SAT command of evidence: using quotes and data

• Pick the finding that would most support, or most weaken, a researcher's claim.
• Choose the quotation from a novel, poem or play that best shows what a character is like.
• Read a table or graph accurately: labels, units, time periods and which group is which.
• Use data from a table or graph to finish a sentence that makes a specific comparison.

• Choosing evidence that is on topic but doesn't test the claim. If the claim is that a fertilizer raises yields in dry soil, a finding about how the fertilizer is made doesn't help either way.
• Supporting half of a two-part claim. If the claim says a character is curious but cautious, a quotation that only shows curiosity is wrong.
• Reading the wrong row, column or bar. A true statement about the 2019 group is still wrong when the claim is about 2021.
• Picking evidence that points the wrong way. On a weaken question, a result that fits the researcher's claim is the trap. On a support question, it's the answer.
• Comparing the wrong numbers. If the sentence is about the change after a treatment, you need the before and after values for the same group, not the largest number in the table.

1. Question 1 · Easy

   For the exhibition *Clay at Work*, a museum offered two kinds of afternoon events: demonstrations of how ceramic sculptures were made and talks tracing the sculptures’ previous owners. Visitors could reserve either event at no additional charge. Art historian Maya Whitcomb claims that visitors to this exhibition were generally more interested in the objects’ production than in their ownership histories. The museum retained reservation records for both kinds of events. Which finding, if true, would most directly support Whitcomb’s claim?

   • AThe ownership talks discussed a greater number of individual sculptures than the demonstrations did.
   • BThe museum spent more money preparing the demonstrations than preparing the ownership talks.
   • CReservations consistently favored demonstrations over ownership talks, even though both offered equal numbers of places.
   • DVisitors to an earlier exhibition had requested additional information about the owners of paintings.
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   C. More reservations for demonstrations, when availability and price are comparable, support greater visitor interest in production. Choice A measures the talks’ coverage, choice B measures museum spending, and choice D concerns a different exhibition and different objects.

2. Question 2 · Easy

   *The Night Frequency* is a short story about Dario, a trainee at a coastal radio station. During his first overnight shift, Dario is willing to acknowledge gaps in his knowledge to the experienced operator supervising him. Which quotation from *The Night Frequency* most effectively illustrates the claim?

   • A“Before his shift, Dario had practiced tuning the spare receiver until the voices came through clearly.”
   • B“Dario moved his chair closer to the operator’s desk so that he could hear the incoming messages.”
   • C“Dario copied the sequence into his notebook and drew a small star beside the final signal.”
   • D“‘I don’t understand that abbreviation,’ Dario told the operator. ‘Would you explain it before I send the reply?’”
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   D. Dario explicitly identifies something he does not understand and asks his supervisor to explain it. Copying a signal, moving closer to hear, and practicing with a receiver show attention or preparation without an admission of limited knowledge.

3. Question 3 · Medium

   Sabine Mori investigated porous tiles used to absorb moisture. Before firing, the tiles absorbed water equal to 6.8% of their dry mass; after firing, that figure fell to 1.4%. Mori then applied three surface treatments to separate batches of fired tiles. The table reports the treated tiles’ water absorption, density, and bending strength. Mori concluded that every treatment restored some of the water absorption lost during firing, although none restored it to the original level. Properties of surface-treated fired tiles. Treatment = Steam, Water absorption (% of dry mass) = 1.9, Density (grams per cubic centimeter) = 1.81, Bending strength (MPa) = 24. Treatment = Alkaline rinse, Water absorption (% of dry mass) = 2.2, Density (grams per cubic centimeter) = 1.79, Bending strength (MPa) = 21. Treatment = Ultrasonic wash, Water absorption (% of dry mass) = 1.7, Density (grams per cubic centimeter) = 1.82, Bending strength (MPa) = 25. Which choice best describes data from the table that support Mori’s conclusion?

   • AThe alkaline-rinse tiles absorbed the most water and had the lowest bending strength.
   • BThe treated batches’ absorption values ranged from 1.7% to 2.2%, above 1.4% but below 6.8%.
   • CThe highest-density batch had the lowest water absorption among the treated batches.
   • DAll three treated tile batches absorbed less water than the tiles had absorbed before firing.
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   B. Even the lowest treated absorption, 1.7%, exceeds the post-firing baseline of 1.4%, while the highest, 2.2%, remains below the original 6.8%. Choice A links absorption to strength, choice D addresses only incomplete restoration, and choice C compares treated batches without either required baseline.

