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SAT Sample Questions

Sentence Completion

During the campaign, the politicians engaged in ---- debate, accusing each other of gross misdeeds.

A. capricious
B. acrimonious
C. altruistic
D. facetious
E. chimerical

Reading Comprehension

Everyone loves Jane Austen's novels—scientists, feminists, college freshmen, traditionalists, even reader who think they don't like fiction. After Shakespeare and perhaps Dickens, Austen is the most universally admired writer in the English language. Her popularity is extraordinary when one considers that she deals with neither death nor religion nor great moments in history. Her subject is courtship, and her stories all end the same way—in happy marriage. Yet no one has ever accused Austen of being shallow or suggested that her novels appeal because of their escapism. Quite the contrary—her work is usually characterized as wise, witty, and realistic.

In many ways, Austen's novels resemble Shakespeare's comedies, which also end in marriage. Both the novels and the comedies demonstrate how much human nature may be revealed within the confines of a circumscribed environment and a limited plot. Like Shakespeare, Austen makes women her central characters. By using their wits and their moral sensibilities as a substitute for the power they do not have, they bring about a desired end. This element in itself—the success of the weak over the powerful—may account for some part of Austen's popularity.

The greater part of Austen's appeal, however, is rooted in her ability to combine the seemingly incompatible qualities of romance and irony, engagement and detachment. Rational though she may initially appear from the beauty of her balanced sentences, there is much in Austen's work that is firmly rooted in the realm of the feelings. Despite her elevation of civility, restraint, good manners, good sense, and duty, Austen's novels are essentially fairy tales—fantasies. They are grounded in realism and made credible by careful observation and sound precepts of moral behavior, but they are fantasies nevertheless.

1. The author compares Austen's novels to Shakespeare's comedies primarily in order to
A. establish Austen's literary stature.
B. emphasize the wit that both authors displayed.
C. discuss the role of women in literature.
D. illustrate how each author developed characters.
E. reiterate the undying popularity of both authors

2. You can infer from the sentence that begins "This element in itself..." (the last sentence of the first paragraph) that the author believes which of the following?
A. The strongest characters are those who start out poor and become rich.
B. The most popular literary characters are those who are the most powerful.
C. Readers dislike plots in which powerless characters increase their social rank by misrepresenting themselves.
D. Austen overcame powerlessness to become a novelist.
E. Readers like to identify with characters who overcome adversity.

Writing Multiple-Choice

The reason we stopped fishing was because the fish had already stopped biting.

A. because the fish had already stopped biting
B. because the fish had all ready stopped biting
C. that the fish had already stopped biting
D. that the fish had all ready stopped biting
E. because the fish had stopped biting already

Writing Essay Section

Think carefully about the statement and assignment below. Outline a response that develops and supports your own ideas. You have twenty-five minutes to write an essay on the given topic in the space provided on your answer sheet. If you write on any other topic, you will receive a score of zero.

There are times when you have to obey a call which is the highest of all, i.e. the voice of conscience even though such obedience may cost many a bitter tear, and even more, separation from friends, from family, from the state to which you may belong, from all that you have held as dear as life itself. For this obedience is the law of our being.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Assignment:
Is it more important to comply with the dictates of conscience than with other demands? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from what you have read, studied, or experienced.

Math Multiple-Choice

A rectangular door measures 5 feet by 6 feet 8 inches. What is the distance from one corner of the door to the diagonally opposite corner? (1 foot = 12 inches)
A. 8'2"
B. 8'4"
C. 8'8"
D. 9'
E. 9'6"

Math Grid-In

A car travels from town A to town B, a distance of 360 miles, in 9 hours. How many hours would the same trip have taken had the car traveled 5 mph faster?

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