SAT Timed Quiz 6

Many intellectual histories of the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s rely heavily on essays and other explicitly ideological works as primary sources, a tendency that can overrepresent the perspectives of a small number of thinkers, most of whom were male. Historian Ashley D. Farmer has shown that expanding the array of primary sources to encompass more types of print material—including political cartoons, advertisements, and artwork—leads to a much better understanding of the movement and the crucial and diverse roles that Black women played in shaping it.

Which choice best describes the main idea of the text?

• A. Before Farmer's research, historians had largely ignored the intellectual dimensions of the Black Power movement.

• B. Farmer's methods and research have enriched the historical understanding of the Black Power movement and Black women's contributions to it.

• C. Other historians of the Black Power movement have criticized Farmer's use of unconventional primary sources.

• D. The figures in the Black Power movement whom historians tend to cite would have agreed with Farmer's conclusions about women's roles in the movement.

In a study of new technology adoption, Davit Marikyan et al. examined negative disconfirmation (which occurs when experiences fall short of one's expectations) to determine whether it could lead to positive outcomes for users. The team focused on established users of "smart home" technology, which presents inherent utilization challenges but tends to attract users with high expectations, often leading to feelings of dissonance. The researchers found that many users employed cognitive mechanisms to mitigate those feelings, ultimately reversing their initial sense of disappointment.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

• A. Research suggests that users with high expectations for a new technology can feel content with that technology even after experiencing negative disconfirmation.

• B. Research suggests that most users of smart home technology will not achieve a feeling of satisfaction given the utilization challenges of such technology.

• C. Although most smart home technology is aimed at meeting or exceeding users' high expectations, those expectations in general remain poorly understood.

• D. Although negative disconfirmation has often been studied, little is known about the cognitive mechanisms shaping users' reactions to it in the context of new technology adoption.

In a paper about p-i-n planar perovskite solar cells (one of several perovskite cell architectures designed to collect and store solar power), Lyndsey McMillon-Brown et al. describe a method for fabricating the cell's electronic transport layer (ETL) using a spray coating. Conventional ETL fabrication is accomplished using a solution of nanoparticles. The process can result in a loss of up to 80% of the solution, increasing the cost of manufacturing at scale—an issue that may be obviated by spray coating fabrication, which the researchers describe as "highly reproducible, concise, and practical."

What does the text most strongly suggest about conventional ETL fabrication?

• A. It typically entails a greater loss of nanoparticle solution than do other established approaches for ETL fabrication.

• B. It is less suitable for manufacturing large volumes of planar p-i-n perovskite solar cells than an alternative fabrication method may be.

• C. It is somewhat imprecise and therefore limits the potential effectiveness of p-i-n planar perovskite solar cells at capturing and storing solar power.

• D. It is more expensive when manufacturing at scale than are processes for fabricating ETLs used in other perovskite solar cell architectures.

The following text is adapted from Edgar Allan Poe's 1849 story "Landor's Cottage."

During a pedestrian trip last summer, through one or two of the river counties of New York, I found myself, as the day declined, somewhat embarrassed about the road I was pursuing. The land undulated very remarkably; and my path, for the last hour, had wound about and about so confusedly, in its effort to keep in the valleys, that I no longer knew in what direction lay the sweet village of B——, where I had determined to stop for the night.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

• A. The narrator explains the difficulties he encountered on a trip and how he overcame them.

• B. The narrator describes what he saw during a long trip through a frequently visited location.

• C. The narrator recalls fond memories of a journey that he took through some beautiful river counties.

• D. The narrator remembers a trip he took and admits to getting lost.

The following text is from Edith Nesbit's 1902 novel Five Children and It. Five young siblings have just moved with their parents from London to a house in the countryside that they call the White House.

It was not really a pretty house at all; it was quite ordinary, and mother thought it was rather inconvenient, and was quite annoyed at there being no shelves, to speak of, and hardly a cupboard in the place. Father used to say that the ironwork on the roof and coping was like an architect's nightmare. But the house was deep in the country, with no other house in sight, and the children had been in London for two years, without so much as once going to the seaside even for a day by an excursion train, and so the White House seemed to them a sort of Fairy Palace set down in an Earthly Paradise.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

• A. The house is beautiful and well built, but the children miss their old home in London.

• B. The children don't like the house nearly as much as their parents do.

• C. Each member of the family admires a different characteristic of the house.

• D. Although their parents believe the house has several drawbacks, the children are enchanted by it.

