Digital SAT Practice Test 5 — Module 2: Full Walkthrough of All 33 Reading & Writing Questions with Answers & Explanations

Correct answer: C) Stretching toward

✗ A) Joining with
“Joining with” would mean becoming attached to the bowl, which makes no sense here — she’s reaching for a piece of fruit, not merging with the bowl.

✗ B) Gaining on
“Gaining on” means catching up to something in a chase or competition. The bowl isn’t moving and there’s no race; she’s simply extending her arm toward it.

✓ C) Stretching toward
“Stretching toward” fits perfectly — Mrs. Wilkins “stays where she was” while extending her arm across to the bowl of oranges, then holds one out to Rose. That’s a physical reach, not a change of location.

✗ D) Arriving at
“Arriving at” is contradicted directly by the text, which says she is “staying where she was” — she never moves toward or arrives at the bowl at all.

Correct answer: D) obtain

✗ A) occupy
“Occupy” means to inhabit or fill a space, which doesn’t fit information at all; you don’t occupy facts.

✗ B) hoard
“Hoard” means to stockpile selfishly. There’s no suggestion the team is hiding or accumulating information rather than simply gathering it from the fossils.

✗ C) reserve
“Reserve” means to set aside for later use. The text is about extracting information now, not withholding it for future use.

✓ D) obtain
“Obtain” means to gain or acquire. Because the fossils are so well preserved, the team has been able to gain detailed information — such as color patterns — directly from them.

Correct answer: A) reduced

✓ A) reduced
“Reduced” means decreased. The sentence sets up a contrast with “intensified”: people decide faster when information flow is strengthened, and more slowly when it is instead decreased.

✗ B) evaluated
“Evaluated” means assessed. The passage is about the rate of information flow between brain regions, not about someone judging or assessing that information.

✗ C) determined
“Determined” means influenced or decided. This doesn’t describe a decrease in flow, which is what the contrast with “intensified” requires.

✗ D) acquired
“Acquired” means obtained. The sentence needs a word that is the opposite of “intensified,” and acquired doesn’t signal a decrease in anything.

Correct answer: A) a tenuous

✓ A) a tenuous
“Tenuous” means weak or uncertain. Being overshadowed by a bigger war and producing no real territorial change both point to the War of 1812 having a shaky, uncertain foothold in British historical memory.

✗ B) an enduring
“Enduring” means lasting. This contradicts the point of the sentence, which is that the war is overshadowed and easily forgotten, not that its memory has persisted strongly.

✗ C) a contentious
“Contentious” means causing disagreement. Nothing in the text suggests people argue about the war’s memory; the issue is that it’s largely overlooked.

✗ D) a conspicuous
“Conspicuous” means easily noticed. This is the opposite of being overshadowed — the text explains why the war fades into the background, not why it stands out.

Correct answer: C) defend

✗ A) imagine
“Imagine” means to picture mentally. The text isn’t about visualizing what the rituals looked like; it’s about the difficulty of supporting claims regarding their meaning.

✗ B) summarize
“Summarize” means to recap briefly. The problem described isn’t condensing information, it’s a lack of evidence to justify any claim in the first place.

✓ C) defend
“Defend” means to support against argument. Because so little is known about the Minoans, any claim about the rituals’ meaning rests on speculation and is therefore hard to defend, or back up, convincingly.

✗ D) adjust
“Adjust” means to modify or correct. The text never discusses revising a claim based on new evidence; it discusses the basic difficulty of ever supporting one.

Correct answer: C) It emphasizes that Harris always boasts about his own constitution when speaking of a previous boat trip.

✗ A) It indicates the reason for Harris’s eagerness to resume traveling.
Nothing in the passage connects this anecdote to any eagerness on Harris’s part to travel again; it’s purely about how his story about the past keeps changing.

✗ B) It hints at Harris’s feeling that during an earlier boat trip, others didn’t include him in activities.
The sentence is about Harris shrinking the number of people who avoided seasickness in his story, not about him feeling excluded by others during the trip.

✓ C) It emphasizes that Harris always boasts about his own constitution when speaking of a previous boat trip.
The underlined sentence shows the number of unaffected passengers in Harris’s story steadily shrinking — from him and the captain, to him and one other, to just himself — a comic exaggeration that highlights Harris repeatedly bragging about his own hardiness whenever he retells this story.

