Sample SAT

R EADING TEST
65 Minutes-52 Questions

Turn to Section 1 of your answer sheet to answer the questions in this section.

Directions: Each passage or pair of passages below is followed by a number of questions. After
reading each passage or pair, choose the best answer to each question based on what is stated or
implied in the passage or passages and in any accompanying graphics (such as a table or graph).

Questions 1-10 are based on the following passage

The following passage is adapted from Charles Dickens’s 1860 novel Great Expectations. In this scene, the narrator, a boy named Pip, eats breakfast with his older sister’s acquaintance, Mr. Pumblechook. Pumblechook has agreed to take Pip to see Miss Havisham, a wealthy woman who has requested this visit, although Pip has never met her.

Mr. Pumblechook and I breakfasted at eight dclock in the parlor behind the shop, while the shopman took his mug of tea and hunch of bread and butter Line on a sack of peas in the front premises. I considered

(5) Mr. Pumblechook wretched company. Besides being possessed by my sister’s idea that a mortifying and penitential character ought to be imparted to my diet (Pip’s sister indicated to Pumblechook that Pip should be grateful, even penitent (unreasonably so) for his help.) -besides giving me as much crumb as possible in combination with as little butter, and putting

(10) such a quantity of warm water into my milk that it would have been more candid to have left the milk out altogether,-his conversation consisted of nothing but arithmetic. On my politely bidding him Good morning, he said, pompously, “Seven times nine,

(15) boy?” And how should I be able to answer, dodged in that way, in a strange place, on an empty stomach! I was hungry, but before I had swallowed a morsel, he began a running sum that lasted all through the breakfast. “Seven?” “And four?” “And eight?” … And

(20) so on. And after each figure was disposed of, it was as much as I could do to get a bite or a sup, before the next came; while he sat at his ease guessing nothing, and eating bacon and hot roll, in (if I may be allowed the expression) a gorging and gormandizing manner.

(25) For such reasons, I was very glad when ten dclock came and we started for Miss Havisham’s; though I was not at all at my ease regarding the manner in which I should acquit myself under that lady’s roof. Within a quarter of an hour we came to Miss

(30) Havisham’s house, which was of old brick, and dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it. Some of the windows had been walled up; of those that remained, all the lower were rustily barred. There was a courtyard in front, and that was barred; so we

(35) had to wait, after ringing the bell, until some one should come to open it. While we waited at the gate, I peeped in (even then Mr. Pumblechook said, “And fourteen?” but I pretended not to hear him), and saw that at the side of the house there was a large

(40) brewery. No brewing was going on in it, and none seemed to have gone on for a long long time. A window was raised, and a clear voice demanded “What name?” To which my conductor replied, “Pumblechook:’ The voice returned, “Quite right,”

(45) and the window was shut again, and a young lady came across the courtyard, with keys in her hand. “This”, said Mr. Pumblechook, “is Pip:’ “This is Pip, is it?” returned the young lady, who was very pretty and seemed very proud; “come in, Pip:’

(50) Mr. Pumblechook was coming in also, when she stopped him with the gate.

“Oh!” she said. “Did you wish to see Miss Havisham?”

“If Miss Havisham wished to see me” returned

(55) Mr. Pumblechook, discomfited.

“Ah!” said the girl; “but you see she don’t”. She said it so finally, and in such an undiscussible way, that Mr. Pumblechook,
though in a condition of ruffled dignity, could not

(60) protest. But he eyed me severely,-as if I had done anything to him!-and departed with the words reproachfully delivered: “Boy! Let your behavior here be a credit unto them which brought you up by hand!”(Pumblechook is speaking of Pip’s sister, who often boasts that she raised him “by hand.”) I was not free from apprehension that

(65) he would come back to propound through the gate, ”And sixteen?” But he didn’t.

1. According to the first paragraph, Pip’s breakfast
with Mr. Pumblechook is

2. As used in line 5, “wretched” most nearly means

3. Based on the passage, it can be inferred that Mr. Pumblechook

4. Which choice provides the best support for the
answer to the previous question?

5. What theme is communicated through the
experiences of Pip, the narrator?

6. Which word best describes the young lady’s demeanor when she approaches Pip and Mr. Pumblechook?

7. Which of the following is true when Mr. Pumblechook leaves Pip at Miss Havisham’s house?

8. Which choice provides the best support for the answer to the previous question?

9. As used in line 59, “condition” most nearly means

10. The function of the parenthetical comment in lines 23-24 is to reveal that

Questions 11-20 are based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

.. .I think I should give the reason for my being in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the argument of “outsiders coming in:’ I have Line the honor of serving as president of the Southern

(5) Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every Southern state with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliate organizations all across the South, one being the Alabama Christian Movement for

(10) Human Rights. Whenever necessary and possible we share staff, educational, and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago our local affiliate here in Birmingham invited us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct action program if such

(15) were deemed necessary. We readily consented and when the hour came we lived up to our promises. So I am here, along with several members of my staff, because we were invited here. I am here because I have basic organizational ties here. Beyond this, I

(20) am in Birmingham because injustice is here …. Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a

(25) threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator”

(30) idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere in this country ….
You may well ask, “Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, etc.? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You

(35) are exactly right in your call for negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It

(40) seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. I just referred to the creation of tension as a part of the work of the nonviolent resister. This may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word tension. I have earnestly

(45) worked and preached against violent tension, but there is a type of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and

(50) half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must see the need of having nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic

(55) heights of understanding and brotherhood. So the purpose of the direct action is to create a situation purpose of the direct action is to create a situation with your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved

(60) Southland been bogged down in the tragic attempt to live in monologue rather than dialogue ….
My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure.

