SBAC Online Practice Questions and Answers

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A store sells used and new video games. New video games cost more than used video games. All used video games cost the same. All new video games also cost the same.

Omar spent a total of $84 on 4 used video games and 2 new video games. Sally spent a total of $78 on 6 used video games and 1 new video game. Janet has $120 to spend.

Enter the number of used video games Janet can purchase after she purchases 3 new video games.

A. 5

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Place a point on the coordinate grid to show each x-intercept of the function. Place a point on the coordinate grid to show the minimum value of the function.

A.

See explanation below.

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Read the text and answer the question.

Moving to the Back of Beyond

When my parents said the three of us were moving out to California, to a place just north of Los Angeles, my mind immediately went to thoughts of Disneyland and Hollywood, glitz and glamour. I imagined a Rodeo Drive shopping spree to

pick out a bikini for the endless days I would be spending on the beach. However, I’d forgotten about my parents’ penchant for the unconventional; they’re definitely “the road less traveled” kind of people. Mom had a gopher snake for a pet

when she was younger, and Dad was never happier than when he was climbing near-vertical cliffs that only mountain goats could love. These are not city folk.

They had chosen to buy a 900-square-foot cabin under a 250-year-old oak tree in the high chaparral1 forest out in the back of beyond – so far away from Los Angeles that you couldn't even see the glow of the lights at night. When I first saw

where we were going to live, I vacillated between feeling terrified and excited. This would be an adventure, for sure. But this was no camping trip where you could go home to civilization after a few days of roughing it; this was home, and

roughing it was the new normal.

On move-in day, we drove fifteen miles out from Antelope Valley – where the nearest grocery store was located – on a two-lane road past llamas, cattle, and horses. Up and up we went, until finally we turned down a dirt road and headed into

a canyon full of towering Coulter pines, blue-green sagebrush, and ancient canyon live oaks. I didn't know the names of these plants then, of course; I learned them later. That first day all I saw then was a million shades of green.

We parked under an oak tree that shaded our cabin and a front yard of rock, sand, and sagebrush twice as large as the cabin itself. On the stone staircase that led to the front door, black lizards interrupted their push-ups to twist their heads

and eye us as we passed. Scrub jays squawked and hummingbirds zoomed past the eaves, scolding us with their territorial calls.

No cars roared past. No radios blared from a neighbor's house. There were no neighbors – no human neighbors, anyway.

Our new home consisted of one bedroom, one bathroom, and one big room for everything else. A fireplace in the corner of the big room would be our sole source of heat in the winter. A swamp box (cooler) would blow a breeze over a big

damp pad to keep us cool all summer, or so my father said. But it was early autumn that day, and the temperature was perfect in the shade of the oak tree. Our oak tree, I thought; I was settling in.

Mom wiped a layer of grime off the kitchen counter and muttered about getting a bottle of bleach on our next trip into town. That was the beginning of an important lesson about living in the back of beyond: you don't just zip over to the local

convenience store anytime you need something out here. You have to make a careful list and check it twice so that you don't forget anything, because anywhere is a long way from here.

On my first walk around the property, I saw two horned toads, a red-tailed hawk, and some deer tracks. I wondered what else I might find deeper and higher in the canyon. Dad told me the real estate agent had mentioned that coyotes,

bobcats, mountain lions, rattlesnakes, and even bears roamed these hills. To my surprise, I found I couldn't wait to see them. All of them. I felt my feet taking root in the earth, claiming this place as home.

With no street lamps timed to turn on at sunset, when night came it was darker than anything I had ever experienced. Mom and I went out to look at the stars while Dad tried to unplug the ancient toilet. In the city, or even in the suburbs where

I had lived before, you could see only the brightest stars in the sky. But out here, it was like being in a planetarium, except there were no labels typed onto our sky. The sheer number and spread of stars was awe-inspiring.

That first night, we slept on air mattresses on the living room floor because the movers had not yet arrived. There were no curtains on the windows, so when the moon rose, it shone in as if moonbeams were an integral part of the cabin.

Eventually, I moved into the bedroom and Mom and Dad got a foldout bed for the living room. Over the next few months, I began to count the passage of time in full moons rather than by the pages of a calendar, and for the first time I really

noticed the days growing shorter in winter and longer in summer.

