SAT Practice Test

SAT? Practice Test #3 Reading Test

65 MINUTES, 52 QUESTIONS

Turn to Section 1 of your answer sheet to answer the questions in this section. DIRECTIONS

Each passage or pair of passages below is followed by a number of questions. After reading each passage or pair, choose the best answer to each question based on what is stated or implied in the passage or passages and in any accompanying graphics (such as a table or graph).

Questions 1-10 are based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Saki, ―The Schartz-Metterklume Method.‖ Originally published in 1911.

Lady Carlotta stepped out on to the platform of

the small wayside station and took a turn or two up

and down its uninteresting length, to kill time till the

Line train should be pleased to proceed on its way. Then,

5 in the roadway beyond, she saw a horse struggling

with a more than ample load, and a carter of the sort

that seems to bear a sullen hatred against the animal

that helps him to earn a living. Lady Carlotta

promptly betook her to the roadway, and put rather a

10 different complexion on the struggle. Certain of her

acquaintances were wont to give her plentiful

admonition as to the undesirability of interfering on

behalf of a distressed animal, such interference being

“none of her business.” Only once had she put the

15 doctrine of non-interference into practice, when one

of its most eloquent exponents had been besieged for nearly three hours in a small and extremely uncomfortable may-tree by an angry boar-pig, while Lady Carlotta, on the other side of the fence, had

20 proceeded with the water-colour sketch she was engaged on, and refused to interfere between the

boar and his prisoner. It is to be feared that she lost

the friendship of the ultimately rescued lady. On this occasion she merely lost the train, which gave way to

25 the first sign of impatience it had shown throughout the journey, and steamed off without her. She bore

the desertion with philosophical indifference; her friends and relations were thoroughly well used to

the fact of her luggage arriving without her.

30 She wired a vague non-committal message to her destination to say that she was coming on “by

another train.” Before she had time to think what her next move might be she was confronted by an imposingly attired lady, who seemed to be taking a

35 prolonged mental inventory of her clothes and looks.

“You must be Miss Hope, the governess I?ve come to meet,” said the apparition, in a tone that admitted

of very little argument.

“Very well, if I must I must,” said Lady Carl otta to 40 herself with dangerous meekness.

“I am Mrs. Quabarl,” continued the lady; “and where, pray, is your luggage?”

“It?s gone astray,” said the alleged governess, falling in with the excellent rule of life that the absent 45 are always to blame; the luggage had, in point of fact, behaved with perfect correctitude. “I?ve just telegraphed about it,” she added, with a nearer approach to truth.

“How provoking,” said Mrs. Quabarl; “these

50 railway companies are so careless. However, my maid can lend you things for the night,” and she led the way to her car.

During the drive to the Quabarl mansion

Lady Carlotta was impressively introduced to the

55 nature of the charge that had been thrust upon her; she learned that Claude and Wilfrid were delicate, sensitive young people, that Irene had the artistic

temperament highly developed, and that Viola was something or other else of a mould equally

60 common place among children of that class and type in the twentieth century.

“I wish them not only to be TAUGHT,” said Mrs. Quabarl, “but INTERESTED in what they learn. In their history lessons, for instance, you must try to

65 make them feel that they are being introduced tothe life-stories of men and women who really lived, not merely committing a mass of names and dates to memory. French, of course, I shall expect you to talk at meal-times several days in the week.”

70 “I shall talk French four days of the week and Russian in the remaining three.”

“Russian? My dear Miss Hope, no one in the

house speaks or understands Russian.”

“That will not embarrass me in the least,” said

75 Lady Carlotta coldly.

Mrs. Quabarl, to use a colloquial expression, was

knocked off her perch. She was one of those

imperfectly self-assured individuals who are

magnificent and autocratic as long as they are not

80 seriously opposed. The least show of unexpected

resistance goes a long way towards rendering them

cowed and apologetic. When the new governess

failed to express wondering admiration of the large

newly-purchased and expensive car, and lightly

85 alluded to the superior advantages of one or two

makes which had just been put on the market, the

discomfiture of her patroness became almost abject.

