Digital SAT Reading & Writing Test 2

The boss said to _______. The rain made the work impossible, and half the materials hadn’t been delivered on time. He was too frustrated to think!

Emily had _________ about being invited to Kayla’s house. The last time they hung out it hadn’t gone very well. In fact, Emily had stormed out angrily after Kayla made some rude comments.

The basic engineering degrees—mechanical, electrical, chemical, and civil —are consistently ranked in the top ten degrees in terms of __________ after graduation. As such, someone who wants to earn a high salary in a job after graduation may find an engineering degree to be a good fit

The issue is that car testers just don’t use female dummies. A female dummy was first requested by testers in the 1980s and wasn’t incorporated into tests by the National Highway Safety and Traffic Administration (NHSTA) until 2003. That female dummy is not adjusted in any way to make up for the difference in shape and composition between men and women—it is just a miniaturized model of the male dummy. In fact, it is so _________ that it only represents the smallest 5 percent of women. In addition, it is only used as a passenger in testing, never as a driver.

Psychological researchers should be more modest about the certainty of data that involves human behavior. After all, human behavior is more difficult to _________ measure than criteria that other scientific fields assess, like temperature or velocity

Nobody wants to feel easily influenced. Yet, I beg you to hear me out: advertising is everywhere because it works. U.S. companies spend an annual $70 billion in television ads, and this is before we take a look at other mediums of advertising like radios, magazines, website cookies, and even social media “sponsored” ads.

The following text is from Walt Whitman’s 1891 poem “A Promise to California.” The poem was written in the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War when the country was trying to heal its emotional wounds. A promise to California, Also to the great Pastoral Plains, and for Oregon: Sojourning east a while longer, soon I travel toward you, to remain, to teach robust American love; For I know very well that I and robust love belong among you, inland, and along the Western Sea; For These States tend inland, and toward the Western Sea—and I will also.

The following text is adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1920 novel This Side of Paradise . The novel opens with the following character introduction of Fitzgerald’s semi-autobiographical protagonist, Amory Blaine “Amory.” “Yes, Beatrice.” (Such a quaint name for his mother; she encouraged it.) “Dear, don’t think of getting out of bed yet. I’ve always suspected that early rising in early life makes one nervous. Clothilde is having your breakfast brought up.” “All right.” “I am feeling very old to-day, Amory,” she would sigh, her face a rare cameo of pathos, her voice exquisitely modulated, her hands as facile as Bernhardt’s. “My nerves are on edge—on edge. We must leave this terrifying place to-morrow and go searching for sunshine.”

An English professor analyzes the 1917 poem titled “The River Merchant’s Life: A Letter” by Li Bai, translated by Ezra Pound. The professor claims that the poem emphasizes the narrator’s desire for reunification with her departed husband: _____________

In general, crop rotation is fairly simple. In one year, a nitrogen-fixing plant, like a legume, will be planted. These crops deposit nitrogen into the soil. The following year a nitrogen-depleting crop should be planted and will thrive. This process can be repeated with different crops, all of which will either fix or remove nitrogen. For example, after planting a legume in a field for a growing season, a farmer would be well advised to plant _________

The following is an adaptation of remarks given by Don Evans (the secretary of commerce under George W. Bush) as part of a panel at an economics conference in December of 2004. Note: A tort is a type of lawsuit. I was in Missouri this last year, and I had a chance to really see up close and personal how [increased costs from healthcare lawsuits are] impacting the health care industry. I talked to a David Carpenter, who is the CEO of North Kansas City Hospital, and what he told me was that there had been 30 doctors that had moved from Missouri to Kansas because Kansas had, indeed, passed tort reform and had put some caps in place. So, you see it happening all across America, where doctors are moving around and trying to find a more friendly environment.

“An Encounter” is part of James Joyce’s 1914 short story collection, Dubliners . A young, unnamed narrator searches for release from the constraints of daily routine. An English student claims that the narrator’s willingness to follow the intellectual requirements of his school could best be described as “half-hearted: ___________”

Many studies suggest that while exercising and having a healthy diet can drastically reduce the concentration of cholesterol in our blood, genes do play a crucial role in an individual’s risk of cardiovascular disease. The strong role genes play in cholesterol processing is seen in bears, especially polar bears. Polar bears are among the most fat-obsessed members of the animal kingdom, yet they do not experience any cardiovascular complications. About half of a polar bear’s weight is fat and its blood cholesterol levels are high enough that they would cause serious cardiovascular disease in humans; even so, ________

