SAT purpose, structure and paired texts: review and practice

• Say what the whole passage is doing: explaining a finding, arguing for a view, describing a process or challenging an idea.
• Explain the job of one underlined sentence in the passage.
• Describe the order of the passage's moves, such as a claim, then evidence, then a limit.
• Compare two short texts on the same topic and find where the authors agree or differ.
• Predict how the author of one text would respond to a specific claim in the other.

• Answering about the wrong part. If the question asks about the underlined sentence, a choice describing the whole passage is wrong even when it's accurate.
• Promoting an example to the main purpose. If a passage describes one bird species to show that migration timing is shifting, the purpose is the point about migration, not the species.
• Accepting a move the passage never makes. Choices with "refutes," "proposes a solution" or "calls for more funding" are wrong if the author never argues, solves or recommends anything.
• Mixing up the authors in paired texts. A Text 2 author may accept Text 1's data but reject its explanation. A choice saying Text 2 "disputes the results" gets that backward.
• Dropping a qualifier. If an author says a method works "for small samples," a choice saying the author thinks it works in general overstates the claim.

1. Question 1 · Easy

   Museum preparators turn exhibition plans into displays that visitors can explore. Their work combines an understanding of objects with practical construction skills. A preparator might design a support that holds a fragile garment without stretching it, build a model that visitors can handle, or adjust a case so that its contents are visible from a wheelchair. Preparators also document how displays are assembled, allowing the objects to be removed safely when an exhibition closes. Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

   • ATo explain why museums replace fragile objects with models
   • BTo describe the process of installing a garment in a display case
   • CTo introduce the responsibilities of a museum profession
   • DTo compare the skills of exhibition planners and museum preparators
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   C. Choice C covers the opening description of preparators and the range of tasks that follows it. Choice A turns one example into a general replacement policy; choice D adds a comparison with planners; choice B narrows the text to one task whose steps are not supplied.

2. Question 2 · Easy

   Along rocky shores, dense beds of mussels can alter conditions for other organisms. Marine biologist Laura Cardenas examined patches of mussels exposed during low tide, comparing them with nearby bare rock. Temperature measurements and counts of crustaceans showed differences between the patches. Water trapped among the mussel shells kept small pools cool, while spaces beneath the shells sheltered tiny crustaceans from drying winds. Which choice best describes the function of the referenced sentence in the text as a whole? The question refers to the following sentence. Water trapped among the mussel shells kept small pools cool, while spaces beneath the shells sheltered tiny crustaceans from drying winds.

   • AIt describes the comparison Cardenas used to determine whether mussels occupied cooler sections of shore.
   • BIt gives specific examples of how mussel beds can modify the surroundings of other organisms.
   • CIt describes the procedure by which Cardenas measured temperature and counted crustaceans in the patches.
   • DIt explains how the crustaceans helped mussels retain water when the surrounding rocks became exposed.
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   B. The sentence describes retained water and sheltered spaces within mussel beds. These details illustrate the opening claim that the beds change conditions for other organisms, making choice B correct; choice A assigns the preceding comparison to this sentence, choice D reverses the organisms’ roles, and choice C substitutes a measurement procedure for the reported effects.

3. Question 3 · Medium

   Public-policy scholar Sanjay Krishnan argues that cities should fund translations of public documents while the documents are being drafted. He points to communications researcher Mireille Gagnon’s examination of municipal notices produced in several languages. Gagnon found that translators consulted during drafting frequently identified ambiguous instructions, leading officials to revise the source-language versions before printing. Krishnan cites these revisions as a reason to make translation part of the initial production budget, since clearer instructions can benefit readers of every version. Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

   • AIt reports a scholar’s findings about public documents and then explains how another researcher develops a policy recommendation from those findings.
   • BIt presents a scholar’s recommendation and then explains how the scholar draws on another researcher’s findings to support that recommendation.
   • CIt introduces a scholar’s proposal and then describes an investigation that another researcher undertook in response to the proposal.
   • DIt presents a scholar’s recommendation and then describes another researcher’s findings as evidence that calls that recommendation into question.
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   B. Choice B preserves Krishnan’s recommendation, Gagnon’s findings, and Krishnan’s use of those findings as supporting evidence. Choice D reverses the evidentiary direction; Choice C turns citation of an existing study into an unsupported account of what prompted that study; Choice A swaps the recommendation and research roles.

