Question ID a15b3219

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: a15b3219

Municipalities’ Responses to Inquiries

about Potential Incentives for Firm
1,300
1,200
Number of municipalities

1,100
1,000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
e iry ve
ons u ti
p nq en
res o i nc
no edt redi
ond o ffe
p
res

announcement before election

announcement after election

In the United States, firms often seek incentives from municipal governments to expand to those municipalities. A team of
political scientists hypothesized that municipalities are much more likely to respond to firms and offer incentives if
expansions can be announced in time to benefit local elected officials than if they can’t. The team contacted officials in
thousands of municipalities, inquiring about incentives for a firm looking to expand and indicating that the firm would
announce its expansion on a date either just before or just after the next election.

Which choice best describes data from the graph that weaken the team’s hypothesis?

A large majority of the municipalities that received an inquiry mentioning plans for an announcement before the next
A. election didn’t respond to the inquiry.

The proportion of municipalities that responded to the inquiry or offered incentives didn’t substantially differ across the
B. announcement timing conditions.
 Only around half the municipalities that responded to inquiries mentioning plans for an announcement before the next
C. election offered incentives.

Of the municipalities that received an inquiry mentioning plans for an announcement date after the next election, more
D. than 1,200 didn’t respond and only around 100 offered incentives.
Question ID 7a1877be
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 7a1877be

Nucleobase Concentrations from Murchison Meteorite and Soil Samples in Parts per Billion

Nucleobase Murchison meteorite sample 1 Murchison meteorite sample 2 Murchison soil sample

Isoguanine 0.5 0.04 not detected

Purine 0.2 0.02 not detected

Xanthine 39 3 1

Adenine 15 1 40

Hypoxanthine 24 1 2

Employing high-performance liquid chromatography—a process that uses pressurized water to separate material into its
component molecules—astrochemist Yashiro Oba and colleagues analyzed two samples of the Murchison meteorite that
landed in Australia as well as soil from the landing zone of the meteorite to determine the concentrations of various organic
molecules. By comparing the relative concentrations of types of molecules known as nucleobases in the Murchison
meteorite with those in the soil, the team concluded that there is evidence that the nucleobases in the Murchison meteorite
formed in space and are not the result of contamination on Earth.

Which choice best describes data from the table that support the team’s conclusion?

A. Isoguanine and purine were detected in both meteorite samples but not in the soil sample.

B. Adenine and xanthine were detected in both of the meteorite samples and in the soil sample.

C. Hypoxanthine and purine were detected in both the Murchison meteorite sample 2 and in the soil sample.

D. Isoguanine and hypoxanthine were detected in the Murchison meteorite sample 1 but not in sample 2.
Question ID 04cbeca3
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 04cbeca3
In 1534 CE, King Henry VIII of England split with the Catholic Church and declared himself head of the Church of England, in
part because Pope Clement VII refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Two years later, Henry VIII introduced a
policy titled the Dissolution of the Monasteries that by 1540 had resulted in the closure of all Catholic monasteries in
England and the confiscation of their estates. Some historians assert that the enactment of the policy was primarily
motivated by perceived financial opportunities.

Which quotation from a scholarly article best supports the assertion of the historians mentioned in the text?

“At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, about 2 percent of the adult male population of England were monks;
A. by 1690, the proportion of the adult male population who were monks was less than 1 percent.”

“A contemporary description of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Michael Sherbrook’s Falle of the Religious Howses,
recounts witness testimony that monks were allowed to keep the contents of their cells and that the monastery timber
B. was purchased by local yeomen.”

“In 1535, the year before enacting the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry commissioned a survey of the value of
church holdings in England—the work, performed by sheriffs, bishops, and magistrates, began that January and was
C. swiftly completed by the summer.”

