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SAT Command of Evidence (Medium) - English – Real Collegeboard Practice Questions with Answers and Explanations

SAT Command of Evidence (Medium) - English – Real Collegeboard Practice Questions with Answers and Explanations

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“Ghosts of the Old Year” is an early 1900s poem by James Weldon Johnson.


In the poem, the speaker describes experiencing an ongoing cycle of anticipation followed by regretful reflection: ______ Which quotation from “Ghosts of the Old Year” most effectively illustrates the claim?

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In the 1970s, a roughly 60,000-year-old piece of hyena bone marked with nine notches was discovered at a site in western France once inhabited by Neanderthals. Although many believe that only modern humans developed systems for notating numbers, one archaeologist asserts that this artifact may be a sign that Neanderthals also recorded numerical information. The notches on the bone are unevenly spaced but approximately parallel, and microscopic analysis reveals that they were made with a single stone tool; according to the archaeologist, this suggests that the notches were all made at one time by one individual as a means of counting something.


Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the underlined claim?

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In 1967 the US Congress created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which in turn created National Public Radio (NPR). NPR began producing and distributing high-quality news and cultural programming to affiliate stations across the United States in 1971. In a research paper, a student claims that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and NPR were inspired by the British Broadcasting System (BBC), which had been established in the 1920s.


Which quotation from a work by a historian would be the most effective evidence for the student to include in support of this claim?

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600 550 500 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 Number of suggestions additive neither additive nor subtractive subtractive invalid Suggestions for Improving a University suggestion type Gabrielle Adams and colleagues reviewed suggestions for improving a university that had been submitted to the university’s president. They coded each suggestion as additive (the idea suggested adding something new to the university), subtractive (the idea suggested removing something from the university), neither additive nor subtractive, or invalid (the idea was not comprehensible).


The data illustrated people’s tendency to overlook the possibility of removing things to achieve improvements: ______ Which choice most effectively uses data in the graph to complete the statement?

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Although most songbirds build open, cupped nests, some species build domed nests with roofs that provide much more protection. Many ecologists have assumed that domed nests would provide protection from weather conditions and thus would allow species that build them to have larger geographic ranges than species that build open nests do. To evaluate this assumption, a research team led by evolutionary biologist Iliana Medina analyzed data for over 3,000 species of songbirds.


Which finding from Medina and her colleagues’ study, if true, would most directly challenge the assumption in the underlined sentence?

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Five of the Responses to Survey about Actions to Conserve Energy Action Action category Percentage of respondents selecting action (%) Use efficient cars/hybrids efficiency 2.8 Change thermostat setting curtailment 6.3 Use bike or public transportation instead of car curtailment 12.9 Use efficient light bulbs efficiency 3.6 Turn off lights curtailment 19.6 In a survey of public perceptions of energy use, researcher Shahzeen Attari and her team asked respondents to name the most effective action ordinary people can take to conserve energy. The team categorized each action as either an efficiency or a curtailment and found that respondents tended to name curtailments more often than they did efficiencies.


For example, 19.6% of respondents stated that the most effective way to conserve energy is to turn off the lights, while only ______ Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the text?

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Born in 1891 to a Quechua-speaking family in the Andes Mountains of Peru, Martín Chambi is today considered to be one of the most renowned figures of Latin American photography. In a paper for an art history class, a student claims that Chambi’s photographs have considerable ethnographic value—in his work, Chambi was able to capture diverse elements of Peruvian society, representing his subjects with both dignity and authenticity.


Which finding, if true, would most directly support the student’s claim?

8 / 36

An Ideal Husband is an 1895 play by Oscar Wilde.


In the play, which is a satire, Wilde suggests that a character named Lady Gertrude Chiltern is perceived as both extremely virtuous and unforgiving, as is evident when another character says ______ Which quotation from An Ideal Husband most effectively illustrates the claim?