✗ D) It reveals that although Harris claims to prefer solitary activities when traveling, he actually enjoys having company.
There is no indication in the text that Harris prefers solitude generally or that he secretly enjoys company; the humor is entirely about his exaggerated, shifting claims of endurance.

Correct answer: B) It identifies a conflict between research findings and recent events that the text goes on to suggest is a consequence of a complicating factor in the data used to generate those findings.

✗ A) It explains a discrepancy between what has been observed in study settings and what has been observed in real-world settings that the text goes on to assert is attributable to the studies not using real-world data.
The issue isn’t studies-versus-real-world data; the text never says the earlier studies failed to use real elections. It says those elections behaved differently because governments there used strategic timing that the recent cases didn’t.

✓ B) It identifies a conflict between research findings and recent events that the text goes on to suggest is a consequence of a complicating factor in the data used to generate those findings.
The underlined sentence sets up a conflict — studies say austerity has little electoral cost, yet recent European governments suffered electorally — and the text goes on to attribute this to a complicating factor: past data mostly came from governments that timed cuts strategically to avoid costs, which masked the real political risk. That’s a conflict explained by a data-generation quirk, matching choice B exactly.

✗ C) It presents a long-standing divergence in research findings that the text goes on to say is due to different groups of researchers using data that derive from different electoral circumstances.
The text doesn’t describe a “long-standing divergence” between separate groups of researchers; it describes one body of research findings clashing with one set of recent events.

✗ D) It describes a recent exception to a general pattern in research findings that the text goes on to explain is a result of researchers underestimating the significance of inconsistencies in the data they’ve analyzed.
The text never claims researchers underestimated inconsistencies in their data; it says the underlying data itself reflected a governmental strategy that obscured austerity’s true political risk.

Correct answer: A) By asserting that language plays a more important role in graphic novels than the author of Text 1 recognizes

✓ A) By asserting that language plays a more important role in graphic novels than the author of Text 1 recognizes
Text 1 says graphic novels use language “only sparingly” and are experienced mainly as images. Text 2 directly counters this, arguing captions and dialogue are essential to understanding the story and that graphic-novel writing can be as accomplished as standard prose — i.e., language matters far more than Text 1 gives it credit for.

✗ B) By acknowledging that the author of Text 1 has identified a flaw that is common to all graphic novels
Text 2 never agrees that Text 1 has identified a real flaw; it disputes Text 1’s core premise that language is minor in graphic novels.

✗ C) By suggesting that the story lines of certain graphic novels are more difficult to understand than the author of Text 1 claims
Text 2 never discusses story lines being hard to understand; it argues the opposite, that text and image work together to make the story clear.

✗ D) By agreeing with the author of Text 1 that most graphic novels aren’t as well crafted as most literary works are
Text 2 argues graphic novels can be as well-written as standard novels (citing Fun Home), the opposite of agreeing they’re less well-crafted.

Correct answer: A) Lutie is observing the appearance of the street at a particular time of day and the events occurring on it.

✓ A) Lutie is observing the appearance of the street at a particular time of day and the events occurring on it.
Lutie notices the sunset’s glow making the street look nice, then watches children playing ball, tag, and jumping rope — a straightforward observation of the street’s appearance at that moment and the activity happening on it.

✗ B) Lutie is annoyed by the noise of children playing games on her street.
The text says Lutie thinks the street looks “nice” in this light — nothing suggests she finds the children’s noise annoying.

✗ C) Lutie is puzzled by the rules of certain children’s games.
The text describes the games clearly (ball, tag, double dutch) without any hint that Lutie is confused by their rules.

✗ D) Lutie is spending time alone in her apartment because she doesn’t want to interact with her neighbors.
The passage places Lutie watching the street, not isolated indoors avoiding her neighbors; there’s no mention of her being alone in an apartment here.

Correct answer: D) It is unclear whether Bosco Verticale can support the plant life included in its design.

✗ A) Some essential aspects of Bosco Verticale’s design are difficult to adapt to locations other than Milan.
The text never discusses adapting the design to cities other than Milan; the concern is whether the current trees can survive where they already are.

✗ B) The plant life on Bosco Verticale ended up being less varied than Boeri had envisioned it would be.
There’s no comparison in the text between the variety Boeri wanted and what was actually planted; the critique is about survival, not diversity of species.

