PSAT/NMSQT Practice Tests

Question 1

A sourdough starter is a living culture of wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria that feed on flour. Because the microbes steadily consume the sugars available to them, a baker must add fresh flour and water every day or so. If a starter is left unfed for too long, its microbial activity _____, and bread made from it rises poorly.

1. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase? (A) intensifies (B) declines (C) varies (D) begins

Question 2

When the Erie Canal opened in 1825, it linked the Hudson River to Lake Erie and gave farmers in the Great Lakes region a water route to New York City. The canal’s effect on shipping costs was _____: according to commonly cited estimates, the cost of moving a ton of freight between Buffalo and New York City fell from about $100 to about $10.

1. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase? (A) modest (B) uncertain (C) gradual (D) dramatic

Question 3

Textile historian Ruth Calloway argues that nineteenth-century map quilts, in which quilters stitched the outlines of counties, rivers, and roads onto fabric, should not be dismissed as _____ objects. Calloway notes that many of the quilts record footpaths, mill sites, and family farms that appear on no published map of the period, suggesting that their makers drew on local knowledge rather than on commercial atlases.

1. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase? (A) derivative (B) utilitarian (C) extravagant (D) collaborative

Question 4

Measurements made by the Cassini spacecraft led some planetary scientists to conclude that Saturn’s rings are much younger than the planet itself and that ring particles are steadily falling into Saturn’s atmosphere. If this interpretation is correct, the rings are a _____ feature of the solar system: they formed relatively recently and may largely disappear within a few hundred million years.

1. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase? (A) symmetrical (B) luminous (C) transient (D) dormant

Question 5

When beavers build a dam across a stream, the water behind it spreads into a pond and floods the surrounding low ground. The slow-moving water allows sediment to settle and seeps into the soil, raising the local water table. Over time, the flooded area becomes a wetland that supports frogs, ducks, dragonflies, and many plants that could not survive along the original fast-flowing stream.

1. Which choice best states the main purpose of the text? (A) To explain how beaver dams can transform a stream into habitat for other species (B) To describe the materials that beavers use to construct their dams (C) To argue that beavers should be returned to streams where they have disappeared (D) To compare the wildlife of fast-flowing streams with that of large lakes

Question 6

People unfamiliar with braille often picture a reader moving a single fingertip along each line of raised dots. Observations of experienced readers suggest a more complex picture. In a study led by psychologist Carla Voss, many fluent readers used both hands at once: while the right index finger finished one line, the left moved down to find the start of the next, and on some lines the two hands read different parts of the text at the same time. Voss concluded that fluent braille reading is better described as a coordinated two-handed skill than as a simple tracing motion.

1. Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text? (A) It traces the history of braille and then explains why the system is still used today. (B) It describes a common assumption about braille reading and then presents research findings that complicate that assumption. (C) It compares two methods of teaching braille and then recommends one of them. (D) It presents a researcher’s hypothesis and then describes evidence that contradicts that hypothesis.

Question 7

Between roughly 300 BCE and 350 CE, rulers of the Kingdom of Kush were buried beneath pyramids at Meroë, in what is now Sudan, where some two hundred pyramids still stand. Compared with the pyramids of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, built some two thousand years earlier, the Meroitic pyramids are small, and their sides rise at much steeper angles. Yet these differences are not evidence of failed imitation. Kushite builders adapted an older form to their own purposes, pairing each narrow pyramid with a decorated chapel for offerings and building at a scale suited to a long succession of royal burials.

1. Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole? (A) It introduces a second comparison between Kushite and Egyptian burial practices. (B) It identifies a flaw in the method scholars have used to date the pyramids at Meroë. (C) It summarizes the evidence that Kushite builders closely copied Egyptian designs. (D) It rejects a conclusion that the preceding comparison might seem to support.

Question 8

New Caledonian crows shape hooked tools from twigs and cut stepped tools from the stiff edges of pandanus leaves. Because tool designs differ from one part of the island to another, and because young crows spend long periods near adults while the adults work, biologist Martin Hale argues that the crows’ toolmaking is a cultural tradition acquired chiefly by observing experienced birds.

In an experiment led by zoologist Hannah Chandler, young New Caledonian crows raised by humans, with no opportunity to watch adult crows, nevertheless began probing crevices with twigs and shaping simple tools on their own. The birds’ tools were cruder than those made by wild adults, suggesting that practice—and perhaps social exposure—refines an ability that does not depend on either to emerge.

1. Based on the texts, how would Chandler most likely respond to Hale’s argument? (A) She would agree that regional differences in tool design show that the crows’ toolmaking is entirely inherited. (B) She would contend that young crows learn to make tools more quickly by watching adults than by practicing alone. (C) She would argue that observing adults cannot be the main source of the crows’ basic toolmaking ability, though social experience may help refine it. (D) She would claim that tools made by crows raised by humans are as effective as those made by wild adult crows.

Question 9

Singing in a choir demands unusually controlled breathing: singers take quick, deep breaths between phrases and then release air slowly and steadily while producing sound. In a study led by physiologist Owen Barrett, members of amateur choirs were monitored during rehearsals. As a piece progressed, the singers’ breathing patterns—and, to a lesser degree, their heart rates—tended to become synchronized with one another. Barrett attributes this coordination to the music itself: because a piece’s phrases tell everyone where to breathe, the singers inhale and exhale together without any deliberate effort to match one another.

1. Which choice best states the main idea of the text? (A) Because the structure of a piece tells choir members when to breathe, their breathing, and to some extent their heart rates, become coordinated without deliberate effort. (B) Amateur choir singers develop stronger breath control than professional singers do because they rehearse together more often. (C) Barrett found that choir members consciously match their breathing to that of the singers standing nearest to them. (D) Singing in a choir lowers singers’ heart rates more than singing alone does, according to Barrett’s study.

