SAT ANSWER EXPLANATIONS
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READING AND WRITING: MODULE 1
3 SAT PRACTICE TEST #5 ANSWER EXPLANATIONS
Choice A is incorrect. In this context, “recognizable” would mean identifiable,
and since the text indicates that noses are often missing from ancient statues,
they therefore cannot be the most recognizable part of the statue. Choice C
is incorrect because the text indicates that many ancient statues are missing
noses, so noses wouldn’t be “common,” or frequent, aspects of ancient statues;
they would conversely be uncommon. Choice D is incorrect because the text
only indicates that noses on ancient statues often stick out and end up missing
from the heads, which doesn’t relate to the noses being “sophisticated,” or
knowledgeable or refined.
QUESTION 3
Choice B is the best answer because it most logically completes the text’s
discussion of advance indications of solar flares. In this context the word
“impending” means imminent or approaching. The text mentions a study by Leka
and colleagues that found that the Sun’s corona provides an advance indication
of solar flares. The text then points out why such an advance indication would be
useful—solar flares can interfere with communications on Earth—and concludes
by describing the characteristic of the corona that gives warning of a solar flare.
The text indicates that this characteristic—increased brightness in a particular
region of the corona—comes before the appearance of the flare. Therefore,
in context, the best answer would indicate that the flare is approaching, or
impending.
Choice A is incorrect. The best answer would be one that indicates that the
increased brightness of the Sun’s corona precedes the appearance of the flare.
But if the flare were “antecedent,” or previous, then the flare would instead
precede the appearance of the increased brightness of the corona, a statement
that is logically inconsistent. Choice C is incorrect. The word “innocuous,” or
harmless, does not logically complete the text; since solar flares can interfere with
communications on Earth, they cannot reasonably be described as innocuous.
Choice D is incorrect. If the solar flares have an advance indication of their
appearance, then there must therefore be a time before the appearance of the
flares when they do not exist. But the word “perpetual,” or never-ending, would in
context indicate that the flare exists at the same time as the advance indication
provided by the Sun’s corona, which would not make logical sense.
QUESTION 4
Choice D is the best answer because it most logically completes the text’s
discussion of using magnetism to detect stress in buried metal pipes. In this
context, “exploited” means made productive use of. The text indicates that
the magnetic fields of some metals change under stress and that Saleem and
colleagues showed that it is possible to measure those changes from a distance,
thereby demonstrating that the integrity of underground metal pipes can be
evaluated without having to unearth them. This context thus indicates that
Saleem and colleagues made productive use of, or exploited, this tendency of the
metals’ magnetic fields.
