Sat practice Test #8 Answer Explanations

Choice B is the best answer. In the ninth paragraph, Sempere describes 
the author Charles Dickens to the narrator: “A lifelong friend. And from 
now on, he’s your friend too.” As the reader can reasonably assume that 
Sempere doesn’t actually know Dickens, this description can be read as 
signaling Sempere as an avid admirer of Dickens’s work.
Choice A is incorrect because the passage describes Sempere as a 
bookseller, not a writer. Choice C is incorrect because although the 
passage implies Sempere feels an emotional connection to Dickens, it 
doesn’t suggest that this connection arises from any similarity between 
Sempere’s life and that of Dickens. Choice D is incorrect because 
even if the passage implies that Sempere admires Dickens’s work, 
Sempere’s admiration isn’t discussed in relation to that felt by other 
readers of Dickens, nor is Sempere shown to compare himself to other 
such readers.
QUESTION 11
Choice B is the best answer. The first paragraph describes the 
widespread practice of not reporting null results, or results in which 
researchers fail to see an effect that should be detectable. The second 
through sixth paragraphs discuss a study that examined how scientists 
have dealt with null results. The seventh and eighth paragraphs 
discuss the negative consequences that null results pose for future 
research and the possible creation of a registry for all data produced by 
research studies, reported and unreported alike, as a remedy for those 

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ANSwER ExPlANATIONS
| SAT Practice Test #8
consequences. Therefore, the purpose of the passage as a whole is to 
explain a common practice in the reporting of research studies and 
summarize a study that provides support for a change to that practice.
Choice A is incorrect because the passage doesn’t dispute a widely 
held belief about the publication of social science research; rather, it 
suggests a solution to deal with a long-debated problem. Choice C is 
incorrect because while the passage hints at possible shortcomings in 
research trials, it doesn’t describe them in detail; because it addresses 
other kinds of research besides medical trials; and because it doesn’t 
call for a government database, specifically. Choice D is incorrect 
because the passage calls for changes to the reporting of research 
results, rather than to research methodology itself, and because it 
doesn’t address the publishers of research at all.
QUESTION 12