Test Prep SBAC Online Practice Questions and Exam Preparation

Test Prep SBAC Online Questions & Answers

• Question 1:

  HOTSPOT

  Emma is standing 10 feet away from the base of a tree and tries to measure the angle of elevation to the top. She is unable to get an accurate measurement, but determines that the angle of elevation is between 55 degrees and 75 degrees.

  Decide whether each value given in the table is a reasonable estimate for the tree height. Choose Reasonable or Not Reasonable for each height.

  Hot Area:

  

  sb

  

• Question 2:

  Read the material attached.

  Source 1:

  Military Supports Alternative Treatments for Treating Pain in Vets and Troops

  The military has long worried that an over-reliance on prescription pain killers for the after-effects of tours of duty was putting both veterans and active-duty troops at risk of dependency, serious adverse reactions to the drugs and accidental death. The problem was found to be greatest among veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan ?particularly those with post-traumatic stress disorder ?who, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), may have been given "inappropriate prescriptions" for opioids in a misguided attempt to relieve their suffering quickly.

  Now, however, change appears to be coming as the military expands its use of alternative treatments such as chiropractic care.

  Dr. Robert D. Kerns, the national program director for pain management at the Department of Veterans Affairs, told the New York Times that the study "encourages" both his department, as well as the Pentagon's health system, "to build on... existing initiatives."

  If done, that would be good news to Congressional committees following up on last year's Veterans Health Administration scandal.

  "We have said for a long time that sending a veteran out of the door with a bagful of pills is not a solution," Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said in investigating allegations that a Tomah, Wisconsin, Veterans Affairs hospital was prescribing "excessive dosages of opiates."

  Even as more research pours in, chiropractic care continues to gain support. A 2013 study published in the journal Spine found that 73 percent of participating active-duty military patients with low back pain receiving a combination of chiropractic manipulative treatment and standard medical care rated their global improvement as "pain completely gone," "much better," or "moderately better."

  In the same study, only 17 percent who received standard medical care alone said likewise.

  Source 2:

  Relief for Weekend Warriors Comes From Chiropractic Care, Not a Pill Bottle

  Sports injuries can happen to anyone, and they may be more likely among amateur athletes than professionals.

  Amateur athletes, whether they are weekend warriors or regular fitness buffs, can end up with an injury for a variety of reasons, from wearing the wrong shoes to an incorrect technique in a tennis or golf swing. However, amateurs and pros alike want relief when they get hurt, and anyone can become addicted to strong, opioid painkillers, according to a recent article in Outside magazine. "The reality is that all athletes are one fall, twist, or tweak away from landing their own opioid prescription," the article notes.

  In the wake of a directive from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to cut down on painkiller prescriptions, doctors and patients are seeking drug-free alternatives, and chiropractic care is one of them.

  In fact, chiropractic care can provide not only short-term pain relief but long-term prevention of future pain by helping to address structural imbalances in the body that might be contributing to the problem.

  Medications (including ibuprofen and other over-the-counter drugs as well as prescription drugs) can mask the pain from an injury but fail to address the cause. Doctors of chiropractic (DCs) use hands-on techniques to manipulate the joints

  and soft tissues of the body to address where pain syndromes may originate. DCs receive a minimum of seven years of higher education and are skilled in the diagnosis and art of spinal manipulation.

  In addition, according to Dr. Sherry McAllister of the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress, most insurance and health plans cover chiropractic care.

  In comparing the two sources in the attachment, which of these is not a valid comparison?

  A. Source 1 uses emotional appeals of discussing the pain experienced by veterans and active-duty military members to make its point, while source 2 uses more factual statements and statistics to appeal to the audience's rational side.
  B. Both sources explain the benefits of chiropractic care for a specific group of people.
  C. Source 1 uses more credible and widely recognized references to support the claim, including the JAMA, a director with the Department of Veterans Affairs, and a Congressional Representative, while source 2 references Outside magazine and doctor from the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress.
  D. Source 2 suggests that chiropractic care can alleviate the need for both prescription and over-the-counter medication by addressing the underlying causes of pain and not just masking the symptoms of pain, while source 1 concentrates on the movement away from prescription medication through the use of chiropractic care.
  A. Source 1 uses emotional appeals of discussing the pain experienced by veterans and active-duty military members to make its point, while source 2 uses more factual statements and statistics to appeal to the audience's rational side.

