SAT Practice 15 module 1

The following text is adapted from Yaa Gyasi’s 2016 novel Homegoing. Effia, a young woman in 18th-century Ghana, is being prepared for an arranged marriage.

Effia’s mother smoothed her daughter’s hair and whispered blessings that swelled in the quiet of the room like the tide before a storm.

The ______ to physicist Chien-Shiung Wu’s contributions to experimental nuclear physics was slow to emerge; though her work was pivotal, recognition lagged behind that of her male peers.

Entomologist Sheila Patek’s research on mantis shrimp behavior was originally ______ her curiosity about how animals convert energy into rapid mechanical motion, leading to the discovery that the shrimp’s strike is among the fastest in the animal kingdom.

Studies on the Himalayan marmot reveal that its hibernation cycles are finely tuned to environmental cues, suggesting that its dormancy patterns are ______ seasonal variation rather than random temperature changes.

The text states: “Unlike territorial damselfish species that segregate by sex, C. atripectoralis exhibits no sexual partitioning of refuge space.”

A 2018 study by Chen et al. reported that exposure to microplastic particles (≤5mm) induced significant neurobehavioral deficits in zebrafish larvae, including reduced phototaxis and erratic swimming patterns. However, a 2023 meta-analysis by K. R. Al-Mansoori et al. re-examined 27 studies on microplastic toxicity in teleosts and found that studies with sample sizes under n = 15 exhibited effect sizes 3.2 times larger than those with n ≥ 30, a disparity consistent with publication bias and low statistical power. Al-Mansoori cautions that small-n designs may overstate ecological risks, potentially skewing policy decisions.

Contrary to classic optimal-foraging models, which posit that pollinators maximize energy intake by preferentially visiting high-nectar-reward flowers, recent fieldwork in the Andean páramo by Dr. Lucía Rojas reveals that the sword-billed hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera)—possessing a bill longer than its body—exclusively visits Passiflora mixta, a passionflower with an exceptionally long corolla tube, despite the presence of sympatric Fuchsia species offering higher sugar concentrations. Rojas demonstrates that E. ensifera cannot physically access nectar in shorter flowers due to biomechanical constraints, rendering nectar volume and concentration ecologically irrelevant in its foraging decisions. This suggests that morphological specialization can override energetic optimization in mutualistic networks.

The “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” (GPGP) is a vast collection of marine debris, primarily microplastics, in the North Pacific Ocean. While the environmental impact of the plastics themselves is well-documented, a secondary threat has emerged: “neo-plasticrafts.” These are floating plastic pieces that have been colonized by coastal marine organisms, effectively creating artificial rafts that transport species across oceanic barriers that they could not otherwise cross. Dr. Linus Chen and his team hypothesized that the increased surface area and durability of newer, more porous plastic polymers have accelerated the creation of these neo-plasticrafts, facilitating the establishment of invasive species on distant shores. They posited that these newer polymers, by mimicking the complex surface texture of natural pumice or driftwood more effectively, provide a superior substrate for larval settlement and long-term survival during transit.

The “Mandela Effect” is a pop-culture term for when a large group of people shares a false memory of a specific detail or event. Psychologist Dr. Anya Sharma theorizes that this phenomenon is not merely a sign of faulty individual memory, but is often a socially constructed artifact. She suggests that when a compelling, though incorrect, piece of information is introduced within a community—for instance, the widespread belief that the Monopoly Man wears a monocle, when he does not—it can create a cognitive echo chamber. Through repeated social reinforcement in online forums and conversations, the false memory is validated and strengthened, becoming a “shared fact” for the group. Dr. Sharma argues that the initial source of the misinformation is less important than the social processes that cement it.

The Antikythera mechanism, an ancient Greek analog computer discovered in a shipwreck, was used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses. For decades, scholars debated its exact purpose and complexity. Recent high-resolution imaging has revealed previously hidden inscriptions describing the motions of the planets. Researchers from the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project noted that the device’s gearing system includes a complex assembly of interlocking bronze gears that model the irregular “retrograde” motion of Mars. This was a significant feat of engineering, as a simple, fixed-gear system could only model uniform circular motion.