4. Question 4 · Medium

   Text 1 To assess the effects of a brief heat pulse on meadow seeds, Shreya Bhatia’s team counted seedlings that emerged during a warm incubation period. Seeds still intact after the incubation were recorded as having lost viability. Since untreated seeds of the same species had germinated promptly under these conditions in preliminary trials, the team used the count of emerged seedlings to estimate survival after heating. Text 2 A warm incubation can miss living seeds whose germination has been delayed. Petar Kostic repeated the heat treatment on seeds collected from the same meadow population and transferred the intact, ungerminated seeds to a cool chamber before warming them again. Some then produced seedlings. Kostic recommends retaining those seeds for further testing when estimating the effect of the heat pulse on survival. Which choice best describes a difference in what the author of Text 1 and the author of Text 2 believe about seed survival?

   • AThe author of Text 1 accepts failure to germinate during warm incubation as evidence of death after heating, whereas the author of Text 2 considers additional testing necessary for such seeds.
   • BThe author of Text 1 estimates survival from emerged seedlings, whereas the author of Text 2 concludes that emergence provides little information about whether heated seeds are alive.
   • CThe author of Text 1 thinks preliminary trials should use untreated seeds, whereas the author of Text 2 thinks they should use seeds from another population.
   • DThe author of Text 1 attributes delayed germination to cool conditions, whereas the author of Text 2 attributes it to warm conditions before heating.
   Show the answer

   A. Text 1 counts the ungerminated seeds as dead using an untreated-seed baseline, whereas Text 2’s recovery of seedlings after another treatment challenges that classification. Choice D invents a temperature-based disagreement about germination before heating; choice C substitutes another population for the same-population test in Text 2; choice B changes evidence that emergence can undercount survival into doubt about what emergence demonstrates.

5. Question 5 · Hard

   Text 1 Moss mats covering exposed soil may improve water quality in nearby streams. In experiments using brief simulated showers, runoff from moss-covered plots contained less dissolved nitrate than runoff from bare plots. The moss initially retained much of the applied water. These results support using moss mats to reduce the nitrate carried from soil into streams during rain. Maintaining the mats could thus complement other stream-protection measures. Text 2 Ecologist Quentin Marchand compared runoff from moss-covered and bare soil during prolonged simulated rain. Early in each trial, the moss absorbed water and little runoff emerged from the covered plots. Once the mats were saturated, nitrate export per minute approached that of the bare plots. Saturation occurred well before the end of the trials, leaving most of the rainfall to drain from already saturated surfaces. Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the referenced claim in Text 1? The question refers to the following sentence. These results support using moss mats to reduce the nitrate carried from soil into streams during rain.

   • ABy suggesting that the benefit observed during brief showers may be less substantial during sustained rain
   • BBy suggesting that the early reduction in runoff indicates that moss continues retaining nitrate after saturation
   • CBy suggesting that the prolonged trials undermine the finding that moss can initially retain water
   • DBy suggesting that the later convergence in export rates cancels out the nitrate reduction achieved before the moss became saturated
   Show the answer

   A. Marchand would retain the evidence for an early benefit but question its extent during long storms, since saturation occurs early and subsequent nitrate export approaches that of bare soil. Choice D confuses convergence in later rates with recovery of the nitrate initially retained, which would require greater subsequent export from the covered plots; Choice C rejects an initial effect both texts report; Choice B extends that initial effect into the interval when export has increased.

6. Question 6 · Hard

   The following text is from a poem. Snow lays its folded velvet at the door; The cartwheels’ iron clamor dwindles there. My lamp holds steady, and the kettle pours A little singing into sheltered air. Across the whitened pane a lantern sways; I lift my cup toward that wandering spark. No answering gesture comes through all the glaze. The lantern pauses, then slips into the dark. I set the cup beside the waiting chair; The kettle sings. No footstep finds the stair. Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

   • ATo explore how shelter from the outside world can also entail separation from it
   • BTo recount a traveler’s refusal of the speaker’s offer of hospitality
   • CTo show that the speaker’s comfort disappears when a traveler passes the house
   • DTo dwell on the comfort provided by an interior protected from winter weather
   Show the answer

   A. Choice A accommodates the protected warmth and quiet as well as the failed contact across the window. Choice D captures the comfort but omits the isolation; choice C makes the two conditions a replacement of one by the other even though the kettle continues singing; choice B assigns a deliberate refusal to a traveler whose intentions are not established.

Ashore's SAT course starts with a 15-minute check that finds the question types costing you the most points, then gives you lessons and practice for each.

• Sentence Boundaries and Punctuation
• Agreement, Verb Forms, and Modifiers
• Choosing the Precise Word
• Main Ideas and Details
• Using Evidence: Quotes and Data
• Drawing Inferences
• Writing from Notes
• Transitions Between Ideas
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