May 2022 US SAT

I moved here half a year ago.
The day before I moved, I met someone at a
friend’s home who claimed he could tell fortunes. As
soon as he saw me, he congratulated me on my
⁵pending move. I smiled. It was no big secret. Then I
asked casually if there was anything else to
congratulate me for. He held my hand for a careful examination and said he saw a peach blossom, which
meant lucky in love. After that, he stared intently at
¹⁰my palm for a long while.
"This romantic good fortune of yours is really
peculiar. Look here, it lies hidden in the lines of your
palm." He stroked my palm with his index finger.
"Also, there is major yin influence."
¹⁵ "Any harm in that?" I asked.
"Can’t tell."
This amateur fortune-teller was the first honest
man I had met, someone who would actually
admit that he couldn’t tell. Which must have meant
²⁰ that he could tell about the other stuff.
The next day, I moved.
I should make it clear that even after finishing the
move, I didn’t have any luck that was even remotely
peachy.
²⁵ A chrysanthemum I had planted in a flowerpot
was blooming—yellow petals, the kind the woman
poet Li Qingzhao liked to write about. The mums
made my empty balcony look like a small cemetery.

Now back to my move. The building was finished
³⁰only a few years before, yet I was already the third
owner of this apartment. The day I moved in was
dark and cloudy. Our truck was stuck in the tunnel
for a whole hour, until we were all seeing stars. By the
time we emerged, a storm had come and gone. But
³⁵ the sky remained gloomy. On the porch in front of
my building was a stain, a light brown one. At first, I
didn’t take any notice of it—until I stepped on it and
slipped. I was puzzling over it when my friends
started to carry my stuff upstairs. So I pulled myself
⁴⁰ together and followed them up.
The move was completed, and not a single neighbor had come out to watch the show.
It was dark by the time I saw my friends off.
Standing at the curb, I looked at the building. Only a
⁴⁵ few lights were on, including my own two. Weeds
grew amid heaps of construction material abandoned
at the curb. The streetlight was broken, and there was darkness all around.
It was a bit of an effort to walk all the way up to
⁵⁰ the sixth floor. I opened the cast-iron gate and
realized that someone was standing in the corridor,
leaning over the banister to look down.
I cleared my throat.
"Are you the new tenant?" It was a woman with a
⁵⁵ very soft voice. Her door was half-open, and the light from inside lit up the tip of her nose. Some music
wafted out, the kind with poor sound quality.
"Are you the owner of six-oh-two?" I asked.
"Oh, no. I used to live here, in six-oh-one. Just
⁶⁰ here to take a peek. No, I’m not the owner."
I couldn’t very well pursue the matter, so after
exchanging some pleasantries, I went back to my own apartment.
Inside the new place, even the four walls felt cold. I
⁶⁵ didn’t plan to stay here for long, so I decided not to
paint the walls. The noise from the tunnel drifted up.
I stood on the balcony and looked around for a while;
then I moved the chrysanthemum to the windowsill.
The blossoms were no longer fresh.
⁷⁰ I started to gather together some odds and ends, tripping all over myself. Just to boost my spirits a bit,
I turned on all the lights in the apartment. Still, it
didn’t feel bright. The walls were beige, painted by the previous owner. There were drawings by a childish
⁷⁵ hand, friendly like. And a faint footprint. A couple
of mosquito corpses. At this point, the doorbell rang.
As I strolled over to the door, I tried to guess who
it might be.
The door opened, and there was the neighbor I
⁸⁰ had met just a minute ago. I asked if anything was the matter.
She answered, beaming a bright smile, "If you have
any questions, or if there’s anything you don’t know,
just come and ask me."
⁸⁵ "All right. I won’t hold back."
Under the light, her face seemed pale, her lips
painted a bright red. She had a pretty neck. her hand
rested casually against the doorframe, a young-
looking hand. We were standing so close that I didn’t
⁹⁰ look at her figure. She had a sort of baby face, but
there were tiny wrinkles in the corners of her eyes.
"This place is different from Huangpu West," she
said. "You hardly ever see anybody, and it might take
some getting used to."
⁹⁵ She gave me another smile and went back to her own apartment.
At this point, I remembered the fortune-teller’s peach blossom. When the mums were fading, would a peach come into bloom?