(65) History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups are

(70) more immoral than individuals. We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed …. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in

(75) the ear of every African American with a piercing familiarity. This “wait” has almost always meant ” never:’ It has been a tranquilizing thalidomide, relieving the emotional stress for a moment, only to give birth to an ill-formed infant of frustra-

(80) tion. We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that “justice too long delayed is justice denied:’ We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa

(85) are moving with jet-like speed toward the goal of political independence, and we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter ….

11. King’s purpose for writing this letter is

12. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

13. The passage most strongly suggests that which of the following statements is true?

14. As used in lines 2 1-22, “interrelatedness of all communities and states” most nearly means that

15. Based on paragraph 3, it can be reasonably inferred that King believed circumstances in Birmingham at the time

16. Which choice provides the best evidence for the
answer to the previous question?

17. As used in line 40, “dramatize” most nearly means

18. Which choice most clearly paraphrases a claim made by King in paragraph 4?

19. Paragraph 4 best supports the claims made in paragraph 3 by

20. King refers to “the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter” (lines 87-88) primarily to

Questions 21-31 are based on the following passages and supplementary material.

The idea of a World Bank became a reality in 1944, when delegates to the Bretton Woods Conference pledged to “outlaw practices which are agreed to be harmful to world prosperity.” Passage 1 discusses the benefits of the World Bank, while Passage 2 focuses on the limited lifespan of the Bretton Woods system.

Passage 1
In 1944, 730 delegates from forty-four Allied nations met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, just as World War II was ending. They were attending an important conference. This mostly forgotten

(5) event shaped our modern world because delegates at the Bretton Woods Conference agreed on the establishment of an international banking system. To ensure that all nations would prosper, the United States and other allied nations set rules

(10) for a postwar international economy. The Bretton Woods system created the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF was founded as a kind of global central bank from which member countries could borrow money. The countries needed money

(15) to pay for their war costs. Today, the IMF facilitates international trade by ensuring the stability of the international monetary and financial system. The Bretton Woods system also established the World Bank. Although the World Bank shares

(20) similarities with the IMF, the two institutions remain distinct. While the IMF maintains an orderly system of payments and receipts between nations, the World Bank is mainly a development institution. The World Bank initially gave loans to European countries dev-

(25) astated by World War II, and today it lends money and technical assistance specifically to economic projects in developing countries. For example, the World Bank might provide a low-interest loan to a country attempting to improve education or

(30) health. The goal of the World Bank is to “bridge the economic divide between poor and rich countries:’ In short, the organizations differ in their purposes. The Bank promotes economic and social progress so people can live better lives, while the IMF represents

(35) the entire world in its goal to foster global monetary cooperation and financial stability. These two specific accomplishments of the Bretton Woods Conference were major. However, the Bretton Woods system particularly benefited

(40) the United States. It effectively established the U.S. dollar as a global currency. A global currency is one that countries worldwide accept for all trade, or international transactions of buying and selling. Because only the U.S. could print dollars, the United

(45) States became the primary power behind both the IMF and the World Bank. Today, global currencies include the U.S. dollar, the euro (European Union countries), and the yen (Japan). The years after Bretton Woods have been

(50) considered the golden age of the U.S. dollar. More importantly, the conference profoundly shaped foreign trade for decades to come.

Passage 2
The financial system established at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference endured for many years. Even

(55) after the United States abrogated agreements made at the conference, the nation continued to experience a powerful position in international trade by having other countries tie their currencies to the U.S. dollar. The world, however, is changing.

(60) In reality, the Bretton Woods system lasted only three decades. Then, in 1971, President Richard Nixon introduced a new economic policy by ending the convertibility of the dollar to gold. It marked the end of the Bretton Woods international monetary

(65) framework, and the action resulted in worldwide financial crisis. Two cornerstones of Bretton Woods, however, endured: the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system,

(70) IMF members have been trading using a flexible exchange system. Namely, countries allow their exchange rates to fluctuate in response to changing conditions. The exchange rate between two currencies, such as the Japanese yen and the U.S.

(75) dollar, for example, specifies how much one currency is worth in terms of the other. An exchange rate of 120 yen to dollars means that 120 yen are worth the same as one dollar. Even so, the U.S. dollar has remained the most

(80) widely used money for international trade, and having one currency for all trade may be better than using a flexible exchange system. This seems to be the thinking of a powerful group of countries. The Group of Twenty (G20), which has

(85) called for a new Bretton Woods, consists of governments and leaders from 20 of the world’s largest economies including China, the United States, and the European Union. In 2009, for example, the G20 announced plans to create a new global currency

(90) to replace the U.S. dollar’s role as the anchor currency. Many believe that China’s yuan, quickly climbing the financial ranks, is well on its way to becoming a major world reserve currency. In fact, an earlier 1988 article in The Economist

(95) stated, “30 years from now, Americans, Japanese, Europeans, and people in many other rich countries and some relatively poor ones will probably be paying for their shopping with the same currency.”
The article predicted that the world supply of

(100) currency would be set by a new central bank of the IMF. This prediction seems to be coming to fruition since the G20 indicated that a “world currency is in waiting:’ For an international construct such as the original Bretton Woods to last some 26

(105) years is nothing less than amazing. But move over Bretton Woods; a new world order in finance could be on the fast track.