As Mendeleev assembled the periodic table, he had noticed several gaps in the pattern of properties which—cleverly—he hypothesized to be areas held by yet undiscovered elements. Apart from reserving space on the table for these elements, he went so far as to predict not only their existence, but their chemical properties as well. Several years later, the spectroscopic discovery of one of these elements—specifically gallium—and the confirmation of Mendeleev’s predictions caused the popularity of his theory to skyrocket, and ______________

Birdfeeders attract birds, but they also attract foragers like squirrels and chipmunks. There are several methods for keeping them away from feeders; a common one is putting the feeder on a tall pole at least five feet away from bushes and trees and adding a ________

In a situation where CPR is being administered in a public space, oftentimes no one calls medics because they assume someone else already _________

Today, the concept of the high school rock band __________ yet students still have lofty dreams of making a career out of something equally improbable: social media.

The possibility of becoming a physician assistant or a nurse practitioner allows students to become health care professionals who _________ people without the rigors of medical school and the associated student debt.

Rodents only make up a portion of a _____________ Servals will also use their large ears to listen carefully for the flutter of bird wings overhead or the buzz of an insect nearby.

Schrödinger posited the issue of when superposition collapses into reality— when multiple occupying states simultaneously _________ one or the other.

Even in his short life, Cannon managed to make an enduring difference. _______________ In his wake, Native American art was refreshed, moving away from strict rules that had governed traditional forms and into a new space where artists could be more expressive by using traditional styles and concepts while incorporating modern ideas and inspirations.

Melodies are so loved that people will hum them even when they are trying to concentrate on other things. Beats are so universally loved that babies will dance to them, and hard-of-hearing people will seek out their vibrations. _____________ in music. Humans, since the very beginning of our species, have used them to express joy, sadness, heartache, love, and pain

Technology has transformed how job seekers should present their qualifications to prospective employers. __________ the old paper resume needed to be concise and fit within the scope of one or two pages, your online career profile can be much more thorough.

Working class families will continue to buy only in neighborhoods where they can afford homes, and where home values are unpredictable. __________ they will face further financial instability; meanwhile, the privileged few who can afford to purchase real estate in New York, Chicago, London, and so on, will see their returns peak.

While conducting research, a student took these notes: Gyoja monks, also known as Marathon monks, are a Buddhist group in Japan. Each monk, over seven years, walks around 27,000 miles, generally at a rate of 25 miles per day for months on end. Toward the end of the seven years, the monks will walk up to 52 miles per day. The grueling physical demands of completing this task on little food or sleep often proves to be fatal—only around 50 monks have completed the task in the past 135 years. This challenge of prayer, meditation, and physical discipline, when completed, leads to the monk being known as a living saint.

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: The type of springs used in the seating surface of furniture impacts comfort and durability. Furniture constructed with eight-way hand-tied coil springs can be expected to be extremely durable and very comfortable to sit on. Eight-way hand-tied coil springs involve a labor-intensive fabrication process. Sinuous springs are more common than eight-way hand-tied coil springs. Sinuous springs have a wide range of costs due to flexibility in the quality of the materials used.

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: Offshore wind farms are an increasingly viable source of renewable energy. These wind farms are typically located on the surface of the ocean near coastal cities. The average wind speed offshore tends to be higher than on land since there are fewer geographical obstacles to wind gusts. Wind farms can often be placed relatively close to major coastal urban areas, thereby reducing the distance needed for electricity transmission. While wind farms offshore are promising, increased research should be done to minimize the maintenance costs for these facilities.

We rarely pause mid-recipe to consider the chemistry of cooking, but understanding the chemical reactions occurring in our food will help us to become better cooks. Isn’t that some food for thought ?

Despite the wide applicability of the ABC-X model, like any other theory, it has faced critiques of its usefulness. One of the major critiques is its focus on serious stressor events and inaccessibility to smaller, everyday stressors. Another _________ is its inability to consider how multiple stressors may affect the current stressor situation.

Tests should operate as an assessment of what is practiced daily inside the classroom. Classroom teachers who teach to well-written standards ___________ that students are prepared for the next grade level.

A folklorist may enter a city or village or subculture and begin to participate in that population’s day-to-day life. Possibly, they may end up studying a story, a joke, a dance, a dish, or even a child’s game—an apparently trivial practice that, when looked at closely, turns out to be quite __________.

