2 - ] Model SAT Tests - Test Two

2 - ]Model SAT Tests 

Test 2

1 . Read each of the passages below , and then answer the questions that follow the passage , the correct response may be stated outright or merely suggested in the passage .

Questions 1 - 6 are based on the following passage .

The following passage discusses so-called hot spots , regions of unusual volcanic activity that record the passage of plates over the face of Earth . According to one theory , these hot spots may also contribute to the fracturing of continents and the formation of new oceans .

 Although by far the majority of the world’s active volcanoes are located along the boundaries of the great shifting plates that make up Earth’s surface ,  more than 100 isolated areas of volcanic activity occur far from the nearest plate boundary . Geologists call these volcanic areas hot spots or mantle plumes . Many of these sources of magma ( the red-hot , molten material within Earth’s crust , out of which igneous rock is formed ) lie deep in the interior of a plate . These so-called intra-plate volcanoes often from roughly linear volcanic chains , traits of extinct volcanoes . The Hawaiian Islands ,perhaps the best known example of an intra-plate volcanic chain , came into being when the northwest-moving Pacific plate passed over a relatively stationary hot spot and in doing so initiated this magma-generation and volcano-formation process . Such a volcanic chain serves as a landmark signaling the slow but inexorable passage of the plates .

            No theorist today would deny that the plates do move . Satellites anchored in space record the minute movement of fixed sites on Earth , thereby confirming the motions of the plates . They show Africa and South America drawing away from each other , as new lithospheric material wells up in the sea floor between them in the phenomenon known as sea-floor spreading . That the two coastlines complement one another is beyond dispute ; a cursory glance at the map reveals the common geological features that link these separate shores , reminders of an age eons past when the two continents were joined . In 1963 the Canadian geophysicist J. Tuzo Wilson asserted that , while Earth scientists have constructed the relative motion of the plates carrying the continents in detail , “ the motion of one plate with respect to another cannot readily be translated into motion with respect to Earth’s interior .” For this reason , scientists were unable to determine whether both continents were moving ( diverging in separate directions ) or whether one continent was motionless while the other was drifting away from it . Wilson hypothesized that hot spots , fixed in Earth’s depths , could provide the necessary information to settle the question . Using hot spots as a fixed frame of reference , Wilson concluded that the African plate was motionless and that it had exhibited no movement for 30 million years .

             Wilson’s hot-spot hypothesis goes well beyond this somewhat limited role . He conceives that hot spots as playing a major part in influencing the movements of the continental plates . As he wrote in his seminal essay in Scientific American .  “When a continental plate comes to rest over a hot spot , the material welting up from deeper layers creates a broad dome . As the dome grows it develops deep fissures ;in at least a few cases the continent may rupture entirely along some of these fissures , so that the hot spot initiates the formation of new ocean .” The hot spot , flaring up from Earth’s deepest core , may someday cast new light on the continents’ mutability .

1 . The term “hot spot” is being used in the passage

( A) rhetorically   (B) colloquially  ( C) technically (D) ambiguously ( E) ironically

2 . The author regards the theory that the plates making up the earth’s surface move as

( A) tentative  (B) irrefutable ( C) discredited (D) unanimous ( E) relative

3 . According to the passage , which of the following statements indicate(s) that Africa and South America once adjoined one another ?

1. They share certain common topographic traits .

11 . Their shorelines are physical counterparts .

111 . The African plate has been stationary for 30 million years .

( A) 1 only (B) 11 only ( C) 1 and 11 only  (D) 11 and 111 only  ( E) 1 , 11 , and 111

4 . The underlined word ‘constructed’ most nearly means  

( A) interpreted   (B) built  ( C) impeded  (D) restricted  ( E) refuted

5 . According to Wilson , the hot spot hypothesis eventually may prove useful in interpreting 

( A) the boundaries of the plates

(B) the depth of the ocean floor

C) the relative motion of the plates

(D) current satellite technology

( E) major changes in continental shape

6 . In maintaining the fissures in an up-well dome can result in the formation of a new ocean in the third paragraph , Wilson has assumed which of the following points ?

( A) The fissures are located directly above a hot spot .

(B) The dome is broader than the continent upon which it rests ?

( C) The oceanic depths are immutable .

(D) The fissures cut across the continent , splitting it .

( E) No such fissures exist on the ocean floor .

Questions 7 - 15 are based on the following passage .

The following passage is taken from an essay on Southwestern Native American art .

            Among the Plains Indians , two separate strains of decorative art evolved : the figurative , representational art created by themen of the tribe , and the geometric , abstract art crafted by the women . According to Dunn and Highwater , the artist’s sex governed both the kind of article to be decorated and the style to e followed in its ornamentation . Thus , the decorative works created by tribesmen consistently depict living creatures ( men , horses , buffalo ) or magical beings ( ghosts and other supernatural life-forms ) . Those created by women , however , are clearly nonrepresentational : no figures of men or animals appear in this classically geometric art .