Question 10

The following text is from an original poem written for this practice test. The speaker describes returning to the town where she grew up.

The river still bends where it bent before,
the bakery still opens its door at six,
but the faces behind the counter are new,
and no one there remembers my name.
I walk the old streets like a guest
in a house I once helped to build.

1. Which choice best states the main idea of the text? (A) The speaker is relieved that her hometown has become more modern since she left. (B) The speaker finds that the town’s familiar places remain but that she now feels like an outsider there. (C) The speaker regrets that the river and the bakery have changed beyond recognition. (D) The speaker decides to settle permanently in her hometown after years away.

Question 11

Honeybees cannot perceive red light, yet they readily visit some flowers that look bright red to humans, such as certain wild poppies. Biologist Irene Walsh hypothesizes that these flowers attract bees not through their red color but because their petals also reflect ultraviolet light, which bees can see and humans cannot. According to Walsh, this ultraviolet reflection makes the petals stand out against green foliage for a bee even though the red wavelengths are invisible to it.

1. Which finding, if true, would most directly support Walsh’s hypothesis? (A) Bees visited the red poppies more often in the morning than in the afternoon. (B) Red flowers that do not reflect ultraviolet light are frequently visited by hummingbirds, which can see red. (C) Bees trained to associate a sugar reward with blue learned the association faster than bees trained with yellow. (D) When the ultraviolet reflection of red poppy petals was blocked by a coating that did not change the petals’ appearance to humans, bees visited the flowers far less often.

Question 12

Engineers designing solar panels for spacecraft face a basic problem: the panels must be large enough to collect plenty of sunlight but compact enough to fit inside a rocket. One solution borrows from origami. In a folding pattern developed by Japanese astrophysicist Koryo Miura, a flat sheet is creased into a grid of parallelograms. Engineer Dana Whitfield claims that the Miura fold is well suited to space missions because a sheet folded this way can be opened in a single smooth motion simply by pulling two of its opposite corners apart.

1. Which finding, if true, would most directly support Whitfield’s claim? (A) The Miura fold has also been used to fold paper road maps for travelers. (B) Origami has been practiced as an art form in Japan for many centuries. (C) In tests, Miura-folded panels opened completely when a single motor pulled their opposite corners apart. (D) Solar panels on spacecraft generate the most electricity when they face the Sun directly.

Question 13

Vernal pools are shallow depressions that fill with water in spring and usually dry out by late summer. Because fish cannot survive the drying, the pools are relatively safe breeding sites for amphibians such as wood frogs. Ecologist Samuel Price counted wood frog egg masses in four pools and recorded how many weeks each pool held water. He found that the number of egg masses did not simply increase with the length of time a pool held water: _____

1. Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement? (A) Pool A held water for 9 weeks and contained 42 egg masses. (B) Pool B, which held water for 14 weeks, contained 118 egg masses, whereas Pool D, which held water for 22 weeks, contained only 31. (C) Pool C held water for 17 weeks, which was longer than Pool B held water. (D) Pool B contained more egg masses than Pool A did, and Pool A held water for fewer weeks than Pool B did.

Question 14

Kea, parrots native to the mountains of New Zealand, are known for their curiosity. To test whether kea learn by watching one another, researcher Fiona Grady gave birds a puzzle box that opened only if a lever was pushed and a peg was then pulled. Before trying the box, some birds watched a trained kea open it, some watched only the lever step, and some saw no demonstration. Grady concluded that watching a demonstration helped the birds but could not fully explain their success, since _____

1. Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to complete the statement? (A) birds that watched the full demonstration were more than twice as likely to open the box as birds that saw no demonstration. (B) birds that watched only the lever step opened the box less often than birds that saw no demonstration did. (C) 30% of the birds that saw no demonstration still opened the box within 10 minutes. (D) 45% of the birds that watched only the lever step opened the box, compared with 75% of the birds that watched the full demonstration.

Question 15

The Ishango bone, a baboon fibula found in the mid-twentieth century near Lake Edward in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is more than 20,000 years old and bears groups of notches arranged in three columns. Some researchers have proposed that the notches show knowledge of prime numbers, because the groups in one column contain 11, 13, 17, and 19 notches—the prime numbers between 10 and 20. Others point out that notched bones were commonly used as simple tallies and that any small set of numbers is fairly likely to match some mathematical pattern by chance. Taken together, these points suggest that _____

1. Which choice most logically completes the text? (A) the notches on the Ishango bone were probably made by several people over many generations. (B) the pattern of notches alone is not sufficient to establish that the bone’s makers understood prime numbers. (C) the Ishango bone was more likely used as a handle for a tool than as a counting device. (D) the age of the Ishango bone should be measured again using newer dating methods.

Question 16

Pitcher plants often grow in bogs and other places where the soil contains little nitrogen. To obtain this nutrient, the plants trap insects in their deep, cup-shaped _____ digestive fluids at the bottom of each leaf then break the insects down so that the plant can absorb their nutrients.

1. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English? (A) leaves (B) leaves, (C) leaves; (D) leaves, which

Question 17

Portolan charts, the nautical maps produced in Mediterranean ports from the late thirteenth century onward, are crisscrossed by straight lines that radiate from compass roses drawn across the sea. These lines, known as _____ helped sailors choose and hold a steady course between harbors.

1. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English? (A) rhumb lines, (B) rhumb lines; (C) rhumb lines (D) rhumb lines—

Question 18

In Tuvan throat singing, a single performer produces two or more pitches at once. While holding a low, steady drone, the performer reshapes the mouth and throat, and the _____ movements strengthen particular overtones so that a whistle-like melody seems to float above the drone.

1. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English? (A) singer’s precise (B) singers’ precise (C) singers precise (D) singers’s precise

Question 19

In 1928, Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming noticed that a mold contaminating one of his bacterial cultures had killed the bacteria around it. He named the substance produced by the mold penicillin and published his observations the following year. Fleming was unable, _____ to purify penicillin in quantities large enough for medical use. That achievement came about a decade later, when a team at the University of Oxford led by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain developed methods to isolate and produce the drug.

1. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English? (A) however; (B) however (C) however, (D) however—

Question 20

Unlike most planets in the solar system, Uranus rotates on its side. Its axis of rotation _____ tilted about 98 degrees relative to the plane of its orbit, so each of its poles spends decades in continuous sunlight and then decades in darkness.

1. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English? (A) are (B) were (C) have been (D) is

Question 21

Kimchi, the fermented vegetable dish central to Korean cooking, changes flavor as it ages. In the first days after it is prepared, bacteria of the genus Leuconostoc dominate, giving the dish a mild, slightly fizzy taste. As acidity rises, however, these bacteria give way to more acid-tolerant species of Lactobacillus, whose steady activity _____ the sharp, sour flavor of well-aged kimchi.

1. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English? (A) produce (B) have produced (C) are producing (D) produces

Question 22

Audio description, a narration track that allows blind and low-vision audiences to follow the visual action of a film, is harder to write than it might appear. Describers must fit their words into brief pauses in the dialogue, and each of the details they might mention—a character’s glance, a change of setting, a sign in the background—_____ to be weighed against everything else happening on screen.

1. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English? (A) have (B) has (C) are having (D) were

Question 23

Kirigami is a variation of origami in which paper is cut as well as folded. Engineers have found that cutting a pattern of short slits into a thin sheet of material lets the sheet stretch far beyond its normal limits without tearing. _____ researchers are using kirigami-inspired designs to build flexible electronic devices, such as sensors that stretch along with the skin.

1. Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition? (A) For this reason, (B) Nevertheless, (C) By contrast, (D) Previously,

Question 24

The Baikal seal is one of very few seal species that live only in fresh water. Its home, Lake Baikal in Siberia, lies far from any ocean. Because the seal is closely related to the ringed seal of the Arctic, many scientists think that the Baikal seal’s ancestors reached the lake from the Arctic Ocean, probably by traveling up rivers. _____ no one knows exactly when this journey took place, and estimates vary widely.

1. Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition? (A) Therefore, (B) However, (C) For instance, (D) Likewise,

Question 25

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

• Robert Stirling was a Scottish minister and inventor.
• In 1816, he patented a type of engine now known as the Stirling engine.
• A Stirling engine runs on heat supplied from outside the engine, such as from burning fuel or from sunlight.
• Inside the engine, a sealed gas is repeatedly heated and cooled.
• As the gas expands and contracts, it pushes a piston, producing motion.
• Stirling engines are quieter than many other types of engines.

1. The student wants to explain how a Stirling engine produces motion. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal? (A) A Stirling engine is named for Robert Stirling, who patented it in 1816. (B) A Stirling engine can run on heat from burning fuel or from sunlight. (C) A Stirling engine is quieter than many other types of engines. (D) A Stirling engine produces motion as a sealed gas inside it is repeatedly heated and cooled.

Question 26

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

• Mary Anning (1799–1847) was a fossil collector in Lyme Regis, England.
• She searched the cliffs along the coast, where storms and landslides exposed fossils.
• In 1811 and 1812, she and her brother Joseph uncovered an ichthyosaur skeleton that drew the attention of scientists.
• In 1823, she discovered the first complete plesiosaur skeleton.
• Her finds helped scientists understand that many species had lived long ago and had since become extinct.

1. The student wants to present Anning’s 1823 discovery to an audience unfamiliar with Anning. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal? (A) In 1823, Anning discovered the first complete plesiosaur skeleton. (B) Mary Anning, a fossil collector from Lyme Regis, England, discovered the first complete plesiosaur skeleton in 1823. (C) Mary Anning searched the cliffs along the coast of Lyme Regis, England, where storms and landslides exposed fossils. (D) In 1811 and 1812, Mary Anning, a fossil collector, uncovered an ichthyosaur skeleton with her brother Joseph.

Question 27

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

• Cahokia was a city built by people of the Mississippian culture in what is now Illinois, near present-day St. Louis, Missouri.
• At its height, around 1100 CE, Cahokia may have been home to 10,000 to 20,000 people.
• Its largest earthwork, Monks Mound, rises about 30 meters.
• The mound’s base covers roughly the same area as the base of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
• The mound was built entirely of earth, which workers carried in baskets.
• Cahokia was largely abandoned by about 1350 CE.

1. The student wants to emphasize the scale of the effort required to build Monks Mound. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal? (A) Monks Mound, the largest earthwork at Cahokia, was built by people of the Mississippian culture in what is now Illinois. (B) At its height, around 1100 CE, Cahokia may have been home to 10,000 to 20,000 people, though the city was largely abandoned by about 1350 CE. (C) Built entirely of earth carried in baskets, Monks Mound rises about 30 meters and has a base covering roughly the same area as that of the Great Pyramid of Giza. (D) Cahokia, located near present-day St. Louis, Missouri, contained Monks Mound as well as many smaller earthworks.

Question 1

Because the Sun’s interior cannot be observed directly, helioseismologists study the vibrations that ripple across its surface, much as geologists use earthquake waves to probe Earth’s interior. Their analyses of these vibrations have been anything but _____: the measurements have allowed researchers to determine, with considerable confidence, how fast different layers of the Sun rotate, down to depths far below the visible surface.

1. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase? (A) equivocal (B) exhaustive (C) innovative (D) conspicuous

Question 2

The following text is from an original short story written for this practice test. Marguerite, a retired astronomer, is showing her grandnephew Theo a telescope she built decades earlier.

When Theo asked whether the old telescope was valuable, Marguerite gave a _____ smile. “Valuable? It’s crooked, it wobbles, and the eyepiece fogs up if you so much as breathe near it,” she said, patting the brass tube as fondly as she might pat an old dog. “It’s the most valuable thing I own.”

1. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase? (A) vacant (B) servile (C) wry (D) indignant

Question 3

The nineteenth-century American landscape painters known as the Hudson River School, including Thomas Cole, are sometimes thought of as recording the scenery of New York’s Catskill Mountains exactly as they found it. In fact, the painters often _____ the views they depicted, combining features from separate sketches into a single scene and leaving out mills, stumps, and other signs of human activity.

1. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase? (A) documented (B) idealized (C) abandoned (D) replicated

Question 4

Zebra mussels, which were first detected in North America’s Great Lakes in the late 1980s, filter enormous volumes of water as they feed, and in some lakes their filtering has made the water strikingly clear. Because few native animals eat the mussels in numbers large enough to control them, however, little in the lakes checks the mussels’ spread, and dense colonies now coat water-intake pipes, boat hulls, and even the shells of native clams.

1. As used in the text, what does the word “checks” most nearly mean? (A) examines (B) marks (C) verifies (D) restrains

Question 5

Around 1470 BCE, the Egyptian ruler Hatshepsut sent a trading expedition to Punt, a land somewhere along the southern Red Sea coast whose exact location scholars still debate. Reliefs carved on the walls of her temple at Deir el-Bahri depict the voyage in detail: ships loaded with incense trees in baskets, ebony, and animals such as baboons, along with the houses of Punt raised on stilts. For historians, these carvings are valuable not only as a record of the expedition but also as rare visual evidence of how Egyptians saw a distant society.

1. Which choice best states the main purpose of the text? (A) To argue that Punt was located much farther south than scholars once believed (B) To describe how Hatshepsut’s temple at Deir el-Bahri was constructed (C) To explain why carvings depicting an Egyptian trade expedition are valuable to historians (D) To compare the ships used by Egyptian traders with those used by traders from Punt

Question 6

The following text is from an original short story written for this practice test. Nora is translating letters written by her late grandmother.

For weeks Nora had translated her grandmother’s letters word by word, checking every phrase in the dictionary until each sentence was accurate and lifeless. Then, one evening, she read a letter aloud instead of silently. She heard the jokes her grandmother had tucked between the lines, the way a sentence sped up when she was excited, the pauses where she had clearly stopped to think. Nora pushed the dictionary aside and began again, this time listening for the voice before she wrote a single word.

1. Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text? (A) It describes a character’s approach to a task, presents an experience that changes her understanding of the task, and then shows her adopting a new approach. (B) It presents a disagreement between two characters about a task and then shows how the disagreement is resolved. (C) It recounts a character’s memories of a relative and then explains why the character decides to stop working on a task. (D) It describes a task in detail and then reveals that the character has been unable to complete it.

Question 7

Many bacteria release small signaling molecules into their surroundings and can sense how concentrated those molecules have become. When only a few cells are present, the signal remains faint; as the population grows, the concentration rises until it crosses a threshold, and the bacteria switch on particular genes in unison. This process, called quorum sensing, allows some disease-causing bacteria to hold back the production of toxins until their numbers are large. A few cells releasing toxins early would likely alert the host’s immune system before the bacteria were numerous enough to withstand its response. Researchers are now testing compounds that block quorum-sensing signals, which could disarm such bacteria without killing them.

1. Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole? (A) It describes an exception to the general process of quorum sensing outlined earlier in the text. (B) It explains why the behavior described in the previous sentence benefits the bacteria. (C) It presents the results of an experiment testing compounds that block quorum-sensing signals. (D) It identifies a drawback of the research approach mentioned in the final sentence.

Question 8

Anastylosis, the reassembly of a ruined monument from its own fallen pieces, has been carried out at ancient sites around the world. Conservator Laura Pembroke defends the practice when enough original material survives. Reassembling the stones, she argues, lets visitors grasp a building’s form in a way that a field of scattered blocks cannot, and any new material that is needed can be made clearly distinguishable from the old.

Architectural historian Simon Ware warns that reassembly is rarely as faithful as it appears. Fallen blocks are often damaged or displaced, and deciding where each one belongs requires assumptions; once a monument is rebuilt, those assumptions are fixed in stone and become difficult for later scholars to question. Moreover, the way a monument collapsed, which can reveal how it was built, is itself erased by reassembly.

1. Based on the texts, how would Ware most likely respond to Pembroke’s argument that reassembly lets visitors grasp a building’s form? (A) He would agree, provided that any new material used in the reassembly is clearly distinguishable from the original stones. (B) He would argue that most visitors to ancient sites are more interested in a monument’s history than in its form. (C) He would maintain that reassembly is acceptable only when every fallen block is found undamaged. (D) He would caution that the form visitors see may partly reflect restorers’ assumptions rather than the original building.

Question 9

The following text is from an original poem written for this practice test. The speaker is crossing a harbor on a late-night ferry.

The city lights slide backward on the water,
each one unspooling into a thread of gold.
Behind me, the day’s arguments, the unanswered letters;
ahead, only the dark shape of the island.
For twenty minutes nothing can reach me—
not the telephone, not the clock, not my own worry,
which waits, I know, on the far pier, holding my coat.

1. Which choice best states the main idea of the text? (A) The speaker regrets leaving the city and wishes the ferry would turn back. (B) The speaker is anxious about arriving at an island she has never visited. (C) The crossing gives the speaker a brief escape from concerns that she knows will return when the trip ends. (D) The speaker resolves to leave her worries behind permanently once she reaches the island.

Question 10

Fairy circles are bare, roughly circular patches of ground, often several meters across, each ringed by taller grass. They occur by the thousands in the dry grasslands at the edge of the Namib Desert in southwestern Africa. Scientists have long disagreed about what causes them. Some argue that sand termites eat the roots of grasses, killing the plants and leaving bare patches. Others propose that the grasses create the pattern themselves: in such a dry place, plants compete so fiercely for scarce water that they grow in rings around bare areas, which channel rainwater toward them.

1. Which choice best states the main idea of the text? (A) Scientists disagree about what causes fairy circles, with some pointing to termites and others to competition among grasses for water. (B) Fairy circles are found only in the Namib Desert and nowhere else in the world. (C) Sand termites have been proven to be the cause of fairy circles in the Namib Desert. (D) Grasses in the Namib Desert grow best in areas where termites are absent.

Question 11

Everyday English words such as “sky,” “egg,” “window,” and even the pronoun “they” come from Old Norse, the language of Scandinavian settlers in England during the Viking Age. Linguist Paul Denholm argues that such basic vocabulary was borrowed because English and Norse speakers lived side by side and intermarried, so that Norse words entered English chiefly through daily conversation in homes and villages rather than through trade.

1. Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken Denholm’s argument? (A) Old English and Old Norse shared many similar words because the two languages had a common ancestor. (B) Norse-derived words for household objects appear earliest in English texts from regions where Scandinavians settled in large numbers. (C) Modern Scandinavian languages have borrowed many words from modern English. (D) Most Norse-derived words in English first appeared in records of commercial transactions and were used mainly by merchants before spreading into general use.

Question 12

Desert locusts usually live as solitary insects that avoid one another. When crowded together, however, they can change within hours into a gregarious form that seeks out other locusts, a shift that can eventually lead to enormous swarms. Entomologist Grace Tallis hypothesizes that the change is triggered by repeated touching of the hairs on the locusts’ hind legs, which happens frequently when many locusts are packed closely together.

1. Which finding, if true, would most directly support Tallis’s hypothesis? (A) Gregarious locusts are more brightly colored than solitary locusts of the same species. (B) Solitary locusts housed alone became gregarious after the hairs on their hind legs were repeatedly brushed with a fine paintbrush. (C) Solitary locusts kept in crowded cages became gregarious even when the hairs on their hind legs were covered so that they could not be touched. (D) Locust swarms form most often after heavy rains produce abundant vegetation.

Question 13

Saharan silver ants forage for food on desert sand during the hottest part of the day, when surface temperatures can approach the limit that the ants themselves can survive. Entomologist Neil Carver hypothesizes that this risky schedule helps the ants avoid predatory lizards, which retreat to shelter when the sand becomes very hot. To test this idea, Carver recorded sand temperature, foraging ants, and active lizards at one site over a single day.

1. Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to support Carver’s hypothesis? (A) At 12:00, 61 ants were foraging, and the sand temperature was 52°C. (B) More lizards were observed at 10:00 than at 16:00. (C) The number of foraging ants was highest at 13:00, when the sand was hottest and no lizards were observed, and lowest at 10:00, when the most lizards were observed. (D) The sand temperature at 14:00 was 54°C, 3 degrees lower than the temperature at 13:00.

Question 14

Fallen leaves are a major source of energy for stream ecosystems, and how quickly they break down affects the organisms that feed on them. Ecologist Maria Lund placed mesh bags of alder leaves in three streams with different average water temperatures and measured the percentage of each bag’s original leaf mass that remained over eight weeks. Lund claims that warmer water speeds decomposition most noticeably in the first weeks, after which the difference between warm and cold streams narrows.

1. Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to support Lund’s claim? (A) In all three streams, the percentage of leaf mass remaining decreased steadily from week 0 to week 8. (B) At week 2, bags in the warm stream retained 66% of their leaf mass and bags in the cold stream retained 88%, whereas at week 8 the figures were 35% and 47%, respectively. (C) At week 8, bags in the moderate stream retained 40% of their leaf mass, which was more than bags in the warm stream retained. (D) At week 4, bags in the cold stream retained 74% of their leaf mass, while bags in the warm stream retained 48%.

Question 15

The Antikythera mechanism, a corroded bronze device recovered in 1901 from a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, dates to roughly the second or first century BCE. Imaging has revealed about thirty interlocking gear wheels, and inscriptions on the device explain how it displayed the positions of the Sun and Moon and predicted eclipses. No other geared device of comparable complexity survives from the ancient world; mechanisms of similar intricacy are not known again until the astronomical clocks of medieval Europe, more than a thousand years later. Because so sophisticated an instrument is unlikely to have been the very first of its kind, many historians conclude that _____

1. Which choice most logically completes the text? (A) the mechanism was probably built in medieval Europe and later lost at sea near Antikythera. (B) ancient astronomers could not have predicted eclipses without devices like the mechanism. (C) the gear wheels were probably added to the device by later owners seeking to improve it. (D) the mechanism was probably made within a tradition of skilled instrument-making whose other products have not survived.

Question 16

When an ambulance speeds past, the pitch of its siren seems to drop suddenly. This change, known as the Doppler effect, occurs because sound waves from an approaching source are squeezed _____ from a source moving away are stretched out.

1. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English? (A) together, those (B) together, while those (C) together those (D) together. While those

Question 17

The Rosetta Stone, found in 1799 near the town of Rashid (Rosetta) in Egypt, records the same decree in three _____ hieroglyphic, Demotic, and ancient Greek. Because scholars could already read Greek, the stone gave them a key for deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.

1. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English? (A) scripts: (B) scripts; (C) scripts, and (D) scripts. These

Question 18

Because a tree typically adds one growth ring each year, forming wide rings in favorable years and narrow ones in harsh years, overlapping ring sequences from living trees, old timbers, and preserved logs can be matched to build chronologies thousands of years long. Archaeologists use such chronologies to date wooden structures with remarkable _____ a roof beam whose ring pattern matches a known sequence can be dated to the exact year its tree was cut, provided that the beam’s outermost ring has survived.

1. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English? (A) precision, (B) precision (C) precision, which (D) precision:

Question 19

In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won the competition to design New York City’s Central Park. One unusual feature of their plan—four sunken roadways that carried cross-town traffic below the level of the park’s _____ allowed people to stroll through the park without having to cross streams of carriages.

1. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English? (A) paths, (B) paths; (C) paths— (D) paths

Question 20

The slime mold Physarum polycephalum has no brain or nervous system. Yet when researchers placed oat flakes in a pattern matching the locations of cities around Tokyo and let the mold spread among them, the mold _____ a network of tubes connecting the food sources that closely resembled the region’s actual rail system.

1. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English? (A) grow (B) growing (C) to grow (D) grew

Question 21

The Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England in 1066, is not technically a tapestry at all: its scenes _____ into the fabric on a loom but embroidered in wool yarn on a strip of linen nearly 70 meters long.

1. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English? (A) were not woven (B) did not weave (C) are not weaving (D) have not been weaving

Question 22

Periodical cicadas spend 13 or 17 years underground as nymphs, feeding on sap from tree roots. Then, in a single spring, the nymphs of a brood tunnel to the surface and transform into adults. Emerging by the millions within a few days of one another, _____ Because predators cannot possibly eat them all, most of the cicadas survive long enough to mate.

1. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English? (A) the birds and other animals that feed on the cicadas are overwhelmed. (B) the cicadas overwhelm the birds and other animals that feed on them. (C) the ability of birds and other animals to feed on the cicadas is overwhelmed. (D) there are too many cicadas for the birds and other animals that feed on them.

Question 23

In 1816, French physician René Laennec rolled a sheet of paper into a tube to listen to a patient’s heart and found that the sounds were clearer than when he pressed his ear directly to the chest. He soon replaced the paper with a wooden cylinder, the first stethoscope. Laennec’s greater achievement, however, lay in how he used it: for years he carefully compared the sounds he heard in patients’ chests with the conditions of their hearts and lungs that were later confirmed. _____ he turned a simple listening tube into a diagnostic tool, allowing physicians to link particular sounds to specific diseases.

1. Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition? (A) By contrast, (B) Nonetheless, (C) In this way, (D) For example,

Question 24

Geckos can run up glass walls and hang upside down from ceilings. Their grip comes not from suction or glue but from millions of microscopic hairs on their toes, each of which splits into hundreds of even finer tips. These tips come so close to a surface that weak attractive forces between molecules hold the foot in place. Each individual attraction is extremely weak. _____ the vast number of contact points adds up to a grip strong enough to support the gecko’s entire body.

1. Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition? (A) Consequently, (B) Similarly, (C) In other words, (D) Collectively, however,

Question 25

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

• Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920) was a mathematician from India.
• He had little formal training in advanced mathematics.
• In 1913, he wrote to G. H. Hardy, a mathematician at the University of Cambridge, and included pages of his results.
• Hardy invited Ramanujan to Cambridge, where he arrived in 1914.
• Ramanujan produced thousands of results, many of which were proven only after his death.
• In 1918, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, one of the highest honors for a scientist in Britain.

1. The student wants to emphasize that Ramanujan achieved major recognition despite having limited formal training. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal? (A) In 1913, Ramanujan wrote to G. H. Hardy of the University of Cambridge, including pages of his mathematical results. (B) Although he had little formal training in advanced mathematics, Ramanujan was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1918. (C) Ramanujan produced thousands of mathematical results, many of which were proven only after his death. (D) Ramanujan, a mathematician from India, arrived at the University of Cambridge in 1914.

Question 26

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

• Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) was a Danish astronomer.
• Beginning in 1576, he built an observatory called Uraniborg on the island of Hven.
• Telescopes had not yet been invented, so Tycho measured the positions of stars and planets by eye, using large instruments such as quadrants.
• His measurements were more precise than any made before.
• After Tycho’s death, Johannes Kepler used Tycho’s observations of Mars to show that planets travel in elliptical orbits.

1. The student wants to explain why Tycho’s work remained important after his death. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal? (A) Tycho Brahe built Uraniborg, his observatory on the island of Hven, beginning in 1576. (B) Because telescopes had not yet been invented, Tycho measured the positions of stars and planets by eye using large instruments. (C) Tycho’s measurements were more precise than any made before, and he made them without a telescope. (D) After Tycho’s death, Johannes Kepler used Tycho’s precise observations of Mars to show that planets travel in elliptical orbits.

Question 27

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

• Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was a Prussian naturalist.
• From 1799 to 1804, he traveled through South America, Central America, and Mexico.
• In 1802, he climbed much of the way up Chimborazo, a mountain in Ecuador.
• On the mountain, he recorded which plants grew at different altitudes.
• He later published a drawing, known as the Naturgemälde, that showed how plant life changes with elevation.

1. The student wants to describe what Humboldt’s Naturgemälde showed. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal? (A) Humboldt’s Naturgemälde was a drawing that showed how plant life changes with elevation. (B) From 1799 to 1804, Humboldt traveled through South America, Central America, and Mexico. (C) Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was a Prussian naturalist. (D) In 1802, Humboldt climbed much of the way up Chimborazo, a mountain in Ecuador.

Question 1

1. A garden hose fills an empty water tank at a constant rate of 6 gallons per minute. At this rate, how many minutes will it take to fill a 150-gallon tank? (A) 25 (B) 144 (C) 156 (D) 900

Question 2

1. 4x - 7 = 21 What value of x is the solution to the given equation? (A) (7)/(2) (B) (21)/(4) (C) 7 (D) 28

Question 3

Line graph of temperature in degrees Celsius versus time. The points are: 6 a.m., 12; 8 a.m., 14; 10 a.m., 18; 12 p.m., 22; 2 p.m., 26; 4 p.m., 24; 6 p.m., 20. The vertical axis runs from 10 to 28 in steps of 2.

