SAT

SAT Practice Test 5

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'NOTES OF A NATIVE SON' EXCERPT BY JAMES BALDWIN
  1. My last night in New Jersey, a white friend from New York took me to the nearest big town, Trenton, to go to the movies and have a few drinks. As it turned out, he also saved me from, at the very least, a violent whipping. Almost every detail of that night stands out very clearly in my memory. I even remember the name of the movie we saw because its title impressed me as being so patly ironical. It was called This Land Is Mine. I remember the name of the diner we walked into when the movie ended: it was the "American Diner." When we walked in the counterman asked what we wanted and I remember answering with the casual sharpness which had become my habit: "We want a hamburger and a cup of coffee, what do you think we want?" I do not know why, after a year of such rebuffs, I so completely failed to anticipate his answer, which was, of course, "We don't serve Negroes here." This reply failed to discompose me, at least for the moment. I made some sardonic comment about the name of the diner and we walked out.

  2. When we re-entered the streets something happened to me which had the force of an optical illusion, or a nightmare. The streets were very crowded and I was facing north. People were moving in every direction but it seemed to me, in that instant, that all of the people I could see, and many more than that, were moving toward me, against me, and that everyone was white. I remember how their faces gleamed. And I felt, like a physical sensation, a click at the nape of my neck as though some interior string connecting my head to my body had been cut. I began to walk. I heard my friend call after me, but I ignored him. Heaven only knows what was going on in his mind, but he had the good sense not to touch me--I don't know what would have happened if he had--and to keep me in sight. I don't know what was going on in my mind, either; I certainly had no conscious plan. I wanted to do something to crush these white faces, which were crushing me. I walked for perhaps a block or two until I came to an enormous, glittering, and fashionable restaurant in which I knew not even the intercession of the Virgin would cause me to be served. I pushed through the doors and took the first vacant seat I saw, at a table for two, and waited. I do not know how long I waited and I rather wonder, until today, what I could possibly have looked like. Whatever I looked like, I frightened the waitress who shortly appeared, and the moment she appeared all of my fury flowed towards her. I hated her for her white face, and for her great, astounded, frightened eyes. I felt that if she found a black man so frightening I would make her fright worthwhile.
  3. She did not ask me what I wanted, but repeated, as though she had learned it somewhere, "We don't serve Negroes here." She did not say it with the blunt, derisive hostility to which I had grown so accustomed, but, rather, with a note of apology in her voice, and fear. This made me colder and more murderous than ever. I felt I had to do something with my hands. I wanted her to come close enough for me to get her neck between my hands.
  4. So I pretended not to have understood her, hoping to draw her closer. And she did step a very short step closer, with her pencil poised incongruously over her pad, and repeated the formula "... don't serve Negroes here."
  5. Somehow, with the repetition of that phrase, which was already ringing in my head like a thousand bells of a nightmare, I realized that she would never come any closer and that I would have to strike from a distance. There was nothing on the table but an ordinary water mug half full of water, and I picked this up and hurled it with all my strength at her. She ducked and it missed her and shattered against the mirror behind the bar. And, with that sound, my frozen blood abruptly thawed, I returned from wherever I had been, I saw, for the first time, the restaurant, the people with their mouths open, already, as it seemed to me, rising as one man, and I realized what I had done, and where I was, and I was frightened. I rose and began running for the door. A round, potbellied man grabbed me by the nape of the neck just as I reached the doors and began to beat me about the face. I kicked him and got loose and ran into the streets. My friend whispered, "Run!" and I ran.
  6. My friend stayed outside the restaurant long enough to misdirect my pursuers and the police, who arrived, he told me, at once. I do not know what I said to him when he came to my room that night. I could not have said much. I felt, in the oddest, most awful way, that I had somehow betrayed him. I lived it over and over and over again, the way one relives an automobile accident after it has happened and one finds oneself alone and safe. I could not get over two facts, both equally difficult for the imagination to grasp, and one was that I could have been murdered. But the other was that I had been ready to commit murder. I saw nothing very dearly but I did see this: that my life, my real life, was in danger, and not from anything other people might do but from the hatred that I carried in my own heart.
The author implies which of the following about hate?

Correct! Wrong!

Answer 1: the author believes that it is the hatred in his own heart that will do him far more damage than racism.

