Digital SAT MAth and English – full syllabus practice tests
The Reading and Writing section of the digital SAT
- Information and Ideas
- Craft and Structure
- Expression of Ideas
- Standard English Conventions
It is just that kind of summer, hot in the day and hot in the night and filled with bugs that force you to slap yourself and leave welts along the fat parts of your thighs. The rivers are low enough to swim, and the huckleberries have grown fat enough to eat, and the days are so long they get to feeling like a lifetime.
Questions
Which choice best describes the main purpose of the paragraph ?
A. To emphasize that the narrator wished for a particular experience to last longer
B. To expand on an analysis introduced earlier in the passage
C. To introduce the time frame in which an important experience occurred
D. To foreshadow the unease that the narrator will feel during the event that follows
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: C
We cut across the open field of the O’Connor place. The one-room house his daddy’s daddy built 35 by hand has a For Sale sign posted out front, not that many people would ever see it. His homestead will fall back into the hands of the forest and in years to come start to slide and slope under the pressures of snow and sun, forgotten like a lot of the other places up here.
Questions
“fall back into the hands of” most nearly means
A. retreat from.
B. be protected by.
C. be overtaken by.
D. cause damage to.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: C
I like to imagine the Tavern filled with men after a long day, covered in dirt and smelling of timber, and the talks that must have taken place in every crew cab across the county. I will always wonder what kind of man Andy might have grown into if life up here still looked like that. And what kind of life the two of us might have made had he never left.
“You excited?” I ask.
“Bout? Just another hole. Though Daniel says it’s the highest jump they found yet. Knowing him it means something.”
“No. You excited for next week?”
Andy shrugs, looks up at the sky, his green eyes squinting from the high sun, and keeps on charging forward through the thicket. When school starts next week it will be the first time we’ve ever been
Questions
What can most reasonably be inferred from the dialogue between Andy and the narrator in line (“You . . . week”)?
A. Andy was annoyed with the narrator for asking him questions about high school.
B. Andy was eager to get to the swimming hole, but the narrator was nervous about swimming there.
C. Andy was anxious about going to the swimming hole, but the narrator failed to notice that he was.
D. Andy was thinking about the swimming hole, while the narrator was asking about his going to high school.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: D
When we asked employees in our research to reflect on the “purpose” of their unimportant and meaningless tasks, they reported lower levels of 25 enjoyment, meaning, and motivation than when we asked employees to rate these tasks without any mention of purpose. If reflecting on purpose backfires, how should managers help employees derive satisfaction from mundane work?
Questions
As used in line above , “derive” most nearly means
A. obtain.
B. infer.
C. emit.
D. determine.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: A
We found that applying this framing to menial tasks imbued these tasks with a greater purpose. For example, one participant wrote that their dreaded “weekly meeting,” when combined with “open chat rooms” and “reporting issues to the management,” enabled a larger goal: to “forge communication between individuals who would not otherwise be able to solve a problem by themselves.” Another participant recognized “answering client calls” as an important step in “making sure they are happy with the product,” when combined with “solving client issues” and “documenting the call.” Afterward, they reported greater enjoyment and meaning.
Questions
In the context of the passage, the examples of participant responses in line (“For . . . call”) mainly serve to
A. indicate the wide variety of tasks that employees in modern workplaces are expected to perform.
B. illustrate the connections that participants make between menial work tasks they do and the overall purpose those tasks collectively serve.
C. provide details about the kinds of tasks that employees find most enjoyable and the kinds of tasks they dislike.
D. show that participants who list their work tasks report greater workplace efficiency than do participants who do not list their tasks.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: B
For example, one participant wrote that their dreaded “weekly meeting,” when combined 50 with “open chat rooms” and “reporting issues to the management,” enabled a larger goal: to “forge communication between individuals who would not otherwise be able to solve a problem by themselves.”
Questions
As used in above passage, “enabled” most nearly means
A. facilitated.
B. prepared.
C. granted.
D. authorized.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: A
*Control (no framing): Participants’ perception of importance of tasks prior to framing
*For important tasks, the differences in average ratings between superordinate, purpose, and control were not statistically significant.
Questions
According to above table , the participants’ average rating of task meaning for unimportant tasks in the control condition was
A. 3.82.
B. 5.05.
C. 7.24.
D. 7.39
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: A
*Control (no framing): Participants’ perception of importance of tasks prior to framing
*For important tasks, the differences in average ratings between superordinate, purpose, and control were not statistically significant.
