Section 3, SAT Practice Test 2012-2013

Line numbers in BOLD

1. Many private universities depend heavily on -------, the wealthy individuals who support them with gifts and bequests.
(A) instructors
(B) administrators
(C) monitors
(D) accountants
(E) benefactors

2. One of the characters in Milton Murayama’s novel is considered ------- because he deliberately defies an oppressive hierarchical society.
(A) rebellious
(B) impulsive
(C) artistic
(D) industrious
(E) tyrannical

3. Nightjars possess a camouflage perhaps unparalleled in the bird world: by day they roost hidden in shady woods, so ------- with their surroundings that they are nearly impossible to -------.
(A) vexed . . dislodge
(B) blended . . discern
(C) harmonized . . interrupt
(D) impatient . . distinguish
(E) integrated . . classify

4. Many economists believe that since resources are scarce and since human desires cannot all be -------, a method of ------- is needed.
(A) indulged . . apportionment
(B) verified . . distribution
(C) usurped . . expropriation
(D) expressed . . reparation
(E) anticipated . . advertising

5. The range of colors that homeowners could use on the exterior of their houses was ------- by the community’s stringent rules regarding upkeep of property.
(A) circumscribed
(B) bolstered
(C) embellished
(D) insinuated
(E) cultivated

Questions 6-9 are based on the following passages.

Passage 1
I know what your e-mail in-box looks like, and it isn’t pretty: a babble of come-ons and lies from hucksters and con artists. To find your real e-mail, you must wade through the torrent of fraud and obscenity known politely 5 as “unsolicited bulk e-mail” and colloquially as “spam.” In a perverse tribute to the power of the online revolution, we are all suddenly getting the same mail: easy weight loss, get-rich-quick schemes, etc. The crush of these messages is now numbered in billions per day. “It’s becoming 10 a major systems and engineering and network problem,” says one e-mail expert. “Spammers are gaining control of the Internet.”

Passage 2
Many people who hate spam assume that it is protected as free speech. Not necessarily so. The United States 15 Supreme Court has previously ruled that individuals may preserve a threshold of privacy. “Nothing in the Constitution compels us to listen to or view any unwanted communication, whatever its merit,” wrote Chief Justice Warren Burger in a 1970 decision. “We therefore categorically 20 reject the argument that a vendor has a right to send unwanted material into the home of another.” With regard to a seemingly similar problem, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 made it illegal in the United States to send unsolicited faxes; why not extend the act to include 25 unsolicited bulk e-mail?

6. The primary purpose of Passage 1 is to
(A) make a comparison
(B) dispute a hypothesis
(C) settle a controversy
(D) justify a distinction
(E) highlight a concern

7. The primary purpose of Passage 2 is to
(A) confirm a widely held belief
(B) discuss the inadequacies of a ruling
(C) defend a controversial technology
(D) analyze a widespread social problem
(E) lay the foundation for a course of action

8. What would be the most likely reaction by the author of Passage 1 to the argument cited in lines 16-21 of Passage 2 (“Nothing . . . another”) ?
(A) Surprise at the assumption that freedom of speech is indispensable to democracy
(B) Dismay at the Supreme Court’s vigorous defense of vendors’ rights
(C) Hope that the same reasoning would be applied to all unsolicited e-mail
(D) Concern for the plight of mass marketers facing substantial economic losses
(E) Appreciation for the political complexity of the debate about spam

9. Unlike the author of Passage 1, the author of Passage 2
(A) criticizes a practice
(B) offers an example
(C) proposes a solution
(D) states an opinion
(E) quotes an expert

Questions 10-16 are based on the following passage.

The following passage is adapted from a novel set in the early twentieth century. Mr. Beebe, a clergyman, is speaking with Cecil Vyse about a mutual acquaintance, Lucy Honeychurch. Miss Honeychurch has recently returned from a journey with her older cousin and chaperone, Miss Bartlett.