The researchers therefore concluded that the creators of the mechanism must have understood that ______.

The discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider in 2012 was a landmark event in particle physics. The Higgs boson ______ a crucial role in the Standard Model of particle physics by explaining how other fundamental particles acquire mass.

The field of synthetic biology, which involves redesigning organisms for useful purposes by engineering them to have new abilities, ______ rapidly in the last two decades, leading to innovations such as bacteria engineered to produce biofuels and viruses reprogrammed to fight antibiotic-resistant infections.

The Library of Celsus in Ephesus, an ancient Roman building built in the 2nd century AD, was a monumental tomb for Gaius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus as well as a library, with its facade meticulously reconstructed in the 1970s, ______ one of the most iconic ruins of the ancient world.

The Burgess Shale Formation, a renowned fossil-bearing deposit high in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, provides an unparalleled glimpse into the Cambrian explosion. The exceptional preservation of soft-bodied organisms in its shale ______ single quarry like this, argues paleontologist Simon Conway Morris, can fundamentally reshape our understanding of early animal evolution.

The concept of orogenic collapse describes the gravitational spreading of a mountain belt after the forces that built it have ceased. Having experienced widespread extensional faulting and the formation of metamorphic core complexes 40 million years ago, ______

The transit photometry method, a powerful technique for detecting and characterizing exoplanets, has identified celestial bodies with a wide range of orbital periods: ______ the ultra-short-period planet TOI-1685 b, with an orbit of just 0.69 days; the Jupiter-sized HD 209458 b, which transits every 3.5 days; and, most recently, a handful of potential exomoons whose signals are still being verified.

Dr. Aris Thorne, a materials scientist and master blacksmith, dedicated years to deciphering the metallurgical secrets behind the legendary strength and flexibility of Damascus steel. The precise smelting and forging process, which the ancient ______ developed between the 3rd and 17th centuries, was lost for generations.

On June 21, 2022, a team of hydrologists—Dr. Elena Vance, Dr. Ben Carter, and Anya Sharma—deployed a series of sensors to monitor the unprecedented meltwater pulse from the Greenland Ice Sheet. At station Gamma, the site closest to the calving front of the Helheim Glacier, water turbidity levels shifted dramatically over a six-hour period, recording ______ and 124 Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU) at 5:00 p.m.

Astrophysicists studying the anomalous orbital decay of a binary pulsar system initially hypothesized that the phenomenon was due to gravitational wave emission, a prediction perfectly in line with Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Their subsequent analysis of the energy loss, however, revealed a discrepancy far too significant to be explained by known physics. ______, they were forced to consider the involvement of a novel form of energy loss or an unobserved celestial body influencing the system.

Many contemporary artists working with digital media strive to create works that are inherently “digital,” often emphasizing glitch aesthetics, algorithmic generation, or interactivity. The renowned new media artist Rafaël Rozendaal, ______, operates on a principle that subverts this trend; he frequently creates digital artworks that function as single, stable, and collectible entities, often sold as websites with unique domain names.

A recent meta-analysis in cognitive psychology confirms that distributed practice—spacing out study sessions over time—is markedly more effective for long-term retention than massed practice, or “cramming.” ______, the analysis suggests that the optimal spacing interval is not fixed but increases gradually as the test date approaches, a nuance often overlooked in practical application.

The concept of a “memory palace” is a mnemonic device with ancient origins, formally detailed in classical rhetorical texts. ______ it was a central technique employed by the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter in Thomas Harris’s novel Hannibal, demonstrating how esoteric historical knowledge can be effectively repurposed for modern character development.

Notes:

·         Ptolemy II Philadelphus (309-246 BC) was a Hellenistic king of Egypt.

·         The Septuagint is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.

·         According to the Letter of Aristeas, Ptolemy II commissioned the Septuagint for the Library of Alexandria.

·         The Library of Alexandria was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world.

The student wants to present a historically significant project commissioned by Ptolemy II.