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Verbal
Practice Test
 Verbal Practice Test: one
Section: 1
1. Scientists could not build on each other's work if they could not trust the published work of other scientists;
thus progress in science depends on the _____ of practicing scientists.
(A) consciences
(B) intuitions
(C) ambitions
(D) experiences
(E) optimism
2. The (i) _____ that one occasionally finds in the columnist's articles are so memorable that many people
think of her as being far more (ii) _____ than she in fact is.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) banalities (D) censorious
(B) denunciations (E) praiseworthy
(C) accolades (F) irresolute
3. Divided into separate essays on different aspects of Jacques-Louis David's late career, Bordes' catalog
(i)_____ a great deal of knowledge, never providing a full introduction to the painter's life or to the period in
which he lived. Yet while the book may (ii) _____ the casual reader, cognoscenti will delight in the wonderfully
complete detail on each picture, not to mention the caustic little jabs at colleagues that Bordes occasionally
delivers. The world of David scholarship, as befits its subject, is not a (iii) _____place.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) contains (D) satisfy (G) gentle
(B) assumes (E) frustrate (H) competitive
(C) disputes (F) address (I) sophisticated
Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.
African American musicians in the 1950s 4. Which of the following best characterizes the author's main
faced a dilemma regarding classical point about the "comparisons"?
music. A cosmopolitan display of (A) They were often adduced to help challenge a view that jazz
knowledge about modern classical music musicians were untutored in musical traditions other than jazz.
enabled artists such as Duke Ellington to (B) They sometimes overlooked the sophistication of African
counter misconceptions that jazz American musical traditions as reflected in the work of jazz
musicians were untutored. Yet jazz innovators.
musicians' interest in classical music was (C) They were more illuminating when applied to the music of Duke
often taken as an admission that jazz Ellington than when applied to that of Charlie Parker.
innovations were derived from (D) They often served to clarify a particular hierarchy among
European sources. After Charlie Parker musical traditions that had previously been neglected.
expressed admiration for Bartók, an (E) The helped bring to light the historical richness of a musical
interviewer asked if Parker's musical tradition that had previously been undervalued.
innovations were adaptations of classical
predecessors' ideas. Often, 5. The author implies that the "musical vision"
comparisons with modern European (A) gave rise to a certain dilemma faced by many musicians outside
composers connected jazz to the the European tradition
presumed superior standards of classical (B) could not have emerged without a confluence European and Can
music without recognizing that jazz traditions
articulated its own musical vision-by (C) was evident in the admiration of Charlie Parker for a composer
developing expressive and like Bartók
improvisational principles rooted in a (D) ultimately exerted an influence on musicians whose roots were
wide variety of African American primarily classical
musics—that challenged the hegemony (E) constitutes a kind of rebuttal to certain assumption about
of European standards in American excellence in music
music.

6. The society of the ancient Moche of northern Peru was _____ one: it was ruled by local lords who were
overseen by an elite composed of administrative and religious authorities.
(A) an enduring
(B) an inflexible
(C) an abiding
(D) a stratified
(E) a cohesive
(F) a hierarchical
7. Automated text-matching and plagiarism-detection services must be _____ human expertise: machines
alone cannot detect plagiarism of ideas, that is, expressing someone else's idea in one's own words.
(A) developed by
(B) supplemented with
(C) resistant to
(D) augmented by
(E) impenetrable to
(F) compatible with
8. Viruses are generally regarded as being on the far side of the demarcation between living and nonliving
things, yet newly discovered giant viruses have longer genomes than some bacteria, whose status as living
entities is _____.
(A) elusive
(B) incontrovertible
(C) questionable
(D) underestimated
(E) indisputable
(F) debatable
9. The artist reworked certain of his etchings in order to make the scenes they depict more logical, yet,
paradoxically, the pictorial space seems to become more _____ the more realistically it is defined.
(A) austere
(B) cogent
(C) lucid
(D) fanciful
(E) ominous
(F) chimerical
Questions 10 to 12 are based on this passage.
One possible explanation for the 10. The passage implies each of the following about red maples
increased percentage of red maple trees in mixed forests of the eastern United States EXCEPT:
in mixed forests of the eastern United (A) The photosynthetic performance of red maples has increased less
States in the twentieth century is the than has that of co-occurring oaks.
dramatic increase in atmospheric (B) Deer are less likely to eat the foliage of red maples than to eat the
carbon dioxide during this period. foliage of co-occurring oaks.
However, although red maples' (C) Red maples release seeds more often than do co- Occurring oaks.
photosynthetic performance and (D) Deer feed more heavily on red maples during the winter than
biomass production have increased in during the summer.
response to elevated levels of (E) Red maples have benefited more from fire suppression than have
atmospheric carbon dioxide, these many other tree species.
increases are not necessarily greater
11. The author compares the photosynthetic performance and
than those of co-occurring tree species, biomass production of red maples to those of co-occurring tree
such as oak. Other possible species most probably in order to
explanations include the deliberate (A) suggest why scientists were led to study the effects of increased
suppression of fire during the twentieth atmospheric carbon dioxide in mixed forests of the eastern United States
century (red maples are more sensitive (B) suggest that the proportion of red maples has increased primarily
to fire than are many other trees), red at the expense of tree species other than oaks
maples ability to thrive in a wide variety (C) downplay the extent to which elevated levels of atmospheric carbon
of soil conditions, and their unique dioxide can help explain the increased percentage of red maples
ability to thrive in both young and (D) demonstrate that no single explanation can account for the
mature forests. Increased deer increased percentage of red maples
browsing of oak foliage and seeds (E) indicate why most scientists consider elevated levels of atmospheric
(acorns), owing to larger deer carbon dioxide a viable explanation for the increased percentage of
populations, may be yet another cause. red maples
Deer do browse heavily during winter 12. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage
on red maple twigs (red maple foliage, about tree species that co-occur with red maples in mixed
on the other hand, may contain deer- forests of the eastern United States?
deterring alkaloids), and a high (A) These species ordinarily release seeds only once a year.
percentage of red maple seeds are (B) These species do not thrive in both young and mature forests.
consumed by various animals. (C) These species are more responsive to atmospheric carbon dioxide
However, deer browse on oak primarily than are red maples.
during summer when the impact of (D) These species are unable to establish themselves in areas that have
browsing on tree growth and survival is recently been disturbed by fire.
greatest, and oaks release seeds (E) These species no longer predominate in mixed forests of the eastern
frequently than do red maples. United States that contain red maples.
Section: 2
1. Sea turtles _____ sponges on Caribbean reefs; however, the percentage of sponge reef cover is climbing due
to human predation of turtles.
(A) destroy the habitat of
(B) impede the growth of
(C) assist colonization by
(D) divert attention from
(E) consume the waste of

2. Because the critic thought that the mark of great literature was a grandiosity not to be found in common
speech, writers seeking his approbation _____ the vernacular.
(A) exploited
(B) embraced
(C) misapplied
(D) considered
(E) eschewed

3. Britain's deteriorating economy after 1945 was (i) ____ by politicians who favored the manufacturing sector
over the service sector: rather than attempting to (ii) _____ the decline of manufacturing, they should have
promoted service industries.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) mishandled (D) augment
(B) bolstered (E) arrest
(C) forestalled (F) escalate

4. A comparison of satellite data from 1970 to 1996 found a steady decline in the amount of energy escaping
Earth into space at the wavelengths that greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere absorb. (i)_____indications
of (ii) _____incoming solar energy, these findings (iii) _____ direct experimental evidence for a significant
increase in Earth's greenhouse effect, that is, the planet's retention of heat as a result of greenhouse gases.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) given the compelling (D) innovative users for (G) constitute
(B) based on (E) a reduction in (H) contravene
(C) in the absence of (F) a dependence on (I) complicate

Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage.

The American social activist and intellectual 5. According to the passage, a criticism of Addams
Jane Addams (1860-1935) is experiencing a has been that she
scholarly revival. Despite her towering (A) was not fully committed to Progressive causes
reputation in her own day, Addams had been (B) was unable to formulate an effective response to poverty
neglected by academic historians-too much a (C) did not truly understand the nature of Progressive politics
crossover act for women's history, too much (D) tended to be more concerned with intellectual matters than
an activist for intellectual history, largely with social problems
ignored by political history. Her concern for (E) tended to overshadow other Progressive reformers
the poor registered as genuine but ineffectual.
Against the turn-of-the-century backdrop of 6. The author suggests that a reason for Addams' neglect by
massive strikes and class hatred, Addams' academic historians is that
commitment to mediation, conciliation, and (A) she was associated with a political movement whose
cooperation looked ill equipped for the bitter program seemed inadequate
politics of the day. In the 1990s, however, (B) she was generally considered ineffectual by her
historians grew more curious about Addams' contemporaries
Progressive-movement politics. At one time (C) historians have found her political loyalties difficult to pin
judged conservative, even reactionary, the down
Progressives and their considerable (D) historians have found her interests too limited to be
accomplishments- the fruits of steady, academically interesting
incremental–began to look appealing. (E) historians have considered her views to be merely a by-
product of the bitter politics of her day
 Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.
This passage is adapted from material published in 2002.
The revival of mural painting that has 7. The primary purpose of the passage is to
occurred in San Francisco since the (A) argue for the superiority of a style of art
1970s, especially among the Mexican (B) consider the impact of an art movement
American population of the city's Mission (C) describe the political content of certain works of art
District, has marked differences from its (D) detail the characteristic style of an art movement
social realist forerunner in Mexico and (E) place an art movement in its historical context
the United States some 40 years earlier.
8. According to the passage, which of the
Rather than being government sponsored
following statements about the "cultural centers"
and limited to murals on government
is true?
buildings, the contemporary mural
(A) They were the venue where many later leaders of the
movement sprang from the people Chicano civil rights movement first became politically
themselves, with murals appearing on active.
community buildings and throughout (B) Though later widespread, they originated in the San
college campuses. Perhaps the biggest Francisco area.
difference, however, is the process. In (C) Springing up in a number of communities, they
early twentieth- century Mexico, murals initially had largely apolitical goals centered on art
resulted from the vision of individual instruction.
artists. But today's murals are (D) They constituted the nucleus from which the Chicane
characteristically the products of artists civil rights movement originated.
working with local residents on design (E) Founded by artists, they provided support for the
and creation. Chicano civil rights movement.
Such community engagement is
characteristic of the Chicano (Mexican 9. Which of the following best describes the relationship
between the first paragraph and the second paragraph of
American) art movement as a whole, the second paragraph of the passage?
which evolved from the same foundations (A) The first focuses on the mural artists as individuals; the
as the Chicano civil rights movement of second, on their actions as a group.
the mid-1960s. Both were a direct (B) The first compares the mural revival with an earlier
response to the needs of Mexican artistic movement; the second describes the
Americans in the United States, who were contemporary to the revival.
fighting for the right to adequate (C) The first defines the revival by distinguishing it from
education, political empowerment, and an earlier artistic movement; the second addresses the
decent working conditions. Artists joined political goals of both the revival and its forerunner.
other cultural workers in making political (D) The first presents an apparently plausible account of
statements and played a key role in taking the relationship between the revival and its
these statements to the public. They forerunner; the second calls that account into calls that
developed collectives and established account into question.
cultural centers that functioned as the (E) The first is concerned with the artistic aims and
public- relations arm of the Chicano ambitions behind the San Francisco murals; the
sociopolitical movement. second considers their political significance.
10. Simultaneously revered and reviled, the wolf embodies society's _____ relationship with nature.
(A) conflicted d
(B) romanticized
(C) complex
(D) idealized
(E) changing
(F) hypocritical
11. Established scientists recognize that peer review of manuscripts submitted to scientific journals is critical
to science, but this recognition _____ a certain ambivalence in them, since reviewing takes time away from
their research.
(A) obviates
(B) mitigates
(C) engenders
(D) tempers
(E) induces
(F) exacerbates
12. Pop Music continually recycles itself, building new hits around familiar themes, and successful new acts
often do not even bother to disguise their_____ .
(A) appropriations
(B) innovations
(C) influences
(D) pilferage
(E) originality
(F) complicity

Question 13 is based on following passage

A study of cardiovascular health 13. Which of the following most logically completes the
involving a large, randomly selected argument?
group of adults found that members (A) among those who did not take aspirin regularly, those who have
of the group who reported having healthful habits were less likely to have developed heart disease
taken aspirin regularly for the past than were those who had unhealthful habits
five to ten years were significantly (B) among those who took aspirin regularly, those who followed
less likely to have developed heart healthful diets were less likely to have developed heart disease
disease than were members of the than were those whose diets were unhealthful
group who reported they had not (C) the study made no distinction between those who had taken
taken aspirin regularly. Although aspirin regularly for far longer periods
suggestive, these results should not (D) those who took aspirin regularly were more likely than those who
be interpreted as proof that taking did not to have followed a healthy diet during the previous ten
aspirin regularly significantly years
reduces the likelihood of developing (E) those who had not taken aspirin regularly were more likely than
heart disease, since _____. those who had taken it regularly to have experienced difficulties
with their circulatory systems during the preceding five years

Questions 14 and 15 are based on this passage.

The discovery of subsurface life on Earth, 14. Regarding life beyond Earth, the author of
surviving independently from surface life, the passage implies that
refuted the belief that biological processes (A) life could be dependent on a source of than light from
require not only liquid water but sunlight as well, the nearest star
thus greatly enhancing the possibility of life (B) life might exist in an environment that did not provide
beyond Earth. Take Jupiter's moon Europa. everything that is needed for life on Earth to exist
Space probes show a body covered with a thick (C) life might take a form radically different from that of
layer of ice. As Europa orbits its planet, however, any life that is found on Earth
it flexes due to the gravitational tug-of-war
between it, its sister moons, and Jupiter. 15. The highlighted sentence serves to introduce
Through friction, this flexing produces heat in the (A) an instance that allows a hypothesis to be tested
moon's interior capable of melting ice. Indeed, (B) speculation grounded in empirical discovery
observations suggest liquid water exists beneath (C) a deduction from a newly advanced hypothesis
Europa's icy crust. Photosynthetic life is (D) a large-scale effect of an apparently insignificant
impossible there because sunlight is completely contingency
absent, but life such as the microbes that flourish (E) the derivation of a contradiction to refute a claim
deep within Earth may still be possible.

Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
A BA BEG B E DF BD BE DF A C B

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
B E AB CEG B C E E B AC CE AD D A B
 Verbal Practice Test: two
Section: 1
1. The myth of the scientific method as a neat progression from hypothesis to experiment to conclusion is
dispelled once you enter a lab and observe the _____ process by which researchers actually make discoveries.
(A) meticulous
(B) unproductive
(C) imperturbable
(D) haphazard
(E) sequential
2. While light speed invariance has been experimentally established for two-way light transmission, tests of
the one-way speed of light have (i) ______ they require clock synchronization that has historically been
impossible to achieve. For example, Gagnon's one-way light speed tests were shown to be (ii) _____.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) been surprisingly accurate (D) invalid
(B) not withstood scrutiny (E) redundant
(C) upended existing theories (F) serviceable
3. Despite its title and the recipes it provides, the main purpose of The Insect Cookbook is not (i)_____
instead, the book seeks to (ii)_____ of entomophagy, i.e., the consumption of insects as food: it is composed of
interviews with chefs, farmers, politicians, and United Nations figures, all of whom attempt to (iii)_____ the
custom of eating insects.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) scientific (D) explore the history (G) promote
(B) culinary (E) condemn the practice (H) discredit
(C) educational (F) proselytize on behalf (I) reform
Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.
Reconstructions of the diets of late-sixteenth-century 4. Select the sentence that describes some
Apalachee Indians have been based on two sources: accounts of the factors that hamper archaeological
by Europeans and food remains at archaeological sites. Some investigation of past agricultural practices.
written records depict little farming at the time; others say that Consider each of the choices separately and
the Apalachee relied heavily on agriculture, particularly on select all that apply.
corn. Archaeological records are also inconclusive. Plant 5. It can be inferred from the passage
remains do not always survive well-in coastal regions they are that the written records about the
particularly vulnerable to the destructive effects of moisture Apalachee that describe farming
and acidic soils. Nevertheless, analysis of such evidence (A) Are in conflict over the importance of
confirms that the Apalachee ate both wild and domesticated agriculture of the Apalachee
plant species. But their use of corn is unclear: although (B) Are at their least reliable when describing
excavations have revealed kernels and cobs from sixteenth- coastal farming practices
century sites, the relative importance of this grain in the (C) Leave little doubt that the Apalachee
Apalachee diet is not known. relied heavily on corn
6. Despite its best efforts to stimulate sales, the bookselling business remains far from _____, for it has high
fixed costs in wages and rent, and falling prices make these ever harder to meet.
(A) effective
(B) healthy
(C) innovative
(D) robust
(E) stingy
(F) parsimonious
7. Many macroscopic or higher-level properties on the basis of which we sort chemicals into types are
not_____ the chemical structure itself but instead only manifest themselves under certain conditions or in
particular contexts.
(A) inherent in
(B) intrinsic to
(C) equivalent to
(D) influenced by
(E) affected by
(F) separable from
8. The final chapter of Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, in which de Beauvoir argues that only economic
self-sufficiency can release women from subordination, was one of the _____texts that revolutionized the
women's movement of the sixties and seventies.
(A) inspirational
(B) animating
(C) introductory
(D) inessential
(E) inscrutable
(F) trivial
9. Researchers concluded that although the success of pearl millet crops in the region varied with seasonal
climatic conditions, cultivation remains_____ because of pearl millet's predisposition to perform under
stressful growing conditions, including drought.
(A) erratic
(B) advantageous
(C) inconsistent
(D) prevalent
(E) impractical
(F) expedient
Questions 10 - 12 are based on this passage.
The greater the distance an 10. Which of the following can be inferred about the "land
island is from a continent bridge"?
(assuming islands are of similar (A) Its land mass may once have equaled that of the combined
size and elevation), the fewer masses of Trinidad and Tobago.
plant and animal species it will (B) Its existence makes it difficult to explain why Trinidad and
support but the greater the Tobago would have a larger number of avifaunal species than
distinctiveness of those species. Puerto Rico does.
As an example, compare (C) Its duration can be inferred to have been short-lived based on
Trinidad and Tobago with evidence related to species diversity of Trinidad and Tobago.
Puerto Rico. Trinidad and (D) It might help to account for the difference between the number
Tobago are two sister islands of endemic bird species on Trinidad and Tobago as compared
lying off South America, to with Puerto Rico.
which they were once connected (E) It most likely provided habitat to bird species that not exist either
by a land bridge. Their on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago nor on the South American
combined land mass is little mainland.
more than half that of Puerto 11. The highlighted sentence serves primarily to
Rico, but their native avifauna (A) acknowledge a possible flaw in a generalization presented at the
totals approximately four beginning of the passage
hundred species, nearly twice (B) cite evidence to support a possible explanation for a phenomenon
that of Puerto Rico's. mentioned in the preceding sentence
However, all the bird (C) qualify a claim about the relationship that usually pertains
species on Trinidad and between an island' s size and its relative abundance of animal
Tobago, with the sole species
exception of an endemic (D) establish a contrast between the relative proportion of endemic to
guan, are found either on nonendemic species on Trinidad and Tobago as compared with Puerto
the South American Rico
mainland or elsewhere. (E) point to a possible way in which species native to the South
Contrarily, Puerto Rico's native American mainland might have come to inhabit offshore islands
avifauna totals only two 12. According to the passage, Puerto Rico differs from Trinidad
hundred and forty species but and Tobago in that Puerto Rico
includes sixteen endemic (A) shares a larger number of bird species with mainland South
species, which, except for two America
occurring in the nearby Virgin (B) offers a greater range of habitats for native avifauna
Islands, are found nowhere else (C) has an increasing number of endemic specie
in the world. (D) has a high level of species diversity for its size
(E) is home to a smaller number of bird species.
Section: 2
1. Unlike some mammals—cows and sheep, for instance that are notably_____, have a wide range of facial
expressions.
(A) tractable
(B) impassive
(C) solitary
(D) social
(E) sluggish

2. With respect to environmental issues, most legal scholarship tends to envision politics as the pursuit of
already fixed interests, a view that (i)_____the ability of political communities to (ii) _____ their values and
their interests through the process of democratic deliberation.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) leverages (D) mask
(B) overstates (E) transform
(C) ignores (F) defend

3. Eventually, the framed painting looked as Easton had hoped it would, the frame offering a subtle rebuke to
some of the more ostentatious baroque confections on display. Easton believed that it was more (i) _____than
any other frame in the exhibition, despite its (ii) _____ quality. That apparent simplicity, however, was so much
more difficult to realize than something more obviously (iii) _____.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) nondescript (D) unassuming (G) sumptuous
(B) ornate (E) inexpensive (H) fashionable
(C) striking (F) representative (I) outmoded
4. To (i)_____a work of serious literature for pedagogical purposes, however deftly one does it, is inevitably
an exercise in (ii)_____, since great literary works contain at least some passages that are too (iii) _____ to
lend themselves to such a simple form of exposition and something essential will therefore be lost.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) extol (D) edification (G) engaging
(B) paraphrase (E) preservation (H) elusive
(C) evaluate (F) distortion (I) contemplative
Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage.
Although vastly popular during its time, much 5. Which of the following best describes the
nineteenth-century women's fiction in the function of the highlighted sentence?
United States went unread by the twentieth- (A) It explains why the fiction mentioned in the first
century educated elite, who were taught to sentence was not popular in the twentieth century.
ignore it as didactic. However, American (B) It assists in drawing a contrast between nineteenth-
and twentieth-century critics.
literature has a tradition of didacticism going (C) It provides an example of how twentieth-century
back to its Puritan roots, shifting over time from readers were taught to ignore certain literature.
sermons and poetic transcripts into novels, (D) It questions the usefulness of a particular distinction
which proved to be perfect vehicles for between Poe and Longfellow made by the critics.
conveying social values. In the nineteenth (E) It explains why Poe's stories were more popular than
century, critics reviled Poe for neglecting to Longfellow's verse during the nineteenth century.
conclude his stories with pithy moral tags, while
Longfellow was canonized for his didactic verse. 6. In the context in which it appears,
Although rhetorical changes favoring the "conveying" most nearly means
antididactic can be detected as nineteenth- (A) carrying
century America transformed itself into a (B) transferring
secular society, it was twentieth- century (C) granting
criticism, which placed aesthetic value above (D) imparting
everything else, that had no place in its doctrine (E) projecting
for the didacticism of others.
 .

Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.