Her feelings were those which might have animated a

general of ancient warfaring days, on beholding his

90 heaviest battle-elephant ignominiously driven off

the field by slingers and javelin throwers.

1. Which choice best summarizes the passage?

A) A woman weighs the positive and negative aspects of accepting a new job.

B) A woman does not correct a stranger who mistakes her for someone else.

C) A woman impersonates someone else to seek revenge on an acquaintance.

D) A woman takes an immediate dislike to her new employer.

2. In line 2, ―turn‖ most nearly means

A) slight movement.

B) change in rotation.

C) short walk.

D) course correction.

3. The passage most clearly implies that other people regarded Lady Carlotta as

A) outspoken.

B) tactful.

C) ambitious.

D) unfriendly.

4. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

A) Lines 10-14 (―Certain . . . business‖)

B) Lines 22-23 (―It is . . . lady‖)

C) Lines 23-26 (―On this . . . her‖)

D) Lines 30-32 (―She . . . train‖)

5. The description of how Lady Carlotta ―put the doctrine of non-interference into practice‖ (lines 14-15) mainly serves to

A) foreshadow her capacity for deception.

B) illustrate the subtle cruelty in her nature.

C) provide a humorous insight into her character.

D) explain a surprising change in her behavior.

6. In line 55, ―charge‖ most nearly means

A) responsibility.

B) attack.

C) fee.

D) expense.

7. The narrator indicates that Claude, Wilfrid, Irene, and Viola are

A) similar to many of their peers.

B) unusually creative and intelligent.

C) hostile to the idea of a governess.

D) more educated than others of their age.

8. The narrator implies that Mrs. Quabarl favors a form of education that emphasizes

A) traditional values.

B) active engagement.

C) artistic experimentation.

D) factual retention.

9. As presented in the passage, Mrs. Quabarl is best described as

A) superficially kind but actually selfish.

B) outwardly imposing but easily defied.

C) socially successful but irrationally bitter.

D) naturally generous but frequently imprudent.

10. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

A) Lines 49-50 (―How . . . careless‖)

B) Lines 62-68 (―I wish. . . memory‖)

C) Lines 70-73 (―I shall . . . Russian‖)

D) Lines 77-82 (―She was . . . apologetic‖)

Questions 11-20 are based on the following passage and supplementary material.

This passage is adapted from Taras Grescoe, Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile. ?2012 by Taras Grescoe.

Though there are 600 million cars on the planet,

and counting, there are also seven billion people,

which means that for the vast majority of us getting

around involves taking buses, ferryboats, commuter

5 trains, street cars, and subways. In other words,

traveling to work, school, or the market means being

a straphanger: somebody who, by choice or necessity,

relies on public transport, rather than a privately owned automobile.

10 Half the population of New York, Toronto, and

London do not own cars. Public transport is how

most of the people of Asia and Africa, the world?s

most populous continents, travel. Every day, subway

systems carry 155 million passengers, thirty-four

15 times the number carried by all the world?s airplanes,

and the global public transport market is now valued

at $428 billion annually. A century and a half after

the invention of the internal combustion engine, private car ownership is still an anomaly.

20 And yet public transportation, in many minds, is the opposite of glamour—a squalid last resort for those with one too many impaired driving charges, too poor to afford insurance, or too decrepit to get behind the wheel of a car. In much of North

25 America, they are right: taking transit is a depressing experience. Anybody who has waited far too long on a street corner for the privilege of boarding a lurching, overcrowded bus, or wrestled luggage onto subways and shuttles to get to a big city airport,

30 knows that transit on this continent tends to be underfunded, ill-maintained, and ill-planned. Given the opportunity, who wouldn?t drive? Hopping in a car almost always gets you to your destination more quickly.

