All New SAT Writing and Language Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #311 : New Sat
Toilet used gallons of water in the last hour and uses gallon of water per flush. If Toilet was flushed the same amount, but uses gallons per flush, how much water did Toilet use?
gallons
gallons
gallons
gallons
gallons
gallons
First you must figure out the proportion . You then cross multiple to get meaning that Toilet uses gallons.
Example Question #312 : New Sat
The length of an arc, , of a circle is and the radius, , of the circle is . What is the measure in degrees of the central angle, , formed by the arc ?
The circumference of the circle is .
The length of the arc S is .
A ratio can be established:
Solving for yields 90o.
Note: This makes sense. Since the arc S was one-fourth the circumference of the circle, the central angle formed by arc S should be one-fourth the total degrees of a circle.
Example Question #144 : Probability
Below is a table of earnings from playing blackjack.
Find the rate at which this is depreciating at each month.
To determine what the rate is, we need to divide the proceeding value by the preceding value, for instance.
If we do this for the rest of the values, we will get the common ratio of .
Example Question #313 : New Sat
Below is a table of earnings from playing blackjack.
Find the equation of depreciation.
In general, an equation of depreciation looks like the following.
, where is the starting amount, is the common ratio, and is time.
For us , , and .
Example Question #2 : Data Analysis
What is the average number of apples a student has?
To calculate the average number of apples a student has, the following formula is used.
First, calculate the total number of apples there are. To do this multiply the number of apples by the number of students that have that many apples.
This number divided by the total number of students.
Example Question #314 : New Sat
Find the Ratio of Solution 1 to Solution 2 in the following quadratic equation, where Solution 1 is and is a constant.
The first step is to solve for , so we will plug in the solution.
So our quadratic equation becomes
Since we know one solution, we can do synthetic division to figure out the other solution.
We can guess and check for the other solution which is , so in equation form we have
The ratio is then .
Example Question #1 : Grammar: Pronouns And Verbs
Without earthworms, modern land-based ecosystems would look very different. There 1 are no way to predict the exact changes that would exist without earthworms, but it is easy to recognize earthworms’ impact. As research continues into the effect of earthworms, scientists are confident that it will show an even more complex picture of the earthworm’s contribution to the land-based ecosystem.
NO CHANGE
is
was
has been
is
Whenever you have an inverted sentence like this one, remember that the subject comes directly after the verb (as long as what follows isn't a prepositional phrase!). In this case, that means that the subject of the sentence is "no way", a singular subject. That means that the answer must be either "was", "is", or "has been". To distinguish between them, look at the tense in the rest of the sentence. You must use "is" to keep the sentence in the present tense to match the rest of the sentence.
Example Question #1 : Tense And Timeline
The Sagrada Familia has stood, incomplete, as part of the Barcelona skyline since the early phases of its construction in 1882. The project, originally intended to be a cathedral in the gothic style, was begun by the bookseller Joseph Maria Bocabella under the direction of the architect Francisco de Paula del Villar. Del Villar and Bocabella imagined a basilica modeled on the Gothic revival churches Bocabella had seen on trips to Italy. However, Bocabella’s ideal basilica never came to be. In 1883 del Villar resigned from the project, and 30-year old Antoni Gaudi, a young but already well known architect from Catalonia, took over as lead architect.
Gaudi 1 decided that departing from del Villar’s original Gothic design in favor of a more modern design. The new design was ambitious, featuring eighteen tall spires and four different facades on different sides of the basilica. But work on the new building was slow. Decades passed, and the work was still incomplete. In 1915, Gaudi - now 63 years old - abandoned all other work in favor of dedicating himself to the completion of the monumental church, but progress on the building was still slow. When pressured to speed up work on the monumental building, Gaudi was said to have replied, “My client is not in a hurry.” By the time Gaudi died in 1926, the basilica was only somewhere between 15 and 20 percent complete.
deciding to depart
NO CHANGE
decided to depart
deciding in favor of departing
decided to depart
Whenever you are choosing between different forms of the main verb of a sentence, you should check to make sure that the resulting sentence is in the appropriate tense and that it leaves a complete sentence. In this case, the given sentence is incomplete: if you are "deciding that departing" from a course of action, you are left without a main verb in the sentence and don't have a complete sentence. This means that choice, NO CHANGE, can be eliminated. The same logic can be used to eliminate "deciding in favor of departing" and "deciding to depart" since both will leave you with an incomplete sentence. Only choice, "decided to depart" leaves you with a complete sentence in the appropriate tense.
Example Question #2 : Grammar: Pronouns And Verbs
Invertebrates are animals without vertebrae. Arthropods, including arachnids that has eight legs, are in this phylum. Some species in this phylum include scorpions, spiders, and ticks. There are over 45,000 known species of spiders; however, scientists estimate that the same number are still undiscovered.
NO CHANGE
had
have had
have
have
With plural nouns, you need to make sure your verb agrees with your subject. In this modifier, "arachnids" is the subject, meaning the verb tense of "to have" needs to be conjugated to agree with the plural subject of "arachnids." "Have" is the only appropriate answer to this question because it not only agrees with the plural subject; it also carries the correct tense, which in this sentence is the present tense. "Have had" and "Had" are both in the past tense and do not work with this passage's tense and meaning. "Has" is incorrect because it does not agree with the plural "arachnids."
Example Question #3 : Grammar: Pronouns And Verbs
Music has been around for all of human history, and many cultures have their own styles and instruments. Recently, researchers have identified what are believed to be the oldest musical instruments in the world. Scientists has used carbon dating to discover that flutes made from bird bone and mammoth ivory found in southern Germany were between 42,000 and 43,000 years old.
used
have use
has use
NO CHANGE
used
In this passage, the verb does not need to be conjugated to the present perfect tense, which is done by adding “have” or “has,” since the verb is not ongoing “Used” is the correct option because it is the preterite of “use” which expresses a past action or state. “Have use,” “has use,” and “has used” are all conjugated incorrectly for the plural noun “scientists” and do not agree with the plural noun. “Used” is the only option that both correctly agrees with the plural noun and expresses a timeline that is logical.