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SAT Reading Practice Questions

This document contains 9 sample sentence completion questions from the SAT reading section. For each question, the passage provides the full sentence with one word blanked out. There are 5 answer choices to fill in the blank, and an explanation is given for the correct answer. The questions cover a range of difficulty levels and topics such as history, literature, vocabulary and grammar.

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Irasdinar Yugitama Irawan
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190 views

SAT Reading Practice Questions

This document contains 9 sample sentence completion questions from the SAT reading section. For each question, the passage provides the full sentence with one word blanked out. There are 5 answer choices to fill in the blank, and an explanation is given for the correct answer. The questions cover a range of difficulty levels and topics such as history, literature, vocabulary and grammar.

Uploaded by

Irasdinar Yugitama Irawan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SAT Reading Practice Questions

Sentence
Completion
1Your answer (A) Incorrect!
Because King Philip's desire to make Spain the dominant
power in sixteenth-century Europe ran counter to Queen
Elizabeth's insistence on autonomy for England, -------
was -------.

(A) reconciliation . . assured Your Answer


(B) warfare . . avoidable
(C) ruination . . impossible
(D) conflict . . inevitable
(E) diplomacy . . simple
Explanation
Difficulty: Hard
The word "because" indicates that the information in the
first part of the sentence (the part before the comma)
explains the reason for the situation described in the
second part. The first part states that what King Philip
wanted (domination for Spain) "ran counter to" what
Queen Elizabeth wanted (independence for England).
Choice (D) logically completes the sentence: Given that
there was such a fundamental disagreement between the
two monarchs, "conflict" would likely be "inevitable," or
unavoidable.
2Your answer (D) Incorrect!
There is no doubt that Larry is a genuine ------- : he excels
at telling stories that fascinate his listeners.

(A) braggart
(B) dilettante
(C) pilferer
(D) prevaricator Your Answer
(E) raconteur
Explanation
Difficulty: Hard
The structure of this sentence indicates that the words
after the colon define or directly clarify what came before.
The phrase "he excels at telling stories that fascinate his
listeners" serves to define the missing word. Choice (E),
"raconteur," is the only word that describes someone who
excels at storytelling.
3Your answer (E) Incorrect!
A discerning publishing agent can ------- promising
material from a mass of submissions, separating the good
from the bad.

(A) supplant
(B) dramatize
(C) finagle
(D) winnow
(E) overhaul Your Answer
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
To "winnow" is to sort through and select the desirable
part of something or to get rid of the unwanted or
undesirable part. If the publishing agent goes through the
submissions, "separating the good from the bad," then he
or she can be said to be winnowing "promising material
from a mass of submissions."
4Your answer (C) Correct!
Although some think the terms "bug" and "insect"
are ------- , the former term actually refers to ------- group
of insects.

(A) parallel . . an identical


(B) precise . . an exact
(C) interchangeable . . a particular Your Answer
(D) exclusive . . a separate
(E) useful . . a useless
Explanation
Difficulty: Easy
The word "although" indicates that the two parts of the
sentence contrast with each other: although most people
think about the terms "bug" and "insect" one way,
something else is actually true about the terms. Choice (C)
logically completes the sentence, indicating that while
most people think the terms are "interchangeable," the
term "bug" actually refers to a "particular" group of
insects.
5Your answer (B) Incorrect!
The novel's protagonist, a pearl diver, navely expects that
the buyers will compete among themselves to pay him the
best price for his pearl, but instead
they ------- to ------- him.

(A) venture . . reward


(B) pretend . . praise Your Answer
(C) conspire . . reimburse
(D) refuse . . cheat
(E) collude . . swindle
Explanation
Difficulty: Hard
The sentence states that the pearl diver expected one kind
of behavior from the buyers, but instead they behaved in a
different way. Since the pearl diver expected the buyers to
"compete among themselves to pay him the best price,"
the correct answer must be two words that make the last
clause describe an opposite situation. Choice (E) is the
best answer: Instead of competing to pay the pearl diver
the best price, the buyers colluded (or plotted) to "swindle"
him.
6Your answer (E) Correct!
The addition of descriptive details to the basic information
serves to ------- the book by producing a fuller account.

(A) invalidate
(B) objectify
(C) incite
(D) celebrate
(E) enrich Your Answer
Explanation
Difficulty: Easy
To "enrich" something is to expand or enhance it. Choice
(E) is correct because adding "descriptive details" to "basic
information" would enrich a book. This interpretation is
reinforced by the conclusion of the sentence, which refers
to "a fuller account" as a result of the addition.
7Your answer (A) Correct!
Ramona had never visited Niagara Falls, but she could
appreciate their splendor ------- through the descriptions
of others.

(A) vicariously Your Answer


(B) heedlessly
(C) innocuously
(D) mystically
(E) voluminously
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
Ramona hadnt visited Niagara Falls but "could appreciate
their splendor," so the word that fills the blank must be an
adverb whose definition has to do with appreciating
something indirectly, "through the descriptions of others"
(based on their experiences). Choice (A) is correct because
to experience something "vicariously" is to experience it
through imaginative participation in the actual experience
of someone else.
8Your answer (E) Correct!
Members of the research team were initially so adversarial
that ------- seemed impossible; the project's inauspicious
start made its final success all the more ------- .

(A) concentration . . incidental


(B) disagreement . . incongruous
(C) collaboration . . predictable
(D) hostility . . dazzling
(E) cooperation . . remarkable Your Answer
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
Choice (E) is the only pair of words that logically
completes this sentence. The "adversarial" attitude of the
team members would suggest that working together would
be quite difficult, or that "cooperation" would be
"impossible"; given the project's bad start, its ultimate
success would be "remarkable" because nobody would
have expected it.
9Your answer (C) Incorrect!
Joshua's radical ideas were frowned on by most of his
coworkers, who found them too------- for their
conservative tastes.

(A) heretical
(B) meticulous
(C) precise Your Answer
(D) incoherent
(E) sagacious
Explanation
Difficulty: Medium
Joshua's colleagues are described as having "conservative
tastes" and frowning on his "radical ideas." Such
colleagues are likely to find Joshua's ideas too "heretical,"
or too divergent or different from conventional beliefs and
standards. Choice (A), then, is the best answer.

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