35 It doesn?t have to be like this. Done right, public transport can be faster, more comfortable, and cheaper than the private automobile. In Shanghai, German-made magnetic levitation trains skim over elevated tracks at 266 miles an hour, whisking people 40 to the airport at a third of the speed of sound. In provincial French towns, electric-powered streetcars run silently on rubber tires, sliding through narrow streets along a single guide rail set into cobblestones. From Spain to Sweden, Wi-Fi equipped high-speed 45 trains seamlessly connect with highly ramified metro networks, allowing commuters to work on laptops as

they prepare for same-day meetings in once distant capital cities. In Latin America, China, and India, working people board fast-loading buses that move 50 like subway trains along dedicated busways, leaving the sedans and SUVs of the rich mired in

dawn-to-dusk traffic jams. And some cities have transformed their streets into cycle-path freeways, making giant strides in public health and safety and 55 the sheer livability of their neighborhoods—in the process turning the workaday bicycle into a viable form of mass transit.

If you credit the demographers, this transit trend has legs. The “Millenials,” who reached adulthood

60 around the turn of the century and now outnumber baby boomers, tend to favor cities over suburbs, and are far more willing than their parents to ride buses and subways. Part of the reason is their ease with iPads, MP3 players, Kindles, and smartphones: you 65 can get some serious texting done when you?re not driving, and earbuds offer effective insulation from

all but the most extreme commuting annoyances. Even though there are more teenagers in the country than ever, only ten million have a driver?s license

70 (versus twelve milliona generation ago). Baby boomers may have been raised in Leave It to Beaver suburbs, but as they retire, a significant contingent is favoring older cities and compact towns where they have the option of walking and riding bikes. Seniors, 75 too, are more likely to use transit, and by2025, there

will be 64 million Americans over the age of

sixty-five. Already, dwellings in older neighborhoods

in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Denver, especially

those near light-rail or subway stations, are

80 commanding enormous price premiums over

suburban homes. The experience of European and

Asian cities shows that if you make buses, subways,

and trains convenient, comfortable, fast, and safe, a

surprisingly large percentage of citizens will opt to

85 ride rather than drive.

11. What function does the third paragraph (lines 20-34) serve in the passage as a

whole?

A) It acknowledges that a practice favored by the author of the passage has some limitations.

B) It illustrates with detail the arguments made in the first two paragraphs of the passage.

C) It gives an overview of a problem that has not been sufficiently addressed by the experts mentioned in the passage.

D) It advocates for abandoning a practice for which the passage as a whole provides mostly favorable data.

12. Which choice does the author explicitly cite as an advantage of automobile travel in North America?

A) Environmental impact

B) Convenience

C) Speed

D) Cost

13. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

A) Lines 5-9 (―In . . . automobile‖)

B) Lines 20-24 (―And . . . car‖)

C) Lines 24-26 (―In . . . experience‖)

D) Lines 32-34 (―Hopping . . . quickly‖)

14. The central idea of the fourth paragraph (lines 35-57) is that

A) European countries excel at public transportation.

B) some public transportation systems are superior to travel by private automobile.

C) Americans should mimic foreign public transportation systems when possible.

D) much international public transportation is engineered for passengers to work while on board.

15. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

A) Line 35 (―It . . . this‖)

B) Lines 35-37 (―Done . . . automobile‖)

C) Lines 37-40 (―In . . . sound‖)

D) Lines 44-48 (―From . . . cities‖)

16. As used in line 58, ―credit‖ most nearly means

A) endow.

B) attribute.

C) believe.

D) honor.

17. As used in line 61, ―favor‖ most nearly means

A) indulge.

B) prefer.

C) resemble.

D) serve.

18. Which choice best supports the conclusion that public transportation is compatible with the use of personal electronic devices?

A) Lines 59-63 (―The . . . subways‖)

B) Lines 63-67 (―Part . . . annoyances‖)

C) Lines 68-70 (―Even . . . ago‖)

D) Lines 77-81 (―Already . . . homes‖)

19. Which choice is supported by the data in the first figure?

A) The number of students using public transportation is greater than the number of retirees using public transportation.

B) The number of employed people using public transportation and the number of unemployed people using public transportation is roughly the same.

C) People employed outside the home are less likely to use public transportation than are homemakers.

D) Unemployed people use public transportation less often than do people employed outside the home.

20. Taken together, the two figures suggest that most people who use public transportation

A) are employed outside the home and take public transportation to work.

