SAT Mc Graw Hill 2011

SAT Practice 3:

Finding Patternsin the Structure of the Passage

180 MCGRAW-HILL’S SAT

of spontaneous generation arise from this

mortalblow.”

50 All living organisms share a common ances-

tor, most likely a population of colonial

microorganisms that lived almost 4 billion

years ago. This common ancestor was itself

the product of a long period of prebiotic

55 assembly of nonliving matter, including

organic molecules and water, to form

self-replicating units. All living organisms

retain a fundamental chemical composition

inherited from their ancient common

60 ancestor.

1. Throughout the passage, the word “spontaneous”
   can best be taken to mean
   (A) without reproductive elements
   (B) in a medium
   (C) unthinking
   (D) free-spirited
   (E) adult


2. In Pasteur’s experiment, why was the neck of the
   flask removed?
   (A) to allow the air to escape
   (B) to provide access to microorganisms
   (C) to kill any microorganisms that may be
   present
   (D) to permit the heating of the flask
   (E) to introduce fermentable material


3. In line 49, the word “mortal” most nearly means
   (A) human
   (B) impermanent
   (C) fatal
   (D) earthly
   (E) malicious

The following passage, from a text on the princi-

ples of zoology, discusses theories of biogenesis,

the process by which life forms are created.

From ancient times, people commonly

believed that life arose repeatedly by sponta-

Line neous generation from nonliving material in

addition to parental reproduction. For exam-

5 ple, frogs appeared to arise from damp earth,

mice from putrefied matter, insects from

dew, and maggots from decaying meat.

Warmth, moisture, sunlight, and even

starlight often were mentioned as factors that

10 encouraged spontaneous generation of living

organisms.

Among the accounts of early efforts to syn-

thesize organisms in the laboratory is a recipe

for making mice, given by the Belgian plant

15 nutritionist Jean Baptiste van Helmont

(1648). “If you press a piece of underwear

soiled with sweat together with some wheat

in an open jar, after about 21 days the odor

changes and the ferment.... changes the

20 wheat into mice. But what is more remarkable

is that the mice which came out of the wheat

and underwear were not small mice, not even

miniature adults or aborted mice, but adult

mice emerge!”

25 In 1861, the great French scientist Louis

Pasteur convinced scientists that living

organisms cannot arise spontaneously from

nonliving matter. In his famous experi-

ments, Pasteur introduced fermentable

30 material into a flask with a long s-shaped

neck that was open to air. The flask and its

contents were then boiled for a long time to

kill any microorganisms that might be pre-

sent. Afterward the flask was cooled and left

35 undisturbed. No fermentation occurred

because all organisms that entered the open

end were deposited in the neck and did not

reach the fermentable material. When the

neck of the flask was removed, micro-

40 organisms in the air promptly entered the

fermentable material and proliferated.

Pasteur concluded that life could not

originate in the absence of previously

existing organisms and their reproductive

45 elements, such as eggs and spores. Announc-

ing his results to the French Academy,

Pasteur proclaimed, “Never will the doctrine

Cleveland Hickman, Larry Roberts, and Allan Larson, Integrated

Principles of Zoology.© 2001 McGraw-Hill. Reprinted by

permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies.