Free SAT Practice Question

Question 1 of 1
ID: SAT-RW-II-044
Section: SAT Reading & Writing (RW) – Information and Ideas
Topic: Command of Evidence – Textual
Difficulty level: Medium

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Obsidian, a volcanic glass prized in the ancient world for making fine cutting tools and polished ornaments, forms only near certain volcanoes, and each source carries a distinct chemical signature. Archaeologist Priya Nandakumar studies a cluster of early villages on an island that has no volcanoes of its own, yet whose oldest workshops are full of obsidian. She proposes that the islanders did not simply receive finished objects from traders but imported raw obsidian and shaped it into tools themselves, on the island. To test the proposal, she plans to examine the material left behind at these workshop sites.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support Nandakumar’s proposal?

AChemical analysis shows that all of the island’s obsidian came from a single volcano on a distant mainland.

BThe obsidian objects at the workshops are all finished tools, identical in style to those made in the villages beside that distant volcano.

CThe islanders traded actively with distant communities, exchanging shell ornaments for goods they could not make at home.

DThe workshop floors are littered with obsidian flakes and half-worked blanks — the waste left when raw obsidian is chipped into tools.

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