SAT Improving Paragraphs 1

Read the passage and select the best answers for the questions that follow. Some
questions are about particular sentences or parts of sentences and ask you to improve
sentence structure or word choice. Other questions ask you to consider organization and
development. In choosing answers, follow the requirements of standard written English.
(1).One of the big problems for geologists has always been determining the age of the
fossils and other materials they find underground. (2).One method of wide usage is
carbon-14 dating. (3).Carbon-14 dating is pretty straightforward. (4).Carbon-14 is a
harmless radioactive material found in the Earth's atmosphere. (5).Animals and plants
absorb carbon-14 into their tissues while they are alive. (6).After they die, however, they
cease to absorb carbon-14, and the carbon-14 in their tissues begins to decay. (7).The
process of decay that makes carbon-14 dating possible. (8).Scientists who study
radioactive material like carbon-14 have developed the term "half-life." . (9).The "halflife" of a substance is the amount of time it takes for half of the atoms in a sample to
decay. (10).Different radioactive materials have half-lives ranging from seconds to
thousands of years. (11).Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5730 years.
(12).A scientist named Willard Libby was the first person to use carbon-14 dating, in
1949. (13).Libby used the concept of "half-life" to determine that plant and animal
remains containing half the amounts of carbon-14 expected in a living specimen were
5730 years old. (14).Those remains containing less than half the expected amounts were
older; the ones that contained more than half were younger.
1. In context, which of the following is the best version of the underlined portion of
sentence 2 (reproduced below)?
One method of wide usage is carbon-14 dating.
A. (as it is now)
B. One method has been widely used, it
C. One widely used method
D. One method the use of which has been wide
E. One method that people have been known to use widely

2. In context, which of the following is the best version of the underlined portion of
sentences 3 and 4 (reproduced below)?
Carbon-14 dating is pretty straightforward. Carbon-14 is a harmless radioactive material
found in the Earth's atmosphere.

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A. (as it is now)
B. is pretty straightforward. It
C. is pretty straightforward, because carbon-14
D. is pretty straightforward. However, carbon-14
E. is pretty straightforward, carbon-14
3. In context, which of the following sentences would be best to insert between sentence
12 and sentence 13?
A. Libby was preoccupied with the problem of harmful radioactive waste.
B. He was studying a group of specimens that showed no signs of the presence of carbon14.
C. His mentor, Dr. Frank McLean, had been the first geologist to employ the carbon-14
method.
D. Libby realized that the plant and animal remains he was studying contained traces of
carbon-14.
E. Libby believed that the concept of "half-life" was fundamentally flawed.
4. The main purpose of paragraph 2 is to
A. present a memorable example
B. summarize previous information
C. identify a common misconception
D. explain a puzzling contradiction
E. introduce an important concept
5. In context, what is the best way to deal with sentence 7 (reproduced below)?
The process of decay that makes carbon-14 dating possible.
A. Leave it as it is.
B. Delete "that."
C. Place a comma before "that."
D. Insert "is the thing" before "that"
E. Delete "the process of."

6. Which of the following is the best way to phrase the underlined portion of sentence 14
(reproduced below)?
Those remains containing less than half the expected amounts were older; the ones that
contained more than half were younger.
A. (as it is now)
B. those containing

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C. the ones with a containment of

D. the remaining ones with
E. and if contained by