SAT Reading Practice Test Questions- Social Science based Set 4

Questions 6-9 are based on the following passages.

Passage 1

The first three years of life appear to be a crucial starting point-a period particularly sensitive to the protective mechanisms of parental and family support. For millennia, parents have recognized the newborn’s basic need for Line 5 safety, nourishment, warmth, and nurturing. Now science has added stunning revelations about human development from birth to age three, confirming that parents and other adult caregivers play a critical role in influencing a child’s development. No other period of human life is as suited to Line 10 learning as are a child’s first three years. Babies raised by caring, attentive adults in safe, predictable environments are better learners than those raised with less attention in less secure settings.

Passage 2

Much early childhood literature suggests that the first Line 15 three years of life are the critical years for brain development. Yet new findings in neuroscience suggest that the brain retains its ability to reorganize itself in response to experience or injury throughout life: after the loss of sensory input from an amputated limb, for example, Line 20 adults are able to learn new motor skills effectively. It may be useful to question the simplistic view that the brain becomes unbendable and increasingly difficult to modify beyond the first few years of life. If so, we should also be wary of claims that parents have only Line 25 a single, biologically delimited, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help their children build better brains.

6. Which best expresses the relationship between Passage 2 and Passage 1 ?

  1. Passage 2 urges particular changes as a result of the findings described in Passage 1.
  2. Passage 2 mocks those who support the argument presented in Passage 1.
  3. Passage 2 offers a personal anecdote that casts doubt upon the beliefs espoused in Passage 1.
  4. Passage 2 questions an assumption underlying the ideas expressed in Passage 1.
  5. Passage 2 provides a scientific explanation for the examples cited in Passage 1.
Ans:/Explanation

Ans:D

7. Both authors would most likely agree with which of the following statements?

  1. The brain becomes increasingly inflexible as a person grows older.
  2. Adults can bounce back from injuries as readily as children can.
  3. Children raised by attentive parents are generally good learners.
  4. It is widely acknowledged that the first three years are important to a child’s development.
  5. Most scientists have recently changed their views about human development prior to age three.
Ans:/Explanation

Ans:D

8. Passage 2 as a whole suggests that its author would most likely react to lines 9-10 in Passage 1 (“No other … years”) with

  1. indignation
  2. skepticism
  3. humor
  4. ambivalence
  5. approval
Ans:/Explanation

Ans:B

9. Lines 3-9 of Passage 1 (“For millennia development”) draw a parallel between

  1. traditional practices and contemporary critiques
  2. basic human needs and intellectual endeavors
  3. widespread beliefs and scientific findings
  4. parental anxieties and developmental advances
  5. experimental hypotheses and proven theories
Ans:/Explanation

Ans:C

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