SAT Timed Quiz 12

NASA's Cassini probe has detected an unusual wobble in the rotation of Mimas, Saturn's smallest moon. Using a computer model to study Mimas's gravitational interactions with Saturn and tidal forces, geophysicist Alyssa Rhoden and colleagues have proposed that this wobble could be due to a liquid ocean moving beneath the moon's icy surface. The researchers believe other moons should be examined to see if they too might have oceans hidden beneath their surfaces.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

• A. Rhoden and colleagues were the first to confirm that several of Saturn's moons contain hidden oceans.

• B. Research has failed to identify signs that there is an ocean hidden beneath the surface of Mimas.

• C. Rhoden and colleagues created a new computer model that identifies moons with hidden oceans without needing to analyze the moons' rotation.

• D. Research has revealed that an oddity in the rotation of Mimas could be explained by an ocean hidden beneath its surface.

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 2022, researchers rediscovered ancient indigenous glyphs, or drawings, on the walls of a cave in Alabama. The cave's ceiling was only a few feet high, affording no position from which the glyphs, being as wide as ten feet, could be viewed or photographed in their entirety. However, the researchers used a technique called photogrammetry to assemble numerous photos of the walls into a 3D model. They then worked with representatives of tribes originally from the region, including the Chickasaw Nation, to understand the significance of the animal and humanoid figures adorning the cave.

According to the text, what challenge did the researchers have to overcome to examine the glyphs?

• A. The cave was so remote that the researchers couldn't easily reach it.

• B. Some of the glyphs were so faint that they couldn't be photographed.

• C. The cave's dimensions prevented the researchers from fully viewing the glyphs.

• D. The researchers were unable to create a 3D model of the cave.

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.

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.

Electric companies that use wind turbines rely on weather forecasts to predict the maximum amount of power, in megawatt-hours (MWh), they can generate using wind so that they can determine how much they'll need to generate from other sources. When winds are stronger than they were forecast to be, however, the predicted maximum amount of electricity wind turbines could generate will be too low. For example, the graph shows that for the West region, the winds were ______

Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to complete the example?

• A. strong enough to generate about 150 thousand more MWh of electricity from wind turbines.

• B. so weak that the electricity from wind turbines was about 175 thousand MWh less than predicted.

• C. so weak that the electricity from wind turbines was about 150 thousand MWh less than predicted.

• D. strong enough to generate about 175 thousand more MWh of electricity from wind turbines.

Digital paywalls restrict access to online content to those with a paid subscription. In an investigation of the effect of paywalls on newspaper company revenues for print and digital subscriptions and advertising, Doug J. Chung and colleagues compared actual outcomes (with a paywall) to control estimates (without a paywall). The researchers concluded that introducing a paywall is generally more beneficial for larger newspapers, which have high circulation and tend to offer a substantial amount of unique online content.

Which choice best describes data from the table that support Chung and colleagues' conclusion?

• A. The Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times had similar total revenue changes, but the Los Angeles Times had a smaller percentage change.

• B. The Los Angeles Times had a 12.5% revenue change, while the Chicago Tribune had a 19% revenue change.

• C. The New York Times had a 20% revenue change, while The Denver Post had a -1% revenue change.

• D. The Denver Post had only a -1% revenue change, which was the smallest percentage change of the selected companies.

Researchers Suchithra Rajendran and Maximilian Popfinger modeled varying levels of passenger redistribution from short-haul flights (flights of 50 to 210 minutes, from takeoff to landing) to high-speed rail trips. Planes travel faster than trains, but air travel typically requires 3 hours of lead time for security, baggage handling, and boarding that rail travel doesn't, so short-haul routes take similar amounts of time by air and by rail. However, the model suggests that as rail passenger volumes approach current capacity limits, long lead times emerge. Therefore, for rail to remain a viable alternative to short-haul flights, ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• A. rail systems should offer fewer long-haul routes and airlines should offer more long-haul routes.

• B. rail systems may need to schedule additional trains for these routes.

• C. security, baggage handling, and boarding procedures used by airlines may need to be implemented for rail systems.

• D. passengers who travel by rail for these routes will need to accept that lead times will be similar to those for air travel.

Off-off-Broadway theaters emerged in the late 1950s as a rebellion against mainstream Broadway theaters in New York, freeing artists to create productions that were more experimental than typical Broadway shows. One such artist was playwright María Irene Fornés. Working with off-off Broadway theaters enabled Fornés not only to direct her own plays but also to direct them exactly as she intended them to be staged, regardless of how strange the results might have seemed to audiences accustomed to Broadway shows. In this way, Fornés ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• A. would have been more famous if she had created plays that were mainstream instead of experimental.

• B. recognized that staging an off-off-Broadway play was more complicated than staging a Broadway play.

• C. wrote plays that would have been too expensive to produce if someone else had directed the production.

• D. illustrates the artistic opportunity offered by off-off Broadway theaters.