“The October 1536 revolt known as the Pilgrimage of Grace had several economic motives: high food prices due to a
poor harvest the prior year; the Dissolution of the Monasteries, which closed reliable sources of food and shelter for
D. many; and rents and taxes throughout Northern England that were not merely high but predatory.”
Question ID ccb1ab92
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence
 ID: ccb1ab92

Fur Seal REM Sleep on Land

after an Extended Period
in Water
baseline was not statistically

180
REM sleep as % of baseline

160
(mean difference from

140
significant)

120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Day 1 Day 2
Sleep on land

Seal B
Seal A
Seal C

Research suggests that REM sleep in animals is homeostatically regulated: animals compensate for periods of REM sleep
deprivation by increasing subsequent REM sleep. When on land, fur seals get enough REM sleep, but during the weeks
they’re in the water, they get almost none. In a study of fur seals’ sleep habits, researchers recorded the REM sleep (as a
percentage of baseline) of fur seals once they had returned to land. They concluded that REM sleep may not be
homeostatically regulated in fur seals, citing as evidence the fact that the seals in the study ______

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

A. didn’t show significantly less REM sleep during the second day after returning to land than they did during the first day.

B. showed no significant differences from one another in baseline levels of REM sleep.

C. didn’t consistently demonstrate a significant increase in REM sleep after their period of deprivation in the water.

D. showed no significant difference between REM sleep after returning to land and REM sleep while in the water.
Question ID be19faa1
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: be19faa1

Home Heating Needs Met with Subsurface

Thermal Pollution for Two Temperature
Conditions, by Percentage of Sites
Percentage of all sites analyzed

90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0% 25% 25%
p to ha
n
U e t
or
M
Local heating needs met

Current surface temperature

Maximum plausible surface
temperature

Urbanization, industrialization, and the warming climate create thermal pollution (excess heat) in the shallow subsurface
soil. Susanne A. Benz and colleagues analyzed thousands of sites on three continents under one scenario in which surface
temperature remains at the current level and under another in which the surface reaches the maximum plausible
temperature. They then categorized each site according to the percentage of local home heating needs that could be met
using this excess subsurface heat. The team concluded that if surface temperature approaches the maximum plausible
level, the percentage of sites where thermal pollution could feasibly contribute to meeting home heating needs will increase.

Which choice best describes data in the graph that support Benz and colleagues’ conclusion?
 Under both temperature conditions, less than 10% of sites were in the up-to-25% group, but at the maximum plausible
A. surface temperature, almost 80% of sites could have all their local heating needs met by thermal pollution.

At current surface temperatures, more than 80% of the sites have no need for supplemental local home heating from
subsurface thermal pollution, but at the maximum plausible surface temperature, more than 70% of sites exhibit
B. significantly greater home heating needs.

At current surface temperatures, more than 80% of sites can meet, at most, 25% of local home heating needs with
subsurface thermal pollution, but at the maximum plausible surface temperature, more than 80% of sites can meet
C. greater than 25% of local home heating needs.

At current surface temperatures, more than 80% of the sites cannot use subsurface thermal pollution to meet any portion
D. of local home heating needs, but at the maximum plausible surface temperature, that percentage drops below 20%.
Question ID dd1757fd
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: dd1757fd
Neural networks are computer models intended to reflect the organization of human brains and are often used in studies of
brain function. According to an analysis of 11,000 such networks, Rylan Schaeffer and colleagues advise caution when
drawing conclusions about brains from observations of neural networks. They found that when attempting to mimic grid
cells (brain cells used in navigation), while 90% of the networks could accomplish navigation-related tasks, only about 10%
of those exhibited any behaviors similar to those of grid cells. But even this approximation of grid-cell activity has less to do
with similarity between the neural networks and biological brains than it does with the rules programmed into the networks.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the claim in the underlined sentence?

The rules that allow for networks to exhibit behaviors like those of grid cells have no equivalent in the function of
A. biological brains.

The networks that do not exhibit behaviors like those of grid cells were nonetheless programmed with rules that had
B. proven useful in earlier neural-network studies.

Neural networks can often accomplish tasks that biological brains do, but they are typically programmed with rules to
C. model multiple types of brain cells simultaneously.

Once a neural network is programmed, it is trained on certain tasks to see if it can independently arrive at processes that
D. are similar to those performed by biological brains.
Question ID 09f9edb0
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 09f9edb0
In the 1980s, many musicians and journalists in the English-speaking world began to draw attention to music from around
the globe—such as mbaqanga from South Africa and quan họ from Vietnam—that can’t be easily categorized according to
British or North American popular music genres, typically referring to such music as “world music.” While some scholars
have welcomed this development for bringing diverse musical forms to prominence in countries where they’d previously
been overlooked, musicologist Su Zheng claims that the concept of world music homogenizes highly distinct traditions by
reducing them all to a single category.

Which finding about mbaqanga and quan họ, if true, would most directly support Zheng’s claim?

A. Mbaqanga and quan họ developed independently of each other and have little in common musically.

B. Mbaqanga is significantly more popular in the English-speaking world than quan họ is.

Mbaqanga and quan họ are now performed by a diverse array of musicians with no direct connections to South Africa or
C. Vietnam.

Mbaqanga and quan họ are highly distinct from British and North American popular music genres but similar to each
D. other.
Question ID 39e440e4
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 39e440e4
Archaeologists have held that the Casarabe culture, which emerged in the southwestern Amazon basin in the first
millennium CE, was characterized by a sparse, widely distributed population and little intervention in the surrounding
wilderness. Recently, however, archaeologist Heiko Prümers and colleagues conducted a study of the region using remote-
sensing technology that enabled them to create three-dimensional images of the jungle-covered landscape from above, and
the researchers concluded that the Casarabe people developed a form of urbanism in the Amazon basin.

Which finding about the remote-sensing images, if true, would most directly support Prümers and colleagues’ conclusion?

They show shapes consistent with widely separated settlements of roughly equal small size surrounded by uncultivated
A. jungle.

They show shapes consistent with long-distance footpaths running from Casarabe territories to large cities outside the
B. region inhabited by the Casarabe people.

C. They show shapes consistent with scattered small farms created by clearing jungle areas near sources of fresh water.

They show shapes consistent with monumental platforms and dense central settlements linked to smaller settlements
D. by a system of canals and roadways.
Question ID 156ff681
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: 156ff681
Many governments that regularly transfer money to individuals—to provide supplemental incomes for senior citizens, for
example—have long done so electronically, but other countries typically have distributed physical money and have only
recently developed electronic transfer infrastructure. Researchers studied the introduction of an electronic transfer system in
one such location and found that recipients of electronic transfers consumed a different array of foods than recipients of
physical transfers of the same amount did. One potential explanation for this result is that individuals conceive of and
allocate funds in physical money differently than they conceive of and allocate funds in electronic form.

Which finding from the study, if true, would most directly weaken the potential explanation?

A. Recipients of electronic transfers typically spent their funds at a slower rate than recipients of physical transfers did.

Nearly every recipient of an electronic transfer withdrew the entire amount in physical money shortly after receiving the
B. transfer.

C. Recipients of physical transfers tended to purchase food about as frequently as recipients of electronic transfers did.

Some recipients of physical transfers received small amounts of money relatively frequently, while others received large
D. amounts relatively infrequently.
Question ID dc87adf4
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Command of

Ideas Evidence

ID: dc87adf4
Barchester Towers is an 1857 novel by Anthony Trollope. In the novel, Trollope’s portrayal of Dr. Proudie underscores the
character’s exaggerated sense of his own abilities: ______

Which quotation from Barchester Towers most effectively illustrates the claim?

“It must not…be taken as proved that Dr. Proudie was a man of great mental powers, or even of much capacity for
A. business, for such qualities had not been required in him.”

“[Dr. Proudie] was comparatively young, and had, as he fondly flattered himself, been selected as possessing such gifts,
B. natural and acquired, as must be sure to recommend him to a yet higher notice.”

“[Dr. Proudie’s] residence in the metropolis, rendered necessary by duties thus entrusted to him, his high connexions, and
C. the peculiar talents and nature of the man, recommended him to persons in power.”

“[Dr. Proudie] was certainly possessed of sufficient tact to answer the purpose for which he was required without making
D. himself troublesome.”
Question ID fba5d8d1
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries

Conventions

ID: fba5d8d1
In a 2016 study, Eastern Washington University psychologist Amani El-Alayli found that, among the study participants who
experienced frisson (a physiological response akin to goosebumps or getting the chills) while listening to music, there was
one personality trait that they scored particularly ______ openness to experience.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. high. On

B. high on;

C. high on

D. high on:
Question ID 6ea8c23f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries

Conventions

ID: 6ea8c23f
In 2018, a team of researchers led by Dr. Caitlin Whalen compiled every available measurement of ocean mixing rates from
the past two decades. With this novel data set, the team was able to determine how current-driven mixing varies across
______ and what impact it has on the distribution of heat and nutrients in the ocean.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. regions,

B. regions:

C. regions;

D. regions
Question ID aab74a3b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries

Conventions

ID: aab74a3b
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?

A. silk, by

B. silk by

C. silk and by

D. silk. By
Question ID a9e5b788
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries

Conventions

ID: a9e5b788
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?

A. novel

B. novel,

C. novel; rather,

D. novel, rather,
Question ID 790fc366
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries

Conventions

ID: 790fc366
Using satellite remote sensing, Dr. Catherine Nakalembe, director of NASA’s Harvest Africa initiative, gathers important data
on crop health. Nakalembe doesn’t just compile the ______ she also shares her findings with African farmers, enabling them
to make data-driven decisions about managing critical food crops.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. information, though;

B. information, though,

C. information; though

D. information though,
Question ID 2bb7416a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries

Conventions

ID: 2bb7416a
In paleontology, the term “Elvis taxon” gets applied to a newly identified living species that was once presumed to be extinct.
Like an Elvis impersonator who might bear a striking resemblance to the late musical icon Elvis Presley himself, an Elvis
taxon is not the real thing, ______ is a misidentified look-alike.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. however but it

B. however it

C. however, it

D. however. It
Question ID 59094d87
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries

Conventions

ID: 59094d87
The Tantaquidgeon Museum in Uncasville, Connecticut, was founded in 1931 with the goal of showcasing the culture and
history of the Mohegan ______ today, nearly a century later, it is the oldest Native-owned and -operated museum in the
country.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. Tribe, and

B. Tribe

C. Tribe and

D. Tribe,
Question ID 594b4a94
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries

Conventions

ID: 594b4a94
The field of geological oceanography owes much to American ______ Marie Tharp, a pioneering oceanographic cartographer
whose detailed topographical maps of the ocean floor and its multiple rift valleys helped garner acceptance for the theories
of plate tectonics and continental drift.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. geologist,

B. geologist

C. geologist;

D. geologist:
Question ID fdb16e20
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries

Conventions

ID: fdb16e20
Quantum particles of light—photons—provide an unhackable means of transmitting encryption keys over networks, as
attempts to observe particles in quantum states will invariably alter the particles ______ dismantle any information they
transmit.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. and in the process,

B. and, in the process,

C. and in the process—

D. and, in the process

Question ID 6d4b2e1e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries

Conventions

ID: 6d4b2e1e
The 1977 play And the Soul Shall Dance depicts two Japanese American farming families in Depression-era Southern
California. Critics have noted the way pioneering ______ compares the experiences of issei (Japanese nationals who
emigrated to America) and nisei (their American-born children).

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. playwright, Wakako Yamauchi,

B. playwright, Wakako Yamauchi

C. playwright Wakako Yamauchi,

D. playwright Wakako Yamauchi

Question ID 109d5bbb
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries

Conventions

ID: 109d5bbb
With some 16,000 in attendance, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and ______ or FESTAC ‘77, as the event
was more commonly known—became the largest pan-African event on record. FESTAC drew people from around the world
to Lagos, Nigeria, for a monthlong celebration of Black and African art, scholarship, and activism.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. Culture:

B. Culture—

C. Culture,

D. Culture
Question ID 97e5bf55
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: 97e5bf55
Text 1
In 1916, H. Dugdale Sykes disputed claims that The Two Noble Kinsmen was coauthored by William Shakespeare and John
Fletcher. Sykes felt Fletcher’s contributions to the play were obvious—Fletcher had a distinct style in his other plays, so much
so that lines with that style were considered sufficient evidence of Fletcher’s authorship. But for the lines not deemed to be
by Fletcher, Sykes felt that their depiction of women indicated that their author was not Shakespeare but Philip Massinger.
Text 2
Scholars have accepted The Two Noble Kinsmen as coauthored by Shakespeare since the 1970s: it appears in all major one-
volume editions of Shakespeare’s complete works. Though scholars disagree about who wrote what exactly, it is generally
held that on the basis of style, Shakespeare wrote all of the first act and most of the last, while John Fletcher authored most
of the three middle acts.

Based on the texts, both Sykes in Text 1 and the scholars in Text 2 would most likely agree with which statement?

