Reading And Writing Test 1 Sat Examination
Question 51
One challenge when researching whether holding elected office changes a person’s behavior is the problem of ensuring that the experiment has an appropriate control group. To reveal the effect of holding office, researchers must compare people who hold elected office with people who do not hold office but who are otherwise similar to the office-holders. Since researchers are unable to control which politicians win elections, they therefore _______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
The correct answer: D) will find it difficult to identify a group of people who can function as an appropriate control group for their studies.
The passage explains that researchers want to compare office-holders with similar people who don't hold office, but cannot control who wins elections. This makes it hard to find a valid comparison group, or control group — which is exactly what Option D conveys.
Not clear enough?
Question 52
In his groundbreaking book Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America, Vivek Bald uses newspaper articles, census records, ships’ logs, and memoirs to tell the _______ who made New York City their home in the early twentieth century.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
The correct answer is C) stories of the South Asian immigrants
"Stories" is the correct plural form of "story" (not "story’s," which is incorrect possessive).
"Of the South Asian immigrants" properly shows that the stories belong to or are about multiple immigrants.
Not clear enough?
Question 53
In her two major series “Memory Test” and “Autobiography,” painter Howardena Pindell explored themes _______ healing, self-discovery, and memory by cutting and sewing back together pieces of canvas and inserting personal artifacts, such as postcards, into some of the paintings.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
The correct answer is A) of
The phrase "explored themes of healing, self-discovery, and memory" is a standard and grammatically correct construction. No punctuation (like a comma, dash, or colon) is needed after "of" because it is directly followed by the items being listed.
Not clear enough?
Question 54
Both Sona Charaipotra, an Indian American, and Dhonielle Clayton, an African American, grew up frustrated by the lack of diverse characters in books for young people. In 2011, these two writers joined forces to found CAKE Literary, a book packaging _______ specializes in the creation and promotion of stories told from diverse perspectives for children and young adults.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
The correct answer is B) company that
The phrase needs to clearly identify what kind of company CAKE Literary is. The correct and complete construction is:
"...a book packaging company that specializes in the creation and promotion..."
Not clear enough?
Question 55
A study led by scientist Rebecca Kirby at the University of Wisconsin–Madison found that black bears that eat human food before hibernation have increased levels of a rare carbon isotope, _______ due to the higher 13C levels in corn and cane sugar. Bears with these elevated levels were also found to have much shorter hibernation periods on average.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct answer: D) carbon-13 (13C),
The parenthetical (13C) directly defines carbon-13, so no comma is needed between them. However, a comma is required after the parenthetical to properly separate it from the rest of the sentence.
Not clear enough?
Question 56
In 2010, archaeologist Noel Hidalgo Tan was visiting the twelfth-century temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia when he noticed markings of red paint on the temple _______ the help of digital imaging techniques, he discovered the markings to be part of an elaborate mural containing over 200 paintings. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
The correct answer is D) walls. With
The sentence describes two separate events:
Tan noticing the red paint on the walls.
His later discovery using digital imaging techniques.
These events are best separated into two complete sentences, making “walls. With” the correct and grammatically standard choice.
Not clear enough?
Question 57
Working from an earlier discovery of Charpentier’s, chemists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna—winners of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry—re-created and then reprogrammed the so-called “genetic scissors” of a species of DNA-cleaving bacteria _______ a tool that is revolutionizing the field of gene technology.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct answer: B) forging
The sentence already contains the verbs “re-created” and “reprogrammed,” and it leads into a present participial phrase that explains the result of those actions. The correct structure is:
"...reprogrammed the so-called 'genetic scissors' of a species of DNA-cleaving bacteria, forging a tool that is revolutionizing..."
Not clear enough?
Question 58
In 2016, engineer Vanessa Galvez oversaw the installation of 164 bioswales, vegetated channels designed to absorb and divert stormwater, along the streets of Queens, New York. By reducing the runoff flowing into city sewers, _______
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct answer: B) the bioswales have mitigated both street flooding and the resulting pollution of nearby waterways.
The sentence begins with a dependent clause:
“By reducing the runoff flowing into city sewers, ...”
What follows must logically and grammatically refer to what is doing the reducing — in this case, the bioswales.
Not clear enough?
Question 59
A study published by Rice University geoscientist Ming Tang in 2019 offers a new explanation for the origin of Earth’s _______ structures called arcs, towering ridges that form when a dense oceanic plate subducts under a less dense continental plate, melts in the mantle below, and then rises and bursts through the continental crust above.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct answer: B) continents: geological
This sentence uses apposition, where a second phrase explains or defines the first. The correct punctuation for introducing an explanation like this is a colon.
"...a new explanation for the origin of Earth’s continents: geological structures called arcs..."
Not clear enough?
Question 60
During a 2021 launch, Rocket Labs’ Electron rocket experienced an unexpected failure: its second-stage booster shut down suddenly after ignition. _______ instead of downplaying the incident, Rocket Labs’ CEO publicly acknowledged what happened and apologized for the loss of the rocket’s payload, which had consisted of two satellites.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
Correct answer: A) Afterward,
The sentence describes a sequence of events:
The rocket fails,
Then the CEO acknowledges and apologizes.
So the most logical transition is “Afterward,” to show that the CEO’s response followed the failure.