When you grasp or brush against an object—
anything from an outstretched hand to a leather-
bound book—you are physically as close to it as you
can possibly be. At that moment, specialized skin cells
⁵ convey a wealth of information, such as shape,
texture, size, and weight. Yet when you stop touching that object, much of that information appears to fade away rather quickly. After a few days, you may only
be able to bring a vague impression to mind. It would
¹⁰ seem then that the sense of touch is largely useful in
the moment, and not much after that.
Over the decades, there has been surprisingly little research to test that assumption. Yet a common perspective is that the sense of touch is, by far, of
¹⁵ limited use over the long term, and especially when compared to the visual system. However, a new study
by Fabian Hutmacher and Christof Kuhbandner, researchers at the University of Regensburg, provides
the strongest challenge yet to that perspective. Their
²⁰ finding: the sense of touch generates memories that
are far more complex and long-lasting than
previously thought.
In the study’s first experiment, blindfolded
participants "haptically explored" over 150 household
²⁵ objects for one hour. This involved them picking up
and touching a series of kitchen utensils, stationery
goods, and other items. They studied each object with
their hands for 10 seconds each. Text, while
remaining blindfolded, each participant completed a
³⁰ memory test. On this test, two nearly identical
versions of each object were successively held (for instance, two dinner spoons). Only one of each had
been presented before, and participants had to
determine which.
³⁵ When the memory test occurred just after the
study period, participants chose the correct object correctly 94 percent of the time. Just briefly touching
an object enabled them to distinguish it with almost
perfect accuracy. Given the challenge of memorizing
⁴⁰ the many details that may differentiate an object from another (such as the curve of a spoon handle or its
overall length), and the fact that hundreds of items
were touched in a short period of time, that outcome
is no small feat. Yet human beings can accomplish
⁴⁵ this with relative ease.
Just as impressively, when the memory test
occurred a week later, very little had been forgotten.
Thus, not only does touch generate memories that
are highly detailed and precise, but those memories
⁵⁰ can endure over the long term.
A second experiment was even more startling.
This time, a new group of blindfolded participants
explored the same objects by touch. Rather than
carefully study, they simply rated how pleasant each
⁵⁵ object felt. There was no intentional effort to
memorize. A surprise memory test, occurring one
week later, was designed to be more difficult:
participants were no longer blindfolded and had to
visually identify which of two nearly identical objects
⁶⁰ they had touched before—and without having
previously seen either or having another opportunity
to touch. Yet the accuracy rate remained high. Even
when participants felt unsure and had to guess, they
still identified the correct object more often than not.
⁶⁵ It would appear then that the cognitive capacities
of touch, which was among the first of the sensory
systems to evolve, have long been underestimated. Contrary to the view that it is only useful in real time,
touch leaves a memory trace that persists long after
⁷⁰ the physical sensation is gone. Moreover,
information appears to be stored without much
conscious awareness. As a result, those memories can manifest in interesting ways. For instance, you may
not be able to verbalize how something felt, but you
⁷⁵ will be able to recognize it by grasping it or looking at
it.