“Lucy Honeychurch has no faults,” said Cecil, with grave sincerity.
“I quite agree. At present she has none.”
“At present?”
5 “I’m not cynical. I’m only thinking of my pet theory about Miss Honeychurch. Does it seem reasonable that she should play piano so wonderfully, and live so quietly? I suspect that someday she shall be wonderful in both. The water-tight compartments in her will break down, 10 and music and life will mingle. Then we shall have her heroically good, heroically bad—too heroic, perhaps, to be good or bad.” Cecil found his companion interesting.
“And at present you think her not wonderful as far 15 as life goes?”
“Well, I must say I’ve only seen her at Tunbridge Wells, where she was not wonderful, and at Florence. She wasn’t wonderful in Florence either, but I kept on expecting that she would be.”
20 “In what way?”
Conversation had become agreeable to them, and they were pacing up and down the terrace.
“I could as easily tell you what tune she’ll play next. There was simply the sense that she found wings and 25 meant to use them. I can show you a beautiful picture in my diary. Miss Honeychurch as a kite, Miss Bartlett holding the string. Picture number two: the string breaks.”
The sketch was in his diary, but it had been made after- wards, when he viewed things artistically. At the time he 30 had given surreptitious tugs to the string himself.
“But the string never broke?”
“No. I mightn’t have seen Miss Honeychurch rise, but I should certainly have heard Miss Bartlett fall.”
“It has broken now,” said the young man in low, 35 vibrating tones. Immediately he realized that of all the conceited, ludicrous, contemptible ways of announcing an engagement this was the worst. He cursed his love of metaphor; had he suggested that he was a star and that Lucy was 40 soaring up to reach him?
“Broken? What do you mean?”
“I meant,” Cecil said stiffly, “that she is going to marry me.”
The clergyman was conscious of some bitter 45 disappointment which he could not keep out of his voice.
“I am sorry; I must apologize. I had no idea you were intimate with her, or I should never have talked in this flippant, superficial way. You ought to have 50 stopped me.” And down in the garden he saw Lucy herself; yes, he was disappointed.
Cecil, who naturally preferred congratulations to apologies, drew down the corner of his mouth. Was this the reaction his action would get from the whole 55 world? Of course, he despised the world as a whole; every thoughtful man should; it is almost a test of refinement.
“I’m sorry I have given you a shock,” he said dryly. “I fear that Lucy’s choice does not meet with 60 your approval.”

10. Cecil’s remark in line 1 (“Lucy . . . faults”) is made in a tone of
(A) great conviction
(B) studied neutrality
(C) playful irony
(D) genuine surprise
(E) weary cynicism

11. Mr. Beebe asks the question in lines 6-7 (“Does . . . quietly”) primarily in order to
(A) raise an urgent concern
(B) anticipate a possible objection
(C) challenge a widely accepted theory
(D) note an apparent inconsistency
(E) criticize a popular pastime

12. Mr. Beebe’s statement, “The water-tight . . . bad” (lines 9-11), suggests that Lucy will
(A) ultimately become a famous and respected musician
(B) eventually play music in a less disciplined fashion
(C) one day begin to live with great passion
(D) soon regret an impetuous decision
(E) someday marry a man who will be the cause of her undoing

13. In line 24, “sense” most nearly means
(A) definition
(B) intelligence
(C) plausibility
(D) consensus
(E) impression

14. For Mr. Beebe, “Picture number two” (line 27) represents
(A) a misleading occurrence
(B) a dangerous gamble
(C) an unlikely development
(D) an anticipated outcome
(E) an avoidable difficulty

15. Ultimately, Cecil views his remark in line 34 (“It . . . now”) as
(A) singularly poetic
(B) particularly memorable
(C) embarrassingly inapt
(D) excessively critical
(E) regrettably underhanded

16. The question in lines 39-40 (“had . . . him ”) suggests that Cecil fears that Mr. Beebe will
(A) detect the lack of originality in his thinking
(B) consider him to be vain
(C) tell Lucy of his inappropriate remark
(D) distrust him as a confidant
(E) attempt to block his engagement to Lucy

Questions 17-24 are based on the following passage.

The following passage is adapted from a book published in 1999.

Calling it a cover-up would be far too dramatic. But for more than half a century—even in the midst of some of the greatest scientific achievements in history—physicists have been quietly aware of a dark cloud looming on a 5 distant horizon. The problem is this: There are two foundational pillars upon which modern physics rests. One is general relativity, which provides a theoretical framework for understanding the universe on the largest of scales: stars, galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and beyond 10 to the immense expanse of the universe itself. The other is quantum mechanics, which provides a theoretical framework for understanding the universe on the smallest of scales: molecules, atoms, and all the way down to subatomic particles like electrons and quarks. Through 15 years of research, physicists have experimentally confirmed to almost unimaginable accuracy virtually all predictions made by each of these theories. But these same theoretical tools inexorably lead to another disturbing conclusion: As they are currently formulated, general relativity and 20 quantum mechanics cannot both be right. The two theories underlying the tremendous progress of physics during the last hundred years—progress that has explained the expansion of the heavens and the fundamental structure of matter—are mutually incompatible.

