SAT Reading and Writing Practice Test: Practice Test 43

Facing a tight deadline, neither the interns nor the supervisor   willing to postpone the release after learning that the vendor needed an additional week to test a critical fix. Because several partner organizations have already scheduled trainings, the team is discussing whether a partial rollout would be less disruptive than a full delay.

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

We like to imagine breakthroughs as lightning bolts striking a single mind, but most innovations travel along crowded circuits. Edison depended on machinists, suppliers, and a web of testers; countless biologists build on data assembled by technicians whose names rarely appear in headlines. When a prototype works, the credit tends to collapse onto a figure at the center, obscuring the scaffolding that held the work aloft. If we picture only the lone genius, we design awards, patents, and classrooms for the wrong target. Better to recognize how ideas move through teams, institutions, and markets—how originality is assembled, revised, and made robust by many hands. Our stories should change first; policy will follow.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

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

• Community garden hosts weekly workdays drawing 30-50 residents from nearby blocks.
• Plots are shared, with participants speaking more than eight languages collaborating on planting.
• Garden committees organize seasonal potlucks and seed swaps, encouraging neighbors to socialize beyond harvest time.
• A nearby clinic reports modest blood pressure improvements among regular gardeners over six months.
• Police data show a 12 percent decline in petty theft on surrounding blocks since opening.
• New compost system diverts food scraps and builds soil habitat for pollinators and soil microbes.

The student wants to emphasize how the garden strengthens neighborhood social connections. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

From 'Green Blocks' (2019) by Lila Meng.

In early spring, the vacant lot at Juniper and 3rd stopped being a shortcut and started becoming a destination. Over two weekends, volunteers hauled out broken glass and stacked raised beds from donated lumber. Children painted plant stakes while a science teacher mapped where the sun fell and explained composting. A few neighbors wondered whether the project would invite litter, but they soon signed up for the watering schedule. By June, tomatoes tangled over trellises, and at dusk the benches filled with people talking. The garden was never about perfect produce; it was about a place where strangers learned each other's names and how to prune basil. When the gate closes at night, it seems to lock in a little of that shared energy for morning.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

Last spring, the Oak Street branch piloted extended hours, shifting its weekday closing time from 10 p.m. to midnight. In the six weeks after the change, checkouts recorded between 10 p.m. and midnight rose from zero to an average of 120 per week, while checkouts before 10 p.m. stayed within their usual range. Comparable branches that kept their regular hours showed no change in late-night activity. In optional exit surveys, most late-night borrowers said work schedules or caregiving kept them from visiting earlier. Door-counter data also show no increase in entries after 8 p.m. on control nights, but a sharp rise at Oak Street precisely at 10 p.m., when the doors would previously have been locked. Taken together, these patterns suggest that  .

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Now in her third season on the tour, she is one of the few athletes who   at the national level while also coaching youth leagues in her hometown. Balancing travel, training, and community commitments requires meticulous scheduling, but the dual roles have broadened her perspective and allowed her to mentor younger players she once competed against.

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

Geologist Mira Feldman argues that a set of unusually smooth basalt boulders in the Drygate Desert were shaped primarily by wind abrasion during a prolonged arid period from 20,000 to 15,000 years ago, not by river transport. Feldman claims the boulders’ surface textures should match known wind-polished features and that nearby sediments should lack fluvial sorting from that interval. Which discovery would most strongly undermine Feldman’s theory?

Ecologists studying a meadow invaded by a showy nonnative flower measured seed set in three native plants over two summers. Where the invader grew densely, native seed set fell; when researchers experimentally removed only the invader's blossoms (leaving stems in place), native seed set returned to baseline within weeks, even though counts of bees and butterflies in the plots did not change. Across sites, pollinator abundance stayed stable, but the time pollinators spent on the invader's flowers rose as the invader's density increased. Given these patterns, especially the rebound after removing only the invader's flowers, the most warranted inference is that  .

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Last winter, the city piloted a composting program in several neighborhoods and provided kitchen pails to make collection easier, publicizing the effort through libraries and schools, and tracking contamination rates closely. Participation exceeded expectations   consequently, residents asked the council to expand the service citywide during the next fiscal year.

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

Art historian Deven Rao challenges the standard attribution of the oil painting Harbor at Dusk to the celebrated painter Aurelio Santi. Rao accepts that the canvas came from Santi's studio but argues it is a workshop production executed largely by assistants following Santi's design. He points to the unusually uniform brushwork in the sky and the mechanically repeated rigging on the ships, features he says differ from Santi's documented habit of varied strokes and subtle asymmetries. Rao further notes that patrons commonly commissioned Santi's workshop rather than the master himself when budgets were tight. While he concedes that Santi may have retouched key passages, Rao's core claim is that the painting was not executed by Santi's hand alone. He warns that inventories, pigment lists, and general statements about studio practices cannot, by themselves, prove authorship for this specific canvas.

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

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

• The museum launched a public provenance database with acquisition records; gaps are flagged for ongoing research.
• Agreements with two West African institutions include co-curation and shared decision-making on display context.
• Past acquisitions included items purchased from colonial administrators with limited documentation.
• A 2022 pilot repatriation returned 18 artifacts; community representatives accompanied returns, and ceremonies were streamed.
• The conservation lab offers climate-controlled storage and treatment for fragile materials before travel.
• Shipping insurance and legal export permits add months to timelines and significant costs.

