Free SAT Practice Question

Question 1 of 1
ID: SAT-RW-II-026
Section: SAT Reading & Writing (RW) – Information and Ideas
Topic: Command of Evidence – Textual
Difficulty level: Medium

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Purple saxifrage is one of the first plants to bloom on Arctic tundra each year. A team of botanists hypothesized that in seasons when the snow covering the plants melts earlier, the plants flower earlier as well, because the exposed ground warms sooner and that added warmth triggers the buds to open. To test the idea, the researchers returned to a single tundra site over many seasons and, for each season, recorded both the date when the snow finished melting and the date when the saxifrage produced its first flowers.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers' hypothesis?

AIn the seasons when the snow finished melting earlier, the newly exposed ground reached warmer temperatures sooner.

BIn the seasons when the snow finished melting earlier, the saxifrage's first flowers tended to open correspondingly earlier.

CSaxifrage plants growing in shaded plots tended to flower later than those growing in sunnier, more exposed plots.

DAcross the seasons studied, the date of the saxifrage's first flowers stayed about the same no matter when the snow finished melting.

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