'NOTES OF A NATIVE SON' EXCERPT BY JAMES BALDWIN
  1. My last night in New Jersey, a white friend from New York took me to the nearest big town, Trenton, to go to the movies and have a few drinks. As it turned out, he also saved me from, at the very least, a violent whipping. Almost every detail of that night stands out very clearly in my memory. I even remember the name of the movie we saw because its title impressed me as being so patly ironical. It was called This Land Is Mine. I remember the name of the diner we walked into when the movie ended: it was the "American Diner." When we walked in the counterman asked what we wanted and I remember answering with the casual sharpness which had become my habit: "We want a hamburger and a cup of coffee, what do you think we want?" I do not know why, after a year of such rebuffs, I so completely failed to anticipate his answer, which was, of course, "We don't serve Negroes here." This reply failed to discompose me, at least for the moment. I made some sardonic comment about the name of the diner and we walked out.

  2. When we re-entered the streets something happened to me which had the force of an optical illusion, or a nightmare. The streets were very crowded and I was facing north. People were moving in every direction but it seemed to me, in that instant, that all of the people I could see, and many more than that, were moving toward me, against me, and that everyone was white. I remember how their faces gleamed. And I felt, like a physical sensation, a click at the nape of my neck as though some interior string connecting my head to my body had been cut. I began to walk. I heard my friend call after me, but I ignored him. Heaven only knows what was going on in his mind, but he had the good sense not to touch me--I don't know what would have happened if he had--and to keep me in sight. I don't know what was going on in my mind, either; I certainly had no conscious plan. I wanted to do something to crush these white faces, which were crushing me. I walked for perhaps a block or two until I came to an enormous, glittering, and fashionable restaurant in which I knew not even the intercession of the Virgin would cause me to be served. I pushed through the doors and took the first vacant seat I saw, at a table for two, and waited. I do not know how long I waited and I rather wonder, until today, what I could possibly have looked like. Whatever I looked like, I frightened the waitress who shortly appeared, and the moment she appeared all of my fury flowed towards her. I hated her for her white face, and for her great, astounded, frightened eyes. I felt that if she found a black man so frightening I would make her fright worthwhile.
  3. She did not ask me what I wanted, but repeated, as though she had learned it somewhere, "We don't serve Negroes here." She did not say it with the blunt, derisive hostility to which I had grown so accustomed, but, rather, with a note of apology in her voice, and fear. This made me colder and more murderous than ever. I felt I had to do something with my hands. I wanted her to come close enough for me to get her neck between my hands.
  4. So I pretended not to have understood her, hoping to draw her closer. And she did step a very short step closer, with her pencil poised incongruously over her pad, and repeated the formula "... don't serve Negroes here."
  5. Somehow, with the repetition of that phrase, which was already ringing in my head like a thousand bells of a nightmare, I realized that she would never come any closer and that I would have to strike from a distance. There was nothing on the table but an ordinary water mug half full of water, and I picked this up and hurled it with all my strength at her. She ducked and it missed her and shattered against the mirror behind the bar. And, with that sound, my frozen blood abruptly thawed, I returned from wherever I had been, I saw, for the first time, the restaurant, the people with their mouths open, already, as it seemed to me, rising as one man, and I realized what I had done, and where I was, and I was frightened. I rose and began running for the door. A round, potbellied man grabbed me by the nape of the neck just as I reached the doors and began to beat me about the face. I kicked him and got loose and ran into the streets. My friend whispered, "Run!" and I ran.
  6. My friend stayed outside the restaurant long enough to misdirect my pursuers and the police, who arrived, he told me, at once. I do not know what I said to him when he came to my room that night. I could not have said much. I felt, in the oddest, most awful way, that I had somehow betrayed him. I lived it over and over and over again, the way one relives an automobile accident after it has happened and one finds oneself alone and safe. I could not get over two facts, both equally difficult for the imagination to grasp, and one was that I could have been murdered. But the other was that I had been ready to commit murder. I saw nothing very dearly but I did see this: that my life, my real life, was in danger, and not from anything other people might do but from the hatred that I carried in my own heart.
Which choice provides the best answer to the previous question?

Correct! Wrong!

Answer 4: this -- "I could not get over to facts ... hatred I carried in my own heart," final paragraph says all you need to know.

Choose the best response for each of the following questions utilizing the ‘CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE’ SPEECH BY JIMMY CARTER below.
  1. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.
  2. The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people.
  3. Confidence in the future has supported everything else ­­ public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States.
  4. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations.
  5. We’ve always believed in something called progress. We’ve always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own.
  6. Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world.
  7. We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom; and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past.
  8. In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close­knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self­indulgence and consumption.
  9. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.
  10. The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two­thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.
  11. As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions.
  12. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.
  13. These changes did not happen overnight. They’ve come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.
  14. We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam.
  15. We respected the Presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate.
  16. We remember when the phrase “sound as a dollar” was an expression of absolute dependability, until ten years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our nation’s resources were limitless until 1973 when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil.

