Question ID 6f873e68

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 6f873e68
In crafting her fantasy fiction, Nigerian-born British author Helen Oyeyemi has drawn inspiration from the classic nineteenth-
century fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Her 2014 novel Boy, Snow, Bird, for instance, is a complex retelling of the story of
Snow White, while her 2019 novel ______ offers a delicious twist on the classic tale of Hansel and Gretel.

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

A. ­Gingerbread—

B. ­Gingerbread,

C. Gingerbread

D. ­Gingerbread:
Question ID 550866d1
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 550866d1
Eli Eisenberg, a genetics expert at Tel Aviv University in Israel, recently discovered that ______ have a special genetic ability
called RNA editing that confers evolutionary advantages.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. cephalopods, ocean dwellers that include the squid, the octopus, and the cuttlefish

B. cephalopods—ocean dwellers—that include the squid, the octopus, and the cuttlefish,

C. cephalopods, ocean dwellers that include: the squid, the octopus, and the cuttlefish,

D. cephalopods—ocean dwellers that include the squid, the octopus, and the cuttlefish—
Question ID 562d4b57
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 562d4b57
In 2000, Nora de Hoyos Comstock, herself an owner of a successful consulting firm, sought to increase Latina representation
in corporate ______ founded Las Comadres para las Americas, an international community that for over two decades has
served as a resource and information network for Latina business professionals.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. settings she

B. settings, she

C. settings and she

D. settings. She
Question ID 618d94c4
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 618d94c4
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 af557364
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: af557364
In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo is a leader of Umuofia (a fictional Nigerian clan) and takes pride in
his culture’s traditions. However, when the arrival of European missionaries brings changes to Umuofia, the novel asks a
central question: How ______

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. Umuofia’s traditions will be affected.

B. will Umuofia’s traditions be affected.

C. Umuofia’s traditions will be affected?

D. will Umuofia’s traditions be affected?

Question ID abdbb81d
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: abdbb81d
Po’Pay was a Tewa leader from Ohkay Owingeh, a pueblo located about twenty-five miles north of present-day Santa Fe, New
Mexico. He was instrumental in organizing the Pueblo Revolt of ______ as a result of his leadership, the Spanish colonizers
were expelled from the region for a time.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. 1680

B. 1680 and

C. 1680,

D. 1680, and
Question ID 98baf1ee
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 98baf1ee
Stomata, tiny pore structures in a leaf that absorb gases needed for plant growth, open when guard cells surrounding each
pore swell with water. In a pivotal 2007 article, plant cell ______ showed that lipid molecules called phosphatidylinositol
phosphates are responsible for signaling guard cells to open stomata.

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

A. biologist, Yuree Lee

B. biologist Yuree Lee,

C. biologist Yuree Lee

D. biologist, Yuree Lee,

Question ID c4ff1125
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: c4ff1125
Humans were long thought to have begun occupying the Peruvian settlement of Machu Picchu between 1440 and 1450 CE.
However, a team led by anthropologist Dr. Richard Burger used accelerator mass spectrometry to uncover evidence that it was
occupied ______ 1420 CE, according to Burger, humans were likely inhabiting the area.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. earlier. In

B. earlier, in

C. earlier, which in

D. earlier in
Question ID ef8408a4
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: ef8408a4
Typically, underlines, scribbles, and notes left in the margins by a former owner lower a book’s ______ when the former owner
is a famous poet like Walt Whitman, such markings, known as marginalia, can be a gold mine to literary scholars.

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

A. value, but

B. value

C. value,

D. value but
Question ID a1a0066e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: a1a0066e
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 95649ca9
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 95649ca9
In 1727, dramatist Lewis Theobald presented a new play, Double Falsehood, at a London theater. Theobald claimed that his
drama was based on a little-known play by William Shakespeare, Cardenio. Many, including poet Alexander Pope, were ______
historians have determined that Shakespeare’s company did perform a play called Cardenio in 1613.

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

A. skeptical but

B. skeptical, but

C. skeptical,

D. skeptical
Question ID 22030ce1
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 22030ce1
In 1955, Indian Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray released his first movie, Pather ______ quiet black-and-white drama about a
family in rural India, Ray’s film was quite different from the loud, colorful action-romance movies that were popular at the time.

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

A. Panchali a

B. Panchali, which was a

C. Panchali, a

D. Panchali. A
Question ID 72ba319f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 72ba319f
In 1959, the film industry debuted Smell-O-Vision. Theaters were fitted with specialized vents that emitted odors at specific
points in a ______ as the scent of roses when roses appeared in a scene. Smell-O-Vision failed to impress, however, with one
reviewer declaring it “briefly weird and not very interesting.”