It's hard to believe, but we’ve been here for six years now. I’ve been going to school in the valley, but I feel most at home up here with my wild fellow canyon dwellers. Soon, I will have to leave home for college, and I’m a little afraid of the

culture shock I’m sure I will feel when I move back to civilization. Soon I’ll be walking on pavement and well-mowed grass again, rooming with strangers, and eating meals in a cafeteria crowded with more people than live within twenty miles of

this house. But I know I will come back. The back of beyond is home now.

1. chaparral: a dense thicket of shrubs and small trees

The reader can conclude that the narrator is open to living at “the back of beyond” and accepts her new life there. Click three sentences that best support this conclusion.

Our new home consisted of one bedroom, one bathroom, and one big room for everything else. A fireplace in the corner of the big room would be our sole source of heat in the winter. A swamp box (cooler) would blow a breeze over a big damp pad to keep us cool all summer, or so my father said. But it was early autumn that day, and the temperature was perfect in the shade of the oak tree. Our oak tree, I thought; I was setting in.

Mom wiped a layer of grime off the kitchen counter and muttered about getting a bottle of bleach on our next trip into town. That was the beginning of an important lesson about living in the back of beyond: you don't just zip over to the local convenience store anytime you need something out here. You have to make a careful list and check it twice so that you don't forget anything, because anywhere is a long way from here.

On my first walk around the property, I saw two horned toads, a red-tailed hawk, and some deer tracks. I wondered what else I might find deeper and higher in the canyon. Dad told me the real estate agent had mentioned that coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions, rattlesnakes, and even bears roamed these hills. To my surprise, I found I couldn't wait to see them. All of them. I felt my beet taking root in the earth, claiming this place as home.

A.

See explanation below.

Read the text attached.

Passage 1

Critical information needed in fight to save wildlife

With global temperatures rising, an international group of 22 top biologists is calling for a coordinated effort to gather important species information that is urgently needed to improve predictions for the impact of climate change on future

biodiversity. Current predictions fail to account for important biological factors like species competition and movement that can have a profound influence on whether a plant or animal survives changes to its environment, the scientists say in

the September 9 issue of the journal Science. While more sophisticated forecasting models exist, much of the detailed species information that is needed to improve predictions is lacking.

"Right now, we're treating a mouse the same way as an elephant or a fish or a tree. Yet we know that those are all very different organisms and they are going to respond to their environment in different ways," says University of Connecticut

Ecologist Mark Urban, the Science article's lead author. "We need to pull on our boots, grab our binoculars, and go back into the field to gather more detailed information if we are going to make realistic predictions."

The 22 top biologists affiliated with the article identify six key types of biological information, including life history, physiology, genetic variation, species interactions, and dispersal, that will significantly improve prediction outcomes for individual

species. Obtaining that information will not only help the scientific community better identify the most at-risk populations and ecosystems, the scientists say, it will also allow for a more targeted distribution of resources as global temperatures

continue to rise at a record rate.

Current climate change predictions for biodiversity draw on broad statistical correlations and can vary widely, making it difficult for policymakers and others to respond accordingly. Many of those predictions tend not to hold up over time if they

fail to account for the full range of biological factors that can influence an organism's survival rate: species demographics, competition from other organisms, species mobility, and the capacity to adapt and evolve.

"We haven't been able to sufficiently determine what species composition future ecosystems will have, and how their functions and services for mankind will change," says co-author Dr. Karin Johst of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental

Research and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research. "This is because current ecological models often do not include important biological processes and mechanisms: so far only 23 percent of the reviewed studies have

taken into account biological mechanisms."

Generating more accurate predictions is essential for global conservation efforts. Many species are already moving to higher ground or toward the poles to seek cooler temperatures as global temperatures rise. But the capacity of different

organisms to survive varies greatly. Some species of frog, for instance, can traverse their terrain for miles to remain in a habitable environment. Other species, such as some types of salamander, are less mobile and capable of moving only a

few meters over generations.

"New Zealand's strong foundation in ecological research will help," explains study co-author Dr. William Godsoe, a Lincoln University lecturer and member of New Zealand's Bio-Protection Research Centre. "One of our hopes is to build on

these strengths and highlight new opportunities to improve predictions by explicitly considering evolution, interactions among species, and dispersal." This will aid in the development of strategies to manage impacts on species and

ecosystems before they become critical.

