SAT Reading and Writing Practice Test: Practice Test 19

To boost turnout at free weekend workshops, a public library randomized 6,000 patrons into two groups: one received a brightly designed postcard reminder; the other received two short emails with identical wording. Apart from contact method, all other elements—event description, timing, and sign-up link—were standardized. Attendance records tied to recipient lists show that members of the email group checked in at events 15 percent more often than those in the postcard group. Demographic profiles and prior attendance rates were balanced between groups, and undeliverable messages were tracked and excluded from analysis. Given the random assignment and comparable baselines, the data isolate the effect of reminder format on turnout, indicating that  .

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Economist Priyanka Shah argues that urban congestion pricing reduces total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) across a metropolitan area rather than merely shifting when and where people drive. In her view, charging drivers to enter busy corridors during peak hours nudges travelers toward carpooling, transit, and trip consolidation, producing genuine reductions in driving, not just time-of-day substitutions. Skeptics counter that drivers detour onto arterials to avoid tolled zones, leaving total mileage roughly unchanged. Shah replies that if VMT falls citywide after pricing begins—and not only in tolled districts—then the policy alters underlying travel behavior. She further claims that transient emissions improvements during peak hours would be insufficient evidence; only region-wide changes in distance traveled would confirm her hypothesis.

Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the scholar's claim?

Policy debate in cold regions often pits rooftop solar incentives against rebates for electric heat pumps. My claim is not that one technology is universally superior, but that per dollar spent in cold climates with relatively clean electricity, heat pumps yield larger emissions reductions than rooftop solar. The reason is simple arithmetic: heating in these places still burns fuel oil or gas, while the marginal emissions from additional electricity are modest. Replacing a furnace displaces combustion hour by hour, whereas adding rooftop panels displaces grid generation that is already partially decarbonized. The relevant metric is tons of carbon dioxide avoided per dollar of subsidy. To evaluate the claim, we must compare like with like across many households and utilities, controlling for weather and building stock, rather than relying on a single success story or a projection decades into the future.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the scholar's claim?

Debates over urban safety often focus on policing or economic shifts, but one sociologist argues that community gardens can reduce neighborhood crime chiefly by fostering social cohesion and informal surveillance. In shared plots, residents meet regularly, learn one another's names, and coordinate tasks; that familiarity, the scholar contends, makes people more willing to notice, question, and report suspicious activity. Gardens also add bulletin boards, tool sheds, and seating that keep neighbors present at varying hours. While beautification may deter some offenses, the proposed mechanism is the everyday, watchful interaction among neighbors who come to feel collectively responsible for their block. Critics counter that any crime drop near gardens simply reflects broader city trends or gentrification. If the scholar's view is right, we should observe increased neighbor recognition and targeted declines in opportunistic crimes specifically after gardens open, relative to comparable areas without gardens.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the scholar's claim?

Student loan debt is a heavy burden carried not only by college graduates but by those who attended some college but never completed a degree. And while proponents of college as an investment in one’s future continue to highlight the increased earnings that those with higher education can expect, it is perhaps even more important to point out that a college degree leads to dramatically lower levels of unemployment. For example, a 2011 study found that $\underline{\hspace{2em}}$.

Which of the following best uses evidence from the graph to support the claim?

From Priya Narang, 'Cooler Cities,' 2020. Conventional wisdom says that the best way to cool overheated cities is to plant more trees. Trees provide shade, lower air temperatures, and offer habitats—benefits no rooftop can match. Yet focusing solely on tree cover misses an opportunity hiding in plain sight: the acres of roofs and roads that absorb sunlight and radiate heat. Studies show that reflective surfaces can reduce peak urban temperatures and cut energy use during summer months. Reflective coatings are cheap to apply and can be targeted to heat-trapping corridors, where trees struggle to thrive. Rather than treating trees and reflective materials as competing fixes, city planners can deploy both, shading sidewalks while bouncing sunlight off buildings. The result is a more resilient approach that cools neighborhoods quickly and sustainably.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

Unlike the novels of Toni Morrison,   emphasizes journalistic detail to explore the aftermath of a crime. Though it has literary flourishes, the book's stark presentation of witnesses' voices and the procedural pace of the investigation reflect the author's intention to reconstruct events as they unfolded and to raise questions about the boundaries between reporting and storytelling.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

In discussing coastal flooding, an engineer distinguishes between hazards that are rare but catastrophic and those that are smaller yet frequent. The town’s current defenses handle major storms reasonably well, but the daily high-tide flooding is more   because it steadily damages roads and disrupts businesses. The cumulative costs, the engineer argues, deserve equal attention.

To test whether short breaks improve complex problem solving, a team tracked hundreds of volunteers over two weeks as they tackled logic puzzles, alternating focused work with brief walks, and measured not only accuracy and time but also physiological signals like heart-rate variability, including a control group that worked continuously in a quiet room.  , participants who paced their efforts showed steadier attention and fewer abrupt performance drops, leading the researchers to recommend that workplaces build structured pauses into tasks that demand sustained concentration.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A policy economist contends that unconditional cash transfers reduce short-term food insecurity more effectively than food vouchers of equal face value. The logic is that cash enables households to bulk-buy staples, cover transport, or pay small debts that otherwise interrupt food purchasing. The claim is explicitly about the first few months after receipt, when flexibility can smooth shocks. While some observers point to the symbolic value of cash or to long-run convergence between programs, the scholar argues that only a short-horizon, controlled comparison can adjudicate the claim. Ideally, markets, prices, and transfer amounts would be equivalent across groups, with outcomes measured using a standardized food insecurity scale over the first 8 to 12 weeks.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the scholar's claim?

A research team tested whether street trees reduce afternoon temperatures on hot days. On 20 paired blocks matched for building height, street width, and traffic, one block had mature canopy cover and the other had no trees. Using the same time window and sensors, the team found that shaded blocks were on average 1.8 degrees cooler in the afternoon; at night, temperatures were the same. During a two-week trial, crews installed temporary shade cloths above two treeless blocks, which then showed a similar afternoon cooling; removing the cloths eliminated the effect. Because the only systematically varying factor linked to afternoon cooling across both comparisons was shading, the researchers concluded that  .

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A seismology team deployed sensors around a dormant volcano and, over several months, recorded a steady increase in low-frequency tremors that often precede magma movement; simultaneous sampling at surface vents showed sulfur dioxide levels trending upward, and the team installed GPS receivers to measure ground motion with centimeter-level precision.   by late summer, satellite radar revealed subtle swelling of the summit, indicating that deformation had accelerated compared with spring measurements.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A small robotics startup, founded by engineers who met in a university lab, recently secured funding to expand manufacturing capacity and hire additional staff. In a press release, the company outlined   timeline for opening a larger facility, emphasizing that each stage will be completed only after safety inspections are finished.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

Some scholars claim that early Mesopotamian urban planning was driven primarily by flood management rather than by the desire to showcase ceremonial architecture. On this view, street grids, building elevations, and perimeter works were first engineered to control seasonal inundation and channel runoff, with monumental temples emerging later atop already stabilized landscapes. Critics argue that the most conspicuous remains are ceremonial, implying prestige display led urban design. The proponent counters that durable religious structures are more likely to survive, masking earlier, utilitarian systems. To adjudicate the debate, researchers seek stratigraphic evidence that hydraulic infrastructure predates large temples and that city layouts align with paleo-river courses, indicating anticipatory flood control rather than purely processional avenues.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the scholar's claim?

Text 1
Modern agriculture’s reliance on a few high-yield crop varieties is a recipe for disaster. When farms plant genetically similar crops across vast areas, a single pathogen can spread rapidly, as history shows with the Irish potato famine. Diversity within fields acts like a firewall, slowing disease and stabilizing yields under unpredictable weather. Governments should discourage monocultures by tying subsidies to crop rotation and mixed planting, even if short-term profits decline, because resilience is a public good.
Text 2
Diversity can reduce risk, but portraying monocultures as inherently reckless overlooks why farmers adopt them. Specialized varieties allow efficient harvesting, predictable quality, and lower food prices for consumers. The Irish famine was catastrophic not merely because of similarity but because poverty and political neglect prevented relief and alternative foods. Rather than penalize monocultures broadly, policy should fund breeding programs that expand genetic options and provide insurance that helps farmers experiment without risking bankruptcy. Based on Text 2, how would its author most likely respond to Text 1’s argument for tying subsidies to mixed planting?

As wildfire smoke drifted across the valley, health officials urged residents to limit outdoor activity, issued text alerts in multiple languages, distributed masks at transit stations and libraries, and schools adjusted practice schedules and moved recess indoors to reduce exposure for children.   a new network of air-quality sensors installed at schools transmitted minute-by-minute readings to a public dashboard, helping families decide when to run air purifiers or postpone errands and allowing clinics to anticipate spikes in respiratory visits.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

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

• Movable type printing in Europe emerged mid-15th century, credited to Johannes Gutenberg.
• Printed books lowered costs and increased availability compared to hand-copied manuscripts.
• Scientific societies in the 17th century circulated journals that standardized reporting methods.
• Faster reproduction enabled scholars to replicate experiments and critique findings across distances.
• Censorship by authorities sometimes restricted what could be published or distributed.
• Literacy rates rose gradually, expanding audiences for technical and popular texts.

The student wants to emphasize why the printing press accelerated scientific exchange. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that accelerating masses send ripples through spacetime, subtly stretching and compressing the distances between objects. The effect is staggeringly small: a passing wave alters a multi-kilometer baseline by less than a thousandth the width of a proton. This fact shifts the challenge from theory to instrumentation: how could such vanishing disturbances be measured at all? To meet that challenge, researchers constructed kilometer-scale laser interferometers capable of sensing minuscule changes in length. Only after pushing noise sources—seismic tremors, thermal jitter, even quantum fluctuations—below the signal could detections be attempted. When two observatories registered coincident disturbances in 2015, the observation corroborated a century-old prediction and opened a new window on the universe.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the overall structure of the text?

Debates over the repatriation of artifacts often focus on ethical imperatives: returning objects obtained under coercive conditions can redress historical harms and empower descendant communities. Museum policies that prioritize consultation and provenance research have, in some cases, led to transformative partnerships and new exhibits. Yet repatriation, critics note, may limit access for researchers who rely on centralized collections. By acknowledging this concern, the passage signals the need to balance restorative justice with sustained scholarly inquiry, setting up its call for cooperative stewardship models. Such models distribute authority across institutions and communities, pairing broad access with community-defined care guidelines in practice.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the overall structure of the text?

The company updated its remote-work policy after surveying employees across multiple departments; however, the memo announcing the change was so vague that several teams misread it and delayed implementing the new procedures. To avoid confusion,   should specify the start date, eligibility requirements, and how performance will be measured.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

City officials expanded the network of protected bike lanes in 2019, linking several neighborhoods, adding physical barriers at key intersections, synchronizing signals to calm traffic on streets that once felt hazardous to riders, and doing so after public hearings and months of pilot data.   Commute times for many cyclists fell, and shop owners along the routes reported that more customers stopped in during peak hours because they felt comfortable traveling by bike.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

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

• Reintroductions of wolves can restore trophic cascades, reducing overbrowsing by deer and elk.
• Ranchers worry about livestock losses and unpredictable predation near calving season.
• Pilot programs compensate verified losses at market value within two weeks of confirmation.
• Range riders and fladry lines reduce calf predation when deployed consistently during risky periods.
• In one county, reported depredations fell 40 percent after nonlethal deterrents were funded.
• Public meetings and bilingual outreach improved trust between wildlife agencies and ranching communities.

The student wants to emphasize how pilot projects mitigate rancher concerns about livestock losses. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

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

• Studies show AI systems can flag subtle anomalies radiologists sometimes miss on first read.
• Performance drops when models are trained on limited, non-representative patient datasets.
• Integrating AI triage reduced average report turnaround times in several hospital pilots.
• Regulatory guidance emphasizes human oversight and audit trails for clinical decisions.
• False positives can increase follow-up imaging, adding costs and patient anxiety.
• Cross-institution collaborations improved algorithm generalization across scanner models and demographics.

The student wants to emphasize the need for diverse data and oversight to ensure reliable, equitable AI in imaging. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

A review tallied 120 published trials of a new migraine drug: 84 reported positive results and 36 reported no benefit. Of the positive trials, 70 percent disclosed industry funding; of the negative trials, 80 percent disclosed independent funding. The reviewers noted that several registered trials never reported results and that industry-funded studies across fields tend to be published more often when results are favorable. Because the review counts only published trials and reporting rates may vary by funding source, the ratio of positive to negative findings in print may not reflect the drug's true performance across all studies conducted. Therefore,  .

Which choice most logically completes the text?

City officials face a shortage of affordable housing but own few tools to influence private construction. One idea under debate is a fee on long-vacant parcels, paired with expedited permits for projects that include below-market units. The policy is intended to   development where land sits idle, shifting the economics so that building becomes more attractive than speculating on appreciation.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?