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. movie such

B. movie; such

C. movie. Such

D. movie, such
Question ID 971ed23e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 971ed23e
Joshua Hinson, director of the language revitalization program of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma, helped produce the
world’s first Indigenous-language instructional app, Chickasaw ______ Chickasaw TV, in 2010; and a Rosetta Stone language
course in Chickasaw, in 2015.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. Basic; in 2009, an online television network;

B. Basic; in 2009, an online television network,

C. Basic, in 2009; an online television network,

D. Basic, in 2009, an online television network,

Question ID 26287f55
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 26287f55
A study published by Rice University geoscientist Ming Tang in 2019 offers a new explanation for the origin of Earth’s ______
structures called arcs, towering ridges that form when a dense oceanic plate subducts under a less dense continental plate,
melts in the mantle below, and then rises and bursts through the continental crust above.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. continents geological

B. continents: geological

C. continents; geological

D. continents. Geological
Question ID 6a2df221
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 6a2df221
To serve local families during the Great Depression, innovative New York City librarian Pura Belpré offered storytelling in both
English and Spanish, an uncommon ______ celebrated el Día de los Tres Reyes Magos, an important community holiday; and
put on puppet shows dramatizing Puerto Rican folktales.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. practice, at the time

B. practice at the time;

C. practice, at the time,

D. practice at the time,

Question ID f8497cc6
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: f8497cc6
The fine, powdery substance that covers the Moon’s surface is called regolith. Because regolith is both readily available and
high in oxygen ______ scientists have wondered whether it could be used as a potential source of oxygen for future lunar
settlements.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. content and

B. content,

C. content

D. content, and
Question ID 2b71ef47
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 2b71ef47
The Mission 66 initiative, which was approved by Congress in 1956, represented a major investment in the infrastructure of
overburdened national ______ it prioritized physical improvements to the parks’ roads, utilities, employee housing, and visitor
facilities while also establishing educational programming for the public.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. parks and

B. parks

C. parks;

D. parks,
Question ID 9360277c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 9360277c
In 2008, two years after the death of science fiction writer Octavia Butler, the Huntington Library in ______ received a collection
of more than 8,000 items, including Butler’s private notes, research materials, manuscripts, photos, and drawings. Today, the
Octavia E. Butler Collection is one of the most researched archives at the library.

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

A. California,

B. California:

C. California—

D. California
Question ID e97999ac
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: e97999ac
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 f6da3294
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: f6da3294
In her two major series “Memory Test” and “Autobiography,” painter Howardena Pindell explored themes ______ healing, self-
discovery, and memory by cutting and sewing back together pieces of canvas and inserting personal artifacts, such as
postcards, into some of the paintings.

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

A. of

B. of,

C. of—

D. of:
Question ID fe8fcf34
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: fe8fcf34
In 2017, artists Isabel and Ruben Toledo redesigned the costumes and sets for The Miami City Ballet’s production of The
______ to reviewers, the Toledos’ designs helped infuse the production with elements of Miami’s Latin American culture.

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

A. Nutcracker according,

B. Nutcracker, according

C. Nutcracker according

D. Nutcracker. According
Question ID 57a2e87f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 57a2e87f
Over twenty years ago, in a landmark experiment in the psychology of choice, professor Sheena Iyengar set up a jam-tasting
booth at a grocery store. The number of jams available for tasting ______ some shoppers had twenty-four different options,
others only six. Interestingly, the shoppers with fewer jams to choose from purchased more jam.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. varied:

B. varied,

C. varied, while

D. varied while
Question ID 9ee338ef
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 9ee338ef
After a spate of illnesses as a child, Wilma Rudolph was told she might never walk again. Defying all odds, Rudolph didn’t just
walk, she ______ the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, she won both the 100- and 200-meter dashes and clinched first place
for her team in the 4x100-meter relay, becoming the first US woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics.

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

A. ran—fast—during

B. ran—fast during

C. ran—fast, during

D. ran—fast. During
Question ID bfc41dd2
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: bfc41dd2
About 70,000 meteorites have been found on Earth. Although most meteorites are fragments of ______ hundred have been
identified as being from the Moon or Mars.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. asteroids. Several

B. asteroids, several

C. asteroids; several

D. asteroids: several
Question ID 5219fa75
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 5219fa75
It is generally true that technological change is a linear process, in which once-useful technologies are replaced by new and
better ______ the reawakening of interest in the steam engine (from advocates of carbon-neutral rail travel) reminds us that
ostensibly obsolete technologies may be brought back into service to address society’s changing needs.