With more than 8.7 million species worldwide, gathering the necessary biological information to improve predictions is a daunting task. Even a sampling of key species would be beneficial, the authors say, as the more sophisticated models

will allow scientists to extrapolate their predictions and apply them to multiple species with similar traits.

The researchers are calling for the launch of a global campaign to be spearheaded by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services or IPBES. The IPBES operates under the auspices of four United

Nations entities and is dedicated to providing scientific information to policymakers worldwide. One thousand scientists from all over the world currently contribute to the work of IPBES on a voluntary basis. The scientists are also encouraging

conservation strategies to support biodiversity such as maintaining dispersal corridors, and preserving existing natural habitats and genetic diversity.

"Our biggest challenge is pinpointing which species to concentrate on and which regions we need to allocate resources," says UConn Associate Professor Urban. In an earlier study in Science, Urban predicted that as many as one in six

species internationally could be wiped out by climate change. "We are at a triage stage at this point. We have limited resources and patients lined up at the door."

Passage 2

Forecasting climate change's effects on biodiversity hindered by lack of data

An international group of biologists is calling for data collection on a global scale to improve forecasts of how climate change affects animals and plants. Accurate model predictions can greatly aid efforts to protect biodiversity from

disturbances such as climate change and urban sprawl by helping scientists and decision-makers better understand, anticipate and respond to threats that imperil species and ecosystems.

In a paper published in Science on Thursday (Sept. 8), biologists cite a critical lack of data on key biological mechanisms ?such as how animals and plants spread during their lifetime and how they evolve in response to changes in the

environment - as the main obstacle to improving models' ability to forecast species' response to climate change.

"This paper is a call to arms," said Patrick Zollner, article co-author and Purdue associate professor of wildlife science. "The world is in dire circumstances. We're losing a lot of species, and we're largely unaware why. How do we need to

rethink the kind of data we're collecting so we can take advantage of modern modeling tools to understand the outcomes of climate change for ecological systems? This could help us forestall losing wildlife that we later deeply regret."

The group outlines two key problems that hinder the capability of current models to make realistic predictions about biological responses to climate change.

Most models are descriptive, based on statistical correlations and observations, and fail to capture the underlying processes that produce observed changes. For example, a descriptive model might show that lynx in the northern U.S. are

declining while bobcat populations in the same region are on the rise. Understanding what is driving this change requires a different sort of model, one that incorporates biological mechanisms. A mechanistic model that accounts for how

warming temperatures affect snow depth, for instance, could provide insights into why bobcats - better adapted to habitats with less snow - are gaining a competitive edge over lynx. But 77 percent of current models of climate change's

impacts on wildlife do not include biological mechanisms.

Another challenge is that as models have grown in sophistication, they have far outpaced data collection. Put another way, a model is like a state-of-the-art kitchen, but the cupboards are bare.

"We can now build videogame-like environments with computers where we can create multiple versions of Earth and ask what the implications under different scenarios are," Zollner said. "But our ability to learn from these tools is constrained

by the kinds of data we have."

The group advanced several proposals on how to improve models, collect missing data and leverage available data to make broader predictions.

They identified six biological mechanisms that influence wildlife's responses to climate change: physiology; demography and life history; evolutionary potential and adaptation; interactions between species; movement over land or water; and

responses to changes in the environment. They ranked the information needed to account for these mechanisms in models and suggested proxies for data that are missing or hard to collect.

A globally coordinated effort to fill data gaps could greatly advance improvements in models and informed conservation approaches, the researchers wrote. They point to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and its consistent

improvements in climate change modeling as a valuable blueprint for such a project.

But local and regional conservation groups need not wait for a global body to coalesce to start using a mechanistic approach in their own region, Zollner said "If the ideas put forth in this paper start to be adopted and integrated into climate

change work in a grass roots way, that could make a big difference in a region and could scale up over time," he said.

Citizen scientists also have an important role to play in pitching in with data collection, he said.

Working with citizen scientists offers "an opportunity to get huge amounts of data, and it's foolish not to take advantage of it," Zollner said. "The data might not be as rigorous and needs to be treated differently, but it's one more source of

valuable information.

The authors of the two passages in the attached reading are most likely to agree with all statements except ____?

A. It will be impossible to save all species of plants and animals from the effects of climate change, but the more research that can be done to save as many as possible, the better.