Hundreds of millions of years ago, a tiny green
microbe [an alga] joined forces with a fungus, and
together they conquered the world. It’s a tale of two
cross-kingdom organisms, one providing food and
⁵ the other one shelter, and it’s been our touchstone
example of symbiosis for 150 years. Trouble is, that story is nowhere near complete.
A sweeping genetic analysis of lichen has revealed a third symbiotic organism, hiding in plain sight
¹⁰ alongside the familiar two, that has eluded scientists
for decades. The stowaway is another fungus, a basidiomycete yeast. It’s been found in 52 genera of
lichen across six continents, indicating that it is an extremely widespread, if not ubiquitous, part of the
¹⁵ symbiosis. And according to molecular dating, it’s probably been along for the ride since the beginning.
"I think this will require some rewriting of the
textbooks," said Catherine Aime, a mycologist at
Purdue University and co-author on the study
²⁰ published in Science.
Toby Spribille, who led the new analysis, has been
studying lichens in one way or another for most of his
life. He grew up in northwest Montana, where the
shrubby, rubbery organisms are a ubiquitous part of
²⁵ the natural landscape. But when Spribille started to
get serious about lichen research in grad school, he
hit a roadblock.
"Lichens are nearly impossible to re-synthesize in
the lab," Spribille said, explaining how the colonies
³⁰ take a long time to grow and the conditions needed to induce symbiosis are not well known. Unable to rear
their test subjects in controlled environments, lichen researchers have struggled to perform basic
experiments that could shed light on the roles of the
³⁵ different symbionts.
But recent advances in metagenomics—tools for
extracting and sequencing DNA from environmental samples, no culturing required—offer a new way in.
This approach caught Spribille’s attention when he
⁴⁰ learned something very strange about Bryoria, a
lichen found throughout conifer forests of the
western United States and Canada.
"Bryoria have a long and storied cultural
significance," Spribille said, explaining how certain
⁴⁵ Native American tribes relied on the lichen as winter
survival food. "There’s also evidence that first
peoples would remove the more light colored ones
and wash them, so that certain substances wouldn’t
make them sick."
⁵⁰ Those substances include a toxin called vulpinic
acid. The lichen that produces it, Bryoria tortuosa,
can be distinguished from its non-toxic cousin,
Bryoria fremontii, on the basis of its yellowish hue.
But a few years back, when a group of biologists at
⁵⁵ the University of Helsinki tried to uncover the
genetic basis for this difference using a targeted
approach called barcoding, they were stumped.
"They found that the toxic and non-toxic forms
[of the two species] were identical—at least, in the
⁶⁰ known parts of the lichen," Spribille said. "And they didn’t really study it further. We looked at that and
said, this is a classic question you could go at with genomics."
When Spribille and his colleagues analyzed
⁶⁵ Bryoria’s RNA—the messenger form of DNA—they
discovered something amazing. "We found that there
was this third thing, riding along in every single
sample," he said, referring to the previously
unknown basidiomycete.
⁷⁰ At first, the researchers worried that the extra
RNA sequences could be contamination, a common
pitfall of genomic research. And so, they decided to
see if they could find the basidiomycete in other
lichens, too. "We found it in everything," Spribille
⁷⁵ said. "From Alaska to Ethiopia to Antarctica, it
always was there."
The final proof that this was not an elaborate hoax
came when the researchers developed green
fluorescent markers that attach to specific RNA
⁸⁰ sequences in the basidiomycete, and blue markers
that attach to complementary RNA sequences in the
other fungus, an ascomycete. Sure enough, when
they added these markers to samples of lichen tissue, the cells of a hidden fungal partner glowed under the
⁸⁵ microscope.
We can’t be certain the second fungus is present
in all lichens. Spribille’s study only looked at the
lichens in the Parmeliaceae family, the most
widespread and successful group on Earth today. But
⁹⁰ the entire lineage is vast and ancient, and it’s possible some groups split off on the evolutionary tree before
the basidiomycete arrived on the scene.

Passage 1

To govern according to the sense and agreeably to
the interests of the people, is a great and glorious
object of government. This object cannot be
obtained but through the medium of popular
⁵ election; and popular election is a mighty evil. . . .
They are the distempers of elections that have
destroyed all free states. To cure these distempers is
difficult, if not impossible; the only thing therefore
left to save the commonwealth, is to prevent their
¹⁰ return too frequently. The objects in view are, to
have parliaments as frequent as they can be without
distracting them in the prosecution of publick
business; on one hand, to secure their independence
upon the people, on the other to give them that quiet
¹⁵ in their minds, and that ease in their fortunes, as to
enable them to perform the most arduous and most
painful duty in the world with spirit, with efficiency,
with independency, and with experience, as real
publick counsellors, not as the canvassers at a
²⁰ perpetual election. . . .
All are agreed, that parliaments should not be
perpetual; the only question is, what is the most
convenient time for their duration? . . . We are
agreed, too, that the term ought not to be chosen
²⁵ most likely in its operation to spread corruption, and
to augment the already overgrown influence of the
Crown. On these principles I mean to debate the
question. It is easy to pretend a zeal for liberty.
Those, who think themselves not likely to be
³⁰ encumbered with the performance of their promises,
either from their known inability, or total
indifference about the performance, never fail to
entertain the most lofty ideas. They are certainly the
most specious, and they cost them neither reflection
³⁵ to frame, nor pains to modify, nor management to
support. The task is of another nature to those, who
mean to promise nothing that is not in their
intention, or may possibly be in their power, to
perform; to those, who are bound and principled no
⁴⁰ more to delude the understandings than to violate
the liberty of their fellow-subjects.
Faithful watchmen we ought to be over the rights
and privileges of the people. But our duty, if we are
qualified for it as we ought, is to give them
⁴⁵ information, and not to receive it from them; we are
not to go to school to them to learn the principles of
law and government. In doing so, we should not
dutifully serve, but we should basely and scandalously
betray, the people, who are not capable of this service
⁵⁰ by nature, nor in any instance called to it by the
constitution.

