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SAT Reading and Writing 2025 past questions and answers

This 2025 SAT Reading and Writing set has 27 practice questions. Try these 5 free sample questions, tap a question to reveal the answer and explanation. Then practise the whole 2025 set with instant marking.

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Sample SAT Reading and Writing 2025 questions

1. In a field study, ecologist Mina Rao recorded the calls of frogs near a busy road. During rush hour, the frogs did not stop calling; instead, they shifted to a narrower range of pitches that traveled more clearly above traffic noise. Rao described the frogs' adjustment as restrained because the change was noticeable but limited. As used in the passage, what does "restrained" most nearly mean?
  1. Carefully controlled
  2. Emotionally subdued
  3. Physically held back
  4. Intentionally concealed

Answer: A. Carefully controlled

The frogs made a limited, controlled adjustment rather than changing their calls completely.

2. When the town of Bellhaven replaced its fixed bus shelters with modular ones, the transit agency initially spent less on repairs, as expected. But replacement panels proved difficult to source because each shelter used a different design. The agency now plans to standardize the panels. Which choice best describes the structure of the passage?
  1. It presents two competing explanations for a change in costs.
  2. It presents an initial benefit, identifies an obstacle, and introduces a response.
  3. It traces the history of a design from its invention to its widespread adoption.
  4. It compares the environmental effects of two kinds of transit shelter.

Answer: B. It presents an initial benefit, identifies an obstacle, and introduces a response.

The passage moves from expected savings to a sourcing problem and then to standardizing panels as a solution.

3. Text 1: Historian Leila Chen argues that handwritten recipe cards reveal how families adapted dishes over time; stains and substitutions can document practical changes that cookbooks omit. Text 2: Archivist Omar Bell agrees that recipe cards preserve personal history, but he cautions that cards surviving in archives may overrepresent wealthy households, which were more likely to keep and donate them. How would Bell most likely respond to Chen's argument?
  1. By rejecting the idea that recipe cards contain historical information
  2. By arguing that cookbooks are more reliable than family records
  3. By accepting their value while noting that they may not represent all families equally
  4. By claiming that stains and substitutions make recipe cards impossible to interpret

Answer: C. By accepting their value while noting that they may not represent all families equally

Bell shares Chen's view of the cards' historical value but warns that surviving examples may reflect an unbalanced sample.

4. A team studying coastal dunes compared two restoration methods. Planting native grasses stabilized the sand quickly, but the researchers called the result provisional: a winter storm could still undo the work before the roots became established. They therefore planned to measure the dunes again after two storm seasons before recommending the method broadly. As used in the passage, what does "provisional" most nearly mean?
  1. Unusually costly
  2. Widely accepted
  3. Precisely measured
  4. Temporary or not yet final

Answer: D. Temporary or not yet final

Because storms could reverse the early gains and further monitoring is planned, the result is not yet final.

5. For decades, visitors assumed the faint lines on a stone tablet were decorative borders. In 2018, conservator Imani Vale used angled light to show that the lines form a repeated notch pattern. A later scan revealed that several notches align with the tablet's old calendar marks. Vale does not claim the pattern's meaning is settled; she argues that it merits renewed study. What is the main purpose of the passage?
  1. To explain why an earlier interpretation has been challenged by new observations
  2. To establish that the tablet was used exclusively as a calendar
  3. To show that conservators should avoid using angled light
  4. To describe how the tablet was transported to its current location

Answer: A. To explain why an earlier interpretation has been challenged by new observations

The passage presents new evidence that challenges the decorative-border interpretation without claiming a definitive meaning.

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