Question ID d748c3fd 2.

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: d748c3fd
In her 2021 article “Throwaway History: Towards a Historiography of Ephemera,” scholar Anne Garner discusses
John Johnson (1882–1956), a devoted collector of items intended to be discarded, including bus tickets and
campaign pamphlets. Johnson recognized that scholarly institutions considered his expansive collection of
ephemera to be worthless—indeed, it wasn’t until 1968, after Johnson’s death, that Oxford University’s Bodleian
Library acquired the collection, having grasped the items’ potential value to historians and other researchers.
Hence, the example of Johnson serves to ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A. demonstrate the difficulties faced by contemporary historians in conducting research at the Bodleian Library
without access to ephemera.
B. represent the challenge of incorporating examples of ephemera into the collections of libraries and other
scholarly institutions.
C. lend support to arguments by historians and other researchers who continue to assert that ephemera holds no
value for scholars.
D. illustrate both the relatively low scholarly regard in which ephemera was once held and the later recognition of
ephemera’s possible utility.
Question ID 3190835d 2.2

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: 3190835d
Some businesses believe that when employees are interrupted while doing their work, they experience a decrease
in energy and productivity. However, a team led by Harshad Puranik, who studies management, has found that
interruptions by colleagues can have a social component that increases employees’ sense of belonging, resulting
in greater job satisfaction that benefits employees and employers. Therefore, businesses should recognize that
______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A. the interpersonal benefits of some interruptions in the workplace may offset the perceived negative effects.
B. in order to maximize productivity, employers should be willing to interrupt employees frequently throughout
the day.
C. most employees avoid interrupting colleagues because they don’t appreciate being interrupted themselves.
D. in order to cultivate an ideal workplace environment, interruptions of work should be discouraged.
Question ID db876fd5 2.3

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: db876fd5
Songbirds learn to respond to and imitate their species’ songs from an early age. With each generation, small
differences are introduced that result in distinct variations—called dialects—among geographically isolated
populations of the same species. A research study examined whether twelve-day-old Ficedula hypoleuca (pied
flycatcher) nestlings prefer local dialects over the unfamiliar dialects of nonlocal F. hypoleuca populations: the
more begging calls the nestlings made in response to a song, the stronger their preference. The researchers
found that nestlings produced more begging calls in response to their own dialect than to nonlocal dialects. Since
song preference plays a role in songbird mate selection, the finding suggests that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A. F. hypoleuca nestlings’ preference for their own dialect likely disappears as they mature to promote
socialization between different F. hypoleuca populations.
B. F. hypoleuca nestlings who show an early preference for their own dialect are likely to receive more food from
their caretakers than nestlings who show no preferences among any F. hypoleuca dialects.
C. F. hypoleuca nestlings’ preference for their own dialect likely drives them when they mature to reproduce with
other F. hypoleuca from local rather than nonlocal populations.
D. F. hypoleuca nestlings show a preference for both local F. hypoleuca dialects and the songs of other local
songbirds over the songs of nonlocal birds of any species.
Question ID 55688b3c 2.4

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: 55688b3c
Dutch painters in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries often showed tables filled with large wheels of cheese
or carved shards of butter. Some art historians, noting that dairy products were a major component of the Dutch
diet, interpret these depictions as reflections of everyday Dutch eating habits. However, a group of researchers
recently reviewed hundreds of food-related paintings and found that lemons—which could only be acquired in the
Netherlands at great cost, since they had to be imported from warmer climates—feature in Dutch paintings of the
period more than three times as frequently as dairy products do, thereby casting doubt on the idea that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A. dairy products were a more significant component of the Dutch diet of the period than lemons were.
B. food was a more popular subject among Dutch painters than it was among painters from other countries at the
time.
C. depictions of food in Dutch paintings of the period should be taken as realistic representations of Dutch eating
habits.
D. Dutch painters of the period may have depicted foods for symbolic reasons rather than to show what Dutch
people typically ate.
Question ID 8fbed1cb 2.5

