Cisco
CompTIA
ISC
EC-Council
EXIN
Fortinet
ITIL
Juniper
Microsoft
VMware
Avaya
SAP
Google
NVIDIA
Salesforce
Amazon
Palo Alto Networks
ISC2
Splunk
ServiceNow
All Vendors
  2. Home
  3. Exams
  4. Test Prep
  5. SAT Section 1: Critical Reading

Test Prep SAT Section 1: Critical Reading Exam
Section One : Critical Reading (Page 2 )

Updated On: 1-Feb-2026
Page 2 of 55
PDF with 271 Questions

The ______ behavior of the demonstrators became even more apparent when they all chained themselves together when the authorities came on scene.

  1. indolent
  2. spurious
  3. individual
  4. recalcitrant
  5. cohesive

Answer(s): D

Explanation:

Choices A and B indicate lazy or not genuine, respectively, which is not the case, or they wouldn't be there demonstrating. Choice C grammatically fits, but the individuality of the act becomes lost when chaining them together. Choice E, "cohesive, " or sticking together certainly fits and is correct; however, this is not the best choice. Choice D, "recalcitrant, " is the best choice as it includes "stubbornly resisting authority, " which further matches the action following the arrival of the authorities.



He was born a slave, but T. Thomas Fortune (18561928) went on to become a journalist, editor, and civil rights activist, founding several early black newspapers and a civil rights organization that predated W. E. A. DuBois' Niagara Movement (later the NAACP). Like many black leaders of his time, Fortune was torn between the radical leanings of DuBois and the more conservative ideology of Booker T. Washington.
This 1884 essay, "The Negro and the Nation, " dates from his more militant period.
The war of the Rebellion settled only one question; It forever settled the question of chattel slavery in this country. It forever choked the life out of the infamy of the Constitutional right of one man to rob another, by purchase of his person, or of his honest share of the produce of his own labor. But this was the only question permanently and irrevocably settled. Nor was this the all-absorbing question involved. The right of a state to secede from the so called Union remains where it was when the treasonable shot upon Fort Sumter aroused the people to all the horrors of internecine war. And the measure of protection which the national government owes the individual members of states, a right imposed upon it by the adoption of the
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, remains still to be affirmed.
It was not sufficient that the federal government should expend its blood and treasure to unfetter the limbs of four millions of people. There can be a slavery more odious, more galling, than mere chattel slavery. It has been declared to be an act of charity to enforce ignorance upon the slave, since to inform his intelligence would simply be to make his unnatural lot all the more unbearable. Instance the miserable this country try has accomplished. They are more absolutely under the control of the Southern whites; they are more systematically robbed of their labor; they are more poorly housed, clothed and fed, than federal government.
When they appeal to the federal government they are told by the Supreme Court to go to the state authorities --as if they would have appealed to the one had the other given them that protection to which their sovereign citizenship entitles them! Practically, there is no law in the United States which extends its protecting arm over the black man and his rights. He is, like the Irishman in Ireland, an alien in his native land. There is no central or auxiliary authority to which he can appeal for protection.
Wherever he turns he finds the strong arm of constituted authority powerless to protect him. The farmer and the merchant rob him with absolute immunity, and irresponsible ruffians murder him without fear of punishment, undeterred by the law, or by public opinion--which connives at, if it does not inspire, the deeds of lawless violence. Legislatures of states have framed a code of laws which is more cruel and unjust than any enforced by a former slave state.
The right of franchise has been practically annulled in every one of the former slave states, in not one of which, today, can a man vote, think, or act as he pleases. He must conform his views to the views of the men who have usurped every function of government--who, at the point of the dagger, and with shotgun, have made themselves masters in defiance of every law or precedent in our history as a government.
They have usurped government with the weapons of the cowards and assassins, and they maintain themselves in power by the most approved practices of the most odious of tyrants. These men have shed as much innocent blood as the bloody triumvirate of Rome. Today, red handed murderers and assassins sit in the high places of power, and bask in the smiles of innocence and beauty.
The word manumission (3rd paragraph) means

  1. emancipation
  2. duty
  3. possessions
  4. forgiveness
  5. transportation

Answer(s): A

Explanation:

You can deduce this answer by reading the whole paragraph carefully. Fortune talks about "a slavery more odious ... than chattel slavery." Even after being liberated, or emancipated, black people remain in chains.



