SAT-OG-E-3

In the early 1800s, the Cherokee scholar Sequoyah

created the first script, or writing system, for an

Indigenous language in the United States. Because it

represented the sounds of spoken Cherokee so

accurately, his script was easy to learn and thus

quickly achieved _______ use: by 1830, over

90 percent of the Cherokee people could read and

write it.

Which choice completes the text with the most

logical and precise word or phrase?

• A) widespread

• B) careful

• C) unintended

• D) infrequent

When Mexican-American archaeologist Zelia Maria

Magdalena Nuttall published her 1886 research

paper on sculptures found at the ancient Indigenous

city of Teotihuacan in present-day Mexico, other

researchers readily _______ her work as ground

breaking; this recognition stemmed from her

convincing demonstration that the sculptures were

much older than had previously been thought.

Which choice completes the text with the most

logical and precise word or phrase?

• A) acknowledged

• B) ensured

• C) denied

• D) underestimated

Like other tribal nations, the Muscogee (Creek)

Nation is self-governing; its National Council

generates laws regulating aspects of community life

such as land use and healthcare, while the principal

chief and cabinet officials _______ those laws by

devising policies and administering services in

accordance with them.

Which choice completes the text with the most

logical and precise word or phrase?

• A) implement

• B) presume

• C) improvise

• D) mimic

In the Indigenous intercropping system known as the

Three Sisters, maize, squash, and beans form an

_______ web of relations: maize provides the

structure on which the bean vines grow; the squash

vines cover the soil, discouraging competition from

weeds; and the beans aid their two “sisters” by

enriching the soil with essential nitrogen.

Which choice completes the text with the most

logical and precise word or phrase?

• A) indecipherable

• B) ornamental

• C) obscure

• D) intricate

The artisans of the Igun Eronmwon guild in Benin

City, Nigeria, typically _______ the bronze- and

brass-casting techniques that have been passed down

through their families since the thirteenth century,

but they don’t strictly observe every tradition; for

example, guild members now use air-conditioning

motors instead of handheld bellows to help heat their

forges.

Which choice completes the text with the most

logical and precise word or phrase?

• A) experiment with

• B) adhere to

• C) improve on

• D) grapple with

Some economic historians _______ that late

nineteenth- and early twentieth-century households

in the United States experienced an economy of scale

when it came to food purchases—they assumed that

large households spent less on food per person than

did small households. Economist Trevon Logan

showed, however, that a close look at the available

data disproves this supposition.

Which choice completes the text with the most

logical and precise word or phrase?

• A) surmised

• B) contrived

• C) questioned

• D) regretted

The work of Kiowa painter T.C. Cannon derives its

power in part from the tension among his

_______ influences: classic European portraiture,

with its realistic treatment of faces; the American pop

art movement, with its vivid colors; and flatstyle, the

intertribal painting style that rejects the effect of

depth typically achieved through shading and

perspective.

Which choice completes the text with the most

logical and precise word or phrase?

• A) complementary

• B) unknown

• C) disparate

• D) interchangeable

New and interesting research conducted by

Suleiman A. Al-Sweedan and Moath Alhaj is inspired

by their observation that though there have been

many studies of the effect of high altitude on blood

chemistry, there is a _______ studies of the effect on

blood chemistry of living in locations below sea level,

such as the California towns of Salton City and

Seeley.

Which choice completes the text with the most

logical and precise word or phrase?

• A) quarrel about

• B) paucity of

• C) profusion of

• D) verisimilitude in

The following text is from Sarah Orne Jewett’s 1899

short story “Martha’s Lady.” Martha is employed by

Miss Pyne as a maid.

Miss Pyne sat by the window watching, in her

best dress, looking stately and calm; she seldom

went out now, and it was almost time for the

carriage. Martha was just coming in from the

garden with the strawberries, and with more

flowers in her apron. It was a bright cool evening

in June, the golden robins sang in the elms, and

the sun was going down behind the apple-trees

at the foot of the garden. The beautiful old house

stood wide open to the long-expected guest.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the

text?

• A) To convey the worries brought about by a new

  guest

• B) To describe how the characters have changed

  over time

• C) To contrast the activity indoors with the stillness

  outside

• D) To depict the setting as the characters await a

  visitor’s arrival

Astronomers are confident that the star Betelgeuse

will eventually consume all the helium in its core and

explode in a supernova. They are much less

confident, however, about when this will happen,

since that depends on internal characteristics of

Betelgeuse that are largely unknown. Astrophysicist

Sarafina El-Badry Nance and colleagues recently

investigated whether acoustic waves in the star could

be used to determine internal stellar states but

concluded that this method could not sufficiently

reveal Betelgeuse’s internal characteristics to allow its

evolutionary state to be firmly fixed.

Which choice best describes the function of the

second sentence in the overall structure of the text?

• A) It explains how the work of Nance and

  colleagues was received by others in the field.

• B) It presents the central finding reported by Nance

  and colleagues.

• C) It identifies the problem that Nance and

  colleagues attempted to solve but did not.

• D) It describes a serious limitation of the method

  used by Nance and colleagues.