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

A. ones, even so;

B. ones even so,

C. ones; even so,

D. ones, even so,

Question ID b79670a7
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: b79670a7
Santa Clara Pueblo artist Roxanne Swentzell’s sculpture Mud Woman Rolls On consists of five human figures made of clay and
plant fiber and arranged in descending size; each figure holds the smaller one in front of it. The arrangement of the figures,
according to ______ represents her idea that “we all come from the Earth, generation after generation.”

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

B. Swentzell,

C. Swentzell:

D. Swentzell—
Question ID c2cb0796
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: c2cb0796
Seneca sculptor Marie Watt’s blanket art comes in a range of shapes and sizes. In 2004, Watt sewed strips of blankets
together to craft a 10-by-13-inch ______ in 2014, she arranged folded blankets into two large stacks and then cast them in
bronze, creating two curving 18-foot-tall blue-bronze pillars.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. sampler later,

B. sampler;

C. sampler,

D. sampler, later,
Question ID 37ccf84e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 37ccf84e
When particles are suspended in liquid (like pollen in a water glass), they will zigzag randomly through the liquid and collide
with one another in perpetuity. This type of random, continuous ______ is known as Brownian motion, can be observed
throughout the natural world.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. movement: which

B. movement, which

C. movement which

D. movement. Which
Question ID 5f38d8f4
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 5f38d8f4
To humans, it does not appear that the golden orb-weaver spider uses camouflage to capture its ______ the brightly colored
arachnid seems to wait conspicuously in the center of its large circular web for insects to approach. Researcher Po Peng of
the University of Melbourne has explained that the spider’s distinctive coloration may in fact be part of its appeal.

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

A. prey, rather,

B. prey rather,

C. prey, rather;

D. prey; rather,
Question ID e437ac5e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: e437ac5e
In 1959, marine biologist Dr. Albert Jones founded the Underwater Adventure Seekers, a scuba diving ______ that is the oldest
club for Black divers in the United States and that has helped thousands of diving enthusiasts become certified in the field.

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

B. club,

C. club—

D. club, and
Question ID d173443c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: d173443c
Luci Tapahonso is the inaugural poet laureate of the Navajo Nation. Her book Sáanii Dahataal/The Women Are Singing—a
combination of fiction and memoir, poetry and ______ serves as a testament to her versatility as a writer.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. prose;

B. prose

C. prose,

D. prose—
Question ID fd02bdb9
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: fd02bdb9
According to Naomi Nakayama of the University of Edinburgh, the reason seeds from a dying dandelion appear to float in the
air while ______ is that their porous plumes enhance drag, allowing the seeds to stay airborne long enough for the wind to
disperse them throughout the surrounding area.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. falling,

B. falling:

C. falling;

D. falling
Question ID 0693086b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 0693086b
While one requires oxygen and one does ______ and anaerobic respiration are both forms of cellular respiration—that is, they
are processes by which cells break down glucose to use as energy.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. not aerobic

B. not. Aerobic

C. not, aerobic

D. not; aerobic
Question ID f2e0c354
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: f2e0c354
Researchers studying magnetosensation have determined why some soil-dwelling roundworms in the Southern Hemisphere
move in the opposite direction of Earth’s magnetic field when searching for ______ in the Northern Hemisphere, the magnetic
field points down, into the ground, but in the Southern Hemisphere, it points up, toward the surface and away from worms’
food sources.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. food:

B. food,

C. food while

D. food
Question ID af0e160f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: af0e160f
Photosynthesis, the mechanism by which plants use sunlight to turn carbon dioxide and water into ______ is fueled in part by
an enzyme called Photosystem II that harvests energy-giving electrons from water molecules.

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

B. nutrients and

C. nutrients,

D. nutrients—
Question ID 1b496066
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 1b496066
In 1937, Chinese American screen actor Anna May Wong, who had portrayed numerous villains and secondary characters but
never a heroine, finally got a starring role in Paramount Pictures’ Daughter of Shanghai, a film that ______ “expanded the range
of possibilities for Asian images on screen.”

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. critic, Stina Chyn, claims

B. critic, Stina Chyn, claims,

C. critic Stina Chyn claims

D. critic Stina Chyn, claims,

Question ID 8e27d086
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 8e27d086
Beatrix Potter is perhaps best known for writing and illustrating children’s books such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902), but
she also dedicated herself to mycology, the study of ______ more than 350 paintings of the fungal species she observed in
nature and submitting her research on spore germination to the Linnean Society of London.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. fungi; producing

B. fungi. Producing

C. fungi producing

D. fungi, producing
Question ID 1dd740ff
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 1dd740ff
While many video game creators strive to make their graphics ever more ______ others look to the past, developing titles with
visuals inspired by the “8-bit” games of the 1980s and 1990s. (The term “8-bit” refers to a console whose processor could only
handle eight bits of data at once.)

