Drill 15 · Reading & Writing · Hard Command of Evidence
SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Command of Evidence (Drill 15) is a Reading & Writing practice drill covering Hard Command of Evidence. It contains 5 original questions created by Brian Stewart, a Barron's test prep author with over 20 years of tutoring experience.
Five hard Command of Evidence questions spanning new findings, two data displays, and a scholarly quotation. Throughout, the wrong choices tend to be true on their own while answering a slightly different question than the argument asks. Read each display and each quotation for the exact link the claim depends on.
Unusually Warm Nights per Decade at a Weather Station
| Decade | Years recorded | Warm nights counted |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (earliest) | 10 | 30 |
| 2 | 10 | 48 |
| 3 | 10 | 71 |
| 4 (most recent) | 10 | 52 |
Each decade covers the same ten years of records. Because the surrounding region had been warming, climatologists expected each decade to log more unusually warm nights than the one before. The count does climb from Decade 1 through Decade 3. The researchers were struck that the rise did not continue, noting that the most recent decade, Decade 4, instead ________
Question 1. Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement?
Explanation: Choice B is the best answer because the surprise is that the newest decade breaks the rising trend. With each decade covering the same ten years, warm nights climb from thirty to forty-eight to seventy-one across the first three, then fall to fifty-two in Decade 4, sharply below Decade 3's seventy-one, so the count drops rather than continuing to rise. Choice A is wrong because this is true from the table, since fifty-two exceeds the earliest decade's thirty, but a comparison with the first decade misses the surprise, which is the drop from Decade 3. Choice C is wrong because this is also true, as fifty-two is below the one hundred nineteen warm nights of Decades 2 and 3 together, yet that sum is not what the surprise turns on, namely the fall from the decade just before. Choice D is wrong because every decade does cover the same ten years, so this is accurate, but holding the span constant is exactly why the warm-night count itself, not the years, is what fell.
An old map shows a stretch of coastline in unusual detail for its time. One historian argues that its maker surveyed the coast in person, recording features from direct observation. Another suggests the maker simply copied and embellished an earlier chart of the same coast without visiting it.
Question 2. Which finding, if true, would most support the firsthand-survey explanation over the copying one?
Explanation: Choice C is the best answer because the rival explanation is that the maker copied an earlier chart, so the deciding evidence is accurate detail that no earlier chart contained. Correctly recording small inlets and rocks that appear on no prior chart but match the real coast could only come from direct observation, which supports the firsthand survey. Choice A is wrong because locally available parchment speaks to where the map was made, not to whether its coastline came from survey or copying. Choice B is wrong because the earlier chart sitting in a library the maker visited makes copying easier, so it supports the rival explanation rather than the survey one. Choice D is wrong because fashionable decorations reflect the period's style and say nothing about how the coastline data were obtained.
A disputed panel painting may be the work of a known master or of a later imitator. In an essay, a student argues that the strongest case for the master rests not on the painting's surface style, which an imitator could copy, but on a hidden feature of how it was built up in layers, a working habit specific to the master and not visible to someone merely copying the finished look.
Question 3. Which quotation from a scholarly article best supports the student's argument?
Explanation: Choice C is the best answer because the argument is that the best evidence is a hidden working method an imitator could not copy from the surface. The keyed quotation points to a preparatory underdrawing built up in the master's distinctive layered sequence, invisible in the finished look and never reproduced by imitators, which is exactly the hidden, hard-to-fake feature the student names. Choice A is wrong because echoing the master's composition is a surface feature an imitator could study and copy, the very thing the student sets aside. Choice B is wrong because dating the wood to the master's lifetime makes the panel chronologically plausible but does not distinguish the master from a contemporary imitator, since old wood can be reused, so it cannot settle the attribution by itself. Choice D is wrong because the pigments being available in the master's city fits the period but, like the wood dating, does not separate the master's hand from a contemporary imitator's.
A county passed an ordinance restricting wood-smoke burning and compared asthma emergency-room visits before and after it took effect, across a valley neighborhood where smoke tends to settle, a hillside neighborhood, and a coastal one. Officials concluded that the ordinance helped mainly where wood smoke had been trapped, reasoning that limiting burning should cut asthma visits most in the valley, where the smoke had pooled, and little elsewhere.
Question 4. Which choice best describes data from the graph that support the officials' conclusion?
Explanation: Choice A is the best answer because the conclusion is that the ordinance helped mainly in the valley, which requires a drop there and little change elsewhere. The graph shows valley visits falling from about forty-eight to twenty-nine per thousand while the hillside and coastal bars stay nearly level, concentrating the effect where the smoke had pooled exactly as claimed. Choice B is wrong because the valley still topping the coastal neighborhood after the ordinance compares levels and is consistent with any amount of change, so it does not show the ordinance caused a drop. Choice C is wrong because the valley having the highest rate beforehand describes the starting point and does not show what the ordinance changed. Choice D is wrong because a lower average rate across all three neighborhoods could be driven by the valley alone and does not show the effect was concentrated there rather than spread evenly.
At an ancient village site, archaeologists found large quantities of one grain's seeds. One team proposed that the villagers deliberately cultivated the grain, planting and tending it near their homes. Another held that the villagers only gathered the grain from wild stands growing naturally in the area.
Question 5. Which finding, if true, would most help distinguish between the two explanations?
Explanation: Choice D is the best answer because the explanations split on whether the grain was cultivated or merely gathered wild, so the deciding evidence is a trait that develops only under cultivation. Grains markedly larger than wild forms together with a non-shattering rachis, changes that arise only after generations of planting and harvesting, point to cultivation rather than gathering from wild stands, where seed heads shatter to scatter their seeds. Choice A is wrong because the grain being nutritious explains why the villagers valued it but not whether they planted it or gathered it wild. Choice B is wrong because the same seeds appearing at other sites shows the grain was widely used, not how the people at this site obtained it. Choice C is wrong because the grain still growing wild nearby today fits the gathering explanation rather than the cultivation one.