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DSAT English | November 2025 | Question Bank — Preview0 / 5 answered
1
Hard · B6Domain 1 | Main Idea
The following text is adapted from Mark Twain’s 1876
novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Aunt Polly is having dinner with Tom, her
mischievous young nephew.
Aunt Polly asked [Tom] questions that were full of
guile, and very deep—for she wanted to trap him into damaging revealments. Like
many other simple-hearted souls, it was her pet vanity to believe she was
endowed with a talent for dark and mysterious diplomacy, and she loved to
contemplate her most transparent devices as marvels of low cunning.
Which choice best describes how Aunt Polly is presented in the text?
A
The narrator gently makes fun of Aunt Polly’s mistaken confidence in her subtlety.
B
The narrator humorously exaggerates Aunt Polly’s view of herself as an intellectual.
C
The narrator characterizes Aunt Polly as being excessively nosy about other people’s private lives.
D
The narrator emphasizes that Aunt Polly’s intentions are good even when she behaves impolitely.
2
Intermediate · B4Domain 1 | Main Idea
Known for the albums Someday My Prince Will Come and Kind of Blue, jazz trumpeter Miles Davis collaborated several times with pianist Gil Evans. Their 1958 adaptation of George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess bears little resemblance to the 1935 original. Davis and Evans felt no desire to please listeners expecting an exact duplication of the opera. They omitted parts, such as the aria “I Got Plenty of Nuthin’,” and sometimes made only brief gestures toward Gershwin’s melodies. But Davis and Evans’s willingness to recompose Gershwin’s work led to one of the most enduring albums in Davis’s catalog.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A
Davis and Evans’s adaptation of Porgy and Bess received a better critical reception than the work on which it was based.
B
Davis’s creative efforts became more experimental when he collaborated with Evans.
C
Audiences for jazz music tend to prefer novelty over convention.
D
Davis and Evans’s confidence in revising Gershwin’s opera led to the creation of one of Davis’s most notable recordings.
3
Hard · B6Domain 1 | Main Idea
Spanning the 1920s to the 1980s, Mexican architect Luis Barragán’s prolific career evolved through distinct phases. After traveling to the United States and Europe in the early 1930s and immersing himself in an international architectural discourse, Barragán began incorporating principles derived from functionalism and modernism in his work, as seen in the Chávez Peón de Ochoa House, whose unadorned geometric forms contrast with the historically inspired architecture found in the Aguilar House, one of Barragán’s early projects in Guadalajara.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A
Barragán’s designs of the Chávez Peón de Ochoa House and the Aguilar House are considered paragons of a functionalist and modernist aesthetic.
B
Barragán’s early work shows an initial dedication to a modernist aesthetic that he later abandoned.
C
A notable shift in Barragán’s design aesthetic reflects the influence of his time abroad.
D
Barragán’s design of the Aguilar House is considered more experimental than his design for the Chávez Peón de Ochoa House.
4
Hard · B7Domain 1 | Main Idea
The following text is from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1841 essay “The Method of Nature.”
The rapid wealth which hundreds of the community acquire in trade, or by the incessant expansions of our population and arts, enchants the eyes of all the rest; the luck of one is the hope of thousands, and the bribe acts like the neighborhood of a gold mine to impoverish the farm, the school, the church, the house, and the very body and feature of man.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A
Those who wish to accumulate wealth can do so more quickly by engaging in trade than in other activities such as teaching and farming.
B
Participating in a variety of activities is important for one’s physical health.
C
When a few people in a society become rich, the rest of the society will benefit in turn, given enough time.
D
Observing the success of a few people can lead many to abandon important parts of their lives in the pursuit of similar success.
5
Hard · B7Domain 1 | Main Idea
The following text is adapted from Daniel Defoe’s 1704
nonfiction book The Storm.
If I judge right, ’tis the duty of an historian to set
everything in its own light, and to convey matter of fact upon its legitimate
authority, and no other: I mean thus, (for I would be as explicit as I can)
that where a story is vouched to him with sufficient authority, he ought to
give the world the special testimonial of its proper voucher, or else he is not
just to the story: and where it comes without such sufficient authority, he
ought to say so; otherwise he is not just to himself.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A
Historians rarely have access to all the information relevant to a particular event, so no single work of history should be taken as definitive.
B
The only figures that a historian should quote are those who are widely viewed as credible.
C
Historians should clearly indicate the extent to which each of their sources is trustworthy.
D
Because historians cannot tell whose memories they should trust, they should avoid relying on eyewitness accounts of events.
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