Digital PSAT Reading and Writing Practie Test 17

1

The Depression arrived at a moment in time in which Sweden was particularly ripe for comprehensive reform; in hopes of stabilizing a rapidly declining economy, the Swedish people elected the Social Democratic Party to power in 1932. ___________ contemporary socialist parties in Europe, Sweden's Social Democrats-rather than calling for the full socialization of private industry-made combating unemployment through bipartisan, interventionist legislation their main priority.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

2

For ten months while I was in high school, I lived with a host family in Germany. I attended tenth grade in a German upper school, traveled through northern Europe and, truth be told, learned a bit of German. ___________ a German student traveling to the U.S., staying with a host family, and attending school for the same amount of time seems to learn significantly more English.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

3

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

■ Humans are susceptible to infection by a variety of parasitic worms. These infections can be anywhere from a mild annoyance to life-threatening.

■ Dracunculiasis, also known as guinea worm disease, starts when the host drinks water contaminated with the parasite.

■ Incubation of the guinea worm can be a year and ends with a blister forming on the body. The blister becomes very painful as the parasite emerges. Hosts often put their body into water to ease the pain, which unfortunately stimulates the guinea worm to release larvae contaminating that water and perpetuating the cycle.

■ To remove the guinea worm from the body, the worm is slowly wound around a stick or bit of gauze or fabric until the worm exits the body.

The student wants to emphasize the possible range of severity that could result from a parasitic worm infection. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

4

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

■ Land conservation and land preservation are two different concepts.

■ Preservation focuses on keeping the land as it is as a sort of natural museum, unable to be used in any significant way by humanity. It preserves the nature as it is.

■ Conservation focuses on keeping lands usable for anyone who might want to experience the outdoors. It allows people to use the land for recreation and ensures that cities and other human growth do not destroy natural areas.

■ Teddy Roosevelt was one of the first proponents of conservationism in the United States. He started the National Parks System to ensure that generations of Americans could still see the wonders of the land.

The student wants to show a contrast between land preservation and land conservation. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

5

The housing bubble had finally burst. It wasn't just that a few people defaulted; rather, foreclosures were everywhere you looked. And, even worse, when the banks came by to collect the keys, the houses were now worth only fractions of what the banks lent for them. Consequently, they lost billions.

In the text, "The housing bubble had finally burst" means what happened?

6

David had just turned fourteen when, walking back from school, he heard the pathetic whimper. The puppy was small-obviously malnourished and feeble-and much too young to be away from its mother. David removed his jacket and coddled the pup against his chest as he walked briskly back to the Hardings, rehearsing what he might say. To his surprise, Mr. Harding's only requests were that David keep the frail animal in his own room.

As used in the text, the word "coddled" most nearly means

7

Regrettably, because of the second scribe's large and unwieldy penmanship, the poem's last ten lines or so would not fit on the parchment leaf and are thus lost to history. We are instead left with the compellingly _________ ending (roughly translated): "The white wood rang / Grimly as they hacked each other's shields / Until the linden slats grew lean and splintered / Broken by blades . . ."

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

8

It is easy to notice the endless changes in the recommendations about what foods and beverages people should consume. Coffee is a prime example-it falls out of grace on a regular basis, only to "become healthy" once again a few years later. The same is true of eggs, which are routinely vilified and then exonerated by researchers, regulators, and doctors. However, no food has ever so unjustly gained a bad reputation as dietary fat.

Which choice best states the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

9

The following text is from President Ronald Reagan's 1981 speech to Congress.

Almost 8 million Americans are out of work. These are people who want to be productive. But as the months go by, despair dominates their lives. The threats of layoff and unemployment hang over other millions, and all who work are frustrated by their inability to keep up with inflation.

One worker in a Midwest city put it to me this way: He said, "I'm bringing home more dollars than I ever believed I could possibly earn, but I seem to be getting worse off." And he is. Not only have hourly earnings of the American worker, after adjusting for inflation, declined 5 percent over the past 5 years, but in these 5 years, federal personal taxes for the average family have increased 67 percent.

The underlined quotation in the text primarily serves to

10

Text 1

When it comes to determining what makes a person who they are, a common debate is the effect of nature versus nurture. Are individuals more heavily influenced by their innate attributes or from the environment in which they grew up? The term nature refers to someone's genes and how biological family factors lead to their physical and personality traits. On the other hand, nurture describes how childhood and upbringing determine who an individual is as an adult.

Text 2

In previous years, the field of psychology was focused on whether individuals are the product of their nature or their nurture. However, the factors are not mutually exclusive. Psychologists today have recognized that both play interacting roles in an individual's development. Donald Hebb, a professional in the field, answered a question of, "Which, nature or nurture, contributes more to personality?" by responding with, "Which contributes more to the area of a rectangle, its length or its width?"

Based on the texts, what would Donald Hebb's attitude towards the presentation of information in Text 1 most likely be?