While economic historians have 7. It can be inferred from the passage that the highlighted
generally given far more attention to "historians" regard wills as
male than to female industrial (A) a better indicator of men's attitudes toward consumer goods than of
workers in eighteenth-century women's attitudes toward consumer goods in the eighteenth-century
England, an imbalance that is being (B) a source of information about the extent to which people in the
corrected by recent studies of eighteenth-century attached emotional significance to consumer
female industrial laborers, scholars of goods
the period's consumer revolution (C) the most reliable source of information regarding men's consumption
have focused on women's crucial role of household goods in the eighteenth-century
as consumers of mass-produced (D) evidence that men's and women's consumer activities in the
goods. Cultural historians, for eighteenth-century did not differ as much as historians once believed
example, have generated an (E) a less useful form of evidence than estate inventories for assessing
impressive body of work on men's attitudes toward consumer goods in the eighteenth-century
eighteenth-century women and 8. According to the passage, the "recent studies" serve to do
consumption, studying records of which of the following?
women's purchases of such items as (A) Widen the scope of research into England's eighteenth-century
cloth, table linens, and china industrial labor force
and showing how women used such (B) Reveal erroneous assumptions that colored previous studies' findings about
items as expressions of their taste and English consumer activity in the eighteenth-century
status. However, this attention to (C) Provide crucial evidence regarding women's role as consumers of
women's role in the demand side of industrial goods in eighteenth-century England
England's industrial economy has (D) Demonstrate that male and female industrial laborers in eighteenth-
tended to overshadow the importance century England played quite different roles in their country' s
of men's role as shoppers. Many industrial economy
historians have taken the view that (E) Clarify the reasons why previous studies did not adequately account
women were far more likely than men for eighteenth-century English women's roles as producers and
to purchase and to attach emotional consumers of industrial goods
significance to consumer goods,
finding support for this view in men's 9. The author of the passage mentions "cloth, table linens, and
wills from the period, which rarely china" primarily in order to
mentioned household consumer (A) differentiate women's characteristic consumer activities from those
items in any detail. Yet, research on of men
eighteenth-century advertising (B) distinguish cultural historians' methods from those of economic
demonstrates that merchants often historians
targeted male consumers, regarding (C) identify the kinds of goods most likely to have emotional significance
them as important customers, and for consumers
studies of inventories of eighteenth- (D) provide details about the kinds of evidence used by certain historians
century estates have failed to show (E) illustrate a point about the reliability of certain kinds of historical
differences between men's and records
women's consumer activities.
10. Despite all the efforts of his admirers to bolster his prestige, the reputation of Alexander Pope,
both as a person and as a writer, remains_____.
(A) insecure
(B) pristine
(C) nebulous
(D) unsullied
(E) precarious
(F) rudimentary

11. To help protect the environment, the United States government currently requires safe storage of coal ash
for 30 years, "if feasible," but many countries that burn coal lack even such _____ environmental safeguards.
(A) modest
(B) onerous
(C) discretionary
(D) burdensome
(E) practical
(F) optional
12. Lena's predisposition toward _____ is reflected in her use of possessions for as long as she can before
replacing them.
(A) parsimony
(B) profusion
(C) economy
(D) lavishness
(E) liberality
(F) fastidiousness
Question 13 is based on this passage.
In most coastal regions, the level of the 13. In the passage, the two highlighted portions play which of
sea is rising in relation to the land by one the following roles?
to two millimeters a year, and this trend (A) The first is a hypothesis that is considered and rejected in the
would be explained by the hypothesis that passage; the second states observations on which that
at the North and South Poles, the rejection is based.
amount of ice that melts during the (B) The first is a hypothesis that has been used to explain a certain
summer now exceeds the amount observed trend; the second presents particular exceptions to
that forms during the winter. The this trend that, according to evidence presented in the passage,
hypothesis is not undermined by require that hypothesis to be revised.
observations that sea levels are falling (C) The first presents a phenomenon the explanation of which is at
relative to the Scandinavian coast issue; the second provides evidence in support of the
by four millimeters a year. Much explanation that the passage adopts.
land in northern latitudes, including (D) The first is a hypothesis that the passage reconciles with
Scandinavia, is still rising in response to seemingly incompatible observations; the second states those
being freed of the enormous weight of the observations.
ice that used to cover it during the last ice (E) The first is a hypothesis that is defended in the passage; the
age, and in Scandinavia the land is now second states observations whose accuracy is challenged in the
rising faster than the sea. course of that defense.
Questions 14 and 15 are based on this passage.
Scientific wisdom long held that Earth's 14. The phrase "recent findings" refers to the
inner workings alone drove continent discovery that
formation, but recent findings suggest (A) asteroid impacts had largely ended on Earth by 3.8
that large asteroid impacts may also have billion years ago
played a constructive role. Most scientists (B) significant impacts occurred during an important
assumed that asteroid bombardments, period of crust formation
frequent during Earth's infancy, had (C) asteroid impacts were frequent during Earth's
essentially ended about 3.8 billion years infancy
ago, at which point nascent oceans could (D) crust formation is less influenced by Earth's inner
harbor microscopic life. Major impacts workings than was previously thought
since then were considered rare and utterly (E) asteroid impacts after the Archean were rare but not
destructive. Recently, however, scientists utterly destructive
discovered that a series of massive blows
15. It can be inferred from the passage that most
occurred during the Archean eon, between scientists had assumed which of the following about
3.8 and 2.5 billion years ago. The crust- the "major impacts"?
obliterating reputation of asteroids seems (A) They frequently occurred as a series of massive
at odds with a hallmark of the Archean: it blows.
was Earth's most productive period of (B) They were larger than earlier ones.
continent formation. By some estimates, 65 (C) They caused the decline of microorganisms in the
percent of today's continental crust ocean.
materialized during that time. (D) They destroyed continental crust.
(E) They triggered Earth's inner workings.
Answer
Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
D BD BFG plant remains do not always survive A BD AB AB BF D D E

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
B CE CDG BFH B D B A D AE CF AC D B D
 Verbal Practice Test: three
Section: 1
1. _____is valuable in science; even when a scientific idea is true, it can be misused through
(A) Humility
(B) Experimentation
(C) Patience
(D) Cooperation
(E) Exposure
2. Many of the towns that have voted to keep incinerators in the county's solid-waste plan have done so not
because they necessarily (i) _____ incinerators, but because they are (ii) _____ to narrow their waste-disposal
options.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) question (D) willing
(B) favor (E) eager
(C) oppose (F) loath
3. The poem is not nearly as (i) _____ as it has often been said to be. Granted, it would be (ii) _____to claim
that the poem is self-contained or that its proliferating allusions are self- explanatory. But the poem is more
self-contained than it appears when you read only fragments of it and its allusion are often (iii) _____ by their
contexts or by their repeated appearances in changing contexts.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) accessible (D) malicious (G) subverted
(B) rewarding (E) expedient (H) explained
(C) difficult (F) absurd (I) concealed
Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.
Shapin' s book demonstrates that 4. The author of the passage mentions companies' recognition that
contrary to a widely held belief, "the results of scientific investigation were necessarily uncertain"
industrial research has not primarily in order to
invariably been more regimented (A) suggest that industrial scientists often faced a different set of challenges
than academic science. He argues than did academic scientists.
that the intellectual freedom (B) present a premise that motivated some companies' policies regarding
historically available to industrial their scientists' research
scientists during the twentieth (C) explain how companies calculated possible future profits from research
century has been underestimated. undertaken by their scientists
Many companies, recognizing that (D) refute a common assumption about the costs associated with industrial
the results of scientific research relative to the costs of academic research
investigation were (E) explain how the expectations of scientists conducting industrial
necessarily uncertain and that research differed from those of scientists conducting academic research
profits, if any, might take years to
materialize, granted scientists 5. It can be inferred that those who hold the "belief" mentioned in the
passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following
considerable latitude to develop
statements about scientists?
their ideas and follow them in
(A) Scientists who conduct research in university settings have generally
unexpected directions. Some
been less motivated than researchers employed in industry to pursue
companies even provided senior
scientific inquiries solely for the sake of advancing knowledge.
scientists with free time to pursue
(B) Scientists have not been primarily motivated by financial considerations
their own research interests,
in choosing among different professional settings in which to conduct
whatever they might be.
their research.
Consequently, some scientists
(C) Scientists employed by for-profit companies have always tended to have
were drawn to industrial research
their research restricted by their companies' interests.
not primarily because of the
(D) Scientists have tended to be less concerned about the regimentation of
generally good financial
industrial research than nonscientists generally assume.
compensation but because they
(E) Scientists should be more skeptical than they generally have been about
saw industry as the best place to do
the reliability of research conducted by for-profit companies.
cutting-edge research.
6. Jane Austen belonged to the social class about which she mainly wrote, and although her novels offer
abundant satire, one never has the sense that she viewed the basic elements of this social sphere as_____.
(A) laudable
(B) unfathomable
(C) ignoble
(D) reprehensible
(E) inviolable
(F) praiseworthy
7. In person, Downing is generally rather_____, seemingly incapable of smiling, let alone laughing.
(A) complaisant
(B) contemplative
(C) dolorous
(D) lugubrious
(E) pulchritudinous
(F) obliging

8. Although evolutionary psychologists do not seem quite as imperialist in their intellectual ambitions as their
socio-biologist forebears of the 1970s, they tend, in some critics' view, to be no less _____in their claims.
(A) abashed
(B) arrogant
(C) impetuous
(D) hubristic
(E) narcissistic
(F) diffident

9. Although technically their members were hunter-gatherers, many early Native California communities
exhibited traits more typically associated with well-developed agrarian societies and, therefore, are often
presented in the ethnographic literature as _____.
(A) archaic
(B) pragmatic
(C) anomalous
(D) exemplary
(E) exceptional
(F) utilitarian
Questions 10 to 12 are based on this passage.
Brian Aldiss' book Billion Year 10. The primary purpose of the passage is to
Spree (1973), while notable for its (A) argue that science fiction deserves something less than recognition
insights, contains a weakness as high literature
shared with most subsequent (B) challenge the appropriateness of critical analysis of science fiction as
science fiction criticism: a failure mainstream literature
to avoid the pitfalls of (C) propose a refinement of an established method of analyzing themes
canonization. Aldiss begins in science fiction
properly by rejecting the total (D) suggest an alternative approach for evaluating the literary merits of
exclusion of the genre of science works of science fiction
fiction from high literature. But he (E) criticize a particular approach to the assessment of science fiction as
misguidedly tries to do so by literature
adopting standards of elite
11. The passage suggests that Aldiss believes which of the following
criticism-that is, by establishing a about popular science fiction classics of the thirties, forties, and
canon of acceptable literature fifties?
within the genre. In attempting to (A) They are the models on which more recent science fiction writers
distinguish between real literature have based their work.
and "trash," Aldiss treats popular (B) They are characterized by a more hopeful outlook than is typical of
pulp classics of the thirties, forties, mainstream writing.
and fifties condescendingly. His (C) They constitute an important stage in the development of science
condescension turns to distaste fiction as a literary genre.
when addressing their strident and (D) They contain themes that have been largely abandoned by
(to him) hollow optimism. In place subsequent writers.
of heartiness and euphoria, he calls (E) They have garnered the approval of all but a small minority of critics.
for the "natural and decent despair
which has always characterized 12. The author of the passage would be most likely to agree with
everyday literature." By "everyday which of the following statements about most critics who have
written about science fiction since 1973?
literature" he means, of course,
(A) They have shared a common view of the tone they expect to find in
mainstream writing. Because of
everyday literature.
this bias, Aldiss fails to do justice to
(B) They have accorded appropriate recognition to the works of A. E.
A. E.Van Vogt, and any critical
Van Vogt.
analysis of science fiction that fails
(C) They have repeated an error found in Aldiss' Billion Year Spree.
to come to terms with that author's
(D) They have been insufficiently rigorous in their treatment of works
appeal and major importance
that are intended to appeal to а mass audience.
defends or defines the genre by
(E) They have been preoccupied with obscure works from the thirties,
falsifying it.
forties, and fifties.
Section: 2

1. Archaeopteryx had feathers on its hind limbs that helped stabilize it and acted as air brakes, allowing the
otherwise_____ creature to turn more adeptly and fly steadily.
(A) docile
(B) ungainly
(C) unpredictable
(D) torpid
(E) reckless

2. The 1938 "War of the Worlds" fiasco, in which millions of people supposedly believed that a fictional radio
program about a Martian invasion was true, is held up as an example of the (i)_____ of the American public.
While Americans are portrayed as (ii) _____ in this version of the story, research reveals that most listeners
knew the program was fictional.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) facetiousness (D) stalwart
(B) mettle (E) gullible
(C) credulity (F) blithe

3. By using (i) _____ prose throughout, the contributors to this anthology have been able to make their subject
seem (ii) _____ in the extreme–of concern only to one another.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) luminous (D) parochial
(B) esoteric (E) pragmatic
(C) colloquial (F) egalitarian
4. Science is inherently (i) _____. Whether (ii) _____ a long-standing idea or showing disdain for received
political wisdom, the scientific ethic, which demands that the scientist follow the evidence wherever it leads, is
a threat to (iii) _____ of all kinds.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) subversive (D) substantiating (G) authorities
(B) principled (E) overturning (H) skeptics
(C) collaborative (F) identifying (I) methodologies

Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage.

Saturn's moon Enceladus shows signs of 5. The passage suggests which of the following
geological activity concentrated in the south about "surface fractures"?
polar terrain, where surface fractures emit (A) Their geological activity fluctuates during Enceladus'
plumes of water vapor and large amounts of orbital cycle.
heat. Tides influenced by orbital eccentricity (B) They are located in an area where tides are unusually strong.
might explain this phenomenon given the (C) The heat they emit reduces the viscosity of Enceladus' crust.
correlation between observed plume
(D) They emit plumes only when Enceladus is at its
apocenter.
brightness and Enceladus' orbital position.
(E) Their existence has been inferred to explain emissions.
However, there is a significant delay between
apocenter (maximum distance from Saturn) 6. Based on information in the passage, evidence of
and peak brightness. In order to explain this, which of the following would best support the
one must invoke the unknown viscosity of hypothesis that the observed plume emissions on
Enceladus' crust. Even then we don't know Enceladus are powered by tides?
why geysers occur only at the south pole or (A) A mechanism that slows the cooling of Enceladus' surface
how so small a body can lose all that heat into (B) Significant geographical variations in the viscosity of
space without freezing and thus ending the Enceladus' crust
activity. Existing models predict that heat (C) The presence of various chemical traces in the water
would be lost faster than it is produced by tidal
vapor plumes
(D) Several fractures that do not appear to be geologically active
friction.
(E) Fluctuations in the difference between peak and low
plume brightness
 Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.
In the 1920s, the Legal Realists, a 7. The primary purpose of the passage is to
group of constitutional scholars, (A) chronicle the development in the United States of a particular
challenged "formalism," the then- approach to judicial decision-making
dominant style of legal reasoning (B) point out differences between two approaches to judicial
in the United States. Proponents decision-making in the United States
of formalism, believing that (C) suggest that two approaches to judicial decision- making in the
neither personal experiences nor United States are not as contradictory as they may appear to be
a case's social implications should (D) explain how a particular approach to judicial decision- making
shape a judge's ruling, urged has reshaped the decision-making behavior of judges in the
judges to decide difficult new United States
cases by applying to such cases (E) show that one approach to judicial decision-making in the
general principles deduced from United States is superior to another
the decisions of previous courts in
similar instances. Legal Realists 8. According to the passage, Legal Realists determined the
insisted that judges' decisions usefulness of legal principles on the basis of which of the
were influenced by the social following?
implications of a decision and by (A) Their applicability to a wide variety of circumstances
life experiences, the latter (B) Their relevance to the circumstances of the cases to which they
inevitably coloring judges' were applied
perceptions of a case's parties and (C) The ease with which they were derived from the decisions of
witnesses and thus of its "facts," previous courts in similar cases.
and that the legal principles (D) The extent to which they were helpful in identifying similarities
derivable from previous decisions among seemingly disparate cases
in similar instances were so (E) The extent to which they were colored by the personal
inconsistent that such principles experiences of the judges deducing them
were likely to result in very
different rulings. Thus, Legal 9. Which of the following best describes the relationship of the
Realists argued that legal final sentence of the passage to the sentence that precedes it?
principles, to be meaningful and (A) The final sentence illustrates a generalization made in the
useful, could not be general and preceding sentence.
abstract, but must instead refer to (B) The final sentence offers an exception to the generalization
specific circumstances. Principles made in the preceding sentence.
appropriate to deciding one case (C) The final sentence evaluates a conclusion presented in the
involving contracts might not be preceding sentence.
for another because contracts are (D) The final sentence corrects an assertion made in the preceding
entered into and enforced in sentence.
(E) The final sentence comments on an example presented in the
widely different circumstances.
preceding sentence

10. Since responsibility for content is often _____in multi-author papers, it is easy to that such papers may
contain more instances of questionable academic practices than do papers by a single author.
(A) ignored
(B) diluted
(C) disputed
(D) weakened
(E) highlighted
(F) foregrounded

11. By 1600, France's sense of itself as a nation bound by a shared destiny was_____, but over the course of
the seventeenth century, French culture regained the strength it had had in the Middle Ages.
(A) absent
(B) innocuous
(C) benign
(D) unique
(E) precarious
(F) uncertain
12. The snow-covered surface of the lake presents a reassuring illusion _____, of beneath the snow the ice is
riven with treacherous cracks.
(A) uniformity
(B) isolation
(C) seclusion
(D) protection
(E) substantiality
(F) soundness

Question 13 is based on this passage.

Many Namibian farmers raise cattle on 13. Which of the following is an assumption on which
farmland that is part of a cheetah's the argument depends?
territory. Cheetahs are solitary hunters that (A) The average size of a Namibian cattle herd has not
hunt in and defend exclusive territories. For significantly increased in the past several decades.
decades the farmers have been trapping (B) The killing of adult cheetahs by farmers does not often
and killing cheetahs on their land but have result in the death of cheetah cubs from starvation or
found that the frequency with which predators.
cheetahs are trapped has not decreased (C) Cheetahs do not hunt healthy adult cattle.
during this period. The Namibian cheetah (D) Cheetahs are seldom killed except on farmland.
population, therefore, must not have (E) Namibian cheetah territories located away from farmland
suffered any significant reduction as a have not been increasingly likely to be abandoned in favor
result of the farmers' practice. of territories that include at least some farmland.

Questions 14 and 15 are based on this passage.

Harriet Monroe, who founded Poetry: Consider each of the choices separately and select all that
A Magazine of Verse in 1912, argued apply.
that the more heterogeneous and 14. The passage suggests that Monroe believed that
sprawling the modern world became, finding "an entrenched place, a voice of power" for
the more poetry needed "an poetry would rely on which of the following?
entrenched place, a voice of (A) Providing poets with a refuge from the sprawling
power." But this goal could only be modern world
realized if poets were valued in ways (B) Ensuring that poetry as an art could remain free of
that encouraged them to participate in economic considerations
the world and made writing verse (C) Creating institutional opportunities for poets to make
economically viable. Monroe argued their work economically viable
that poets needed sites of institutional
opportunity like those that had been 15. The author mentions "visual artists, architects,
developed for visual artists, architects, and musicians" primarily to
and musicians. She believed that the (A) note a challenge that Monroe faced when attempting to
hand-wringing anticapitalism implement her ideas
dominating genteel literary culture- (B) highlight what Monroe regarded as a contrast between
particularly the idea that poetry ought the economic needs of poets and those of other artists
to be removed from "sordid" pecuniary (C) explain Monroe' s ideas about measures that would
considerations -brought no economic advance poetry
and only illusory aesthetic benefits, (D) acknowledge that anticapitalism had not had
instead severing poets from undesirable consequences for all art forms
(E) illustrate the point that some art forms are inherently
meaningful participation in the
modern world. more economically viable than others

Answer
Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
A BC CBB B C CD CD BD CE E B C

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
B CB CA ABA E E B B A BD EF EF B C C
 Verbal Practice Test: four
Section: 1
1. The myth of the scientific method as a neat progression from hypothesis to experiment to conclusion is
dispelled once you enter a lab and observe the_____ process by which researchers actually make discoveries.
(A) meticulous
(B) unproductive
(C) imperturbable
(D) haphazard
(E) sequential

2. Up to the 1970s, histories of science tended to be (i) _____, not least in their focus on discoveries and
theories that could be read as anticipating later scientific orthodoxies, rather than on those deemed (ii) _____
in their own periods. Historians of science are now routinely far more sensitive on such scores.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) anachronistic (D) major
(B) convoluted (E) fallacious
(C) undogmatic (F) inessential

3. Reading Frankfurt's book, I worried that in the absence of specific examples or nuanced analysis, the
unnamed postmodernists who are so (i) _____ in it might feel that they have been tarred by superficial and
unsubstantiated generalizations. Of course, postmodernism is something of a (ii) _____ these days, and many
readers may feel that no insult is too gross to heap on it. It arouses the same (iii) _____ that used to be aroused
by idealism and skepticism.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) meticulously critiqued (D) scapegoat (G) curiosity
(B) enthusiastically vilified (E) model (H) indifference
(C) earnestly championed (F) mystery (I) horror

Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.

Many people assume that artists working in the Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
city of New York during the 1940s and 1950s 4. The author implies that artists working in
looked first and foremost to European masters the city of New York during the 1940s and
for their inspiration. That Eurocentric scenario, 1950s might NOT have looked first and
however, neglects the multicultural nature of foremost to the European masters for their
New York and the notion of American artists as inspiration because
individuals. Native American artist Leon Polk (A) New York was a multicultural city
Smith, who spent much of his life in the (B) the artists each had their own distinctive interests
Southwest and was introduced to European (C) New York was Eurocentric in nature
modernism while a student in New York,
understood what he saw from his unique cross- 5. In the context in which appears, "neglects"
cultural vantage. For example, he saw the most nearly means
geometric style of Piet Mondrian, a European (A) distorts
master, as an extension of the Native American (B) debases
art of the Southwest. The dimensions, colors, (C) overlooks
and interwoven lines of Smith's own abstract (D) deserts
paintings resemble those of Navajo blanket wall (E) misuses
hangings.
6. The rate of sediment deposition may be _____ desertification in Central Asia: data from a Tajik site show
the rate to have increased during Pleistocene glacial periods as aridity increased.
(A) a restraint on
(B) a gauge of
(C) an indicator of
(D) a factor in
(E) a hedge against
(F) a consequence of
7. In this otherwise _____ study, the internal tensions resulting from the increasing integration of the United
States with the world economy are simply mentioned rather than analyzed.
(A) tedious
(B) thorough
(C) biased
(D) exhaustive
(E) superficial
(F) shallow

8. The brain has become, for many people, _____ the biological machinations of the self, and the self-
knowledge promised by neuroscience has ignited a hunger to understand how new findings weigh in on age-old
questions.
(A) tantamount to
(B) synonymous with
(C) implicated in
(D) divorced from
(E) detached from
(F) subservient to

9. By its subtitle, Pamela Lu's Pamela: A Novel assigns itself to a literary genre whose constitutive elements
it_____: if it is a novel, it is an anomalous one, with no story to unfold.
(A) maligns
(B) flouts
(C) mimics
(D) simulates
(E) reimagines
(F) disowns
Questions 10 to 12 are based on this passage.
The following passage comes from a study of gull bill markings.
Some species of gulls have uniformly 10. The primary purpose of the passage is to
colored bills, but many (62 percent in our (A) categorize the different kinds of markings that can appear on
sample) have beaks with differently gull bills
colored tips, stripes, or spots that act as a (B) present evidence that casts doubt on a theory regarding gull
focus for the pecking of newly hatched bill markings
chicks as they beg for food. In an attempt (C) speculate about the function of gull bill markings
to understand why, we determined (D) show that the effectiveness of a gull chick' s begging is
whether adult gulls of those species with determined by its size
newly hatched chicks that are small in (E) examine the relationship between chick size and adult size in
relation to the size of the adult are more different gull species
likely to have such patterned beaks. This 11. In the context of the passage, the reference to "the parent's
work is based on Hailman's (1967) visual field" serves primarily to
suggestion that gulls with greater bill (A) propose a reason that red is found on gull bills more
depths (large species) tend to have only a commonly than are other colors
(B) describe the second of two mutually exclusive explanations
restricted area of red on the bill (ie., a red
for the coloration of gull bills
tip or spot), whereas smaller-billed
(C) explain why it might be advantageous for gull bills to be
species have uniform bills. We suggest marked in a particular way
that the most plausible reason for any (D) explain why gull parents may give preference to certain chicks
size-related difference is that when feeding them
concentrating a small chick s pecking on (E) explain how a chick's size may contribute to its effectiveness
a particular part of the bill is more at begging for food
effective than is unfocused pecking in 12. The passage suggests which of the following about
stimulating the adult to regurgitate food. unfocused chick pecking?
As well as encouraging the chick to peck, (A) It is more effective in gull species in which chick size is large
the tip of the bill, or the gonys (where relative to parent size.
stripes and spots are located), might be (B) It is more effective in gull species with patterned bills than in
more sensitive than are other parts of the species with uniform bills.
beak to the feeble pecking of a small (C) It is more likely to occur in older chicks than in newly hatched
chick, or a small chick might more chicks.
effectively occupy the parent's visual (D) It is more likely to occur in species with greater bill depths.
field when pecking there. (E) It is more likely to occur when the chick is within the parent's
visual field.
Section 2
1. The fanciful notion that the legislative initiative would bring unlimited social benefits has soured into an
equally_____ mood of skepticism and distrust.
(A) valid
(B) pessimistic
(C) unanticipated
(D) pragmatic
(E) baseless