21. Based on Passage 1, it can reasonably be inferred that

22. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

23. As used in line 35, “foster” most nearly means

24. Which statement best explains the difference between the purposes of the IMF and the World Bank?

25. Based on the second paragraph in Passage 2, it can be reasonably inferred that

26. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

27. As used in line 90, “anchor” most nearly means

28. It can reasonably be inferred from both Passage 2 and the graphic that

29. The last paragraph of Passage 2 can be described as

30. Which statement most effectively compares the authors’ purposes in both passages?

31. Both passages support which generalization about the global economy?

Questions 32-42 are based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from an article about treating paralysis.

According to a study conducted by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, more than six million people in the United States suffer from debilitating paralysis. That’s close to one person in every fifty

(5) who suffers from a loss of the ability to move or feel in areas of his or her body. Paralysis is often caused by illnesses, such as stroke or multiple sclerosis, or injuries to the spinal cord. Research scientists have made advances in the treatment of paralysis, which

(10) means retraining affected individuals to become as independent as possible. Patients learn how to use wheelchairs and prevent complications that are caused by restricted movement. This retraining is key in maintaining paralytics’ quality of life; however, an actual

(15) cure for paralysis has remained elusive-until now. In 20 14, surgeons in Poland collaborated with the University College London’s Institute of Neurology to treat a Polish man who was paralyzed from the chest down as a result of a spinal cord in-

(20) jury. The scientists chose this patient for their study because of the countless hours of physical therapy he had undergone with no signs of progress. Twenty-one months after their test subject’s initial spinal cord injury, his condition was considered

(25) complete as defined by the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA)’s Impairment Scale. This meant that he experienced no sensory or motor function in the segments of his spinal cord nearest to his injury.

(30) The doctors used a technique refined during forty years of spinal cord research on rats. They removed one of two of the patient’s olfactory bulbs, which are structures found at the top of the human nose. From this structure, samples of olfactory ensheath-

(35) ing cells, responsible for a portion of the sense of smell, were harvested. These cells allow the olfactory system to renew its cells over the course of a human life. It is because of this constant regeneration that scientists chose these particular cells to implant into

(40) the patient’s spinal cord. After being harvested, the cells were reproduced in a culture. Then, the cells were injected into the patient’s spinal cord in 100 mini-injections above and below the location of his injury. Four strips of nerve tissue were then placed

(45) across a small gap in the spinal cord. After surgery, the patient underwent a tailor made neurorehabilitation program. In the nineteen months following the operation, not only did the patient experience no adverse effects, but his condi-

(50) tion improved from ASIA’s class A to class C. Class C is considered an incomplete spinal cord injury, meaning that motor function is preserved to a certain extent and there is some muscle activity. The patient experienced increased stability in the trunk

(55) of his body, as well as partial recovery of voluntary movements in his lower extremities. As a result, he was able to increase the muscle mass in his thighs and regain sensation in those areas. In late 2014, he took his first steps with the support of only a walker.

(60) These exciting improvements suggest that the nerve grafts doctors placed in the patient’s spinal cord bridged the injured area and prompted the regeneration of fibers. This was the first-ever clinical study that showed beneficial effects of cells transplanted into the

(65) spinal cord. The same team of scientists plans to treat ten more patients using this “smell cell” transplant technique. If they have continued success, patients around the world can have both their mobility and their hope restored.

32. The passage is primarily concerned with

33. The author includes a description of retraining paralytics in lines 8-13 primarily to

34. Based on the information in the passage, it can be inferred that the author

35. Which choice provides the best support for the answer to the previous question?

36. As used in line 13, “restricted” most nearly means

37. In lines 46-47, the author’s use of the word “tailormade” helps reinforce the idea that

38. It can reasonably be inferred from the passage that

39. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

40. As used in line 30, “refined” most nearly means

41. The success of the patient’s treatment was due in large part to

42. The procedure described in which cells from olfactory bulbs are injected into a damaged area of the spinal cord is most analogous to which of the following?

Questions 43-52 are based on the following passage and supplementary material.

The following passage is adapted from an essay about mercury in fish.

Mercury is an unusual element; it is a metal but is liquid at room temperature. It is also a neurotoxin and a teratogen, as it causes nerve damage and birth defects. Mercury can be found just about

(5) everywhere; it is in soil, in air, in household items, and even in our food. Everyday objects, such as thermometers, light switches, and fluorescent lightbulbs, contain mercury in its elemental form. Batteries can also contain mercury, but they contain

(10) it in the form of the inorganic compound mercury chloride. Mercury can also. exist as an organic compound, the most common of which is methyl mercury. While we can take steps to avoid both elemental and inorganic mercury, it is much harder

(15) to avoid methylmercury. Most of the mercury in the environment comes from the emissions of coal-burning power plants; coal contains small amounts of mercury, which are released into the air when coal burns.

