SAT Questions and Answers Model Paper-3 Important Questions Section C
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SECTION – C
Time – 25 minutes
24 Questions
1. As Scientists at the Smithsonian have observed, the institution՚s range of scientific inquiry may be -, but its financial resources are far less -.
(A) Restricted. . Substantial
(B) Unbounded. . Confined
(C) Admirable. . Limited
(D) Vast. . Extensive
(E) Diminishing. . Stable
2. As advocates of free speech confront those who would regulate entertainment strictly, the debate over shocking content in movies will likely -.
(A) Abate
(B) Concur
(C) Mediate
(D) Conclude
(E) Escalate
3. The author՚s love of harmonious and pleasing sounds was reflected in the - phrases of her fiction.
(A) Convoluted
(B) Perfidious
(C) Bellicose
(D) Euphonious
(E) Sympathetic
4. The respect accorded choreographer Martha Graham by her students and colleagues alike was so great that it amounted to -.
(A) Exasperation
(B) Commiseration
(C) Consternation
(D) Reconciliation
(E) Veneration
5. The speaker announced that her primary focus would be on broad global concerns rather than on - issues.
(A) Contemporary
(B) Substantive
(C) Disputatious
(D) Pervasive
(E) Parochial
Questions 6 – 9 are based on the following passages.
Passage 1
Line No. | Passage |
---|---|
5 | Kneeling motionless on the ground, I watched as a husky eastern diamondback rattlesnake slid from my 5-gallon can into its winter home, a dark gopher tortoise burrow. “See you soon,” I whispered, expecting to recapture this and eight other rattlesnakes I had recently |
10 | Caught, marked and released in the open pine forests of northern Florida. When I began my research, I was amazed at the dearth of scientific information on eastern diamondbacks. I have subsequently filled in many details of the life history of the species. I have discovered that |
This creature, long despised by people, is highly evolved, incredibly complex, and surprisingly gentle. |
Passage 2
Line No. | Passage |
---|---|
15 | Rattlesnakes have long held a mingled dread and fascination for Americans.In the Eastern part of the United States many American Indian tribes venerated them |
20 | Referring to rattlesnakes as “Grandfather” and treating them with respect. The Colonists did not follow suit. The “belled viper” was one of the more sensational finds in the New world, and almost everyone agreed that the serpents were unspeakably evil, and should be killed on sight. |
Benjamin Franklin called rattlesnakes “Felons … from the beginning of the world,” but several Revolutionary War flags carried rattlers, including the famous Gadsden flag with its “Don՚t Tread on Me” warning to Great Britain. |
6. Compared to Passage 1, Passage 2 is more concerned with
(A) Advocating change
(B) Providing historical perspective
(C) Identifying similarities between cultures
(D) Pointing out potential dangers
(E) Judging the accuracy of certain views
7. Unlike Passage 2, Passage 1 makes use of
(A) Personal anecdote
(B) Direct quotation
(C) Figurative language
(D) Explicit comparison
(E) Historical citation
8. In line 22, carried most nearly means
(A) Supported
(B) Transmitted
(C) Extended
(D) Expressed
(E) Bore
9. Unlike the author of Passage 1, the author of passage acknowledges that
(A) Scientists have long studied rattlesnakes
(B) Many people have had a great appreciation for rattlesnakes
(C) Rattlesnakes are extremely difficult to track and study
(D) Scientific studies of rattlesnakes are prevalent in the Eastern United States
(E) Americans fear rattlesnakes more than any other type of snake
Question 10 – 18 are based on the following passage.
The following passage, adapted from an article published in 2000, focuses on a prehistoric lake that exists deep beneath the Antarctic ice cap.In 2006, the drilling project mentioned in the passage was resumed.
Line No. | Passage |
---|---|
5 | To imagine Lake Vostok, you must first envision a great lake in a living landscape, a week՚s walk from end to end, too wide to see across from the highest hills on its flanks. Now simplify. Erase the surrounding woods and fields; hide the encircling hills. Remove the changing seasons and |
10 | The replenishing rain. Shut out the sky. Leave only the waters, the minerals, the muddy depths. Then trap, squeeze, and estrange them from everything that lives and dies. From your creation emerges a simple world that hungers for more. |
15 | To scientists, Lake Vostok, beneath 2.5 miles of solid ice, is unbearably attractive. If it ever had a direct link with the air above it, that connection ended some millions of years ago. Its sediments contain a unique record of Antarctica՚s climate that could revolutionize the |
20 | Science of the frozen continent. There could be prehistoric life in its waters, an indigenous ecosystem surviving with few resources – no sunlight, the tiniest of fresh – food inputs – and spurring adaptations never seen before, were Lake Vostok open to the rest of the world , |
25 | Its faint records and Fragile life – forms would have been overwritten long ago. Vostok՚s existence was unknown until 30 years ago, when radar and seismographs allowed scientists to piece together a map. The first hints of water under the ice |
30 | were detected in the 1970s; much later, in the early 1990s. Satellites and data from earlier seismic surveys revealed Lake Vostok՚s full extent.In 1995, a borehole was drilled from Russia՚s Vostok station quite by chance, long before anyone suspected something important |
35 | Might be below, The borehole came within 400 feet of entering the lake, but the drillers stopped short of breaking through to the waters beneath. Why take that chance? Some believe Vostok should be left alone because exploration might permanently |
40 | Damage its pristine ecosystem. But Proponents of drilling believe Vostok could provide new insights into young Earth՚s spectacular ecological crises, during which the whole planet was frozen solid, its oceans reduced to the very brink of lifelessness. And it could illuminate the |
45 | Possibilities of life farther off – in a vast ocean on Europa, Jupiter՚s fourth – largest moon, 483 million miles from the sun and, along with Mars, the most likely prospect for evidence of life beyond Earth. Isolated from light, warned only from below, starved of nutrients, the life-forms of |
50 | Vostok could teach scientists how life might persist in Europa՚s frigid climate, where temperatures average minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit. It would certainly show them how to look for in there: exploring Vostok would be the nearest thing to a space mission without leaving the planet. |
10. The primary purpose of the passage is to
(A) Encourage further exploration of Antarctica
(B) Describe how an Antarctic lake was discovered
(C) Examine theories about the possibility of life beyond Earth
(D) Discuss the significance and the fragility of an Antarctic lake
(E) Compare life forms on Earth to those on Jupiter՚s moon Europa
11. The opening sentence of the passage (lines 1 - 3) , emphasizes Lake Vostok՚s
(A) Isolation
(B) Vastness
(C) Beauty
(D) Diversity
(E) Depth
12. In line 9, “simple” most nearly means
(A) Native
(B) Demure
(C) Fundamental
(D) Common
(E) Unconditional
13. In lines 14 – 19 ( “its sediments … before” ) , the author does which of the following?
(A) Speculates about a possibility.
(B) Describes an actual place.
(C) Cities a known authority.
(D) Discusses an important experiment.
(E) Questions a new hypothesis.
14. From the point of view of those who wish to keep Lake Vostok pristine, the outcome of the incident described in lines 31 – 33 ( “The borehole … Beneath” ) was
(A) Foreseeable
(B) Fortuitous
(C) Preventable
(D) Disappointing
(E) Catastrophic
Question 15 – 20 are based on the following Passages.
Passage 1 is adapted from a 1998 essay. Passage 2, adapted from an 1885 novel, is about a self – made businessman named Lapham, who manufactures house paint.In the Passage, Lapham is being interviewed by Bartley, a journalist.