✗ C) The construction of Bosco Verticale was no less environmentally damaging than the construction of more conventional buildings is.
The text says nothing about the environmental impact of constructing the towers themselves, only about whether the vegetation can thrive after the fact.

✓ D) It is unclear whether Bosco Verticale can support the plant life included in its design.
The text says directly that critics doubt whether the specially cultivated trees “can thrive in this unusual setting” because it’s “too early to tell” — that is exactly the uncertainty this choice describes.

Correct answer: A) Literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin argued that there are important characteristics of narratives that are not fully encompassed by two concepts that other theorists have used to analyze narratives.

✓ A) Literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin argued that there are important characteristics of narratives that are not fully encompassed by two concepts that other theorists have used to analyze narratives.
The text introduces fabula and syuzhet as tools other theorists use, illustrates them with The Godfather Part II, then pivots to Bakhtin’s core claim that these two concepts alone can’t fully capture a narrative — which is precisely the main idea this choice states.

✗ B) Literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin claimed that meaning is not inherent in a narrative but is created when an audience encounters a narrative so that narratives are interpreted differently by different people.
This overstates Bakhtin’s claim: the text says meaning arises from interactions between artist, work, and audience together, not solely from the audience’s encounter with the text, and it never discusses differing individual interpretations.

✗ C) The storytelling methods used in The Godfather Part II may seem unusually complicated, but they can be easily understood when two concepts from literary theory are utilized.
The film is used only to illustrate fabula and syuzhet; the text’s point is Bakhtin’s critique of those concepts, not that the film becomes “easily understood” once you apply them.

✗ D) Narratives that are told out of chronological order are more difficult for audiences to understand than are narratives presented chronologically.
The text never compares how difficult chronological versus non-chronological narratives are to understand; it uses the film only to define two theoretical terms before critiquing them.

Correct answer: D) The highest number of medicine and health topic submissions during the period shown is approximately 285 in 2019.

✗ A) In 2016, the number of cellular and molecular biology topic submissions was the same as the number of animal science topic submissions.
This compares two unrelated categories (cellular/molecular biology and animal science) in 2016 — it says nothing about medicine and health in 2019, so it can’t support the claim.

✗ B) In 2019, there were more physics and space science topic submissions than there were medicine and health topic submissions.
This compares physics/space science to medicine and health in 2019, which doesn’t address whether 2019 was medicine and health’s highest year — and it also misreads the graph, since medicine and health submissions were higher than physics and space science in 2019.

✗ C) The lowest number of animal science topic submissions in a year was approximately 95 in 2016.
This is about the lowest point for a completely different category (animal science), not about medicine and health reaching its peak in 2019.

✓ D) The highest number of medicine and health topic submissions during the period shown is approximately 285 in 2019.
The graph shows medicine and health submissions staying below roughly 250 in 2016, 2017, and 2018, then rising to approximately 285 in 2019 — the highest point on that line across the whole period, which is exactly what the underlined claim needs.

Correct answer: D) “Through interbreeding, transgenic fish might introduce the trait of fluorescence into wild fish populations, making those populations more vulnerable to predators.”

✗ A) “In one site in the wild where transgenic fish were observed, females outnumbered males, while in another the numbers of females and males were equivalent.”
This only compares ratios of females to males at two sites; it doesn’t mention any negative or long-term ecological consequence of the fish’s presence.

✗ B) “Though some presence of transgenic fish in the wild has been recorded, there are insufficient studies of the impact of those fish on the ecosystems into which they are introduced.”
This says more research is needed, which suggests uncertainty about effects rather than actually supporting the claim that negative effects will occur.

✗ C) “The ecosystems into which transgenic fish are known to have been introduced may represent a subset of the ecosystems into which the fish have actually been introduced.”
This is about how many ecosystems might contain transgenic fish, not about whether their presence there causes ecological harm.

✓ D) “Through interbreeding, transgenic fish might introduce the trait of fluorescence into wild fish populations, making those populations more vulnerable to predators.”
This quotation gives a concrete mechanism for lasting ecological harm: interbreeding could spread fluorescence into wild fish, making them easier for predators to spot and catch — exactly the kind of negative, long-term ecological effect the student is asserting.

Correct answer: D) Growth with nitrogen under moderate change exceeded growth without nitrogen under the current climate, but the latter exceeded growth with nitrogen under extreme change.

✗ A) Growth with nitrogen under the current climate exceeded growth with nitrogen under moderate change, but the latter exceeded growth without nitrogen under extreme change.
This compares two nitrogen-fertilized bars and one non-fertilized bar in a way that doesn’t connect back to the current, unfertilized baseline the conclusion depends on.

✗ B) Growth without nitrogen under the current climate exceeded growth without nitrogen under moderate change, but the latter exceeded growth with nitrogen under extreme change.
This describes only the without-nitrogen bars declining as climate change intensifies, which shows climate change hurts growth but says nothing about nitrogen offsetting that harm.

✗ C) Growth with nitrogen under moderate change exceeded growth without nitrogen under moderate change, but the latter exceeded growth without nitrogen under extreme change.
This shows nitrogen helping under moderate change relative to no nitrogen at the same moderate-change level, and then a decline into extreme change — but it never establishes that nitrogen brings moderate-change growth back up to (or past) the current, unfertilized baseline, which is the heart of the researchers’ claim.

✓ D) Growth with nitrogen under moderate change exceeded growth without nitrogen under the current climate, but the latter exceeded growth with nitrogen under extreme change.
The bar graph shows radial growth without nitrogen at roughly 0.16 cm under current conditions, while growth with nitrogen under moderate change reaches about 0.18 cm — higher than the current-climate baseline — and that current-climate figure (0.16 cm) in turn beats growth with nitrogen under extreme change (about 0.06 cm). This pattern shows nitrogen fully offsetting moderate climate change while extreme change overwhelms it, matching the researchers’ conclusion.

Correct answer: D) “Reading [poetry], however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers that there is in / it after all, a place for the genuine.”

✗ A) “nor is it valid / to discriminate against ‘business documents and / school-books’; all these phenomena are important.”
This is about not discriminating against certain kinds of writing; it expresses neither displeasure nor a mixed attitude toward poetry.

✗ B) “One must make a distinction / however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the result is not / poetry”
This criticizes “half poets” specifically, but it offers only a negative judgment, with no accompanying acknowledgment of poetry’s merit needed to show ambivalence.

✗ C) “when [poems] become so derivative as to become unintelligible, the / same thing may be said for all of us—that we / do not admire what / we cannot understand.”
This describes a negative reaction to unintelligible, overly derivative poems; like B, it lacks any contrasting positive view that would make the attitude ambivalent rather than simply critical.

✓ D) “Reading [poetry], however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers that there is in / it after all, a place for the genuine.”
This quotation pairs “a perfect contempt” — clear displeasure — with the discovery that poetry still holds “a place for the genuine,” a real merit. Holding both a negative and a positive attitude toward the same thing at once is the definition of ambivalence, so this best illustrates the claim.

Correct answer: B) If baseline precipitation is somewhat concentrated, water use for irrigation will increase only slightly, whereas it will increase 9.0% for surface water and 7.9% for groundwater if baseline precipitation is evenly distributed.

✗ A) If baseline precipitation is somewhat concentrated, the amount of water being used for irrigation will increase 0.4% for surface water and 0.9% for groundwater, whereas the amount of water entering aquifers will increase 11.0% if baseline precipitation is evenly distributed.
This mixes irrigation-water figures from one row with aquifer-input figures from the other row, comparing two different variables (irrigation vs. aquifer input) instead of showing how irrigation output alone shifts with baseline concentration.

✓ B) If baseline precipitation is somewhat concentrated, water use for irrigation will increase only slightly, whereas it will increase 9.0% for surface water and 7.9% for groundwater if baseline precipitation is evenly distributed.
The table shows that when baseline precipitation is already somewhat concentrated, irrigation water use rises only slightly (0.4% surface, 0.9% groundwater), but when baseline precipitation is evenly distributed, irrigation use jumps much more sharply (9.0% surface, 7.9% groundwater). That large gap between the two baseline scenarios is exactly the “highly sensitive to baseline concentration” pattern the conclusion describes.

✗ C) If baseline precipitation is somewhat concentrated, the amount of water entering aquifers will increase 4.9%, while the amount used for irrigation will increase 0.4% for surface water and 0.9% for groundwater.
This compares aquifer input to irrigation output within the same somewhat-concentrated row rather than comparing irrigation output across the two different baseline scenarios, so it doesn’t show the sensitivity the conclusion is about.

✗ D) If baseline precipitation is somewhat concentrated, water use for irrigation will decline by a small amount, whereas it will increase 11.0% for surface water and 9.0% for groundwater if baseline precipitation is evenly distributed.
This incorrectly claims irrigation use would decline under somewhat-concentrated baseline precipitation, when the table actually shows a small increase, not a decrease.

Correct answer: A) the English dialects spoken in the Upland South acquired their emphasis on the “r” sound from dialects spoken in Scotland.

✓ A) the English dialects spoken in the Upland South acquired their emphasis on the “r” sound from dialects spoken in Scotland.
Both regions share the same distinctive “r” pattern, and the Upland South was settled largely by people of Scottish ancestry. The logical conclusion is that the Upland South dialects inherited this feature from the dialects their Scottish-descended settlers originally spoke.

✗ B) emphasis on the “r” sound will eventually spread from English dialects spoken in the Upland South to dialects spoken elsewhere.
The text gives no evidence about future spread of the feature to other dialects; it only explains a shared feature's likely historical origin.

✗ C) the English dialects spoken in Scotland were influenced by dialects spoken in the Upland South.
This reverses the direction of influence implied by the colonization timeline — Scottish settlers arrived in the Upland South, not the other way around, so Scottish dialects influencing the Upland South is what's supported, not the reverse.

✗ D) people from Scotland abandoned their emphasis on the “r” sound after relocating to the Upland South.
This contradicts the text, which states that Upland South dialects still place the same emphasis on the “r” sound — the feature wasn’t abandoned, it persisted.

Correct answer: A) published

✓ A) published
The sentence needs a finite (tensed) main verb to complete its subject, “Nery and her colleagues.” “Published” is a simple past-tense verb that correctly serves as the sentence’s main action.

✗ B) publishing
“Publishing” is a nonfinite participle and cannot function alone as the sentence’s main verb, leaving the sentence without a complete predicate.

✗ C) having published
“Having published” is also a nonfinite form; it can’t stand as the sentence’s only verb and leaves the clause incomplete.

✗ D) to publish
“To publish” is an infinitive, not a finite verb, so it cannot serve as the main verb the sentence requires.

Correct answer: B) instrument

✗ A) instrument:
A colon here would incorrectly separate the subject from the verb that completes it; colons introduce explanations or lists, not a break mid-subject.

✓ B) instrument
The subject “the strings inside the instrument” is immediately followed by its verb “are plucked” — no punctuation belongs between a subject and its verb.

✗ C) instrument—
A dash would just as wrongly interrupt the subject-verb connection, creating an unnecessary and ungrammatical pause.

✗ D) instrument,
A comma between the subject and its verb creates the same error — there is no reason to separate “instrument” from “are plucked” here.

Correct answer: A) them

✓ A) them
The plural pronoun “them” correctly agrees in number with its plural antecedent, “the eating utensils” (table forks).

✗ B) this
“This” is singular and does not agree with the plural antecedent “utensils.”

✗ C) that
“That” is likewise singular and mismatches the plural noun it refers back to.

✗ D) it
“It” is also singular and cannot correctly stand in for the plural “utensils.”

Correct answer: C) sisters,

✗ A) sisters, and
Adding “and” here incorrectly treats the description as part of a list or compound structure rather than as a self-contained supplementary phrase that needs to be closed off with a comma.

✗ B) sisters and
Without any comma, the supplementary phrase runs directly into the rest of the sentence, failing to mark where the description ends.

✓ C) sisters,
The phrase “a fictionalized account of the lives of the Mirabal sisters” is a supplementary description of the novel and needs a comma on each side. The comma after “Butterflies” is already given, so the matching comma belongs right after “sisters.”

✗ D) sisters
Omitting the comma entirely leaves the boundary between the description and the main clause unmarked, which is ungrammatical for this kind of supplementary element.

Correct answer: B) dislodge, in part due to its sheer size:

✗ A) dislodge in part due to its sheer size,
Using a comma alone to join “...size” and “it’s...loaded” — two independent clauses — creates a comma splice, and it also fails to set off the supplementary phrase with an opening comma.

✓ B) dislodge, in part due to its sheer size:
A comma correctly separates the main clause (“The vessel took six days to dislodge”) from the supplementary detail (“in part due to its sheer size”), and the colon that follows properly introduces the second main clause explaining exactly how large the ship is.

✗ C) dislodge, in part due to its sheer size,
This also creates a comma splice between the two main clauses; a comma can’t join two independent clauses this way.