  17. These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed.
The position President Carter takes is best described as

Correct! Wrong!

Answer 2: even a skim of this speech will confirm that one and three are false, and while Carter mentions Watergate it is not the thrust of his speech.

‘CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE’ SPEECH BY JIMMY CARTER
  1. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.
  2. The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people.
  3. Confidence in the future has supported everything else ­­ public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States.
  4. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations.
  5. We’ve always believed in something called progress. We’ve always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own.
  6. Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world.
  7. We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom; and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past.
  8. In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close­knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self­indulgence and consumption.
  9. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.
  10. The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two­thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.
  11. As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions.
  12. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.
  13. These changes did not happen overnight. They’ve come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.
  14. We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam.
  15. We respected the Presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate.
  16. We remember when the phrase “sound as a dollar” was an expression of absolute dependability, until ten years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our nation’s resources were limitless until 1973 when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil.

  17. These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed.
In the passage Carter draws a distinction between

Correct! Wrong!

Answer 4: Carter draws distinctions between how Americans once felt and some of their greatest shocks and disappointments.

‘CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE’ SPEECH BY JIMMY CARTER
  1. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.
  2. The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people.
  3. Confidence in the future has supported everything else ­­ public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States.
  4. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations.
  5. We’ve always believed in something called progress. We’ve always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own.
  6. Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world.
  7. We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom; and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past.
  8. In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close­knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self­indulgence and consumption.
  9. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.
  10. The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two­thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.
  11. As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions.
  12. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.
  13. These changes did not happen overnight. They’ve come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.
  14. We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam.
  15. We respected the Presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate.
  16. We remember when the phrase “sound as a dollar” was an expression of absolute dependability, until ten years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our nation’s resources were limitless until 1973 when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil.

  17. These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed.
As used in paragraph 16,"Shrink" refers to

Correct! Wrong!

Answer 1, confirmed throughout but particularly when you consider these paragraphs in conjunction with Carter's traveling of the country and talking to Americans.

‘CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE’ SPEECH BY JIMMY CARTER
  1. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.
  2. The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people.
  3. Confidence in the future has supported everything else ­­ public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States.
  4. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations.
  5. We’ve always believed in something called progress. We’ve always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own.
  6. Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world.
  7. We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom; and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past.
  8. In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close­knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self­indulgence and consumption.
  9. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.
  10. The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two­thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.
  11. As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions.
  12. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.
  13. These changes did not happen overnight. They’ve come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.
  14. We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam.
  15. We respected the Presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate.
  16. We remember when the phrase “sound as a dollar” was an expression of absolute dependability, until ten years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our nation’s resources were limitless until 1973 when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil.

  17. These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed.
As used in paragraph 16,"Shrink" refers to

Correct! Wrong!

Answer 4 because Carter is discussing inflation.

‘CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE’ SPEECH BY JIMMY CARTER
  1. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.
  2. The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people.
  3. Confidence in the future has supported everything else ­­ public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States.
  4. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations.
  5. We’ve always believed in something called progress. We’ve always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own.
  6. Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world.
  7. We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom; and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past.
  8. In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close­knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self­indulgence and consumption.
  9. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.
  10. The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two­thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.
  11. As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions.
  12. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.
  13. These changes did not happen overnight. They’ve come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.
  14. We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam.
  15. We respected the Presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate.
  16. We remember when the phrase “sound as a dollar” was an expression of absolute dependability, until ten years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our nation’s resources were limitless until 1973 when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil.

  17. These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed.
Paragraphs 14 and 15 suggest that

Correct! Wrong!

Answer 1, confirmed throughout but particularly when you consider these paragraphs in conjunction with Carter's traveling of the country and talking to Americans.