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45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Yield (pounds per acre) 2017 2018 2019 Cantaloupe Yield Year control nitrogen fertilizer To test the effects of a nitrogen fertilizer on cantaloupe production, researchers grew cantaloupe plants and harvested their fruit over three years. In each year, half the plants were grown using a nitrogen fertilizer, and the other half were grown using a control fertilizer that contained no nitrogen. The researchers concluded that the nitrogen fertilizer increases cantaloupe yield.


Which choice best describes data in the graph that support the researchers’ conclusion?

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Participants’ Evaluation of the Likelihood That Robots Can Work Effectively in Different Occupations Occupation Somewhat or very unlikely (%) Neutral (%) Somewhat or very likely (%) television news anchor 24 9 67 teacher 37 16 47 firefighter 62 9 30 surgeon 74 9 16 tour guide 10 8 82 Rows in table may not add up to 100 due to rounding. Georgia Tech roboticists De’Aira Bryant and Ayanna Howard, along with ethicist Jason Borenstein, were interested in people’s perceptions of robots’ competence. They recruited participants and asked them how likely they think it is that a robot could do the work required in various occupations.


Participants’ evaluations varied widely depending on which occupation was being considered; for example, ______ Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the example?

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Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Héctor Tobar has built a multifaceted career as both a journalist and an author of short stories and novels. In an essay about Tobar’s work, a student claims that Tobar blends his areas of expertise by applying journalism techniques to his creation of works of fiction.


Which quotation from a literary critic best supports the student’s claim?

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90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Percent of newly installed turbines 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Rotor Diameters of Newly Installed Wind Turbines in the United States, 2011–2021 Year >130 meters <100 meters 100–115 meters 115–130 meters All other things being equal, the larger a wind turbine’s rotor diameter (the diameter of the imaginary circle swept by the turbine’s rotating blades), the greater amount of energy the turbine can generate. In a research paper on wind power, a student claims that in the United States, the amount of energy generated per newly installed turbine increased substantially between 2011 and 2021.


Which choice best describes data in the graph that support the student’s claim?

13 / 36

Jan Gimsa, Robert Sleigh, and Ulrike Gimsa have hypothesized that the sail-like structure running down the back of the dinosaur Spinosaurus aegyptiacus improved the animal’s success in underwater pursuits of prey species capable of making quick, evasive movements. To evaluate their hypothesis, a second team of researchers constructed two battery-powered mechanical models of S. aegyptiacus, one with a sail and one without, and subjected the models to a series of identical tests in a water-filled tank.


Which finding from the model tests, if true, would most strongly support Gimsa and colleagues’ hypothesis?

14 / 36

E-book Sales as a Percentage of Total Unit Sales in All Book Formats for a Large US Trade Publisher, by Genre, 2006, 2011, 2016 Genre 2006 2011 2016 science fiction and fantasy 0.6 27.7 36.7 cookbooks 0 2.9 10.5 travel guides 0 5.5 24.6 romance 0.3 40.6 56.2 E-books became an increasingly popular means of reading in the United States in the 2000s and 2010s, though that popularity was concentrated in titles that, like those in most fiction genres, are meant to be read straight through from beginning to end. For books in nonfiction genres that do not tell stories and require the reader to flip back and forth through a volume, e-books were significantly less commercially successful.


This can be seen by comparing ______ Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to illustrate the claim?

15 / 36

“Odalie” is an 1899 short story by Alice Dunbar-Nelson. In the story, a young woman named Odalie attends the annual Mardi Gras carnival in New Orleans, where she lives with her guardian Tante Louise.


Dunbar-Nelson portrays Odalie as eager to escape the monotony of her everyday life: ______ Which quotation from “Odalie” most effectively illustrates the claim?

