Digital SAT: Supporting & Undermining 3

1. Historian Rachel Greene is studying why a manufacturing city experienced rapid population growth during the late 1800s. She notes that the city’s railroad connections expanded dramatically shortly before its population increased. Greene hypothesizes that improved transportation access encouraged industrial growth, which in turn attracted new residents.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support Greene’s hypothesis?

A) Factory construction in the city increased sharply soon after the railroad network expanded.

B) Some nearby cities also experienced modest population growth during the same period.

C) Railroad companies often competed aggressively with one another for access to industrial cities, leading to complicated pricing systems, overlapping routes, and frequent disputes over transportation contracts.

D) The city’s population continued to grow for several decades after the railroad expansion occurred.

Question 1 of 5

2. Biologist Aaron Patel claims that a decline in a lake’s fish population was caused primarily by rising water temperatures. He points to several years of unusually warm conditions during the same period that fish numbers fell sharply.

Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken Patel’s claim?

A) Some fish species are more sensitive to temperature changes than others are.

B) Researchers found that an invasive parasite affecting the fish population spread throughout the lake before temperatures began rising significantly.

C) Water temperatures in nearby lakes also increased during the same decade.

D) Environmental groups have proposed several strategies intended to address the combined effects of pollution, habitat loss, climate change, recreational fishing, invasive species, and shoreline development on freshwater ecosystems.

Question 2 of 5

3. Psychologist Elena Morris observes that students who study vocabulary words by using them in original sentences tend to remember the words more accurately than students who memorize definitions alone. Morris hypothesizes that actively applying vocabulary in context strengthens long-term retention.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support Morris’s hypothesis?

A) Students often report that writing original sentences requires more effort than memorizing definitions does.

B) Vocabulary quizzes that focus on contextual usage are generally more difficult than quizzes based only on definitions.

C) Brain imaging studies show greater activation in language-processing and memory-association regions when students generate original sentences using new vocabulary words.

D) Teachers sometimes combine memorization exercises with sentence-writing activities in classroom vocabulary instruction programs designed to improve retention, engagement, and long-term academic performance.

Question 3 of 5

4. An economist argues that a city’s increase in tourism revenue was caused primarily by a major advertising campaign promoting local attractions. She notes that tourism spending rose substantially in the years after the campaign began.

Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the economist’s claim?

A) Some tourists reported first learning about the city through online advertisements connected to the campaign.

B) Tourism spending increased more rapidly during some years than during others.

C) A large international sporting event hosted by the city attracted unusually high numbers of visitors during the same period that tourism revenue increased.

D) City officials invested in several projects intended to improve transportation, public safety, entertainment options, hotel development, and visitor experiences around the time the advertising campaign was introduced.

Question 4 of 5

5. Environmental scientist Nora Kim is studying why a species of grass spreads rapidly after forest fires. Kim hypothesizes that the grass benefits because fires remove taller plants that normally block sunlight from reaching the ground.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support Kim’s hypothesis?

A) In experimental plots, the grass grows substantially faster under increased light conditions similar to those found after fires.

B) Some seeds of the grass species can survive exposure to high temperatures during wildfires.

C) Forest fires often alter soil nutrient levels in ways that affect many plant species differently over time.

D) Researchers studying post-fire ecosystems have proposed that plant recovery patterns may depend on a wide range of interacting factors, including rainfall levels, soil chemistry, seed dispersal, competition between species, animal activity, and changing environmental conditions over multiple growing seasons.

Question 5 of 5