(20)The concentration of mercury in the air form plants is very low, so it is not immediately dangerous. However,  the mercury is then washed out of the air by rain storms and eventually ends up in lakes and oceans. The mercury deposited in the water does not in-

(25) stantaneously get absorbed by fish, as elemental mercury does not easily diffuse through cell membranes. However, methylmercury diffuses into cells easily, and certain anaerobic bacteria in the water convert the elemental mercury to methylmercury as a by-

(30) product of their metabolic processes. Methylmercury released into the water by the bacteria diffuses into small single-celled organisms called plankton. Small shrimp and other small animals eat the plankton and absorb the methylmercury in the plankton

(35) during digestion. Small fish eat the shrimp and then larger fish eat the smaller fish; each time an animal preys on another animal, the predator absorbs the methylmercury. Because each animal excretes the methylmercury much more slowly than it absorbs

(40) it, methylmercury builds up in the animal over time and is passed on to whatever animal eats it, resulting in a process called bioaccumulation. As people became aware of the bioaccumulation of mercury in fish, many reacted by eliminating

(45) seafood from their diet. However, seafood contains certain omega-3 fatty acids that are important for good health. People who do not eat enough of these fatty acids, especially eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are more likely

(50) to have heart attacks than people who have enough EPA and DHA in their diet. Because fish and shellfish, along with some algae, are the only sources of these fatty acids, eliminating them from our diet might have worse health effects than consuming

(55) small amounts of mercury. Scientists have studied the effects of mercury by conducting tests on animals and by studying various human populations and recording the amount of mercury in their blood. By determining the lev-

(60) els of mercury consumption that cause any of the known symptoms of mercury poisoning, they were able to identify a safe level of mercury consumption. The current recommendation is for humans to take in less than 0.1 microgram of mercury for

(65) every kilogram of weight per day. This means that a 70-kilogram person (about 1 55 pounds) could safely consume 7 micrograms of mercury per day. Because haddock averages about 0.055 micrograms of mercury per gram, that person could safely eat

(70) 127 grams (about 4.5 ounces) of haddock per day. On the other hand, swordfish averages about 0.995 micrograms of mercury per gram of fish, so the 70-kilogram person could safely eat only about 7 grams (about one-quarter of an ounce) of swordfish

(75) per day. Nutritionists recommend that, rather than eliminate fish from our diet, we try to eat more of the low-mercury fish and less of the high-mercury fish. Low-mercury species tend to be smaller

(80) omnivorous fish while high-mercury species tend to be the largest carnivorous fish. Awareness of the particulars of this

problem, accompanied by mindful eating habits, will keep us on the best course for healthy eating.

43. The author of the passage would most likely agree with which of the following statements?

44. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

45. In addition to the levels of mercury in a specific species of fish, people should also consider which of the following when determining a safe level of consumption?

46. As used in lines 19-20, “concentration” most nearly means

47. The passage most strongly suggests which of the following statements is accurate?

48. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

49. The main purpose of paragraph 3 is to explain

50. Which of the following pieces of evidence would most strengthen the author’s line of reasoning?

51. As used in line 82, “particulars” most nearly means

52. Based on the information in the passage and the graphic, which of the following statements is true?

WRITING AND LANGUAGE TEST

35 Minutes-44 Questions

Turn to Section 2 of your answer sheet to answer the questions in this section.

Directions: Each passage below is accompanied by a number of questions. For some questions, you will consider how the passage might be revised to improve the expression of ideas. For other questions, you will consider how the passage might be edited to correct errors in sentence structure, usage, or punctuation. A passage or a question may be accompanied by one or more graphics (such as a table or graph) that you will consider as you make revising and editing decisions. Some questions will direct you to an underlined portion of a passage. Other questions will direct you to a location in a passage or ask you to think about the passage as a whole. After reading each passage, choose the answer to each question that most effectively improves the quality of writing in the passage or that makes the passage conform to the conventions of standard written English. Many questions include a “NO CHANGE” option. Choose that option if you think the best choice is to leave the relevant portion of the passage as it is.

Questions 1 – 11 are based on the following passage and supplementary material.

The UN: Promoting World Peace

The United Nations (UN) is perhaps the most important political contribution of the 20th century. Some may argue that the work of the UN (1); an international peacekeeping organization – has proven futile, given persisting global conflict. But the UN’s worldwide influence demands a closer look. This organization’s global impact is undeniable. The UN is a strong political organization determined to create opportunities for its member nations to enjoy a peaceful and productive world. (2)

(3) Decades ago, provoked by the events of World Wars I and II, world leaders began imagining a politically neutral force for international peace. The UN was born in 1945 with 51 participating nations. It was to be a collective political authority for global peace and security. Today, 193 nations are UN members. (4) In keeping with the original hope, the UN still strives toward peaceful international relations.

Understandably, no single organization can perfectly solve the world’s countless, complex problems. But the UN has offered consistent relief for many of the past half-century’s most difficult disasters and conflicts. It also provides a safe space for international conversation.

2. Which choice would most clearly end the paragraph with a restatement of the author’s claim?

3.

4.

Moreover, it advocates for issues such as justice, trade, hunger relief, human rights, health, and gender (5) equality, the UN also coordinates care for those displaced by disaster and conflict, (6) dictates environmental protection, and works toward conflict reconciliation.

(7) The UN’s budget, goals, and personnel count have significantly expanded to meet more needs. (8) The year 2014 witnessed the UN peacekeeping force grow to over 100,000 strong. These uniformed, volunteer, civilian personnel represent 128 nations. The UN’s budget has also grown over the years to support an international court system, as well as countless agencies, committees, and centers addressing sociopolitical..

5.

6.

7. Which choice provides the most logical introduction to the paragraph?

8. Which choice best completes the sentence with accurate data based on the graphic?

..topics. Today’s UN does big things, and it functions with remarkable organization and efficiency. Critics highlight shortcomings to discount the UN’s effectiveness. But considering the countless disasters to which the UN has responded over its six decades of existence, today’s world might enjoy a (9) far less peace, freedom, and safety without the UN.

[1] From promoting overarching sociopolitical change to offering food and care for displaced groups, the UN serves to protect human rights. [2] Equally (10) quotable are its initiatives to foster international collaboration, justice, and peace. [3] The UN provided aid to the Philippines after the disastrous 20 13 typhoon. [4] Certainly, this work is not finished. [5] But no other organization compares with the work and influence of the UN. [ 6] This brave endeavor to insist on and strive for peace, whatever the obstacles, has indeed united hundreds of once-divided nations. [7] Today, with eleven Nobel Peace Prizes to its name, the UN is undoubtedly an irreplaceable and profoundly successful force for peace. (11)

9.

10.

11. Which sentence should be removed to improve the focus of the concluding paragraph?

Questions 12 – 22 are based on the following passage.

DNA Analysis in a Day

Jane Saunders, a forensic DNA specialist, arrives at work and finds a request waiting for her: She needs to determine if the DNA of a fingernail with a few skin cells on it (12) match any records in the criminal database.

“Human DNA is a long, double-stranded (13) molecule; each strand consists of a complementary set of nucleotides;’ she explains. “DNA has four nucleotides: (14) adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), and, cytosine (C). On each strand is a sequence of nucleotides that ‘match’ or pair up with the nucleotides on the other, or complementary, strand. (15) On the other hand, when there is an adenine on one strand, there is a thymine on the complementary strand, and where there is guanine on one strand, there is cytosine on the complementary strand.”

She begins by (16) moving the DNA from the rest of the sample, transferring it to a (17) reaction tube. She adds a solution of primers, DNA polymerase, and nucleotides. Her goal is to separate the two strands of the DNA molecules and then make complementary copies of each strand.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17. Which choice most effectively combines the sentences at the underlined portion?

(18) The process of testing the DNA includes several steps and many changes in temperature. After mixing the primers, DNA polymerase, and nucleotides with the evidence DNA, Saunders closes the reaction tube and puts it in a thermocycler. It is programmed to raise the temperature to 94°C to separate the double strands into single strands, and then lower the temperature to 59°C to attach the primers to the single strands. Finally, it raises the temperature to 72°C for the DNA polymerase to build the complementary strands. The thermocycler holds each temperature for one minute and repeats the cycle of three temperatures for at least 30 cycles. At the end of each cycle, the number of DNA segments containing the sequence marked by the primers doubles. If the original sample contains only 100 DNA strands, (19) the absolute final sample will have billions of segments.

18. Which sentence most effectively establishes the central idea?

19.

[ l] After a short lunch break, Saunders needs to separate and identify the copied DNA segments. [2] She had used primers that bind to 13 specific sites in human DNA called short tandem repeats, or STRs. [3] The 13 STRs are segments of four nucleotides that repeat, such as GATAGATAGATA. [4] “Now here’s where the real magic happens!” Saunders says excitedly. [5] “Most DNA  is identical for all humans. [6] But STRs vary greatly. [7] The chances of any two humans-other than identical twins-having the same set of 13 STRs is less than one in one trillion.”(20)

Saunders knows that the detectives will be (21) prepared to hear her findings, so she sits down at her desk to compare her results with the criminal database in the hopes of finding a match. (22) Is it possible that too much time is spent identifying DNA in cases that are relatively easy to solve?

20. Where should sentence 1 be placed to make the paragraph feel cohesive?

21.

22. At this point, the writer wants to add a conclusion that best reflects Jane’s feelings conveyed in the passage. Which choice accomplishes that?

Questions 23-33 are based on the following passage.

Will Your Start-Up Succeed?

According to research from Harvard Business School, the majority of small businesses (23) fail in fact the success rate for a first time company owner is a meager 18 percent. With odds so dismal, why would anyone become a business entrepreneur?

(24) Many people desire the freedom of being their own boss, but to be successful, an entrepreneur must also be productive, persistent, and creative. Veteran entrepreneurs achieve a higher 30 percent success rate, so the most predictive factor for success appears to be the number of innovations that a person has “pushed out:’ More specifically, the people who succeed at building a robust start-up are the ones who have previously tried. Finally, many entrepreneurs (25) grab the idea for their business by solving practical problems, and it’s more than luck; 320 new entrepreneurs out of 100,000 do sueceed by starting a company at the right time in the right industry.

