Question ID 57485f5e

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: 57485f5e
The following text is adapted from Johanna Spyri’s 1881 novel Heidi (translated by Elisabeth Stork in 1915). Eight-
year-old Heidi and her friend’s grandmother are looking at some illustrated books.
Heidi had come and was looking with wondering eyes at the splendid pictures in the large books, that
Grandmama was showing her. Suddenly she screamed aloud, for there on the picture she saw a peaceful flock
grazing on a green pasture. In the middle a shepherd was standing, leaning on his crook. The setting sun was
shedding a golden light over everything. With glowing eyes Heidi devoured the scene.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A. Heidi is upset until she sees a serene image of a pasture in one of Grandmama’s books.
B. Heidi is delighted and fascinated by an image she sees in one of Grandmama’s books.
C. Heidi is initially frightened by an image in one of Grandmama’s books but quickly comes to appreciate its beauty.
D. Heidi is inspecting an image in one of Grandmama’s books because she has never seen a shepherd with his
sheep before.
Question ID 0b696a0c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: 0b696a0c
NASA’s Cassini probe has detected an unusual wobble in the rotation of Mimas, Saturn’s smallest moon. Using a
computer model to study Mimas’s gravitational interactions with Saturn and tidal forces, geophysicist Alyssa
Rhoden and colleagues have proposed that this wobble could be due to a liquid ocean moving beneath the moon’s
icy surface. The researchers believe other moons should be examined to see if they too might have oceans hidden
beneath their surfaces.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A. Rhoden and colleagues were the first to confirm that several of Saturn’s moons contain hidden oceans.
B. Research has failed to identify signs that there is an ocean hidden beneath the surface of Mimas.
C. Rhoden and colleagues created a new computer model that identifies moons with hidden oceans without
needing to analyze the moons’ rotation.
D. Research has revealed that an oddity in the rotation of Mimas could be explained by an ocean hidden beneath its
surface.
Question ID 23a7038f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: 23a7038f
Shimmering is a collective defense behavior that researchers have observed in giant honeybee colonies. When
shimmering, different groups of bees flip their bodies up and down in what looks like waves. This defense is initiated
when hornets hover near a colony, serving to deter the hornets from approaching the bees. Researchers
hypothesize that this behavior is a specialized defense response to hornets, as it is not observed when other, larger
predators approach the colony.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A. Researchers are unsure how giant honeybees defend against predators larger than hornets.
B. Researchers think that shimmering in giant honeybees is a specific defense against hornets.
C. Hornets are known to be the main predator of giant honeybees.
D. Several different species of insects use shimmering to defend against hornets.
Question ID dc5edbf6
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: dc5edbf6
Microplastics are pieces of plastic that are smaller than a grain of rice. These small plastics can be found in large
quantities in ocean waters. Ecologist Jessica Reichert and her team are studying the role reef-building corals have
in capturing microplastics from ocean waters. Through research, her team has found that these corals may be
storing up to 20 million kilograms of microplastics each year in their skeletons and tissues.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A. Ecologists are interested in learning more about how certain corals build large reefs.
B. Questions remain around the impact certain corals have on ocean ecosystems.
C. Microplastics are small pieces of plastic that can be found in ocean waters.
D. Ecologists predict that corals store large amounts of microplastics from ocean waters.
Question ID d8758c3b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: d8758c3b
Psychologists wanted to test how young children think about rewards and fairness. In an experiment, two teachers
handed out rewards while children (ages four to six) watched. The teachers gave out the same number of rewards,
but one of them counted the rewards out loud. The children were then asked who was fairer. 73% chose the teacher
who counted. The psychologists think that counting showed the children that the teacher wanted to be fair. The
children may have believed that the teacher who did not count did not care about fairness.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A. Psychologists think children cannot understand the concept of fairness until they are six years old.
B. An experiment found that counting out loud is the best way to teach mathematical concepts to children.
C. Psychologists think young children expect to be rewarded when the children show that they care about fairness.
D. An experiment showed that the way rewards are given out may affect whether young children think the situation
is fair.