A. John Fletcher’s writing has a unique, readily identifiable style.

B. The women characters in John Fletcher’s plays are similar to the women characters in Philip Massinger’s plays.

C. The Two Noble Kinsmen belongs in one-volume compilations of Shakespeare’s complete plays.

D. Philip Massinger’s style in the first and last acts of The Two Noble Kinsmen is an homage to Shakespeare’s style.
Question ID 105ea6de
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: 105ea6de
Text 1
Growth in the use of novel nanohybrids—materials created from the conjugation of multiple distinct nanomaterials, such as
iron oxide and gold nanomaterials conjugated for use in magnetic imaging—has outpaced studies of nanohybrids’
environmental risks. Unfortunately, risk evaluations based on nanohybrids’ constituents are not reliable: conjugation may
alter constituents’ physiochemical properties such that innocuous nanomaterials form a nanohybrid that is anything but.
Text 2
The potential for enhanced toxicity of nanohybrids relative to the toxicity of constituent nanomaterials has drawn deserved
attention, but the effects of nanomaterial conjugation vary by case. For instance, it was recently shown that a nanohybrid of
silicon dioxide and zinc oxide preserved the desired optical transparency of zinc oxide nanoparticles while mitigating the
nanoparticles’ potential to damage DNA.

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

By concurring that the risk described in Text 1 should be evaluated but emphasizing that the risk is more than offset by
A. the potential benefits of nanomaterial conjugation

By arguing that the situation described in Text 1 may not be representative but conceding that the effects of
B. nanomaterial conjugation are harder to predict than researchers had expected

By denying that the circumstance described in Text 1 is likely to occur but acknowledging that many aspects of
C. nanomaterial conjugation are still poorly understood

By agreeing that the possibility described in Text 1 is a cause for concern but pointing out that nanomaterial conjugation
D. does not inevitably produce that result
Question ID c4737d6a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: c4737d6a
Text 1
Africa’s Sahara region—once a lush ecosystem—began to dry out about 8,000 years ago. A change in Earth’s orbit that
affected climate has been posited as a cause of desertification, but archaeologist David Wright also attributes the shift to
Neolithic peoples. He cites their adoption of pastoralism as a factor in the region drying out: the pastoralists’ livestock
depleted vegetation, prompting the events that created the Sahara Desert.
Text 2
Research by Chris Brierley et al. challenges the idea that Neolithic peoples contributed to the Sahara’s desertification. Using
a climate-vegetation model, the team concluded that the end of the region’s humid period occurred 500 years earlier than
previously assumed. The timing suggests that Neolithic peoples didn’t exacerbate aridity in the region but, in fact, may have
helped delay environmental changes with practices (e.g., selective grazing) that preserved vegetation.

Based on the texts, how would Chris Brierley (Text 2) most likely respond to the discussion in Text 1?

By pointing out that given the revised timeline for the end of the Sahara’s humid period, the Neolithic peoples’ mode of
A. subsistence likely didn’t cause the region’s desertification

By claiming that pastoralism was only one of many behaviors the Neolithic peoples took part in that may have
B. contributed to the Sahara’s changing climate

C. By insisting that pastoralism can have both beneficial and deleterious effects on a region’s vegetation and climate

By asserting that more research needs to be conducted into factors that likely contributed to the desertification of the
D. Sahara region
Question ID a87c3925
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: a87c3925
Text 1
Soy sauce, made from fermented soybeans, is noted for its umami flavor. Umami—one of the five basic tastes along with
sweet, bitter, salty, and sour—was formally classified when its taste receptors were discovered in the 2000s. In 2007, to
define the pure umami flavor scientists Rie Ishii and Michael O’Mahony used broths made from shiitake mushrooms and
kombu seaweed, and two panels of Japanese and US judges closely agreed on a description of the taste.
Text 2
A 2022 experiment by Manon Jünger et al. led to a greater understanding of soy sauce’s flavor profile. The team initially
presented a mixture of compounds with low molecular weights to taste testers who found it was not as salty or bitter as real
soy sauce. Further analysis of soy sauce identified proteins, including dipeptides, that enhanced umami flavor and also
contributed to saltiness. The team then made a mix of 50 chemical compounds that re-created soy sauce’s flavor.

Based on the texts, if Ishii and O’Mahony (Text 1) and Jünger et al. (Text 2) were aware of the findings of both experiments,
they would most likely agree with which statement?

On average, the diets of people in the United States tend to have fewer foods that contain certain dipeptides than the
A. diets of people in Japan have.