2. The pronghorn antelope in northern Mexico may be viewed as (i) _____ species, as most of the North
American prairie, its chief historical habitat, has (ii) _____.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) a relict (D) been closely scrutinized
(B) an endemic (E) been taken for granted
(C) a hybrid (F) disappeared over time

3. It is true that with too much exposure, one can weary of visionary poems, their rhetoric can become (i)
_____. And yet, there are few among us who are completely (ii) _____ visionary rhetoric for the obvious
reason that we do, on rare occasions, have an experience that (iii) _____ and leaves us baffled, deeply moved,
and ready to believe things we hadn't dreamed of.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) engaging (D) immune to (G) passes by unnoticed
(B) insufferable (E) immersed in (H) lifts us out of the ordinary
(C) prescient (F) comfortable with (I) fits all expectations

4. Statistics is the branch of applied mathematics that studies ways of drawing inferences from limited and
imperfect data. Of course, if all data sources were totally (i) _____, statisticians could do little but (ii) _____
every conclusion with "but we could be wrong about this." A mathematical science of statistics is possible
because, although repeating an experiment numerous times may not yield uniform results, some results are
more (iii) _____than others.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) empirical (D) qualify (G) dubious
(B) capricious (E) affirm (H) unexpected
(C) defensible (F) substantiate (I) common

Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage

Because coal contains toxic materials Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
such as arsenic and lead, and its use 5. The passage indicates which of the following about
contributes to air pollution and acid rain, firewood?
one might therefore conclude that no (A) Its use has a damaging effect on the quality of soil.
good case could be made for burning it for (B) Its advantages over coal as a fuel have been exaggerated.
fuel. But that depends on where one is (C) Its effect on human health is partly a result of the conditions
starting from. Switching to coal from under which it is burned.
firewood is beneficial for both the
environment and the health of the 6. The author mentions arsenic and lead primarily in
individual. Firewood use results in order to
deforestation, loss of ecosystems, and (A) identify some of the factors that might support a particular
degradation of soil quality. Wood fires are conclusion
also sooty, and their particulates (B) challenge an assertion about the toxicity of various sources of
contribute to global warming by fuel
decreasing the reflectivity of snowfields. (C) establish the grounds for a recommendation concerning
Finally, firewood is generally burned in future energy use
homes with poor ventilation and poses a (D) acknowledge a weakness of the hypothesis proposed by the
greater health risk to the individuals than author
they would experience from a coal-fired (E) question the advantages of switching from one source of fuel
utility that provides electricity to their to another
homes.
 Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.
While economic historians have 7. It can be inferred from the passage that the highlighted
generally given far more attention "historians" regard wills as
to male than to female industrial (A) a better indicator of men's attitudes toward consumer goods than of
workers in eighteenth-century women's attitudes toward consumer goods in the eighteenth-century
England, an imbalance that is being (B) a source of information about the extent to which people in the
corrected by recent studies of eighteenth-century attached emotional significance to consumer
female industrial laborers, scholars goods
(C) the most reliable source of information regarding men's
of the period's consumer revolution
consumption of household goods in the eighteenth-century
have focused on women's crucial
(D) evidence that men's and women's consumer activities in the
role as consumers of mass-
eighteenth-century did not differ as much as historians once
produced goods. Cultural believed
historians, for example, have (E) a less useful form of evidence than estate inventories for assessing
generated an impressive body of men's attitudes toward consumer goods in the eighteenth-century
work on eighteenth-century
women and consumption, studying 8. According to the passage, the "recent studies' serve to do
records of women's purchases of which of the following?
such items as cloth, table linens, (A) Widen the scope of research into England's eighteenth-
and china and showing how century industrial labor force
women used such items as (B) Reveal erroneous assumptions that colored previous studies
expressions of their taste and findings about English consumer activity in the eighteenth-
status. However, this attention to century
women's role in the demand side of (C) O Provide crucial evidence regarding women's role as
England's industrial economy has consumers of industrial goods in eighteenth-century
tended to overshadow the England
importance of men's role as (D) Demonstrate that male and female industrial laborers in
shoppers. Many historians have
eighteenth-century England played quite different roles in
taken the view that women were far
their country's industrial economy
more likely than men to purchase
and to attach emotional
(E) Clarify the reasons why previous studies did not adequately
significance to consumer goods, account for eighteenth-century English women's roles as
finding support for this view in producers and consumers of industrial goods
men's wills from the period, which
rarely mentioned household 9. The author of the passage mentions "cloth, table linens,
and china" primarily in order to
consumer items in any detail. Yet,
research on eighteenth-century (A) differentiate women's characteristic consumer activities
advertising demonstrates that from those of men
merchants often targeted male (B) distinguish cultural historians' methods from those of
consumers, regarding them as economic historians
important customers, and studies (C) identify the kinds of goods most likely to have emotional
of inventories of eighteenth- significance for consumers
century estates have failed to show (D) provide details about the kinds of evidence used by certain
differences between men's and historians
women's consumer activities. (E) illustrate a point about the reliability of certain kinds of
historical records

10. The second group of volunteer excavators was far more_____ than the first, and consequently the
obstructing material was removed much more rapidly during the second shift.
(A) diligent
(B) incapacitated
(C) experienced
(D) punctual
(E) debilitated
(F) industrious

11. Tender yet never_____, the memoir engages the reader without resorting to clichés.
(A) saccharine
(B) unsentimental
(C) cloying
(D)long-winded
(E) pragmatic
(F) affecting
 12. One of the incongruities of modern industry, according to Reck and Graedel, is that we manufacture
modem products with the most sophisticated technologies available yet generally adopt relatively_____
approaches to recycling them.
(A) economical
(B) basic
(C) crude
(D) conventional
(E) inefficient
(F) inexpensive

Question 13 is based on this passage.

A decrease in face-to-face social 13. Which of the following is an assumption on which the
contact can precipitate depression. argument depends?
Time spent using the Internet cannot (A) In general, the reason that the people in the studies had doubled their
be spent in face-to-face social Internet use was not that they had earlier experienced a significant
contact, so psychologists have decrease in opportunities for face-to-face social contact.
speculated that sharply increasing (B) A sharp decrease in face-to-face social contact is the only change in
Internet use can cause depression. daily activity that can lead to an increased incidence of depression.
Studies of regular Internet users (C) Using the Internet presents no opportunities for people to increase
have found a significantly higher the amount of face-to-face social contact they experience in their
incidence of depression among those daily lives.
who had recently doubled the (D) Regular Internet users who are depressed will experience an
amount of time they spent using the immediate improvement in mood if they sharply decrease the
Internet than among those whose amount of time they spend on the Internet.
use had not increased. Hence, the (E) Before they doubled the time they spent on the Internet, the people
psychologists' speculation is correct. who did so were already more prone to depression than are regular
Internet users in general.
Questions 14 and 15 are based on this passage.
Although women worked as book printers in 14. The passage mentions documents relating to women
sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe, printers' business activities primarily in order to
their activities in this field have received (A) point out a source of information neglected by many scholars
little attention. Only Novati's 1907 study has (B) help explain why so few scholarly studies of women printers
examined the work of Renaissance Italian have been published
women printers. Subsequent studies (C) identify Novati's primary source of information about women
either provide a very general survey printers
of the phenomenon or focus (D) account for the disparity between the number of studies on
exclusively on women printers in women printers in France and in Italy
France. While much recent work has been (E) challenge an erroneous assumption about the number of
done on Italian printing during the period, women working as printers in Renaissance Europe
scholars have not extended Novati's initial
findings in light of such studies. Several Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
factors contribute to this oversight. Few 15. The passage suggests which of the following about
women signed their works, and documents the studies mentioned in the highlighted sentence?
relating to their business activities are (A) Their authors were unaware of Novati's study.
scarce. Yet the subject merits attention, not (B) Their treatment of Renaissance Italian women printers is
only because it casts light on Renaissance slight
women but also because it illuminates the (C) They underestimate the number of women printers in
book trade of this period. Renaissance Italy.

Answer Key
Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
D AD BDI AB C BC BD AB BF C C A

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
E AF CEI ADH AEI A B A D AF AC BC A B B
 Verbal Practice Test: five
Section: 1
1. Bridges are often offered as _____ examples of engineering, given that a bridge's structure is out in the open
for all to see.
(A) intelligible
(B) collaborative
(C) elementary
(D) undervalued
(E) serendipitous
2. Her argument, though stimulating, is far from being proof against all reproach: several of its most crucial
hypotheses are rather more (i) _____ than (ii) _____.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) simplistic (D) sincere
(B) provocative (E) probable
(C) convincing (F) conventional
3. Throughout human history, religion and other areas of culture have always been (i) _____. Secularized
cultural domains have often (ii) _____ religion symbols for expressing values, while religion has often drawn
its symbols from (iii) _____, whether social, political, or economic.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) indistinguishable (D) critiqued (G) alien peoples
(B) interchangeable (E) disguised (H) worldly contexts
(C) interdependent (F) adopted (I) aligned sources
Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.
Typical of Argentine melodrama 4. Which of the following claims about Lamarque can
of the 1930s were the films inferred from the passage?
starring Libertad Lamarque, the (A) She considered herself to be primarily a tango singer rather
genre's biggest box-office than a movie actor.
attraction. Her most frequent (B) By the end of her movie career, she was exercising
role was that of the tango singer considerable control over the writing and direction of her
whose romance with a wealthy films.
suitor is blocked by his elitist (C) Her personality differed greatly from those of the characters
family. Despite its widespread she portrayed in films.
social acceptance by the 1930s, (D) Her popularity as a tango singer preceded her popularity as
tango continued to be associated an actor.
in film melodramas with (E) She continued to act in movies after she had ceased
criminality and vice. As Diana performing as a tango singer.
Paladino remarks, in these films, 5. According to the author of the passage, which of the
"the tango songstress was following is true about the tango?
doomed from the start." (A) By the time Lamarque starred in films as a tango singer, the
Nevertheless, if melodramatic tango was socially acceptable.
logic dictated that Lamarque be (B) Outside Argentina the tango's reputation was quite different
punished for the transgressive from what prevailed in Argentina.
act of singing tango, surely that (C) The tango began to gain popularity in Argentina once it
judgment was not shared by the became an element in melodramatic films.
member of the audience, many (D) By the 1930s, no one in Argentina associated the tango with
of whom were drawn to her early criminality and vice.
movies precisely because of her (E) Until the 1930s, the tango was primarily thought of as a
fame as a tang singer. dance form rather than as a genre of song.

6. Her attempts to wrest fiction free from traditional constraints like plot and character were never entirely
popular with readers; nonetheless, her fiction has had _____influence on critical theory, novels, cinema, and
even psychology.
(A) a studied
(B) a negligible
(C) a decisive
(D) an unmistakable
(E) an insignificant
(F) a restorative
7. Space is often referred to as the final frontier, as the only realm of realm of which humankind has still to
gain substantial understanding; yet the ocean realm is another vast area about which our knowledge is _____.
(A) erroneous
(B) confusing
(C) frustrating
(D) rudimentary
(E) delusive
(F) sketchy
8. The concept of increasing complexity of organisms has _____ history among evolutionary biologists, and
yet man laypeople would unhesitating say that the pattern applies to the history of life on Earth.
(A) an illustrious
(B) a sordid
(C) a curious
(D) a contentious
(E) a distinguished
(F) a fraught
9. In his account of Saladin's character the sixteenth-century writer Giovio acknowledge that the sultan had
been capable to some perfidy, but Giovio was otherwise _____ in expressing his approbation of the man.
(A) eloquent
(B) unstinting
(C) subdued
(D) muted
(E) profuse
(F) judicious
Questions 10 to 12 are based on this passage.
Only in the collecting sciences are raw data– 10. The passage is primarily concerned with
specimens, fossils, artifacts—regarded as communal (A) resolving a dispute
property, to which legitimate practitioners have (B) defending a practice
rights of access. Collections are an intellectual (C) summarizing a lemma
commons on which all producers depend, and the (D) delineating a difference
owners or keepers of collections are understood to (E) explaining an anomaly
be responsible for keeping them in good order and
accessible to users. These moral precepts doubtless 11. The author of the passage would most
reflect the fact that important collections tend to end likely agree which of the lowing statements
up in public museums. But I think they also derive about manufactured data?
from the reality that found objects, unlike (A) They are essential to the common good.
manufactured data, are a unique and irreplaceable (B) They cannot be replicated.
resource, the loss of which deprives all practitioners (C) They can play a key role in career
of the means of best practice. advancement.
The moral economy of facts is quite different in (D) They cannot be adequately interpreted until
sciences that generate facts artificially by measuring
they have been published.
or experimenting. In these sciences raw data are
(E) They are often manipulated to hypotheses.
regarded as private: because, I think, they are in
principle unlimited and if lost can be produced
again. Manufactured data become public only when 12. In the context of the passage as a whole,
the highlighted sentence serves to
published, and though publishing is expected, it is
(A) warn of the consequences of overlooking a
also understood to be selective and a personal
matter, impelled more by imperatives of ambition point made in the first sentence of the
and career than moral obligation. Individuals passage
may perish professionally if they neglect to (B) cite an exception to a principle described in
publish, but if they do perish someone else the preceding sentence
can always produce equivalent data, so (C) present a conditional scenario that is
there is no loss to the common good. Raw data confirmed in the subsequent sentence
are not an intellectual commons, as are collections. (D) provide a rationale for an assertion made in
The experimental sciences operate more in a market the final sentence of the passage
economy than a moral one. (E) predict an outcome that is refuted in the final
sentence of the passage
Section: 2
1. _____though individual mosquitoes appear, historically they have shown an impressive ability to travel,
sometimes as stowaways in water casks and drinking vessels on ships traveling to distant continents.
(A) Peripatetic
(B) Indistinguishable
(C) Harmless
(D) Frail
(E) Noisome

2. Andrews' new book can only be described as _____: cherry–picked to support the author's predetermined
conclusions.
(A) incoherent
(B) bombastic
(C) tendentious
(D) shortsighted
(E) turgid

3. Although strikes remain rarer in Britain than in many other European countries, and their economic impact
is (i) _____ compared to the great upheavals of the 1970s and 1980s, their number has (ii) _____after a few
years of somewhat greater calm.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) inconclusive (D) exploded
(B) demoralizing (E) declined
(C) negligible (F) revived

4. Eventually, the framed painting looked as Easton had hoped it would, the frame offering a subtle rebuke to
some of the more ostentatious baroque confections on display. Easton believed that it was more (i) _____ than
any other frame in the exhibition, despite its (ii) _____ quality. That apparent simplicity, however, was so much
more difficult to realize than something more obviously (iii) _____.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) nondescript (D) unassuming (G) sumptuous
(B) ornate (E) inexpensive (H) fashionable
(C) striking (F) representative (I) outmoded

Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage.

Researchers studying colonial North America found 5. The author mentions "nitrogen" primarily to
that fields tended by Native American women (A) account for a particular historical change
produced higher crop yields than those of their Anglo- (B) acknowledge one advantage of certain soil types
American contemporaries. Anglo-Americans, who (C) note an effect of a particular farming practice
grew wheat, plowed their fields, facilitating planting (D) cite a consequence of plowing fields before planting
but degrading soil quality. Native American women, (E) contrast the nutrients in different types of crops
who did not plow, grew maize. Because the maize seed
is much larger than cereal grains such as wheat, it need 6. The highlighted sentence serves to
not be planted in a finely prepared seed bed and thrives (A) note the limitations of a particular distinction
in no-plow conditions. Furthermore, no-plow (B) concede the plausibility of a particular hypothesis
agriculture enabled Native American women to (C) qualify a claim introduced in the preceding
cultivate maize along with beans and squash, crops sentence
that return nitrogen to the soil, thus allowing (D) acknowledge a factor that could undermine a causal
continuous cultivation, whereas plowed fields must be explanation
periodically left fallow. When maize fields later (E) support a particular explanation of a finding
began to be plowed, maize yields from the
same land soon declined.
 Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.
The following passage comes from a study of gull bill markings.
Some species of gulls have uniform 7. The passage implies which of the following about
colored bills, but many (62 percent in our food regurgitation in adult gulls as a chick-feeding
sample) have beaks with differently behavior?
colored tips, stripes, or spots that act as a (A) It occurs most frequently when chicks are newly
focus for the pecking of newly hatched hatched.
chicks as they beg for food. In an attempt (B) It is at least partly prompted by tactile signals.
to understand why, we determined (C) It is one of several means of feeding newly hatched
whether adult gulls of those species with chicks.
newly hatched chicks that are small in (D) Its effectiveness is related to chick size.
relation to the size of the adult are more (E) Its occurrence is related to species' bill depth.
likely to have such patterned beaks. This
work is based on Hailman's (1967) 8. In the context of the passage, the reference to "the
suggestion that gulls with greater bill parent's visual field" serves primarily to
depths (large species) tend to have only a (A) propose a reason that red is found on gull bills more
restricted area of red on the bill (i.e., a red commonly than are other colors
tip or spot), whereas smaller-billed species (B) describe the second of two mutually exclusive
have uniform bills. We suggest that the explanations for the coloration of gull bills
most plausible reason for any size-related (C) explain why it might be advantageous for gull bills to
difference is that concentrating a small be marked in a particular way
chick's pecking on a particular part of the (D) explain why gull parents may give preference to
bill is more effective than is unfocused certain chicks when feeding them
pecking in stimulating the adult to (E) explain how a chick's size may contribute to its
regurgitate food. As well as encouraging effectiveness at begging for food
the chick to peck, the tip of the bill, or the 9. According to the passage, a gull species' bill depth is
gonys (where stripes and spots are associated with which of the following characteristics of
located), might be more sensitive than are the species?
other parts of the beak to the feeble (A) chick feeding frequency
pecking of a small chick, or a small chick (B) chick survival
might more effectively occupy the (C) parent longevity
parent's visual field when pecking (D) overall chick size
there. (E) overall adult size

10. The life of a secret agent is dangerous enough, but the life of a double agent is infinitely more _____: a
single slip can send an agent crashing to destruction.
(A) arduous
(B) precarious
(C) clandestine
(D) perilous
(E) covert
(F) exhilarating

11. Appearing in the midst of so many equivocal comments, this unambiguous statement, whatever its intrinsic
merit, plainly stands out as_____.
(A) irrelevant
(B) superfluous
(C) anomalous
(D) arcane
(E) unusual
(F) esoteric

12. To help protect the environment, the United States government currently requires safe storage of coal ash
for 30 years, "if feasible," but many countries that burn coal lack even such _____ environmental safeguards.
(A) modest
(B) onerous
(C) discretionary
(D) burdensome
(E) practical
(F) optional
 Question 13 is based on this passage.
Fossil evidence shows that within a 13. Which of the following, if true, provides most support for the
century after the arrival of the first archaeologists' contention?
settlers on the island of Corme (A) The fossil record on Corme shows no evidence that any other
16,000 years ago, the one species of mammals disappeared in the period following the arrival of settlers.
kangaroo that had been thriving on (B) At the time settlers first arrived, Corme was in the midst of a period
Corme became extinct. when its climate was becoming increasingly arid and its pattern of
Archaeologists contend that the vegetation was consequently changing.
primary cause of the kangaroo's (C) The earliest settlements on Corme were spread along the island's
extinction was land-clearing rather coasts.
than hunting. Evidence shows that (D) Archaeological excavation of the settlements on Corme has yielded
the settlers burned large tracts of large quantities of bones of many species of mammal and fish but
vegetation to clear land for very few kangaroo bones.
cultivation, which would have greatly (E) The earliest settlers on Corme cultivated food plants that they found
reduced the food available for the growing wild on the island.
kangaroo.

Questions 14 and 15 are based on this passage.

At first glance, the place of Henry James 14. The passage suggests that compared to Modernist
among Modernist writers remains somewhat novels, novels by Henry James tend to
problematic. His dozen or more novels and (A) feature more unexpected plot twists
scores of short stories obey the classic rules. (B) focus more on their characters' inner lives
Unlike Modernist novels, whose focus on (C) have more traditional narrative arcs
characters' inner lives provoked critics' (D) show less literary orthodoxy
complaints that "nothing happens," James' s (E) be considerably longer
plots move forward at a relentless pace, with
denouements occurring where convention has Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
put them, at the end. Their dialogue, if at times 15. It can be inferred that the author of the passage would
agree with which of the following claims about James'
high-flown, is naturalistic; their author
fiction?
appears as an all-knowing presence. Despite
(A) It would belong more obviously in the category of
these literary orthodoxies, though, James's
modernist literature if James had regularly subordinated
works, especially his late novels, show
plots to explorations of characters' consciousness.
something amazingly new and unexpected.
(B) It shares with modernist novels an emphasis on
His explorations of consciousness shy at no
interiority but diverges from them by upending
complexity and lend his otherwise
conventional narrative structures.
cconventional novels the focus on interiority
(C) It exhibits more commonality with modernist fiction in
that characterizes the Modernist project in
the late novels than in the early ones.
fiction.

Answer
Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
A BD CFH D A CD DF DF BE D C D

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
D C CA CAA A E B C E BD CE CF D C AC
 Verbal Practice Test: six
Section: 1
1. Many books about weather seem to read like a catalog of anecdotes about weather phenomena through time,
but there are a few that have _____ vast and varied source materials to deliver a compelling narrative and
powerful analysis.
(A) conflated
(B) synthesized
(C) misrepresented
(D) pilfered
(E) replicated
2. The grinding stones featured in some of Puerto Rico's restaurants as part of their decor evoke an idealized
rustic past, but the nostalgia is (i) _____: in reality, the job of grinding corn was among the most (ii) _____ of
domestic chores, often performed by the women of the house.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) waning (D) essential
(B) misplaced (E) onerous
(C) understandable (F) venerated
3. Cate's empathy for Nietzsche makes this a first-rate biography. But just as one can (i) _____ oneself to be spellbound
by the plea of a defense lawyer without necessarily (ii)_____ prosecution' s case, so one can admire Cate's loyalty to
Nietzsche while declining to accompany the two of them into the elitist heights. It simply can't be wished away that a
philosophy that smashes all existing idols and erects its own idol becomes (iii) _____ cruel elitists.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (ii)
(A) permit (D) dismissing (G) the scourge of
(B) forbid (E) absorbing (H) an impediment to
(C) admonish (F) endorsing (I) an instrument of
Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.
In North America, crows have 4. Which of the following generalizations most directly underlies
historically antagonized humans by the author's central point?
ravaging corn crops, but advancing (A) Two different species of the same genus of birds may differ greatly
urbanization has recently made in their characteristic behavior for reasons that have nothing to do
humans more tolerant of crows, and with the environment in which they live.
crows' wariness has accordingly (B) O Degrees of wariness tend to differ significantly among individuals
diminished. The future demeanor of of the same animal species as well as between different species
the American crow (Corvus within the same genus.
brachyrhynchos) is suggested by (C) As human populations become more urbanized, humans become
intercontinental analogy to India's less attuned to the behavior of animals in their environment in ways
house crow (Corvus splendens), that can negatively affect animals' reproductive success.
which has lived for many centuries in (D) A given behavioral trait can have either a positive or negative effect
an essentially unarmed, animal- on an animal's reproductive success depending on the behavior of
friendly, and densely populated humans in the animal's environment.
culture. Its audacity extends to (E) Human attitudes toward a given animal species tend to be somewhat
stealing food from street vendors and arbitrary and are subject to change over time.
entering dwellings to remove food 5. The author implies which of the following about the
from the table. The extreme "insouciance" mentioned in the passage?
watchfulness of the American crow (A) It reflects an advance in our understanding of crows behavior.
has grown out of a long history of (B) It has increased in one region of the world as urbanization has grown.
persecution. As people treat crows (C) It is likely to increase in a particular region as farming in that region
with insouciance rather than increases.
aggression, less wariness results in (D) It reflects the influence of one culture's attitudes toward animals on
reproductive success, and another those of another culture.
kind of corvine conduct asserts itself. (E) It can have a positive influence on a given species' reproductive success in
some contexts but a negative effect in others.
6. It is hardly_____ the committee calls for: rudimentary competence would be an improvement on the
current chaos.
(A) accountability
(B) disarray
(C) unruliness
(D) faultlessness
(E) loyalty
(F) perfection
7. Scientists are finding that the adult brain is far more _____ than they once thought: our behavior and
environment can cause substantial rewiring of the brain or a reorganization of its functions and where they are
located.
(A) reparable
(B) heterogeneous
(C) malleable
(D) variegated
(E) complex
(F) plastic
8. This novel resembles a piece of music in the way it _____ variations on separate themes that contrast,
conflict, and combine to form ever-more–fascinating patterns.
(A) deploys
(B) alters
(C) rejects
(D) marshals
(E) reiterates
(F) repudiates
9. Given the important role that apologies can play in human relations and the almost daily of news reports of
the latest celebrity or political apology, the _____ empirical research on the subject is surprising.
(A) weakness
(B) scarcity
(C) complexity
(D) impartiality
(E) want
(F) sophistication
Questions 10 to 12 are based on this passage.
Discussions of the collapse of the lowland Maya are 10. The author would most likely characterize the
not new. However, it might be better to say that Maya claim that Maya civilization collapsed as
civilization as a whole did not collapse, although (A) equivocal
many zones did experience profound change. (B) truistic
Because societies are not bounded, unitary entities, (C) overstated
collapses are rarely total, and continuity is a normal (D) delusional
part of collapse. At the end of the Classic period [200- (E) mendacious
900 C.E.], the institution of divine kingship and 11. According to the passage, which of the following
many of the well- known markers of elite culture such statements about the institution of divine kingship is
as carved stelae [slabs erected for funerals or true?
commemorative purposes] and hieroglyphic (A) It remained strong through the end of the Classic
polychromes [multicolored artistic pottery] ended, period.
but Maya civilization continued in modified form (B) It was not a feature of the Postclassic period.
with many important features intact (e.g., literacy, (C) Its demise led to the collapse of Maya civilization.
war, art, the production of fine ceramics). In some (D) Its importance has been overestimated by many
cases large buildings were constructed in the scholars.
Postclassic period [900-1512 C.E.], but the transition (E) Its spectacle became too onerous a burden for Maya
to the Early Postclassic [900-1200 C.E.] era is society to support.
distinctive for a decrease in elite goods and contexts.
12. The passage suggests which of the following
The variability in artifact changes during the
about Maya living after the Terminal Classic in "sites
Terminal Classic [800- 900 C.E.] and into the that survived"? Their customs were identical to those
Postclassic, even within artifact classes (e.g., fine of their ancestors.
versus unslipped ceramics), suggests weaker (A) Their customs were identical to those of their
centralized control than during the Classic period. ancestors.
Site abandonments in the Terminal Classic indicate (B) Their pottery was totally utilitarian in nature.
the collapse of the functional ability of Maya states, (C) They no longer created carved stelae.
but sites that survived show that Maya (D) They stopped erecting large buildings.
civilization continued albeit without divine kingship (E) They did not use written language.
and much of the spectacle around it.
Section: 2
1. Without seeming unworldly, William James appeared wholly removed from the_____ of society, the
conventionality of academe.
(A) ethos
(B) idealism
(C) romance
(D) paradoxes
(E) commonplaces
2. Some researchers worried that the decision to fund a research experiment that used only one of several newly
developed transplant techniques could (i) _____ the whole therapeutic approach if the results were not
positive. Those fears seemed (ii) _____ last week as newspapers, magazines, and television news programs
reported the disappointing experimental results and called the approach a failure.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) invigorate (D) prescient
(B) transform (E) overblown
(C) set back (F) understated
3. Literary salons and coffeehouses (i) _____ the class-based systems of social hierarchies prevalent at the
time. Meritocratic appreciation of wit and brilliance, wherever it might issue, replaced (ii) _____ to established
power.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) reaffirmed (D) indifference
(B) broke down (E) deference
(C) anticipated (F) affronts
4. The author of this (i) _____ memoir is notable for an unmitigated (ii) _____ that is matched only by an
utter lack of self-awareness. Although that combination of personality traits is not uncommon, it is rare for a
book that is so transparently an exercise in (iii) _____ to have the exact opposite of its intended effect.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) self-critical (D) self-regard (G) self-examination
(B) self-serving (E) self-abnegation (H) self-incrimination
(C) self-effacing (F) self-consciousness (I) self-aggrandizement

Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage.

Having a larger assortment to choose 5. In the highlighted portion of the passage, the
from increases consumers' author assumes that
expectations about matching their (A) consumers' attitude toward the assortment of choices they
preferences. The heightened are presented with depends almost exclusively on the size
expectations seem logical, since of the range
assortments containing more or (B) consumers who have clear preferences make their choices more
more varied items should increase quickly than those whose preferences are relatively vague
the degree to which preferences can (C) consumers' anticipation of meeting specific expectations
be matched. In practice, however, as directly affects their satisfaction with a selected option
assortment size increases, the degree (D) consumers presented with an assortment of choices often
to which consumers realize better adjust the preferences they had beforehand
preference matches often rises (E) consumers presented with a larger assortment of choices
relatively little. Larger assortments often make their decisions too quickly
may not actually offer more variety; 6. Which of the following best describes the function
the market may simply not supply an of the first sentence in the author's argument as a
envisioned offering; or in the absence whole?
of sophisticated search tools, (A) It states a premise on which the author's conclusion is
consumers may miss a better based.
preference match even if it is (B) It provides information to support the inference made in
available. Therefore, larger the following sentence.
assortments can increase the (C) It introduces a concept that the author proves is illogical.
likelihood that expectations will not (D) It summarizes a position that the author proceeds to
be met, leaving consumers less dispute.
satisfied with options chosen (E) It presents the phenomenon the argument is intended. to
from larger rather than explain.
smaller assortments.
 Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.
As of the late 1980s, neither 7. The author of the passage is primarily concerned
theorists nor large-scale computer with
climate models could accurately (A) confirming a theory
predict whether cloud systems (B) supporting a statement
would help or hurt a warming (C) presenting new information
globe. Some studies suggested that (D) predicting future discoveries
(E) reconciling discrepant findings
a four percent increase in
stratocumulus clouds over the
8. It can be inferred that one reason the fourteen
ocean could compensate for a
models described in the passage failed to agree was
doubling in atmospheric carbon that
dioxide, preventing a potentially (A) they failed to incorporate the most up-to-date
disastrous planetwide temperature information about the effect of clouds on climate
increase. On the other hand, an (B) they were based on faulty information about factors
increase in cirrus clouds could other than clouds that affect climate
increase global warming. (C) they were based on different assumptions about the
That clouds represented the overall effects of clouds on climate
weakest element in climate models (D) their originators disagreed about the kinds of forecasts.
was illustrated by a study of the models should provide
fourteen such models. Comparing (E) their originators disagreed about the factors other than
climate forecasts for a world with clouds that should be included in the models
double the current amount of
carbon dioxide, researchers found 9. The information in the passage suggests that
scientists would have to answer which of the
that the models agreed quite well if
following questions in order to predict the effect of
clouds were not included. But when
clouds on the warming of the globe?
clouds were incorporated, a wide
(A) What kinds of cloud systems will form over the Earth?
range of forecasts was produced. (B) How can cloud systems be encouraged to form over the
With such discrepancies plaguing ocean?
the models, scientists could not (C) What are the causes of the projected planetwide
easily predict how quickly the temperature increase?
world's climate would change, nor (D) What proportion of cloud systems are currently
could they tell which regions would composed of cirrus clouds?
face dustier droughts or deadlier (E) What proportion of the clouds in the atmosphere form
monsoons. over land masses?
10. While Takaezu's ceramic pieces are highly distinctive, her body of work as a whole can feel to critics
who wish to track it since she has never dated or conscientiously_____ documented her creations.
(A) edifying
(B) nebulous
(C) austere
(D) anachronistic
(E) instructive
(F) amorphous
11. The Federal Reserve Bank is one of the most_____ institutions in the United States, yet many are
not aware of the important operations and activities it has carried out during its lifetime.
(A) distinguished
(B) secretive
(C) consequential
(D) indispensable
(E) misunderstood
(F) mysterious
12. Overlapping impact basins on the surface of the Moon are evidence of a time when large meteoric
impacts were_____.
(A) inevitable
(B) commonplace
(C) random
(D) catastrophic
(E) unremarkable
(F) unpredictable
Question 13 is based on this passage.
Greene's sparrows build their nests in 13. Which of the following most logically completes
marsh grasses above the usual summer the argument?
water levels. Over the last three years, (A) the populations of birds that build their nests in trees
the Greene's sparrow population in near either marsh did not decline over the last three years
Stillwater Marsh declined precipitously (B) when Greene's sparrows lose their offspring in floods, the
because heavy summer rains raised sparrows usually nest in different areas the next summer
water levels and flooded nests before the (C) much of the food that Greene' s sparrows feed their
young sparrows matured. The Greene's offspring is brought into marshes by seasonal floods
sparrow population also declined in a (D) the snakes that normally prey on the Greene' s sparrows
neighboring marsh, even though its in Stillwater Marsh were forced to look elsewhere for prey
higher elevation kept that marsh from after the flooding
being flooded. Nevertheless, this decline (E) water levels never fall quickly in either Stillwater Marsh
is also attributable to the heavy rains, or the nearby marsh
because_____.
Questions 14 and 15 are based on this passage.
Much of what researchers infer about the Early Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
Preclassic period (2000-1000 B.C.E.) of the 14. The passage suggests which of the following
Olmec people derives from the study of about "stone art"?
monumental sculpture complemented by (A) It no longer figures as prominently in Olmec studies as it
analogies to later Mesoamerican cultures, though did at one time.
not all scholars agree that stone art should (B) It interests researchers in part because of its influence on
guide interpretation or that it indicates greater the art of non-Olmec Mesoamerican cultures.
sociopolitical complexity than in other societies.
(C) It constitutes the basis for some scholars' views about the
Indisputably, however, only the Olmec designed,
created, transported, and utilized monumental relative sociopolitical complexity of Olmec society.
sculpture in Early Preclassic Mesoamerica, which
not only constitutes an important defining 15. The author mentions "monumental architecture"
characteristic of their society but also reflects primarily to
their unique inclination toward intense labor (A) provide a justification for a particular scholarly practice
mobilizations. For this reason alone, sculpture (B) propose an alternative direction for research on the Olmec
should and does figure prominently in Olmec (C) note certain stylistic features common to Olmec designs
studies, just as the scale, frequency, and design of (D) contrast the ways in which different types of
monumental architecture is used as a diachronic archaeological evidence are interpreted
material measure of sociopolitical development (E) acknowledge the high level of sociopolitical development
throughout Mesoamerica. in Early Preclassic Mesoamerica

Answer
Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
B BF ADI D B DF CF AD BE C B C

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
E CD BE BDI C A B C A BF CD BE D C A
 Verbal Practice Test: seven
Section: 1
1. Motivation is the hardest of all managerial tasks, and it is _____ to expect a single memo, no matter how
well crafted, to have much effect on the staff's attitude.
(A) ingenious
(B) reasonable
(C) fanciful
(D) scrupulous
(E) radical
2. While offering important insights into supernova remnants, Finch's paper is often rather (i) ____: it is (ii)
___ unexplained concepts and details.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) impenetrable (D) replete with
(B) unoriginal (E) free from
(C) trivial (F) purged of
3. A favorite tactic of George Eliot's irresponsibly (i) _____ biographer is to hoist an alluring psychological
flag concerning Eliot and then scrupulously take it down again, because the evidence will not serve to (ii) _____.
But she takes it down only after it has had its entirely (iii) _____ flutter in the breeze.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) speculative (D) keep it up (G) justified
(B) sentimental (E) discount it (H) accidental
(C) reproachful (F) embroider it (I) gratuitous
Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.
While export prices remained robust, British 4. The passage suggests that "small packets of
India's Tea Cess Committee (TCC) made only leaf fragments" were
sporadic, small- scale attempts to create demand (A) preferred by Indian consumers over other forms of tea
for tea in India by giving away pre-brewed cups in (B) too valuable to be sold in large packets to consumers
selected locations and selling small packets of (C) marketed in response to a local surplus of unsold tea
leaf fragments. Still, by 1930 only a fraction of leaves
the Indian population had tasted tea, and more (D) likely to sell for high prices if exported
than 90 percent of the crop was exported. The (E) an ineffective way to expand the local tea market
Great Depression decisively changed the picture,
however. International tea prices plunged, and by Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
1935 growers faced an unsold surplus of more 5. According to the passage, the Great Depression
had which of the following effects on the Indian tea
than a hundred million pounds. The prospect of a
trade?
huge "uninitiated" market suddenly seemed
(A) A large proportion of harvested tea was ultimately
appealing, and the TCC, reorganized as the Indian
wasted.
Tea Market Expansion Board (ITMEB) and
(B) The TCC was motivated to seek new potential tea
provided with an expanded budget, began the
(C) Prices for tea sold internationally declined
largest marketing campaign in Indian history.

6. The artist's reputation remains somewhat marginal, a peripheral but persistent position that is perhaps just
what she desires, since her art seeks a cult status that might be_____ by her becoming too familiar.
(A) polarized
(B) advanced
(C) undermined
(D) hampered
(E) revitalized
(F) bolstered

7. Recent research runs counter to the long-cherished notion that a small drop in body temperature during and
after surgery is either______ or actually protects the patient by slowing metabolism and reducing the body's
demand for blood and oxygen.
(A) beneficial
(B) immaterial
(C) inconsequential
(D) preventive
(E) prophylactic
(F) redundant
8. In his discussion of art, Ramachandran makes no distinction between the arousal value of a stimulus and its
aesthetic value; he takes the emotional power of an artwork to be _____ that work's aesthetic quality.
(A) predictive of
(B) tantamount to
(C) subordinate to
(D) dependent on
(E) commensurate with
(F) derived from
9. The_____ markings on some prehistoric bone and antler fragments could be accidents or the result of
doodling, but may also represent a form of communication such as tally marks or even early calendars.
(A) purposeful
(B) enigmatic
(C) random
(D) inscrutable
(E) conspicuous
(F) deliberate
Questions 10 to 12 are based on this passage.
Although biologists have long assumed 10. According to the passage, the interpretation
that most structural features of desert highlighted is undermined by the fact that
plants are adaptations to conserve water, (A) small-leaved desert shrubs with vertically oriented
there is growing evidence that many of leaves do not transpire efficiently
the structural and physiological (B) small-leaved desert shrubs derive little advantage in
adaptations of photosynthetic leaves are terms of heat reduction from vertical orientation
primarily for maximizing photosynthetic (C) leaf size in desert shrubs does not appear to affect
rate and regulating energy use. Certain photosynthetic maximization
short-lived desert plants, for example, (D) small-leaved desert shrubs are more susceptible than
exhibit diaheliotropism, a form of solar other desert plants to the deleterious effects of intense
tracking in which leaves remain oriented light during water stress
perpendicular to direct sunlight (E) it is difficult for small-leaved desert shrubs with
throughout the day; this strategy vertical orientation to counter the effects of midday
maximizes interception of solar radiation heating
and, consequently, total daily 11. The author of the passage discusses diaheliotropism in
photosynthesis. short-lived desert plants primarily in order to
Desert shrubs, by contrast, have leaves (A) identify a feature pertaining to desert plants about which
that remain fixed. Some evergreen there is controversy among biologists as to its true purpose
shrubs, for example, have fixed leaves (B) provide support for the idea that adaptations in certain
that are approximately vertical in relation types of desert plants have a photosynthetic function
to the ground. Although vertical (C) contribute to a comparison of strategies that desert
orientation might be interpreted as plants have for maximizing interception of solar
a way of reducing midday heating, radiation
ecophysiological evidence suggests that (D) explain how a strategy that maximizes interception of
vertical orientation is actually a strategy solar radiation can be successfully adapted to desert
to maximize photosynthesis. For the conditions
small leaves characteristic of these (E) introduce one of the main adaptive features that
shrubs, vertical orientation should yield distinguish short-lived desert plants from desert
no significant relief from midday heat, shrubs
since small leaves can be maintained 12. The primary function of the last paragraph of the
close to ambient temperature (and below passage is to
lethal temperature) without substantial (A) question whether a vertical orientation in leaves can be
water loss through transpiration. But useful for desert plants
being edge-on to the midday sun may (B) describe how desert shrubs differ from other desert plants
help the leaves reduce the deleterious (C) argue for a position regarding the true benefit to
effects of extremely intense light during evergreen shrubs of vertical leaf orientation
severe water stress, when high levels of (D) discuss the advantages of small leaves for evergreen shrubs
light actually interfere with (E) identify the leading explanations of the function of
photosynthesis. vertical leaf orientation in evergreen shrubs
Section: 2
1. Several factors contribute to the _____ of swordfish, including the speed at which they travel, the vast
distances they cover in their migration, and their impressive stamina.
(A) unpredictability
(B) vulnerability
(C) elegance
(D) diversity
(E) elusiveness

2. Some academic criticism of popular novels has been (i) _____ in character, being based on the assumption
that the wider the appeal, the more (ii) ______ the novel.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) rigorous (D) undesirable
(B) exculpatory (E) accomplished
(C) elitist (F) comprehensible

3. Shirky argues that the Internet (i) _____ the need for hierarchical structures and the sluggish organizations
that (ii) _____ them: the Internet makes it possible to do things cheaply and efficiently on one's own.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) delineates (D) circumvent
(B) obviates (E) perpetuate
(C) redoubles (F) undervalue

4. The only way to definitively test a large civil engineering structure such as a bridge is to build it in anticipation
of possible challenges from nature and then let nature take its course. That is not to say that every new large
structure is a (i) _____. Engineers understand a great deal about the behavior and limitations of their
structures' components. Furthermore, it is the (ii) _____ structure that is built more than 10 or 20 percent
larger than its predecessors, thus allowing engineers to move (iii) _____ into unknown territory.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) success (D) conventional (G) incrementally
(B) gamble (E) unusual (H) outstanding
(C) mistake (F) unchecked (I) enthusiastically

Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage.

While historian Linda Nicholson sees 5. The passage implies that Nicholson and Lynch differ
women's participation in voluntary regarding which of the following?
associations as activities consistent with (A) The extent of women's participation in voluntary
the increasing relegation of women's lives associations in nineteenth-century Europe
to a separate, "private" sphere in (B) The date when women's voluntary associations in
nineteenth- century Europe, historian Europe first began to be formed
Katherine Lynch argues that these kinds of (C) Whether women's participation in voluntary
activities enabled women to join with one associations compensated for a lack of political
another and to develop a kind of shadow entitlements
citizenship within civil society, if not the (D) Whether women's voluntary associations in nineteenth-
formal state. These kinds of experiences century Europe are worthy of study by historians
were no substitute for actual political (E) Whether women's participation in voluntary
entitlements, Lynch suggests, but they associations was an aspect of women's exclusion from
deserve more attention for their public life
importance in helping individuals forge 6. The passage implies that Lynch would agree that
enduring bonds of community and formal political participation
identity beyond domestic life. Only by (A) was increasingly important as the nineteenth-century
limiting one's notion of public life to progressed
formal political participation, she says, (B) was an underreported phenomenon among women in
can one conclude that most women in nineteenth-century Europe within civil society
Western society have ever been literally (C) is crucial to helping individuals form community ties
consigned to a separate or "private" (D) is a significant component of public life
sphere. (E) is indicative of a kind of shadow citizenship
 Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.
The presence of work themes in the 7. The primary purpose of the passage is to
painting of the Impressionist (A) propose a new theory about the techniques used to
movement of the late nineteenth represent work themes in Impressionist painting
and early twentieth centuries has (B) expand the meaning of the term "work" as it applies to
until recently been largely painting
discounted, despite the body of (C) note that work themes were often overlooked in
Impressionist works that continued Impressionist painting and suggest a reason why
the tradition, initiated by Courbet (D) provide insight into why certain activities were not
and Millet and developed through considered work in the late nineteenth century
the 1880s by Breton, Bastien- (E) O provide specific examples of rural work themes in
Lepage, Pissaro, and Berthe Impressionist painting and explain the significance of such
Morisot, of representing rural themes
labor, and notwithstanding the 8. The "tradition" refers to the
significant body of Impressionist (A) view that work themes are of little importance in Impressionist
work-including that of Degas, painting
Caillebotte, and Morisot (B) representation of leisure
representing urban or suburban (C) representation of urban and suburban labor
labor. The notion of Impressionism (D) representation of rural labor
as concerned primarily with the (E) works of Degas, Caillebotte, and Morisot
representation of leisure has less to
do, however, with the subject 9. With which of the following statements about
matter of the paintings than with Impressionist painting would the author of the passage be
most likely to agree?
the acceptance of the view, widely
(A) The view that Impressionist painting is concerned primarily
held in nineteenth- century France,
with themes of leisure is based in part on a limited definition
that considered peasants
of what constitutes work.
performing physically demanding
(B) Many Impressionist paintings once regarded as
rural labor as the epitome of work.
representing work themes are now viewed as being
The numerous Impressionist
concerned primarily with the representation of leisure.
representations of activities (often
(C) Most of the Impressionist paintings that treat work themes
those of women) that we might
depict activities representing urban and suburban labor.
classify as work- a woman serving
(D) Although themes of work appear frequently in
beer in a café, many paintings by
Impressionist paintings, these themes are limited to the
Degas of the ballet (a physically
traditional representations of work as rural physical labor.
demanding activity by any
(E) Notwithstanding the large body of Impressionist painting in
standard)—were instead classified
which work themes are present, the notion that
as representations of leisure by
Impressionist paintings are primarily about leisure
those who held this view.
activities is essentially correct.

10. The television network seems to regard its longest-running comedy show as _____ keeping it in the
schedule even as the humor it churns out is notoriously hit-or-miss.
(A) flourishing
(B) outdated
(C) inviolable
(D) archaic
(E) sacrosanct
(F) immovable
11. They applaud the musicals of the 1930s and 1940s, whose plethora of stars, jokes, dances, witty dialogue,
and general gaiety make today's offerings seem _____ by comparison.
(A) vacuous
(B) mirthful
(C) insincere
(D) dismal
(E) jovial
(F) lugubrious
12. Geologists customary distinction between planetary mantle and core material appears increasingly_____:
liquid oxides can be considered either molten mantle constituents or electrically conducting core components.
(A) incontrovertible
(B) untenable
(C) dogmatic
(D) flawed
(E) contradictory
.
(F) confusing
Question 13 is based on this passage.
The crustaceans known as harpacticoids are 13. Which of the following is an assumption on which the
very widespread in marine sediments, where argument relies?
they feed on microorganisms by ingesting the (A) Industrial pollution is the principal source of heavy metals
sediment particles to which the in marine sediments.
microorganisms adhere. Heavy metals, such (B) Harpacticoids are the only crustaceans that feed on
as those found in industrial pollution, readily microorganisms by ingesting sediment particles.
adhere to sediment particles. Harpacticoids (C) Harpacticoids are more susceptible to poisoning by heavy
are poisoned by heavy metals but are metals than are other marine organisms.
unaffected by most other pollutants. Therefore (D) The microorganisms that harpacticoids feed on are not
the concentration of harpacticoids in an area killed by pollutants that are harmless to harpacticoids.
is a good indication of whether that marine (E) The microorganisms that harpacticoids feed on absorb
environment contains heavy metals. heavy metals.

Questions 14 and 15 are based on this passage.

Astronomers studying a certain kind of 14. The passage implies which of the following about
supernova (exploding star) were surprised to the supernovas studied by the astronomers?
find the supernovas were fainter than expected. (A) Their faint appearance caused a controversy in the
Seeking explanations, they discounted the scientific community.
possibility that cosmic dust might be screening (B) Their explosions created more cosmic dust than
out some of the light, because it would filter out expected.
blue light more than red, causing the supernovas (C) They t appear redder than they really are.
to appear redder than they really are. Also, (D) They were spread out through space rather than
unless spread very smoothly throughout space, clustered together.
the dust would introduce large variations in the (E) They were not fainter than other kinds of supernovas
measurements. Another possibility is previously studied.
gravitational lensing, the bending of light rays as 15. In the context in which it appears, "discounted"
they skirt galaxies en route. Such lensing most nearly means
occasionally causes brightening, but most often (A) dismissed
it contributes to the dimness of distant (B) disbelieved
supernovas. Calculations show, however, that (C) reduced
this effect becomes important only for sources (D) adjusted for
more distant than the supernovas studied. (E) provided for

Answer
Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
C AD ADI E BC CD BC BE BD B B C

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
E CD BE BEG E D C D A CE DF BD D C A
 Verbal Practice Test: eight
Section: 1
1. Physicists' opinions diverge on whether the unexpected phenomena that can occur in system more complex
than individual particles represent new physical principles, or whether the principles involved are _____, in
that they rely, albeit in an extremely complicated way, on known physical principles.
(A) extraneous
(B) inexpressible
(C) derivative
(D) heterogeneous
(E) uncorrelated
2. Some norms governing authors' dedications of their works are (i) _____ the norms governing ordinary
speech (it may be wrong to lie, and thus wrong to lie in a dedication), but other norms are (ii) _____
dedications. For example, one ought not dedicated to a worthy recipient an object that one feels is devoid of
value.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) necessary for (D) independent of
(B) contradicted by (E) invalidated by
(C) indistinct from (F) particular to
3. Scholars and journalists interested in the ideology of rock music have rightly noted that Romanticism and
Modernism provided rock with an aesthetic morality (i) _____ commercialism. However, while openly
expressing (ii) _____ mass culture, rock has exhibited a remarkable capacity to (iii) ____ it, calling the genre's
subversive image into question.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) deeply opposed to (D) interest in (G) grow without
(B) largely determined by (E) solidarity with (H) thrive in
(C) generally compatible with (F) disdain for (I) rail against
Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.
The United States Civil Rights movement, 4. The primary purpose of the passage is to
which began in the 1950s and gained (A) challenge a particular scholarly argument
momentum in the 1960s and 1970s, owed a (B) identify the cause of a historical development
heavy debt to African American newspapers. (C) present a summary of a long-standing debate
This is not to suggest that the African (D) explain the origins of a flawed
American press caused the Civil Rights era. (E) correct a commonly held misconception
But its continual push from 1910 to 1950 for 5. According to the passage, African American
more African American rights, using a newspapers contributed to the Civil Rights movement
compelling form of advocacy journalism primarily by
rather than the standard objective newspaper (A) exposing bias in supposedly objective newspaper
style, allowed those who in the 1950s began accounts
pushing nationally for equality to start at a far (B) connecting the movement's leaders with local
higher level than if the African American press communities
had not existed. This point has largely been (C) providing a platform for leaders to be heard by a wide
missed by many Americans, who seem to audience
believe the Civil Rights era erupted from a (D) laying the groundwork for a later national effort
standstill like a dormant geyser. But that is not (E) building momentum for efforts that were already in
how history occurs. progress
6. Advertising's role in popular music culture has been redefined: instead of a last resort for the creation and
distribution of popular music, advertising now functions as a ____ of music that might otherwise go unheard.
(A) promoter
(B) reflection
(C) component
(D) foe
(E) champion
(F) rival
7. Piersma and Gill suggest that bar-tailed godwits-long-billed shorebirds of the Eurasian and Alaskan tundra–
rank among the most _____ of the long-range fliers, traveling 11,000 kilometers nonstop across the Pacific.
(A) unpredictable
(B) versatile
(C) erratic
(D) unflagging
(E) renowned
(F) indefatigable
8. Leaders within the Native American culture known as Fort Ancient differed from those of the neighboring
Mississippian groups, whose authority was often_____ : indeed, one expert has described the Fort Ancient
society as intensely egalitarian.
(A) quixotic
(B) dubious
(C) uncertain
(D) coercive
(E) efficacious
(F) imperious
9. The simplicity of Ann Hamilton's sculpture, a single drop of water snaking its way down a vast white wall,
the elaborate technical apparatus hidden beneath its
(A) minimized
(B) undermined
(C) belied
(D) contradicted
(E) conjured
(F) evoked

Questions 10 to 12 are based on this passage.

Educated people in the 10. The term "idiosyncratic" is used by the author of the passage
Renaissance learned their Latin to characterize the
from contemporary collections, (A) manner in which educated people Europe learned Latin of
Renaissance
like Erasmus' Adages and (B) interpretations by some modern scholars Renaissance allusions to
Ravisius Textor's Epitheta, that classical texts
grouped pithy expressions not by (C) way in which allusions to classical texts were usually employed by
author or period but by subject. Renaissance writers
Thus Renaissance students (D) secondhand nature of classical culture in Renaissance Europe
encountered the many variations (E) influence that ancient Roman writers had on the educated class of
ancient Roman writers (ca. 100 sixteenth-century Europe
B.C.-ca. A.D. 200) had for
maxims like "War is pleasant to 11. The author of the passage suggests that when a Renaissance
student quoted a Latin expression, that
those who haven't tried it." They Student would typically
could even use these sayings (A) user the expression in an inappropriate context
flawlessly themselves, for (B) be unfamiliar with the original source of expression
example, urging friends who (C) employ a garbled variation of the original expression
worked too long on one book to (D) modify the expression from the form in which it from the form in
"take your hand off the writing which it appeared in contemporary collections
tablet." But they had no sense of (E) use the expression with a similar or opposite saying learned from
context; instead they associated the same textbook
the quotations not with the 12. With which of the following views of modern scholarship on
the Renaissance period would the author of the passage most
original sources, but with the likely agree?
other identical, similar, or (A) Its devotion to the study of Renaissance allusions to classical texts
opposite sayings cited in their has blinded it to issues that are more central to an understanding
textbooks. Modern scholarship of the period.
has explored this point to explain (B) It needs to consider the means by which educated Renaissance
the idiosyncratic nature of people learned Latin in order to understand how these people
most Renaissance allusions to were influenced by the literature of ancient Rome.
classical texts. The prevalence of (C) It has adequately assessed the way in which Renaissance writers
this sort of secondhand classical used ancient Roman texts, but it still needs to examine the original
culture in the Renaissance sources of these Roman texts.
(D) It has spent most of its time exploring firsthand classical culture
should figure in any effort to in the Renaissance and now needs to take on its secondhand
assess the degree and kind of classical culture.
influence that Roman writers (E) It should incorporate a broader, interdisciplinary approach, one
had on the educated class of the that addresses the overall social conditions of education in the
sixteenth century in Europe. Renaissance, if it hopes to gain a more complete understanding of
this period.
Section: 2
1. Experiments with animal behavior have sometimes been handicapped by scientists'_____ approach: the
animals are tested in ways that work fine with humans but not so well with other species.
(A) self-contradictory
(B) anthropocentric
(C) dogmatic
(D) haphazard
(E) novel
2. Science is so good at what it does that many people feel a (i)_____ to apply it to social and political issues,
yet experience shows that science may add little to or even (ii) _____ social and political questions.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) provocation (D) augur
(B) temptation (E) occlude
(C) reluctance (F) abet
3. Recent proposals for fixing the climate have taken the form of large-scale geoengineering projects such as
launching mirrors into space to reflect solar radiation away from Earth, undertakings that are vastly more
(i)_____ than anything a nineteenth-century rainmaker could have cooked up. What is unclear, as one looks
back at the history of weather modification research, is whether this resourceful ambition will be (ii) _____ or
if, by contrast, it serves to make the scientific community's (iii)______ that much more devastating.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) effective (D) anticipated (G) avidity
(B) enterprising (E) challenged (H) impotence
(C) accessible (F) productive (I) resignation
4. Many historians of the ancient world are wary of sounding (i) _____. Write so much as a sentence and the
temptation is immediately to (ii) _____ it. Even in cases when the sources for a given event are (iii) _____,
uncertainties and discrepancies crop up everywhere.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) fusty (D) recapitulate (G) consistent
(B) anachronistic (E) forswear (H) plentiful
(C) dogmatic (F) qualify (I) biased

Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage.

Phillip Converse theorizes that the 5. The highlighted sentence performs which of the following
voting behavior most strongly functions in the passage?
(A) It highlights a reason to adopt the Australian electoral system.
affected by mass media is that of
(B) It suggests that the reason that some who are eligible to vote do not
voters with the lowest levels of prior vote is not clear.
political interest. (C) It suggests that compulsory electoral systems increase political
Nonparticipation of such voters interest and awareness.
in voluntary electoral systems (D) It implies that Converse's theory could be usefully applied to
would obscure these effects, voluntary electoral systems.
but Australia's compulsory (E) It provides a reason for studying Australian data regarding mass-
media effects on voters.
electoral system, by forcing the
least interested to vote, would 6. Which of the following best describes the difference mentioned
in the passage between moderately interested voters and the most-
not. Examination of Australian data interested voters respecting their responsiveness to media
shows that voters with the lowest influence?
levels of prior political interest were (A) The most-interested voters are more likely than moderately
the most responsive to the effects of interested voters to make their voting decisions on the basis of issues
candidate images and election news emphasized by the media.
(B) The most-interested voters are less likely than moderately interested
and that they employed media
voters to trust media coverage of electoral campaigns.
messages conveyed by such coverage (C) The most-interested voters view less media coverage of electoral
in their vote decisions late in campaigns than moderately interested voters do.
campaigns. Moderately interested (D) The most-interested voters are less likely than moderately
voters were more apt than either the interested voters to agree that issues stressed in the media are
least or most interested to affirm as important.
important issues emphasized by the (E) The most-interested voters are less likely than moderately interested
voters to allow media coverage to influence their vote late in
media but did not use such issue cues
campaigns.
as a basis for changing their vote.
 Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.
Although many hypotheses have been 7. The passage is primarily concerned with
proposed to explain why some plant (A) assessing the empirical success of a theory
communities are more susceptible than (B) explaining why no consistent theoretical account of a
others to invasion by nonnative species, phenomenon has been possible
results from field studies have been (C) advocating a potential solution to a theoretical
inconsistent and no general theory of impasse
invasibility has yet emerged. However, a (D) deducing testable predictions from a proposed theory
theory based on fluctuating resource (E) describing the difficulties involved in explaining empirical
availability could integrate most existing results
hypotheses and successfully resolve many 8. It can be inferred that the author would most likely
of the apparently conflicting and agree with which of the following assessments of the
ambiguous results of previous studies. "results from field studies"?
The suggested theory is that a plant (A) Many of the results contradict predictions of
community becomes more susceptible to susceptibility to invasion that are based on the
invasion whenever there is an increase availability of resources unused by the community.
the amount of unused resources. (B) If fluctuating resource availability were taken into account,
The diversity in the range of resource- many of the apparent inconsistencies among the results
could be explained.
release mechanisms could partly explain
(C) The apparent inconsistencies and ambiguities in the
the absence of consistent ecological
results are caused by trying to make them fit an adequate
correlates of invasibility. In particular, general theory of invasibility.
the theory predicts that there will be no (D) No general theory of has emerged because none of the
necessary relationship between the studies has been able to assess the degree of an invasion
species diversity of a plant community accurately.
and its susceptibility to invasion, since (E) The results tend to show a degree of susceptibility to
near-complete exploitation of resources invasion that is lower than would be expected given the
and very incomplete resource prevalence in the wild of nonnative species.
exploitation can each occur in both 9. The passage treats Lonsdale's finding as
species-rich and species-poor (A)Data that contradict a prediction of a suggested theory
communities. Though Lonsdale (B)something that can be accommodated by appealing to
found a positive association an observed relationship
between species richness and (C) evidence that provides the basis for the position that
invasion, this may arise from the the passage puts forward
tendency of diverse plant communities to (D) a result that is unlikely to survive empirical tests
be nutrient poor and therefore more are more stringent
responsive to the effects of human- (E) a reason to revisit the assumptions on which a
caused influxes of nutrients. theoretical account depends

10. Judge Jones brought some welcome levity to the often tense, though sometimes _____, proceedings.
(A) humorous
(B) tedious
(C) stressful
(D) inconsequential
(E) fraught
(F) tiresome
11. Nature, it seems, is quite _____ when it comes to the distribution of habitable planets: even in the most
unusual cosmic neighborhoods, there appears to be potential for life.
(A) arbitrary
(B) impartial
(C) evenhanded
(D) exacting
(E) predictable
(F) resourceful
12. The folktale is perhaps the most _____ form of literature: a story that everyone is free to tell and embellish
because it belongs to no one in particular.
(A) unpretentious
(B) archaic
(C) primitive
(D) democratic
(E) egalitarian
(F) changeable

Question 13 is based on this passage.

Lakeshore district is to be planted with orange 13. In the argument given, the two highlighted portions
trees. The fruit yield of the orange trees play which of the following roles?
will probably be greater if they are (A) The first is the main conclusion of the argument; the
planted in soil that is heaped into second is an intermediate conclusion drawn in order to
mounds substantially higher than the support that main conclusion.
surrounding ground. The fruit yield of an (B) The first is the main conclusion of the argument; the
orange tree generally increases with the height second provides evidence in support of that main
of the tree's branch structure, and that conclusion.
height is directly proportional to the (C) The first is an intermediate conclusion drawn in order to
depth of the tree's root structure. The support the main conclusion stated in the argument; the
roots of orange trees, however, never grow any second provides evidence in support of that main
deeper than the underlying water table. conclusion.
Therefore, since the water table in Lakeshore (D) Each is an intermediate conclusion drawn in order to
district is close to the surface, orange trees support the main conclusion stated in the argument.
planted there would be bound to develop (E) The first introduces a practice for which the argument
relatively shallow roots unless they were seeks to provide a rationale; the second is an intermediate
planted in the manner described above. conclusion drawn in order to support the main conclusion
stated in the argument.

Questions 14 and 15 are based on this passage.

This passage is adapted from material published in 1991.
If Jane Austen remains the most 14. The passage suggests that the author would agree with
misunderstood of English writers, she must, which of the following statements about the "critics"
as an ironist, accept part of the blame. Taken mentioned in the last sentence?
at her word, the ironist's subtle inversions are (A) They esteem Pride and Prejudice above Austen's other works.
understood literally. Elizabeth Bennet suffers (B) They underestimate the depth and complexity Austen's
such a misunderstanding in Austen's Pride novels.
and Prejudice when, after having translated (C) They misunderstand the character of Elizabeth Bennet.
her attraction to Darcy into raillery and (D) They are put off by the subversive nature of Austen's writing.
accusation, she finds others astonished by (E) They criticize Austen for excessive use of irony in her writing.
their genuine attachment. The ironist's
evasions have trapped her. 15. It can be inferred from the passage that in her letters,
Jane Austen does which of the following?
Austen has suffered the same ignominy as her
(A) Characterized her own novels as harmlessly decorative
heroine. Her letters are full of artistic self-
(B) Bemoans the ignominious fate of her novels
deprecation, patronizing her novels as
(C) Patronizes the work of other contemporary now work of
miniature daubs on ivory. But instead of
other contemporary novelists
deciphering these remarks by turning them
(D) Complains that critics take her at her word
into their opposites-for Jane Austen's is a
(E) Expounds on the cursive aspects of her novel
dangerously subversive art, and is not
harmlessly decorative—critics have taken at
her word.

Answer
Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
C CF ADG E D AE DF DF AC C B B

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
B BE BFH CFH E D C B B BF BC DE B B A
 Verbal Practice Test: nine
Section: 1
1. The case of volcanoes exemplifies our _____the deep ocean: until the 1950s, when cartographer Marie
Tharp mapped the mid-Atlantic ridge, it was unknown that underwater volcanoes encircled the planet.
(A) fear of
(B) fascination with
(C) ignorance of
(D) affinity with
(E) interaction with
2. (i)_____may sound like the (ii) _____ novelty seeking, but in fact the latter can coexist with and balance
that stick-to-it virtue strong-willed Victorians so promoted.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) Ambition (D) antithesis of
(B) Creativity (E) foundation for
(C) Persistence (F) precursor to
3. It has long been a tradition in English Studies for different paradigms of literary interpretation, with their
different ways of understanding literary texts, to pursue their activities side by side, even though they produce
(i) ___ explanations of the same work. Although for some, this theoretical (ii) _____has been an indication of
disciplinary (iii) _____, for others it stands as testimony to the intellectual vibrancy of the discipline.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) arcane (D) pluralism (G) homogeneity
(B) repetitious (E) populism (H) redundancy
(C) incompatible (F) rigidity (I) weakness
Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.
In the 2,000-year period immediately before 4. The author of the passage mentions accounts from
European contact, many native groups of the three White frontiersmen primarily in order to
Northern Plains of North America specialized in (A) show how the frontiersmen' s dietary choices were
big-game hunting, subsisting primarily on bison. influenced by the native groups with whom they
Bison routinely became fat-depleted in the came into contact
spring, reducing their nutritional value, yet (B) suggest that these frontiersmen had not adapted
these groups did not supplement their diets well to a diet composed primarily of lean meat
with the nutritious, fat-rich fish that were (C) indicate what kind of diet was habitually followed by
abundantly available. Malainey et al. find a native big-game hunters of the Northern Plains
possible explanation in late-eighteenth- and early- (D) identify evidence for a hypothesis regarding native
nineteenth century accounts from three hunters' fish avoidance
frontiersmen who had adapted to lean-meat diets (E) call into question an assumption about the effects of
during extended periods in the plains. Each had an fish consumption on people who have adapted to a
opportunity to consume fish after extended meat lean-meat diet
dependence and upon eating it, became weak and 5. Select the sentence that describes the
ill. Malainey notes that prolonged lean meat phenomenon that the passage is concerned with
dependence renders the body incapable of digesting finding an explanation for.
lipids (fats), perhaps explaining native hunters' fish
avoidance.

6. Looking back on a project that they had approached with both great _____ and considerable aspirations,
they were amused to recognize that neither the fears nor the hopes had been at all realistic.
(A) purpose
(B) talent
(C) abilities
(D) trepidation
(E) misgivings
(F) ambition

7. In general, the more that Victorian society felt it had lost contact with the rural, the more the rural became
an object of _____for metropolitan commentators, who represented it as a moral antidote to urban life.
(A) fascination
(B) envy
(C) mockery
(D) satire
(E) idealization
(F) romanticization
8. With poetry seemingly forever composing its own _____ and the novel apparently writing its last chapter,
science fiction writers are now similarly concerned that they face a future in which their writing could, ironically,
be a thing of the past.
(A) saga
(B) chronicle
(C) critique
(D) inaugural
(E) elegy
(F) requiem

9. The appropriateness of_____ with those to whom one owes loyalty is evident in the Confucian view that
rulers who are not living up to their roles should be urged to rectify their behavior.
(A) commiserating
(B) collaborating
(C) negotiating
(D) expostulating
(E) sympathizing
(F) remonstrating
Questions 10 to 12 are based on this passage.
Eighteenth-century women played a 10. The author suggests which of the following
significant part in British political life. Up about the "expansion of the electorate to include
and down the social scale they performed a women" in eighteenth-century Britain?
variety of political acts, everything from (A) It might have reduced women's incentive to engage
purchasing political artifacts such as plates, in such political activities as boycotts and riots.
handkerchiefs, and fans to penning political (B) It might have reduced the political power of some
pamphlets, starring in civic processions, people who had exerted great influence.
sponsoring boycotts, arguing over public (C) It would have been unlikely to overturn the
issues in their own debating societies, aristocracy's political control of the country.
rioting, and uttering seditious words. (D) It would likely have extended the vote only to
Whereas historians used to see female aristocratic women.
political involvement in this century as (E) It was not an issue addressed by men who were
isolated or aberrant, they now stress the engaged in politics.
continuity and normalcy of such activity,
especially for aristocratic women. Given the 11. According to the passage, the approach taken by
familial nature of aristocratic politics, noble contemporary historians to the issue of the political
women were actually expected to act as role of eighteenth-century women differs from that
political advisors and agents for their taken by earlier historians in that contemporary
husbands, to canvass in elections, to serve as historians
political hostesses, to seek and dispense (A) see women's involvement in eighteenth-century
political patronage. They did so routinely politics as commonplace
long before the eighteenth and deep into the (B) argue that eighteenth-century women had
nineteenth century. Patrician women had considerable political autonomy
such far-reaching political influence, it has (C) note the singular political achievements of a few
been argued recently, that they actually aristocratic women in the eighteenth century
stood to lose by expansion of the (D) view the political situation of eighteenth-century
electorate to include women. Fruitful as women as significantly different from that of
this new historiography has been, however, nineteenth-century women
it has also been criticized for its focus on the (E) stress the political opportunities that were available
machinations of high politics and its for nonaristocratic eighteenth-century women
inattention to ideology. Given the
widespread hostility to "public" women in 12. The author would most likely agree with which
the eighteenth century, was female political of the following statements about political acts
activity quite so unproblematic as these new performed by eighteenth-century women?
studies tend to assume? Anna Clark has (A) They had little influence on the outcome of elections.
pointed out that celebration of elite (B) They were aimed largely at the expansion of the
politicking neglects both the condition of electorate.
ordinary women and the devastating (C) They probably were discouraged by men with
contemporary attacks on just this sort of political aspirations.
upper-class influence peddling. (D) They represented a new development in British society.
(E) They were sometimes perceived as being negative.
Section: 2
1. Nature's Metropolis was Cronon's effort to show that the idea of a boundary between natural and unnatural
is profoundly_____, that neither the city of Chicago nor its hinterland can be understood independently of the
other.
(A) conspiratorial
(B) reductive
(C) derivative
(D) abstruse
(E) revisionist

2. The (i) _____ of a rain forest is (ii) _____. The extinction of a pollinator or seed disperser may cause the
death of a plant species and with it many other species that depend on it.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) humidity (D) incomprehensible
(B) stability (E) tenuous
(C) appeal (F) insidious

3. Nothing in the book is (i) _____, but happily there is no sense that the author is merely rummaging among
minutiae, pursuing (ii) _____ lines of inquiry neglected by other biographers.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) contentious (D) tangential
(B) groundbreaking (E) rudimentary
(C) unfounded (F) objectionable

4. The extant evidence of Pluto's collisions with other cosmic objects over time is (i) _____. When Pluto is
closest to the Sun, frozen surface material evaporates into a temporary atmosphere and eventually into space.
This process (ii) _____ older impact craters, so Pluto's surface provides a record of (iii) _____collisions.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) incomplete (D) erases (G) only recent
(B) indirect (E) bypasses (H) many major
(C) inconclusive (F) deepens (I) some unknown

Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage.

The hypothesis that paranormal 5. Which of the following best describes the role
phenomena are real but lie outside the played in the passage by the highlighted sentence?
limits of science is supported by (A) It states the main conclusion of the author's
considerable evidence. The Society for argument.
Psychical Research has collected stories of (B) It provides a basis for a recommended course of
ordinary people apparently demonstrating action.
paranormal abilities. Entirely anecdotal, (C) It articulates a principle that supports the claim
this evidence has nothing to do with made in the preceding sentence.
science, since it cannot be reproduced (D) It is intended to undermine the credibility of
under controlled conditions. But the apparent evidence that the author has mentioned
society took great trouble to interview earlier in the passage.
first-hand witnesses and to document the (E) It serves to emphasize a limitation of the evidence
stories carefully. One fact that emerges collected by the Society for Psychical Research.
clearly from the stories is that paranormal
events occur, if they occur at all, only when Consider each of the choices separately and select all
people are experiencing strong emotion. that apply.
This would immediately explain why 6. It can be inferred that the author of the passage
would agree with which of the following
paranormal phenomena are not descriptions of the evidence collected by the Society
observable under the conditions of a well- for Psychical Research?
controlled scientific experiment. Strong (A) Carefully recorded
emotion is inherently incompatible (B) Unscientific
with controlled scientific (C) Credible
procedures.
 Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.
Some biologists have suggested 7. The primary purpose of the passage is to
that the land-management activity of (A) consider the importance of a research finding
burning heather moorland, which is (B) analyze and find fault with a research finding
traditional in Ireland, creates a poor (C) present and defend a research finding
environment for the predatory and (D) question the use of a particular research technique
scavenging species of invertebrates (E) advocate the use of a combination of research techniques
such as ground beetles and spiders 8. The author mentions "the amount of vegetation cover"
that normally live in heather. Yet a primarily in order to
recent study that used pitfall (A) suggest a way in which burnt heather differs from other
trapping, the only technique that environments
could lead to large numbers of the (B) emphasize the importance of considering all relevant
subject species being recorded, environmental features when designing studies of invertebrates
found that considerable numbers of (C) indicate that pitfall traps should be placed in areas of burnt
these invertebrates occupy burnt heather that have relatively little vegetation cover
heather. Admittedly, some scientists (D) point out a factor that some scientists believe has created the
have criticized the use of pitfall traps, impression that burnt heather is a poor environment for certain
asserting that the number of invertebrates
invertebrates caught in such traps (E) provide an example of a factor that some scientists believe
reflects the invertebrates' activity as undermines the reliability of pitfall trap data
much as their population density,
and that the number of catches also 9. It can be inferred that the "biologists" believe which of the
following about the method of managing heather moorland
depends on environmental features,
described in the passage?
such as the amount of vegetation
(A) It decreases the number of ground beetles that can survive in the
cover. But other researchers have
moorland.
demonstrated that pitfall trapping
(B) It improves the chances for predatory species to utilize
gives an adequate representation of
environmental resources.
the populations of the spider and
(C) It decreases the activity level of predatory and scavenging
ground beetle species in structurally
invertebrates living in the moorland.
complex habitats, thus corroborating
(D) It forces researchers to rely on pitfall traps as the only practical
the results of the study.
available technique to sample invertebrates in the moorland.
(E) It hinders researchers' ability to sample invertebrates in the
moorland over a prolonged period.
10. The manufacturing company's swift maneuver enabled it to evade the full impact of the increasing cost of
raw materials, which brought the downfall of firms that responded less_____.
(A) ruthlessly
(B) deftly
(C) adroitly
(D) carefully
(E) extravagantly
(F) cautiously
11. With their _____energy production, massive stars create harsh environments for planetary genesis and
may inhibit planet formation altogether: their intense radiation can readily destroy planetary birth sites before
new worlds can be constructed.
(A) cyclic
(B) profligate
(C) erratic
(D) extravagant
(E) mercurial
(F) predictable
12. Stannard may be hoping to resurrect Spark's literary reputation with this book, given its _____praise for
her creative talents.
(A) unctuous
(B) genuine
(C) grudging
(D) reluctant
(E) unstinting
(F) generous
.

Question 13 is based on this passage.

All the music from fourteenth-century 13. The statements given, if true, most strongly support which of
Europe for which written scores the following?
survive is so complex and is written in (A) Some members of the nobility in fourteenth-century Europe
such difficult notation that it could abandoned other activities in order to become professional
have been played only by musicians musicians.
whose lives were dedicated solely to (B) There were styles of music performed in the fourteenth century for
such performance. Yet fourteenth- which no written scores survive.
century European accounts, which in (C) Professional musicians in fourteenth-century Europe had more
this respect probably give accurate highly developed skills than do the most skilled professional
portrayals of their times, describe musicians today.
many members of the nobility who (D) The fourteenth-century European accounts that describe
excelled not only in musical members of the nobility as excelling in musical performance do
performance, but also in dancing, not specify the amount of time these members devoted to music.
poetry, and painting. (E) Professional musicians in fourteenth-century Europe did not
perform for gatherings of members of the nobility.

Questions 14 and 15 are based on this passage.

The intense self-awareness in the 14. In the passage, the function played by the highlighted
soliloquies of Shakespeare's Hamlet portion is to
(1599) is a breakthrough that was given (A) support the contention that Montaigne influenced
tremendous impetus by the playwright's Shakespeare's early writings
interest in a new literary form, the essay. (B) emphasize the extent to which writers of Shakespeare s time
Although Montaigne, the form's borrowed ideas and plotlines from one another
originator, published his first volumes of (C) argue that Shakespeare's interest in Montaigne was shaped by
personal essays in France in 1580, English the prevailing cultural concerns of his time
writers such as Shakespeare did not (D) introduce a discussion of the factors that discouraged most
discover Montaigne until the late 1590s. English writers from reading French works in the original
Shakespeare could easily have language point
turned to the essay earlier in his (E) out that Shakespeare' s education was superior to that of most
career-his French was good enough other English playwrights of his time
to read Montaigne in the original—
but he didn't. Only at the end of the Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
century, a cultural moment marked by a 15. According to the passage, interest in the essay in England
deepening interest in how subjective was spurred during the late 1590s by
experience could be expressed, did (A) an increasing attention to and knowledge of French language
Montaigne begin to speak to Shakespeare and culture
and other English writers with great (B) a wider interest in experimenting with new literary forms
immediacy. (C) the culture's growing fascination with giving voice to the
intricacies of personal experience

Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
C CD CDF D DE EF AB EF B A E

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
B BE BD ADG C AEI C E A BF BD EF B C C
 Verbal Practice Test: ten
Section: 1

1. Paradoxically, altruism may in fact be_____ if it aids only one's own clique.
(A) munificent
(B) counterproductive
(C) self-interested
(D) disproportionate
(E) beneficial
2. Humans have a curios (i) _____ problems in terms of (ii) _____, and scientists are no exception. For
example, the principal challenge to geological uniformitarianism has been its logical opposite—catastrophism.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) predilection to define (D) dichotomies
(B) resistance to understanding (E) opportunities
(C) inability to recognize (F) flaws
3. As a consequence of his need for (i) _____and his (ii) _____ self-advertisement, Joseph. Duveen's career
is better known than those of most of his fellow dealers of museum-quality material. The Wildensteins, for
instance, were far more successful financially, but they were (iii) _____beyond measure.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) stability (D) maladroit (G) secretive
(B) autonomy (E) unavailing (H) desperate
(C) publicity (F) indefatigable (I) knowledgeable

Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.

Blood and Wolfe's relative 4. The findings of Atkins and Boles suggest which of the following?
resources theory has been cited (A) The division of domestic labor is not determined solely by the
as an explanation for the well- resources each spouse contributes to the household.
documented finding that women (B) The division of domestic labor is not determined by traditional
have typically performed and gender roles.
continue to perform far more (C) Husbands of high-in-earning wives are likely to perform
domestic labor in their different domestic tasks than husbands whose wives earn
households than men do. This relatively little.
theory holds that power in a (D) The ways in which household tasks are allocated between
family accrues to the spouse husbands and wives are changing as more wives engage in paid
contributing the most resources employment.
to the household. Such power can (E) The allocation of power in a family is not a factor in determining
be used to withdraw from the domestic division of labor.
monotonous housework. Where
husbands specialize in income 5. It can be inferred from the passage that the relative resources
generation, while wives work theory would predict which of the following?
(A) Wives who engage in part-time paid employment would do about the
part- time or are unpaid
same amount of domestic labor as wives who are employed full-time.
homemakers, the theory might
(B) Wives who are full-time homemakers would do more of their
explain the domestic division of household's domestic labor than husbands outside the home.
labor. Yet Atkins and Boles found (C) Husbands who are economically dependent on their wives would
that wives who earn more than perform most of their household's domestic labor.
their husbands often do most of (D) Husbands whose wives engage in part-time paid employment would
the domestic labor in their perform about the same amount of domestic labor as husbands of
households, and Brayfield found full-time homemakers.
that women whose husbands are (E) Husbands whose wives engage in part-time paid employment would
unemployed also do most of the earn less than husbands whose wives are full-time homemakers.
housework.
6. Researchers' use of charcoal particles in soil as a marker for human arrival in prehistoric North America is
_____: fire was a part of the continent's natural ecology long before humans appeared.
(A) unwise
(B) unnecessary
(C) fortuitous
(D) inessential
(E) ingenious
(F) misguided
7. Although anecdotes about her abound, it is difficult to verify facts about al-Khansa'—like many early poetic
figures, she may well be a composite figure, her corpus _____ the works of many women poets.
(A) a harbinger of
(B) an amalgamation of
(C) a response to
(D) a precursor of
(E) an imitation of
(F) a fusion of
8. Laboratory experiments testing whether memories can be purposely erased or implanted seem decidedly
_____compared to the sensational depictions of memory manipulation in movies, but such research has
nevertheless yielded dramatic results.
(A) sinister
(B) outdated
(C) ominous
(D) prosaic
(E) frivolous
(F) pedestrian
9. As modern organizations amass more and more digital information, they need guidance on how to deal with
the information surplus in a way that is more _____ than simply increasing their storage capacity.
(A) sustainable
(B) onerous
(C) judicious
(D) discriminating
(E) parsimonious
(F) prohibitive
Questions 10-12 are based on this passage.
The idea of religious music as being the 10. The author of the passage quotes Du Bois most likely to
artistically purest form of Black musical (A) clarify an aesthetic principle that has been difficult to
expression has deep roots: W. E. B. Du Bois, comprehend
James Weldon Johnson, and Alain Locke are (B) establish the actual source of a frequently misattributed
just a few prominent intellectuals who held the argument
spirituals to be the pinnacle of Black art in the (C) evoke a sense of the cultural authority associated a
United States during the first part of the particular view
twentieth century, with Du Bois describing (D) compare Du Bois' definition of a term of Miller's
them as "the most beautiful expression of definition of that term
human experience, born this side of the seas... (E) distinguish Du Bois position from those of Johnson and Locke
the singular spiritual heritage of the nation and 11. It can be inferred that Miller would likely agree with
the greatest gift of the Negro people." which of the following statements regarding the
The elevation of religious music to the epitome "broader tendency"?
of authentic Black musicality speaks to a (A) It made it more difficult for Black musicians to be
broader tendency noted by Karl Hagstrom evaluated as autonomous artists.
Miller: the urge for critics and historians to (B) It made it easier for Black musicians to produce stylistic
describe Black music making in terms that are innovations.
inherently collective. This has extended to (C) It discouraged Black composers from incorporating
nonmusical contexts, in which the call-and- elements from spirituals in their compositions.
response dynamic, the "ring shout," and jazz- (D) It was a tendency that Du Bois and other prominent
derived metaphors of collective interaction have Black intellectuals resisted.
been highly influential in discussions of African (E) It made it more difficult for the influence of religious music to
be fully appreciated in the African American Culture.
American culture generally. While certainly
useful, Miller points out that the abundance of Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
12. The passage suggests that "metaphors about music
metaphors about music making as a collective
making as a collective experience" may lead critics to
experience "has a tendency to trap individuals
(A) perceive Black musicians as having an important
within a racial collectivity, naturalizing music as
responsibility to members of the Black community
an outgrowth of one's life rather than a
(B) overlook the diligence and intentionality of Black
cultivated talent and obscuring the meaning and
musicians in pursuing their art
uses of art that falls outside of racially defined
(C) praise Black musicians in terms that ultimately fail to
cultural borders." In other words, individuating
acknowledge the impact of individual artists
traits such as technique, ambition, and stylistic
diversity become subordinated to one's role
within a group and his or her imagined
obligations to that group.
Section 2
1. Farmers on the island of Tasmania have a long, complex, and at times difficult relationship with the
Tasmanian devil, and their opinions of it range from respect to indifference to_____.
(A) antagonism
(B) awe
(C) nonchalance
(D) esteem
(E) empathy

2. Journalist Michael Pollan is nothing if not (i) ____, committed to investigating our eating habits through
(ii) ___ and unwilling to pass judgment on any food-related practice that he has not witnessed firsthand or
even joined in.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) an empiricist (D) brilliant theorizing
(B) a traditionalist (E) voluminous reading
(C) an enthusiast (F) careful observation

3. The lyrics of this flavorless, inoffensive musical are (i) _____: “How can it be/ true must be true/ This
thing I feel/I know it's you" one character sings. The melodies are pleasant but just as (ii) _____.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) convoluted (D) byzantine
(B) anachronistic (E) insipid
(C) jejune (F) euphonious

4. Environmental models—mathematical representations designed to simulate natural systems—are regularly

used by litigants in legal disputes over environmental issues. Unfortunately, the (i) _____ scientific models is
(ii) _____ in environmental tort litigation. Because of the adversarial nature of litigation, models are often used
by one side to (iii) _____ empirical evidence presented by the other. And because modeling is a particularly
technical field, the task of assessing a given model's relevance and reliability may exceed the abilities
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) evidentiary value of (D) avoided (G) adduce
(B) uncertainty inherent in (E) predictive (H) obfuscate
(C) increasing reliance on (F) exacerbated (I) replicate

Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage.

African American musicians in the 1950s 5. The author mentions Bartók primarily in order to
faced a dilemma regarding classical music. (A) emphasize the cosmopolitanism of some American
A cosmopolitan display of knowledge about musicians
modern classical music enabled artists such (B) contrast innovations in jazz with innovations in classical
as Duke Ellington to counter music
misconceptions that jazz musicians were (C) provide an example of a presumption about jazz
untutored. Yet jazz musicians' interest in (D) highlight a jazz musician's interest in modern classical music
classical music was often taken as an (E) note a European influence on American jazz musicians
admission that jazz innovations were
derived from European sources. After 6. The author be most likely to agree with which of the
Charlie Parker expressed admiration for following assertions about the "misconceptions"?
Bartók, an interviewer asked if Parker' (A) They were fostered by those who assumed that innovations
musical innovations were adaptations of in jazz reflected the influence of European classical
classical predecessors' ideas. Often, composers.
comparisons with modern European (B) They were inadvertently perpetuated by some jazz musicians
composers connected jazz to the presumed who expressed admiration for classical composers.
superior standards of classical music (C) They were particularly prevalent among listeners who were
without recognizing that jazz articulated its familiar with jazz but not with European classical music.
own musical vision—by developing (D) They were incompatible with a thorough understating of
expressive and improvisational principles many musicians' musical backgrounds.
rooted in a wide variety of African American (E) They were beginning to wane by the time that Duke Ellington
musics—that challenged the hegemony of emerged as a prominent figure in the world of jazz.
European standards in American music.
.

Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.

Ecologists had assumed that trees in the 7. The passage supports which of the following statements
consistently warm tropics grew at a slow about the trees in the La Selva study?
but steady rate, unvarying from year to (A) During the El Niño year, they added considerably less wood
year. However, a study at La Selva, Costa than they did in cooler years during the period of 1984-2000.
Rica, showed that trees grew less in hotter (B) During the El Niño year, they typically had higher rates of
years and more in cooler ones: between photosynthesis than they did in other years during the period
1984 and 2000, dramatic differences of 1984-2000.
occurred in the six species of trees studied, (C) During the El Niño year, they released considerably more
with trees adding twice as much wood in oxygen than they did in cooler years during the period of
some cooler years as they did in the 1984-2000.
scorching El Niño year of 1997- 1998. (D) During the El Niño year, they took up considerably more
Because tree growth is an index of the CO2 than they did in cooler years during the period of 1984-
balance between photosynthesis, in which 2000.
trees absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the (E) The amount of CO2 that they absorbed remained constant
atmosphere and release oxygen, and throughout the entire period of 1984-2000.
respiration, in which the opposite occurs, 8. The author mentions the model developed by Keeling
the La Selva data were the first hint that primarily in order to
rapidly rising global temperatures, driven (A) provide an example that illustrates a complex scientific
by human-generated emissions of CO2, process
may be pushing tropical forests to release (B) present additional evidence for the existence phenomenon
more CO2, thereby intensifying global (C) confirm the validity of a widely held assumption
warming. This raised serious questions (D) account for seeming insistencies in a study
about a popular theory that tropical forests (E) support a popular theory
act as a sponge, soaking up much of the
9. The passage suggests that as temperatures rise, trees in
excess CO2 that humans pump into the
the tropical regions
atmosphere. The La Selva data are
(A) continue to grow at a slow but steady rate
consistent with a model of global CO2
(B) grow less and intensify photosynthesis
flux developed by Keeling, who
(C) emit more CO2 and oxygen
concluded that the amount of CO2 taken up
(D) increase overall respiration and decrease overall
in tropical landmasses rose in cooler years
photosynthesis
and fell in hotter ones, accounting-year
(E) grow more and absorb more CO2
changes in the amount of CO2 that stays in
the atmosphere.

10. Because connections made of the material are _____ to fail at high temperatures, it is particularly suited
for sacrificial thermal cutoff switches; it is, of course, unsuited to applications where heat durability is needed.
(A) unlikely
(B) disinclined
(C) apt
(D) sure
(E) bound
(F) liable

11. Baker was struck by the amount of _____ she saw at the renowned medical facility; for all their experience,
the physicians could not seem to agree on the correct diagnosis for any given patient.
(A) discordance
(B) contention
(C) quackery
(D) nepotism
(E) indecision
(F) cronyism

12. One of the reporter's central themes is that health care concerns were a secondary consideration to the
reformers in their drive to limit if not completely _____ the consumption of cigarettes.
(A) indulge
(B) proscribe
(C) damage
(D) spurn
(E) disallow
(F) impair
 Question 13 is based on this passage.
A chemical present in all grapes 13. Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument
helps reduce blood cholesterol in depends?
humans. The chemical is also (A) Any product made from discarded grape skins would not contain the
present in red wine and grape cholesterol-reducing chemical.
juice, but not in white wine. Both (B) The chemical that helps reduce blood cholesterol only chemical present
red wine and grape juice are in grape skins that is not also present in the other parts of grapes.
produced using whole grapes; (C) None of the chemicals that are present in grape skins are removed by
white wine is produced without any of the processing that is done during the production of red wine.
using the grape skins. It follows (D) The skins of grapes from which white wine is made are identical in
that the chemical that reduces chemical composition to the skins of either the grapes from which red
blood cholesterol is present in the wine is made or the grapes from which grape juice is made.
skins but not in the other parts of (E) There is nothing in the process used in making white wine that would
grapes. destroy the cholesterol-reducing chemical.

Questions 14 and 15 are based on this passage.

Gender socialization theory argues that 14. The author suggests which of the following about Heckert's
learned gender stereotypes influence research?
workers' preferences for particular job (A) It cast doubt on gender socialization theory by undermining
attributes: men acquire the breadwinner the view that gender roles are acquired through social
role while women acquire the homemaker conditioning.
role, and workers therefore prefer job (B) It implies that differences in men's and women's preferences
attributes related to these gender roles. regarding job attributes have widened since the mid-1980s.
Earlier research provides some (C) Its findings are not evidently explained by gender socialization
support for this theory. From the 1930s to theory.
the mid-1980s, studies documented (D) Its findings differ from those of studies in a way that can be
significant differences between men's and explained by differences in research design.
women's job attribute preferences: men (E) Its findings may not accurately reflect changes in the ways that
preferred earnings, advancement, and job gender socialization affects workers' job attribute preferences.
security more than women did, whereas
women valued coworker relationships 15. It can be inferred from the passage that "earlier research"
and flexible work hours compatible with differed from Heckert's research in that the "earlier research"
family responsibilities. (A) found differences in the importance that men and women
However, recent research has cast doubt placed on earnings
on this explanation. Heckert found that (B) found differences in the importance that men and women
although women rated job conditions placed on flexible work hours
such as flexible work hours higher than (C) found differences in the attributes that men and women valued
did men, there were no significant gender most in a job
differences in workers' attitudes toward (D) examined the relationship between a worker's preferences in
pay or factors related to promotions. job attributed and the worker's gender
(E) examined workers' attitudes toward job attributes that were
not directly related to compensation

Answer
Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
C AD CFG A C AF BF DF CD C A BC

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
A AF CE BFH C B A B D CF AB BE E C A
 Verbal Practice Test: eleven
Section: 1

1. It ought to be surprising that the bank falsified the numbers on its accounts; it is truly shocking that
such_____ was documented, in black and white, and that regulators found it and did nothing about it.
(A) chicanery
(B) raillery
(C) enmity
(D) sagacity
(E) probity

2. Scientists once said that cosmology was the field where the ratio of theory to data was (i) _____: there was
an abundance of theories, but almost no data. Recently, however, that ratio has flipped. A huge and ever-
increasing amount of data has (ii) ____ all theories but one.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) largely unknown (D) eliminated
(B) nearly infinite (E) supported
(C) highly variable (F) clarified

3. This book cannot be evaluated properly without examining the author's choice of format, which is the (i)
_____of the format of standard academic works; here the photographs take center stage, with the text playing
only a supporting role. This layout poses many dangers for the serious historian, not the least of which being
the (ii) _____ reception that academics-motivated partly by (iii) _____but also by a genuine concern over
scholarly standards-generally reserve for books apparently aimed at the popular market.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) duplicate (D) scornful (G) academic integrity
(B) epitome (E) deferential (H) snobbish elitism
(C) inverse (F) good-natured (I) collegial sympathy

Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.

In the 1830s, Stephens and other 4. The author of the passage refers to "Egyptian and
explorers of ancient Maya cities were Anatolian hieroglyphic" script primarily in order to
struck by the highly pictorial appearance (A) establish the antiquity of Maya script by comparing it with
of the then undeciphered hieroglyphs, writing systems whose age is well known
which frequently featured heads of (B) suggest that they share a common origin with Maya script
humans and animals. In these (C) indicate the relative order in which different scripts were
hieroglyphs, the heads almost always face deciphered
left. In other early scripts that feature (D) cite a precedent for reading scripts in a particular way
pictorially based signs, such as Egyptian (E) argue for the universality of certain symbols in pictorially
and Anatolian hieroglyphic, the based scripts
order in which the signs are to be read is
opposite to the way they face. Thus, even Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
without the ability to actually read Maya 5. Which of the following statements about ancient Egyptian
writing, Stephens, based on his hieroglyphic can be inferred from the passage?
knowledge of the newly deciphered (A) Heads depicted within it generally face to the right.
Egyptian script, might have correctly (B) It was deciphered before Maya script was.
surmised that the general reading order is (C) Its deciphering was made easier by the deciphering of
left to rightin contrast to Egyptian, which Anatolian hieroglyphic.
is usually scanned from right to left.

6. Although initially it may be difficult to discern the essay's message of peace and conciliation, a close reading
reveals its essentially_____ nature.
(A) pacific
(B) indolent
(C) banal
(D) lethargic
(E) austere
(F) dovish
7. Interest in the recovery of lost works by Brazilian women writers is growing as scholars increasingly recognize
writing by Brazilian women as inherently worth study, not as _____writing by Brazilian men.
(A) divergent from
(B) ancillary to
(C) interchangeable with
(D) antithetical to
(E) subsidiary to
(F) complimentary to
8. The adipose tissue in which our bodies store fat from the food we eat has traditionally been thought of as
_____, but in reality this tissue constitutes a dynamic organ, not a mere repository.
(A) capacious
(B) deleterious
(C) inert
(D) detrimental
(E) passive
(F) inessential
9. Cunliffe is intellectually indebted to the Annales school of French economic and social historians, which
emphasized largely static environmental influences and long-term historical continuity and regarded political
events mainly as____.
(A) breakthroughs
(B) advances
(C) disasters
(D) trivia
(E) conundrums
(F) ephemera
Questions 10 to 12 are based on the following passage.
The manuscripts of the eight extant 10. The author implies which of the following about Seneca's
Latin tragedies identify the plays as the status as the emperor's tutor?
Marci Lucii Annei Senecae Tragoediae. (A) It enabled Seneca to illustrate points of his philosophy to the
Since nobody of that name is known, leaders of the early Roman Empire.
modern scholars believe the dramas to (B) It had more of an effect on Seneca's career as a dramatist than it
be the work of Lucius Annaeus Seneca did on his career as a philosopher, orator, and politician.
the Younger, the well-known (C) It might have offered Seneca some protection from certain
philosopher, orator, and politician. dangers playwrights typically faced.
Clearly, the tragedies were written (D) It required Seneca to avoid making references to his various
during Seneca's lifetime: internal writings.
references to earlier poets, most notably (E) It required that Seneca take particular care that his writings
Ovid, indicate that the dramas cannot could not be construed as being directed against the emperor.
have been composed prior to the second 11. The author of the passage makes which of the following
decade C.E., and the plays must have claims about the eight extant Latin tragedies?
been written by 96 C.E., when (A) There is only circumstantial evidence that the plays were all
Quintilian quotes Medea, one of the written by the same author.
tragedies. It is remarkable, however, (B) Scholars have persistently attributed the plays to Seneca despite
that Seneca himself never mentions the evidence that some of them may have been composed prior to
plays, since there are certainly passages his lifetime.
in them that could be used to illustrate (C) Evidence in the manuscripts of the plays identifies them as
points of his philosophy. There are at having been written by Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger.
least two possible explanations. In the (D) The plays contain some lines that have been construed as being
early Roman Empire, playwrights were directed against the emperor.
sometimes exiled or executed for lines (E) The plays contain material that could illustrate certain aspects of
construed as directed against the Seneca's philosophy.
emperor; thus, Seneca's silence may be 12. Each of the following assertions consistent with Seneca's
simple prudence. But if anyone could authorship of the plays appears in the passage EXCEPT:
safely attach his name to dramas, surely (A) There is no known author by the name to which the plays are
it would be Seneca, the emperor's tutor. attributed.
And although Herrmann offers (B) Playwrights in the early Roman Empire were politically
Seneca's modesty as an explanation, vulnerable.
Seneca is not averse to referring to his (C) There are references in the plays to Ovid.
other writings. The evidence for (D) There are references in the plays to Seneca's philosophical
equating Seneca with the author of the works.
tragedies seems circumstantial. (E) There are quotations from the plays in the works of Quintilian.
Section: 2
1. According to one prominent sociologist, the insider doctrine-the claim that only a member of a particular
group should study that group—is inherently _____in that the doctrine assumes that, to put it colloquially,
"you have to be one to understand one."
(A) insular
(B) fatalistic
(C) absolutist
(D) irrefutable
(E) impressionistic

2. There are several reasons why the rainbow color scale, and its use in data visualization, is problematic.
Perhaps the most fundamental issue is that the (i) _____ the colors in a rainbow is not (ii) _____: people do
not perceive the colors as ordered.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) intensity of (D) great
(B) difference in (E) intuitive
(C) sequence of (F) uniform

3. The book is not comprehensive but is, instead, (i) _____ in the most positive sense of the word: it (ii) _____
rather than settles.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) definitive (D) stipulates
(B) provocative (E) suggests
(C) timely (F) disseminates

4. Since scientific truths must be discovered, and since many, probably most, are far from (i) _____, futile
investigations are (ii) _____. Thus, the path to the truth is decidedly a (iii) _____one.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) intuitively obvious (D) inevitable (G) sinuous
(B) routinely acclaimed (E) auspicious (H) clandestine
(C) potentially useful (F) negligible (I) progressive

Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.

This passage is adapted from material Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
published in 2001. Higgins has pointed out 5. Which of the following statements about women
the perplexing absence of a single musical and music in Europe from 1300 to 1566 is supported by
composition attributed to a woman in the passage?
Europe from 1300 to 1566 as a phenomenon (A) Only women of European nobility had the opportunity to
more apparent than real. During that period, receive musical training
anonymous creativity by both men and (B) More songs were improvised by women in the European
women of European nobility was nobility than by men in the European nobility.
encouraged; hence improvised songs by (C) Signing their own musical work would not have been an
women would have been so common as to accepted standard of good taste.
deserve no particular attention. In addition,
many courtly women had sufficient musical 6. Which of the following best describes the function
training to enable them to commit their of the first sentence in the passage?
songs to paper, even though it would have (A) It provides a basis for understanding the nature of musical
been unseemly for them to sign their work. compositions in Europe from 1300 to 1566.
The existence of many anonymous works (B) It presents a reason to explain the lack of musical
increases the likelihood that music by compositions attributed to women from 1300 to 1566.
women of that period has indeed been (C) It introduces a hypothesis to account for unexpected
preserved and that the circumstances of its inconsistencies.
composition and preservation have (D) It establishes a point of view regarding a phenomenon.
prevented us from identifying it. (E) It raises concerns about the unorthodox interpretation of a
phenomenon.
 Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.
Some archaeologists speculate that the 7. The passage is primarily concerned with doing which of
Americas might have been initially the following?
colonized between 40,000 and 25,000 (A) Presenting an objection to a claim
years ago. However, to support this theory (B) Accounting for an apparent anomaly
it is necessary to explain the absence of (C) Outlining an alternative interpretation
generally accepted habitation sites for that (D) Correcting a particular misconception
time interval in what is now the United (E) Questioning the validity of a comparison
States. Australia, which has a smaller
land area than the United States, has 8. The author of the passage notes Australia's "smaller land
many such sites, supporting the generally area" in order to
accepted claim that the continent was (A) suggest that the number of habitation sites from between
colonized by humans at least 40,000 years 40,000 and 25,000 years ago that have been found in
ago. Australia is less densely populated Australia is somewhat surprising
(resulting in lower chances of discovering (B) help show why the absence of habitation sites from between
sites) and with its overall greater aridity 40,000 and 25,000 years ago in what is now the United States
would have presented conditions less is problematic
favorable for hunter-gatherer occupation. (C) indicate that Australia is not exactly comparable to the United
Proportionally, at least as much land area States in size
has been lost from the coastal regions of (D) emphasize a difference between Australia and the United
Australia because of postglacial sea-level States in population density
rise as in the United States, so any coastal (E) help explain a difference between Australia and the United
archaeological record in Australia should States in the number of habitation sites from between 40,000
have been depleted about as much as a and 25,000 years ago
coastal record in the United States. Since
9. The author of the passage implies that, in what is now the
there are so many resource-rich rivers
United States, archaeological evidence of inhabitation in the
leading inland from the United States period from 40,000 to 25,000 years ago is lacking because
coastline, it seems implausible that a that region
growing population of humans would have (A) had its oldest habitation sites inundated following a
confined itself to coasts for thousands of postglacial rise in sea level
years. If inhabitants were present 25,000 (B) has many resource-rich rivers that facilitated the dispersal of its
years ago, the chances of their appearing in early inhabitants from an initial concentration in coastal areas
the archaeological record would seem to (C) was sparsely populated until about 25,000 years ago
be greater than for Australia. (D) was colonized less than 25,000 years ago
(E) was inhabited only by hunter-gatherers until 25,000 years ago

10. Receiving sole credit for a scientific breakthrough is tantamount to acquiring a much-coveted prize: small
wonder, then, that scientists often_____ the claim of first discovery.
(A) trumpet
(B) shelve
(C) impugn
(D) dispute
(E) evaluate
(F) defer

11. One of the features of spoken discourse is that a speaker need not be maximally _____: if an interlocutor
is confused, he or she can interrupt and ask for clarification.
(A) honest
(B) forthcoming
(C) courteous
(D) meticulous
(E) explicit
(F) unambiguous

12. The vivid, intelligent introduction to fundamental elements of classical music offered by conductor Michael
Tilson Thomas in these programs has few precedents: Thomas is truly performing radical acts of _____.
(A) elucidation
(B) appropriation
(C) chicanery
(D) inspiration
(E) demystification
(F) subterfuge
 Question 13 is based on the following passage.
Most shells of most species of snails 13. Which of the following most logically completes the argument?
coil the same direction, (A) the text that appears in seventeenth-century engravings of snail
conventionally called right-handed. shells reads in the usual way from left to right
Shells with left-handed coiling are (B) the fact that not all snail shells coil in the same direction was not
exceedingly rare. Yet engravings of generally known to naturalists of the seventeenth century
snails in books for naturalists from (C) present-day books for naturalists sometimes contain snail
the seventeenth century always photographs that are reversed because a photographic negative has
show the shells coiling left. The been turned around by mistake
engraving process produces a (D) the primary interest of naturalists of the seventeenth century was
mirror image of what is drawn on in the correct description and classification of structures
the engraving plate. Nevertheless, (E) most of the engravings illustrating seventeenth-century books for
the reversal of the shell images was naturalists were drawn from observation of actual living specimens
clearly a convention rather than an and not copied from other drawings
artifact of the process, since_____.

Questions 14 and 15 are based on the following passage.

New Zealand's lesser short-tailed bat, 14. The passage is primarily concerned with
Mystacina tuberculata, is one of only two bat (A) outlining certain difficulties associated with the study of
species to use a true walking gait when a particular species
maneuvering on the ground. It has been (B) suggesting that the development of a phenomenon was
assumed that the specialized terrestrial habits not predicated upon a particular condition
of mystacinids evolved in New Zealand (C) pointing out that a particular event is rarely known to
following their isolation there. Absence of occur
native terrestrial mammalian predators in (D) detailing evidence that refutes a commonly held notion
New Zealand has been hypothesized to have (E) evaluating rival interpretations of a phenomenon
facilitated evolution of terrestriality. However,
although it is likely that terrestrial foraging by 15. Which of the following can be inferred from the
extant Mystacina tuberculata makes it passage about Mystacina tuberculata?
vulnerable to introduced mammalian (A) It derives benefits from ground foraging that outweigh
predators, there is as yet limited available data the risks of predation.
on the actual risk of terrestriality. Indeed, (B) Its flying ability is in some respects diminished in
Lloyd argues that although some individuals comparison with most other bat species.
may be caught on the ground, generally they (C) Its isolation in New Zealand has led to a
would not be easy prey: they are cryptic, fast- misunderstanding regarding its abilities.
moving, with acute hearing and olfaction, and (D) It has developed keener hearing than most other bat
can quickly take flight. species.
(E) It is not subject to predation by other bat species.

Answer
Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
A BD CDH D AB AF BE CE DF C E D

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
A CE BE ADG C D A B D CD EF AE B A A
 Verbal Practice Test: twelve
Section: 1
1. Some of the writers whose interviews with the Paris Review are included in this volume were caught in the
final years of their lives, and these interviews thus lend_____ mood to the collection.
(A) an autumnal
(B) a scintillating
(C) a liberal
(D) an apolitical
(E) a cosmopolitan

2. Biographer John Richardson cautions that Picasso's relationship with Surrealism is easily (i) _____. He
stresses that, unlike the Surrealists', Picasso' s art was always rooted in some concrete reality, no matter how
unreal the imagery may seem; even his most (ii)_____ pictures are representations of the people in his life.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) criticized (D) mundane
(B) overstated (E) famous
(C) overlooked (F) hallucinatory

3. While many tools can automatically locate patterns in large data sets, they cannot yet distinguish truly
significant patterns from those that are (i) _____. Thus statisticians, who by virtue of their training are (ii)
_____ identifying (iii) _____ interpretations of patterns in data, must increasingly bear the burden of
scrutinizing data and challenging conclusions based on statistical flukes.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) exceptionally rare (D) biased against (G) spurious
(B) merely fortuitous (E) adept at (H) abstract
(C) not expected (F) discouraged from (I) conventional

Questions 4 and 5 are based on following passage.

Agricultural historians theorize that Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
farming originated when the pressures 4. The author would likely include which of the following
of growing populations or shrinking evidence in the "facts of chronology"?
resources imposed the need to find new (A) The number of centuries separating the earliest transitions to
species to adapt for food. This agriculture from those observed by anthropologists
hypothesis is supported by impressive (B) The earliest dates for which evidence of farming practices has
work by anthropologists who have been established
observed transitions to agriculture that (C) The known dates, if any, of extinctions of prey species that
happened in recent times. But, as an formed an important part of the diet of ancient human societies
explanation for why agriculture arose in
the first place, it seems ill matched to the 5. The author of the passage would be most likely to disagree
with the "agricultural historians" over whether
facts of chronology. Extinctions-or
(A) pre-agricultural societies frequently adapted new species for
even significant diminutions -in hunters'
food
prey species cannot be shown to have
(B) pre-agricultural societies were vulnerable to fluctuations in the
happened in any of the right places at
populations of species they hunted
any of the right times. Populations
(C) the earliest transitions to agriculture resulted in population
certainly grew in the most dedicated
growth
farming cultures-but, in most places,
(D) recent transitions to agriculture and the earliest such
more probably as a consequence than as
transitions were triggered by similar conditions
a cause.
(E) the first adoption of agriculture immediately created dramatic
changes in social structure

6. Many people perceive an unearned grandiosity at work in the news business, and given that perception it
should be no surprise that they have such a strong_____ for the business.
(A) preference
(B) passion
(C) esteem
(D) disdain
(E) fervor
(F) contempt
7. The chancellor once openly admired the relatively laissez-faire economic recipes of Britain and the United
States but now defends the German way, in which she sees the free market's sometimes destructive vicissitudes
being_____ by consensus-building politics and a generous welfare state.
(A) tempered
(B) annealed
(C) legitimated
(D) eliminated
(E) mitigated
(F) permitted
8. Partisans of literary realism sometimes think that because fantastical narratives do not abide by the laws of
reality, they_____ all rules, though, in fact, the logic of fairy tales is often relentlessly rigorous.
(A) preserve
(B) abjure
(C) reconfigure
(D) repudiate
(E) obviate
(F) perpetuate
9. It can be a daunting task to plunge into the disparate and extensive data sets on the carnivores and_____
meaningful patterns from their extraordinary morphological, behavioral, and ecological diversity.
(A) distill
(B) conjure
(C) distinguish
(D) extract
(E) conceal
(F) hide
Questions 10 to 12 are based on the following passage.
In 1825, emancipated slave Pierre Toussaint, who 10. The "pattern" mentioned in the passage refers to
had become a successful New York hairdresser, (A) the value placed by people of wealth and gentility
commissioned miniature portraits of himself, his on miniature portraits of family members
wife, Juliette, and his adopted niece. It was an (B) the increasing frequency with which African
unconventional choice. Judging by the extant American families chose to commission portraits
evidence, those few antebellum African Americans (C) an ascent in social status among antebellum
who commissioned portraits chose bust-sized oil African Americans who came to live in New York
paintings, paintings that announced their status (D) the propensity of African Americans who
their respectability, their prosperity, and their commissioned portraits to favor paintings that
personhood -to the public at large. And, given the called attention to their status
implicit publicity of these paintings, it is not (E) a tendency of wealthy New York families to
surprising that so many represent men: African- patronize artists by commissioning paintings
descended ministers, activists, barbers, and men of
affairs, men who were assuming positions of 11. The author mentions Toussaint' s efforts "to
leadership within the North' s free black recover family members who had been lost during
communities. It is not clear why Toussaint, a public the Haitian Revolution" primarily to
minded man who was deeply involved in a variety of (A) contrast Toussaint' s experience with that of other
philanthropic efforts, diverged from this pattern by successful African Americans in New York
choosing to represent himself, much less his entire (B) help explain why Toussaint became deeply
family, in a genre so closely associated with domestic involved in various philanthropic efforts
intimacy. Perhaps he associated miniatures with the (C) acknowledge the difficulties Toussaint faced
gentility and refinement of his wealthy clientele. following his emancipation from slavery
Perhaps he was attracted to the genre s familial (D) rule out one explanation for Toussaint's
associations. Toussaint was, after all, a man who preference for miniature over large family
prized family, who expended great effort to preserve portraits
family ties against overwhelming odds; after moving (E) support a possible explanation for Toussaint's
to New York, he had tried repeatedly and commissioning of a particular genre of painting
unsuccessfully to recover family members who
12. The author mentions "bust-sized oil paintings"
had been lost during the Haitian Revolution.
primarily in order to
Or perhaps miniatures recalled a pivotal moment in
(A) counter a particular assumption
his own life, a moment that fused gentility, familial
(B) cite a noteworthy example
intimacy, and freedom, for when Toussaint's former
(C) elaborate on an assertion
mistress was on her deathbed, she bequeathed him
(D) account for a historical change
her miniature portrait along with his freedom
(E) note an exception to a generalization
papers.
Section 2
1. Genetic diversity is the raw material of evolution, including the domestication of plants, yet the
domestication process typically _____diversity because the first domesticates are derived from a very small
sample of the individual plants.
(A) precludes a reduction in
(B) increases the potential for
(C) involves a loss of
(D) reduces the importance of
(E) obscures the source of

2. This is neither praise nor criticism, neither a compliment nor_____, just an observation.
(A) an exposition
(B) an elucidation
(C) an animadversion
(D) a culmination
(E) a divination

3. Defying expectation, the electorate seems poised to (i) _____ a number of political tenets so (ii)_____
that they are often paraded as fact.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) propound (D) entrenched
(B) reject (E) intricate
(C) uphold (F) tenuous

4. Oral traditions are (i) _____nearly everywhere, and in nonliterate societies they do not (ii) _____at their
first exposure to the written word. Despite Goody' s contention that a kind of literacy line cuts through history,
dividing oral from print cultures, it seems that traditional tale-telling can (iii)_____ long after a print culture
is established.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) fading (D) proliferate (G) disappear
(B) tenacious (E) collapse (H) languish
(C) similar (F) coalesce (I) flourish

Questions 5 and 6 are based on the passage.

In his explicit determination to record and master his Consider each of the choices separately and select all that
personal suffering through art, American poet apply.
Delmore Schwartz set the course that his 5. According to the passage, in comparison with
contemporaries Robert Lowell, John Berryman, and Lowell, Berryman, and Bishop, Schwartz was
Elizabeth Bishop would follow. In the late 1930s, he (A) quicker to master the established poetic idiom
enacted the transition from Modernist to post- (B) less inclined to use the works of Modernist poets as
Modernist that would take his peers another twenty models
years. One reason was that Schwartz did not undergo (C) more prone to focusing on personal suffering in his
a long period of discipleship. Bishop, Lowell, and poems
Berryman each chose poets of the Modernist
6. In the context in which it appears, "models"
generation as their models and teachers. They spent
most nearly means
years or decades demonstrating mastery of the
(A) designs
established poetic idiom before they had the ability,
(B) exemplars
or the confidence, to assert themselves in their own
(C) duplicates
style and subject. Schwartz, by contrast, immediately
(D) subjects
sought and proudly accepted a place among the
(E) tests
leading poets of his time.
 Questions 7 to 9 are based on the following passage.
To assess the impact of severe drought 7. The primary purpose of the passage is to
and drought-related fire on rain-forest (A) discuss the causes of the severe drought that struck eastern
vegetation, Leighton and Wirawan Borneo in 1982-1983
studied eastern Borneo following the (B) assess the validity of data concerning the 1982-1983 drought in
1982- 1983 drought (when rainfall was eastern Borneo by comparing it with data from 1977-1979
nearly 70 percent below normal) by (C) examine the causal relationship between drought and fire in
comparing post-drought data from rain-forest environments
various rain-forest plots with 1977-1979 (D) evaluate the relative effects of drought and fire on plant life in
data from the same plots. Some of the rain-forest environments
plots had been burned; others were only (E) compare the relative importance of soil depth and water
affected by drought. The large, normally reserves to the survival of plant life in rainforest environments
evergreen canopy trees had begun
shedding their leaves in February 1983 8. The passage's description of Leighton and Wirawan's
and were leafless when fires began in research suggests that which of the following was required for
April 1983. The study revealed that a rain-forest plot to be selected for study?
canopy trees suffered more from (A) A wide variety of plant species and sizes
drought than from fire: there was no (B) A wide range of soil depths and water reserves
difference in mortality between burned (C) Evidence of impact by both drought and fire
and unburned plots. Drought impact was (D) Ease of access for gathering post-drought data
greatest (37 to 71 percent of canopy trees (E) Availability of data on pre-drought conditions
killed) on steep slopes and ridges due to
9. According to the passage, the conclusion that "canopy
the limited water reserves of the shallow
trees suffered more from drought than from fire" is based on
soil in such sites, while drought damage data indicating that
was least (11 percent of canopy trees (A) small trees and vines were largely unaffected by drought but
killed) in a valley-bottom plot, which had were more easily killed by fire than were canopy trees
deeper soil. Small trees and vines were (B) canopy trees had already begun to shed their leaves when fires
largely unaffected by drought but were began in April 1983
more easily killed by fire than were (C) canopy trees that were affected by both drought and fire were
canopy trees. Thus, areas affected by no more likely to die than were those that were only affected
drought alone witnessed a decline in by drought
larger trees' importance, whereas areas (D) canopy trees that grew on steep slopes and ridges were more likely
affected by drought and fire saw an to die than were those that grew at the bottom of a valley
increase in their relative importance (E) canopy trees were more likely to be found growing in shallow
because of their greater survival rate. soil with limited water reserves than in deep soil

10. In denying him a promotion, management cited his _____ decision making, charging that his judgments
were based on vagaries rather than careful forethought.
(A) capricious
(B) dogmatic
(C) atrocious
(D) cavalier
(E) authoritative
(F) cogent

11. It is normal for artists who achieve great acclaim during their lifetimes to be considered _____shortly after
their deaths, only to have their reputations restored by subsequent generations.
(A) sacrosanct
(B) outmoded
(C) overrated
(D) canonical
(E) unfashionable
(F) emblematic

12. In its few decades of existence, the field of technology assessment has undergone large changes: its original
high ambitions to predict consequences of technology have been_____ if not discarded.
(A) deferred
(B) subverted
(C) abandoned
(D) relinquished
(E) tempered
(F) modulated
 Question 13 is based on the following passage.
The Thorvald epic was transmitted 13. Which of the following is an assumption on which the
orally until the early 1300s, when it argument relies?
was written down. Three manuscripts (A) Whoever produced the second manuscript did not deliberately
of the epic survive from the 1300s. The omit the missing episode.
latest of these manuscripts, made in (B) The earliest of the surviving manuscripts was not the first
the mid-1300s, has an episode that is manuscript ever made of Thorvald.
not in the second manuscript, but that (C) The texts of the first and third surviving manuscripts do not
occurs in the earliest of the three derive from the text of a manuscript, now lost, that predates
manuscripts in virtually the same them both.
words. Therefore, the third manuscript (D) The first manuscript was copied at most once before the third
was probably copied from the first or manuscript was made.
from a now lost copy of the first. (E) The episode that is missing from the second manuscript was not
invented by whoever produced the first manuscript.

Questions 14 and 15 are based on the following passage.

Harrison has argued that nineteenth-century 14. Duprat would most likely agree that certain
French government administrators generally nineteenth-century French female societies
ignored the activities of women's associations, (A) sometimes took unfair advantage of their charitable
and most historians agree that female groups status
appear to have garnered little notice from (B) hoped to change public perceptions of the activities of
authorities. While Grange suggests that this dames de charité
may be because so few female associations (C) strategically misled government officials about their
existed throughout much of the nineteenth activities
century, Duprat has uncovered numerous (D) were not consistent in representing their members'
female societies, especially sociétés de values
bienfaisance [charitable societies], many of (E) conducted themselves in a way that contributed to their
which received more generous treatment from neglect by government officials
municipal and national officials than their
male counterparts. However, she suggests that Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
their official "silence" -the absence of general 15. As represented in the passage, the views of which of
the following scholars are consistent with one another
assemblies and of frequent publications, as
with regard to the official notice received by women's
well as their careful cultivation of the associations?
traditional, nonthreatening image of dames de (A) Harrison and most historians
charité [charitable women]-kept these (B) Harrison and Grange
associations largely out of public view. (C) Grange and most historians

Answer
Section 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
A BF BEG BF D DF AE BD AD D E C

Section 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
C C BD BEI B B E E C AD BE EF C E A
 Verbal Practice Test: thirteen
Section: 1
1. The new biography of the composer discusses the reception of his music, not from the perspective of fellow
composers, who were but rather from that of the public who were_____, by contrast, laudatory.
(A) commendatory
(B) intrigued
(C) disdainful
(D) uninformed
(E) judicious
2. Many American Indian writers such as Leslie Marmon Silko consciously work to (i) _____the established
literary techniques generally associated with the novel. Their work carries a fresh infusion of oral traditions,
thereby yielding (ii) _____ texts that although cohesive are neither purely oral and conversational nor purely
literary and discursive.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) bypass (D) hybrid
(B) preserve (E) monolithic
(C) transform (F) conventional
3. Pine stumps have been found in discrete layers in peat deposits throughout western Europe and thus
represent brief but distinct episodes of bog colonization by pine. Their occurrence implies conditions on the bog
surface suitable for colonization, followed by inhospitable conditions for trees that nevertheless facilitated
preservation of stumps. Thus, the (i) _____of pine stumps can (ii) _____climate change, by (iii) _____ the
inference that bog surfaces had dried sufficiently to allow colonization and then became too wet to support the
trees.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) loss (D) proceed undeterred by (G) supporting
(B) resilience (E) vary independently of (H) repudiating
(C) presence (F) function as a proxy for (I) articulating

Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.