Many governments that regularly transfer money to individuals—to provide supplemental incomes for senior citizens, for example—have long done so electronically, but other countries typically have distributed physical money and have only recently developed electronic transfer infrastructure. Researchers studied the introduction of an electronic transfer system in one such location and found that recipients of electronic transfers consumed a different array of foods than recipients of physical transfers of the same amount did. One potential explanation for this result is that individuals conceive of and allocate funds in physical money differently than they conceive of and allocate funds in electronic form.

Which finding from the study, if true, would most directly weaken the potential explanation?

• A. Recipients of electronic transfers typically spent their funds at a slower rate than recipients of physical transfers did.

• B. Some recipients of physical transfers received small amounts of money relatively frequently, while others received large amounts relatively infrequently.

• C. Recipients of physical transfers tended to purchase food about as frequently as recipients of electronic transfers did.

• D. Nearly every recipient of an electronic transfer withdrew the entire amount in physical money shortly after receiving the transfer.

The Milky Way galaxy is composed of millions of stars in a relatively flat structure containing a thin disk and a thick disk. Based on computer simulations and analysis of data on the brightness, position, and chemical composition of about 250,000 stars in the thick disk (collected from two telescopes, one in China and one orbiting in space), astrophysicists Maosheng Xiang and Hans-Walter Rix claim that the thick disk of the Milky Way formed in two distinct phases rather than a single one.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers’ claim?

• A. There's an age difference of about 2 billion years between certain stars in the thick disk.

• B. The stars in the Milky Way tend to have very similar chemical compositions.

• C. The thin disk contains about twice as many stars that can be seen from Earth as the thick disk does.

• D. The telescopes used by the researchers have detected stars of similar ages in galaxies other than the Milky Way.

Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Héctor Tobar has built a multifaceted career as both a journalist and an author of short stories and novels. In an essay about Tobar's work, a student claims that Tobar blends his areas of expertise by applying journalism techniques to his creation of works of fiction.

Which quotation from a literary critic best supports the student's claim?

• A. For one novel, an imagined account of a real person's global travels, Tobar approached his subject like a reporter, interviewing people the man had met along the way and researching the man's own writings.

• B. Tobar got his start as a volunteer for El Tecolote, a community newspaper in San Francisco, and wrote for newspapers for years before earning a degree in creative writing and starting to publish works of fiction.

• C. Many of Tobar's notable nonfiction articles are marked by the writer's use of techniques usually associated with fiction, such as complex narrative structures and the incorporation of symbolism.

• D. The protagonist of Tobar's third novel is a man who wants to be a novelist and keeps notes about interesting people he encounters so he can use them when developing characters for his stories.

"Mr. Cornelius Johnson, Office-Seeker" is a 1900 short story by Paul Laurence Dunbar. In the story, the narrator describes Mr. Cornelius Johnson's appearance as conveying his exaggerated sense of his importance: ______

Which quotation from "Mr. Cornelius Johnson, Office-Seeker" most effectively illustrates the claim?

• A. He carried himself always as if he were passing under his own triumphal arch.

• B. The grey Prince Albert was scrupulously buttoned about his form, and a shiny top hat replaced the felt of the afternoon.

• C. Mr. Cornelius Johnson always spoke in a large and important tone.

• D. It was a beautiful day in balmy May and the sun shone pleasantly on Mr. Cornelius Johnson's very spruce Prince Albert suit of grey as he alighted from the train in Washington.

Sense and Sensibility is an 1811 novel by Jane Austen. In the novel, Austen describes Marianne Dashwood’s ability to persuade others of the rightness of her artistic judgments, as is evident when Marianne visits with John Willoughby, a potential suitor: ______

Which quotation from Sense and Sensibility most effectively illustrates the claim?

• A. Above all, when she heard him declare, that of music and dancing he was passionately fond, she gave him such a look of approbation as secured the largest share of his discourse to herself for the rest of his stay.

• B. Their taste was strikingly alike. The same books, the same passages were idolized by each—or if any difference appeared, any objection arose, it lasted no longer than till the force of her arguments and the brightness of her eyes could be displayed.

• C. It was only necessary to mention any favourite amusement to engage her to talk. She could not be silent when such points were introduced, and she had neither shyness nor reserve in their discussion.

• D. They speedily discovered that their enjoyment of dancing and music was mutual, and that it arose from a general conformity of judgment in all that related to either. Encouraged by this to a further examination of his opinions, she proceeded to question him on the subject of books.