But our latest research, of nearly 4,000 working adults in the U.S., suggests that this hyperfocus on purpose can backfire. Workplaces today promise sweeping impact, yet most employees’ daily tasks are mundane and disconnected from these lofty goals. In one of our surveys, assessing 700 employees across 22 industries, all but one could quickly name an unimportant and meaningless task they regularly do at work. Constantly hearing messages about impact can lead employees to ruminate about their work’s lack of impact. When we asked employees in our research to reflect on the “purpose” of their unimportant and meaningless tasks, they reported lower levels of enjoyment, meaning, and motivation than when we asked employees to rate these tasks without any mention of purpose.
Questions
Based on above table , how would the authors most likely explain their observation in line (“Constantly hearing messages about impact can lead employees to ruminate about their work’s lack of impact.”) in light of the data for important tasks across all condition groups?
A. If employees already perceive tasks as being meaningful, they are less likely to experience a disconnect between the tasks and their company’s mission.
B. If employees view their important tasks as part of a set, they are less likely to be satisfied with them than when they view the tasks in isolation.
C. Employees find important tasks to be more meaningful when their company articulates a memorable mission statement.
D. Employees who are assigned a balance of important and unimportant tasks tend to be most affected by mission statements.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: A
*Control (no framing): Participants’ perception of importance of tasks prior to framing
*For important tasks, the differences in average ratings between superordinate, purpose, and control were not statistically significant.
Questions
Taken together, the two tables best support which statement?
A. On average, participants in the no-framing control group rated task enjoyment more highly than task meaning for both unimportant and important tasks.
B. Altering the type of framing has less of an impact on participants’ average ratings of task meaning and task enjoyment for important tasks than it does for unimportant tasks.
C. Superordinate framing is the most effective means of enhancing participants’ average ratings of task meaning and task enjoyment when the tasks are deemed to be important.
D. On average, participants in the superordinate-framing group gave higher ratings to both task meaning and task enjoyment for important tasks than did participants in the purpose-framing group.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: B
Digital plants like these are part of a new movement in agricultural science called “in silico,” where researchers design highly accurate, computer-simulated crops to help speed up selective breeding, in which plants are chosen and replanted to amplify their desirable traits. Scientists believe the future of farming is not just in fields, but in graphics, too.
Questions
In context, the author’s statement about “the future of farming” is mainly meant to convey the idea that
A. farmers will soon have to develop additional software skills.
B. fields will someday no longer be necessary for growing sugarcane.
C. techniques developed with computer assistance will someday help farmers grow crops more efficiently.
D. simulations of sugarcane crops will come to model the growth patterns of real sugarcane crops more accurately over time.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: C
The millennia-old strategy of just handpicking and replanting the varieties that thrive is too slow, says Eberhard Voit, a biologist . “We need a more targeted approach,” he says. This is where crops in silico may help. By studying plant growth using computer simulations, researchers could discover which attributes make the best pickings and why, in far less time than a traditional growing season.
Questions
According to the passage, Voit believes that selective breeding
A. takes too long to be a productive process for improving crop yields.
B. would be more easily accomplished if sugarcane plants weren’t harvested by hand.
C. is difficult unless one has been trained in the identification of desirable plants.
D. is a method whose effectiveness has been proved over many centuries.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: A
The millennia-old strategy of just handpicking and replanting the varieties that thrive is too slow, says Eberhard Voit, a biologist . “We need a more targeted approach,” he says. This is where crops in silico may help. By studying plant growth using computer simulations, researchers could discover which attributes make the best pickings and why, in far less time than a traditional growing season.
Questions
As used in above passage , “approach” most nearly means
A. offer.
B. method.
C. entrance.
D. advance.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: B
The term in silica, or “in silicon,” refers to silicon computer chips. The technique begins with scientists collecting data about plant behavior under microscopes and in the field. Next they build statistical models that identify mathematical relationships in the data. Researchers then create simulations based on those equations, which allows
them to see the traits they measured play out on a screen. Once they visualize the crops, scientists can manipulate the data to see which factors result in the fastest-growing, most drought-resistant or least pest-susceptible plants possible.
Questions
What main function does the above paragraph serve ?
A. It portrays the process by which in silico crops are created.
B. It proposes an optimal course of action for farmers planting sugarcane.
C. It describes equipment that is used to conduct an experiment.
D. It shows why in silico sugarcane crops are more predictable in their behavior than real sugarcane crops are.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: A
The millennia-old strategy of just handpicking and replanting the varieties that thrive is too slow, says Eberhard Voit, a biologist “We need a more targeted approach,” he says. This is where crops in silica may help. By studying plant growth using computer simulations, researchers could discover which attributes make the best pickings and why, in far less time than a traditional growing season.