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1,500 1,000 500 0 Number of beam breaks -4 10 24 38 52 66 80 94 108 122 136 150 Number of Infrared Beam Breaks by Mice Treated with CNO or Saline, by Sex Minutes from treatment females with saline males with saline males with CNO females with CNO To investigate the influence of certain estrogen-responsive neurons on energy expenditure, biologist Stephanie Correa et al. treated female and male mice with either saline solution or clozapine-N4-oxide (CNO), which activates the neurons. Monitoring the activity levels of the mice by measuring how frequently the animals broke infrared beams crossing their enclosures, Correa et al.


found that the mice in their study showed sex-specific differences in response to neuron activation: ______ Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to complete the assertion?

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Body Length, Filter Time, and Lunges per Dive for Four Whale Species Whale species Typical adult body length (meters) Average time to filter all engulfed water (seconds) Average number of lunges per dive deeper than 50 meters fin 18–22 31.30 3.95 humpback 11–17 17.12 6.28 minke 7–10 8.88 7.48 blue 24–34 60.27 4.02 Some whale species practice lunge feeding, in which they lunge toward prey with their mouths open at wide angles, collect the prey and the surrounding water, and then filter out the water through baleen plates in their mouths.


Although the volume of water engulfed increases with whales’ body length, the surface area of whales’ baleen plates, which influences the rate at which water can be filtered, does not increase with body length to the same degree, which helps explain why ______ Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement?

18 / 36

“On Virtue” is a 1766 poem by Phillis Wheatley.


Wheatley addresses the poem directly to the quality of virtue, imploring it to assist her in reaching a future goal: ______ Which quotation from “On Virtue” most effectively illustrates the claim?

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Matthew D. Rocklage and team examined whether consumer ratings of movies can predict box office success. The team considered both numeric star ratings and written reviews in their research. To analyze the written reviews, the team measured the emotionality—the degree to which a written review expresses an emotional reaction—of user reviews on a movie rating website, assigning each review an emotionality score. After reviewing this research, a student argues that the emotionality of movie reviews is unrelated to a movie’s success at the box office.


Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the student’s conclusion?

20 / 36

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Percent of population living in cities 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 Urban Population of Algeria, France, Japan, and Nigeria Year Algeria France Japan Nigeria The share of the world’s population living in cities has increased dramatically since 1970, but this change has not been uniform. France and Japan, for example, were already heavily urbanized in 1970, with 70% or more of the population living in cities.


The main contributors to the world’s urbanization since 1970 have been countries like Algeria, whose population went from ______ Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to complete the assertion?

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Average Nitrate and Phosphate Concentrations in Seawater after Volcanic Eruption Nutrient Seawater in lava- affected area, 5– 45 meters below surface Seawater in lava- affected area, 75– 125 meters below surface Seawater outside of lava-affected area, 5–45 meters below surface Seawater outside of lava-affected area, 75–125 meters below surface Nitrate (micromoles per liter) 3.1 0.4 ≤0.03 ≤0.01 Phosphate (micromoles per liter) 0.17 0.09 0.14 0.06 After a volcanic eruption spilled lava into North Pacific Ocean waters, a dramatic increase of diatoms (a kind of phytoplankton) near the surface occurred. Scientists assumed the diatoms were thriving on nutrients such as phosphate from the lava, but analysis showed these nutrients weren’t present near the surface in forms diatoms can consume. However, there was an abundance of usable nitrate, a nutrient usually found in much deeper water and almost never found in lava.


Microbial oceanographer Sonya Dyhrman and colleagues believe that as the lava plunged nearly 300 meters below the surface it dislodged pockets of this nutrient, releasing it to float upward, given that ______ Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement?

22 / 36

“Mr. Cornelius Johnson, Office-Seeker” is a 1900 short story by Paul Laurence Dunbar. In the story, the narrator describes Mr. Cornelius Johnson’s appearance as conveying his exaggerated sense of his importance: ______ Which quotation from “Mr.


Cornelius Johnson, Office-Seeker” most effectively illustrates the claim?

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350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 Hours of sunshine April May June July August September Monthly Hours of Sunshine from April to September in Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska Month Anchorage Fairbanks A student is researching monthly hours of sunshine in different cities in Alaska. When comparing trends in Anchorage and Fairbanks, the student concludes that the two cities show a similar pattern in the monthly hours of sunshine from April to September.