23.

24. Which sentence most effectively establishes the central idea?

25.

Mitch Gomez is evidence of this data. He (26) did graduate from college with a degree in accounting. “I quickly realized that I have too big of a personality to be content practicing accounting;’ he laughs. He first built a successful insurance claims (27) service, and next founded his own independent insurance agency. “I continually employ my accounting skills, but I’ve ascertained that I’m an even more effective salesperson:’

Similarly, Barbara Vital, the woman behind Vital Studio, explains, “I love spending as much time with my family as possible:’ Vital saw an opportunity to (28) launch a monogramming business when her two young sons started school, so she founded a company that offers monogrammed backpacks and water bottles for kids, as well as (29) totes, rain boots; and baseball caps for college students. What is the secret to Vital’s success? ‘Tm always learning how to incorporate social media and add functionality to my product website to keep customers happy;’ she says.

Finally, Chris Roth is an entrepreneur who can step out of his comfort zone. Always seeking a new (30) challenge his company designed and manufactured technology to keep the nozzles of water misting systems clean. Roth has also established a corporate travel agency and…

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

a truck customization company, most recently claiming he has become an innovator who beat the odds by “striving to serve customers better than my competition.” (31) Large companies often employ corporate travel agencies to arrange travel for their employees and clients.
Gomez, Vital, and Roth (32) agrees that although being an entrepreneur can be a formidable challenge, exceptionally skillful entrepreneurs have important strategies for success, including stretching (33) his personal boundaries and recovering from failures. ”And nothing beats being your own boss;’ adds Gomez.

31. Which sentence would best support the central idea?

32.

33.

Questions 34-44 are based on the following passage and supplementary material.

Edgard Varese’s Influence

Today’s music, from rock to jazz, has many (34) influences. And perhaps none is as unique as the ideas from French composer Edgard Varese. Called “the father of electronic music;’ he approached compositions from a different theoretical perspective than classical composers such as Bart6k and Debussy. He called his (35) works “organized sound”; they did not (36) endear melodies but waged assaults of percussion, piano, and human voices. He thought of sounds as having  intelligence and treated music spatially, as “sound objects floating in space:’ His unique vision can be credited to his education in science. Born in 1883 in France, Varese was raised by a great-uncle and grandfather in the Burgundy region. He was interested in classical music and composed his first opera as a teenager. While the family lived (37) in Italy he studied engineering in Turin, where he learned math and science and was inspired by the work of the artist Leonardo da Vinci. In 1903, he returned to France to study music at the Paris Conservatory. There, he composed the radical percussion performance piece Ionisation, which featured cymbals, snares, bass drum, xylophone, and sirens wailing. Later compositions were scored for the theremin, a new electronic instrument controlled by (38) the player’s hands waving over its antennae, which sense their position…

34.

35.

36.

37.

38.

tion. No composer had ever scored any music for the theremin before. In his thirties, Varese moved to New York City, where he played piano in a cafe and conducted other composers’ works until his own compositions gained success. His piece Ameriques was performed in Philadelphia in 1 926. Varese went on to travel to the western United States, where he recorded, lectured, and collaborated with other musicians. By the 1 950s, he was using tape recordings in (39) contention with symphonic performance. His piece Deserts was aired on a radio program amid selections by Mozart and Tchaikovsky but was received by listeners with hostility. (40)

Varese’s ideas were more forward-thinking than could be realized. One of his most ambitious scores, called Espace, was a choral symphony with multilingual lyrics, which was to be sung simultaneously by choirs in Paris, Moscow, Peking, and New York. He wanted the timing to be orchestrated by radio, but radio technology did not support worldwide transmission. If only Varese (41) had had the Internet!

39.

40. If added to the paragraph, which fact would best support the author’s claims?

41.

Although many of (42) their written compositions were lost in a fire in 1918, many modern musicians and composers have been influenced by Varese, including Frank Zappa, John Luther Adams, and John Cage, who wrote that Varese is “more relevant to present musical necessity than even the Viennese masters.” (43) Despite being less famous than Stravinsky or Shostakovich, his impact is undeniable. (44) Varese’s love of science and mathematics is shown in his later compositions, but less so in his early works.

42.

43. Which choice most accurately and effectively represents the information in the graph?

44. Which sentence best summarizes the central idea?

MATH TEST
25 Minutes-20 Questions

NO-CALCULATOR SECTION

Turn to Section 3 of your answer sheet to answer the questions in this section.
Directions: For this section, solve each problem and decide which is the best of the choices given.
Fill in the corresponding oval on the answer sheet. You may use any available space for scratch work.

Notes:
1. Calculator use is NOT permitted.
2. All numbers used are real numbers.
3. All figures used are necessary to solving the problems that they accompany. All figures are drawn
to scale EXCEPT when it is stated that a specific figure is not drawn to scale.
4. Unless stated otherwise, the domain of any function f is assumed to be the set of all real numbers
x, for whichf(x) is a real number.

Information

4. A start-up business is typically one that offers a “new” type of service or produces a “new” product. Start-ups are designed to search for a sustainable business model. The function shown in the graph represents new business start-up rates in the United States from 1 977 to 20 13 as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau. If t represents the year, then which of the following statements correctly describes the function?

