100 RCs for Digital SAT - 4 | 100 Reading Comprehensions for Digital SAT PDF Download

Directions:

• The questions in this section address a number of important reading and writing skills.
• Each question includes one or more passages, which may include a table or graph.
• Read each passage and question carefully, and then choose the best answer to the question based on the passage(s).
• All questions in this section are multiple-choice with four answer choices. Each question has a single best answer.

Q31: Passage
The following text is adapted from Gwendolyn Bennett’s 1926 poem “Street Lamps in Early Spring.”
Night wears a garment All velvet soft, all violet blue...
And over her face she draws a veil As shimmering fine as floating dew...
And here and there In the black of her hair The subtle hands of Night Move slowly with their gem-starred light.

Q. Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
(a) It presents alternating descriptions of night in a rural area and in a city.
(b) It sketches an image of nightfall, then an image of sunrise.
(c) It makes an extended comparison of night to a human being.
(d) It portrays how night changes from one season of the year to the next.
Ans: (c)

• Choice C is the best answer because it most accurately describes the overall structure of the text. Throughout the text, the speaker characterizes nighttime as if it were a person who wears clothing (“a garment” that is “velvet soft” and “violet blue”) and a veil “over her face” and who moves her hands “slowly with their gem-starred light” through her dark hair. Thus, the text is structured as an extended comparison of night to a human being.
• Choice A is incorrect because the text never mentions any particular location; instead, it focuses on presenting a single description of night as a person with certain clothing and features.
• Choice B is incorrect because the text doesn’t make any reference to the sun or sunrise; instead, it focuses on presenting a single image of night as a person with certain clothing and features.
• Choice D is incorrect because rather than describing how nighttime changes seasonally (or in any other way), the text presents a single image of night as a person with certain clothing and features.

Q32: Passage
According to historian Vicki L. Ruiz, Mexican American women made crucial contributions to the labor movement during World War II. At the time, food processing companies entered into contracts to supply United States armed forces with canned goods. Increased production quotas conferred greater bargaining power on the companies’ employees, many of whom were Mexican American women: employees insisted on more favorable benefits, and employers, who were anxious to fulfill the contracts, complied. Thus, labor activism became a platform for Mexican American women to assert their agency.

Q. Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
(a) It elaborates on a claim about labor relations in a particular industry made earlier in the text.
(b) It offers an example of a trend in the World War II–era economy discussed earlier in the text.
(c) It notes a possible exception to the historical narrative of labor activism sketched earlier in the text.
(d) It provides further details about the identities of the workers discussed earlier in the text.
Ans: (a)

• Choice A is the best answer because it best describes how the underlined portion functions in the text as a whole. The text says that the increased production quotas of food processing companies during World War II enabled employees to make better bargains in exchange for their labor. The underlined portion presents an example of this increased bargaining power: employees requested more favorable benefits, and employers complied because they were under pressure to fulfill the demanding terms of their contracts.
• Choice B is incorrect because there is no indication in the text that the economic factors that influenced food processing also influenced other parts of the economy; thus, the bargaining described in the underlined portion of the text cannot be called an example of a trend.
• Choice C is incorrect because the underlined portion supports the historical narrative of labor activism in food processing that is sketched in the text, instead of noting an exception to that narrative.
• Choice D is incorrect because while the underlined portion does discuss the demands that workers made in exchange for their labor, it does not discuss the identities of the workers.

Q33: Passage
Hurston’s 1921 short story “John Redding Goes to Sea.”
John is a child who lives in a town in the woods. Perhaps ten-year-old John was puzzling to the folk there in the Florida woods for he was an imaginative child and fond of day-dreams. The St. John River flowed a scarce three hundred feet from his back door. On its banks at this point grow numerous palms, luxuriant magnolias and bay trees. On the bosom of the stream float millions of delicately colored hyacinths. [John Redding] loved to wander down to the water’s edge, and, casting in dry twigs, watch them sail away down stream to Jacksonville, the sea, the wide world and [he] wanted to follow them.