• Question 3:

  Read the text attached.

  Workplace Diversity The twenty-first century workplace features much greater diversity than was common even a couple of generations ago. Individuals who might once have faced employment challenges because of religious beliefs, ability differences, or sexual orientation now regularly join their peers in interview pools and on the job. Each may bring a new outlook and different information to the table; employees can no longer take for granted that their coworkers think the same way they do. This pushes them to question their own assumptions, expand their understanding, and appreciate alternate viewpoints. The result is more creative ideas, approaches, and solutions. Thus, diversity may also enhance corporate decision-making.

  Communicating with those who differ from us may require us to make an extra effort and even change our viewpoint, but it leads to better collaboration and more favorable outcomes overall, according to David Rock, director of the Neuro-Leadership Institute in New York City, who says diverse coworkers "challenge their own and others' thinking."2 According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), organizational diversity now includes more than just racial, gender, and religious differences. It also encompasses different thinking styles and personality types, as well as other factors such as physical and cognitive abilities and sexual orientation, all of which influence the way people perceive the world. "Finding the right mix of individuals to work on teams, and creating the conditions in which they can excel, are key business goals for today's leaders, given that collaboration has become a paradigm of the twenty-first century workplace," according to an SHRM article.3

  Attracting workers who are not all alike is an important first step in the process of achieving greater diversity. However, managers cannot stop there. Their goals must also encompass inclusion, or the engagement of all employees in the corporate culture. "The far bigger challenge is how people interact with each other once they're on the job," says Howard J. Ross, founder and chief learning officer at Cook Ross, a consulting firm specializing in diversity. "Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance. Diversity is about the ingredients, the mix of people and perspectives. Inclusion is about the container璽he place that allows employees to feel they belong, to feel both accepted and different."4

  Workplace diversity is not a new policy idea; its origins date back to at least the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (CRA) or before. Census figures show that women made up less than 29 percent of the civilian workforce when Congress passed Title VII of the CRA prohibiting workplace discrimination. After passage of the law, gender diversity in the workplace expanded significantly. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the percentage of women in the labor force increased from 48 percent in 1977 to a peak of 60 percent in 1999. Over the last five years, the percentage has held relatively steady at 57 percent. Over the past forty years, the total number of women in the labor force has risen from 41 million in 1977 to 71 million in 2017.5 The BLS projects that the number of women in the U.S. labor force will reach 92 million in 2050 (an increase that far outstrips population growth).

  The statistical data show a similar trend for African American, Asian American, and Hispanic workers (Figure 8.2). Just before passage of the CRA in 1964, the percentages of minorities in the official on-the-books workforce were relatively small compared with their representation in the total population. In 1966, Asians accounted for just 0.5 percent of private-sector employment, with Hispanics at 2.5 percent and African Americans at 8.2 percent. 6 However, Hispanic employment numbers have significantly increased since the CRA became law; they are expected to more than double from 15 percent in 2010 to 30 percent of the labor force in 2050. Similarly, Asian Americans are projected to increase their share from 5 to 8 percent between 2010 and 2050.

  

  Figure 8.2

  There is a distinct contrast in workforce demographics between 2010 and projected numbers for 2050. (credit: attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY 4.0 license) Much more progress remains to be made, however.

  For example, many people think of the technology sector as the workplace of open-minded millennials. Yet Google, as one example of a large and successful company, revealed in its latest diversity statistics that its progress toward a more

  inclusive workforce may be steady but it is very slow. Men still account for the great majority of employees at the corporation; only about 30 percent are women, and women fill fewer than 20 percent of Google's technical roles (Figure 8.3).

  The company has shown a similar lack of gender diversity in leadership roles, where women hold fewer than 25 percent of positions. Despite modest progress, an ocean-sized gap remains to be narrowed. When it comes to ethnicity,

  approximately 56 percent of Google employees are white. About 35 percent are Asian, 3.5 percent are Latino, and 2.4 percent are black, and of the company's management and leadership roles, 68 percent are held by whites.

  

  Figure 8.3

  Google is emblematic of the technology sector, and this graphic shows just how far from equality and diversity the industry remains. (credit: attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY 4.0 license)

  Google is not alone in coming up short on diversity. Recruiting and hiring a diverse workforce has been a challenge for most major technology companies, including Facebook, Apple, and Yahoo (now owned by Verizon); all have reported gender and ethnic shortfalls in their workforces.

