Question ID d4732483
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose
ID: d4732483
Studying late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century artifacts from an agricultural and domestic site in Texas,
archaeologist Ayana O. Flewellen found that Black women employed as farm workers utilized hook-and-eye closures to
fasten their clothes at the waist, giving themselves a silhouette similar to the one that was popular in contemporary
fashion and typically achieved through more restrictive garments such as corsets. Flewellen argues that this sartorial
practice shows that these women balanced hegemonic ideals of femininity with the requirements of their physically
demanding occupation.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
To describe an unexpected discovery that altered a researcher’s view of how rapidly fashions among Black female
A. farmworkers in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Texas changed during the period
To discuss research that investigated the ways in which Black female farmworkers in late nineteenth- and early
B. twentieth-century Texas used fashion practices to resist traditional gender ideals
To evaluate a scholarly work that offers explanations for the impact of urban fashion ideals on Black female
C. farmworkers in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Texas
To summarize the findings of a study that explored factors influencing a fashion practice among Black female
D. farmworkers in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Texas
Question ID 236fee8e
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose
ID: 236fee8e
Archeological excavation of Market Street Chinatown, a nineteenth-century Chinese American community in San Jose,
California, provided the first evidence that Asian food products were imported to the United States in the 1800s: bones
from a freshwater fish species native to Southeast Asia. Jinshanzhuang—Hong Kong–based import/export firms—likely
coordinated the fish’s transport from Chinese-operated fisheries in Vietnam and Malaysia to North American markets.
This route reveals the (often overlooked) multinational dimensions of the trade networks linking Chinese diaspora
communities.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
It explains why efforts to determine the country of origin of the items mentioned in the previous sentence remain
A. inconclusive.
It provides information that helps support a claim about a discovery’s significance that is presented in the following
B. sentence.
C. It traces the steps that were taken to locate and recover the objects that are described in the previous sentence.
D. It outlines a hypothesis that additional evidence discussed in the following sentence casts some doubt on.
Question ID 2903a041
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose
ID: 2903a041
Using NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Mercedes López-Morales and colleagues measured the
wavelengths of light traveling through the atmosphere of WASP-39b, an exoplanet, or planet outside our solar system.
Different molecules absorb different wavelengths of light, and the wavelength measurements showed the presence of
carbon dioxide (CO₂) in WASP-39b’s atmosphere. This finding not only offers the first decisive evidence of CO₂ in the
atmosphere of an exoplanet but also illustrates the potential for future scientific breakthroughs held by the JWST.
Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
A. It discusses a method used by some researchers, then states why an alternative method is superior to it.
B. It describes how researchers made a scientific discovery, then explains the importance of that discovery.
C. It outlines the steps taken in a scientific study, then presents a hypothesis based on that study.
It examines how a group of scientists reached a conclusion, then shows how other scientists have challenged that
D. conclusion.
Question ID b0f7541b
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose
ID: b0f7541b
The following text is adapted from Herman Melville’s 1857 novel The Confidence-Man. Humphry Davy was a prominent
British chemist and inventor.
Years ago, a grave American savant, being in London, observed at an evening party there, a certain coxcombical
fellow, as he thought, an absurd ribbon in his lapel, and full of smart [banter], whisking about to the admiration of as
many as were disposed to admire. Great was the savant’s disdain; but, chancing ere long to find himself in a corner
with the jackanapes, got into conversation with him, when he was somewhat ill-prepared for the good sense of the
jackanapes, but was altogether thrown aback, upon subsequently being [informed that he was] no less a personage
than Sir Humphry Davy.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
A. It portrays the thoughts of a character who is embarrassed about his own behavior.
B. It presents an account of a misunderstanding.
C. It offers a short history of how a person came to be famous.
D. It explains why one character dislikes another.
Question ID df46a2ee
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose
ID: df46a2ee
The following text is from Joseph Conrad’s 1907 novel The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale. Mr. Verloc is navigating the
London streets on his way to a meeting.
Before reaching Knightsbridge, Mr. Verloc took a turn to the left out of the busy main thoroughfare, uproarious with the
traffic of swaying omnibuses and trotting vans, in the almost silent, swift flow of hansoms [horse-drawn carriages]. Under
his hat, worn with a slight backward tilt, his hair had been carefully brushed into respectful sleekness; for his business
was with an Embassy. And Mr. Verloc, steady like a rock—a soft kind of rock—marched now along a street which could
with every propriety be described as private.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined phrase in the text as a whole?
A. It qualifies an earlier description of Mr. Verloc.
B. It emphasizes an internal struggle Mr. Verloc experiences.
C. It contrasts Mr. Verloc with his surroundings.
D. It reveals a private opinion Mr. Verloc holds.
Question ID 4eee64fa
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose
ID: 4eee64fa
Space scientists Anna-Lisa Paul, Stephen M. Elardo, and Robert Ferl planted seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana in samples of
lunar regolith—the surface material of the Moon—and, serving as a control group, in terrestrial soil. They found that while
all the seeds germinated, the roots of the regolith-grown plants were stunted compared with those in the control group.