Question ID 0e3b4967
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: 0e3b4967
Scrapbooks of saved fabric pieces were commonly kept by women in the nineteenth-century United States, but few
are as meticulously detailed as Hannah Ditzler Alspaugh’s work. Alongside each piece of fabric, Alspaugh recorded
intimate memories, such as dressmaking with her sister. Additionally, she listed the prices and how she used the
fabric. Historians note that by representing fifty years of changing textures, patterns, and dress styles, the
scrapbook is a record of nineteenth-century textiles and dressmaking as well as Alspaugh’s life.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A. Alspaugh inspired other women to save pieces of fabric in scrapbooks and provide historical records of
nineteenth-century fashions in the United States.
B. Historians rely on fabric scrapbooks to understand how fashions changed throughout the nineteenth-century
United States.
C. Fabric scrapbooks were a popular hobby for many women in the nineteenth-century United States.
D. Alspaugh’s scrapbook provides a detailed account of her life and historical record of fashion trends in the
nineteenth-century United States.
Question ID 1e85caa9
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: 1e85caa9
The following text is from Edith Nesbit’s 1902 novel Five Children and It. Five young siblings have just moved with
their parents from London to a house in the countryside that they call the White House.
It was not really a pretty house at all; it was quite ordinary, and mother thought it was rather inconvenient, and
was quite annoyed at there being no shelves, to speak of, and hardly a cupboard in the place. Father used to
say that the ironwork on the roof and coping was like an architect’s nightmare. But the house was deep in the
country, with no other house in sight, and the children had been in London for two years, without so much as
once going to the seaside even for a day by an excursion train, and so the White House seemed to them a sort
of Fairy Palace set down in an Earthly Paradise.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A. Although their parents believe the house has several drawbacks, the children are enchanted by it.
B. The children don’t like the house nearly as much as their parents do.
C. Each member of the family admires a different characteristic of the house.
D. The house is beautiful and well built, but the children miss their old home in London.
Question ID d73a908a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: d73a908a
Believing that living in an impractical space can heighten awareness and even improve health, conceptual artists
Madeline Gins and Shusaku Arakawa designed an apartment building in Japan to be more fanciful than functional. A
kitchen counter is chest-high on one side and knee-high on the other; a ceiling has a door to nowhere. The effect is
disorienting but invigorating: after four years there, filmmaker Nobu Yamaoka reported significant health benefits.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A. Although inhabiting a home surrounded by fanciful features such as those designed by Gins and Arakawa can be
rejuvenating, it is unsustainable.
B. Designing disorienting spaces like those in the Gins and Arakawa building is the most effective way to create a
physically stimulating environment.
C. As a filmmaker, Yamaoka has long supported the designs of conceptual artists such as Gins and Arakawa.
D. Although impractical, the design of the apartment building by Gins and Arakawa may improve the well-being of
the building’s residents.
Question ID 602b47c7
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: 602b47c7
Biologists have predicted that birds’ feather structures vary with habitat temperature, but this hadn’t been tested in
mountain environments. Ornithologist Sahas Barve studied feathers from 249 songbird species inhabiting different
elevations—and thus experiencing different temperatures—in the Himalaya Mountains. He found that feathers of
high-elevation species not only have a greater proportion of warming downy sections to flat and smooth sections
than do feathers of low-elevation species, but high-elevation species’ feathers also tend to be longer, providing a
thicker layer of insulation.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A. Barve’s investigation shows that some species of Himalayan songbirds have evolved feathers that better
regulate body temperature than do the feathers of other species, contradicting previous predictions.
B. Barve found an association between habitat temperature and feather structure among Himalayan songbirds,
lending new support to a general prediction.
C. Barve discovered that songbirds have adapted to their environment by growing feathers without flat and smooth
sections, complicating an earlier hypothesis.
D. The results of Barve’s study suggest that the ability of birds to withstand cold temperatures is determined more
strongly by feather length than feather structure, challenging an established belief.
Question ID e677fa6c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: e677fa6c
The following text is adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s 1849 story “Landor’s Cottage.”
During a pedestrian trip last summer, through one or two of the river counties of New York, I found myself, as
the day declined, somewhat embarrassed about the road I was pursuing. The land undulated very remarkably;
and my path, for the last hour, had wound about and about so confusedly, in its effort to keep in the valleys,
that I no longer knew in what direction lay the sweet village of B——, where I had determined to stop for the
night.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A. The narrator remembers a trip he took and admits to getting lost.