He was born a slave, but T. Thomas Fortune (18561928) went on to become a journalist, editor, and civil rights activist, founding several early black newspapers and a civil rights organization that predated W. E. A. DuBois' Niagara Movement (later the NAACP). Like many black leaders of his time, Fortune was torn between the radical leanings of DuBois and the more conservative ideology of Booker T. Washington.
This 1884 essay, "The Negro and the Nation, " dates from his more militant period.
The war of the Rebellion settled only one question; It forever settled the question of chattel slavery in this country. It forever choked the life out of the infamy of the Constitutional right of one man to rob another, by purchase of his person, or of his honest share of the produce of his own labor. But this was the only question permanently and irrevocably settled. Nor was this the all-absorbing question involved. The right of a state to secede from the so called Union remains where it was when the treasonable shot upon Fort Sumter aroused the people to all the horrors of internecine war. And the measure of protection which the national government owes the individual members of states, a right imposed upon it by the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, remains still to be affirmed.
It was not sufficient that the federal government should expend its blood and treasure to unfetter the limbs of four millions of people. There can be a slavery more odious, more galling, than mere chattel slavery. It has been declared to be an act of charity to enforce ignorance upon the slave, since to inform his intelligence would simply be to make his unnatural lot all the more unbearable. Instance the miserable this country try has accomplished. They are more absolutely under the control of the Southern whites; they are more systematically robbed of their labor; they are more poorly housed, clothed and fed, than federal government.
When they appeal to the federal government they are told by the Supreme Court to go to the state authorities --as if they would have appealed to the one had the other given them that protection to which their sovereign citizenship entitles them! Practically, there is no law in the United States which extends its protecting arm over the black man and his rights. He is, like the Irishman in Ireland, an alien in his native land. There is no central or auxiliary authority to which he can appeal for protection.
Wherever he turns he finds the strong arm of constituted authority powerless to protect him. The farmer and the merchant rob him with absolute immunity, and irresponsible ruffians murder him without fear of punishment, undeterred by the law, or by public opinion--which connives at, if it does not inspire, the deeds of lawless violence. Legislatures of states have framed a code of laws which is more cruel and unjust than any enforced by a former slave state.
The right of franchise has been practically annulled in every one of the former slave states, in not one of which, today, can a man vote, think, or act as he pleases. He must conform his views to the views of the men who have usurped every function of government--who, at the point of the dagger, and with shotgun, have made themselves masters in defiance of every law or precedent in our history as a government.
They have usurped government with the weapons of the cowards and assassins, and they maintain themselves in power by the most approved practices of the most odious of tyrants. These men have shed as much innocent blood as the bloody triumvirate of Rome. Today, red handed murderers and assassins sit in the high places of power, and bask in the smiles of innocence and beauty.
Now that slavery has been abolished, Fortune believes, black people

  1. are chattel
  2. have fewer rights than before
  3. are protected by laws
  4. can succeed in the white man's world
  5. inspire lawless violence

Answer(s): B

Explanation:

Paragraphs 2 and 3 are entirely in support of this.