The student wants to emphasize why transparency builds trust with source communities. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

To reconstruct ancient diets, researchers often analyze the ratios of carbon isotopes preserved in fossilized tooth enamel. The method does not capture every nuance; it is sensitive to the kinds of plants available and the chemistry of the surrounding sediments. Critics argue that such constraints limit the method's ability to support broad claims about regional ecology. Yet this very constraint can be useful: by restricting comparisons to fossils from the same strata, researchers can detect subtle dietary shifts that wider surveys might obscure./u> Recent studies using this approach have revealed seasonal switches between grasses and shrubs in several herbivore lineages. The findings suggest that behavioral flexibility, not a single specialized diet, helped some species endure periods of environmental stress.

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

After months of public comment and budget analysis, the board of directors announced a plan to expand library hours across all branches. The members often disagree about priorities, but   is ultimately responsible for setting policy and will supervise the plan's rollout over the next year, according to the announcement.

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

Malik, who coaches the youth team   arrives early to set up the field. His dedication keeps practices running smoothly even when turnout fluctuates and the equipment shed needs a last-minute restock; he checks cones and bibs, tests the stopwatches, and greets parents with updates about the week's schedule before practice begins.

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

In a public letter, the committee overseeing the restoration of the historic theater outlined a timeline for funding and construction, emphasizing that   decision would prioritize safety over speed. The announcement calmed residents who had worried that shortcuts might compromise the building's structural integrity and a sustainable overall reopening plan.

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

Curators, I've learned, can talk for an hour about a single sentence on a wall. A label should not drown an object, but neither should it abandon visitors to glass and guesswork. When we opened the ceramics gallery last year, an early draft favored poetry: 'A cup is a hand asking to be held.' Lovely, but not helpful. We added dates, provenance, and a note on glaze techniques, then cut anything that merely rehearsed what the eye already knew. Critics of labels say people come to look, not read; true enough, and so we keep the type short and the font legible. But when the right words meet the right bowl, attention sharpens. The eye lingers longer, not because text commands it, but because context gives it reasons.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

To reduce hallway congestion between classes, the principal introduced staggered release times and assigned storage areas by floor. During the pilot, teachers asked whether the students  lockers could be relocated to a less crowded corridor so that first-period materials would be easier to retrieve without causing delays.

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

At first, the empty lot drew only bees and the occasional kite, a ragged square between two brick buildings. When the neighborhood association proposed a garden, I doubted anyone would show up. But the first Saturday, teenagers hauled compost, elders mapped rows, and a chef tagged each seedling with its name and recipe. By midsummer, children who had never met argued amiably over whose tomato was redder. The fence became a bulletin board for lost mittens and found cats; the corner bench turned into a daily clinic for advice on pests and taxes alike. We sold extra basil at cost to the bodega, which added a salad shelf. The garden did not solve every problem, but it gave neighbors reasons to share time, talk, and shade.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

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

• Low-intensity cultural burns reduce accumulated fuel loads and help maintain patchy mosaics.
• Colonial bans disrupted Indigenous fire practices, contributing to denser forests over time.
• Partnerships between tribes and agencies have shown reduced wildfire severity after cultural burning.
• Effective burns require seasonal knowledge, careful timing, and appropriate weather windows.
• Liability rules can discourage practitioners from conducting beneficial cultural burns.
• Mechanical thinning can complement, but not replace, Indigenous ecological knowledge.

The student wants to advocate for integrating Indigenous fire stewardship into modern wildfire policy. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

In industries with tight production schedules, departures do not happen overnight; managers need enough time to reassign tasks and document institutional knowledge. That is why most employment contracts request two weeks  notice, a span long enough to hire and train a replacement without bringing projects to a halt.

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

After months of work, the archivists finished cataloging the town's letters from the 1920s, preserving fragile paper, deciphering smudged ink, and interviewing residents about the names mentioned. Their notes highlight the following three themes   skepticism about new technologies, anxiety about the pace of change, and faith that communities can adapt.

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

Classic island biogeography predicts that species richness increases with island area and declines with isolation. Some archipelagos, however, complicate this neat picture: small islets downcurrent from seabird colonies boast lush plant communities and diverse insects. Rather than contradicting the model, these cases suggest that 'effective area' can be expanded by pulsed resource subsidies that offset isolation. Guano deposits fertilize soils, while drifting wrack delivers seeds and detritivores, intermittently boosting carrying capacity. When inputs wane, richness falls back toward the baseline predicted by area and distance alone. Incorporating subsidy dynamics thus preserves the model's core while explaining why small, well-fed islands can momentarily host unexpectedly rich assemblages.

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

During the workshop on conflict resolution, the facilitator emphasized that effective listening requires more than silence; it involves summarizing what the speaker has said and asking clarifying questions. Participants were encouraged to consider others  perspectives during debates about policy trade-offs, a practice that often reveals shared priorities even when initial positions seem incompatible.

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

Text 1
Historical fiction is a better gateway to the past than textbooks because it makes events emotionally legible. A student may forget a list of dates, but remember the fear of a character hiding food during a siege. That emotional memory can motivate further research, turning curiosity into learning. Critics worry about inaccuracies, yet a well-researched novel often conveys social realities—like class tensions or daily routines—that textbooks omit in the name of coverage.
Text 2
Emotion can draw readers in, but historical fiction can also mislead precisely because it feels vivid. Readers may treat a novelist’s invented dialogue as evidence and overlook the author’s selective framing. Textbooks have flaws, yet they at least signal when claims are contested and cite primary sources. The best gateway is not a genre but a habit: teaching students to ask what is documented, what is imagined, and why that boundary matters.

Which claim from Text 2 most directly addresses the idea in Text 1 that historical fiction can motivate learning?

The surge of volunteers, along with a steady influx of donations,   enabled the shelter to expand its weekday meal service, which had been curtailed by shortages last winter. As staff coordinate additional routes and refrigeration, they emphasize that consistent support, not sporadic windfalls, allows them to schedule drivers, negotiate wholesale prices, and reassure clients that meals will arrive on time even during severe weather.

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