Passage 1
Line No. | Passage |
---|---|
5 | Although I refer to a conifer guide when I՚m cross – country skiing, I am still trustworthy on the difference between a space and a fir. But let the smallest piece of commercial – packaging trash appear along the trail and I can give you the species, genus, and phylum every time: |
10 | Much of the litter we bring with us into the wilderness is of the mental variety; past a certain point, our minds really cannot grasp places that are completely trash – free. The grape – soda can drawing bees in the middle of a supposedly pristine wilderness campsite provokes our outrage and |
15 | Disgust, of course, But underneath those feelings, and less comfortable to admit, is a small amount of recognition and even relief. The soda can is us, after all.In the nineteenth century, when the cult of the scenic⚹ had just begun, advertises (especially in New England) took to plastering |
20 | Giant advertising slogans on the scenery itself. Hikers who reached lofty lookout points in the Adirondacks or the Bershires would see the words VISIT OAK HALL on a rock face in the prospect before them. (Oak Hall was a Boston clothing store.) Even more remarkable is how few of them seem to have complained. |
Passage 2
Line No. | Passage |
---|---|
25 | In less՚n six months there wasn՚t a board – fence, nor a bridge – girder, nor a dead wall, nor a barn, nor a face of rock in that whole region that didn՚t have Lapham՚s Mineral Paint – Specimen on it in the three colors we |
30 | Begun by making. Lapham continued, I՚ve heard a good deal of talk about that stove – blacking man and the kidney – cure man, because they advertised in that way; and I՚ve read articles about it in the papers; but I don՚t see where the joke comes in, |
35 | Exactly, So long as the people that own the barns and fences don՚t object, I don՚t see what the public has got to do with it. And I never saw anything so very sacred about a big rock, along a river or in a pasture that it wouldn՚t do to put mineral paint on it three colors. I wish some of the |
40 | people that talk about the landscape, and WRITE about it, had to bu՚st one of them rocks OUT of the landscape with powder, or dig hole to bury it in, as we used to have to do up on the farm; I guess they՚d sing a little different tune about the profanation of scenery. There ain՚t any man |
45 | enjoys a slightly bit of nature – a smooth piece of interval with half a dozen good – sized wine – glass elms in it – more than I do. But I ain՚t a – going to stand up for every big ugly rock I come across, as if we were all a set of dumn Druids. I say the landscape was made for man, and not man for the |
50 | Landscape. “Yes,” said Bartley carelessly; “It was made for the stove-polish man and the kidney – cure man.” “It was made for any man that knows how to use it,” Lapham returned, insensible to Bartley՚s irony. |
The nineteenth-century fascination with picturesque natural scenes
15. The statement “The soda can is us, after all” (line 13, Passage 1) can best be understood to mean that
(A) Trash is commonly found in the wilderness
(B) Trash makes the wilderness feel less alien
(C) Trash can make the wilderness more picturesque
(D) Many people enjoy consumer goods like soda
(E) Many hikers bring consumer goods with them
16. The “cult of the scenic” (line 14, Passage 1) is best represented by which of the following in Passage 2?
(A) “Lapham” (line 27)
(B) The “ ‘people’ ” (line 31)
(C) The “ ‘people’ ” (line 36)
(D) “ ‘Any man’ ” (line 40)
(E) The “՚stove-polish man” (line 48)
17. What do the advertisements “VISIT OAK HALL” (line 18, Passage 1) and “ ‘Lapham՚s Mineral Paint – Specimen’ ” (lines 24 – 25, Passage 2) have in common?
(A) Both were painted in three colors.
(B) Both were easily accessible.
(C) Both were visible in the Adirondacks.
(D) Both appeared on rocks.
(E) Both advertised paint.
18. In contrast to the “hikers” (line 16, Passage 1) , the “ ‘people’ ” (line 36, Passage 2) are
(A) Publicly hostile to the defacing of the landscape
(B) Openly amused by seeing stove-polish ads on rocks
(C) Exasperated by the public՚s disregard of their editorials
(D) Understanding of the advertiser՚s need to promote their products
(E) Unaware of the remove that advertising generates
19. Lapham՚s observations in Passage 2 compared with the author՚s observations in Passage 1 are
(A) Less sarcastic
(B) Less evenhanded
(C) Less accusatory
(D) More resigned
(E) More circumspect
20. Which is a belief expressed by Lapham in Passage 2 that is NOT expressed by the author of Passage 1?
(A) That humans occupy a privileged position in the natural world
(B) That humans are only marginally concerned with preserving nature.
(C) That one can love natural beauty and still be influenced by billboards
(D) That the effectiveness of advertising can be enhanced by its location
(E) That people identify with the consumer goods that they produce
NOTE: The reading passages in this test are brief excerpts or adaptations of excerpts from the published material. The ideas contained in them do not necessarily represent the opinions of the College Board or Educational Testing Service. To make the test suitable for testing purposes, we may in some cases have altered the style, contents, or point of view of the original.