The term in silica, or “in silicon,” refers to silicon computer chips. The technique begins with scientists collecting data about plant behavior under microscopes and in the field. Next they build statistical models that identify mathematical relationships in the data. Researchers then create simulations based on those equations, which allows
them to see the traits they measured play out on a screen. Once they visualize the crops, scientists can manipulate the data to see which factors result in the fastest-growing, most drought-resistant or least pest-susceptible plants possible
Questions
It can reasonably be inferred from the above passage that the researchers of in silico crops anticipate which improvement to their methods in the near future?
A. A means of simulating hypothetical sugarcane plants that use the photosynthesis methods of other species
B. A means of maximizing growth in fields that have previously been planted with other crops
C. A way to get symmetrical seed lines to yield as much sugarcane as asymmetrical seed lines
D. A way of simulating many more growing seasons in the same time period than is presently possible
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: D
Plant physiologists and biologists around the world are now investigating these crucial questions in both the field and lab. For example, Long and Illinois colleague Xinguang Zhu, who also holds a position at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, study a type of photosynthesis unique to crops like soybeans and rice.
Questions
As used in above passage, “crucial” most nearly means
A. historic.
B. mandatory.
C. essential.
D. desperate.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: C
We believe that it depends largely on qualities which the natural position and functions of women as they are at present tend to develop, and which might seriously be impaired by their admission to the turmoil of active political life. These qualities are, above all, sympathy and disinterestedness. Any disposition of things which threatens to lessen the national reserve of such forces as these we hold to be a misfortune. It is notoriously difficult to maintain them in the presence of party necessities and in the heat of party struggle.
Questions
In Passage , the use of the phrase “national reserve” mainly serves to
A. lament the government’s inability to resolve disputes with civility.
B. emphasize the country’s resilience in the face of adversity.
C. characterize certain traits as essential to the country’s overall well-being.
D. provide an example of a topic that is hotly debated in Parliament
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: C
Why should she sit on a School Board, and in that capacity make recommendations to the Government on the Education Code, and yet when that same Code is before Parliament have no power to support its provisions or secure its rejection?
Questions
As used in above passage, “secure” most nearly means
A. maintain.
B. obtain.
C. safeguard.
D. fasten.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: B
Even stranger, data collected from September 2014 to June 2016 show that the supernova remained bright for more than 600 clays. Arcavi and colleagues report. The eruption, which is just showing signs of winding down now, may have already been in progress when it was discovered, so it could have persisted even longer.
Normally, layers of gas kicked out of an exploding star slow and cool as they expand. But iPTF14hls maintained a touty temperature-about 5,700° Celsius-for the entire time it was observed, and its outer gas layers did not slow down as they should have. That means that this gas may have already cooled and slowed, suggesting it had been expelled in I an earlier. superpowerful eruption that occurred unseen between 2010 and 2014, the team suggests.
Questions
According to the passage, the data collected between 2014 and 2016 could indicate that the outer gas layers of iPTF14hls had
A. undergone several heating and cooling cycles since scientists discovered iPTF14hls in September 2014.
B. been too hot to maintain a rate of expansion typically seen in a supernova.
C. lost heat before scientists began to observe iPTF14hls in September 2014.
D. been inhibited from cooling down as would happen normally in a supernova.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: C
Woosley thinks that a magnetar, a highly magnetized rapidly rotating stellar corpse. could glow 1s continuously for around two years. although that wouldn’t explain the 1954 eruption. He hopes the most recent data will help determine which theory is right. or if physicists need to come up with something new.
Questions
As used in passage above, “determine” most nearly means
A. terminate.
B. dictate.
C. indicate.
D. control.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: C
The first sign that iPTF14hls was unusual came a few weeks after its discovery. when it started growing brighter. That turned out to be one of five irregular cycles of brightening and dimming.
Questions
As used in above, “sign” most nearly means
A. gesture.
B. command.
C. symbol.
D. indication.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: D
Questions
The data in the graph best support the statement that the brightness of iPTF14hls
A. was the same at the beginning and end of the observation period.
B. consistently exceeded that of a typical supernova during the entire observation period.
C. was undetectable when it was behind the sun between 400 and 500 days after discovery.
D. rapidly dropped to that of a typical supernova between 500 and 600 days after discovery
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: B
For both artists and students of the ———- on final products can be daunting. Artists may long to see their works become icons, and students may see artworks only as unequivocal masterpieces.
