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SAT Expression of Ideas Practice Questions

Expression of Ideas covers about 8 to 12 questions: transitions (choosing the connector that matches how two sentences relate) and rhetorical synthesis (building a sentence from bullet-point notes to meet a stated goal).

Transitions reward reading the sentences on both sides and classifying the relationship (contrast, cause, example, sequence) before touching the choices. Synthesis questions state the student's goal explicitly, and every wrong answer is faithful to the notes but off-goal, so the goal sentence is the only thing worth underlining.

  1. Question 1Transitions · hard

    Many editions of James Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses are not textually identical, and scholars debate which versions reflect Joyce's authorial intent. One no longer widely read edition is the 1984 "critical and synoptic edition" edited by Hans Walter Gabler, which followed French and German editorial theories rather than editorial traditions of the United States and United Kingdom and which was later found to have introduced errors due to Gabler's choice to consult facsimile manuscripts rather than using only originals. However, few Joyce scholars worldwide had expertise in such textual issues, and most of those who did worked on the edition with Gabler. So, it is unsurprising that initial scholarly reviews of the 1984 edition were mostly ______

    Which choice most logically completes the text?

    Apositive, since Ulysses is a novel in English and the 1984 edition would therefore be more widely reviewed in United States and United Kingdom publications than in French and German publications.
    Bnegative, since any scholar with expertise in editorial theories of the United States and United Kingdom as well as French and German editorial theories most likely worked with Gabler on the 1984 edition and would therefore not review it.
    Cnegative, since those Joyce scholars with the necessary expertise to write a review of the 1984 edition would be aware that facsimile manuscripts cannot be produced with a high enough fidelity to the original to ensure that relying on them will not introduce editorial errors.
    Dpositive, since scholars who reviewed the 1984 edition were unaffiliated with its production and were mostly either Joyce specialists who were largely unfamiliar with editorial theories and practices or specialists in such theories and practices who were insufficiently familiar with Joyce.
    Show answer & explanation
    Correct answer: D

    positive, since scholars who reviewed the 1984 edition were unaffiliated with its production and were mostly either Joyce specialists who were largely unfamiliar with editorial theories and practices or specialists in such theories and practices who were insufficiently familiar with Joyce.

    Option D is correct

    1. The sentence to complete starts "So, it is unsurprising that initial scholarly reviews were mostly ___" — so the answer must follow from the sentence right before it.

    2. That sentence is the key: few Joyce scholars had expertise in these textual issues, and most of the ones who did worked on the edition with Gabler.

    3. Draw the consequence. The people equipped to spot the edition's flaws were disqualified from reviewing it. Whoever was left lacked either the Joyce expertise or the editorial-theory expertise needed to catch the problems.

    4. So the early reviews were positive — the errors surfaced later. Choice D supplies exactly that reasoning.

    Answer: D.

  2. Question 2Rhetorical Synthesis · medium

    The Clouds is a 423 BCE play by Aristophanes, originally written in ancient Greek. At the time, professional intellectuals called sophists taught customers rhetorical techniques to use in public speaking, along with providing instruction in other subjects. In the play, Aristophanes satirizes sophists as teaching students how to be persuasive without regard for what is morally good, as seen when the character _____

    Which choice most effectively uses a quotation from a translation of The Clouds to illustrate the claim?

    ASocrates, a sophist, says that he studies astronomy while in a basket hanging a few feet off the ground because "I should not have rightly discovered things celestial if I had not suspended the intellect, and mixed the thought in a subtle form with its kindred air."
    BStrepsiades encourages his son to learn to be a sophist, saying, "Go, I entreat you, dearest of men, go and be taught."
    CSocrates, a sophist, says to a new customer, "Come now; what do you now wish to learn first of those things in none of which you have ever been instructed?"
    DStrepsiades hires a sophist to teach his son and says to the sophist, "But see that he learns those two [styles of argument]; the better, whatever it may be; and the worse, which, by maintaining what is unjust, overturns the better. If not both, at any rate the unjust one by all means."
    Show answer & explanation
    Correct answer: D

    Strepsiades hires a sophist to teach his son and says to the sophist, "But see that he learns those two [styles of argument]; the better, whatever it may be; and the worse, which, by maintaining what is unjust, overturns the better. If not both, at any rate the unjust one by all means."

