SAT Reading Practice Test Questions – Science based -Set 2

Questions 10-18 are based on the following passage.

The following passage was written by a physicist in 1986.

When astronomers point their telescopes to the nearest galaxy, Andromeda, they see it as it was two million years ago. That’s about the time Australopithecus* was basking in the African sun. This little bit of time travel is possible Line 5 because light takes two million years to make the trip from there to here. Too bad we couldn’t tum things around and observe Earth from some cozy planet in Andromeda. But looking at light from distant objects isn’t real time travel, the in-the-flesh participation in past and future found Line 10 in literature. Ever since I’ve been old enough to read science fiction, I’ve dreamed of time traveling. The possibilities are staggering. You could take medicine back to fourteenth-century Europe and stop the spread of plague, or you could travel to the twenty-third century, where people take their Line 15 annual holidays in space stations. Being a scientist myself, I know that time travel is quite unlikely according to the laws of physics. For one thing, there would be a causality violation. If you could travel backward in time, you could alter a chain of events Line 20 with the knowledge of how they would have turned out. Cause would no longer always precede effect. For example, you could prevent your parents from ever meeting. Contemplating the consequences of that will give you a headache, and science fiction writers for decades have Line 25 delighted in the paradoxes that can arise from traveling through time. Physicists are, of course, horrified at the thought of causality violation. Differential equations for the way things should behave under a given set of forces and Line 30 initial conditions would no longer be valid, since what happens in one instant would not necessarily determine what happens in the next. Physicists do rely on a deterministic universe in which to operate, and time travel would almost certainly put them and most other scientists Line 35 permanently out of work. Still, I dream of time travel. There is something very personal about time. When the first mechanical clocks were invented, marking off time in crisp, regular intervals, it must have surprised people to discover that time Line 40 flowed outside their own mental and physiological processes. Body time flows at its own variable rate, oblivious to the most precise clocks in the laboratory. In fact, the human body contains its own exquisite timepieces, all with their separate rhythms. There are the alpha waves in the Line 45 brain; another clock is the heart. And all the while tick the mysterious, ruthless clocks that regulate aging. Recently, I found my great-grandfather’s favorite pipe. Papa Joe, as he was called, died more than seventy years ago, long before I was born. There are few surviving photo Line 50 graphs or other memorabilia of Papa Joe. But I do have his pipe, which had been tucked away in a drawer somewhere for years and was in good condition when I found it. I ran a pipe cleaner through it, filled it with some tobacco I had on hand, and settled down to read and smoke. After a couple Line 55 of minutes, the most wonderful and foreign blend of smells began wafting from the pipe. All the different occasions when Papa Joe had lit his pipe, all the different places he had been that I will never know–,all had been locked up in that pipe and now poured out into the room. I was Line 60 vaguely aware that something had got delightfully twisted in time for a moment, skipped upward on the page. There is a kind of time travel to be had, if you don’t insist on how it happens.
* An extinct humanlike primate

10. The author mentions Australopithecus in line 3 in order to

1. note an evolutionary progression in the physical world
2. dramatize how different Earth was two million years ago
3. commend the superior work of astronomers in isolating a moment early in time
4. establish a link between the length of time that Africa has been inhabited and the discovery of the Andromeda galaxy
5. emphasize the relatively long period of human life compared to the age of the universe

11. The statement in lines 6-7 (“Too bad … Andromeda”) suggests that

1. scientists would like to observe events that occurred on Earth in the distant past
2. there may be planets in Andromeda that are reachable through space travel
3. the study of Andromeda would offer interesting comparisons to planet Earth
4. a planet in Andromeda will be a likely observation point for Earth in the future
5. Andromeda is much older than Earth

12. The author mentions “plague” (line 13) and “space stations” (line 15) primarily to

1. give an example of the themes of novels about time travel
2. suggest contrasting views of the future
3. scoff at the scientific consequences of time travel
4. give examples of the subjects that scientists are interested in
5. suggest why time travel is such a fascinating topic 

13. The author introduces the third paragraph with the words “Being a scientist” in order to

1. explain an intense personal interest in the topic
2. lend an air of authority to the discussion of time travel
3. suggest why certain forms of literature are so appealing
4. provoke those who defend science fiction
5. help illustrate the term “causality violation”

14. In discussing causality violations (lines 16-35), the author addresses concerns about all of the following EXCEPT

1. anticipatory knowledge of events
2. the belief in a deterministic universe
3. the mechanics of space travel
4. cause-and-effect relationships
5. differential equations based on known forces

15. Which of the following, if true, would undermine the validity of the author’s assumption about the impact of mechanical clocks (“When the first … the laboratory”) in lines 37-42?

1. People were oblivious to time on a physical level before clocks were invented.
2. People have always perceived time as composed of discrete, uniform intervals.
3. Concern about time was unnecessary until clocks were invented.
4. Mental and physiological processes are very predictable.
5. Body time does not move at a constant rate.

16. The author mentions the brain and the heart (lines 44-45) in order to

1. demonstrate the rhythmical qualities of timepieces
2. explain the historical significance of mechanical clocks
3. emphasize how the two organs interact to regulate internal rhythms
4. illustrate the body’s different internal clocks
5. demystify the precision of organic processes

17. The author uses the word “ruthless” (line 46) to suggest that

1. people are bewildered by the prospect of aging
2. the human body has mysterious capacities
3. some people age more rapidly than others do
4. people’s sense of time changes as they age
5. the process of aging is relentless

18. The author mentions that “something … skipped upward on the page” (lines 60-61) to suggest that

1. he reread a portion of the page
2. his vision was affected by the smoke
3. he traveled back in time in his imagination
4. his reading reminded him of Papa Joe
5. he believes that reading is the best way to recreate the past