Passage 2

Human nature is so very corrupt, that all
obligations lose their force, unless they are frequently
renewed. Long Parliaments become therefore
⁵⁵ independent of the People; and when they do so,
there always happens a most dangerous dependence
elsewhere.
It has of late been denied that the People have a
right of remonstrating to us. It has been called an
⁶⁰ unjustifiable control upon our proceedings. But then
let them have more frequent opportunities of varying
the choice of their representatives, that they may
dismiss such who have unfaithfully withdrawn their
attention from them.
⁶⁵ The influencing powers of the Crown are daily
increasing, and it is highly requisite that Parliaments
should be frequently responsible to their
Constituents; that they should be kept under the constant awe of acting contrary to their interests.
⁷⁰ Modern history, I believe, will inform us, that some
very dangerous attempts upon our liberties have been
disappointed; not so much from the virtue of many in
this House, as from the apprehensions they may have
had of an approaching election. . . .
⁷⁵ I think too, that nothing can be of greater use to
His Majesty than frequent new Parliaments; that he
may often take the fresh sense of the nation, and not
be partially advised. For his measures will always have
a greater weight both at home and abroad, the more
⁸⁰ generally he refers himself to the opinion of the
people.
A farther mischief of long Parliaments is, that a
Minister has time and opportunities of getting
acquaintance with Members, and of practicing his
⁸⁵ several arts to win them into his schemes. But this
must be the work of time. Corruption is of so base a
nature, that at the first sight it is extremely shocking.
Hardly any one has submitted to it all at once. . . .
One or two perhaps have deserted their colours the
⁹⁰ first campaign, some have done it a second. But a
great many, who have not that eager disposition to
vice, will wait till a third.

When it comes to photosynthesis, plants use
sunlight to power a chemical reaction that converts
carbon dioxide and water to sugars and oxygen. But
that isn’t the only chemical reaction that occurs in
⁵ plants. A quirk in the evolution of the protein, called
Rubisco, is that sometimes instead of converting
carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, it uses oxygen
instead. This produces waste products such as
glycolate and ammonia, which can be toxic to plants
¹⁰ and slow or stunt their growth.
To remove these toxic chemicals, another process
needs to kick into gear. Photorespiration is a part of
natural plant metabolism that recycles these toxins.
It is a necessary process in major crops including
¹⁵ rice, wheat and soybeans, as well as most fruit and
vegetable crops.
Recycling these toxic byproducts sucks up a huge
portion of the plants’ energy—and can inhibit the
plant’s growth by more than 30 percent. At higher
²⁰ temperatures, plants tend to increase the amount of
oxygen they convert, so as growing season
temperatures rise and heat waves strike, up to 50
percent of the energy generated from photosynthesis
can be required for photorespiration to recycle
²⁵ toxins in major crops like wheat and soybeans. That
slashes yields in the hotter and drier regions of the
world, such as sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast
Asia, where food is most needed.
To meet the growing demand for increased food
³⁰ production, I worked with an international team to
explore whether speeding up photorespiration might
boost crop yields.
The work, led by Professor Christine Raines and
Patricia López-Calcagno, explored whether this
³⁵ modification could boost the production of tobacco
plants.
We managed to speed up the recycling of these
toxins by designing plants that produce more of a
protein, called the H-protein, that is already present
⁴⁰ in our crop plants and plays a role in
photorespiration. Previous work in the lab using the
small plant Arabidopsis, the "lab rat" of plant
research, suggested that increasing the quantity of H-
protein could speed up photorespiration and enable
⁴⁵ our plants to grow larger. Our team translated this
idea from the lab to the field using a strain of tobacco,
Nicotiana tabacum, which we grew outside at a
research field station.
We discovered pretty quickly that we had to
⁵⁰ carefully control the quantity of the H-protein we
engineered plants to produce. Too much H-protein
in all parts of the plant was harmful, stunting growth
and reducing yield of tobacco leaves. Thus, we fine-
tuned our approach and engineered plants that
⁵⁵ manufactured the H-protein only in the leaves. This
increased photosynthesis and plant growth, probably
because of faster recycling of the toxic chemicals.
We tested our hypothesis in tobacco because it is
an excellent model for proof-of-concept research. It is
⁶⁰ easy to genetically engineer and only has a four-
month life cycle, allowing us to conduct several trials
in one field season. This allows us to test various
genetic modifications in tobacco and then translate
those discoveries to make improvements in targeted
⁶⁵ food crops.
To fine-tune the expression of the H-protein, the
team engineered the tobacco using DNA from a close
relative, Solanum tuberosum, or potato. Using a
known sequence of potato DNA, we were able to
⁷⁰ boost the H-protein specifically in the desired leaf
tissue. That proved to be the key to increasing yield
without harming the plant.
Initially, I was skeptical that boosting the
production of a single protein out of thousands in the
⁷⁵ plant could have such a dramatic impact on crop
yield. But, after two years of field trials, my colleagues
and I have demonstrated that increasing H-protein
levels leads to larger plants, boosting the crop yield by
27-47 percent.