B) are employed outside the home but take public transportation primarily in order to run errands.

C) use public transportation during the week but use their private cars on weekends.

D) use public transportation only until they are able to afford to buy a car. Questions 21-30 are based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Thor Hanson, Feathers. ?2011 by Thor Hanson. Scientists have long debated how the ancestors of birds evolved the ability to fly. The ground-up theory assumes they were fleet-footed ground dwellers that captured prey by leaping and flapping their upper limbs. The tree-down theory assumes they were tree climbers that leapt and glided among branches.

At field sites around the world, Ken Dial saw a

pattern in how young pheasants, quail, tinamous,

and other ground birds ran along behind their

Line parents. “They jumped up like popcorn,” he said,

5 describing how they would flap their half-formed

wings and take short hops into the air. So when a

group of graduate students challenged him

to come up with new data on the age-old

ground-up-tree-down debate, he designed a project

10 to see what clues might lie in how baby game birds

learned to fly.

Ken settled on the Chukar Partridge as a

model species, but he might not have made his

discovery without a key piece of advice from the local

15 rancher in Montana who was supplying him with

birds. When the cowboy stopped by to see how

things were going, Ken showed him his nice, tidy

laboratory setup and explained how the birds? first

hops and flights would be measured. The rancher

20 was i ncredulous. “He took one look and said, in

pretty colorful language, …What are those birds doing

on the ground? They hate to be on the ground! Give

them something to climb on!? ” At first it seemed

unnatural—ground birds don?t like the ground? But

25 as he thought about it Ken realized that all the

species he?d watched in the wild preferred to rest on ledges, low branches, or other elevated perches where they were safe from predators. They really only used the ground for feeding and traveling. So he brought

30 in some hay bales for the Chukars to perch on and then left his son in charge of feeding and data collection while he went away on a short work trip.

Barely a teenager at the time, young Terry Dial was visibly upset when his father got back. “I asked

35 him how it went,” Ken recalled,“ and he said, …Terrible! The birds are cheating!? ” Instead of flying

up to their perches, the baby Chukars were using

their legs. Time and again Terry had watched them

run right up the side of a hay bale, flapping all the

40 while. Ken dashed out to see for himself, and that

was the “aha” moment. “The birds were using their wings and legs cooperatively,” he told me, and that single observation opened up a world of possibilities. Working together with Terry (who has since gone 45 on to study animal locomotion), Ken came up with a series of ingenious experiments, filming the birds as they raced up textured ramps tilted at increasing angles. As the incline increased, the partridges began

to flap, but they angled their wings differently from

50 birds in flight. They aimed their flapping down and backward, using the force not for lift but to keep

their feet firmly pressed against the ramp. “It?s l ike

the spoiler on the back of a race car,” he explained, which is a very apt analogy. In Formula One racing,

55 spoilers are the big aerodynamic fins that push the

cars downward as they speed along, increasing

traction and handling. The birds were doing the very

same thing with their wings to help them scramble

up otherwise impossible slopes.

60 Ken called the technique WAIR, for wing-assisted

incline running, and went on to document it in a

wide range of species. It not only allowed young

birds to climb vertical surfaces within the first few

weeks of life but also gave adults an energy-efficient

65 alternative to flying. In the Chukar experiments,

adults regularly used WAIR to ascend ramps steeper

than 90 degrees, essentially running up the wall and

onto the ceiling.

In an evolutionary context, WAIR takes on

70 surprising explanatory powers. With one fell swoop,

the Dials came up with a viable origin for the

flapping flight stroke of birds (something gliding

animals don?t do and thus a shortcoming of the

tree-down theory) and an aerodynamic function for

75 half-formed wings (one of the main drawbacks to the

ground-up hypothesis).

21. Which choice best reflects the overall sequence of events in the passage?

A) An experiment is proposed but proves unworkable; a less ambitious experiment is attempted, and it yields data that give rise to a new set of questions.

B) A new discovery leads to reconsideration of a theory; a classic study is adapted, and the results are summarized.