  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has made available 2014 data comparing the participation of women and minorities in the high-technology sector with their participation in U.S. private-sector employment overall, and the results show the technology sector still lags.8 Compared with all private-sector industries, the high-technology industry employs a larger share of whites (68.5%), Asian Americans (14%), and men (64%), and a smaller share of African Americans (7.4%), Latinos (8%), and women (36%). Whites also represent a much higher share of those in the executive category (83.3%), whereas other groups hold a significantly lower share, including African Americans (2%), Latinos (3.1%), and Asian Americans (10.6%). In addition, and perhaps not surprisingly, 80 percent of executives are men and only 20 percent are women. This compares negatively with all other private-sector industries, in which 70 percent of executives are men and 30 percent women.

  Technology companies are generally not trying to hide the problem. Many have been publicly releasing diversity statistics since 2014, and they have been vocal about their intentions to close diversity gaps. More than thirty technology companies, including Intel, Spotify, Lyft, Airbnb, and Pinterest, each signed a written pledge to increase workforce diversity and inclusion, and Google pledged to spend more than $100 million to address diversity issues.9

  Diversity and inclusion are positive steps for business organizations, and despite their sometimes slow pace, the majority are moving in the right direction. Diversity strengthens the company's internal relationships with employees and improves employee morale, as well as its external relationships with customer groups. Communication, a core value of most successful businesses, becomes more effective with a diverse workforce. Performance improves for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that acknowledging diversity and respecting differences is the ethical thing to do.

  Which two of these reasons best explain why the author includes the statistics and numbers in the text?

  1. The author is trying to appeal to the audience's logical side by supplying numbers and statistics that cannot be argued with to prove the point that diversity in the workplace is still lacking, despite some progress over the years.

  2. The author is trying to appeal to the audience's emotions by giving them the stark reality in shocking numbers of how few women and minorities are working in high-level positions or certain types of companies.

  3. The author is trying to convince the audience that he's not making this problem up; he's done his research and can speak with authority on this subject.

  4. The author is trying to explain why there are disparities in the number of women and minorities in different professions.

  A. 1 and 4
  B. 1 and 3
  C. 2 and 4
  D. 2 and 3
  B. 1 and 3

• Question 4:

  

  A. b7
  A. b7

• Question 5:

  Which of these symmetries does not apply to a circle centered at the origin of the coordinate plane?

  A. the line y = x
  B. the origin
  C. the line y = x + 2
  D. the x - axis
  C. the line y = x + 2

• Question 6:

  Ashley's class is doing experiments with probability. They have a box with 3 green balls, 2 blue balls, and 5 red balls.

  Ashley takes a ball from the box, keeps the ball, and passes the box to Manuel.

  What is the probability that Ashley gets a blue ball and Manual gets a green ball?

  A. 0.05
  B. .066
  C. 0.053
  D. 0.06
  B. .066

• Question 7:

  What is the vertex of the graph of f(x) = x2 - 8x + 7?

  A. (4, 23)
  B. (-4, -23)
  C. (4, -9)
  D. (-4, -9)
  C. (4, -9)

• Question 8:

  A student is writing an editorial for the school newspaper about participating in after-school activities. Read the attached excerpt from a draft of the editorial and complete this task: Choose the transition sentence that would best improve the links between the second and third paragraph.

  A. Meanwhile, participating in after-school programs can help students feel like they belong and can build their confidence.
  B. In conclusion, participating in an after-school program is a win-win for working parents and lonely students.
  C. Another reason attending an after-school program can benefit students and their community is that it gives them a sense of belonging and builds their confidence.
  D. On the other hand, students who participate in after-school programs are more likely to have better grades in school and increased participation in their communities.
  C. Another reason attending an after-school program can benefit students and their community is that it gives them a sense of belonging and builds their confidence.

• Question 9:

  Choose the ordered pair that is a solution to the equation represented by the graph.

  

  A. (0, -3)
  B. (2, 0)
  C. (2, 2)
  D. (-3, 0)
  D. (-3, 0)

• Question 10:

  

  A. Option A
  B. Option B
  C. Option C
  D. Option D
  C. Option C