    Option D is correct

    1. Fix the claim the quotation must illustrate: Aristophanes satirizes sophists as teaching persuasion without regard for what is morally good.

    2. So the quotation needs to show someone seeking or offering persuasive skill while explicitly setting morality aside.

    3. Choice D nails both halves. Strepsiades asks the sophist to teach the argument "which, by maintaining what is unjust, overturns the better" — and then, if only one, "the unjust one by all means."

    4. That is persuasion explicitly divorced from justice, which is the satire in miniature.

    Answer: D.

  3. Question 3Transitions · medium

    For years, Christopher Clavius's 1593 work Astrolabium had the earliest known evidence of a decimal point, which was in a sine table's interpolation column. However, math historian Glen Vas Brummelen posited that Venetian merchant Giovanni Bianchini, who worked as an astrological consultant, used the mathematical symbol approximately 150 years before Clavius did. Van Brummelen asserts that in his role as a consultant, Blanchini used trigonometry to calculate the coordinates of the planets and these calculations contain the earliest example of the decimal point.

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

    ASeveral dots appear in both Clavius's Astrolabiam and Bianchini's Flores Almugeriti, but the dot was commonly used in manuscripts in the 1400s and 1500s as a means to separate letters or whole numbers from each other.
    BIn Clavius's Astrolabium, he gives several examples of bold interpolation and inverse interpolation using decimal numbers and justifies the method to his readers by equating 45.7 with "457 tenths"
    CIn a table in Bianchini's astronomical Latin manuscript from the 1400s, Tabulae primi mobilis B, a dot appears between two numbers in a context that suggests the value is not a whole number.
    DAs recorded in his manuscripts, some of Bianchini's calculations for the coordinates of the planets are inaccurate due to the use of whole numbers rather than point whole-number decimals.
    Show answer & explanation
    Correct answer: C

    In a table in Bianchini's astronomical Latin manuscript from the 1400s, Tabulae primi mobilis B, a dot appears between two numbers in a context that suggests the value is not a whole number.

    Option C is correct

    1. Identify the claim being supported: Bianchini used the decimal point about 150 years before Clavius's 1593 work.

    2. Supporting that requires evidence of a dot in a Bianchini manuscript functioning as a decimal point — not merely a dot, since dots had other uses at the time.

    3. Choice C provides it: in a Bianchini manuscript from the 1400s, a dot appears between two numbers in a context suggesting the value is not a whole number. A non-whole value is what makes the dot decimal rather than decorative.

    4. The date (1400s) also delivers the roughly 150-year gap the claim asserts.

    Answer: C.

  4. Question 4Rhetorical Synthesis · medium
    • Maya Lin is an American artist known for her memorials and works of installation art.
    • She completed the Women’s Table in 1993.
    • It is a memorial sculpture consisting of a thirty-two-ton granite fountain, and it is designed to commemorate female students at Yale University.
    • She completed Silver Upper White River in 2015.
    • It is an installation composed of recycled silver that fills an entire gallery wall.

    The student wants to describe Silver Upper White River to a new audience. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

    ACompleted in 2015, Maya Lin’s Silver Upper White River is a large-scale installation artwork composed of recycled silver that fills an entire gallery wall.
    BArtist Maya Lin is well known for her installation art, such as Silver Upper White River (2015), and for her memorials.
    CMaya Lin’s Women’s Table is a granite memorial sculpture that commemorates female students at Yale University, while Silver Upper White River is an installation artwork.
    DThough Maya Lin’s Silver Upper White River (2015) is not a memorial, its gallery-filling scale may call to mind the imposing Women’s Table, which consists of a thirty-two-ton granite fountain.
    Show answer & explanation
    Correct answer: A

    Completed in 2015, Maya Lin’s Silver Upper White River is a large-scale installation artwork composed of recycled silver that fills an entire gallery wall.

    Option A is correct

    1. Read the goal literally: describe Silver Upper White River to a new audience. The answer must be about that one work and must actually describe it.

    2. Pull the relevant notes: completed 2015, an installation of recycled silver that fills an entire gallery wall.

    3. Choice A uses precisely those details and nothing else, giving a newcomer a clear picture of the work.

    4. Rhetorical synthesis questions are decided by the stated goal, not by which sentence packs in the most notes.

    Answer: A.

  5. Question 5Transitions · hard

    Chelsea Wood et al. tracked temperature-driven changes in the abundance of Opechona sp. (a complex life cycle parasite, or CLP, that requires three host species throughout its life cycle), Anthocotyle merlucci (a directly transmitted parasite, which requires only one host species), and 83 other parasite taxa found on eight fish species. CLPs are transmitted when an infected host is ingested by an individual of another species, typically shielding CLPs from the external environment, whereas directly transmitted parasites are exposed to external conditions during transmission. However, Wood et al. found that three-host CLP abundance decreased as sea temperatures rose, whereas directly transmitted parasite abundance was largely stable, suggesting that ______

    Which choice most logically completes the text?

    Aas the number of host species involved in a parasite’s transmission increases, the parasite is better protected against rising temperatures.
    Bany advantages that the transmission strategy used by three-host CLPs may have conferred did not completely offset the negative effects of other temperature-driven factors on CLP abundance.
    CCLPs primarily transmitted by ingestion were less dependent on host species adversely affected by warming temperatures than were CLPs that use other transmission strategies.
    Ddirectly transmitted parasites identified in the study were more likely to use transmission strategies that shield them from warming temperatures than were three-host CLPs.
    Show answer & explanation
    Correct answer: B

    any advantages that the transmission strategy used by three-host CLPs may have conferred did not completely offset the negative effects of other temperature-driven factors on CLP abundance.

    Option B is correct

    1. Set up the tension the passage builds. Three-host CLPs travel inside hosts, which typically shields them from the external environment — an apparent advantage over directly transmitted parasites.

    2. Then comes "However": it was the sheltered three-host CLPs whose abundance fell as temperatures rose, while the exposed directly transmitted parasites held steady.

    3. So the shielding advantage did not translate into protection. Something else about needing three hosts — each of which can be hit by warming — outweighed it.

    4. Choice B states that carefully: whatever advantages the strategy conferred did not fully offset other temperature-driven negative effects.

    Answer: B.

  6. Question 6Rhetorical Synthesis · hard

    Like many other genera of wild bees, bumblebees have in recent decades experienced population collapse caused by, among other factors, habitat destruction and climate variation. Bumblebees are also one of the most researched bee genera, second only to honeybees. As a result, ecologists have gained much of their insight about wild-bee declines from bumblebees. In a 2021 paper, zoologist Guillaume Ghisbain notes that bumblebees are among the relatively few wild-bee genera that display social behaviors and dietary generalism (ability to obtain nectar and pollen from a diversity of plant species), two traits that are associated with increased resilience to some specific environmental changes. Ghisbain therefore contends that _________

    Which choice most logically completes the text?

    Abecause bumblebees and other bees with generalist diets are less negatively affected by environmental stress than bees with specialized diets are, they are less likely to experience major population changes in the future than bees with specialized diets are.
    Balthough bumblebees have been more extensively studied than most wild bees, researchers should not use bumblebees to draw conclusions about the decline of other wild bees, even ones with feeding patterns and levels of sociability that are similar to those of bumblebees.
    Calthough bumblebees and many other wild bees have experienced similar population declines in the past, compared with other wild bees, bumblebees are likely at greater risk of being harmed by climate variation than by habitat destruction.
    Dbecause the responses of bumblebees and other wild bees to environmental threats are not always comparable, researchers need to exercise caution when extrapolating information about wild-bee population declines from bumblebees.
    Show answer & explanation
    Correct answer: D

    because the responses of bumblebees and other wild bees to environmental threats are not always comparable, researchers need to exercise caution when extrapolating information about wild-bee population declines from bumblebees.

    Option D is correct

    1. Follow Ghisbain's logic. Ecologists draw much of their insight about wild-bee decline from bumblebees, because bumblebees are heavily studied.

    2. But bumblebees are unusual: they are among the few wild-bee genera with social behavior and dietary generalism, traits linked to greater resilience to some environmental changes.

    3. If the model organism is more resilient than the genera it stands in for, conclusions drawn from it may understate other bees' vulnerability.

    4. The "therefore" is a caution, not a prohibition: researchers should be careful when extrapolating. Choice D says that.

    Answer: D.

  7. Question 7Transitions · hard

    Water flowing around an obstruction creates vortices (patterns of swirls) of varying size; by detecting the vortices, fish can determine the size and position of the obstruction. Testing by Yuzo R. Yanagisuru, Otar Akanyeti, and James C. Liao using models of three head shapes-narrow (low ratio of width to length), intermediate, and wide (high ratio of width to length)-showed that for medium-sized vortices, fish with wide heads would be least able to distinguish between vortices and general turbulence in the water. A second research team has therefore hypothesized that in low-visibility conditions, wider-headed fish will be less likely than narrower-headed fish to detect obstructions.

    Which finding, if true, would most directly support the second research team's hypothesis?

    AA study using obstructions that created medium-sized vortices in low-visibility conditions found that some specimens of dusky smooth-hound (Mustelus canis), which has a relatively narrow head, bumped into the obstructions more often than other specimens of the same fish did.
    BA study using obstructions that created medium-sized vortices in low-visibility conditions found that the wider-headed bristlemouth (Chaetostoma yurubiense) bumped into obstructions more often than the narrower-headed dusky smoothhound (Mustelus canis) did.
    CA study using obstructions that created medium-sized vortices in low-visibility conditions found that the narrower-headed dusky smooth-hound (Mustelus canis) bumped into the obstructions just as often as the wider-headed bristlemouth (Chaetostoma yurubiense) did.
    DA study using obstructions that created medium-sized vortices in low-visibility conditions found that the bristlemouth (Chaetostoma yurubiense), which has a relatively wide head, bumped into more than half of the obstructions.
    Show answer & explanation
    Correct answer: B

    A study using obstructions that created medium-sized vortices in low-visibility conditions found that the wider-headed bristlemouth (Chaetostoma yurubiense) bumped into obstructions more often than the narrower-headed dusky smoothhound (Mustelus canis) did.

    Option B is correct

    1. State the hypothesis to support: in low-visibility conditions, wider-headed fish detect obstructions less well than narrower-headed fish.

    2. That is a comparative claim, so the supporting evidence must compare a wide-headed fish with a narrow-headed one under the right conditions — medium-sized vortices, low visibility.

    3. Choice B is that comparison: the wider-headed bristlemouth bumped into obstructions more often than the narrower-headed dusky smooth-hound.

    4. Bumping into obstructions is the observable stand-in for failing to detect them, so the result maps onto the hypothesis directly.

    Answer: B.

  8. Question 8Rhetorical Synthesis · medium

    While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

    • Louis Ballard was a classical composer and citizen of the Quapaw Tribe.
    • His compositions synthesize Western classical music with elements of various Native musical traditions.
    • Ballard’s classical piece Katchina Dances features traditional Hopi songs.
    • Ballard’s classical piece Fantasy Aborigine No. 3 incorporates a Tewa seashell rattle, a traditional Native instrument.

    The student wants to emphasize a difference between the two compositions. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

    AKatchina Dances and Fantasy Aborigine No. 3 are two compositions written by Ballard, a classical music composer.
    BIn his two compositions Katchina Dances and Fantasy Aborigine No. 3, Ballard blends elements of various Native musical traditions, such as Indigenous songs or instruments, with Western classical music.
    CBallard has different approaches to blending Western classical music with elements of various Native musical traditions, such as using Indigenous songs and instruments in his compositions.
    DWhile both compositions integrate various Native musical traditions, Katchina Dances does so by featuring traditional Hopi songs and Fantasy Aborigine No. 3 does so by incorporating a Tewa seashell rattle.
    Show answer & explanation
    Correct answer: D

    While both compositions integrate various Native musical traditions, Katchina Dances does so by featuring traditional Hopi songs and Fantasy Aborigine No. 3 does so by incorporating a Tewa seashell rattle.

    Option D is correct

    1. The goal is specific: emphasize a difference between the two compositions.

    2. A difference needs both works named and their contrasting features set against each other.

    3. From the notes: Katchina Dances features traditional Hopi songs; Fantasy Aborigine No. 3 incorporates a Tewa seashell rattle. One draws on song, the other on an instrument.

