Bluebook SAT Reading Comprehension Flashcards

The following text is from Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1915 novel Herland. "They were not in the least ferocious. They did not want to kill us. But they were quite determined that we should not go, and they had us as neatly cornered as if we had been rabbits in a trap." Which choice best describes the function of the third sentence in the overall structure of the text?

Answer: It contrasts the captors' lack of aggression with the completeness of the narrator's capture.

The "But" sentence sets the captors' gentleness against how thoroughly they have trapped the narrator.

Researchers surveyed 1,200 adults about their sleep and their use of screens after 9 p.m. They found that adults who reported using screens for more than two hours after 9 p.m. were 40 percent more likely to report poor sleep than adults who used screens for under thirty minutes. Which choice best describes a limitation of concluding from this study that late screen use causes poor sleep?

Answer: People who already sleep poorly may turn to screens because they are awake, so the direction of cause is unclear.

Correlation from a survey cannot rule out reverse causation.

The following text is from a 2019 article about deep-sea exploration. "The remotely operated vehicle's cameras, though ______ by the crushing pressure at 4,000 meters, captured footage of a previously unknown species of siphonophore drifting past the lights." Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Answer: constrained

"Though" signals the cameras worked despite a limitation imposed by pressure.

Text 1: Economist Lars Berg contends that four-day work weeks raise productivity because rested employees make fewer errors and waste less time in low-value meetings. Text 2: In a two-year study of 60 firms, sociologist Mei Tanaka found that output per employee rose in the first six months of a four-day week but returned to previous levels by month eighteen, as managers gradually added meetings back into the shortened schedule. Based on the texts, how would Tanaka most likely respond to Berg's claim?

Answer: By noting that the productivity gains Berg describes may fade unless meeting habits are actually changed.

Tanaka's data show initial gains that vanished once meetings crept back.

The following text is from Edith Wharton's 1905 novel The House of Mirth. Lily Bart is attending a party at a country estate. "She had been bored all the afternoon by Percy Gryce, but she had been sustained by the sense of a duty performed; now she felt that the whole weary business would have to be gone through again." Which choice best describes Lily's attitude toward Percy Gryce, as presented in the text?

Answer: She finds his company tedious yet regards spending time with him as an obligation.

She was bored but consoled by "a duty performed."

A student is writing a report on the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient Greek device found in a shipwreck. The student's notes state: the device dates to around 100 BCE; it used at least 30 bronze gears; it modeled the positions of the sun and moon; and it predicted eclipses. The student wants to emphasize how technically sophisticated the device was. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

Answer: Dating to around 100 BCE, the Antikythera mechanism used at least 30 bronze gears to model the sun and moon and even predict eclipses.

Only this choice cites the gear count and eclipse prediction, which show sophistication.