Q. Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
(a) It provides an extended description of a location that John likes to visit.
(b) It reveals that some residents of John’s town are confused by his behavior.
(c) It illustrates the uniqueness of John’s imagination compared to the imaginations of other children.
(d) It suggests that John longs to experience a larger life outside the Florida woods.
Ans: (d)

• Choice D is the best answer because it accurately describes how the underlined sentence functions in the text as a whole. The text establishes that John has a strong imagination and then goes on to describe the St. John River near John’s home in the Florida woods. The underlined sentence depicts John sending twigs sailing down the river while he imagines them reaching “Jacksonville, the sea, the wide world,” where he wishes he could follow. This suggests that John longs to expand his life experiences beyond the Florida woods.
• Choice A is incorrect because the second and third sentences of the text provide an extended description of the riverbank where John likes to go, whereas the underlined sentence describes what John does at that location.
• Choice B is incorrect because the first sentence of the text suggests that John’s behavior “was puzzling” to others around him, whereas the underlined sentence concerns the content of John’s imaginings.
• Choice C is incorrect because the underlined sentence elaborates on John’s imagination but doesn’t mention any other children to whom John could be compared.

Q34: Passage
The following text is adapted from Oscar Wilde’s 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray is taking his first look at a portrait that Hallward has painted of him.
Dorian passed listlessly in front of his picture and turned towards it. When he saw it he drew back, and his cheeks flushed for a moment with pleasure. A look of joy came into his eyes, as if he had recognized himself for the first time. He stood there motionless and in wonder, dimly conscious that Hallward was speaking to him, but not catching the meaning of his words. The sense of his own beauty came on him like a revelation. He had never felt it before.

Q. According to the text, what is true about Dorian?
(a) He wants to know Hallward’s opinion of the portrait.
(b) He is delighted by what he sees in the portrait.
(c) He prefers portraits to other types of paintings.
(d) He is uncertain of Hallward’s talent as an artist.
Ans: (b)

• Choice B is the best answer because it presents a statement about Dorian that is directly supported by the text. The narrator of the text says that when Dorian sees his portrait, “his cheeks flushed for a moment with pleasure” and “a look of joy came into his eyes.” The narrator goes on to say that Dorian looked at the portrait “in wonder” and presents him as being so entranced by the portrait that he doesn’t notice what Hallward is saying to him. These details support the description of Dorian as being delighted by what he sees in the portrait.
• Choice A is incorrect because Dorian isn’t depicted as interested in Hallward’s opinion of the portrait; rather, he is so enraptured by the painting that he’s hardly even aware of Hallward.
• Choice C is incorrect because the portrait of Dorian is the only painting mentioned in the text. Although Dorian is depicted as being delighted with this particular portrait, there’s no evidence in the text that he likes portraits better than other kinds of paintings.
• Choice D is incorrect because nothing in the text suggests that Dorian is uncertain about Hallward’s talent. Instead, the text is focused on Dorian’s delight with the portrait.

Q35: Passage
Archaeologist Petra Vaiglova, anthropologist Xinyi Liu, and their colleagues investigated the domestication of farm animals in China during the Bronze Age (approximately 2000 to 1000 BCE). By analyzing the chemical composition of the bones of sheep, goats, and cattle from this era, the team determined that wild plants made up the bulk of sheep’s and goats’ diets, while the cattle’s diet consisted largely of millet, a crop cultivated by humans. The team concluded that cattle were likely raised closer to human settlements, whereas sheep and goats were allowed to roam farther away.

Q. Which finding, if true, would most strongly support the team’s conclusion?
(a) Analysis of the animal bones showed that the cattle’s diet also consisted of wheat, which humans widely cultivated in China during the Bronze Age.
(b) Further investigation of sheep and goat bones revealed that their diets consisted of small portions of millet as well.
(c) Cattle’s diets generally require larger amounts of food and a greater variety of nutrients than do sheep’s and goats’ diets.
(d) The diets of sheep, goats, and cattle were found to vary based on what the farmers in each Bronze Age settlement could grow.
Ans: (a)

• Choice A is the best answer because it presents a finding that, if true, would most strongly support the team’s conclusion that cattle were likely raised closer to human settlements than sheep and goats were. The text explains that Vaiglova, Liu, and their colleagues analyzed the chemical composition of sheep, goat, and cattle bones from the Bronze Age in China in order to investigate the animals’ domestication. According to the text, the team’s analysis showed that sheep and goats fed largely on wild plants, whereas cattle fed on millet—importantly, a crop cultivated by humans. If analysis of the bones shows that the cattle’s diet also consisted of wheat, another crop cultivated by humans, the finding would support the team’s conclusion by offering additional evidence that cattle fed on human-grown crops and were raised near human settlements.
• Choice B is incorrect because if it were true that sheep’s and goats’ diets consisted of small portions of millet, the finding would suggest that sheep and goats were raised closer to human settlements, weakening the team’s conclusion. Choice C is incorrect because the finding that cattle require more food and nutrients doesn’t support the team’s conclusion about their proximity to human settlements. Choice D is incorrect because finding that diets of all three types of animals varied based on what farmers could grow weakens the team’s conclusion.

Q36: Passage
Mosasaurs were large marine reptiles that lived in the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 100 million to 66 million years ago. Celina Suarez, Alberto Pérez-Huerta, and T. Lynn Harrell Jr. examined oxygen-18 isotopes in mosasaur tooth enamel in order to calculate likely mosasaur body temperatures and determined that mosasaurs were endothermic—that is, they used internal metabolic processes to maintain a stable body temperature in a variety of ambient temperatures. Suarez, Pérez-Huerta, and Harrell claim that endothermy would have enabled mosasaurs to include relatively cold polar waters in their range.

Q. Which finding, if true, would most directly support Suarez, Pérez-Huerta, and Harrell’s claim?
(a) Mosasaurs’ likely body temperatures are easier to determine from tooth enamel oxygen-18 isotope data than the body temperatures of nonendothermic Late Cretaceous marine reptiles are.
(b) Fossils of both mosasaurs and nonendothermic marine reptiles have been found in roughly equal numbers in regions known to be near the poles during the Late Cretaceous, though in lower concentrations than elsewhere.
(c) Several mosasaur fossils have been found in regions known to be near the poles during the Late Cretaceous, while relatively few fossils of nonendothermic marine reptiles have been found in those locations.
(d) During the Late Cretaceous, seawater temperatures were likely higher throughout mosasaurs’ range, including near the poles, than seawater temperatures at those same latitudes are today.
Ans: (c)

• Choice C is the best answer because it presents the finding that, if true, would best support Suarez, Pérez-Huerta, and Harrell’s claim. The text states that the researchers concluded mosasaurs were endothermic, enabling them to live in polar waters. If several mosasaur fossils have been found in polar regions while relatively few fossils of nonendothermic marine reptiles have been found there, this would suggest that endothermy allowed mosasaurs to thrive in colder waters.
• Choice A is incorrect because finding that body temperatures are easier to determine doesn’t provide evidence about where mosasaurs lived.
• Choice B is incorrect because equal numbers of fossils in polar regions would suggest that endothermy didn’t give mosasaurs an advantage, thereby weakening the claim. Choice D is incorrect because finding that seawater temperatures were higher in the Late Cretaceous than they are today doesn’t address whether mosasaurs could have lived in polar waters.

Q37: Passage
Researchers hypothesized that a decline in the population of dusky sharks near the mid-Atlantic coast of North America led to a decline in the population of eastern oysters in the region. Dusky sharks do not typically consume eastern oysters but do consume cownose rays, which are the main predators of the oysters.

Q. Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers’ hypothesis?
(a) Declines in the regional abundance of dusky sharks’ prey other than cownose rays are associated with regional declines in dusky shark abundance.
(b) Eastern oyster abundance tends to be greater in areas with both dusky sharks and cownose rays than in areas with only dusky sharks.
(c) Consumption of eastern oysters by cownose rays in the region substantially increased before the regional decline in dusky shark abundance began.
(d) Cownose rays have increased in regional abundance as dusky sharks have decreased in regional abundance.
Ans: (d)

• Choice D is the best answer because it presents a finding that, if true, would most directly support the researchers’ hypothesis about the connection between dusky shark population decline and the eastern oyster population decline. The text indicates that dusky sharks prey on cownose rays, which consume oysters. An increase in the abundance of cownose rays in response to a decline in dusky sharks would directly support the hypothesis: more cownose rays would consume more oysters, reducing the oyster population.
• Choice A is incorrect because finding an association between the decline in other prey and dusky sharks’ abundance doesn’t directly support the hypothesis.
• Choice B is incorrect because finding greater oyster abundance when both sharks and rays are present would weaken the hypothesis. 
• Choice C is incorrect because finding that consumption of oysters increased before the shark decline began would suggest other factors are responsible for oyster decline, weakening the hypothesis.

Q38: Passage
Political scientists who favor the traditional view of voter behavior claim that voting in an election does not change a voter’s attitude toward the candidates in that election. Focusing on each US presidential election from 1976 to 1996, Ebonya Washington and Sendhil Mullainathan tested this claim by distinguishing between subjects who had just become old enough to vote (around half of whom actually voted) and otherwise similar subjects who were slightly too young to vote (and thus none of whom voted). Washington and Mullainathan compared the attitudes of the groups of subjects toward the winning candidate two years after each election.