'Hiatus in rise of Earth's surface air temperature likely temporary'
  1. Between 1998 and 2012, climate scientists observed a slowdown in the rate at which the Earth's surface air temperature was rising. While the rise in global mean surface air temperature has continued, between 1998 and 2012 the increase was approximately one third of that from 1951 to 2012.
  2. This trend — referred to as a "global warming hiatus" — has sparked a lot of debate and given rise to a reasonable question: Is global warming coming to a halt?
  3. According to Norman Loeb, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and the principal investigator of a space-borne sensor called the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System, or CERES, the answer is almost certainly no.
  4. "Heating is still going on," he said. "It's just not in terms of the surface air temperature."
  5. Loeb explained the science behind that statement Tuesday, Aug. 5, during a talk at NASA Langley titled "The Recent Pause in Global Warming: A Temporary Blip or Something More Permanent?"
  6. Though Loeb believes there are a handful of short-term factors that drive changes in surface air temperature, like the El Niño and La Niña phenomena that cause temperature fluctuations in the tropical eastern Pacific approximately every two years, he thinks there is a longer term factor that is a significant and overlooked contributor.
  7. "The Pacific Decadal Oscillation affects surface temperature," Loeb said. "It's a pattern of temperature shifts, primarily over the Pacific, that occurs about every 20 or 30 years."
  8. Historically, those shifts have coincided with changes in surface temperature.
  9. "The Pacific Decadal Oscillation has a very distinctive pattern. During the positive phase, surface temperature rises more rapidly," he said. "During the negative phase, the rate of temperature increase slows down, hence a hiatus. It's very compelling when you see the actual observations."
  10. Loeb showed measurements during his talk demonstrating steady increases in surface air temperature from 1920 to 1940 and again from 1976 to 2000, periods when the decadal oscillation was in a positive phase. From 1940 to 1975, and again beginning in 2001, temperatures leveled out in concert with negative oscillation phases.
  11. Surface air temperatures have increased by approximately 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since the early 20th century. On this timescale, the hiatuses look like short ledges along a graph of global average surface air temperature with an otherwise steep upward slope.
  12. "You can't just look at short periods of time," Loeb said. "You have to look at the record over a long period of time to see the pattern. There will be natural fluctuations at shorter time scales, but we really shouldn't conclude that that's a change and global warming is going away."
  13. Even as surface air temperatures are currently holding relatively steady, Loeb believes there's still another issue to take into consideration.
  14. "Observations are showing us the planet is still taking up heat, but it is just showing up in a different place," he said.
  15. That different place is the ocean.
  16. In other words, as humans and nature continue to apply pressure to the Earth's climate through increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, temperatures are still rising. But as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation briefly tames temperatures at the planet's surface, the oceans are where the real heating is happening.
  17. "If you add extra heat to the Earth system, approximately 93 percent of that extra heat ends up stored in the ocean, and the ocean is very deep," Loeb said. "When we look at air temperature, we are just looking at the surface. There's a whole deep ocean where heat can be stored."
  18. Scientists are studying ocean temperatures with instruments known as “Argo floats.” These instruments drift freely throughout the world’s oceans, collecting temperature and salinity measurements to a depth of around 6000 feet. The floats rise to the surface and transmit their data to a satellite every 10 days. Currently, more than 3,600 Argo floats distributed in the planet's oceans show that the oceans are taking up heat over time, according to Loeb.
  19. Combine that with data from NASA's CERES sensor, which shows the rate of heat uptake by the whole planet is nearly constant, and it becomes clear that the planet is still warming, even as the increase in surface air temperatures lull temporarily.
  20. "Heat can be redistributed," Loeb said of the energy. "Changes in the circulation patterns in the ocean and atmosphere will result in redistribution of the heat — and that is what is going on during the different phases of this [Pacific Decadal Oscillation]."
  21. Loeb and the overwhelming majority of his fellow climate scientists argue that as humans continue to pump carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at unprecedented rates — atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements hit 400 parts per million in May 2013 — climate change will continue. Current estimates have global average surface air temperatures rising anywhere from approximately 3 to 8.5 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100, depending on how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are added to the atmosphere and accounting for uncertainty in predictions.
  22. But even given the scientific evidence that points toward definite warming, and data that shows that the last three decades have been the hottest on record, each one a little bit warmer than the last, Loeb encourages the scientific community to improve its observations and models of the climate system, and to discuss the science objectively and rationally.
  23. "It’s okay to be skeptical," he said. "Scientists are skeptical by nature. But at the same time, we need to be reasonable.”
s used in paragraph 10, "concert" most nearly means

Correct! Wrong!

Answer 2: the paragraph describes two things happening together, effectively disqualifying the other options.

