SAT FAVIAN-Craft & Structure 1

A brief book review cannot fully convey the ______ of Olga Tokarczuk's novel The Books of Jacob, with its enormous cast of characters, its complicated, wandering plot, and its page numbers that count backward (beginning at 965 and ending at 1). Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

• accuracy

• inactivity

• complexity

• restraint

Text 1

Dance choreographer Alvin Ailey’s deep admiration for jazz music can most clearly be felt in the rhythms and beats his works were set to. Ailey collaborated with some of the greatest jazz legends, like Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, and perhaps his favorite, Duke Ellington. With his choice of music, Ailey helped bring jazz to life for his audiences.

Text 2

Jazz is present throughout Ailey’s work, but it’s most visible in Ailey’s approach to choreography. Ailey often incorporated improvisation, a signature characteristic of jazz music, in his work. When managing his dance company, Ailey rarely forced his dancers to an exact set of specifc moves. Instead, he encouraged his dancers to let their own skills and experiences shape their performances, as jazz musicians do.

Based on the texts, both authors would most likely agree with which statement?

• Dancers who worked with Ailey greatly appreciated his supportive approach as a choreographer.

• Ailey's work was strongly influenced by jazz.

• Audiences were mostly unfamiliar with the jazz music in Ailey's works.

• Ailey blended multiple genres of music together when choreographing dance pieces.

The following text is from Nella Larsen’s 1928 novel Quicksand.

The trees in their spring beauty sent through her restive mind a sharp thrill of pleasure. Seductive, charming, and beckoning as cities were, they had not this easy unhuman loveliness.

As used in the text, what does the word 'beckoning' most nearly mean?

• Demanding

• Signaling

• Inviting

• Shifting

Text 1

Historians studying pre-Inca Peru have looked to ceramic vessels to understand daily life among the Moche people. These mold-made sculptures present plants, animals, and human faces in precise ways—vessels representing human faces are so detailed that scholars have interpreted facial markings to represent scars and other skin irregularities. Some historians have even used these objects to identify potential skin diseases that may have afflicted people at the time.

Text 2

Art historian and archaeologist Lisa Trever has argued that the interpretation of Moche “portrait” vessels as hyper-realistic portrayals of identifiable people may inadvertently disregard the creativity of the objects’ creators. Moche ceramic vessels, Trever argues, are artworks in which sculptors could free their imagination, using realistic objects and people around them as inspiration to explore more abstract concepts.

Based on the texts, what would Lisa Trever (Text 2) most likely say about the interpretation presented in the underlined portion of Text 1?

• Depictions of human faces are significantly more realistic than depictions of plants and other animals are.

• It is likely that some depictions of human faces with extensive markings are intended to portray the same historical individual.

• Some vessels may have been damaged during their excavation and thus provide little insight into Moche culture.

• Markings on depictions of human faces are not necessarily intended to portray particular details about the physical appearance of individuals.

Biologist Jane Edgeloe and colleagues have located what is believed to be the largest individual plant in the world in the Shark Bay area of Australia. The plant is a type of seagrass called Posidonia australis, and it ______ approximately 200 square kilometres. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

• acknowledges

• produces

• spans

• advances

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?

• widespread

• careful

• unintended

• infrequent

Companies are providing consumers with more opportunities to purchase customized products than ever before. Whether buying customized sneakers, jewellery, or clothing, consumers can participate in the design of products to meet their specific needs and tastes. In turn, companies proft too: studies have shown that consumers are willing to pay more and wait longer for a customized product. Still, it can be difficult for companies to offer customization while keeping costs low, as the standard methods of mass production may not be able to accommodate making a unique product each time.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

• It discusses several recent innovations in product manufacturing and then suggests some potential applications of those innovations.

• It describes a company's recent success with new products and then explains multiple factors that may have contributed to that success.

• It introduces a trend in consumer products and then explains how the trend both benefits and poses a challenge to companies.

• It presents two contrasting product-marketing techniques and then provides examples of one of those techniques.

Text 1

Italian painters in the 1500s rarely depicted themselves in their work. Even more rare were self-portrait paintings that portrayed the artist as a painter. At the time, painting was not yet respected as a profession, so painters mostly chose to emphasize other qualities in their self-portraits, like their intellect or social status. In the city of Bologna, the frst artist to depict themself painting was a man named Annibale Carracci. A painting of his from around 1585 shows Carracci in front of an easel holding a palette.

Text 2

In their self-portraits, Bolognese artists typically avoided referring to the act of painting until the mid-1600s. However, Lavinia Fontana’s 1577 painting, Self-Portrait at the Keyboard, stands out as the earliest example of such a work by an artist from Bologna. Although the artist is depicted playing music, in the background, one can spot a painting easel by a window.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the underlined claim in Text 1?

• Carracci and Fontana were among the most well-respected painters in Bologna at the time.

• The depiction of Fontana in Self-Portrait at the Keyboard was intended to underscore the artist's creativity.

• Fontana likely inspired the reference to an easel and palette in Carracci's painting.

• Self-Portrait at the Keyboard was painted earlier than Carracci's painting and also refers to the artist's craft.

In 1929 the Atlantic Monthly published several articles based on newly discovered letters allegedly exchanged between President Abraham Lincoln and a woman named Ann Rutledge. Historians were unable to ______ the authenticity of the letters, however, and quickly dismissed them as a hoax. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

• validate

• interpret

• relate

• accommodate

Historians Tiya Miles and Roy E. Finkenbine have both documented the assistance Indigenous peoples gave to Black freedom seekers leaving the South before the US Civil War. Much of the historical evidence of this help comes from Indigenous oral traditions and from autobiographies written by the freedom seekers. One such narrative is Jermain Loguen’s autobiography, which tells about how Neshnabé (Potawatomi) villagers offered him food, lodging, and directions during his 1835 journey from Tennessee to Canada

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence?

• It provides an example of an autobiography that describes help given by an Indigenous people to a Black freedom seeker.

• It shows why Loguen decided to write in great detail about his experiences traveling from Tennessee to Canada in his autobiography.

• It argues that autobiographies are particularly important sources of information about geography in the United States before the Civil War.

• It suggests that most historians believe that Neshnabé villagers were more successful in assisting freedom seekers than other people were.