He was born a slave, but T. Thomas Fortune (18561928) went on to become a journalist, editor, and civil rights activist, founding several early black newspapers and a civil rights organization that predated W. E. A. DuBois' Niagara Movement (later the NAACP). Like many black leaders of his time, Fortune was torn between the radical leanings of DuBois and the more conservative ideology of Booker T. Washington.
This 1884 essay, "The Negro and the Nation, " dates from his more militant period.
The war of the Rebellion settled only one question; It forever settled the question of chattel slavery in this country. It forever choked the life out of the infamy of the Constitutional right of one man to rob another, by purchase of his person, or of his honest share of the produce of his own labor. But this was the only question permanently and irrevocably settled. Nor was this the all-absorbing question involved. The right of a state to secede from the so called Union remains where it was when the treasonable shot upon Fort Sumter aroused the people to all the horrors of internecine war. And the measure of protection which the national government owes the individual members of states, a right imposed upon it by the adoption of the
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, remains still to be affirmed.
It was not sufficient that the federal government should expend its blood and treasure to unfetter the limbs of four millions of people. There can be a slavery more odious, more galling, than mere chattel slavery. It has been declared to be an act of charity to enforce ignorance upon the slave, since to inform his intelligence would simply be to make his unnatural lot all the more unbearable. Instance the miserable this country try has accomplished. They are more absolutely under the control of the Southern whites; they are more systematically robbed of their labor; they are more poorly housed, clothed and fed, than federal government.
When they appeal to the federal government they are told by the Supreme Court to go to the state authorities --as if they would have appealed to the one had the other given them that protection to which their sovereign citizenship entitles them! Practically, there is no law in the United States which extends its protecting arm over the black man and his rights. He is, like the Irishman in Ireland, an alien in his native land. There is no central or auxiliary authority to which he can appeal for protection.
Wherever he turns he finds the strong arm of constituted authority powerless to protect him. The farmer and the merchant rob him with absolute immunity, and irresponsible ruffians murder him without fear of punishment, undeterred by the law, or by public opinion--which connives at, if it does not inspire, the deeds of lawless violence. Legislatures of states have framed a code of laws which is more cruel and unjust than any enforced by a former slave state.
The right of franchise has been practically annulled in every one of the former slave states, in not one of which, today, can a man vote, think, or act as he pleases. He must conform his views to the views of the men who have usurped every function of government--who, at the point of the dagger, and with shotgun, have made themselves masters in defiance of every law or precedent in our history as a government.
They have usurped government with the weapons of the cowards and assassins, and they maintain themselves in power by the most approved practices of the most odious of tyrants. These men have shed as much innocent blood as the bloody triumvirate of Rome. Today, red handed murderers and assassins sit in the high places of power, and bask in the smiles of innocence and beauty.
Fortune uses the example of the Irishman to show that

  1. famine is not alien to people in the United States
  2. one can be treated as a foreigner in the land of one's birth
  3. some people have a native land; others have none
  4. one can be born to slavery but rise above it
  5. people may be treated more fairly in a monarchy than in a democracy

Answer(s): B

Explanation:

No law protects the black man; he is, "like the Irishman in Ireland, analien in his native land"



Musical notes, like all sounds, are a result of the sound waves created by movement, like the rush of air through a trumpet. Musical notes are very regular sound waves. The qualities of these waves --how much they displace molecules, and how often they do so--give the note its particular sound. How much a sound wave displaces molecules affects the volume of the note. How frequently a sound wave reaches your ear determines whether the note is high or low pitched.
When scientists describe how high or low a sound is, they use a numerical measurement of its frequency, such as "440 vibrations per second, " rather than the letters musicians use.
In this passage, musical notes are used primarily to

  1. illustrate the difference between human-produced and non human produced sound.
  2. demonstrate the difference between musical sound and all other sound.
  3. provide an example of sound properties common to all sound.
  4. convey the difference between musical pitch and frequency pitch.
  5. explain the connection between number and letter names for sounds

Answer(s): C

Explanation:

The passage begins, "Musical notes, like all sounds, are a result of the sound waves created by movement." The author then goes on to talk about musical notes and how they illustrate properties of sound waves. Choice C. captures this idea.



Viewing page 2 of 55
Viewing questions 6 - 10 out of 271 questions



Post your Comments and Discuss Test Prep SAT Section 1: Critical Reading exam prep with other Community members:

Join the SAT Section 1: Critical Reading Discussion