Jack Harkaway, introduced in the Boys of England in 1871, and Sexton Blake, who began in the Half-penny Marvel in 1893. In 1904, the Union Jack became "Sexton Blake's own paper", and he appeared in every issue thereafter, up until the paper's demise in 1933. In total, Blake appeared in roughly 4,000 adventures, right up into the 1970s, a record exceeded only by Nick Carter and Dixon Hawke. Harkaway was also popular in America and had many imitators. </li> <li>The fictional Sweeney Todd, the subject of both a successful musical by Stephen Sondheim and a feature film by Tim Burton, also first appeared in an 1846/1847 penny dreadful entitled The String of Pearls: A Romance. </li> <li>Over time, the penny dreadfuls evolved into the British comic magazines. Owing to there cheap production, there perceived lack of value, and such hazards as war-time paper drives, the penny dreadfuls, particularly the earliest ones, are fairly rare today. </li> <li>The experimental artrock band Animal Collective had a song called Penny Dreadfuls on their debut album Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished. </li> <li>The Irish literary magazine The Penny Dreadful takes its name from the penny dreadfuls. </li> <li>A horror television series set in Victorian England entitled Penny Dreadful debuted on Showtime in May, 2014. </li> <li>In series 7 of Doctor Who , discussing a corpse stained red and the frequency at which corpses appear at the morgue in such a condition, a relative of the deceased states: "I have no interest in the deplorable excesses of the penny dreadful." </li> <li>In Ian Hall's novel series, The Penny Dreadful Adventures, the character Alexander M. MacNeill edits and writes Penny Dreadful chapters for George Reynolds (The Mysteries of London), and James Rymer and Thomas Prest (Varney the Vampire). In his dealings with Rymer and Prest, Alexander is forced to investigate the source of the authors' material. and finds evidence of modern vampirism in London.</li> </ol> If you had to remove one word from the following sentence in paragraph 4 for clarity without changing its meaning, which of the following would be the best choice? Over time, the penny dreadfuls evolved into the British comic magazines.

magazines</label></li>
either "the"</label></li> (Correct answer)
time</label></li>
dreadfuls</label></li>

Correct answer: either "the"</label></li>

The sentence "Over time, the penny dreadfuls evolved into the British comic magazines" uses the definite article "the" twice. While not grammatically incorrect, one instance of "the" can be removed for conciseness without altering the meaning. For example, saying "Over time, penny dreadfuls evolved into the British comic magazines" or "Over time, the penny dreadfuls evolved into British comic magazines" is equally clear and more streamlined.

Question 154: Highlighted sections are referenced in several questions. <ol> <li>John Paul II was considered a conservative on doctrine and issues relating to human sexual reproduction and the ordination of women. </li> <li>While the Pope was visiting the United States of America he said, "All human life from the moments of conception and through all subsequent stages, is sacred." </li> <li>A series of 129 lectures given by John Paul II during his Wednesday audiences in Rome between September 1979 and November 1984 were later compiled and published as a single work titled Theology of the Body, an extended meditation on human sexuality. He extended it to the condemnation of abortion, euthanasia and virtually all capital punishment, calling them all a part of the "culture of death" that is pervasive in the modern world. He campaigned for world debt forgiveness and social justice. He coined the term "social mortgage", which related that all private property had a social dimension, namely, that "the goods of this are originally meant for all." In 2000, he publicly endorsed the Jubilee 2000 campaign on African debt relief fronted by Irish rock stars Bob Geldof and Bono, once famously interrupting a U2 recording session by telephoning the studio and asking to speak to Bono. </li> <li>Pope John Paul II, who was present and very influential at the 1962–65 Second Vatican Council, affirmed the teachings of that Council and did much to implement them. Nevertheless, his critics often wished that he would embrace the so-called "progressive" agenda that some hoped would evolve as a result of the Council. In fact, the Council did not advocate "progressive" changes in these areas; for example, they still condemned abortion as an unspeakable crime. Pope John Paul II continued to declare that contraception, abortion, and homosexual acts were gravely sinful, and, with Joseph Ratzinger (future Pope Benedict XVI), opposed liberation theology. </li> <li>Following the Church's exaltation of the marital act of sexual intercourse between a baptised man and woman within sacramental marriage as proper and exclusive to the sacrament of marriage, John Paul II believed that it was, in every instance, profaned by contraception, abortion, divorce followed by a 'second' marriage, and by homosexual acts. In 1994, John Paul II asserted the Church's lack of authority to ordain women to the priesthood, stating that without such authority ordination is not legitimately compatible with fidelity to Christ. This was also deemed a repudiation of calls to break with the constant tradition of the Church by ordaining women to the priesthood. In addition, John Paul II chose not to end the discipline of mandatory priestly celibacy, although in a small number of unusual circumstances, he did allow certain married clergymen of other Christian traditions who later became Catholic to be ordained as Catholic priests.</li> </ol> Select the appropriate change, if any, to the sentence He campaigned for world debt forgiveness and social justice. in Paragraph 3.

He campaigned -- for world debt forgiveness and social justice.</label></li>
He campaigned for world debt forgiveness -- and social justice.</label></li>
NO CHANGE</label></li> (Correct answer)
He campaigned, for world debt forgiveness and social justice.</label></li>

Correct answer: NO CHANGE</label></li>

The sentence "He campaigned for world debt forgiveness and social justice" is grammatically correct and clear as written. It does not require any additional punctuation, such as dashes or commas, as it is a simple, straightforward statement with a compound object. Adding punctuation would incorrectly break the flow or imply a pause where none is needed.

SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test)

The SAT is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States, assessing critical reading, writing, and math skills.

154

Questions

180 min

Time Limit

50%

To Pass

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