7. If line P shown in the graph is reflected over the
x-axis and shifted up 3 units, what is the new
y-intercept?

8. Which of the following are roots of the equation

10. If (x, y) represents the solution to the system of equations shown above, what is the value of y?

12. The value of cos 40° is the same as which of the following ?

13. A business’s “break-even point” is the point at which revenue (sales) equals expenses. When a company breaks even, no profit is being made, but the company is not losing any money either. Suppose a manufacturer buys materials for producing a particular item at a cost of $4.85 per unit and has fixed monthly expenses of $11,625 related to this item. The manufacturer sells this particular item to several retailers for $9.50 per unit. How many units must the manufacturer sell per month to reach the break-even point for this item?

15. If  f(g(2)) = – 1 and f(x) =x+ 1, then which of the following could define g(x) ?

k(10x – 5) = 2(3 + x) – 7
16. If the equation above has infinitely many solutions and k is a constant, what is the value of k?

17. A right triangle has leg lengths of 18 and 24 and a hypotenuse of 15n. What is the value of n?

18. If the expression above is combined into a single power of x with a positive exponent, what is that exponent?

20. If the equation of the parabola shown in the graph is written in standard quadratic form, y = ax2 + bx+ c , and a= -1 , then what is the value of b?

MATH TEST
55 Minutes – 38 Questions

CALCULATOR SECTION

Turn to Section 4 of your answer sheet to answer the questions in this section.
Directions: For this section, solve each problem and decide which is the best of the choices given.
Fill in the corresponding oval on the answer sheet. You may use any available space for scratch work.

Notes:
1. Calculator use is permitted.
2. All numbers used are real numbers.
3. All figures used are necessary to solving the problems that they accompany. All figures are drawn
to scale EXCEPT when it is stated that a specific figure is not drawn to scale.
4. Unless stated otherwise, the domain of any function f is assumed to be the set of all real numbers
x, for which f(x) is a real qumber.

1. What is the y-coordinate of the solution to the system of equations shown above?

2. The scatterplot above shows data collected from 10 major league baseball players comparing the average weekly time each one spent in batting practice and the number of home runs he hit in a single season. The line of best fit for the data is also shown. What does the slope of the line represent in this context?

3. Where will the line shown in the graph above intersect the x-axis?

4. The function f(x) is defined as f(x) = – 3g(x), where g(x) = x + 2. What is the value of f(5) ?

5. Sara is grocery shopping. She needs laundry detergent, which is on sale for 30% off its regular price of $8.00. She also needs dog food, which she can buy at three cans for $4.00. Which of the following represents the total cost, before tax, if Sara buys x bottles of laundry detergent and 12 cans of dog food?

6. The graph above shows the average cost of back surgery followed by a hospital stay in the United States. The hospital charges for the surgery itself plus all the costs associated with recovery care for each night the patient remains in the hospital. Based on the graph, what is the average cost per night spent in the hospital?

7. The figure above represents a click-through rate curve, which shows the relationship between a search result position in a list of Internet search results and the number of people who clicked on advertisements on that result’s page. Which of the following regression types would be the best model for this data?

8. Kudzu is a vine-like plant that grows indigenously in Asia. It was brought over to the United States in the early 20th century to help combat soil erosion. As can often happen when foreign species are introduced into a non-native habitat, kudzu growth exploded and it became invasive. In one area of Virginia, kudzu covered approximately 3,200 acres of a farmer’s cropland, so he tried a new herbicide. After two weeks of use, 2,800 acres of the farmer’s cropland were free of the kudzu. Based on these results, and assuming the same general conditions, how many of the 30,000 acres of kudzu-infested cropland in that region would still be covered if all the farmers in the entire region had used the herbicide?

9. Several values for the functions g(x) and h(x) are shown in the table. What is the value of g(h(3)) ?

10. Mae-Ling made 15 shots during a basketball game. Some were 3-pointers and others were worth 2 points each. If s shots were 3-pointers, which expression represents her total score?

11. Crude oil is sold by the barrel, which refers to both the physical container and a unit of measure, abbreviated as bbl. One barrel holds 42 gallons and, consequently, 1 bbl = 42 gallons. An oil company is filling an order for 2,500 barrels. The machine the company uses to fill the barrels pumps at a rate of 3 7 .5 gallons per minute. If the oil company has 8 machines working simultaneously, how long will it take to fill all the barrels in the order?

12. Company A and Company B are selling two similar toys. The sales figures for each toy are recorded in the table above. The marketing department at Company A predicts that its monthly sales for this particular toy will continue to be higher than Company B’s through the end of the year. Based on the data in the table, and assuming that each company sustains the pattern of growth the data suggests, which company will sell more of this toy in December of that year and how much more?

13. Which symbol correctly completes the inequality whose solution is shown above?

Questions 14 and 15 refer to the following information.

A student is drawing the human skeleton to scale for a school assignment. The assignment permits the student to omit all bones under a certain size because they would be too small to draw. The longest bone in the human body is the femur, or thighbone, with an average length of 19.9 inches. The tenth longest bone is the sternum, or breastbone, with an average length of 6.7 inches.