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

A. lifelike but

B. lifelike

C. lifelike,

D. lifelike, but
Question ID cf7c358c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: cf7c358c
In 2010, archaeologist Noel Hidalgo Tan was visiting the twelfth-century temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia when he noticed
markings of red paint on the temple ______ the help of digital imaging techniques, he discovered the markings to be part of an
elaborate mural containing over 200 paintings.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. walls, with

B. walls with

C. walls so with

D. walls. With
Question ID 5df45c4a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 5df45c4a
The poem Beowulf begins with the word “hwæt,” which is an Old English ______ as “hark!” or “listen!” in some versions, the
word was playfully rendered as “bro!” by Maria Dahvana Headley in her 2020 translation of the poem.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. exclamation, translated

B. exclamation and translated

C. exclamation translated

D. exclamation. Translated
Question ID da3a871d
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: da3a871d
Hegra is an archaeological site in present-day Saudi Arabia and was the second largest city of the Nabataean Kingdom (fourth
century BCE to first century CE). Archaeologist Laila Nehmé recently traveled to Hegra to study its ancient ______ into the
rocky outcrops of a vast desert, these burial chambers seem to blend seamlessly with nature.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. tombs. Built

B. tombs, built

C. tombs and built

D. tombs built
Question ID 121aae1f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 121aae1f
Human-made (synthetic) fibers used in clothes and many other consumer products are more durable than most natural plant
______ the manufacture of synthetic fibers requires toxic chemical solvents that can pollute air and water.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. fibers,

B. fibers but

C. fibers

D. fibers, but
Question ID 09333379
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 09333379
Nine months before Rosa Parks made history by refusing to comply with the segregated seating policy on a Montgomery,
Alabama, bus, a fifteen-year-old Montgomery girl named Claudette Colvin was arrested for the same ______ to some
historians, Colvin’s arrest led to Parks’s action and eventually to the desegregation of Montgomery’s bus system.

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

A. offense. According

B. offense, according

C. offense according

D. offense and according

Question ID 79cfe2cc
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 79cfe2cc
During the English neoclassical period (1660–1789), many writers imitated the epic poetry and satires of ancient Greece and
Rome. They were not the first in England to adopt the literary modes of classical ______ some of the most prominent figures of
the earlier Renaissance period were also influenced by ancient Greek and Roman literature.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. antiquity, however

B. antiquity, however,

C. antiquity, however;

D. antiquity; however,
Question ID 84225518
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 84225518
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 306ada66
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 306ada66
A group of ecologists led by Axel Mithöfer at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Germany examined the
defensive responses of two varieties of the sweet potato ______ TN57, which is known for its insect resistance, and TN66,
which is much more susceptible to pests.

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

B. plant;

C. plant

D. plant:
Question ID 3839f96c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 3839f96c
On July 23, 1854, a clipper ship called the Flying Cloud entered San Francisco ______ left New York Harbor under the guidance
of Captain Josiah Perkins Creesy and his wife, navigator Eleanor Creesy, a mere 89 days and 8 hours earlier, the celebrated
ship set a record that would stand for 135 years.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. Bay and having

B. Bay. Having

C. Bay, having

D. Bay having
Question ID 103d9693
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 103d9693
Psychophysicist Howard Moskowitz was hired by a soda company to determine how much artificial sweetener ______ After
conducting consumer taste tests, he found that no such ideal existed: participants expressed a wide range of preferences for
different blends of sweetener, carbonization, and flavoring.

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

A. do most people prefer in a diet drink?

B. do most people prefer in a diet drink.

C. most people prefer in a diet drink?

D. most people prefer in a diet drink.

Question ID 4800f3d3
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 4800f3d3
From afar, African American fiber artist Bisa Butler’s portraits look like paintings, their depictions of human faces, bodies, and
clothing so intricate that it seems only a fine brush could have rendered them. When viewed up close, however, the portraits
reveal themselves to be ______ stitching barely visible among the thousands of pieces of printed, microcut fabric.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. quilts, and the

B. quilts, the

C. quilts; the

D. quilts. The
Question ID 130a364f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 130a364f
The first computerized spreadsheet, Dan Bricklin’s VisiCalc, improved financial recordkeeping not only by providing users with
an easy means of adjusting data in spreadsheets but also by automatically updating all calculations that were dependent on
these ______ to VisiCalc’s release, changing a paper spreadsheet often required redoing the entire sheet by hand, a process
that could take days.