1. The line graph shows the air temperature, in degrees Celsius (°C), recorded at a weather station every 2 hours from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on one day. According to the graph, by how many degrees Celsius did the temperature increase from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.? (A) 8 (B) 12 (C) 14 (D) 26

Question 4

A line on a grid. The horizontal axis is time in hours from 0 to 6; the vertical axis is total cost in dollars from 0 to 56 in steps of 4. The line starts at the labeled point (0, 12) on the vertical axis and passes through the labeled point (4, 44), rising 8 dollars for each hour.

1. The graph shows the total cost C, in dollars, of renting a kayak for h hours at a lake. The cost includes a charge for each hour plus a fixed amount. What is the best interpretation of the y-intercept of the graph in this context? (A) The rental costs $12 for each hour. (B) The fixed amount charged for the rental is $8. (C) The total cost of renting the kayak for 1 hour is $12. (D) A fixed charge of $12 is paid regardless of the number of hours.

Question 5

1. f(x) = x^2 - 3x + 5 For the function f defined above, what is the value of f(4)? (type your answer)

Question 6

1. The graph of 5x - 2y = 30 in the xy-plane crosses the x-axis at the point (a, 0). What is the value of a? (type your answer)

Question 7

1. The drama club sold 120 tickets to its spring show. Student tickets cost $4 each and adult tickets cost $7 each. The club collected a total of $606 from ticket sales. How many adult tickets did the club sell? (A) 42 (B) 60 (C) 78 (D) 126

Question 8

1. During a sale, a store sells a jacket for 0.72p dollars, where p is the jacket’s original price, in dollars. The sale price is a decrease of what percent from the original price? (A) 0.28% (B) 0.72% (C) 28% (D) 72%

Question 9

1. A soccer ball is kicked upward. Its height h, in feet, t seconds after it is kicked is modeled by h(t) = -16t^2 + 48t + 4. According to the model, what is the maximum height, in feet, that the ball reaches? (A) 1.5 (B) 4 (C) 40 (D) 52

Question 10

Right triangle ABC with the right angle at C. Side AC, along the bottom, is labeled 15. Side BC, the vertical side, is labeled 8. Side AB is the hypotenuse and is not labeled.

1. In the right triangle ABC shown, AC = 15 and BC = 8. What is the value of sin A? (A) (8)/(15) (B) (8)/(17) (C) (15)/(17) (D) (17)/(8)

Question 11

1. The table shows the number of 10th- and 11th-grade students in a school’s music program, by the type of instrument each student plays. If a student who plays a brass instrument is selected at random, what is the probability that the student is in 11th grade? (A) (27)/(112) (B) (2)/(5) (C) (27)/(59) (D) (3)/(5)

Question 12

1. 3x - 5y = 8 ax - 20y = 32 In the given system of equations, a is a constant. If the system has infinitely many solutions, what is the value of a? (type your answer)

Question 13

1. (2x + 3)(x - 5) = 2x^2 + bx - 15 In the given equation, b is a constant. If the equation is true for all values of x, what is the value of b? (type your answer)

Question 14

Rectangle ABCD with A at bottom left, B at bottom right, C at top right, and D at top left. Side AB is labeled 16 and side BC is labeled 10. Point E is on the top side CD, closer to D. Segments AE and BE are drawn, forming triangle ABE.

1. In the figure, ABCD is a rectangle with AB = 16 and BC = 10. Point E lies on side CD. What is the area of triangle ABE? (A) 26 (B) 40 (C) 52 (D) 80

Question 15

1. x^2 = 5x + 14 What are the solutions to the given equation? (A) -7 and 2 (B) -2 and 7 (C) 2 and 7 (D) -7 and -2

Question 16

1. A line in the xy-plane has a slope of (3)/(2) and passes through the points (-2, k) and (4, 2k - 1), where k is a constant. What is the value of k? (A) 4 (B) 5 (C) 8 (D) 10

Question 17

1. The mass m, in grams, of a radioactive sample t days after it was first measured is modeled by m(t) = 640((1)/(2))^t/5. According to the model, how many days after it was first measured will the sample have a mass of 40 grams? (A) 20 (B) 80 (C) 128 (D) 600

Question 18

1. y ≤ 2x - 3 x + y > 9 Which point (x, y) is a solution to the given system of inequalities? (A) (5, 5) (B) (4, 6) (C) (6, 3) (D) (3, 7)

Question 19

1. The function g is defined by g(x) = (x - 3)(x + k), where k is a constant. In the xy-plane, the vertex of the graph of y = g(x) has an x-coordinate of 4. What is the value of k? (type your answer)

Question 20

1. x^2 + y^2 - 6x + 10y = 2 The equation of a circle in the xy-plane is shown. What is the radius of the circle? (type your answer)

Question 21

1. In the xy-plane, line k is perpendicular to the line 3x - 4y = 12 and passes through the point (6, -1). What is the y-intercept of line k? (A) (0, -9) (B) (0, -(11)/(2)) (C) (0, 7) (D) (0, 9)

Question 22

1. y = x^2 - 4x + 7 y = 2x + c In the given system of equations, c is a constant. If the system has exactly one real solution, what is the value of c? (A) -29 (B) -2 (C) 2 (D) 3

Question 1

1. 5(x - 2) = 3x + 8 What is the solution to the given equation? (A) -1 (B) 5 (C) 9 (D) 18

Question 2

1. A car traveled 270 miles and used 7.5 gallons of gasoline. At the same rate of fuel use, how many gallons of gasoline will the car use to travel 450 miles? (A) 4.5 (B) 12.5 (C) 36 (D) 60

Question 3

1. For the linear function f, f(2) = 11 and f(6) = 23. What is the value of f(0)? (A) 3 (B) 5 (C) 8 (D) 17

Question 4

Scatterplot of test score versus hours of practice for 10 students, with the line of best fit y = 4x + 52. Points: (1, 55), (2, 62), (3, 63), (4, 66), (5, 74), (6, 75), (7, 88), (8, 83), (9, 90), (10, 91). The horizontal axis runs from 0 to 11 hours; the vertical axis runs from 48 to 100 in steps of 4.

