SAT PRACTICE TEST V

READING COMPREHENSION

Directions: Read the passage and select the best answers for the questions that follow. Some questions are about particular sentences or parts of sentences and ask you to improve sentence structure or word choice. Other questions ask you to consider organization and development. In choosing answers, follow the requirements of standard written English.

Questions 1 – 6 are based on the following passage.

(1) My father has an exceptional talent. (2) The ability to understand people. (3) When I have a problem that I think no one else will understand, I take it to my father. (4) He listens intently, asks me some questions, and my feelings are seemingly known by him exactly. (5) Even my twin sister can talk to him more easily than to me (6) Many people seem too busy to take the time to understand one another. (7) My father, by all accounts, sees taking time to listen as essential to any relationship, whether it involves family, friendship or work. (8) At work, my father’s friends and work associates benefit from this talent. (9) His job requires him to attend social events and sometimes I go along. (10) I have watched him at dinner; his eyes are fixed on whoever is speaking, and he nods his head at every remark. (11) My father emerges from such a conversation with what I believe is a true sense of the speaker’s meaning. (12) In the same way, we choose our friends. (13) My father’s ability to listen affects his whole life. (14) His ability allows him to form strong relationships with his coworkers and earns him lasting friendships.    (15) It allows him to have open conversations with his children. (16) Furthermore, it has strengthened his relationship with my mother. (17) Certainly, his talent is one that I hope to develop as I mature.

1. Of the following, which is the best way to revise and combine sentences 1 and 2 (reproduced below)?
My father has an exceptional talent. The ability to understand people
(a) My father has an exceptional talent and the ability to understand people
(b) My father has an exceptional talent that includes the ability to understand people
(c) My father has an exceptional talent: the ability to understand people
(d) My father has an exceptional talent, it is his ability to understand people
(e) Despite my father’s exceptional, he still has the ability to understand people

2. Of the following, which is the best way to phrase sentence 4 (reproduced below)?
He listens intently, asks me some questions, and my feelings are seemingly known by him exactly.
(a) (As it is now)
(b) Listening intently, he will ask me some questions and then my exact feelings are seemingly known to him.
(c) As he listens to me and asks me some questions, he seems to be knowing exactly my feelings.
(d) He listened to me and asked me some questions, seeming to know exactly how I felt.
(e) He listens intently, asks me some questions, and then seems to know exactly how I feel.

3. In sentence 7, the phrase by all accounts is best replaced by
(a) however
(b) moreover
(c) to my knowledge
(d) like my sister
(e) but nevertheless

4. Which of the following sentences should be omitted to improve the unity of the second paragraph?
(a) Sentence 8
(b) Sentence 9
(c) Sentence 10
(d) Sentence 11
(e) Sentence 12

5. In context, which of the following is the best way to phrase the underlined portion of sentence 16 (reproduced below)?
Furthermore, it has strengthened his relationship with my mother.
(a) (As it is now)
(b) Further strengthening
(c) But it strengthens
(d) However, he is strengthening
(e) Considering this, he strengthens

6. A strategy that the writer uses within the third paragraph is to
(a) Make false assumptions and use exaggeration
(b) Include difficult vocabulary
(c) Repeat certain words and sentence patterns
(d) Argue in atone of defiance
(e) Turn aside from the main subject

CRITICAL READING 

Directions: The passages below are followed by questions based on their content; questions following a pair of related passages may also be based on the relationship between the paired passages. Answer the questions on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passages and in any introductory material that may be provided.

Questions 7 – 8 are based on the following passage.

Duke Ellington considered himself “the world’s greatest listener.” In music, hearing is all. Judging by the two or three thousand pieces of music Ellington wrote, he could probably hear a flea scratching itself and put that rhythm into one of his compositions. For him the sounds of the world were the ingredients he mixed into appetizers, main courses, and desserts to satisfy the appetite of his worldwide audience. He wasn’t averse to going out in a boat to catch the fish himself. He would raise the fowl himself. But when that musical meal appeared before you, none of the drudgery showed.

7. The author most likely refers to the “flea” in line 3 in order to
(a) Highlight Ellington’s prodigious memory
(b) Emphasize the quality of Ellington’s listening skills
(c) Indicate Ellington’s interest in different animal sounds
(d) Suggest that Ellington’s compositions were marked by rhythmic similarities
(e) Imply that Ellington could be overly concerned about minutia

8. In lines 4 – 9 (“For him …… drudgery showed”), the author’s point is primarily developed through the use of
(a) comparison and contrast
(b) appeal to emotion
(c) exaggeration
(d) metaphor
(e) humor

Questions 9 -10 are based on the following passage.

In the summer of 1911, the explorer Hiram Bingham III bushwhacked his way to a high ridge in the Andes of Peru and beheld a dreamscape out of the past. There, set against looming peaks cloaked in snow and wreathed in clouds, was Machu Picchu, the famous “lost city” of the Incas. This expression, popularized by Bingham, served as magical elixir for rundown imaginations. The words evoked the romanticism of exploration and archaeology at the time. But finding Machu Picchu was easier than solving the mystery of its place in the rich and powerful Inca empire. The imposing architecture attested to the skill and audacity of the Incas. But who had lived at this isolated site and for what purpose?

9. The words “magical elixir” (line 5) primarily emphasize the
(a) motivation for an expedition
(b) captivating power of a phrase
(c) inspiration behind a discovery
(d) creative dimension of archaeology
(e) complexity of an expression

10. The “mystery” discussed in lines 7 – 8 is most analogous to that encountered in which of the following situations?
(a) Being unable to locate the source of materials used to construct an ancient palace
(b) Being unable to reconcile archaeological evidence with mythical descriptions of an ancient city
(c) Being unable to explain how ancient peoples constructed imposing monuments using only primitive technology
(d) Being unable to understand the religious function of a chamber found inside an ancient temple
(e) Being unable to discover any trace of a civilization repeatedly mentioned by ancient authors

MATH

1. If 7n x 73 = 712, what is the value of n?
(a) 2
(b) 4
(c) 9
(d) 15
(e) 36



2. A furniture company makes one style of tables and chairs. The chart on the left above gives the prices of these tables and chairs in three different years. The chart on the right gives the maximum number of tables and chairs that can be stocked in each of three warehouses, X, Y and Z. Based on the prices shown, what was the maximum possible value of the table and chair inventory in warehouse Y in 1995?
(a) $23,950
(b) $26,500
(c) $27,200
(d) $28,400
(e) $29,500

3. What is the total number of right angles formed by the edges of a cube?
(a) 36
(b) 24
(c) 20
(d) 16
(e) 12



4. Which of the following equations describes y in terms of x for all ordered pairs in the table above?
(a) y = 100 – x2
(b) y = 100 – x
(c) y = 100 – 2x
(d) y = 100 – 4x
(e) y = 100 – 100x



5. The graphs of the functions f and g are lines, as shown above. What is the value of f(3) + g(3)?
(a) 1.5
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 4
(e) 5.5

6. A telephone company charges x cents for the first minute of a call and charges for any additional time at the rate of y cents per minute. If a certain call costs $5.55 and lasts more than 1 minute, which of the following expressions represents the length of that call, in minutes?
(a) (555 - x)/y
(b) (555 + x - y)/y
(c) (555 - x + y)/y
(d) (555 - x - y )/y
(e) 555/(x + y)

Find the answers here

You can also find more SAT questions here