             Art historians theorize that this abstract , geometric art , traditionally prerogative of the women ,predates the figurative art of the men . Descending from those aspects of Woodland culture that gave rise to weaving , quillwork , and beadwork , it is utilitarian art , intended for the embellishment of ordinary , serviceable objects such as parfleche boxes

( cases made of rawhide ) , saddlebags , and hide robes . The abstract designs combine classical geometric figures into formal patterns : a ring of narrow isosceles triangles arranged on the background of a large central circle creates the well-known “feather and circle” pattern . Created in bold primary colors ( red , yellow , blue ) , sometimes black or green , and often outlined in dark paint or glue size , these nonrepresentational dsigns are nonetheless intricately detailed .

            Although the abstract decorations crafted by the women are virtually striking , they pale in significance when compared to the narrative compositions created by the men . Created to tell a story , these works were generally heroic in nature , and were intended to commemorate a bold and courageous exploit or a spiritual awakening . Unlike realistic portrait6s , the artworks emphasized action , not physical likeness . Highwater describes their making as follows : “These representational works were generally drafted by a greoup of men - often the individuals who had performed the deeds being recorde3d - who drew on untailored hide robes and tepee liners made of skins . The paintings usually filled the entire field : often they were conceived at different times as separate pictorial vignettes documenting specific actions . In relationship to each other , these vignettes suggest a narrative.”

         The tribesmen’s narrative artwork depicted not only warlike deeds butalso mystic dreams and vision quests . Part of the young male’s rite of passage into tribal adulthood involved his discovering his own personal totem or symbolic guardian . By fasting or by consuming hallucinatory substances , the youth opened himself to the revelation of his “mystery object.” a symbol that could protect him from both natural and supernatural dangers .

         What had been in the early 1700s a highly individulatistic ,personal iconography changed into something very different by the early nineteenth century . As Anglos came west in ever greater numbers , they brought with them new materials and new ideas . Just as European glass beads came to replace native porcupine quills in the women’s applied designs , cloth enentually became used as a substitute for animal hides . The emphasis of Plains artwork shifted as well tribespeople came to create works that celebrated the solidarity of Indians as a group rather than their prowess as individuals .

7 . Which of the following titles best summarizes the content of the passage ?

(A) The Ongoing Influence of Plains Indians Art

(B) Male and Female in Tribal Life  

( C) Indian Art as Narrative and Dream

(D) Design Specialization in Plains Art

(E) The History of Indian Representational Art

8 . The author cites examples of the work of Plains artists primarily to                        

(A) show the differences between male and female decorative styles

(B) emphasize the functional role of art in Indian life

( C) describe the techniques employed in the creation of particular orks

(D) illustrate the changes made by Anglo Influence on Plains art

(E) explore the spiritual significance of representational design

9 . The underlined word “strains” in line ` means     

(A) tunes (B) pressures  ( C) varieties (D) injuries (E) impressions

10 . In the second paragraph , weaving , quillwork , and beadwork are presented as examples of

(A) male dominated decorative arts

(B) uninspired products of artisans

( C) geometrically based crafts

(D) unusual applications of artistic theories

(E) precursors of representational design

11 . With which of the following statements regarding male Plains artists prior to 1800 would be author most likely agree ?

1 . They tended to work collaboratively on projects .

11 . They believed art had power to ward off danger.

111 . hey derived their designs from classical forms .

(A) 1 only (B) 111 only  ( C) 1 and 11 only  (D) 11 and 111 only  (E) 1 , 11 , and 111

12 . As used in paragraph three ,”drefted” most nearly means

(A) selected  (B) recruited  ( C) endorsed  (D) sketched  (E) ventilated

13 . According to the passage , dream visions were important to the Plains artist because they

(A) enabled them to foresee influences on his style.

(B) suggested the techniques and methods of his art

( C) determined his individual aesthetic philosophy

(D) expressed his sense of tribal solidarity

(E) revealed the true form of his spiritual guardian

14 . In its narrative aspect , Plains art resembles LEAST

(A) a cartoon strip made up of several panels

(B) a prtrail bust of a chieftain in full headdress

( C) an epic recounting the adventures of a legendary hero

(D) a dhapter from the autobiography of a prominent leader

(E) a mural portraying scenes from the life of Martin Luther King

15 . According to the last paragraph , the impact of the Anglo presence on Plains art can be seen in the

(A) growth of importance of geometric patterning

(B) dearth of hides available to Plains Indian artists

( C) shift from depicting individuals to depicting the community

(D) emphasis on dream visions as appropriate subject mat5ter for narrative art

(E) growing lack of belief that images could protect one from natural enemies