1. The scatterplot shows the number of hours x that each of 10 students practiced for a typing test and each student’s score y on the test. A line of best fit for the data is also shown. An equation of the line is y = 4x + 52. For the student who practiced 7 hours, how many points greater is the student’s actual score than the score predicted by the line of best fit? (A) 8 (B) 12 (C) 80 (D) 88

Question 5

1. 4x^2 - 12x + 9 = (ax - b)^2 In the given equation, a and b are positive constants. If the equation is true for all values of x, what is the value of a + b? (type your answer)

Question 6

1. (2)/(3)(x - 4) = (x)/(2) + 1 What is the solution to the given equation? (type your answer)

Question 7

1. 2x + ky = 7 6x - 9y = 4 In the given system of equations, k is a constant. For what value of k does the system have no solution? (A) -27 (B) -3 (C) 3 (D) 27

Question 8

1. The function f is defined by f(x) = 2x^2 - 12x + 23. The function can be written in the form f(x) = 2(x - h)^2 + k, where h and k are constants. What is the value of k? (A) -13 (B) 3 (C) 5 (D) 14

Question 9

Right triangle PQR with the right angle at Q. Q is at the bottom left, P is at the bottom right, and R is above Q. The hypotenuse PR is labeled 39.

1. In triangle PQR shown, angle Q is a right angle, PR = 39, and cos P = (12)/(13). What is the length of QR? (A) 5 (B) 12 (C) 15 (D) 36

Question 10

1. The table summarizes the results of a survey of 200 commuters, classified by how they travel to work and how long their commute takes. If a commuter whose commute takes 30 minutes or more is selected at random, what is the probability that the commuter does not travel by train? (A) (27)/(100) (B) (9)/(20) (C) (5)/(11) (D) (6)/(11)

Question 11

1. √(2x + 7) = x + 2 Which of the following gives all the real solutions to the given equation? (A) 1 only (B) -3 only (C) -3 and 1 (D) There are no real solutions.

Question 12

1. 7 - 3x > 2(x - 9) What is the greatest integer value of x that satisfies the given inequality? (type your answer)

Question 13

1. The function h is defined by h(x) = a(x - 1)(x - 7), where a is a constant. The maximum value of h(x) is 27. What is the value of a? (type your answer)

Question 14

1. In the xy-plane, a circle has center (2, -3) and passes through the point (7, 9). Which equation represents this circle? (A) (x - 2)^2 + (y + 3)^2 = 169 (B) (x + 2)^2 + (y - 3)^2 = 169 (C) (x - 2)^2 + (y + 3)^2 = 13 (D) (x - 2)^2 + (y + 3)^2 = 61

Question 15

1. A water tank contains 540 liters of water when it begins to drain at a constant rate. After 12 minutes of draining, the tank contains 396 liters. How many minutes after the tank began to drain will it be empty? (A) 12 (B) 33 (C) 45 (D) 57

Question 16

1. (3)/(x - 2) - (2)/(x + 1) Which of the following is equivalent to the given expression for x > 2? (A) (1)/((x - 2)(x + 1)) (B) (x - 1)/((x - 2)(x + 1)) (C) (x + 5)/((x - 2)(x + 1)) (D) (x + 7)/((x - 2)(x + 1))

Question 17

Dot plot of hours worked by 15 volunteers on a number line from 0 to 16. Number of dots: 2 hours, 1; 3 hours, 2; 4 hours, 4; 5 hours, 3; 6 hours, 3; 13 hours, 1; 15 hours, 1.

1. The dot plot shows the number of hours each of 15 volunteers spent working at a food bank last month. The two volunteers who worked the greatest numbers of hours are removed from the data set. Which statement best describes how the mean and the median of the remaining 13 values compare with those of the original 15 values? (A) The mean and the median both decrease, and the mean decreases by more. (B) The mean and the median both decrease, and the median decreases by more. (C) The mean decreases, and the median does not change. (D) The mean decreases, and the median increases.

Question 18

1. A bakery spends exactly $60 on flour and sugar. Flour costs $3 per pound and sugar costs $4 per pound, so 3x + 4y = 60, where x is the number of pounds of flour and y is the number of pounds of sugar. If the bakery buys 3 more pounds of sugar and still spends exactly $60, how does the number of pounds of flour change? (A) It decreases by 3 pounds. (B) It decreases by (9)/(4) pounds. (C) It increases by 4 pounds. (D) It decreases by 4 pounds.

Question 19

1. The function f is defined by f(x) = a · b^x, where a and b are positive constants. In the xy-plane, the graph of y = f(x) passes through the points (1, 18) and (3, 162). What is the value of f(0)? (type your answer)

Question 20

Triangle ABC with A at the top, B at the bottom left, and C at the bottom right. Point D is on side AB and point E is on side AC, and segment DE is drawn parallel to BC (both marked with arrows). AD is labeled 6 and DB is labeled 4.

1. In the figure, DE is parallel to BC, AD = 6, and DB = 4. The area of triangle ADE is 27 square units. What is the area, in square units, of quadrilateral DBCE? (type your answer)

Question 21

A parabola opening upward on a coordinate grid with x from -4 to 6 and y from -6 to 8. The vertex is at (1, -4). The graph crosses the x-axis at (-1, 0) and (3, 0) and crosses the y-axis at (0, -3). It passes through (-2, 5) and (4, 5).

1. The graph of y = f(x) is shown. The function g is defined by g(x) = f(x + 3) - 2. What is the value of g(0)? (A) -5 (B) -2 (C) 2 (D) 8

Question 22

1. A chemistry teacher mixes a 10% saline solution with a 40% saline solution to make 60 milliliters of a 20% saline solution. How many milliliters of the 10% solution does the teacher use? (A) 12 (B) 20 (C) 30 (D) 40