Act/SAT Questions Of The Day Test 3

Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.    Despite their------- proportions, the murals of Diego Rivera give his Mexican compatriots the sense that their history is ------- and human in scale, not remote and larger than life.

Tuning In During the Twenties [1]      Modern broadcasting began to develop after the First World War. Before 1920, radio was simply a useful way to send electrical signals ashore from a ship at sea, or, from one "ham" operator to another. The new technology associated with movies and airplanes was already developing rapidly by the time soldiers started returning from European trenches in 1918. The vast potential of the airwaves, therefore, had scarcely been touched. [2]      [1] Then a vice president of Westinghouse, looking for a way to make the transmission of radio signals more profitable, decided on a two-fold strategy. [2] First, he would entice an audience with daily programming of great variety. [3] Second, he would sell this audience the radio receivers necessary to listen to this entertainment. [4] The plan succeeded beyond anyone's expectations. [3]      The federal Radio Division in Washington, D.C., was created to license stations, because it had no power to regulate them. Broadcasters multiplied wildly, some helping themselves to the more desirable frequencies, others increasing their transmission power at will. Chaos means things were out of control. [4]      Yet even in the midst of such anarchy, some commercial possibilities and organizations saw clearly of a medium whose regulation seemed imminent. In 1926, RCA paid the American Telephone & Telegraph Company one million dollars for station WEAF in New York City—and NBC was born. Years later, the Radio Law of 1927 was enacted. It authorized it's control for licensing and of policing the broadcasters. [5]      The RCA executives who created the powerful NBC network were right to see that sizable profits would come from this new medium. Even in 1930 for example an hour's advertising on nationwide radio to forty-seven cities cost $10,180. Advertising turned broadcasting into an industry, and the untapped potential of the airwaves began to be realized.   Which of the alternatives to the underlined part provides the most logical and succinct conclusion for Paragraph 3?

Part of the following sentence is underlined; beneath the sentence are five ways of phrasing the underlined material. Select the option that produces the best sentence. If you think the original phrasing produces a better sentence than any of the alternatives, select choice A.    Listening to good storybooks sharpen children’s awareness and appreciation for the sounds of spoken language.

In the figure below, X is on AY , XYZ measures 45°, and AXZ measures 130°. What is the measure of XZY ?

Read the following SAT test question, then click on a button to select your answer.  A machine can insert letters in envelopes at the rate of 120 per minute. Another machine can stamp the envelopes at the rate of 3 per second. How many such stamping machines are needed to keep up with 18 inserting machines of this kind?

SOCIAL SCIENCE: This passage is adapted from Leonard W. Levy's Origins of the Fifth Amendment: The Right Against Self Incrimination. (©1968 by Clio Enterprises Inc.).                  Community courts and community justice pre- vailed in England at the time of the Norman Conquest [1066]. The legal system was ritualistic, dependent upon oaths at most stages of litigation, and permeated 5               by both religious and superstitious notions. The pro- ceedings were oral, very personal, and highly con- frontative. Juries were unknown. One party publicly "appealed," or accused, the other before the community meeting at which the presence of both was obligatory. 10               To be absent meant risking fines and outlawry. After the preliminary statements of the parties, the court ren- dered judgment, not on the merits of the issue nor the question of guilt or innocence, but on the manner by which it should be resolved. Judgment in other words 15               preceded trial because it was a decision on what form the trial should take. It might be by compurgation, by ordeal, or, after the Norman Conquest, by battle. Excepting trial by battle, only one party was tried or, more accurately, was put to his "proof." Proof being 20               regarded as an advantage, it was usually awarded to the accused party; in effect he had the privilege of proving his own case.       Trial by compurgation consisted of a sworn state- ment to the truth of one's claim or denial, supported by 25               the oaths of a certain number of fellow swearers. Presumably they, no more than the claimant, would endanger their immortal souls by the sacrilege of false swearing. Originally the oath-helpers swore from their own knowledge to the truth of the party's claim. Later 30               they became little more than character witnesses, swearing only to their belief that his oath was trust- worthy. If he rounded up the requisite number of com- purgators and the cumbrous swearing in very exact form proceeded without a mistake, he won his case. A 35               mistake "burst" the oath, proving guilt.       Ordeals were usually reserved for more serious crimes, for persons of bad reputation, for peasants, or for those caught with stolen goods. As an invocation of immediate divine judgment, ordeals were consecrated 40               by the Church and shrouded with solemn religious mys- tery. The accused underwent a physical trial in which he called upon God to witness his innocence by putting a miraculous sign upon his body. Cold water, boiling water, and hot iron were the principal ordeals, all of 45               which the clergy administered. In the ordeal of cold water, the accused was trussed up and cast into a pool to see whether he would sink or float. On the theory that water which had been sanctified by a priest would receive an innocent person but reject the guilty, inno- 50               cence was proved by sinking—and hopefully a quick retrieval—guilt by floating. In the other ordeals, one had to plunge his hand into a cauldron of boiling water or carry a red hot piece of iron for a certain distance, in the hope that three days later, when the bandages were 55               removed, the priest would find a "clean" wound, one that was healing free of infection. How deeply one plunged his arm into the water, how heavy the iron or great the distance it was carried, depended mainly on the gravity of the charge.   60                   The Normans brought to England still another ordeal, trial by battle, paradigm of the adversary system, which gave to the legal concept of "defense" or "defendant" a physical meaning. Trial by battle was a savage yet sacred method of proof which was also 65               thought to involve divine intercession on behalf of the righteous. Rather than let a wrongdoer triumph, God would presumably strengthen the arms of the party who had sworn truly to the justice of his cause. Right, not might, would therefore conquer. Trial by battle was 70               originally available for the settlement of all disputes but eventually was restricted to cases of serious crime.       Whether one proved his case by compurgation, ordeal, or battle, the method was accusatory in char- acter. There was always a definite and known accuser, 75               some private person who brought formal suit and openly confronted his antagonist. There was never any secrecy in the proceedings, which were the same for criminal as for civil litigation. The judges, who had no role whatever in the making of the verdict, decided only 80               which party should be put to proof and what its form should be; thereafter the judges merely enforced an observance of the rules. The oaths that saturated the proceedings called upon God to witness to the truth of the respective claims of the parties, or the justice of 85               their cause, or the reliability of their word. No one gave testimonial evidence nor was anyone questioned to test his veracity.   According to the passage, an oath was declared "burst" during compurgation if the: