12.Practice.Tests.for.the.SAT_2015-2016_1128p

12 Practice Tests for the SAT
Practice Test Seven Answers and Explanations 659
I
will be very positive. The artists who made the sets might
be prolific, but the sets themselves can't be. If the sets were
modest, they probably wouldn't be considered such a visual
achievement, (B). The sets couldn't be reticent. Like (A),
this is something that could only apply to people. The sets
should evoke the future, but archaic sets would do just the
opposite. Grandiose fits perfectly. (You might recognize the
word grand, even if you're not familiar with grandiose.)
5. A
Difficulty: High
In this example, we must assume that circumstances, such
as the rise in rewards and the desire to win no matter
what, could cause someone's personality to change in a
negative way. In order to fill in the blank, we also need to
know the word base, which means morally low or meanspirited.
Therefore, for a negative change to occur, the base
elements must be intensified, (A).
6. A
Difficulty: High
Start by filling in the first blank. Since the first part of the
sentence contrasts a hummingbird's light weight with its
appetite, you can predict that a word like big or gluttonous
must fill this blank. Only (A), voracious, matches this
prediction. But just to be sure that (A) is correct, plug the
second word of this choice into the second blank. It makes
sense. Though hummingbirds weigh very little, they are
voracious eaters with high body temperatures, consuming
many times their weight in food each day.
Questions 7- 19
The italicized intro reveals the basic contrast between
the two passages: Author 1 stresses Leonardo's artistic
sensibility, while Author 2 stresses his technological
achievements. Author 1 argues that Leonardo's artistic
mentality interfered with his real accomplishments.
He tended toward variability and inconstancy in his
endeavors, he was impractical and restless, and despite
his extraordinary inventiveness, he was more of an artist
than a true scientist. Author 2 has a diametrically opposite
view, arguing that Leonardo was an engineering genius and
that his approach to scientific problems was thoroughly
systematic.
7. E
Difficulty: High
The overall point of Passage 1 is that Leonardo's
accomplishments as a scientist and engineer were limited
by the fact that he approached everything as an artist-he
moved compulsively from one engineering project to the
next because he realized that the perfection of art was not
attainable in those fields.
8. B
Difficulty: Medium
The author expands on Leonardo's variability and
inconstancy at the end of the paragraph-we're told that
Leonardo made a habit of moving compulsively from one
project to the next. So variability means changeability, (B).
9. E
Difficulty: Low
The author's opinion of the Last Supper is expressed
pretty clearly at the end of paragraph 2-despite its
shortcomings, it is worthy of our greatest veneration
because it succeeded brilliantly in capturing the acute
anxiety of the apostles.
10. A
Difficulty: Medium
Leonardo's approach to natural science is scatterbrained; he
begins by inquiring into the properties of herbs and ends
up observing the motions of the heavens. So the author is
describing it as an example of his mental restlessness . ..
when applied to scientific matters.
11. B
Difficulty: High
The author's criticism of the pensieri is that while they
reflect Leonardo's compulsion with observation and
problem solving . .. such things alone do not constitute
science, which requires the working out of a systematic
body of knowledge.
12. c
Difficulty: Medium
The author presents modern scientific investigation as the
working out of a systematic body of knowledge, implying
throughout that Leonardo wasn't sufficiently disciplined in