Chemical compounds that activate both the umami and salty taste receptors tend to have a higher molecular weight than
B. those that only activate umami taste receptors.

Fermentation introduces proteins responsible for the increase of umami flavor in soy sauce, and those proteins also
C. increase the perception of saltiness.

The broths in the 2007 experiment most likely did not have a substantial amount of the dipeptides that played a key part
D. in the 2022 experiment.
Question ID f3c45b4f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: f3c45b4f
Text 1
Fossils of the hominin Australopithecus africanus have been found in the Sterkfontein Caves of South Africa, but assigning
an age to the fossils is challenging because of the unreliability of dating methods in this context. The geology of Sterkfontein
has caused soil layers from different periods to mix, impeding stratigraphic dating, and dates cannot be reliably imputed
from those of nearby animal bones since the bones may have been relocated by flooding.
Text 2
Archaeologists used new cosmogenic nuclide dating techniques to reevaluate the ages of A. africanus fossils found in the
Sterkfontein Caves. This technique involves analyzing the cosmogenic nucleotides in the breccia—the matrix of rock
fragments immediately surrounding the fossils. The researchers assert that this approach avoids the potential for misdating
associated with assigning ages based on Sterkfontein’s soil layers or animal bones.

Based on the texts, how would the researchers in Text 2 most likely respond to the underlined portion in Text 1?

They would emphasize the fact that the A. africanus fossils found in the Sterkfontein Caves may have been corrupted in
A. some way over the years.

They would contend that if analyses of surrounding layers and bones in the Sterkfontein Caves were combined, then the
B. dating of the fossils there would be more accurate.

They would argue that their techniques are better suited than other methods to the unique challenges posed by the
C. Sterkfontein Caves.

They would claim that cosmogenic nuclide dating is reliable in the context of the Sterkfontein Caves because it is applied
D. to the fossils directly.
Question ID f7c02e89
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: f7c02e89
Text 1
Films and television shows commonly include a long list of credits naming the people involved in a production. Credit
sequences may not be exciting, but they generally ensure that everyone’s contributions are duly acknowledged. Because they
are highly standardized, film and television credits are also valuable to anyone researching the careers of pioneering cast
and crew members who have worked in the mediums.
Text 2
Video game scholars face a major challenge in the industry’s failure to consistently credit the artists, designers, and other
contributors involved in making video games. Without a reliable record of which people worked on which games, questions
about the medium’s development can be difficult to answer, and the accomplishments of all but its best-known innovators
can be difficult to trace.

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

By recommending that the scholars mentioned in Text 2 consider employing the methods regularly used by film and
A. television researchers

By pointing out that credits have a different intended purpose in film and television than in the medium addressed by the
B. scholars mentioned in Text 2

By suggesting that the scholars mentioned in Text 2 rely more heavily on credits as a source of information than film and
C. television researchers do

By observing that a widespread practice in film and television largely prevents the kind of problem faced by the scholars
D. mentioned in Text 2
Question ID e4e2aeb3
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: e4e2aeb3
Text 1
Like the work of Ralph Ellison before her, Toni Morrison’s novels feature scenes in which characters deliver sermons of such
length and verbal dexterity that for a time, the text exchanges the formal parameters of fiction for those of oral literature.
Given the many other echoes of Ellison in Morrison’s novels, both in structure and prose style, these scenes suggest Ellison’s
direct influence on Morrison.
Text 2
In their destabilizing effect on literary form, the sermons in Morrison’s works recall those in Ellison’s. Yet literature by Black
Americans abounds in moments where interpolated speech erodes the division between oral and written forms that
literature in English has traditionally observed. Morrison’s use of the sermon is attributable not only to the influence of Ellison
but also to a community-wide strategy of resistance to externally imposed literary conventions.

