Free SAT Practice Question

Question 1 of 1
ID: SAT-RW-CS-032
Section: SAT Reading & Writing (RW) – Craft and Structure
Topic: Text Structure and Purpose
Difficulty level: Easy

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Most maps of the ocean floor are stitched together from ship soundings taken along narrow tracks, leaving the wide stretches between those lines unmeasured and merely estimated. A newer approach reads the sea surface instead: orbiting satellites detect the slight bulges and dips that undersea mountains and trenches create in the water above them. From these surface patterns, researchers can infer the shape of terrain no ship has ever crossed.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

ATo argue that ship soundings should be abandoned as a way of charting the ocean floor. On this reading the passage is a case for scrapping ship soundings altogether, a recommendation it mentions only in passing and never actually urges.

BTo explain how satellites measure the height of the sea surface across the globe.

CTo contrast two rival satellite systems used to study undersea mountains.

DTo describe a method that reveals features of the sea floor which traditional ship measurements leave unmapped.

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