Central Ideas and Details — SAT practice questions

Question 1

In 1915, chemist Alice Ball developed a method for turning oil from chaulmoogra seeds into a form that could be injected and absorbed by the body. The treatment brought relief to many people with Hansen’s disease and was used for years. Ball died at age twenty-four before publishing the method, and a colleague initially received much of the credit for it. Later researchers documented Ball’s role, and her achievement is now widely recognized.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

1. ABall spent many years publishing studies of chaulmoogra seeds before creating a treatment.
2. BBall developed an important medical treatment but received proper credit for it only after her death.
3. CBall’s colleague improved her method after injectable treatments proved ineffective.
4. DBall became known primarily for documenting the work of other chemists.

Question 2

A soil seed bank is sometimes described as a storehouse that preserves a fixed record of the plants growing above it. Long-term studies show a more dynamic system, however. Each year, some buried seeds germinate, others lose the ability to grow, and new seeds enter the soil. As a result, the species represented in a seed bank can change even when the plant community aboveground appears stable.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

1. ASoil seed banks are dynamic collections whose composition can change over time, even when aboveground vegetation seems stable.
2. BMost seeds in a soil seed bank germinate during the same year that they enter the soil.
3. CAboveground plant communities always change more rapidly than the seed banks beneath them do.
4. DSoil seed banks preserve an unchanging record of nearby vegetation as older seeds are replaced by new ones.

Question 3

The following text is from Owen Brant’s 2019 article Ridges of Green.

Field biologist Mara Ellison spent three seasons mapping how alpine mosses survive on wind-scoured ridges in the Kestrel Range. Rather than spreading in continuous mats, the mosses formed small, widely spaced clumps that trapped windblown soil. Ellison measured higher moisture inside those clumps than on the bare rock between them. She concluded that the clumped pattern, though it leaves much of the ridge uncovered, is what lets the mosses persist through dry summers.

According to the text, what is true about Ellison?

1. AShe argued that mosses grow best when they cover a ridge in one continuous mat.
2. BShe found that clumped mosses held more moisture than the bare rock around them.
3. CShe spent only one season observing mosses in the Kestrel Range.
4. DShe concluded that alpine mosses cannot survive the range’s dry summers.