4. Question 4 · Medium

   For an exhibition on regional newspapers, historian Tessa Whitcomb examined four publications from the same decade, consulting surviving issues and the publishers’ records. Her catalog records each paper’s printing schedule and the languages in which its regular edition appeared; occasional special supplements were excluded. Whitcomb observes that a paper’s publication schedule alone does not establish whether its regular edition was multilingual. The catalog provides a particularly direct example: ______ Regular editions of four regional newspapers. Newspaper = The Valley Ledger, Issues per week = 1, Languages in regular edition = English; Polish. Newspaper = The Harbor Record, Issues per week = 3, Languages in regular edition = English. Newspaper = The Orchard Post, Issues per week = 1, Languages in regular edition = English. Newspaper = The Mill Gazette, Issues per week = 6, Languages in regular edition = English; Italian. Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the example?

   • A*The Valley Ledger* and *The Mill Gazette* were multilingual and followed the same publication schedule.
   • B*The Harbor Record* appeared more often than *The Orchard Post* and included more languages in its regular edition.
   • C*The Mill Gazette* appeared six times a week, whereas *The Harbor Record* appeared three times a week.
   • D*The Valley Ledger* and *The Orchard Post* both appeared once a week, but only the former had a multilingual regular edition.
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   D. The two weekly papers have different language profiles, so an identical publication schedule can accompany either a multilingual or a single-language edition. The two multilingual papers have different schedules, the Record and Post each use only English, and the final comparison reports schedules without connecting them to language status.

5. Question 5 · Hard

   An early manuscript booklet contains comic dialogues in which plants speak as officials in a fictional court. Modern editions divide two adjacent passages into separate works, titled *The Petition* and *The Garden Tribunal*, following an ornamental rule drawn between them. The booklet supplies neither title, and similar rules occur at several kinds of transition elsewhere in it. Literary scholar Rukmini Vesely argues that these two passages are parts of one sustained satire rather than independent pieces. Both passages mention plants that also appear in other contemporary satires. A single scribe copied both passages using the same ink and layout, and different modern editions retain the same division. Which finding, if true, would most directly support Vesely’s argument?

   • AEach penalty in the second passage answers an unresolved accusation in the first, in the same order, but is otherwise unexplained.
   • BThe plants use similar forms of address in both passages, including forms also used in the booklet’s other court dialogues.
   • CBoth passages adapt episodes from a collection of comic court stories that circulated before the manuscript booklet was copied.
   • DThe scribe uses the same ornamental rule between two other dialogues whose plots can each be understood independently.
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   A. The ordered correspondence makes the later penalties intelligible as responses to unresolved earlier accusations, supporting a continuous satire across the division. Choice C establishes a shared source, choice D makes the rule compatible with genuine separations, and choice B identifies conventions shared beyond these two passages.

6. Question 6 · Hard

   In the verse drama *The Envoy’s Seal*, Minister Roland must negotiate with guild members whose petitions he once ordered destroyed. He sends Beatrice, a clerk who copied the order but refused to certify it and urged its withdrawal. Roland expects the guild members to receive Beatrice more favorably because she opposed the measure for which he was responsible. Which quotation from *The Envoy’s Seal* most effectively illustrates the claim?

   • AROLAND: ‘Thy script is known to them upon that page, Yet thou hast heard their grievances since then; Tell how I too have learned to weigh their loss, And let our altered counsel win their ear.’
   • BROLAND: ‘Thou knowest which petition named which wrong; Their words passed through thy hands before the fire. Bring that remembrance to their council now; What I have lost in knowledge, thou retain’st.’
   • CROLAND: ‘Thy hand transcribed what yet thy voice withstood; My will consigned their pleading to the flame. That witness thou denied’st me may admit Thee where my seal would bar the door to me.’
   • DROLAND: ‘They know thy name beneath the office list, Though mine stood higher when the order passed; Begin with matters neither side disputes, And let the lesser office speak for both.’
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   C. Beatrice’s transcription is distinguished from her opposition, and the withheld certification becomes the reason she can gain an audience denied to Roland. Their subsequent change of mind lacks the original difference in responsibility, her knowledge of the petitions supplies another advantage, and lower office alone does not establish opposition to the measure.

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