SAT Timed Quiz 10

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.

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.

To monitor changes to glaciers in Switzerland, the government periodically measures them for features like total area of ice and mean ice thickness, which are then reported in the Swiss Glacier Inventory. These measurements can be used to compare the glaciers. For example, the Gorner glacier had ______

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

• A. a larger area than either the Fiescher glacier or the Unteraar glacier.

• B. a smaller area than the Fiescher glacier but a larger area than the Unteraar glacier.

• C. a smaller area than either the Fiescher glacier or the Unteraar glacier.

• D. a larger area than the Fiescher glacier but a smaller area than the Unteraar glacier.

Ecologist Veronika Bókony and colleagues investigated within-species competition among common toads (Bufo bufo), a species that secretes various unpleasant-tasting toxins called bufadienolides in response to threats. The researchers tested B. bufo tadpoles' responses to different levels of competition by creating ponds with different tadpole population densities but a fixed amount of food. Based on analysis of the tadpoles after three weeks, the researchers concluded that increased competition drove bufadienolide production at the expense of growth.

Which choice uses data from the table to most effectively support the researchers' conclusion?

• A. The difference in average tadpole body mass was small between the low and medium population density conditions and substantially larger between the low and high population density conditions.

• B. Tadpoles in the low and medium population density conditions had substantially lower average bufadienolide concentrations but had greater average body masses than those in the high population density condition.

• C. Tadpoles in the high population density condition displayed a relatively modest increase in the average amount of bufadienolide but roughly double the average bufadienolide concentration compared to those in the low population density condition.

• D. Tadpoles produced approximately the same number of different bufadienolide toxins per individual across the population density conditions, but average tadpole body mass decreased as population density increased.

The share of the world’s population living in cities has increased dramatically since 1970, but this change has not been uniform. France and Japan, for example, were already heavily urbanized in 1970, with 70% or more of the population living in cities. The main contributors to the world’s urbanization since 1970 have been countries like Algeria, whose population went from ______

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

• A. less than 20% urban in 1970 to more than 50% urban in 2020.

• B. less than 40% urban in 1970 to around 90% urban in 2020.

• C. around 40% urban in 1970 to more than 70% urban in 2020.

• D. around 50% urban in 1970 to around 90% urban in 2020.

Martin Dančák, Wewin Tjiasmanto, and colleagues have identified a new carnivorous plant species (Nepenthes pudica) in Indonesia. Like other carnivorous plants, N. pudica has pitfall traps, or pitchers, that capture prey, but unlike others, the pitchers of N. pudica are located underground. The researchers unearthed the new species on fairly dry ridges with surfaces that host few other plants and animals. Therefore, the researchers hypothesize that the N. pudica species likely ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• A. is buried by nearby animals as they forage along the ridges for food.

• B. evolved to have underground traps to access more prey than would surface traps.

• C. formed pitchers early in development to absorb more moisture.

• D. represents one of many undiscovered carnivorous plant species in the region.

In their book Smart Pricing, Jagmohan Raju and Z. John Zhang consider musicians' use of the nontraditional "pay as you wish" pricing model. This model generally offers listeners the choice to pay more or less than a suggested price for a song or album—or even to pay nothing at all. As the authors note, that's the option most listeners chose for an album by the band Harvey Danger. Only about 1% opted to pay for the album, resulting in earnings below the band's expectations. But the authors also discuss musician Jane Siberry, who saw significant earnings from her "pay as you wish" online music store as a result of many listeners choosing to pay more than the store's suggested prices. Hence, the "pay as you wish" model may ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• A. hold greater financial appeal for bands than for individual musicians.

• B. cause most musicians who use the model to lower the suggested prices of their songs and albums over time.

• C. prove financially successful for some musicians but disappointing for others.

• D. more strongly reflect differences in certain musicians' popularity than traditional pricing models do.

Gestures in painting are typically thought of as bold, expressive brushstrokes. In the 1970s, American painter Jack Whitten built a 12-foot (3.7-meter) tool he named the "developer" to apply paint to an entire canvas in one motion, resulting in his series of "slab" paintings from that decade. Whitten described this process as making an entire painting in "one gesture," signaling a clear departure from the prevalence of gestures in his work from the 1960s. Some art historians claim this shift represents "removing gesture" from the process. Therefore, regardless of whether using the developer constitutes a gesture, both Whitten and these art historians likely agree that ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• A. any tool that a painter uses to create an artwork is capable of creating gestures.

• B. Whitten's work from the 1960s exhibits many more gestures than his work from the 1970s does.

• C. Whitten became less interested in exploring the role of gesture in his work as his career progressed.

• D. Whitten's work from the 1960s is much more realistic than his work from the 1970s is.

The following text is adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1837 story "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment." The main character, a physician, is experimenting with rehydrating a dried flower.

At first [the rose] lay lightly on the surface of the fluid, appearing to imbibe none of its moisture. Soon, however, a singular change began to be visible. The crushed and dried petals stirred and assumed a deepening tinge of crimson, as if the flower were reviving from a deathlike slumber.

As used in the text, what does the phrase "a singular" most nearly mean?

• A. a lonely

• B. a disagreeable

• C. an acceptable

• D. an extraordinary