In the 1990s, amidst concern for its effect on wildlife, DDT was largely banned; bedbugs slowly began their comeback. By 2010 their numbers were spiking. Because of a huge increase in personal travel since the last time the bugs were an issue, they spread faster than ever. Laundromats, hotels, and libraries became ___________ for transmission. Bug eggs can get tucked into suitcases when traveling, or into books that you check out from the library. In communal living areas (like apartment buildings), they can crawl from one apartment to another as they look for human hosts on which to feed.

Studies show that younger children are much better suited to learn multiple languages at one time, with the effects reaching from elevated attentiveness to enhanced musical abilities. According to the Cornell Language Acquisition Lab, elementary language learners are 70% more likely to reach an intermediate level of communication compared to those who begin in high school. The incorporation of multiple language study at an early age creates more culturally aware students, but it results in more measurable impacts as well: students who study language before the age of 10—when brain capacity is at its highest—test better in all core subjects, including English, Reading, and Math. Greater cognitive development encourages exceptional creativity and divergent thinking.

Text 1 Film star Charlie Chaplain was much more than a mere entertainer. In his 1939 film The Great Dictator , Chaplin delivers an impassioned speech in which he condemns dictators, prejudice, and xenophobia. Knowing the historical context, Chaplin was clearly making a commentary on Hitler, Mussolini, and fascism. This speech is widely regarded as one of the most powerful performances in film history, which is rather ironic—Chaplin was famous as a silent film star, after all. Text 2 Stephen Spielberg is a master of the close-up—nearly every Spielberg film features an extended close-up on a wide-eyed, shocked face experiencing awe or terror. Some critics find this technique manipulative, alleging that this technique suggests that the audience should likewise respond with shock or awe at the events onscreen, even if such a response has not been emotionally “earned” by the scene. But what some call a cheap trick, others call engaging cinema.

The following text is from Willa Cather’s 1918 novel My Ántonia. When Jim was still an obscure young lawyer, struggling to make his way in New York, his career was suddenly advanced by a brilliant marriage. Genevieve Whitney was the only daughter of a distinguished man. Her marriage with young Burden was the subject of sharp comment at the time. It was said she had been brutally jilted by her cousin, Rutland Whitney, and that she married this unknown man from the West out of bravado. She was a restless, headstrong girl, even then, who liked to astonish her friends.

The following text is adapted from Octave Uzanne’s 1894 work “The End of Books.” In this story, a group of gentlemen gathers after dinner to discuss what they think the future holds. Eventually they come to the topic of the future of books and the following monologue is given by one of the group. If by books you are to be understood as referring to our innumerable collections of paper, printed, sewed, and bound in a cover announcing the title of the work, I own to you frankly that I do not believe (and the progress of electricity and modern mechanism forbids me to believe) that Gutenberg’s invention can do otherwise than sooner or later fall into desuetude as a means of current interpretation of our mental products. Printing . . . which has changed the destiny of Europe, and which, especially during the last two centuries, has governed opinion through the book, the pamphlet, and the newspaper—printing, which since 1436 has reigned despotically over the mind of man, is, in my opinion, threatened with death by the various devices for registering sound which have lately been invented, and which little by little will go to perfection.

Author Mary Shelly composed a novel called The Last Man in 1826. The narrator of this story suggests that the greatest obstacle to his father’s success is an inability to follow through on his commitments: __________________

Meteorologists in the Northern Hemisphere hypothesize that by observing the most common conditions in which a tornado might form, they can better predict the likelihood of tornado creation. With this knowledge in place, meteorologists can build public awareness about the increased possibility of tornadoes during certain conditions, helping citizens become more aware of potential danger. Given the meteorologists’ goal, they would be well-served to inform the public that there is an increased likelihood of tornado formation at ______________

“The Social Contract” is a 1763 treatise of political philosophy by Jean Jacques Rousseau. During the unsettled time in which the work was written, Rousseau advocated social cohesion. In fact, the central tenet of the social contract is that man must give himself entirely to the state to ensure social order: ___________________

Economists have observed that during times of economic recession, central banks tend to lower interest rates to help make the cost of having loans less expensive. Since interest payments comprise a major component of any loan, lowering interest rates will help consumers save money. If consumers can save money on interest, they have more money available to purchase goods and services, thereby stimulating the economy and helping the country emerge successfully from a recession. Economists hypothesize that in the relatively recent recession that started in early 2020, interest rates on a variety of loan products would decrease: _________________