B. Scientists have a responsibility to gather as much data from as many reliable sources as possible to try to anticipate the effects of climate change on animals and plants and plan accordingly.

C. Even with increased research and more data, there is likely nothing that can be done to help curb the effects of climate change on the diverse ecosystems around the world.

D. Increased data collection will help fill in the gaps of understanding and allow scientists to more accurately predict the impact of climate change so that resources can be allocated in the most effective way possible.

Read the information attached

Source 1: Climbing to the Heavens: a nonfiction autobiographical text about a woman who climbed Mt. Everest after the death of her husband and children in a car accident

Source 2: "My Experiences with Everest": a blog by an unknown "adventurer" who claims to have traveled the world spending less than $1 a day

Source 3: Backpacking Through Nepal: a nonfiction text about planning a hike through Nepal, where Mt. Everest is located

Source 4: Summits of the World: a documentary film about the top ten most summited mountains in the world

Source 5: A topographic map of Mt. Everest and the surrounding Himalayan mountains

Source 6: Geology Made Simple: a textbook explaining how mountains are formed

A student is writing an informational research report about climbing Mt. Everest. Look at the information attached and choose the two most credible sources that would most likely give the student more relevant information to include in her report

A. sources 2 and 4

B. sources 4 and 6

C. sources 1 and 5

D. sources 3 and 5

A student is writing an informational essay about the impact of global warming on polar bears in the Arctic.

As climate change and the effects of global warming are felt worldwide, scientists have determined that polar bears in the Arctic are just one of the many species facing extinction from our rapidly warming planet. As the ocean waters warm, the main food source for the bears is disappearing. Shortages of food are literally causing these creatures to die of starvation.

Whereas bears could previously walk out onto the sea ice and wait for a seal to poke its snout through, shrinking sea ice means the bears must now walk or swim much farther than they did before to find food. These longer migrations to find food are taking their toll on the bear population.

Seals are a polar bear's main source of protein. They are also another victim of global warming. With the sea ice melting earlier in the warmer springtime and forming later in the warmer winters, seals struggle with finding a safe place to raise their pups. As a result, their numbers are starting to drop, meaning they are also no longer a plentiful food source for the bears

Read the attached passage and then answer this question about it. Which simile could the author use in the attached passage to help the reader better understand this topic?

A. The bear's skin hung in loose folds on its emaciated frame, like a child playing dress-up in clothes many sizes too big.

B. Shuffling along the ice, the hungry bear snuffled in the cold icy flakes, sniffing for a sign of the seal for which he so hungrily yearned.

C. As the bear's glassy eyes gazed into the camera, her hunger was obvious, like a sign of the suffering she was experiencing.

D. Alone in the melting ice, the bear cried out in hunger and with worry, its voice carried away on the Arctic wind.

What is a better way to write this sentence? "Me and Alex went to the movies last weekend and saw a great film by our favorite director Steven Spielberg."

A. "Alex and me went to the movies last weekend and saw a great film by our favorite director: Steven Spielberg."

B. "To see a great film by our favorite director: Steven Spielberg, Alex and me went to the movies last weekend."

C. "Alex and I went to the movies last weekend and saw a great film by our favorite director, Steven Spielberg."

D. "Steven Spielberg is mine's and Alex's favorite director, so we went to the movies last weekend to see a movie by him."

Let f(x) = 3x + 5. If g is the inverse of f, which of the following must equal g?

A. Option A

B. Option B

C. Option C

D. Option D

In the table below are points on a linear function. At what rate is y changing with respect to the change in x?

A. -5

B. 2

C. 5

D. -2

Which of these expressions is a factor of 8x3 - 125?

A. Option A

B. Option B

C. Option C

D. Option D

What is the vertex for y = x2 - 6x +13?

A. (-4,3)

B. (-3,4)

C. (3,4)

D. (4,3)

A. a and c

B. d and f

C. b and e

D. c and e

Two circles that have the same radius but different centers are ____.

A. congruent and similar

B. congruent but not similar

C. neither congruent nor similar

D. not congruent but similar

A. 2

B. 8

C. 6

D. 5

Jason is using a recipe that requires 3 teaspoons of salt for every 2 cups of flour. He needs to use 9 cups of flour to make enough for everyone. How much salt should he use?

A. 4.5 teaspoons

B. 10 teaspoons

C. 6 teaspoons

D. 13.5 teaspoons