Q. Which finding from Washington and Mullainathan’s study, if true, would most directly weaken the claim made by people who favor the traditional view of voter behavior?
(a) Subjects’ attitudes toward the winning candidate two years after a given election were strongly predicted by subjects’ general political orientation, regardless of whether subjects were old enough to vote at the time of the election.
(b) Subjects who were not old enough to vote in a given election held significantly more positive attitudes towards the winning candidate two years later than they held at the time of the election.
(c) Subjects who voted in a given election held significantly more polarized attitudes toward the winning candidate two years later than did subjects who were not old enough to vote in that election.
(d) Two years after a given election, subjects who voted and subjects who were not old enough to vote were significantly more likely to express negative attitudes than positive attitudes toward the winning candidate in that election.
Ans: (c)

• Choice C is the best answer because it presents a finding that, if true, would weaken the claim made by people who favor the traditional view of voter behavior. If Washington and Mullainathan found that attitudes toward the winning candidate were more polarized among subjects who voted than among subjects who were too young to vote, it would suggest that voting changed voters’ attitudes, which undermines the traditional view.
• Choice A is incorrect because finding that attitudes were linked to political orientation doesn’t address the effect of voting.
• Choice B is incorrect because it describes subjects who didn’t vote, so it doesn’t weaken the claim about voting’s effect.
• Choice D is incorrect because it focuses on attitudes at a particular time, not on changes due to voting.

Q39: Passage
While attending school in New York City in the 1980s, Okwui Enwezor encountered few works by African artists in exhibitions, despite New York’s reputation as one of the best places to view contemporary art from around the world. According to an arts journalist, later in his career as a renowned curator and art historian, Enwezor sought to remedy this deficiency, not by focusing solely on modern African artists, but by showing how their work fits into the larger context of global modern art and art history.

Q. Which finding, if true, would most directly support the journalist’s claim?
(a) As curator of the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany, Enwezor organized a retrospective of Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui’s work entitled El Anatsui: Triumphant Scale, one of the largest art exhibitions devoted to a Black artist in Europe’s history.
(b) In the exhibition Postwar: Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic, 1945–1965, Enwezor and cocurator Katy Siegel brought works by African artists such as Malangatana Ngwenya together with pieces by major figures from other countries, like US artist Andy Warhol and Mexico’s David Siqueiros.
(c) Enwezor’s work as curator of the 2001 exhibition The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945–1994 showed how African movements for independence from European colonial powers following the Second World War profoundly influenced work by African artists of the period, such as Kamala Ibrahim Ishaq and Thomas Mukarobgwa.
(d) Enwezor organized the exhibition In/sight: African Photographers, 1940 to the Present not to emphasize a particular aesthetic trend but to demonstrate the broad range of ways in which African artists have approached the medium of photography.

Ans: (b)

• Choice B is the best answer because it presents a finding that, if true, would most directly support the arts journalist’s claim about Enwezor’s work as a curator. The description of Postwar: Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic, 1945–1965 indicates that Enwezor brought together works by African artists with works by artists from other countries, which supports the journalist’s claim that Enwezor wanted to show how works by African artists fit into the global context of modern art.
• Choice A is incorrect because the retrospective focused only on one African artist and didn’t place his work in a global context.
• Choice C is incorrect because the exhibition placed works in a political context rather than a global artistic context.
• Choice D is incorrect because it showed the range of approaches taken by African photographers without placing their work in a global context.

Q40: Passage
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

• The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike was a road built between 1792 and 1794.
• It was the first private turnpike in the United States.
• It connected the cities of Philadelphia and Lancaster in the state of Pennsylvania.
• It was sixty-two miles long.

Q. The student wants to emphasize the distance covered by the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
(a) The sixty-two-mile-long Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike connected the Pennsylvania cities of Philadelphia and Lancaster.
(b) The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike was the first private turnpike in the United States.
(c) The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike, which connected two Pennsylvania cities, was built between 1792 and 1794.
(d) A historic Pennsylvania road, the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike was completed in 1794.
Ans: (a)

• Choice A is the best answer. The sentence emphasizes the distance covered by the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike, noting that the turnpike, which connected the two Pennsylvania cities, was sixty-two miles long.
• Choice B is incorrect because it emphasizes the significance of the turnpike, not the distance.
• Choice C is incorrect because it mentions that the turnpike connected two cities but doesn’t emphasize the specific distance.
• Choice D is incorrect because it emphasizes when the turnpike was built, not the distance.