B. The narrator recalls fond memories of a journey that he took through some beautiful river counties.
C. The narrator describes what he saw during a long trip through a frequently visited location.
D. The narrator explains the difficulties he encountered on a trip and how he overcame them.
Question ID 66c47028
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: 66c47028
In 1934 physicist Eugene Wigner posited the existence of a crystal consisting entirely of electrons in a honeycomb-
like structure. The so-called Wigner crystal remained largely conjecture, however, until Feng Wang and colleagues
announced in 2021 that they had captured an image of one. The researchers trapped electrons between two
semiconductors and then cooled the apparatus, causing the electrons to settle into a crystalline structure. By
inserting an ultrathin sheet of graphene above the crystal, the researchers obtained an impression—the first visual
confirmation of the Wigner crystal.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A. Researchers have obtained the most definitive evidence to date of the existence of the Wigner crystal.
B. Researchers have identified an innovative new method for working with unusual crystalline structures.
C. Graphene is the most important of the components required to capture an image of a Wigner crystal.
D. It’s difficult to acquire an image of a Wigner crystal because of the crystal’s honeycomb structure.
Question ID 5325b3cc
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: 5325b3cc
Philadelphia’s Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, founded by Jeri Lynne Johnson, performs classical music, from well-
known compositions by Beethoven to contemporary works by Jessie Montgomery. For the orchestra’s iConduct!
program, Johnson invites community members to learn some basic elements of conducting and then experience
conducting the Black Pearl orchestra themselves.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A. The Black Pearl orchestra performs music from all over the world but mostly performs music composed by
Philadelphians.
B. Johnson founded the Black Pearl orchestra to perform classical music by contemporary artist Jessie
Montgomery.
C. The Black Pearl orchestra gives community members the chance to both listen to and participate in classical
music performance.
D. Johnson has community members conduct an orchestra to demonstrate how difficult the task is.
Question ID b7d51f84
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: b7d51f84
In West Africa, jalis have traditionally been keepers of information about family histories and records of important
events. They have often served as teachers and advisers, too. New technologies may have changed some aspects
of the role today, but jalis continue to be valued for knowing and protecting their peoples’ stories.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A. Even though there have been some changes in their role, jalis continue to preserve their communities’ histories.
B. Although jalis have many roles, many of them like teaching best.
C. Jalis have been entertaining the people within their communities for centuries.
D. Technology can now do some of the things jalis used to be responsible for.
Question ID dc3ea63e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: dc3ea63e
To dye wool, Navajo (Diné) weaver Lillie Taylor uses plants and vegetables from Arizona, where she lives. For
example, she achieved the deep reds and browns featured in her 2003 rug In the Path of the Four Seasons by using
Arizona dock roots, drying and grinding them before mixing the powder with water to create a dye bath. To intensify
the appearance of certain colors, Taylor also sometimes mixes in clay obtained from nearby soil.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A. Reds and browns are not commonly featured in most of Taylor’s rugs.
B. Taylor draws on local resources in the approach she uses to dye wool.
C. Taylor finds it difficult to locate Arizona dock root in the desert.
D. In the Path of the Four Seasons is widely acclaimed for its many colors and innovative weaving techniques.
Question ID a59245a1
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Central Ideas and

Ideas Details

ID: a59245a1
The painter María Izquierdo played an important role in the development of twentieth-century Mexican art, but her
work has never been well-known in the United States except among art historians. One reason for Izquierdo’s
relative obscurity is the enormous popularity of some of her peers. In particular, the painters Frida Kahlo and Diego
Rivera have so captivated the interest of US audiences that Izquierdo and other Mexican artists from the period
often get overlooked, despite the high quality of their work.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A. Izquierdo’s work is not as well-known in the United States as it should be because Kahlo and Rivera draw so
much of the public’s attention.
B. During Izquierdo’s lifetime, her paintings were displayed in galleries in the United States much more frequently
than paintings by Kahlo and Rivera were.
C. Izquierdo painted some of the same subjects that Kahlo and Rivera painted but used different techniques than
they used.
D. Few of Izquierdo’s works are in galleries today because she produced only a small number of paintings.