Questions
A. arts therefore focusing
B. arts, focusing
C. arts; and focusing
D. arts. Focusing
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: B
Artists may long to see their works become icons, and students may see artworks only as unequivocal masterpieces. What often gets —— is the creative process Ill
itself.
Questions
A. neglected
B. deserted
C. shrugged off
D. left in the dust
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: A
In the 1960s and ’70s, a movement known as Process ———-, drawing from Dadaism and other avant-garde art movements-sought to rectify that issue by emphasizing improvisation and transience in art making rather than static, perfected objects.
Questions
A. art
B. art-
C. art:
D. art
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: B
Process artists typically chose nontraditional materials -such as felt, cheesecloth, or molten lead-that allowed chance, or gravity to easily factor into an artwork’s creation. For his 1970 work Untitled (Pink Felt), ————, Robert Morris dropped various pieces of pink felt into a pile on the floor of an art gallery.
Questions
A. for instance
B. in addition,
C. in essence,
D. as a result,
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: A
With no identifiable geometric shape and no other discernible real-world point of reference, the artwork suggested that sculpture can be soft and formless. It can also be utterly arbitrary.
Questions
Which choice most effectively combines the sentences at the underlined portion?
A. sculpture, though it is soft and formless, can be utterly arbitrary.
B. sculpture, being utterly arbitrary, can be soft and formless too.
C. sculpture can be not only soft and formless but also utterly arbitrary.
D. sculpture can be soft and formless; it can be utterly arbitrary.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: C
The ideas at the heart of movements such as Process art———- also evident in more recent program’s
Questions
A. are
B. is
C. has been
D. are being
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: A
The ideas at the heart of movements such as Process art are also evident in more recent ———- that focus on open-ended approaches to teaching art. For example, Princeton University’s Atelier, founded by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison in 1994, is a seminar program that explores the collaborative process across artistic disciplines.
Questions
A. art’s program’s
B. arts program’s
C. arts’ programs’
D. arts programs
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: D
The students’ scenes would then be presented in a final performance, once students had spent time discussing and critiquing their work. Sellars’ s only ——— that one group should volunteer to begin and that other groups should follow when reminded of their own scenes.
Questions
A. advice: was
B. advice was
C. advice was:
D. advice, was
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: B
TV commercials are getting shorter. In 2014, 61 % of US TV ads were thirty seconds long, whereas in the first half of 2017, ———– were.
Questions
Which choice most effectively represents the data in the graph?
A. fewer than half
B. just over half
C. 59%
D. 75%
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: A
In the same time period, the percentage of fifteen-second ads rose from ————- , and the percentage of ten-second ads also increased. This shift was influenced by the success of streaming services like Netflix, which eliminated ads altogether.
Questions
Which choice provides accurate information from the graph?
A. 5% to 91%
B. 5% to 36%,
C. 29% to 36%,
D. 36% to 49%,
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: C
Today, TV networks and YouTube are increasingly running ads that —————— . As with all marketing, the goal of these ads is to make an emotional connection with consumers by communicating a clear, memorable message.
Questions
A. last only six seconds long
B. last only six seconds.
C. last for six seconds before ending.
D. only last for a length of six seconds.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: B
Yet that has not proved to be the case. As Tara Wal pert —————– , at Google, says, “creativity loves constraint.” The shorter time frame, she explains, has forced advertisers to rethink the way they develop ads, thus forming a new marketing style that can be highly effective.
Questions
A. Levy a vice president
B. Levy a vice president at Google,
C. Levy, a vice president at Google,
D. Levy, a vice president at Google
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: C
For example, a thirty-second Buick ad highlights the car’s size, navigation system, and power on unpaved roads, all ———— the context of a humorous, dialogue-heavy family road trip.
Questions
A. among
B. throughout
C. around
D. within
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: D
It uses a layered story to show that the car’s spaciousness, convenience, and safety ————— to a family’s happiness.
Questions
A. has added
B. add
C. adds
D. is adding
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: B
—————, a six-second Audi ad shows only the car’s ability to accelerate.
Questions
A. in contrast
B. In particular,
C. Accordingly,
D. Nonetheless,
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: A
Emphasizing the car’s acceleration delivers a clear ————-, it’s fast.
Questions
A. message
B. message. It’s:
C. message: it’s
D. message, it’s:
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: C
While some advertisers have ————–longer ads to fit a six-second window, the best six-second ads, like this one, are specifically designed to be succinct.