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

A. adjustments prior

B. adjustments, prior

C. adjustments. Prior

D. adjustments and prior

Question ID aa21be9a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: aa21be9a
In 2018, the innovative works of Congolese sculptor and architect Bodys Isek ______ were featured in City Dreams, a solo
exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

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

A. Kingelez;

B. Kingelez,

C. Kingelez

D. Kingelez:
Question ID a5f7262f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: a5f7262f
In addition to advocating for South America’s independence in two political treatises, the Cartagena Manifesto and the Letter
from Jamaica, Simón Bolívar personally led armies against the Spanish, liberating three South American territories—New
Granada (present-day Colombia and Panama), Venezuela, and Quito (present-day ______ from colonial rule.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. Ecuador,)

B. Ecuador)

C. Ecuador),

D. Ecuador)—
Question ID 3baa0f75
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 3baa0f75
Before the Erie Canal was completed in 1825, transporting goods by wagon between New York City and the Midwest took up
to forty-five days and cost one hundred dollars per ton. By linking the Hudson River to Lake ______ canal reduced transport
time to nine days and cut costs to six dollars per ton.

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

A. Erie; the

B. Erie (the

C. Erie, the

D. Erie: the
Question ID 35c6af60
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 35c6af60
Swedish scientists Eva Engvall and Peter Perlmann developed a method for measuring the concentration of different proteins
in a biological sample. Their ______ ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), is used to detect and measure proteins that
indicate the presence of certain diseases.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. method (called

B. method—called

C. method, called

D. method called
Question ID 8f2d7e11
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 8f2d7e11
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 9f7e7c74
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 9f7e7c74
The city of Pompeii, which was buried in ash following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, continues to be studied by
archaeologists. Unfortunately, as ______ attest, archaeological excavations have disrupted ash deposits at the site, causing
valuable information about the eruption to be lost.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. researchers, Roberto Scandone and Christopher Kilburn,

B. researchers, Roberto Scandone and Christopher Kilburn

C. researchers Roberto Scandone and Christopher Kilburn

D. researchers Roberto Scandone, and Christopher Kilburn

Question ID 26a66f24
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 26a66f24
Fans of science fiction will ______ multiple references to classic sci-fi stories in Janelle Monáe’s song lyrics, including her
recurring nods to the plot of the 1927 sci-fi film Metropolis.

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

B. appreciate. The

C. appreciate, the

D. appreciate: the
Question ID d4c3122b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: d4c3122b
Lucía Michel of the University of Chile observed that alkaline soils contain an insoluble form of iron that blueberry plants
cannot absorb, thus inhibiting blueberry growth. If these plants were grown in alkaline soil alongside grasses that aid in iron
solubilization, ______ Michel was determined to find out.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. could the blueberries thrive.

B. the blueberries could thrive.

C. the blueberries could thrive?

D. could the blueberries thrive?

Question ID b249902a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: b249902a
Detroit natives Timothy Paule and Nicole Lindsey have combined their two passions, Detroit and beekeeping, to improve the
health of their city’s flowers and other vegetation. In 2017, the couple converted a vacant lot in the city into an ______ in the
years that followed they acquired nine additional lots and established more than 35 hives.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. apiary,

B. apiary, and

C. apiary and

D. apiary
Question ID 9b49630d
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 9b49630d
Materials scientist Marie-Agathe Charpagne and her colleagues believed they could improve on the multicomponent alloy
NiCoCr, an equal-proportions mixture of nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), and chromium (Cr), by replacing chromium with ruthenium
______ the alloy that resulted, NiCoRu, turned out to be an unsuitable replacement for NiCoCr.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. (Ru)

B. (Ru) but

C. (Ru),

D. (Ru), but
Question ID b305e581
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: b305e581
How do scientists determine what foods were eaten by extinct hominins such as Neanderthals? In the past, researchers were
limited to studying the marks found on the fossilized teeth of skeletons, but in 2017 a team led by Laura Weyrich of the
Australian Centre for Ancient DNA tried something ______ the DNA found in Neanderthals’ fossilized dental plaque.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. new: sequencing

B. new; sequencing

C. new, sequencing:

D. new. Sequencing
Question ID 3c2cf8cd
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 3c2cf8cd
After the United Kingdom began rolling out taxes equivalent to a few cents on single-use plastic grocery bags in 2011, plastic-
bag consumption decreased by up to ninety ______ taxes are subject to what economists call the “rebound effect”: as the
change became normalized, plastic-bag use started to creep back up.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. percent, such

B. percent and such

C. percent. Such

D. percent such
Question ID 7dbcbcde
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 7dbcbcde
Journalists have dubbed Gil Scott-Heron the “godfather of rap,” a title that has appeared in hundreds of articles about him
since the 1990s. Scott-Heron himself resisted the godfather ______ feeling that it didn’t encapsulate his devotion to the
broader African American blues music tradition as well as “bluesologist,” the moniker he preferred.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. nickname, however

B. nickname, however;

C. nickname, however,

D. nickname; however,
Question ID f856be23
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: f856be23
In her book The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, author Maxine Hong Kingston examines themes ______
childhood, womanhood, and Chinese American identity by intertwining autobiography and mythology.

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

B. of

C. of—

D. of,
Question ID 1da00c69
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 1da00c69
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?
A. advance,

B. advance

C. advance;

D. advance and
Question ID 2680b96d
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 2680b96d
The Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden in Norway and the Jardim Botânico of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil are two of many botanical
gardens around the world dedicated to growing diverse plant ______ fostering scientific research; and educating the public
about plant conservation.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. species, both native and nonnative,

B. species, both native and nonnative;

C. species; both native and nonnative,

D. species both native and nonnative,

Question ID bd907188
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: bd907188
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 6203926e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 6203926e
In ancient Greece, an Epicurean was a follower of Epicurus, a philosopher whose beliefs revolved around the pursuit of
pleasure. Epicurus defined pleasure as “the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the ______ that all life’s virtues
derived from this absence.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. soul,” positing

B. soul”: positing

C. soul”; positing

D. soul.” Positing
Question ID c876444f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: c876444f
American writer Edwidge Danticat, who emigrated from Haiti in 1981, has won acclaim for her powerful short stories, novels,
and ______ her lyrical yet unflinching depictions of her native country’s turbulent history, writer Robert Antoni has compared
Danticat to Nobel Prize–winning novelist Toni Morrison.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. essays, praising

B. essays and praising

C. essays praising

D. essays. Praising
Question ID 4fe1258f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 4fe1258f
The haiku-like poems of Tomas Tranströmer, which present nature- and dream-influenced images in crisp, spare language,
have earned the Swedish poet praise from leading contemporary ______ them Nigerian American essayist and novelist Teju
Cole, who has written that Tranströmer’s works “contain a luminous simplicity.”

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. writers. Among

B. writers among

C. writers; among

D. writers, among
Question ID 9bcab648
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 9bcab648
In 1976, the Inuit rock group Sikumiut recorded the album People of the Ice. Though only their first record, it shows a band
already skilled at the difficult task of making music that sounds easy and fun. On songs like “Utirumavunga,” Lucassie
Koperqualuk’s guitar riffs effortlessly ______ Charlie Adams’s delightfully catchy vocal melodies.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. blend, with

B. blend. With

C. blend; with

D. blend with
Question ID 836e370c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 836e370c
When external forces are applied to common glass made from silicates, energy builds up around minuscule defects in the
material, resulting in fractures. Recently, engineer Erkka Frankberg of Tampere University in Finland used the chemical ______
to make a glassy solid that can withstand higher strain than silicate glass can before fracturing.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. compound, aluminum oxide

B. compound aluminum oxide,

C. compound, aluminum oxide,

D. compound aluminum oxide

Question ID 5684e9ad
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 5684e9ad
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?
A. added, whenever

B. added; whenever

C. added. Whenever

D. added whenever
Question ID 9e56d8e7
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 9e56d8e7
Award-winning cinematographer James Wong Howe was known for his innovative filming techniques. While filming a boxing
match for the movie Body and Soul ______ Howe had a handheld camera operator wear roller skates. This allowed the operator
to move smoothly around actors in a boxing ring, creating an immersive experience for viewers.

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

A. (1947), and

B. (1947),

C. (1947) and

D. (1947)
Question ID fb0a6682
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: fb0a6682
At eight paragraphs long, the preamble to the constitution of ______ country in Western Asia—is much longer than the one-
paragraph preamble to the United States Constitution.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. Bahrain—a

B. Bahrain, a

C. Bahrain a

D. Bahrain: a
Question ID 36e0f3e2
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 36e0f3e2
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 082574fc
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 082574fc
The life spans of rockfish vary greatly by species. For instance, the colorful calico rockfish (Sebastes dalli) can survive for a
little over a ______ the rougheye rockfish (Sebastes aleutianus) boasts a maximum life span of about two centuries.

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

A. decade: while

B. decade. While

C. decade; while

D. decade, while
Question ID bff3cf74
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: bff3cf74
Sociologist Alton Okinaka sits on the review board tasked with adding new sites to the Hawai‘i Register of Historic Places,
which includes Pi‘ilanihale Heiau and the ‘Ōpaeka‘a Road Bridge. Okinaka doesn’t make such decisions ______ all historical
designations must be approved by a group of nine other experts from the fields of architecture, archaeology, history, and
Hawaiian culture.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. single-handedly, however;

B. single-handedly; however,

C. single-handedly, however,

D. single-handedly however
Question ID d7b89c91
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: d7b89c91
Gathering accurate data on water flow in the United States is challenging because of the country’s millions of miles of ______
the volume and speed of water at any given location can vary drastically over time.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. waterways and the fact that,

B. waterways, and the fact that,

C. waterways, and, the fact that

D. waterways and the fact that

Question ID 11db42e0
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 11db42e0
On sunny days, dark rooftops absorb solar energy and convert it to unwanted heat, raising the surrounding air ______ a light-
colored covering to an existing dark roof, either by attaching prefabricated reflective sheets or spraying on a paint-like coating,
helps combat this effect.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. temperature; by adding

B. temperature, adding

C. temperature. Adding

D. temperature by adding
Question ID 3233279a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 3233279a
Nigerian author Buchi Emecheta’s celebrated literary oeuvre includes The Joys of Motherhood, a novel about the changing
roles of women in 1950s ______ a television play about the private struggles of a newlywed couple in Nigeria; and Head Above
Water, her autobiography.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. Lagos, A Kind of Marriage,

B. Lagos; A Kind of Marriage,

C. Lagos, A Kind of Marriage:

D. Lagos; A Kind of Marriage

Question ID ae88a59f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: ae88a59f
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 26b716e8
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 26b716e8
Emperor Ashoka ruled the Maurya Empire in South Asia from roughly 270 to 232 BCE. He is known for enforcing a moral code
called the Law of Piety, which established the sanctity of animal ______ the just treatment of the elderly, and the abolition of
the slave trade.

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

B. life;

C. life:

D. life,
Question ID 1e43d5ea
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 1e43d5ea
A recent study tracked the number of bee species present in twenty-seven New York apple orchards over a ten-year period.
______ found that when wild growth near an orchard was cleared, the number of different bee species visiting the orchard
decreased.

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

A. Entomologist Heather Grab:

B. Entomologist, Heather Grab,

C. Entomologist Heather Grab

D. Entomologist Heather Grab,

Question ID 0b05d2d6
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 0b05d2d6
The 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three pioneers in the field of click chemistry: two-time Nobel laureate
Barry Sharpless, who coined the term “click chemistry” in 1998; Carolyn Bertozzi, founder of the Bertozzi Group at ______ and
Morten Meldal, a professor at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

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

B. Stanford,

C. Stanford:

D. Stanford;
Question ID e6201ac0
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: e6201ac0
Archaeologists have estimated that the pre-Columbian Native American city of Cahokia, located across the Mississippi River
from modern-day St. Louis, Missouri, had as many as 20,000 inhabitants in the year 1150 ______ it one of the largest cities in
North America at the time.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. CE making

B. CE. Making

C. CE, making

D. CE; making
Question ID 6378f094
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 6378f094
Emperor penguins don’t waddle out of the ocean. They launch themselves at such a high speed that they travel up to two
meters before landing. How ______ A layer of microbubbles on their plumage reduces friction as the penguins speed to the
surface.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. they are able to move so fast!

B. are they able to move so fast.

C. they are able to move so fast.

D. are they able to move so fast?

Question ID c18d995f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: c18d995f
The Alvarez theory, developed in 1980 by physicist Luis Walter Alvarez and his geologist son Walter Alvarez, maintained that
the secondary effects of an asteroid impact caused many dinosaurs and other animals to die ______ it left unexplored the
question of whether unrelated volcanic activity might have also contributed to the mass extinctions.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. out but

B. out, but

C. out

D. out,
Question ID 47e67c42
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 47e67c42
Polyphenols are organic compounds ______ among their many roles, provide pigment that helps protect plants against
ultraviolet radiation from sunlight.

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

B. that;

C. that,

D. that:
Question ID d1145534
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: d1145534
Generations of mystery and horror ______ have been influenced by the dark, gothic stories of celebrated American author
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849).

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

B. writers,

C. writers—

D. writers;
Question ID 62e50f59
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 62e50f59
A standard Argo float, a type of autonomous robot, measures temperature and salinity in the upper regions of ice-free oceans.
More advanced floats can measure a wider range of ______ and monitor seasonal ice zones.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. variables: travel to greater depths

B. variables, travel to greater depths,

C. variables travel to greater depths,

D. variables, travel to greater depths;

Question ID 678404ae
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 678404ae
The intense pressure found in the deep ocean can affect the structure of proteins in fish’s cells, distorting the proteins’ shape.
The chemical trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) counters this effect, ensuring that proteins retain their original ______ is found in
high concentrations in the cells of the deepest-dwelling fish.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. configurations. TMAO

