Gökçe Özel, words in context 1 | digital SAT

words in context 1 (12 questions / 13 minutes)

Mineralogical differences are detectable in samples collected 1
from two locations on the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, but
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and
such differences may not indicate substantial compositional precise word or phrase?
variations in the asteroid. Cosmochemist Kazuahide
A) redundant
Nagashima and colleagues note that at the small scale of the
samples, the distribution of minerals is unlikely to be B) neglected
______. C) uniform
D) ongoing

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Biologist Jane Edgeloe and colleagues have located what is 2
believed to be the largest individual plant in the world in the
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and

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Shark Bay area of Australia. The plant is a type of seagrass precise word or phrase?
called Posidonia australis, and it ______ approximately 200
A) acknowledges
square kilometers.
B) produces
C) spans
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Some foraging models predict that the distance bees travel 3
D) advances

when foraging will decline as floral density increases, but

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and
biologists Shalene Jha and Claire Kremen showed that bees’ precise word or phrase?
behavior is inconsistent with this prediction if flowers in
A) depleted
dense patches are ______: bees will forage beyond patches
of low species richness to acquire multiple resource types. B) homogeneous
C) immature
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D) dispersed

Business researcher Melanie Brucks and colleagues found 4

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that remote video conference meetings may be less

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and
conducive to brainstorming than in-person meetings are. precise word or phrase?
The researchers suspect that video meeting participants are
A) recommend
focused on staring at the speaker on the screen and don’t
allow their eyes or mind to wander as much, which may B) criticize
ultimately ______ creativity. C) construct
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D) impede
 Gökçe Özel, words in context 1 | digital SAT

Osage Nation citizen Randy Tinker-Smith produced and 5

directed the ballet Wahzhazhe, which vividly chronicles
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and
Osage history and culture. Telling Osage stories through precise word or phrase?
ballet is ______ choice because two of the foremost ballet
A) an unpredictable
dancers of the twentieth century were Osage: sisters Maria
and Marjorie Tallchief. B) an arbitrary
C) a determined
D) a suitable

The following text is adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 6

1837 story “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment.” The main

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As used in the text, what does the phrase “a singular” most
character, a physician, is experimenting with rehydrating a nearly mean?

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dried flower.
A) a lonely
At first [the rose] lay lightly on the surface of the fluid,
B) an extraordinary
appearing to imbibe none of its moisture. Soon, however, a
singular change began to be visible. The crushed and dried C) an acceptable
petals stirred and assumed a deepening tinge of crimson, as if D) a disagreeable
the flower were reviving from a deathlike slumber.
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The following text is from Booth Tarkington’s 1921 novel 7
Alice Adams.
As used in the text, what does the word “marked” most
Mrs. Adams had always been fond of vases, she said, and nearly mean?
every year her husband’s Christmas present to her was a vase A) stained
of one sort or another—whatever the clerk showed him,
B) staged
marked at about twelve or fourteen dollars.
C) watched
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D) priced

Visual artist Gabriela Alemán states that the bold colors of 8

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comics, pop art, and Latinx culture have always fascinated

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and
her. This passion for the rich history and colors of her Latinx precise word or phrase?
community translates into the ______ artworks she
A) unknown
produces.
B) reserved
C) definite
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D) vivid
 Gökçe Özel, words in context 1 | digital SAT

The following text is adapted from Zora Neale Hurston’s 9

1921 short story “John Redding Goes to Sea.” John wants to
As used in the text, what does the phrase “to reconcile his
travel far beyond the village where he lives near his mother, mother to” most nearly mean?
Matty.
A) get his mother to accept
[John] had on several occasions attempted to reconcile his
B) get his mother to apologize for
mother to the notion, but found it a difficult task. Matty
always took refuge in self-pity and tears. Her son’s desires C) get his mother to match
were incomprehensible to her, that was all. D) get his mother to reunite with

Stephen Hannock’s luminous landscape paintings are 10

appealing to viewers but have elicited little commentary

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Which choice completes the text with the most logical and
from contemporary critics, a phenomenon that may be due precise word or phrase?

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to the very fact that the paintings seem so ______. Many
A) innovative
critics focus their attention on art that is cryptic or overtly
challenging. B) accessible
C) profound
D) subversive
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US traffic signals didn’t always contain the familiar three 11
lights (red, yellow, and green). Traffic lights only ______
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and
red and green lights until the three-light traffic signal was precise word or phrase?
developed in 1923.
A) avoided
B) featured
C) appreciated
D) disregarded
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Economist Marco Castillo and colleagues showed that 12
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nuisance costs—the time and effort people must spend to

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and
make donations—reduce charitable giving. Charities can precise word or phrase?
mitigate this effect by compensating donors for nuisance
A) predictive of
costs, but those costs, though variable, are largely ______
donation size, so charities that compensate donors will likely B) subsumed in
favor attracting a few large donors over many small donors. C) independent of
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D) supplemental to
 Gökçe Özel, words in context 2 | digital SAT

words in context 2 (12 questions / 13 minutes)

The Appalachian Trail is a hiking path in the eastern United 1
States. Much of the 2,000 mile trail passes through Which choice completes the text with the most logical
wilderness areas. In order to ______ those areas, the United and precise word or phrase?

States Congress passed the National Trails System Act in A) protect

1968, ensuring that the trail would not be sold or B) borrow

commercially developed. C) postpone
D) decorate

In the mid-nineteenth century, some abolitionist newspapers 2

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______ westward migration in the United States; by Which choice completes the text with the most logical

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printing a letter that described the easy fortunes and high and precise word or phrase?

salaries miners could make in California during the Gold A) stimulated

Rush, Frederick Douglass’s newspaper North Star was one B) opposed

such publication that inspired readers to relocate. C) disregarded
D) assigned

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While scholars believe many Mesoamerican cities
influenced each other, direct evidence of such influence is
difficult to ascertain. However, recent excavations in a
3
Which choice completes the text with the most logical
and precise word or phrase?
A) refinements of
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sector of Tikal (Guatemala) unearthed a citadel that shows
______ Teotihuacan (Mexico) architecture—including a B) precursors of
near replica of a famed Teotihuacan temple—providing C) commonalities with
tangible evidence of outside influence in portions of Tikal. D) animosities towards
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Scientists previously thought that all electric eels belong to 4

a single species, but a team of researchers led by zoologist Which choice completes the text with the most logical
C. David de Santana proved this idea wrong by ______ that and precise word or phrase?

there are in fact three distinct species of electric eels. A) requiring

B) demonstrating
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C) complaining
D) pretending

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 Gökçe Özel, words in context 2 | digital SAT

The following text is adapted from Agatha Christie’s 1923 5

novel The Big Four. The narrator is speaking with Hercule As used in the text, what does the word “reproachfully”
Poirot, a notoriously stubborn detective. most nearly mean?
A) disapprovingly

“Don’t go,” I urged. “Cancel your passage and come out on B) indifferently
the same boat with me.” C) dully
Poirot drew himself up and glanced at me reproachfully. D) compassionately
“Ah, it is that you do not understand! I have passed my
word, you comprehend—the word of Hercule Poirot.
Nothing but a matter of life or death could detain me now.”

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“And that’s not likely to occur,” I murmured ruefully.

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In the early 20th century, Constantin Brancusi’s sculpture 6
Bird in Space sparked considerable debate about the Which choice completes the text with the most logical
definition of art. Tax authorities argued in court that the and precise word or phrase?

abstract sculpture, which featured a long, sleek form A) rigid

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without any identifiable features, should not be classified as
art. Brancusi ultimately won the case, but the legal battle
highlighted the ______ dividing line between “art” and
“manufactured object”.
B)
C)
D)
unanimous
tenuous
straightforward
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The Iguazu Falls, which lie on the border between 7
Argentina and Brazil, are a popular and ______ tourist Which choice completes the text with the most logical
destination. The waterfalls have been visited by people and precise word or phrase?

from all over the world for over a century, and they are A) fleeting

often cited as one of the most impressive natural wonders B) revered

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on Earth. C) obscure
D) precarious

Rejecting the premise that the literary magazine Ebony and 8

G

Topaz (1927) should present a unified vision of Black Which choice completes the text with the most logical
American identity, editor Charles S. Johnson fostered his and precise word or phrase?

contributors’ diverse perspectives by promoting their A) ambiguous

authorial autonomy. Johnson’s self-effacement diverged B) dogmatic

from the editorial stances of W.E.B. Du Bois and Alain C) proficient
Locke, whose decisions for their publications were more D) unpretentious
______.

2
 Gökçe Özel, words in context 2 | digital SAT

Dance choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar aims to give 9

people the opportunity to be ______ her creative process. Which choice completes the text with the most logical
For example, live performances of her dance HairStories, and precise word or phrase?

which debuted in 2001, featured videos of people across the A) involved in

United States talking about their hair and audience B) nervous about
members sharing pictures of their interesting hairstyles. C) delayed by
D) completed by

A journalist and well-respected art critic of nineteenth- 10

century Britain, Lady Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake did not Which choice completes the text with the most logical

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hesitate to publish reviews that went against popular and precise word or phrase?

opinion. One of her most divisive works was an essay A) discovered

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questioning the idea of photography as an emerging B) doubted
medium for fine art: in the essay, Eastlake ______ that the C) exposed
value of photographs was informational rather than creative. D) asserted

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Investigating whether shared false visual memories—
specific but inaccurate and widely held recollections of
images such as product logos—are caused by people’s
previous ______ incorrect renditions of the images,
researchers Deepasri Prasad and Wilma Bainbridge found
11
Which choice completes the text with the most logical
and precise word or phrase?
A)
B)
criteria for
forfeiture of
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that, in fact, such memories are often not explained by C) compliance with
familiarity with erroneous versions of the images. D) exposure to

A recent study by a group of neurologists aims to ______ 12

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the long-term effects of concussions. By tracking the health Which choice completes the text with the most logical
and cognitive functioning of participants over time, the and precise word or phrase?

study can help us better understand the risks associated with A) obscure

head injuries. B) clarify

C) minimize
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D) exacerbate