Questions
A. abbreviated
B. curbed
C. moderated
D. restrained
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: A
A 2018 Advertising Research Foundation study found that whether ————- cars or candy, sixsecond ads get more viewer concentration per second than longer commercials do.
Questions
A. it features
B. they feature
C. it’s featuring
D. one features
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: B
For many advice seekers in the age of the internet, the act of crowdsourcing information from online communities ————- standard.
Questions
A. have become
B. has become
C. are becoming
D. become
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: B
Yet, according to the Columbia Journalism Review, advice columns have “stood the test of time better than most classic newspaper staples, —————-today in major publications such as the New York Times and Slate.
Questions
A. arriving
B. happening
C. appearing
D. opening
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: C
Columns in the US have followed the same basic format at least since the Dear Abby column was launched in 1956: readers send in queries, and a small number of them are published. The queries are alongside a columnist’s published responses to them.
Questions
Which choice most effectively combines the sentences at the underlined portion?
A. alongside a columnist’s responses-that is, those that are published.
B. published; a columnist’s responses are alongside them.
C. with a columnist’s published responses alongside those queries.
D. published alongside a columnist’s responses.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: D
While not as convenient as online forums, ————————- engaging writing that privileges empathy over quick fixes.
Questions
A. advice columns’ relevance has remained because they feature
B. it is advice columns that have remained relevant by featuring
C. advice columns have remained relevant by featuring
D. the relevance of advice columns has remained because they feature
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: C
In a reply to two middle-aged readers asking if it was too late for ——-to have writing careers, Gay, the first Black woman to work as a lead writer for the Marvel franchise, traced her own longtime struggle to get published.
Questions
A. it
B. them
C. him
D. us
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: B
Rather than give advice about how to have a writing career-information that could have been gleaned from a Google search-Gay went on to impart a lesson learned from ——————, keep writing, for youth is not a prerequisite for artistic success.
Questions
A. experience
B. experience;
C. experience
D. experience:
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: D
Cultural critics have widely praised Strayed’s approach of narrating personal stories and meticulously analyzing ————- to answer what she calls “the questions you didn’t ask that stand so brightly behind the questions you did.” After her sizable following demanded a book version of the column, Strayed published excerpts as Tiny Beautiful Things (2012), which became a best seller.
Questions
A. readers’ letters
B. readers’ letter’s
C. readers letter’s
D. reader’s letters
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: A
Until recently, scientists thought that the Przewalski’ s horse, an endangered species living in central Asia, was the only remaining truly wild horse ———. A wild species being one whose ancestors were never domesticated by humans.
Questions
A. species
B. species-that is,
C. species, a wild species is
D. species; which is
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: B
Previously, researchers considered ancient Przewalski’ s horses to be the ancestors of Botai horses. Ancient Przewalski’ s horses were considered, by extension, to be the ancestors of all modern domesticated horses as well.
Questions
Which choice most effectively combines the sentences at the underlined portion?
A. horses-not only of those horses, but also, by extension, of all modern domesticated horses.
B. horses; by extension, they were considered to be all modern domesticated horses’ ancestors too.
C. horses and, by extension, all modern domesticated horses.
D. horses and all modern domesticated horses as well, because the consideration was extended.
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: C
Modern Przewalski’s horses thus appear to be a feral —————– escaped domesticated animals.
Questions
A. population; one descended from
B. population one descended from
C. population-one descended from:
D. population: one descended from
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: D
Just as startling, the data also showed that Botai —————— , are not the primary ancestors of modern domesticated horses. Instead, modern horses derive from another, as-yet-unknown population.
Questions
A. horses which eventually gave rise to Przewalski’s horses
B. horses-which eventually gave rise to Przewalski’s horses
C. horses, which eventually gave rise to Przewalski’s horses,
D. horses, (which eventually gave rise to Przewalski’s horses)
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: C
These conclusions amount to a major ————– to scientists’ understandings of the genetic relationships among different equine groups. Importantly, the discovery that modern Przewalski’ s horses are feral means that true wild horses are extinct.
Questions
A. shifting
B. shifting for
C. shift in
D. shift to
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: C
“But the reality is, they disappeared some time ago.” Wild or feral, Przewalski’s horses ————-a crucial part of the story of the relationship between humans and equine populations stretching across millennia and around the globe.
Questions
A. remains
B. is remaining
C. has remained
D. remain
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans: D