14. If the scale factor of the drawing is one-eighth, about how long in inches should the student draw the femur?

15. The student draws the femur, but then realizes she drew it too long, at 3.5 inches. She doesn’t want to erase and start over, so she decides she will adjust the scale factor to match her current drawing instead. Based on the new scale factor, about how long in inches should she draw the sternum?

1 7. Two airplanes departed from different airports at 5:30 AM, both traveling nonstop to London Heathrow Airport (LHR). The distances the planes traveled are recorded in the table. The Washington, D.C. (DCA) flight flew through moderate cloud cover and as a result only averaged 338 mph. The flight from Miami (MIA) had good weather conditions for the first two-thirds of the trip and averaged 596 mph, but then encountered some turbulence and only averaged 447 mph for the last part of the trip. Which plane arrived first and how long was it at the London airport before the other plane arrived?

18. Which of the following quadratic equations has no solution?

19. A student looked at the graph above and determined based on the data that spending more money per student causes the gross domestic product (GDP) to increase. Which of the following statements is true?

21. An object’s weight is dependent upon the gravitational force being exerted upon the object. This is why obj ects in space are weightless. If 1 pound on Earth is equal to 0.377 pounds on Mars and 2.364 pounds on Jupiter, how many more pounds does an object weighing 1 .5 tons on Earth weigh on Jupiter than on Mars?

22. When a drug company wants to introduce a new drug, it must subject the drug to rigorous testing. The final stage of this testing is human clinical trials, in which progressively larger groups of volunteers are given the drug and carefully monitored. One aspect of this monitoring is keeping track of the frequency and severity of side effects. The figure above shows the results for the side effect of headaches for a certain drug. According to the trial guidelines, all moderate and severe headaches are considered to be adverse reactions. Which of the following best describes the data?

23. In the legal field, “reciprocity” means that an attorney can take and pass a bar exam in one state, and be allowed to practice law in a different state that permits such reciprocity. Each state bar association decides with which other states it will allow reciprocity. For example, Pennsylvania allows reciprocity with the District of Columbia. It costs $25 less than 3 times as much to take the bar in Pennsylvania than in D.C. If both bar exams together cost $775, how much less expensive is it to take the bar exam in D.C. than in Pennsylvania?

24. A grain producer is filling a cylindrical silo 20 feet
wide and 60 feet tall with wheat. Based on past
experience, the producer has established a protocol
for leaving the top 5% of the silo empty to allow
for air circulation. Assuming the producer follows
standard protocol, what is the maximum number
of cubic feet of wheat that should be put in the
silo?

25. Mr. Juno took his driver’s education class to the Department of Motor Vehicles to take their driver’s license test. The number of questions missed by each student in the class is recorded in the bar graph above. Which of the following statements is true?

27. A bakery sells three sizes of muffins-mini, regular, and jumbo. The baker plans daily muffin counts based on the size of his pans and how they fit in the oven, which results in the following ratios: mini to regular equals 5 to 2, and regular to jumbo equals 5 to 4. When the bakery caters events, it usually offers only the regular size, but it recently decided to offer a mix of mini and jumbo instead of regular. If the baker wants to keep the sizes in the same ratio as his daily counts, what ratio of mini to jumbo should he use?

28. If the system of linear equations shown above has no solution, and k is a constant, what is the value of k?

32. The graph above shows a quadratic function f(x) and a cubic function g(x). Based on the graph, what is the value of (j – g)(3), assuming all integer values?

33. Nine data points were used to generate the scatterplot shown above. Assuming all whole number values for the data points, what is the maximum value in the range of the data?

34. A company conducts a survey among its employees and categorizes the results based on gender and longevity (the number of years the employee has been working for the company). The Director of Human Resources wants to conduct a small follow-up focus group meeting with a few employees to discuss the overall survey results. If the HR Director randomly chooses four employees that participated in the initial survey, what is the probability that all of them will have been with the company for longer than 3 years? Enter your answer as a fraction.

35. Most racetracks are in the shape of an ellipse (an elongated circle similar to an oval), but Langhorne Speeaway in Pennsylvania was originally a circular track. If a race car is traveling around this track, starting at point C and traveling 1 ,500 feet to point R, and the radius of the track is 840 feet, what is the measure to the nearest degree of minor angle CAR ?

36. If Ax + By = C is the standard form of the line that passes through the points (-4, 1) and (3, -2), where A is an integer greater than 1, what is the value of B?

Questions 37 and 38 refer to the following information.
The Great Depression began in 1929 and lasted until 1939. It was a period of extreme poverty, marked by low prices
and high unemployment. The main catalytic event to the Great Depression was the Wall Street Crash (stock market
crash). The Dow, which measures the health of the stock market, started Black Thursday (October 24, 1929) at
approximately 306 points.

37. The stock market had been in steady decline since its record high the month before. If the market had declined by 19.5% between its record high and opening on Black Thursday, what was the approximate value of the Dow at its record high? Round your answer to the nearest whole point.

38. By the end of business on Black Thursday, the Dow had dropped by 2%. Over the course of Friday and the half-day Saturday session, there was no significant change. Unfortunately, the market lost 13% on Black Monday, followed by another 12% on Black Tuesday. What was the total percent decrease from opening on Black Thursday to closing on Black Tuesday? Round your answer to the nearest whole percent and ignore the percent sign when entering your answer.