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: 8fbed1cb
When the Vinland Map, a map of the world purported to date to the mid-1400s, surfaced in 1957, some scholars
believed it demonstrated that European knowledge of the eastern coast of present-day North America predated
Christopher Columbus’s 1492 arrival. In 2021, a team including conservators Marie-France Lemay and Paula Zyats
and materials scientist Anikó Bezur performed an extensive analysis of the map and the ink used. They found that
the ink contains titanium dioxide, a compound that was first introduced in ink manufacturing in the early 1900s.
Therefore, the team concluded that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A. mid-1400s Europeans could not have known about the eastern coast of present-day North America.
B. the Vinland Map could not have been drawn by mid-1400s mapmakers.
C. mapmakers must have used titanium compounds in their ink in the 1400s.
D. there isn’t enough information to determine when the ink was created.
Question ID 5432d1de 2.6

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: 5432d1de
It’s common for jazz musicians and fans to refer to certain songs as having “swing,” indicating that the songs
provoke a strong feeling, like the impulse to tap one’s foot or dance. The exact acoustic properties that give a
song swing, however, have long been thought to be undefinable. To investigate swing, a team led by physicist
Corentin Nelias delayed the downbeats and synchronized the offbeats in jazz piano solos and asked jazz
musicians to compare the intensity of swing in each modified piece with the intensity of swing in the original
piece. They found that participants were more than seven times likelier to characterize the modified songs as
having swing than to characterize the original versions as having swing, suggesting that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A. synchronized offbeats tend to give a song swing regardless of whether downbeats are delayed.
B. the acoustic properties that give a song swing are not easy for jazz musicians to manipulate.
C. jazz songs that feature the piano are more likely to have swing than are jazz songs that do not feature the
piano.
D. the timing of downbeats and offbeats may play a crucial role in giving a song swing.
Question ID 4e9afd7a 2.7

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: 4e9afd7a
The Indus River valley civilization flourished in South Asia from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE. Many examples of the
civilization’s writing system exist, but researchers haven’t yet deciphered it or identified which ancient language it
represents. Nevertheless, archaeologists have found historical artifacts, such as clay figures and jewelry, that
provide information about the civilization’s customs and how its communities were organized. The archaeologists’
findings therefore suggest that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A. investigating an ancient civilization is easier without knowledge of the civilization’s language.
B. knowing an ancient civilization’s language isn’t necessary in order to learn details about the civilization.
C. archaeological research should focus on finding additional artifacts rather than deciphering ancient languages.
D. examining the civilization’s historical artifacts has resolved the debate about this civilization’s language.
Question ID 3882ddf6 2.8

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: 3882ddf6
To investigate the history of plate subduction—when one of Earth’s tectonic plates slides beneath another—Sarah
M. Aarons and colleagues compared ancient rocks from the Acasta Gneiss Complex in Canada to modern rocks.
Using isotope analysis, the researchers found that Acasta rocks dating to about 4.02 billion years ago (bya) most
strongly resemble modern rocks formed in a plume setting (an area in which hot rocks from Earth’s mantle flow
upward into the crust). By contrast, they found that Acasta rocks dating to about 3.75 bya and 3.6 bya have an
isotope composition that is similar to that of modern rocks formed in a subduction setting. Aarons’s team
therefore concluded that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A. subduction-like processes began occurring in some locations no later than 3.75 bya.
B. subduction replaced mantle plume formation as the most common geological process by about 4.02 bya.
C. the majority of the rocks in the Acasta Gneiss Complex formed through subduction.
D. the rocks in the Acasta Gneiss Complex are of a more recent origin than scientists previously thought.
Question ID 350e2336 2.9

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: 350e2336
The Haitian Declaration of Independence was issued in 1804, bringing to an end the revolution against colonial
France that began in 1791. Written in French, which was not the first language of most Haitians but which was
used throughout Europe as the language of international diplomacy, the declaration notes that Haiti will not bring
rebellion to other Caribbean nations, promises to respect the sovereignty of its neighbors—widely understood as
a reassurance to the United States—and sets up Haiti as an example for future struggles against colonizers (an
implicit reference to the many colonies then found in the Americas). So even though the declaration is explicitly
addressed to the Haitian people, it’s reasonable to conclude that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A. aspects of the declaration were modeled on similar documents from other countries.
B. the French government may have been surprised by the declaration.
C. many Haitian people opposed the revolution and the declaration.
D. the declaration actually had several intended audiences.
Question ID 575e67df 2.10