'Hiatus in rise of Earth's surface air temperature likely temporary'
  1. Between 1998 and 2012, climate scientists observed a slowdown in the rate at which the Earth's surface air temperature was rising. While the rise in global mean surface air temperature has continued, between 1998 and 2012 the increase was approximately one third of that from 1951 to 2012.
  2. This trend — referred to as a "global warming hiatus" — has sparked a lot of debate and given rise to a reasonable question: Is global warming coming to a halt?
  3. According to Norman Loeb, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and the principal investigator of a space-borne sensor called the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System, or CERES, the answer is almost certainly no.
  4. "Heating is still going on," he said. "It's just not in terms of the surface air temperature."
  5. Loeb explained the science behind that statement Tuesday, Aug. 5, during a talk at NASA Langley titled "The Recent Pause in Global Warming: A Temporary Blip or Something More Permanent?"
  6. Though Loeb believes there are a handful of short-term factors that drive changes in surface air temperature, like the El Niño and La Niña phenomena that cause temperature fluctuations in the tropical eastern Pacific approximately every two years, he thinks there is a longer term factor that is a significant and overlooked contributor.
  7. "The Pacific Decadal Oscillation affects surface temperature," Loeb said. "It's a pattern of temperature shifts, primarily over the Pacific, that occurs about every 20 or 30 years."
  8. Historically, those shifts have coincided with changes in surface temperature.
  9. "The Pacific Decadal Oscillation has a very distinctive pattern. During the positive phase, surface temperature rises more rapidly," he said. "During the negative phase, the rate of temperature increase slows down, hence a hiatus. It's very compelling when you see the actual observations."
  10. Loeb showed measurements during his talk demonstrating steady increases in surface air temperature from 1920 to 1940 and again from 1976 to 2000, periods when the decadal oscillation was in a positive phase. From 1940 to 1975, and again beginning in 2001, temperatures leveled out in concert with negative oscillation phases.
  11. Surface air temperatures have increased by approximately 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since the early 20th century. On this timescale, the hiatuses look like short ledges along a graph of global average surface air temperature with an otherwise steep upward slope.
  12. "You can't just look at short periods of time," Loeb said. "You have to look at the record over a long period of time to see the pattern. There will be natural fluctuations at shorter time scales, but we really shouldn't conclude that that's a change and global warming is going away."
  13. Even as surface air temperatures are currently holding relatively steady, Loeb believes there's still another issue to take into consideration.
  14. "Observations are showing us the planet is still taking up heat, but it is just showing up in a different place," he said.
  15. That different place is the ocean.
  16. In other words, as humans and nature continue to apply pressure to the Earth's climate through increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, temperatures are still rising. But as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation briefly tames temperatures at the planet's surface, the oceans are where the real heating is happening.
  17. "If you add extra heat to the Earth system, approximately 93 percent of that extra heat ends up stored in the ocean, and the ocean is very deep," Loeb said. "When we look at air temperature, we are just looking at the surface. There's a whole deep ocean where heat can be stored."
  18. Scientists are studying ocean temperatures with instruments known as “Argo floats.” These instruments drift freely throughout the world’s oceans, collecting temperature and salinity measurements to a depth of around 6000 feet. The floats rise to the surface and transmit their data to a satellite every 10 days. Currently, more than 3,600 Argo floats distributed in the planet's oceans show that the oceans are taking up heat over time, according to Loeb.
  19. Combine that with data from NASA's CERES sensor, which shows the rate of heat uptake by the whole planet is nearly constant, and it becomes clear that the planet is still warming, even as the increase in surface air temperatures lull temporarily.
  20. "Heat can be redistributed," Loeb said of the energy. "Changes in the circulation patterns in the ocean and atmosphere will result in redistribution of the heat — and that is what is going on during the different phases of this [Pacific Decadal Oscillation]."
  21. Loeb and the overwhelming majority of his fellow climate scientists argue that as humans continue to pump carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at unprecedented rates — atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements hit 400 parts per million in May 2013 — climate change will continue. Current estimates have global average surface air temperatures rising anywhere from approximately 3 to 8.5 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100, depending on how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are added to the atmosphere and accounting for uncertainty in predictions.
  22. But even given the scientific evidence that points toward definite warming, and data that shows that the last three decades have been the hottest on record, each one a little bit warmer than the last, Loeb encourages the scientific community to improve its observations and models of the climate system, and to discuss the science objectively and rationally.
  23. "It’s okay to be skeptical," he said. "Scientists are skeptical by nature. But at the same time, we need to be reasonable.”
What is the most likely reason the author mentions CERES?

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Answer 3: the correct response is in the text in paragraph 3.

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