Question ID f0864217 3.

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Form, Structure,

Conventions and Sense

ID: f0864217
Rabinal Achí is a precolonial Maya dance drama performed annually in Rabinal, a town in the Guatemalan
highlands. Based on events that occurred when Rabinal was a city-state ruled by a king, ______ had once been an
ally of the king but was later captured while leading an invading force against him.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. Rabinal Achí tells the story of K’iche’ Achí, a military leader who
B. K’iche’ Achí, the military leader in the story of Rabinal Achí,
C. the military leader whose story is told in Rabinal Achí, K’iche’ Achí,
D. there was a military leader, K’iche’ Achí, who in Rabinal Achí
Question ID ea0aa676 3.2

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Form, Structure,

Conventions and Sense

ID: ea0aa676
In the 1970s, Janaki Ammal, a prominent botanist, emerged as a powerful voice in India’s environmental
conservation movement. Her exhaustive chromosomal survey of plants in Silent Valley, a pristine tropical forest in
Kerala, India, that is home to nearly 1,000 species of native flora (many of which are endangered), ______
instrumental in the government’s decision to preserve the forest.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. are
B. were
C. have been
D. was
Question ID dc645172 3.3

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Form, Structure,

Conventions and Sense

ID: dc645172
The artistic talents of Barbara Chase-Riboud, most known for her 1979 historical novel Sally Hemings and the
conversation it inspired, ______ limited to the realm of prose: she first excelled in sculpture, where her affinity for
bronze—a material she described as “timeless” due to its use across eras and cultures—became part of her
artistic identity.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. hasn’t been
B. wasn’t
C. isn’t
D. aren’t
Question ID 3bceeb93 3.4

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Form, Structure,

Conventions and Sense

ID: 3bceeb93
When they were first discovered in Australia in 1798, duck-billed, beaver-tailed platypuses so defied
categorization that one scientist assigned them the name Ornithorhynchus paradoxus: “paradoxical bird-snout.”
The animal, which lays eggs but also nurses ______ young with milk, has since been classified as belonging to the
monotremes group.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. they’re
B. their
C. its
D. it’s
Question ID dab8b8ee 3.5

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Form, Structure,

Conventions and Sense

ID: dab8b8ee
Known as Earth’s “living skin,” biocrusts are thin layers of soil held together by surface-dwelling microorganisms
such as fungi, lichens, and cyanobacteria. Fortifying soil in arid ecosystems against erosion, ______
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. a recent study’s estimate is that these crusts reduce global dust emissions by 60 percent each year.
B. an estimated 60 percent reduction in global dust emissions each year is due to these crusts, according to a
recent study.
C. these crusts reduce global dust emissions by an estimated 60 percent each year, according to a recent study.
D. a recent study has estimated that these crusts reduce global dust emissions by 60 percent each year.
Question ID 0fe5ce68 3.6

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Form, Structure,

Conventions and Sense

ID: 0fe5ce68
Ten of William Shakespeare’s plays are classified as histories. Although each one of these plays, which include
Henry V and Richard III, ______ on a single historical figure (specifically, an English king), some, such as Henry VI
Part One and Henry VI Part Two, feature different episodes from the same monarch’s life.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. focuses
B. focus
C. are focused
D. were focused
Question ID 5b8f9cf2 3.7

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Form, Structure,

Conventions and Sense

ID: 5b8f9cf2
In the canon of North African literature, Moroccan author Driss Chraïbi’s 1954 novel The Simple Past (Le Passé
simple) looms large. A coming-of-age story, a social meditation, and a sober gaze into the dark maw of French
colonialism, ______ interrogates systemic power with memorable intensity.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. Morocco gained its independence two years before the publication of Chraïbi’s debut novel, which
B. Chraïbi’s debut novel, published two years before Morocco gained its independence,
C. Chraïbi wrote a debut novel that, published two years before Morocco gained its independence,
D. published two years before Morocco gained its independence, Chraïbi wrote a debut novel that
Question ID de3dd17d 3.8

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Form, Structure,

Conventions and Sense

ID: de3dd17d
Planetary scientist Briony Horgan and her colleagues have determined that as much as 25 percent of the sand on
Mars is composed of impact spherules. These spherical bits of glass form when asteroids collide with the planet,
ejecting bits of molten rock into the atmosphere that, after cooling and solidifying into glass, ______ back onto
Mars’s surface.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. to rain
B. raining
C. having rained
D. rain
Question ID 61160f0a 3.9

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Form, Structure,

Conventions and Sense

ID: 61160f0a
Author Madeline L’Engle, ______ to create a suspenseful tone that draws the reader in, begins her novel A Wrinkle
in Time with descriptions of “wraithlike shadows” and “the frenzied lashing of the wind.”
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. looked
B. looks
C. is looking
D. looking
Question ID d46ac7e7 3.10

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Form, Structure,

Conventions and Sense

ID: d46ac7e7
A second-generation Japanese American, Wataru Misaka ______ in World War II (1941-45) and won two amateur
national basketball championships at the University of Utah when he joined the New York Knicks for the 1947-48
season, becoming the first non-white basketball player in the US’s top professional league.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. already served
B. was already serving
C. already serves
D. had already served
Question ID 50801257 3.11

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Form, Structure,

Conventions and Sense

ID: 50801257
In 1994, almost 200 years after the death of Wang Zhenyi, the International Astronomical ______ the contributions
of the barrier-breaking 18th-century astronomer and author of “Dispute of the Procession of the Equinoxes,”
naming a crater on Venus after her.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. Union would finally acknowledge
B. Union to finally acknowledge
C. Union, having finally acknowledged
D. Union, finally acknowledging
Question ID a14eef71 3.12

Assessment Test Domain Skill Difficulty

SAT Reading and Writing Standard English Form, Structure,

Conventions and Sense

ID: a14eef71
In 2015, a team led by materials scientists Anirudha Sumant and Diana Berman succeeded in reducing the
coefficient of friction (COF) between two surfaces to the lowest possible level—superlubricity. A nearly
frictionless (and, as its name suggests, extremely slippery) state, ______
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. when their COF drops below 0.01, two surfaces reach superlubricity.
B. two surfaces, when their COF drops below 0.01, reach superlubricity.
C. reaching superlubricity occurs when two surfaces’ COF drops below 0.01.
D. superlubricity is reached when two surfaces’ COF drops below 0.01.