Drill 16 · Reading & Writing · Hard Command of Evidence
SAT Reading & Writing: Hard Command of Evidence (Drill 16) 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 on fresh topics, two of them built on data displays. Watch the wrong choices: most state something the passage supports, then quietly answer a question the argument never asked. On the graphs, fix the exact contrast the claim rests on before you commit to a choice.
A district felt a sequence of small tremors over several weeks. One geologist proposed that the tremors came from slow slip on a fault several kilometers down, releasing stored strain in small steps. A colleague countered that the shaking might instead come from shallow ground settling as a nearby reservoir was drawn down, with no deep fault movement at all.
Question 1. Which finding, if true, would most help distinguish between the two geologists' explanations?
Explanation: Choice A is the best answer because the two explanations differ on the depth of the source, so the deciding evidence is where the tremors actually began. Locating their origin several kilometers down, well below the shallow zone where reservoir settling happens, fits deep fault slip and rules out near-surface settling as the cause. Choice B is wrong because how strongly the tremors were felt describes their size at the surface but says nothing about whether a deep fault or shallow settling produced them. Choice C is wrong because the reservoir being low fits the settling idea yet is also consistent with an unrelated deep slip, so on its own it does not separate the two accounts. Choice D is wrong because that such tremors are common near faults is general background and does not test which source produced these particular tremors.
A beekeeping cooperative compared honey yield per hive for a standard hive and an insulated hive across three settings that differed in forage availability. The cooperative concluded that insulation helps yield most where forage is rich, reasoning that a colony with plenty to gather can turn the extra warmth into far more honey, while a colony short of forage cannot.
Question 2. Which choice best describes data from the graph that support the cooperative's conclusion?
Explanation: Choice D is the best answer because the conclusion is that insulation helps most where forage is rich, which is a claim about how the gap between the two hives changes across forage settings. The graph shows the insulated hive ahead by only about two kilograms under sparse forage but by roughly seventeen under rich forage, so its advantage widens exactly as the cooperative claims. Choice A is wrong because the insulated hive's single highest yield is one bar and does not show whether insulation helps more under rich forage than under sparse forage. Choice B is wrong because the insulated hive leading in every setting shows it is generally ahead but not that its lead grows as forage improves, which is the point. Choice C is wrong because the standard hive rising across settings describes one series alone and says nothing about the gap between the two designs.
Young sea turtles released far from their home beach still managed to head in the correct direction toward it. Researchers proposed that the turtles read the Earth's magnetic field as a kind of map, using local magnetic signatures to work out which way home lay. They reasoned that each stretch of ocean carries a slightly different magnetic signature the turtles can sense.
Question 3. Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the researchers' proposal?
Explanation: Choice B is the best answer because the proposal is that the turtles steer by reading the magnetic field, so turtles whose surrounding field has been disrupted yet still navigate accurately show the field is not what guides them. Homing that survives when the magnetic information is made unreliable points to some other means of navigation and undercuts the proposed magnetic map. Choice A is wrong because the long distances turtles travel set up the puzzle but do not test whether the magnetic field is the cue they use. Choice C is wrong because that an overcast sky did not impair homing rules out a sky cue rather than the magnetic one, so it does not bear on the magnetic proposal. Choice D is wrong because a few turtles drifting off course before correcting is consistent with a magnetic map that they ultimately follow, so it does not weaken the claim.
Mushrooms Emerging per Plot at Four Soil-Moisture Levels
| Soil-moisture level | Water added (mm per week) | Mushrooms per plot |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 (driest) | 5 | 6 |
| Level 2 | 10 | 17 |
| Level 3 | 15 | 29 |
| Level 4 (wettest) | 20 | 11 |
Researchers raised the watering across four plots of forest soil and counted the mushrooms that emerged in each. Because the fungi need moisture to fruit, the team expected each wetter plot to yield more mushrooms than the one before it. The count does rise from Level 1 through Level 3. The researchers were struck that the pattern did not hold all the way, noting that the wettest plot, Level 4, instead ________
Question 4. Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement?
Explanation: Choice C is the best answer because the surprise is that the wettest plot breaks the rising trend. The count climbs from six to seventeen to twenty-nine across the first three levels, then falls to eleven at Level 4, far below Level 3's twenty-nine, so production drops at the wettest plot rather than continuing to rise. Choice A is wrong because this is true from the table, since eleven exceeds the driest plot's six, but a comparison with the driest plot misses the surprise, which is the fall from Level 3. Choice B is wrong because Level 4 did receive the most water, twenty millimeters, yet stating its watering restates the setup rather than describing what its mushroom count did. Choice D is wrong because eleven is indeed below the forty-six mushrooms of Levels 2 and 3 combined, but that sum is not what the surprise turns on, namely the drop from the level just before.
Archaeologists found a cluster of ancient coins of one design concentrated in a single town. One team read this as evidence that the coins were minted in that town, where the dies were cut and the metal struck. Others suggested the coins were minted elsewhere and simply ended up concentrated in the town through ordinary trade.
Question 5. Which finding, if true, would most support the interpretation that the coins were minted in the town?
Explanation: Choice A is the best answer because the rival explanation is that the coins only arrived through trade, so the deciding evidence is something that trade could not carry: the tools of minting. Worn dies of this exact design and metal trimmings in a town workshop show coins were struck there, which trade in finished coins would not normally leave behind. Choice B is wrong because better preservation compares the condition of coins but does not show where any of them were made. Choice C is wrong because the same design appearing along the trade routes fits the rival that the coins spread by trade rather than showing they were minted in the town. Choice D is wrong because a widely recognized symbol speaks to the design's reach, not to the place where these coins were struck.