Reading And Writing - Mix Up (Sample)

SAT Reading and Writing Practice Questions

Introduction

Welcome to this comprehensive set of SAT Reading and Writing practice questions. This collection is designed to help students prepare for the SAT by providing a range of questions that mirror those found on the actual test. The questions are organized into three main categories, each representing a crucial area of assessment in the SAT Reading and Writing section:

Standard English Conventions
Central Ideas and Details
Words in Context

Within each category, you'll find questions of varying difficulty, labeled as Easy, Medium, or Hard. This tiered approach allows for progressive learning and provides opportunities for students at different levels to engage with each topic.

Key features of this question set include:

Authentic Format: The questions are presented in a format similar to what you'll encounter on the actual SAT.
Varying Difficulty Levels: The inclusion of Easy, Medium, and Hard questions in each category allows for differentiated practice.
Diverse Topics: The passages cover a wide range of subjects, from history and science to literature and current events, reflecting the breadth of topics you might encounter on the SAT.
Skill-Specific Practice: Each category focuses on a specific skill tested on the SAT, allowing for targeted practice and improvement.

Whether you're just starting your SAT preparation or looking to refine your skills in the final stretch before the test, these questions offer valuable practice. Engage with these problems to sharpen your reading comprehension, improve your understanding of standard English conventions, and enhance your ability to interpret words in context.

Remember, while this set provides questions similar to those on the SAT, it doesn't include multiple-choice answers. Use these questions to practice your analytical skills and consider what possible correct answers might be. For the most accurate practice, combine these questions with official SAT practice tests.

Let's begin with our practice questions!

1. Standard English Conventions

Easy

Passage: The fine, powdery substance that covers the Moon's surface is called regolith. Because regolith is both readily available and high in oxygen ______ scientists have wondered whether it could be used as a potential source of oxygen for future lunar settlements.

Question: Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

Medium

Passage 1: The city of Pompeii, which was buried in ash following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, continues to be studied by archaeologists. Unfortunately, as ______ attest, archaeological excavations have disrupted ash deposits at the site, causing valuable information about the eruption to be lost.

Question: Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

Passage 2: Nine months before Rosa Parks made history by refusing to comply with the segregated seating policy on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, a fifteen-year-old Montgomery girl named Claudette Colvin was arrested for the same ______ to some historians, Colvin's arrest led to Parks's action and eventually to the desegregation of Montgomery's bus system.

Question: Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

Hard

Passage: To serve local families during the Great Depression, innovative New York City librarian Pura Belpré offered storytelling in both English and Spanish, an uncommon ______ celebrated el Día de los Tres Reyes Magos, an important community holiday; and put on puppet shows dramatizing Puerto Rican folktales.

Question: Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

2. Central Ideas and Details

Easy

Passage: Scent is tightly interwoven with our daily lives, often evoking significant memories and important social events. This connection is of growing interest to archaeologists who hope to use it to better understand ancient rituals, trade, social hierarchies, and medicine. Although the speed at which odor molecules dissipate makes identifying ancient scents challenging, advancements in biomolecular technologies show promise in unlocking ancient aromas from preserved artifacts. Archaeological studies making use of these advancements may provide new insights into past societies.

Question: What is the main idea of the passage?

Passage: In a paper about p-i-n planar perovskite solar cells (one of several perovskite cell architectures designed to collect and store solar power), Lyndsey McMillon-Brown et al. describe a method for fabricating the cell's electronic transport layer (ETL) using a spray coating. Conventional ETL fabrication is accomplished using a solution of nanoparticles. The process can result in a loss of up to 80% of the solution, increasing the cost of manufacturing at scale—an issue that may be obviated by spray coating fabrication, which the researchers describe as "highly reproducible, concise, and practical."

Question: According to the passage, why did Lyndsey McMillon-Brown and her team need to design a new method for fabricating the electronic transport layer of perovskite solar cells?

Medium

Passage: Utah is home to Pando, a colony of about 47,000 quaking aspen trees that all share a single root system. Pando is one of the largest single organisms by mass on Earth, but ecologists are worried that its growth is declining in part because of grazing by animals. The ecologists say that strong fences could prevent deer from eating young trees and help Pando start thriving again.

Question: Which choice best states the main idea of the passage?

Hard

Passage: Several scholars have argued that conditions in England in the late ninth through early eleventh centuries—namely, burgeoning literacy amid running conflicts between England's Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and Danish invaders—were especially conducive to the production of the Old English epic poem Beowulf, and they have dated the poem's composition accordingly. It is not inconceivable that Beowulf emerged from such a context, but privileging contextual fit over the linguistic evidence of an eighth- or even seventh-century composition requires a level of justification that thus far has not been presented.

Question: Which choice best states the main idea of the passage?

3. Words in Context

Easy

Passage 1: Dance choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar aims to give people the opportunity to be ______ her creative process. For example, live performances of her dance HairStories, which debuted in 2001, featured videos of people across the United States talking about their hair and audience members sharing pictures of their interesting hairstyles.