SAT #14

Researcher Lin Zhi developed a process for increasing the tensile strength—measured in gigapascals, or GPa—of silkworm _____ dissolving and reweaving the silk in a solution of iron metal ions, zinc, and sugar, Zhi increased the amount of force required to stretch it from approximately 0.5 GPa to 2 GPa. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• silk, by

• silk by

• silk and by

• silk. By

A subseasonal weather forecast attempts to predict weather conditions three to four weeks in _____ its predictions are therefore more short-term than those of the seasonal forecast, which attempts to predict the weather more than a month in advance. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• advance,

• advance

• advance;

• advance and

Working from an earlier discovery of Charpentier’s, chemists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna—winners of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry—re-created and then reprogrammed the so-called “genetic scissors” of a species of DNA-cleaving bacteria _____ a tool that is revolutionizing the field of gene technology. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• to forge

• forging

• forged

• and forging

In discussing Mary Shelley's 1818 epistolary novel Frankenstein, literary theorist Gayatri Spivak directs the reader’s attention to the character of Margaret Saville. As Spivak points out, Saville is not the protagonist of Shelley’s _____ as the recipient of the letters that frame the book’s narrative, she’s the “occasion” of it. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• novel

• novel,

• novel; rather,

• novel, rather,

As British scientist Peter Whibberley has observed, “the Earth is not a very good timekeeper.” Earth’s slightly irregular rotation rate means that measurements of time must be periodically adjusted. Specifically, an extra “leap second” (the 86,401st second of the day) is _____ time based on the planet’s rotation lags a full nine-tenths of a second behind time kept by precise atomic clocks. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

• added, whenever

• added; whenever

• added. Whenever

• added whenever