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

As failing to consider Ellison’s and Morrison’s equivalent uses of the sermon within the wider cultural context in which
A. they wrote

B. As misunderstanding the function of sermons in novels by Black American writers other than Ellison and Morrison

C. As disregarding points of structural and stylistic divergence between the works of Ellison and those of Morrison

As being indebted to the tradition of resisting literary conventions that privilege written forms, such as novels, over
D. sermons and other oral forms
Question ID 6a1dc7c5
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: 6a1dc7c5
Text 1
Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel Orlando is an oddity within her body of work. Her other major novels consist mainly of scenes of
everyday life and describe their characters’ interior states in great detail, whereas Orlando propels itself through a series of
fantastical events and considers its characters’ psychology more superficially. Woolf herself sometimes regarded the novel
as a minor work, even admitting once that she “began it as a joke.”
Text 2
Like Woolf’s other great novels, Orlando portrays how people’s memories inform their experience of the present. Like those
works, it examines how people navigate social interactions shaped by gender and social class. Though it is lighter in tone—
more entertaining, even—this literary “joke” nonetheless engages seriously with the themes that motivated the four or five
other novels by Woolf that have achieved the status of literary classics.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the assessment of Orlando presented in Text 1?

By conceding that Woolf’s talents were best suited to serious novels but asserting that the humor in Orlando is often
A. effective

By agreeing that Orlando is less impressive than certain other novels by Woolf but arguing that it should still be regarded
B. as a classic

By acknowledging that Orlando clearly differs from Woolf’s other major novels but insisting on its centrality to her body
C. of work nonetheless

By concurring that the reputation of Orlando as a minor work has led readers to overlook this novel but maintaining that
D. the reputation is unearned
Question ID 17bf10de
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: 17bf10de
Text 1
Despite its beautiful prose, The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman’s 1962 analysis of the start of World War I, has certain
weaknesses as a work of history. It fails to address events in Eastern Europe just before the outbreak of hostilities, thereby
giving the impression that Germany was the war’s principal instigator. Had Tuchman consulted secondary works available to
her by scholars such as Luigi Albertini, she would not have neglected the influence of events in Eastern Europe on Germany’s
actions.
Text 2
Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August is an engrossing if dated introduction to World War I. Tuchman’s analysis of primary
documents is laudable, but her main thesis that European powers committed themselves to a catastrophic outcome by
refusing to deviate from military plans developed prior to the conflict is implausibly reductive.

Which choice best describes a difference in how the authors of Text 1 and Text 2 view Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of
August?

The author of Text 1 argues that Tuchman should have relied more on the work of other historians, while the author of
A. Text 2 implies that Tuchman’s most interesting claims result from her original research.

The author of Text 1 believes that the scope of Tuchman’s research led her to an incorrect interpretation, while the author
B. of Text 2 believes that Tuchman’s central argument is overly simplistic.

The author of Text 1 asserts that the writing style of The Guns of August makes it worthwhile to read despite any
perceived deficiency in Tuchman’s research, while the author of Text 2 focuses exclusively on the weakness of Tuchman’s
C. interpretation of events.

The author of Text 1 claims that Tuchman would agree that World War I was largely due to events in Eastern Europe,
while the author of Text 2 maintains that Tuchman would say that Eastern European leaders were not committed to
D. military plans in the same way that other leaders were.
Question ID de2c2f57
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Cross-Text

Connections

ID: de2c2f57
Text 1
The fossil record suggests that mammoths went extinct around 11 thousand years (kyr) ago. In a 2021 study of
environmental DNA (eDNA)—genetic material shed into the environment by organisms—in the Arctic, Yucheng Wang and
colleagues found mammoth eDNA in sedimentary layers formed millennia later, around 4 kyr ago. To account for this
discrepancy, Joshua H. Miller and Carl Simpson proposed that arctic temperatures could preserve a mammoth carcass on
the surface, allowing it to leach DNA into the environment, for several thousand years.
Text 2
Wang and colleagues concede that eDNA contains DNA from both living organisms and carcasses, but for DNA to leach
from remains over several millennia requires that the remains be perpetually on the surface. Scavengers and weathering in
the Arctic, however, are likely to break down surface remains well before a thousand years have passed.

Which choice best describes how Text 1 and Text 2 relate to each other?

Text 1 discusses two approaches to studying mammoth extinction without advocating for either, whereas Text 2
A. advocates for one approach over the other.

Text 1 presents findings by Wang and colleagues and gives another research team’s attempt to explain those findings,
B. whereas Text 2 provides additional detail that calls that explanation into question.

Text 1 describes Wang and colleagues’ study and a critique of their methodology, whereas Text 2 offers additional details
C. showing that methodology to be sound.

Text 1 argues that new research has undermined the standard view of when mammoths went extinct, whereas Text 2
D. suggests a way to reconcile the standard view with that new research.