    4. Choice D presents both, holds the shared frame ("both integrate various Native musical traditions"), and pivots on how each does so.

    Answer: D.

  9. Question 9Transitions · hard

    As observed in a 2011 study by Emilio García-Robledo and Alfonso Corzo, macroalgal proliferation may have a suppressive effect on the abundance of cyanobacteria and other microphytobenthos (MPB)—chlorophyll-producing microbes inhabiting marine sediment—in part by reducing the amount of sunlight available to MPB. Examining benthic chlorophyll concentrations (a widely used proxy for MPB biomass) in mudflats in Curlew Bay and other coastal sites in Virginia, Alice F. Besterman and Michael L. Pace found that those concentrations did not negatively correlate with macroalgal proliferation. However, they noted that MPB may respond to low-light conditions by producing higher-than-normal concentrations of chlorophyll, and they thus concluded that ________

    Which choice most logically completes the text?

    Aresearchers ought to account for the possibility that because MPB have the capacity to compensate for reduced sunlight availability, benthic chlorophyll concentrations may not always be a reliable indicator of MPB biomass.
    Balthough their finding was inconsistent with that of García-Robledo and Corzo, this discrepancy was not attributable to the ability of MPB to accelerate chlorophyll production to mitigate the negative impact of macroalgal accumulations.
    Calthough elevated levels of macroalgae do not always correspond to increased levels of benthic chlorophyll, there is likely a larger trend in MPB biomass that is related to macroalgal presence but unrelated to light conditions.
    Dthe effect of macroalgal concentrations on MPB abundance that García-Robledo and Corzo reported was not observed in Curlew Bay and other Virginia sites because low-light conditions likely are not generalizable across the sites in the studies.
    Show answer & explanation
    Correct answer: A

    researchers ought to account for the possibility that because MPB have the capacity to compensate for reduced sunlight availability, benthic chlorophyll concentrations may not always be a reliable indicator of MPB biomass.

    Option A is correct

    1. Notice the word "proxy" in the setup: benthic chlorophyll concentration is a widely used stand-in for MPB biomass, not a direct measurement of it.

    2. Besterman and Pace found no negative correlation between that proxy and macroalgal proliferation — seemingly at odds with the suppression effect.

    3. Then comes their own caveat: MPB may make more chlorophyll than normal in low light. If shaded MPB pack more chlorophyll each, chlorophyll can hold steady even while biomass falls.

    4. That undermines the proxy itself, so the conclusion is methodological: chlorophyll may not always reliably indicate MPB biomass. Choice A.

    Answer: A.

  10. Question 10Rhetorical Synthesis · easy

    • Historian Isabel Wilkerson's book The Warmth of Other Suns is about the Great Migration.

    • The Great Migration was a period in twentieth-century US history when over six million African Americans moved from the rural South to cities such as Detroit, Michigan.

    • To document this period, Wilkerson narrates the personal journeys of George Swanson Starling and Robert Pershing Foster, among others.

    • The book won the Mark Lynton History Prize in 2011.

    • It also won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2011.

    Which choice most effectively uses information from the given sentences to emphasize how Wilkerson documents the Great Migration?

    ADetroit, Michigan, is one of the cities whose African American populations grew during the Great Migration.
    BIsabel Wilkerson chronicles the complex history of the Great Migration in such riveting, personal detail by narrating the journeys of individuals, such as George Swanson Starling and Robert Pershing Foster.
    CIn 2011, Isabel Wilkerson's book The Warmth of Other Suns won not only the Mark Lynton History Prize but also the National Book Critics Circle Award.
    DThe personal journey of George Swanson Starling is featured in the award-winning book The Warmth of Other Suns.
    Show answer & explanation
    Correct answer: B

    Isabel Wilkerson chronicles the complex history of the Great Migration in such riveting, personal detail by narrating the journeys of individuals, such as George Swanson Starling and Robert Pershing Foster.

    Option B is correct

    1. The goal names its focus: emphasize how Wilkerson documents the Great Migration.

    2. "How" points at method. The notes give it: she narrates the personal journeys of individuals such as George Swanson Starling and Robert Pershing Foster.

    3. Choice B foregrounds that method — chronicling a vast history through individual journeys — which is the technique the goal asks about.

    Answer: B.

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