C) An anomaly is observed and simulated experimentally; the results are compared with previous findings, and a novel hypothesis is proposed.

D) An unexpected finding arises during the early phase of a study; the study is modified in response to this finding, and the results are interpreted and evaluated.

22. As used in line 7, ―challenged‖ most nearly means

A) dared.

B) required.

C) disputed with.

D) competed with.

23. Which statement best captures Ken Dial‘s central assumption in setting up his research?

A) The acquisition of flight in young birds sheds light on the acquisition of flight in their evolutionary ancestors.

B) The tendency of certain young birds to jump erratically is a somewhat recent evolved behavior.

C) Young birds in a controlled research setting are less likely than birds in the wild to require perches when at rest.

D) Ground-dwelling and tree-climbing predecessors to birds evolved in parallel.

24. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

A) Lines 1-4 (―At field . . . parents‖)

B) Lines 6-11 (―So when . . . fly‖)

C) Lines 16-19 (―When . . . measured‖)

D) Lines 23-24 (―At first . . . the ground‖)

25. In the second paragraph (lines 12-32), the incident involving the local rancher mainly serves to

A) reveal Ken Dial‘s motivation for undertaking his project.

B) underscore certain differences between laboratory and field research.

C) show how an unanticipated piece of information influenced Ken Dial‘s research.

D) introduce a key contributor to the tree-down theory.

26. After Ken Dial had his ―?aha‘ moment‖ (line 41), he

A) tried to train the birds to fly to their perches.

B) studied videos to determine why the birds no longer hopped.

C) observed how the birds dealt with gradually steeper inclines.

D) consulted with other researchers who had studied Chukar Partridges.

27.T he passage identifies which of the following as a factor that facilitated the baby Chukars‘ traction on steep ramps?

A) The speed with which they climbed

B) The position of their flapping wings

C) The alternation of wing and foot movement

D) Their continual hopping motions

28. As used in line 61, ―document‖ most nearly means

A) portray.

B) record.

C) publish.

D) process.

29. What can reasonably be inferred about gliding animals from the passage?

A) Their young tend to hop along beside their parents instead of flying beside them.

B) Their method of locomotion is similar to that of ground birds.

C) They use the ground for feeding more often than for perching.

D) They do not use a flapping stroke to aid in climbing slopes.

30. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

A) Lines 4-6 (―They jumped . . . air‖)

B) Lines 28-29 (―They really . . . traveling‖)

C) Lines 57-59 (―The birds . . . slopes‖)

D) Lines 72-74 (―something . . . theory‖)

Questions 31-41 are based on the following passages.

Passage 1 is adapted from Talleyrand et al., Report on Public Instruction. Originally published in 1791. Passage 2 is adapted from Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Originally published in 1792. Talleyrand was a French diplomat; the Report was a plan for national education. Wollstonecraft, a British novelist and political writer, wrote Vindication in response to Talleyrand.

Passage 1

That half the human race is excluded by the other

half from any participation in government; that they

are native by birth but foreign by law in the very land w

here they were born; and that they are

5 property-owners yet have no direct influence or representation: are all political phenomena apparently impossible to explain on abstract principle. But on another level of ideas, the question changes and may be easily resolved. The purpose of 10 all these institutions must be the happiness of the greatest number. Everything that leads us farther from this purpose is in error; everything that brings us closer is truth. If the exclusion from public employments decreed against women leads to a

15 greater sum of mutual happiness for the two sexes, then this becomes a law that all Societies have been compelled to acknowledge and sanction.

Any other ambition would be a reversal of our primary destinies; and it will never be in women?s

20 interest to change the assignment they have received. It seems to us incontestable that our common happiness, above all that of women, requires that they never aspire to the exercise of political rights and functions. Here we must seek their interests in 25 the wishes of nature. Is it not apparent, that their delicate constitutions, their peaceful inclinations, and the many duties of motherhood, set them apart from strenuous habits and onerous duties, and summon them to gentle occupations and the cares of the

30 home? And is it not evident that the great conserving principle of Societies, which makes the division of powers a source of harmony, has been expressed and