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

12 Practice Tests for the SAT
Practice Test Eight Answers and Explanations I 731
11. B
Difficulty: High
Because it is easy to make your own assumptions when
reading through the passages, make sure to go back and
reexamine the text. When you have found specific evidence,
you can be sure of your answer choice. Although both .
passages discuss different aspects of the food problem in
schools, the two authors agree that offering nutritional food
choices is a growing concern. Choices (A) and (D) refer to
Passage I only. Only Passage 2 refers to school boards and
parental organizations, (C). And neither passage suggests
that the nutritional value of school food is declining, (E);
they only indicate that concern is growing.
12. A
Difficulty: Medium
In this case, the view of the author of Passage 1 is made
clear in the last sentence, which states that the school
food problem is most likely the result of general dietary
ignorance. Passage 2's viewpoint is also expressed toward
the end of the paragraph, which mentions that students
are attracted to fast food and that while parents might not
approve of such an influence, schools need to make their
food attractive for the cafeteria to be profitable. Choice (A)
nicely matches the viewpoints of the two authors. Choice
(B) is extreme. While this statement accurately represents
Passage 1, the author of Passage 2 does not go so far as
to express sympathy for school boards. Choice (C) is a
distortion; nothing in Passage 2 indicates that the author
finds parental or governmental concerns exaggerated.
Choice (D) is also a distortion of Passage 2, which only
indicates that a cafeteria could be a financial burden if it
is not profitable, not necessarily that it could not survive.
Choice (E) distorts both passages. Passage 1 only briefly
cites scientific studies, and Passage 2 never mentions
government data.
Questions 1 3- 18
The overall sense of the passage is that the author, a
scientist who is fascinated by the deep diving of leatherback
turtles, is reporting what he and his wife have learned about
the turtles' behavior. He tells of recording-at least, partiallythe
dive of a female leatherback in the first paragraph. In
the second paragraph, the author discusses the difficulty of
studying leatherbacks: they can't be kept in captivity.
An instrument known as the time-depth recorder has been
designed to measure the turtles' diving at sea. Using this
instrument, the author found that female leatherbacks
dive almost continuously. Why do the turtles dive? This
is the question the author attempts to answer in the final
three paragraphs. It seems that the turtles are following the
movements of a group of organisms known as the deep
scattering layer; this is where jellyfish, the turtles' food
source, are. The author has two main pieces of evidence
for this hypothesis: 1) the turtles' pattern of diving seems to
match the movement of the deep scattering layer, and 2)
turtles do not lose weight between bouts of nesting.
13. A
Difficulty: Low
The specific behavior that the author describes in the cited
lines is the continuous diving of the turtles. The author at this
point is relating how astonished he and his wife were when
they first recorded the turtles' diving. He is conveying a se _
nse
of how impressive the diving activity of the leatherbacks ts,
(A). The author has not yet talked about the deep scattering
layer, so (B) is out. Leatherback breeding, (C), is never even
mentioned in the passage. Choice (D) is wrong because
the author is not suggesting that the turtles' behavior is
unpredictable. It may be unexpected and astonishing
because the scientists didn't know much about the turtles,
but that doesn't mean the turtles behave unpredictably.
Finally, you may get an insight into the life of a marine
biologist from this part of the passage, but the author's
purpose is to describe the leatherbacks, not his lifestyle.
14. c
Difficulty: Medium
Several of the choices are possible definitions of gradual.
Remember that with all Vocabulary-in-Context questions,
you need to check how the word is used in the context of
the passage. Approach this question in the same way as you
would a Sentence Completion. Put a blank in the sentence
in place of gradual, and you see that the word in the blank
has to have a meaning opposite of vertical. The only word
among the possible answers that has a meaning opposite
of vertical is sloping, (C).