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: 575e67df
By running computer simulations of the development of our solar system, André Izidoro, Rajdeep Dasgupta, and
colleagues concluded that the Sun may have been surrounded by three giant dust rings before the planets started
to form. The researchers suggest that the materials in the innermost ring became the four planets closest to the
Sun, the materials in the middle ring produced the rest of the planets, and the materials in the outermost ring
created the asteroids and other small bodies in the region beyond Neptune. In one simulation, the researchers
delayed the initial formation of the middle ring, causing oversized super-Earths to begin developing from the
innermost ring. The researchers therefore hypothesize that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A. the middle ring formed earlier in the solar system’s development than the initial simulations suggested.
B. the timing of the initial formation of the middle ring played an important role in determining the eventual size of
Earth.
C. if the formation of the outermost ring had occurred earlier in a simulation, all the planets would have become
super-Earths.
D. the innermost ring actually formed into all the planets in our solar system, not just the four closest to the Sun.
Question ID 485962a6 2.11

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: 485962a6
Astronomers investigated the Arabia Terra region of Mars because it appears to contain irregularly shaped craters
that may have been caused by massive volcanic explosions. In their investigations of Arabia Terra, the researchers
found remnants of ash deposits in an amount and thickness that would result from a massive volcanic eruption.
However, erosion and past resurfacing events could have modified the surface of the planet. Therefore, ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A. the current makeup of the Arabia Terra region might not accurately reflect the volcanic activity of Mars’s past.
B. eruptions from Mars’s volcanoes were likely not as massive as astronomers previously believed.
C. ash was most likely expelled from multiple different volcanoes on Mars’s surface.
D. the craters found in the Arabia Terra region were necessarily created by events other than volcanic eruptions.
Question ID 299c5303 2.12

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: 299c5303
As the name suggests, dramaturges originated in theater, where they continue to serve a variety of functions:
conducting historical research for directors, compiling character biographies for actors, and perhaps most
importantly, helping writers of plays and musicals to hone the works’ stories and characters. Performance scholar
Susan Manning observes that many choreographers, like playwrights and musical theater writers, are concerned
with storytelling and characterization. In fact, some choreographers describe the dances they create as
expressions of narrative through movement; it is therefore unsurprising that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A. dramaturges can have a profound impact on the artistic direction of plays and musicals.
B. choreographers developing dances with narrative elements frequently engage dramaturges to assist in
refining those elements.
C. dances by choreographers who incorporate narrative elements are more accessible to audiences than dances
by choreographers who do not.
D. some directors and actors rely too heavily on dramaturges to complete certain research tasks.
Question ID bcf2f169 2.13

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: bcf2f169
Ana Castillo’s 1986 novel The Mixquiahuala Letters is a story told entirely through expressive letters from the
narrator to her friend—letters that Castillo suggests could be read in several different orders. As they began
reading it in class, some students remarked that they found the novel’s letter format daunting and its treatment of
gender relations old-fashioned. The professor, however, pointed out that the novel is written in modern-sounding
language and addresses issues that still matter today, suggesting that The Mixquiahuala Letters ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A. has more to say about gender relations than other novels from the same period.
B. is more relevant to contemporary audiences than it may seem at first.
C. is easier to read than many contemporary novels that focus on friendship.
D. is best understood after multiple readings in different orders.
Question ID cac82f9b 2.14

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Information and Inferences

Ideas

ID: cac82f9b
Biologist Natacha Bodenhausen and colleagues analyzed the naturally occurring bacterial communities
associated with leaves and roots of wild Arabidopsis thaliana, a small flowering plant. The researchers found many
of the same bacterial genera in both the plants’ leaves and roots. To explain this, the researchers pointed to the
general proximity of A. thaliana leaves to the ground and noted that rain splashing off soil could bring soil-based
bacteria into contact with the leaves. Alternatively, the researchers noted that wind, which may be a source of
bacteria in the aboveground portion of plants, could also bring bacteria to the soil and roots. Either explanation
suggests that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A. bacteria carried by wind are typically less beneficial to A. thaliana than soil-based bacteria are.
B. some bacteria in A. thaliana leaves and roots may share a common source.
C. many bacteria in A. thaliana leaves may have been deposited by means other than rain.
D. A. thaliana leaves and roots are especially vulnerable to harmful bacteria.