An area in southern Ohio has been undergoing construction for the past two decades. New apartment complexes are replacing the forests that used to cover that area. Surprisingly, researchers have found that a type of bird, Species X, has been growing in population over that same period. Group 1 hypothesizes that the growth is due to detrimental environmental changes in another area, causing Species X to move from their preferred area into southern Ohio. Group 2 hypothesizes that the new landscape of southern Ohio is more suitable for Species X, leading more of them to move into the new area

The mite reproductive process causes significant distress to bee colonies since the mites themselves reproduce within a bee colony. The female mite plants herself into the brood cells of the honeycomb where the queen has laid an egg. The cell is then sealed as the egg hatches and the larva grows. During that time, the female mite lays her eggs on the larva so that when the new bee emerges from the cell to join the workforce, it already has mites and is in a weakened state. Since worker bees and beekeepers alike can’t see into the capped cell, no one knows how many of the capped cells are infested, and once the cell is uncapped, several more mites can harm the colony. This reproduction method makes the mites very difficult to get rid of as, at any given time, __________________

Originating in13th-century Japan, haikus were originally used as openings for longer poems called renga poems. But it wasn’t until Matsuo Bashō redefined haiku poetry that it __________ what it is today.

When taking out a loan, the fine print is key. It is important to understand the differences between fixed _________ throughout the term of the loan, and adjustable interest rates, which can change over time.

After the varnish is removed, repair can finally begin. New varnish can be applied and, before it dries, new paint can be mixed into the varnish on damaged areas to replace damaged paint. This method ___________ for the old paint to be preserved under the varnish, but for the painting to have a “face lift” and look like new on the surface.

For most students, social media is just a part of life. ______________ inundated with pictures and videos from “influencers” who appear to live lavish lifestyles and pay for it through sponsorships and ad revenues that come from having a large social media following

The layperson merely associates Newton with gravity and laws of motion, and Einstein with relativity and mass-energy equivalence, failing to understand the magnitude of __________ contribution

For the duration of the expedition, Commerson and Baret were aboard two different ships called the Boudeuse and the Étoile. During their trip, they went to the city of Montevideo, Uruguay; ____________________ and New Ireland, in the present-day Papua New Guinea.

Sweden’s aggressive new policies during the Great Depression came with a price tag, particularly from its massive investment in public works projects. ______ creating a large federal deficit, in 1934 Sweden became the first country to fully emerge from the Depression, and foreign creditors were quickly recompensed.

Humorism held medical discovery back for centuries at a time when the pure sciences were preparing for a renaissance; it established a systemic insularity in the field that cut medicine off from discoveries in biology, chemistry, and physics, and generated a remarkably long-lived illusion of comprehensiveness that categorically rejected revision and innovation. _________ humorism was a far more persistent enemy of medical science than was superstition because it wore the guise of naturalism

When people understand the idea of time and diversification, they need one final thing to help them be successful in the marketplace: a sense of calm. Panic buying and selling is never a good idea. If an account was started early and properly diversified, ______ severe market downturns should not incite panic. Instead, clear-thinking investors will see that the market will correct; rather than “selling low,” investors wait for the upswing (and maybe longer) in order to see the payout on their investments.

While conducting research, a student took these notes: In addition to the well-known IQ (Intelligence Quotient), people also have varying levels of EQ (Emotional Quotient), SQ (Social Quotient), and AQ (Adversity Quotient). People who develop IQ but not any emotional or social skills may struggle to succeed even if they are incredibly intelligent. AQ is a measure of how well people bounce back from adversarial events. A person without a degree of AQ may quickly give up in the face of adversity and may see failures as permanent situations instead of learning opportunities Parents should work to ensure that a variety of skills, not just academic prowess, are developed in early childhood.

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: There are many high- and low-tech ways to implement sustainable agriculture. Stover mulching uses leftover plant material to regenerate the soil and reduce water run-off. Genome editing of plants like rice can increase the efficiency with which the plant uses nutrients in the soil. Silt traps prevent agricultural run-off from reaching vulnerable waterways. Companion planting involves planting mutually beneficial crops closely to increase their success.

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: There are different ethical theories about how to determine the morality of different actions. Utilitarianism considers if the benefits of an action outweigh its costs— if they do, then the action is considered ethical. Some summarize the idea behind utilitarianism as. Some summarize the idea behind utilitarianism as “the ends justify the means.” Deontology is a competing ethical theory that considers actions to be ethical if they follow universal moral laws. Deontologists argue that people should follow ethical rules like “do not kill” or “do not steal,” even if the costs to humanity outweigh the benefits; they believe following duty is more important than a cost benefit analysis.