25 If you have not heard previously about this ferocious antagonism, you may be wondering why. The answer is not hard to come by. In all but the most extreme situations, physicists study things that are either small and light (like atoms and their constituents) or things that are huge and 30 heavy (like stars and galaxies), but not both. This means that they need use only quantum mechanics or only general relativity and can, with a furtive glance, shrug off the barking admonition of the other. For 50 years this approach has not been quite as blissful as ignorance, but it has been 35 pretty close.

But the universe can be extreme. In the central depths of a black hole, an enormous mass is crushed to a minuscule size. According to the big bang theory, the whole of the universe erupted from a microscopic nugget whose size 40 makes a grain of sand look colossal. These are realms that are tiny and yet incredibly massive, therefore requiring that both quantum mechanics and general relativity simultaneously be brought to bear. The equations of general relativity and quantum mechanics, when combined, begin 45 to shake, rattle, and gush with steam like a decrepit automobile. Put less figuratively, well-posed physical questions elicit nonsensical answers from the unhappy amalgam of these two theories. Even if you are willing to keep the deep interior of a black hole and the beginning of the 50 universe shrouded in mystery, you can’t help feeling that the hostility between quantum mechanics and general relativity cries out for a deeper level of understanding. Can it really be that the universe at its most fundamental level is divided, requiring one set of laws when things are 55 large and a different, incompatible set when things are small?

Superstring theory, a young upstart compared with the venerable edifices of quantum mechanics and general relativity, answers with a resounding no. Intense research 60 over the past decade by physicists and mathematicians around the world has revealed that this new approach to describing matter at its most fundamental level resolves the tension between general relativity and quantum mechanics. In fact, superstring theory shows more: 65 within this new framework, general relativity and quantum mechanics require one another for the theory to make sense. According to superstring theory, the marriage of the laws of the large and the small is not only happy but inevitable. Superstring theory has the 70 potential to show that all of the wondrous happenings in the universe—from the frantic dance of subatomic quarks to the stately waltz of orbiting binary stars—are reflections of one grand physical principle, one master equation.

17. The “dark cloud” mentioned in line 4 refers to an
(A) atypical diagnosis
(B) unsupported hypothesis
(C) unknown threat
(D) evil influence
(E) important contradiction

18. Which pairing best represents the different models of the universe presented in lines 7-14 ?
(A) Big and little
(B) Old and new
(C) Complex and simple
(D) Verified and undocumented
(E) Theoretical and practical

19. The author’s use of italics in line 20 serves primarily to
(A) draw attention to a commonly known hypothesis
(B) stress a speculative aspect of two theories
(C) support a difficult claim
(D) underscore a surprising point
(E) emphasize an area of agreement

20. The author uses the “automobile” (lines 45-46) to represent equations that
(A) demand a professional’s attention
(B) are intrinsically unreliable
(C) do not work together effectively
(D) can be easily adjusted if necessary
(E) are based on dated mathematics

21. Which of the following, if available, would best refute the author’s assertion about the “young upstart” (line 57) ?
(A) Evidence that certain kinds of particles in nature exceed the speed of light
(B) Confirmation of conditions that existed in the earliest stages of the big bang
(C) Speculation that the deep interior of a black hole is not as dense as scientists have believed
(D) Mathematical formulas that link general relativity and quantum mechanics in the same realm
(E) Proof that the laws governing the universe depend on the size of the system being studied

22. The primary reason described for the usefulness of the theory mentioned in line 57 is its ability to
(A) explain new phenomena
(B) replace the theory of general relativity
(C) reinforce the predictions of quantum mechanics
(D) indicate where other theories are inapplicable
(E) reconcile two seemingly contradictory theories

23. Those who hold the “conclusion” referred to in line 18 would most likely believe that the “marriage” (line 68) was an
(A) inevitable result of their research
(B) unjustifiable elevation of their hypotheses
(C) inadvisable use of research funds
(D) unfortunate consequence
(E) impossible outcome

24. The author uses dance imagery in lines 71-72 in order to
(A) suggest a similarity between the study of science and the study of dance
(B) highlight the extremes found in the physical world
(C) emphasize the different ways that binary stars move
(D) illustrate the intricacy of the subatomic world of quarks
(E) suggest the cohesive nature of both science and dance