B. configurations TMAO

C. configurations, TMAO

D. configurations and TMAO

Question ID dcc8a25e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: dcc8a25e
In 1943, in the midst of World War II, mathematics professor Grace Hopper was recruited by the US military to help the war
effort by solving complex equations. Hopper’s subsequent career would involve more than just ______ as a pioneering
computer programmer, Hopper would help usher in the digital age.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. equations, though:

B. equations, though,

C. equations. Though,

D. equations though
Question ID 3152fbb0
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 3152fbb0
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 c4d6b754
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: c4d6b754
The forty-seven geothermal springs of Arkansas’ Hot Springs National Park are sourced via a process known as natural
groundwater recharge, in which rainwater percolates downward through the earth—in this case, the porous rocks of the hills
around Hot ______ collect in a subterranean basin.

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

B. Springs: to

C. Springs—to

D. Springs, to
Question ID 17ece48a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 17ece48a
A study led by scientist Rebecca Kirby at the University of Wisconsin–Madison found that black bears that eat human food
before hibernation have increased levels of a rare carbon isotope, ______ due to the higher 13C levels in corn and cane sugar.
Bears with these elevated levels were also found to have much shorter hibernation periods on average.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. carbon-13, (13C)

B. carbon-13 (13C)

C. carbon-13, (13C),

D. carbon-13 (13C),
Question ID dd53fb5c
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: dd53fb5c
Both Sona Charaipotra, an Indian American, and Dhonielle Clayton, an African American, grew up frustrated by the lack of
diverse characters in books for young people. In 2011, these two writers joined forces to found CAKE Literary, a book
packaging ______ specializes in the creation and promotion of stories told from diverse perspectives for children and young
adults.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. company,

B. company that

C. company

D. company, that
Question ID 8cfad1fb
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 8cfad1fb
The Lion Light system, developed by Kenyan inventor Richard Turere, consists of LED lights installed around the perimeter of
livestock pastures. Powered with ______ the blinking LEDs keep lions away at night, thus protecting the livestock without
risking harm to the endangered lions.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. energy collected, by solar panels, during the day

B. energy collected by solar panels during the day

C. energy collected by solar panels during the day,

D. energy, collected by solar panels during the day,

Question ID 08fe665d
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 08fe665d
A conceptual artist and designer embraced by both the art world and the fashion ______ Mary Ping was chosen to curate the
exhibition Front Row: Chinese American Designers for the Museum of Chinese in America.

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

B. world:

C. world;

D. world,
Question ID 6b4c8b42
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 6b4c8b42
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 0d0e04ec
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 0d0e04ec
After immigrating from Mexico and obtaining U.S. citizenship, Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo entered politics, earning a
reputation for being a fervent defender of Hispanic civil rights. In 1919 Larrazolo was elected governor of ______ in 1928 he
became the nation’s first Hispanic U.S. Senator.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. New Mexico and

B. New Mexico,

C. New Mexico, and

D. New Mexico
Question ID 7399839f
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 7399839f
After the printing press was introduced in 1440, handwritten manuscripts from Europe’s medieval period were often destroyed
and the paper used for other purposes. In one instance, pages ______ a collection of Norse tales dating to 1270 were
discovered lining a bishop’s miter (hat).

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. from:

B. from,

C. from

D. from—
Question ID 4449bf81
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Medium

Conventions

ID: 4449bf81
In her analysis of Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth (1905), scholar Candace Waid observes that the novel depicts the upper
classes of New York society as “consumed by the appetite of a soulless ______ an apt assessment given that The House of
Mirth is set during the Gilded Age, a period marked by rapid industrialization, economic greed, and widening wealth disparities.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. materialism”; and

B. materialism” and

C. materialism,”

D. materialism”
Question ID 4dc1b152
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Hard

Conventions

ID: 4dc1b152
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 4439e901
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: 4439e901
Robin Wall Kimmerer of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation is a bryologist, a plant scientist who specializes in mosses. To
Kimmerer, mosses are Earth’s most adaptable plants: they can clone ______ enter a dormant state in times of drought, and
grow in areas that don’t have soil.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. themselves;

B. themselves,

C. themselves. And

D. themselves
Question ID ad00132a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Boundaries Easy

Conventions

ID: ad00132a
Winding through the ice atop Norway’s Jotunheim Mountains is the Lendbreen pass, an ancient route that was used by
hunters, farmers, traders, and travelers in the Middle Ages before eventually falling into disuse. Recently, archeologists have
______ knives, horseshoes, wool tunics, and thousands of other artifacts from the icy pass.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. unearthed:

B. unearthed,

C. unearthed—

D. unearthed