SAT 

Day2：Command of Evidence: Textual

Question 1

In the twentieth century, ethnographers made a concerted effort to collect Mexican

American folklore, but they did not always agree about that folklore’s origins.
Scholars such as Aurelio Espinosa claimed that Mexican American folklore derived
largely from the folklore of Spain, which ruled Mexico and what is now the
southwestern United States from the sixteenth to early nineteenth centuries. Scholars
such as Américo Paredes, by contrast, argued that while some Spanish influence is
undeniable, Mexican American folklore is mainly the product of the ongoing
interactions of various cultures in Mexico and the United States.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support Paredes’s argument?

A. The folklore that the ethnographers collected included several songs written in the
form of a décima, a type of poem originating in late sixteenth-century Spain.

B. Much of the folklore that the ethnographers collected had similar elements from
region to region.

C. Most of the folklore that the ethnographers collected was previously unknown to
scholars.

D. Most of the folklore that the ethnographers collected consisted of

corridos—ballads about history and social life—of a clearly recent origin.

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Question 2

When digging for clams, their primary food, sea otters damage the roots of eelgrass
plants growing on the seafloor. Near Vancouver Island in Canada, the otter population
is large and well established, yet the eelgrass meadows are healthier than those found
elsewhere off Canada’s coast. To explain this, conservation scientist Erin Foster and
colleagues compared the Vancouver Island meadows to meadows where otters are
absent or were reintroduced only recently. Finding that the Vancouver Island
meadows have a more diverse gene pool than the others do, Foster hypothesized that
damage to eelgrass roots increases the plant’s rate of sexual reproduction; this, in turn,
boosts genetic diversity, which benefits the meadow’s health overall.

Which finding, if true, would most directly undermine Foster’s hypothesis?

A. At some sites in the study, eelgrass meadows are found near otter populations that
are small and have only recently been reintroduced.

B. At several sites not included in the study, there are large, well-established sea otter
populations but no eelgrass meadows.

C. At several sites not included in the study, eelgrass meadows’ health correlates
negatively with the length of residence and size of otter populations.

D. At some sites in the study, the health of plants unrelated to eelgrass correlates
negatively with the length of residence and size of otter populations.

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Question 3

Political scientists who favor the traditional view of voter behavior claim that voting
in an election does not change a voter’s attitude toward the candidates in that election.
Focusing on each US presidential election from 1976 to 1996, Ebonya Washington
and Sendhil Mullainathan tested this claim by distinguishing between subjects who
had just become old enough to vote (around half of whom actually voted) and
otherwise similar subjects who were slightly too young to vote (and thus none of
whom voted). Washington and Mullainathan compared the attitudes of the groups of
subjects toward the winning candidate two years after each election.

Which finding from Washington and Mullainathan’s study, if true, would most
directly weaken the claim made by people who favor the traditional view of voter
behavior?

A. Subjects’ attitudes toward the winning candidate two years after a given election
were strongly predicted by subjects’ general political orientation, regardless of
whether subjects were old enough to vote at the time of the election.

B. Subjects who were not old enough to vote in a given election held significantly
more positive attitudes towards the winning candidate two years later than they held
at the time of the election.

C. Subjects who voted in a given election held significantly more polarized attitudes
toward the winning candidate two years later than did subjects who were not old
enough to vote in that election.

D. Two years after a given election, subjects who voted and subjects who were not old
enough to vote were significantly more likely to express negative attitudes than
positive attitudes toward the winning candidate in that election.

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Question 4

Linguist Deborah Tannen has cautioned against framing contentious issues in terms of
two highly competitive perspectives, such as pro versus con. According to Tannen,
this debate-driven approach can strip issues of their complexity and, when used in
front of an audience, can be less informative than the presentation of multiple
perspectives in a noncompetitive format. To test Tannen’s hypothesis, students
conducted a study in which they showed participants one of three different versions of
local news commentary about the same issue. Each version featured a debate between
two commentators with opposing views, a panel of three commentators with various
views, or a single commentator.

Which finding from the students’ study, if true, would most strongly support Tannen’s
hypothesis?

A) On average, participants perceived commentators in the debate as more

knowledgeable about the issue than commentators in the panel.

B) On average, participants perceived commentators in the panel as more

knowledgeable about the issue than the single commentator.

C) On average, participants who watched the panel correctly answered more questions
about the issue than those who watched the debate or the single commentator did.

D) On average, participants who watched the single commentator correctly answered

more questions about the issue than those who watched the debate did.

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Question 5

Although many transposons, DNA sequences that move within an organism's genome
through shuffling or duplication, have become corrupted and inactive over time, those
from the long interspersed nuclear elements (LINE) family appear to remain active in
the genomes of some species. In humans, they are functionally important within the
hippocampus, a brain structure that supports complex cognitive processes. When the
results of molecular analysis of two species of octopus—an animal known for its
intelligence—were announced in 2022, the confirmation of a LINE transposon in
Octopus vulgaris and Octopus bimaculoides genomes prompted researchers to
hypothesize that that transposon family is tied to a species1 capacity for advanced
cognition.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers’ hypothesis?

A. The LINE transposon in O. vulgaris and O. bimaculoides genomes is active in an

octopus brain structure that functions similarly to the human hippocampus.

B. The human genome contains multiple transposons from the LINE family that are
all primarily active in the hippocampus.

C. A consistent number of copies of LINE transposons is present across the genomes

of most octopus species, with few known corruptions.

D. O. vulgaris and O. bimaculoides have smaller brains than humans do relative to

body size, but their genomes contain sequences from a wider variety of transposon
families.

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Question 6

Jan Gimsa, Robert Sleigh, and Ulrike Gimsa have hypothesized that the sail-like
structure running down the back of the dinosaur Spinosaurus aegyptiacus improved
the animal’s success in underwater pursuits of prey species capable of making quick,
evasive movements. To evaluate their hypothesis, a second team of researchers
constructed two battery-powered mechanical models of S. aegyptiacus, one with a sail
and one without, and subjected the models to a series of identical tests in a
water-filled tank.

Which finding from the model tests, if true, would most strongly support Gimsa and
colleagues’ hypothesis?

A) The model with a sail took significantly longer to travel a specified distance while
submerged than the model without a sail did.

B) The model with a sail displaced significantly more water while submerged than the
model without a sail did.

C) The model with a sail had significantly less battery power remaining after
completing the tests than the model without a sail did.

D) The model with a sail took significantly less time to complete a sharp turn while
submerged than the model without a sail did.

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Question 7

Although it's clear that Mars once had liquid water on its surface, astronomers have
debated whether the evidence of ancient water reflects a prolonged phase of warm,
wet conditions—the so-called wet and warm scenario—or a brief period of melting in
an otherwise consistently frozen environment Researchers Benjamin T. Cardenas and
Michael P. Lamb recently added to this debate by using data from NASA and the
Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter to map the topography of what is now a large basin in
Mars's northern hemisphere. Cardenas and Lamb concluded that the wet and warm
scenario is likely correct

Which finding about the basin, if true, would most directly support Cardenas and
Lamb's conclusion?

A. Its dimensions and shape indicate that it is unlikely to have formed as the result of
an asteroid or comet impact

B. It has features suggesting that it once held an ocean that underwent gradual
sea-level changes over an extended time.

C. Its physical characteristics are most consistent with it having formed as a result of a
massive but short-lived influx of liquid water.

D. It is surrounded by channels that could have been formed either by running water
or by flowing lava.

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Question 8

In the 1970s, a roughly 60,000-year-old piece of hyena bone marked with nine
notches was discovered at a site in western France once inhabited by Neanderthals.
Although many believe that only modern humans developed systems for notating
numbers, one archaeologist asserts that this artifact may be a sign that Neanderthals
also recorded numerical information. The notches on the bone are unevenly spaced
but approximately parallel, and microscopic analysis reveals that they were made with
a single stone tool; according to the archaeologist, this suggests that the notches were
all made at one time by one individual as a means of counting something.

Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the underlined claim?

A. Parallel lines are a common feature in modern humans' early systems for recording
numerical information.

B. More than nine approximately parallel notches made with a different stone tool are
present on another artifact found at a site in western France.

C. It would have taken careful effort to make evenly spaced lines on bone with the
stone tools typically used by Neanderthals.

D. Decorative art discovered at another Neanderthal site in western France primarily

features patterns of unevenly spaced parallel lines.

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Question 9

Neural networks are computer models intended to reflect the organization of human
brains and are often used in studies of brain function. According to an analysis of
11,000 such networks, Ry Ian Schaeffer and colleagues advise caution when drawing
conclusions about brains from observations of neural networks. They found that when
attempting to mimic grid cells (brain cells used in navigation), while 90% of the
networks could accomplish navigation-related tasks, only about 10% of those
exhibited any behaviors similar to those of grid cells. But even this approximation of
grid-cell activity has less to do with similarity between the neural networks and
biological brains than it does with the rules programmed into the networks.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the claim in the underlined
sentence?

A. The rules that allow for networks to exhibit behaviors like those of grid cells have
no equivalent in the function of biological brains.

B. The networks that do not exhibit behaviors like those of grid cells were nonetheless
programmed with rules that had proven useful in earlier neural-network studies.

C. Neural networks can often accomplish tasks that biological brains do, but they are
typically programmed with rules to model multiple types of brain cells
simultaneously.

D. Once a neural network is programmed, it is trained on certain tasks to see if it can

independently arrive at processes that are similar to those performed by biological
brains.

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Question 10

The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), a band of clouds that encircles Earth in
the tropics and is a major rainfall source, shifts position in response to temperature
variations across Earth's hemispheres. Data from Huagapo Cave in Peru suggest the
ITCZ shifted south during the Little Ice Age (circa 1300-1850), but a shift as far into
South America as Huagapo should have led to dry conditions in Central America,
which is inconsistent with climate models. To resolve the issue, geologist Yemane
Asmerom and colleagues collected data from Yok Balum Cave in Central America
and compared them with the Huagapo data. They concluded that during the Little Ice
Age, the ITCZ may have expanded northward and southward rather than simply
shifted.

Which finding from Asmerom and colleagues’ study, if true, would most directly
support their conclusion?

A. Neither the Ybk Balum data nor the Huagapo data show significant local variations
in temperature during the Little Ice Age.

B. Both the Yok Balum data and the Huagapo data show increased temperatures and
prolonged dry conditions during the Little Ice Age.

C. The Yok Balum data show prolonged dry conditions during the same portions of
the Little Ice Age in which the Huagapo data show heightened levels of rainfall.

D. The Yok Balum data and the Huagapo data show strongly correlated patterns of
high rainfall during the Little Ice Age.

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