SAT Reading and Writing
Transitions
Transitions is a skill in the Expression of Ideas domain of the Digital SAT Reading and Writing section. These are practice questions on it, and each answer choice comes with an explanation of why it is right or wrong.
17 questions. After every answer you’ll see why each choice is right or wrong, not just the one you picked.
Sample questions
Open a question to see the answer choices and the correct answer.
A city's public library recently digitized its entire collection of nineteenth-century newspapers, making them searchable online for the first time. ______ researchers who once had to travel to the library and scroll through microfilm by hand can now search decades of articles from anywhere in seconds. Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
- A. As a result, ✓
- B. In contrast,
- C. Nevertheless,
- D. For example,
Correct answer: A. The easier searching described in the second sentence is a direct consequence of the digitization described in the first, so "As a result," correctly signals cause and effect.
In many species of octopus, females stop eating entirely after laying their eggs, guarding the eggs continuously for weeks or even months until they hatch. ______ these females typically die of starvation shortly after their eggs hatch. Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
- A. On the other hand,
- B. As a result, ✓
- C. In other words,
- D. Similarly,
Correct answer: B. Starvation follows directly from the fasting and guarding behavior just described, so "As a result," correctly signals this cause-and-effect relationship.
Glassblowers traditionally shaped molten glass entirely by hand using a blowpipe, a technique that requires years of practice to master. ______ some contemporary glass artists now use computer-controlled molds to achieve complex shapes with far less manual technique required. Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
- A. Additionally,
- B. Consequently,
- C. However, ✓
- D. For instance,
Correct answer: C. The second sentence contrasts a difficult, traditional hand technique with an easier, modern computer-based method, so "However," correctly signals this contrast.
Beekeepers once assumed that a hive's queen single-handedly directed the colony's daily activities. ______, decades of observation have shown that a queen mainly lays eggs and emits chemical signals, while thousands of worker bees make collective decisions about foraging and nest-building without any central command. Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
- A. In fact, ✓
- B. For example,
- C. Similarly,
- D. As a result,
Correct answer: A. Correct — the second sentence corrects the outdated assumption stated in the first, and in fact signals exactly this kind of correction from a mistaken belief to the more accurate reality.
The new highway bypass was projected to cut downtown commute times by nearly a third. ______, traffic engineers now report that average commute times have barely changed, since many drivers who once avoided downtown began using it again once the bypass eased congestion elsewhere. Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
- A. Consequently,
- B. In practice, ✓
- C. Likewise,
- D. Specifically,
Correct answer: B. Correct — the second sentence describes what actually happened once the bypass was built, contrasting the real-world outcome with the original projection, which is exactly what in practice signals.