Which choice best describes data from the graph that support the student’s conclusion?

24 / 36

Sense and Sensibility is an 1811 novel by Jane Austen.


In the novel, Austen describes Marianne Dashwood’s ability to persuade others of the rightness of her artistic judgments, as is evident when Marianne visits with John Willoughby, a potential suitor: ______ Which quotation from Sense and Sensibility most effectively illustrates the claim?

25 / 36

The Land of Enchantment is a 1906 travel book by Lilian Whiting.


In the book, which describes the experience of traveling through the southwestern United States by train, Whiting reflects on the escape from everyday life that such a journey provides: ______  Which quotation from The Land of Enchantment most effectively illustrates the claim?

26 / 36

Although it’s clear that Mars once had liquid water on its surface, astronomers have debated whether the evidence of ancient water reflects a prolonged phase of warm, wet conditions—the so-called wet and warm scenario—or a brief period of melting in an otherwise consistently frozen environment. Researchers Benjamin T. Cardenas and Michael P. Lamb recently added to this debate by using data from NASA and the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter to map the topography of what is now a large basin in Mars’s northern hemisphere.


Cardenas and Lamb concluded that the wet and warm scenario is likely correct.   Which finding about the basin, if true, would most directly support Cardenas and Lamb’s conclusion?

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700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 Temperature (°C) L5_239 K5_106 K3_18 K3_9 Estimated Temperatures to which Evron Quarry Artifacts Were Exposed artifact Flint artifacts dating to 800,000 to 1,000,000 years ago have been recovered from the Evron Quarry in Israel. Likely created by the hominin Homo erectus, the artifacts have no visual features suggesting that they were exposed to fire, leading some scholars to conclude that these hominins had not acquired control of fire.


But Zane Stepka and colleagues recently used a new method to determine whether these artifacts had been exposed to temperatures above 400°C (the typical temperature campfires reach) and concluded that the hominins who inhabited the site may have had control of fire.  Which choice best describes data in the graph that support the team’s conclusion?

28 / 36

Plants like potatoes, tomatoes, and soybeans are susceptible to bacterial wilt disease caused by the bacteria Ralstonia solanacearum. A multinational team of scientists led by Zhong Wei studied whether other microbes in the soil might influence the degree to which plants are affected by the disease. The team sampled soil surrounding individual tomato plants over time and compared the results of plants that became diseased with those that remained healthy. They concluded that the presence of certain microbes in the soil might explain the difference between healthy and diseased plants.


Which finding, if true, would most directly support the team’s conclusion?

29 / 36

“Mrs. Spring Fragrance” is a 1912 short story by Sui Sin Far. In the story, Mrs. Spring Fragrance, a Chinese immigrant living in Seattle, is traveling in California. In letters to her husband and friend, she demonstrates her concern for what’s happening at her home in Seattle while she is away: ______ Which quotation from Mrs.


Spring Fragrance’s letters most effectively illustrates the claim?

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Rivers rich in sediment appear yellow, while increases in red algae make rivers appear red. To track things like the sediment or algae content of large US rivers, John R. Gardner and colleagues used satellite data to determine the dominant visible wavelengths of light measured for various segments of these rivers. The researchers classified wavelengths of 495 nanometers (nm) and below as red, wavelengths between 495 and 560 nm as blue, and wavelengths of 560 nm and above as yellow. The researchers concluded that for the Missouri River, segments flowing into lakes tend to carry more sediment than those flowing out of lakes.


  Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers’ conclusion?

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100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Seeds germinated (%) 24 48 72 168 Seed Germination with and without H₂S Treatment Time (hours) 500 micromoles per liter 10 micromoles per liter untreated In high concentrations, hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) is typically toxic to many plants. Frederick D. Dooley and colleagues wanted to understand what effects low doses of H₂S might have on plant growth. They treated bean, corn, wheat, and pea seeds with various concentrations (measured in micromoles per liter) of H₂S and tracked the germination of those seeds along with the germination of untreated seeds.


Treatment with particular concentrations of H₂S was associated with accelerated germination: for example, ______ Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to complete the statement?

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Sandra Cisneros’s 1984 novella The House on Mango Street made a lasting impact on US literature. Its depiction of Mexican American culture inspired later authors to examine their own heritage within their fictional works. Also influential was the book’s portrayal of the main character, Esperanza, during a pivotal year of her youth. This insightful depiction of a preteen girl encouraged authors who, like Cisneros herself, are Latina to use fictional works to examine experiences from their own youth.


Which statement, if true, would most strongly support the claim in the underlined sentence?

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7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Participants’ mean rating (1–9; higher values = more positive) Helpfulness of review Attitude toward reviewed product Participants’ Responses to Three Review Conditions no anger (control) high anger low anger To understand how expressions of anger in reviews of products affect readers of those reviews, business scholar Dezhi Yin and colleagues measured study participants’ responses to three versions of the same negative review—a control review expressing no anger, a review expressing a high degree of anger, and a review expressing a low degree of anger. Reviewing the data, a student concludes that the mere presence of anger in a review may not negatively affect readers’ perceptions of the review, but a high degree of anger in a review does worsen readers’ perceptions of the review.


Which choice best describes data from the graph that support the students’ conclusion?

34 / 36

Accomplished printmaker and sculptor Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012) used her art to explore the Black experience in the United States. In a paper for an art history class, a student claims that Catlett had a particular talent for unifying various artistic traditions and styles in her work.


Which quotation from a scholar describing Catlett’s work would best support the student’s claim?

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140,000 120,000 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0 Area (square meters) 1987 1993 2006 Characteristics of the Banks of the Provo River Downstream of the Jordanelle Dam Year grass cover bare soil forest cover The Jordanelle Dam was built on the Provo River in Utah in 1992. Earth scientist Adriana E. Martinez and colleagues tracked changes to the environment on the banks of the river downstream of the dam, including how much grass and forest cover were present. They concluded that the dam changed the flow of the river in ways that benefited grass plants but didn’t benefit trees.


Which choice best describes data from the graph that support Martinez and colleagues’ conclusion?

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Although many transposons, DNA sequences that move within an organism’s genome through shuffling or duplication, have become corrupted and inactive over time, those from the long interspersed nuclear elements (LINE) family appear to remain active in the genomes of some species. In humans, they are functionally important within the hippocampus, a brain structure that supports complex cognitive processes. When the results of molecular analysis of two species of octopus—an animal known for its intelligence—were announced in 2022, the confirmation of a LINE transposon in Octopus vulgaris and Octopus bimaculoides genomes prompted researchers to hypothesize that that transposon family is tied to a species’ capacity for advanced cognition.


Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers’ hypothesis?

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About This Quiz

These questions are of Medium Difficulty.

Command of Evidence questions on the SAT English section test a student’s ability to locate and analyze specific evidence within a passage that supports an author’s claims or answers a preceding question. These questions often follow reading comprehension or main idea questions, requiring students to identify quotes, phrases, or data that reinforce or clarify the text’s arguments. By mastering Command of Evidence questions, students build critical reading skills that enable them to connect textual details with broader interpretations, a skill essential for college-level reading and analysis. Our Command of Evidence quizzes come in three levels of difficulty: easy, medium, and hard, allowing students to advance their skills at a comfortable pace. Easy questions focus on straightforward evidence, guiding students to recognize clear, direct support within the text. Medium questions introduce more complex passages and require students to evaluate subtle textual clues, making connections that aren't immediately obvious. Hard questions present intricate or ambiguous arguments, challenging students to identify precise evidence within nuanced, multi-layered contexts. With these progressive levels, students gain the confidence and skills to tackle the full range of Command of Evidence questions on the SAT, equipping them for success in both the test and academic reading.