Moreover, unlike the plants in the control group, the regolith-grown plants exhibited red pigmentation, reduced leaf size,
and inhibited growth rates—indicators of stress that were corroborated by postharvest molecular analysis.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
It describes an experiment that addressed an unresolved question about the extent to which lunar regolith resembles
A. terrestrial soils.
B. It compares two distinct methods of assessing indicators of stress in plants grown in a simulated lunar environment.
C. It presents evidence in support of the hypothesis that seed germination in lunar habitats is an unattainable goal.
D. It discusses the findings of a study that evaluated the effects of exposing a plant species to lunar soil conditions.
Question ID a70cbc53
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose
ID: a70cbc53
Raymond Antrobus, an accomplished poet and writer of prose, recently released his debut spoken word poetry album,
The First Time I Wore Hearing Aids, in collaboration with producer Ian Brennan. The album contains both
autobiographical and reflective pieces combining Antrobus’s spoken words with Brennan’s fragmented audio elements
and pieces of music to convey how people who are deaf may experience sound, both its presence and absence. Some
critics suggest that the album questions the function of sound in the world, highlighting that the experience of sound is
multifaceted.
Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
It introduces a collaborative spoken word poetry project, details the approach taken to produce the work, and then
A. provides an example of critique the album received upon release.
It mentions a collection of spoken word poems, distinguishes one poem as being an exemplar on the album, and then
B. offers a summary of the subject matter of the whole collection.
It summarizes the efforts to produce a collection of spoken word poems, presents biographies of two people who
C. worked on the album, and speculates about the meaning behind the poetry.
It connects two artists to the same spoken word poetry project, explains the extent of their collaboration on each
D. poem, and then provides an overview of the technique used to produce the work.
Question ID 6d44060a
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose
ID: 6d44060a
Works of moral philosophy, such as Plato’s Republic or Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, are partly concerned with how to
live a morally good life. But philosopher Jonathan Barnes argues that works that present a method of living such a life
without also supplying a motive are inherently useful only to those already wishing to be morally good—those with no
desire for moral goodness will not choose to follow their rules. However, some works of moral philosophy attempt to
describe what constitutes a morally good life while also proposing reasons for living one.
Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
It provides a characterization about a field of thought by noting two works in it and then details a way in which some
A. works in that field are more comprehensive than others.
It mentions two renowned works and then claims that despite their popularity it is impossible for these works to
B. serve the purpose their authors intended.
It summarizes the history of a field of thought by discussing two works and then proposes a topic of further research
C. for specialists in that field.
D. It describes two influential works and then explains why one is more widely read than the other.
Question ID 48555763
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose
ID: 48555763
The following text is from Herman Melville’s 1854 novel The Lightning-rod Man.
The stranger still stood in the exact middle of the cottage, where he had first planted himself. His singularity impelled a
closer scrutiny. A lean, gloomy figure. Hair dark and lank, mattedly streaked over his brow. His sunken pitfalls of eyes
were ringed by indigo halos, and played with an innocuous sort of lightning: the gleam without the bolt. The whole man
was dripping. He stood in a puddle on the bare oak floor: his strange walking-stick vertically resting at his side.
Which choice best states the function of the underlined sentence in the overall structure of the text?
A. It elaborates on the previous sentence’s description of the character.
B. It introduces the setting that is described in the sentences that follow.
C. It establishes a contrast with the description in the previous sentence.
D. It sets up the character description presented in the sentences that follow.
Question ID e7247766
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose
ID: e7247766
Horizontal gene transfer occurs when an organism of one species acquires genetic material from an organism of another
species through nonreproductive means. The genetic material can then be transferred “vertically” in the second species—
that is, through reproductive inheritance. Scientist Atma Ivancevic and her team have hypothesized infection by
invertebrate parasites as a mechanism of horizontal gene transfer between vertebrate species: while feeding, a parasite
could acquire a gene from one host, then relocate to a host from a different vertebrate species and transfer the gene to it
in turn.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
A. It explains why parasites are less susceptible to horizontal gene transfer than their hosts are.
B. It clarifies why some genes are more likely to be transferred horizontally than others are.
C. It contrasts how horizontal gene transfer occurs among vertebrates with how it occurs among invertebrates.
D. It describes a means by which horizontal gene transfer might occur among vertebrates.
Question ID f6352bd3
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose
ID: f6352bd3
Many archaeologists assume that large-scale engineering projects in ancient societies required an elite class to plan and
direct the necessary labor. However, recent discoveries, such as the excavation of an ancient canal near the Gulf Coast of
Alabama, have complicated this picture. Using radiocarbon dating, a team of researchers concluded that the 1.39-
kilometer-long canal was most likely constructed between 576 and 650 CE by an Indigenous society that was relatively
free of social classes.
Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
A. It describes a common view among archaeologists, then discusses a recent finding that challenges that view.
B. It outlines a method used in some archaeological fieldwork, then explains why an alternative method is superior to it.
It presents contradictory conclusions drawn by archaeologists, then evaluates a study that has apparently resolved
C. that contradiction.
D. It identifies a gap in scientific research, then presents a strategy used by some archaeologists to remedy that gap.
Question ID 9b01bcf4
Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty
SAT Reading and Writing Craft and Structure Text Structure and
Purpose
ID: 9b01bcf4
The 1967 release of Harold Cruse’s book The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual isolated him from almost all other scholars
and activists of the American Civil Rights Movement—though many of those thinkers disagreed with each other, he
nonetheless found ways to disagree with them all. He thought that activists who believed that Black people such as
himself should culturally assimilate were naïve. But he also sharply criticized Black nationalists such as Marcus Garvey
who wanted to establish independent, self-contained Black economies and societies, even though Cruse himself
identified as a Black nationalist.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
A. It describes a direction that Cruse felt the Civil Rights Movement ought to take.
B. It indicates that Cruse’s reputation as a persistent antagonist of other scholars is undeserved.
C. It describes a controversy that Cruse’s work caused within the Black nationalist movement.
D. It helps explain Cruse’s position with respect to the community of civil rights thinkers.