✗ D) dislodge, in part, due to its sheer size
This fuses the two main clauses with no punctuation or conjunction at all between them, producing a run-on sentence.

Correct answer: A) character Tamatoa the crab

✓ A) character Tamatoa the crab
“Tamatoa the crab” is a restrictive appositive that identifies exactly which character is meant, so no punctuation is needed; the phrase also sits directly before the verb “belongs,” which likewise takes no punctuation before it.

✗ B) character Tamatoa the crab,
The trailing comma incorrectly breaks the noun phrase away from the verb “belongs” that it needs to connect to directly.

✗ C) character: Tamatoa the crab,
The colon incorrectly suggests a full explanatory phrase is being introduced, and the added comma is equally unnecessary since the appositive is essential, not supplementary.

✗ D) character, Tamatoa the crab
The comma right after “character” wrongly separates the essential identifying phrase “Tamatoa the crab” from the noun it identifies.

Correct answer: C) underlie

✗ A) underlies
The singular verb “underlies” doesn’t agree in number with the plural subject “frameworks.”

✗ B) is underlying
“Is underlying” is also singular in form and mismatches the plural subject.

✓ C) underlie
The plural verb “underlie” correctly agrees with the plural subject “frameworks” (the true subject of the clause, separated from the verb by the parenthetical examples).

✗ D) has been underlying
“Has been underlying” is likewise a singular verb form and fails to agree with “frameworks.”

Correct answer: C) Serra, intending

✗ A) Serra is intending
“Is intending” is a finite verb form, and a sentence can’t have two finite main verbs (“is intending” and “assembles”) without a conjunction joining them.

✗ B) Serra, intends
“Intends” is also finite, creating the same problem: two competing main verbs with no comma pairing to mark a supplementary phrase.

✓ C) Serra, intending
The comma after “Serra” pairs with the comma after “environment” to set off the nonfinite participial phrase “intending his installations…environment” as a supplementary description, leaving “assembles” as the sentence’s one finite main verb.

✗ D) Serra intends
Without any commas, “intends” again functions as a second finite verb, leaving the sentence with two main verbs and no way to subordinate one of them.

Correct answer: B) Next,

✗ A) For example,
“For example” would treat the spraying as an illustration of scraping, but it’s a separate, sequential step, not an example of the first one.

✓ B) Next,
“Next” correctly signals that spraying water is the second step in a sequence, following the ice-scraping step and preceding the “lastly” smoothing step.

✗ C) Similarly,
“Similarly” implies the spraying resembles the scraping in some way, but the text is describing a chronological process, not a comparison.

✗ D) In contrast,
“In contrast” implies opposition between the two steps, but they’re simply sequential parts of the same resurfacing process, not contrasting ideas.

Correct answer: C) Later,

✗ A) Instead,
“Instead” would suggest the 2017 show replaced or was an alternative to the 2014 win, but the text presents both as sequential events in his career, not a substitution.

✗ B) For example,
“For example” would suggest the show is an instance of winning the competition, but it’s a distinct, later achievement, not an illustration of the earlier one.

✓ C) Later,
“Later” correctly places creating the 2017 show after winning the 2014 competition in a chronological sequence of Gomez’s career.

✗ D) In other words,
“In other words” signals a restatement of the same idea, but creating the show is a new, separate event, not a rephrasing of winning the competition.

Correct answer: D) For this reason,

✗ A) In contrast,
“In contrast” would suggest the SI opposes the idea of needing unchanging standards, but the SI was created precisely to meet that need, not to contradict it.

✗ B) Regardless,
“Regardless” implies the SI was developed despite the need for standards, which reverses the actual cause-and-effect relationship in the text.

✗ C) In addition,
“In addition” would present the SI as merely an extra, unrelated fact, when it is actually the direct consequence of the stated need for stable measurement standards.

✓ D) For this reason,
“For this reason” correctly signals that developing the SI was a direct response to scientists’ need for precise, unchanging measurement standards described in the previous sentence.

Correct answer: D) Accordingly,

✗ A) In other words,
“In other words” would suggest the second sentence just restates the first, but it instead describes a new research response that follows from that lesson.

✗ B) That said,
“That said” signals a contrast or concession, but the shift toward studying the proteome supports and follows from the earlier point rather than pushing back against it.

✗ C) For example,
“For example” would present the proteome research as a specific instance of the genome lesson, but it’s actually a broader strategic response to that lesson, not a single example of it.

✓ D) Accordingly,
“Accordingly” correctly signals that shifting research focus to the proteome is a logical consequence of the earlier lesson that genes are shaped by interactions with other genes’ protein products.

Correct answer: A) In 1037 CE, al-Biruni published his theory that a large landmass existed west of Europe and east of Asia.

✓ A) In 1037 CE, al-Biruni published his theory that a large landmass existed west of Europe and east of Asia.
This choice opens with “In 1037 CE,” directly stating the publication date, and then correctly identifies what was published — exactly accomplishing the stated goal of specifying when the theory was published.

✗ B) Al-Biruni, who studied Earth’s physical features, published a theory about a large landmass.
This mentions that al-Biruni studied Earth’s physical features and published a theory, but it never states the year 1037 CE, so it fails to specify when.

✗ C) Al-Biruni was an Iranian scholar who studied Earth’s physical features.
This only identifies al-Biruni as an Iranian scholar who studied Earth’s features; it never mentions publication or a date at all.

✗ D) An Iranian scholar who studied Earth’s physical features, al-Biruni theorized that a large landmass existed west of Europe and east of Asia.
This describes al-Biruni and his theory but omits the publication date entirely, failing to specify when the theory was published.

Correct answer: D) With a mass of 2.063 solar masses, Sirius A is more massive than the Sun.

✗ A) The mass of stars, like Proxima Centauri, can be described in units called solar masses.
This mentions solar masses as a unit and references Proxima Centauri, but it never mentions Sirius A at all.

✗ B) In astronomy, the mass of stars can be described in units called solar masses, and one solar mass is roughly equal to the mass of the Sun.
This defines solar masses and the Sun’s role as the baseline unit, but it never mentions Sirius A or its mass.

✗ C) The Sun is more massive than Proxima Centauri, which has a mass of 0.122 solar masses.
This emphasizes Proxima Centauri’s mass relative to the Sun, not Sirius A’s mass, so it doesn’t accomplish the stated goal.

✓ D) With a mass of 2.063 solar masses, Sirius A is more massive than the Sun.
This choice states Sirius A’s exact mass (2.063 solar masses) and highlights that it exceeds the Sun’s mass — directly emphasizing how massive Sirius A is, which is exactly the stated goal.

Correct answer: D) In first-class levers, the fulcrum is located between the effort and the load, but in second-class levers, the load is located between the effort and the fulcrum.

✗ A) In levers, the effort is the force applied to the lever; the load, in contrast, is the force that the lever exerts on another object.
This contrasts effort and load as general concepts, not first-class levers with second-class levers specifically.

✗ B) In first-class and second-class levers, the fulcrum and the load are in different locations.
This vaguely states the fulcrum and load are in “different locations” without specifying what those different arrangements actually are, so it fails to give a real contrast.

✗ C) First-class levers are simple machines consisting of a rigid beam and a fulcrum, but then again, the same is true of second-class levers.
This states a similarity (both are simple machines with a beam and fulcrum) rather than a contrast, so it doesn’t accomplish the stated goal.

✓ D) In first-class levers, the fulcrum is located between the effort and the load, but in second-class levers, the load is located between the effort and the fulcrum.
This choice states the specific, contrasting arrangement for each lever type — fulcrum-between-effort-and-load for first-class versus load-between-effort-and-fulcrum for second-class — giving a precise, direct contrast between the two.

Correct answer: A) P waves and S waves both travel beneath Earth’s surface, causing the ground to move.

✓ A) P waves and S waves both travel beneath Earth’s surface, causing the ground to move.
This states a feature both wave types share — traveling beneath Earth’s surface and causing ground motion — directly emphasizing a similarity between P waves and S waves, exactly as the goal requires.

✗ B) P waves travel away from an earthquake’s starting point at a higher rate of speed than do S waves.
This highlights that P waves are faster than S waves, which is a difference, not a similarity.

✗ C) Spreading out from the focus of an earthquake, P waves move the ground backward and forward.
This describes only P waves’ motion pattern; it says nothing about S waves, so it can’t emphasize a similarity between the two.

✗ D) Although P waves and S waves start at the same point, they behave very differently.
This explicitly emphasizes that the two wave types “behave very differently,” the opposite of the requested similarity.