The importance of the relatively docile 4. The primary purpose of the passage is to
eland (antelope) in the diet of Middle Stone (A) resolve a debate about the advantages and disadvantages of
Age (MSA) people contrasted with the certain Stone Age prey
increased importance of aggressive wild (B) question a position on apparent changes in Stone Age
pigs to Late Stone Age (LSA) people has hunting patterns
been interpreted as an indication that MSA (C) critique the work of various researchers of Stone Age hunters
hunters were less proficient than LSA (D) suggest a reason that Late Stone Age hunters were more
hunters. This has been used to support proficient than their predecessors
the view that neurological changes (E) provide evidence of increased behavioral complexity in
dramatically increased the Stone Age hunters over time
behavioral sophistication of 5. Which of the following statements best describes the
anatomically modern humans. function of the highlighted sentence?
However, alternative hypotheses have not (A) It acknowledges a point that the author of the passage is
been sufficiently examined to warrant this unable to document with evidence.
interpretation. The possibility that (B) It presents a conclusion that was drawn from information in
economic motives drove prey selection the preceding sentence.
must first be excluded. Since eland are very (C) It provides the basis fora challenge made in the sentence
large but less dangerous to hunt than wild that follows.
pigs, it is likely that they would be a favored (D) It introduces a theory that is expanded upon in the sentence
prey animal whether or not hunting that follows.
strategies were sophisticated enough to (E) It makes an argument that is supported by the final sentence
tackle more aggressive prey. of the passage.

6. In the past, the exploitation of various categories of natural resources was done _____but because of the
hugely expanded scale of today' s economy, exploitation of all the resources in many countries now occurs
simultaneously.
(A) fruitfully
(B) rapidly
(C) hastily
(D) benignly
(E) sequentially
(F) successively
7. For decades, Pluto seemed to be the mysteriously _____planet: it was first thought to be about as large as
Earth, but, subsequently, measurements had it smaller and smaller.
(A) morphing
(B) appearing
(C) dwindling
(D) orbiting
(E) contracting
(F) emerging
8. The developmental track for human beings-from rudimentary awareness to complex forms of rational
agency—is quite_____: development proceeds with even minimally good physical and psychological health in
any minimally favorable environment.
(A) sophisticated
(B) contingent
(C) robust
(D) situational
(E) elusive
(F) reliable
9. At the core of science fiction is the notion of _____, of asking, "If this phenomenon continues, were will it lead?
(A) generalization
(B) extrapolation
(C) projection
(D) compensation
(E) reparation
(F) theorization
Questions 10 to 12 are based on this passage,
Larvae of many marine invertebrate 10. The passage is primarily concerned with
species delay their metamorphosis into (A) weighing the relative benefits and costs of delayed
juveniles when cues signaling an metamorphosis
appropriate juvenile environment are (B) illustrating the range of costs that can result from delayed
absent, thereby increasing their metamorphosis
likelihood of thriving as juveniles and of (C) speculating on why the costs of delayed metamorphosis have
ultimately reaching adulthood. gone unrecognized
Nevertheless, delayed metamorphosis (D) discussing a possible explanation of the costs of delayed
has potential costs for juveniles, metamorphosis
including reduced growth and increased (E) debunking the notion that the costs of delayed metamorphosis
mortality. Nearly all evidence of such are negligible
costs involves species whose larvae do 11. According to the passage, larvae of many marine
not feed but rather subsist on stored invertebrate species delay their metamorphosis into juveniles
nutrients, indicating that insufficient when the larvae
energy reserves may be an underlying (A) receive signals that the habitat in which they are swimming is
cause of these costs. Supporting this favorable for larval growth
hypothesis are laboratory studies (B) receive signals that nutrients in the habitat in which they are
showing that in a certain bryozoan, the swimming are insufficient for juveniles
prolonged larval swimming that results (C) receive signals that the habitat in which they are swimming is
from delayed metamorphosis is more suitable for adults than for juveniles
associated with size reductions in the (D) do not receive signals that juveniles of other marine
juvenile feeding organ (the lophophore) invertebrate species are present in the habitat in which they are
and that one factor influencing the size swimming
of juveniles of certain barnacle species is (E) do not receive signals that the habitat in which they are
how long larvae delay metamorphosis. swimming is suitable for juveniles
However, other studies show that while
12. The "hypothesis" implies that compared to marine
significantly fewer juvenile Capitella invertebrate larvae that subsist on stored nutrients, marine
worms survived to adulthood when invertebrate larvae that feed are less likely to
metamorphosis had been delayed, (A) exhibit prolonged larval swimming as a result of delayed
prolonged larval swimming had no metamorphosis
significant effect on juvenile size, (B) experience negative effects as a result of delayed
suggesting, perhaps, that in some metamorphosis
species, factors other than insufficient (C) thrive as juveniles in environments inappropriate for juveniles
energy reserves account for the negative (D) delay metamorphosis in the absence of appropriate
effects of the larval stresses that result environmental cues
from delayed metamorphosis. (E) delay metamorphosis for an extended period of time
Section: 2
1. The medical professor's thesis-hardly new, but rarely_____ by a faculty member of his distinction-is that
patients are more than the sum of their symptoms and systems.
(A) discounted
(B) ignored
(C) subverted
(D) underestimated
(E) espoused

2. The system of thought approached a fundamentally_____ essence, and the system was therefore inevitably
in error.
(A) heterogeneous
(B) simplistic
(C) novel
(D) predictable
(E) anomalous

3. The building affairs minister rightly recognizes that the current planning system-under which the
government controls every aspect of construction-creates disastrous developments, but she is wrong to propose
the opposite: the wholesale (i) _____ of the building market. Such a complete (ii) _____ of responsibility on
the part of the state can hardly be in the public's interest.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) liberalization (D) abnegation
(B) preservation (E) recapitulation
(C) regulation (F) accretion

4. It has long been a tradition in English Studies for different paradigms of literary interpretation, with their
different ways of understanding literary texts, to pursue their activities side by side, even though they produce
(i) _____ explanations of the same work. Although for some, this theoretical (ii) _____ has been an indication
of disciplinary (iii) _____, for others it stands as testimony to the intellectual vibrancy of the discipline.
Blank (i) Blank (i) Blank (iii)
(A) arcane (D) pluralism (G) homogeneity
(B) repetitious (E) populism (H) redundancy
(C) incompatible (F) rigidity (I) weakness
Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage.
The discovery of subsurface life on Earth, Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
surviving independently from surface life, 5. Regarding life beyond Earth, the author of the
refuted the belief that biological processes passage implies that
require not only liquid water but sunlight as (A) life could be dependent on a source of energy other than
well, thus greatly enhancing the possibility of light from the nearest star
life beyond Earth. Take Jupiter's moon (B) life might exist in an environment that did not provide
Europa. Space probes show a body covered everything that is needed for life on Earth to exist
with a thick layer of ice. As Europa orbits its (C) life might take a form radically different from that of
planet, however, it flexes due to the gravitational any life that is found on Earth
tug-of-war between it, its sister moons, and
Jupiter. Through friction, this flexing produces 6. The highlighted sentence serves to introduce
heat in the moon's interior capable of melting (A) an instance that allows a hypothesis to be tested
ice. Indeed, observations suggest liquid water (B) speculation grounded in empirical discovery
exists beneath Europa's icy crust. (C) a deduction from a newly advanced hypothesis
Photosynthetic life is impossible there because (D) a large-scale effect of an apparently insignificant
sunlight is completely absent, but life such as the contingency
microbes that flourish deep within Earth may (E) the derivation of a contradiction to refute a claim
still be possible.
 Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.
The Declaration of the Rights of 7. According to the passage, which of the following is true
Man and of the Citizen is a of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen?
celebrated symbol of the French (A) It is intended to amplify the ideas and themes of existing French
Revolution of 1789. Unlike "bill" legislation.
and "charter" -terms that suggest a (B) It consistently echoes the language of royal pronouncements rather
legal statement or contract- than that of contracts or legislation.
"declaration" echoes the language (C) Its close association with the French Revolution prevents it from
of royal pronouncements and being understood in legislative terms.
confers on popular sovereignty the (D) It makes universal claims for the rights of individuals rather than
authority that had accompanied simply for individual French citizens.
acts of the monarchy. In legislative (E) Its concern for such individual freedoms as the security of wealth and
terms, however, the Declaration is political impartiality makes it unique in French history.
difficult to place. Drawing on a
8. The passage implies that the use of the term "Declaration"
long tradition of jurisprudence, the
in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen did
document proclaims the individual
which of the following?
rights of personal liberty, political
(A) Suggested that the authority to rule was transferred from the
equality, and legal guarantees not
monarch to the people
as specific rights of French citizens
(B) Endorsed the principle of popular sovereignty as the central law of
but as "natural" rights of all
France
humanity. In the end, because of its
(C) Established that specific legal rights would be guaranteed to all
universal claims, the Declaration
French citizens
did not serve as a set of legal
(D) Asserted that the universal rights of French citizens were based on
prescriptions that the French state-
France' s system of jurisprudence
assumed to be responsible only for
(E) Elevated France above other nations by asserting that the rights of
its own laws and citizens-could
French citizens were natural rights
hope to enforce. Unlike the Bill of
Rights of the United States, it was 9. In the context in which it appears, "universal" most
introduced not to amplify an nearly means
existing constitution but to serve as (A) ultimate
the ideological premise for future (B) unchanging
legislation. (C) all-purpose
(D) abstract
(E) global
10. Discussion of planetary orbits is _____in the context of climate history today, thanks to the acceptance of
the thesis that periodic fluctuations in the Earth's axial tilt and precession affect the timing and severity of glacial
cycles.
(A) controversial
(B) gratuitous
(C) commonplace
(D) unnecessary
(E) fraught
(F) pervasive
11. Typefaces, in one sense, are just like styles of shoes: they _____because different people have different
tastes and identities and because both creators and users value novelty for its own sake.
(A) bemuse
(B) converge
(C) proliferate
(D) abound
(E) evolve
(F) coincide

12. Even though Our Lady of the Forest achieves clinical evenhandedness in depicting the most depressing
members of a small logging town, the novel lacks a single likable character and too often runs aground on
_____writing.
(A) stilted
(B) caustic
(C) precise
(D) wooden
(E) exact
(F) convoluted
 Question 13 is based on this passage.
A recent study found that children who wash 13. Which of the following, if true, most seriously
in hard water, water with a high weakens the support for the researchers' hypothesis?
concentration of minerals such as (A) Many children with eczema outgrow it by the time they
magnesium and calcium, are 40 percent reach their midteens.
more likely than children who wash in soft (B) Children sometimes develop eczema even though they
water to suffer from eczema, an have been exposed to none of the known causes of eczema.
inflammatory skin condition. Many factors (C) Washing properly with hard water requires more soap
are known to cause eczema, including stress, than doing so with soft water.
diet, and irritants in soap. Based on the (D) Many households install water-softening equipment to
study, researchers hypothesize that the reduce the concentrations of magnesium and calcium in
minerals in hard water can also cause their water.
eczema. (E) Children are more likely to develop eczema if one or both
of their parents had eczema as children.

Questions 14 and 15 are based on this passage.

While avant-garde twentieth-century visual 14. The highlighted sentence could best be used to
art is widely associated with artists' support which of the following claims?
revolutionary political aspirations, recent (A) Efforts to suppress art that is considered disruptive can
Anglo American musicologists' accounts of never fully succeed.
avant-garde music tend to emphasize its (B) Avant-garde techniques reveal little about a composer's
disavowal of such concerns. Avant-garde political inclinations.
composers' subversion of musical conventions (C) The significance of a work of art may derive partly from
does not obviously challenge social hierarchy. the way in which it is received.
Their pursuit of rarefied musical (D) A work of art created in one country can be completely
experimentation has effectively confined the misunderstood in another country.
music s appeal to an initiated elite. Yet the (E) Art is inevitably threatening to totalitarian regimes
intense social involvement of many avant- because it emanates from the imagination.
garde musicians should not be obscured. For
instance, composers associated with the 15. The author would be most likely to agree with
1950s' Darmstadt school, sometimes seen as which of the following claims about avant-garde
music's "disavowal of such concerns"?
epitomizing the avant-garde's narrow
(A) It has often been overemphasized by Anglo-American
preoccupation with compositional technique,
musicologists.
devised musical responses to anti-imperialist
(B) It is difficult to reconcile with avant-garde music s
struggles in Latin America and to the United
appeal to an initiated elite.
States Civil Rights movement. And in some
(C) It was most clearly exhibited in the 1950s by composers
countries, totalitarian regimes' efforts
associated with the Darmstadt school.
to suppress avant-garde techniques
(D) It was part of what underlay some twentieth-century
have made avant-garde music a symbol
avant-garde composers experiments with musical form.
of resistance.
(E) It could be seen as undermining some musicologists
tendency to contrast avant-garde music with avant-
garde visual art.

Answer
Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
C AD CFG B B EF CE CF BC D E B

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
E A AD CDG A B D A E CF CD AD C C A
 Verbal Practice Test: fourteen
Section: 1
1. The best argument in favor of one space after a period over two is _____ one: one space is simpler, cleaner,
and more visually pleasing.
(A) an aesthetic
(B) a pragmatic
(C) a technological
(D) a historical
(E) a philosophical
2. Wald's decision to tell Rosetta Tharpe's story to a wider audience in Shout, Sister, Shout! (i) _____ the rigor
of the book's scholarship or the acuity of its theory. The scholarly quality of the work is (ii) _____on every page,
and yet it is not a dry, specialist academic tome.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) is not reflected in (D) evident
(B) does not compromise (E) diluted
(C) does little to enhance (E) veiled
3. In ancient China, tin-rich ores were not as (i) _____as copper-rich ores, and bronze-an alloy of copper and
tin-was (ii) _____ material, as tin frequently had to be transported over large distances. As a result, unalloyed
copper was probably used whenever (iii) _____ since the metals used for farming and domestic purposes did
not need to be as strong as the metals used for hunting and fighting.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) abundant (D) an obsolete (G) unavoidable
(B) valuable (E) an expensive (H) practical
(C) portable (F) a perishable (I) affordable
Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.
Conspicuous structural inconsistencies 4. The author mentions "Anthia feeding her dogs"
distinguish the Ephesiaka of Xenophon from primarily in order to support
other ancient Greek novels. Its narrative (A) a comparison between the Ephesiaka and other ancient
texture is uneven, the story's pace varies Greek novels
erratically, and compared with other novels, it (B) a criticism of Bürger's view about what the Ephesiaka is
is inferior in composition. The quality of the (C) an explanation of the Ephesiaka's narrative
Ephesiaka was first questioned by Bürger, who shortcomings
maintained that much of the work is an (D) a reassessment of the Ephesiaka's quality as a work of
epitome (summary). This idea was used to literature
account for the work's narrative shortcomings: (E) a claim about the effect of inconsequential details on the
the choppy pace, the lack of motivation for overall quality of Ephesiaka
certain events, the abrupt introduction of Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
characters. However, it is doubtful that 5. It can be inferred that the author of the passage
Ephesiaka is an epitome because, as an disagrees with Bürger about which of the following?
epitome, it is a worse job than it is as a novel. (A) Whether it can be determined which ancient Greek texts
Even in passages Bürger thinks are epitomized, are epitomes
inconsequential details such as Anthia (B) The explanation for some apparent deficiencies in the
feeding her dogs are retained, but potentially Ephesiaka
significant actions of gods are excised. (C) The overall literary quality of the Ephesiaka
6. Individuals, governments, and companies show ample ability to_____ themselves by setting goals based
on current conditions and then blindly following them even when those conditions change drastically.
(A) hamstring
(B) reinvent
(C) promote
(D) revitalize
(E) impair
(F) invigorate
7. During the Renaissance, the use of optical lenses, which were capable of projecting images onto blank
canvases, greatly aided artists by allowing them to accurately observe and depict the external world: in other
words, these lenses were instrumental in conveying _____.
(A) idealism
(B) optimism
(C) ambition
(D) realism
(E) sanguinity
(F) verisimilitude
8. Because it has usually been impossible to _____exotic species once they have become established, it is
prudent to minimize the introduction of such species that have a substantial probability of unwanted impacts.
(A) disseminate
(B) detect
(C) eradicate
(D) propagate
(E) extirpate
(F) differentiate

9. The_____ of governmental subsidies to obscure airports that are rarely used underscores the political
difficulties of cutting funds from even the most unnecessary projects.
(A) paucity
(B) effectiveness
(C) durability
(D) persistence
(E) adequacy
(F) dearth

Questions 10 to 12 are based on this passage.

While the shift from single-family to 10. It can be inferred from the passage that the disagreement
multifamily winter dwellings and the between proponents and critics of the "explanation" focuses
corresponding organizational primarily on which of the following points?
changes in domestic groups were (A) Whether long-term environmental cooling had any effect on
among the more conspicuous Labrador
features of Labrador Inuit society in (B) Whether multifamily winter dwellings were more efficient than
the seventeenth and eighteenth were single-family dwellings for the management of scarce
centuries, scholars disagree about resources
what caused this shift. One proposed (C) Whether intensification of communalism represents a traditional
explanation looks at the shift as an adaptive strategy used during periods of productive uncertainty
adjustment to the negative effects of (D) The extent to which the availability of subsistence resources in
long-term environmental cooling on Labrador was adversely affected by climate change
migratory whale and seal species, (E) The extent to which communal strategies were effective in
suggesting that communal housing responding to whale and seal scarcity in Labrador
allowed families to manage these 11. According to the passage, a proponent of the "explanation"
scarce subsistence resources more would agree with which of the following statements about
efficiently. Here, the Labrador case is multifamily winter dwellings in Labrador Inuit society?
seen as consistent with traditional (A) The changes in social structure implied by the shift to such
adaptive strategies used during dwellings were in keeping with traditional strategies designed to
periods of productive uncertainty, address resource scarcity.
strategies that typically depend on (B) The use of such dwellings resulted in a decline in the consumption
intensification of communalism in of certain scarce subsistence resources such as whales and seals.
some form. Critics dismiss this (C) The shift to such dwellings enabled the Inuit to make use of
explanation, citing insufficient resources other than whales and seals.
evidence of resource scarcity and (D) Such dwellings exemplified an approach to the management of
noting that Labrador's southerly scarce resources that originated among the Inuit in the
location (relative to other Inuit seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
locales) would have mitigated the (E) Such dwellings remained popular among the Inuit even during
effects of environmental cooling on periods when subsistence resources were not scarce.
sea mammal distributions. In fact,
12. According to the passage, criticism of the "explanation"
whales and seals retreating from
focuses on which of the following points?
former feeding ranges in Arctic
(A) The tendency of the Inuit to rely on traditional adaptive strategies
waters were likely to have found
during periods of productive uncertainty
haven off Labrador at this time. Still,
(B) The negative effect that short-term climatic perturbations may
geographically variable distributions
have had on subsistence resources
probably occurred owing to short-
(C) The fact that climate change would have been less severe in
term climatic perturbations such as
Labrador than in other Inuit locales
heavier-than-usual ice formations.
(D) The absence of any evidence indicative of long-term environmental
However, it remains unclear whether
cooling
such episodes were significant
(E) Evidence that there was no resource scarcity coincident with the
enough to contribute to a shift in
transition to multifamily dwellings
living arrangements.
Section: 2
1. It can be extremely difficult to uncover direct evidence of conspiracies, given that such activities are by their
very nature_____.
(A) interminable
(B) laborious
(C) provocative
(D) illicit
(E) surreptitious

2. In clinical research into new treatments or the causal factors of diseases, randomized, double-blind
controlled clinical trials are seen as (i) _____but, given their (ii) _____, often are not feasible.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) a dead end (D) expense
(B) the gold standard (E) predictability
(C) an unattainable ideal (F) appeal

3. Seigel has written an important and invaluable book on the history of Western ideas of the self, showing a
genuine (i) _____ in analyzing philosophical views of often daunting intricacy. Though a historian by
profession, he keeps to a minimum his excursions into the (ii) _____ ideas, recognizing that great minds often
(iii) _____the preconceptions of their age.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) fecklessness (D) social and cultural context (G) revisit
(B) timidity (E) philosophical underpinnings (H) outstrip
(C) acuity (F) logical precision (I) misunderstand

4. Models of the interior evolution of Venus suggest that the planet (i) _____periods of relative (ii) _____and
periods of instability and rapid surface overturn. In other words, Venus may "freak out" occasionally, getting
rid of its internal heat in great planet-wide (iii) _____of activity, rather than in the steadier cycling of
lithospheric plates that occurs on Earth.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) stabilizes during (D) congruity (G) absences
(B) oscillates between (E) disruption (H) paroxysms
(C) revolves around (F) quiescence (I) patterns

Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage.

There have been numerous well- 5. The passage is concerned primarily with
documented extinctions of indigenous (A) pointing out that a particular type of species extinction is rarely
species caused by the introduction of known to occur
nonindigenous predators and (B) proposing a possible explanation for conflicting data about a
pathogens. However, surprisingly few particular type of species extinction
extinctions of indigenous species can be (C) resolving a debate about the frequency of a particular type of
attributed to competition from species extinction
introduced species. For example, (D) comparing two theories regarding possible causes of a
during the past 400 years, 4,000 plant particular type of species extinction
species have been introduced into (E) refuting a proposed explanation for the increasingly rare
North America, and these occurrence of a particular type of species extinction
nonindigenous plants currently account
for nearly 20 percent of North 6. The author introduces statistics about North America's
America's plant species. Yet no evidence nonindigenous plant species primarily in order to
exists that any indigenous North (A) undermine a proposed explanation for the absence of any
American plant species became extinct evidence for the occurrence of a particular phenomenon
as a result of competition from (B) contrast the effect of introduced plant species in North America
introduced plant species. The scarcity of with the effect that introduced animal species have had
documented extinctions caused by (C) suggest that North America' s indigenous plants are a domain
competition from new species could in which there has been ample scope for a particular effect to
mean that such extinctions take longer have occurred
to occur than scientists initially believed (D) emphasize how much the ecology of North America has been
or, alternatively, that extinctions are affected over the past 400 years by the introduction of
rarely caused by competition from nonindigenous species
nonindigenous species. (E) substantiate a claim about the overall effect that the
introduction of nonindigenous species tends to have on
indigenous populations
 Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.
Until the mid-1980s, Swedish 7. It can be inferred that the highlighted "studies" lend support to
workers' wages were largely which of the following statements about women workers' wages?
determined through centralized (A) In most countries, women workers' wages would not likely be
collective bargaining at a national affected by centralized collective bargaining in the same way as
level, a policy aimed at achieving they were in Sweden prior to the mid-1980s.
equal pay for equal work across (B) In most countries, women workers' wages are closer to the wages
companies and industries. This of similarly qualified men than they are in Sweden.
policy, designed to raise the relative (C) Women workers' wages are generally less affected by centralized
wages of low-wage workers, resulted collective bargaining than are men's wages.
in a decrease in overall wage (D) Women workers' wages are sometimes adversely affected by
inequality in Sweden's labor market. wage-setting practices that are intended to remedy overall wage
Furthermore, this policy may have inequality.
indirectly resulted in a relatively small (E) Women workers' wages are generally closer to the wages of
gender wage gap (difference between similarly qualified male workers where wages are set through
women's wages and those of similarly centralized wage bargaining than where they are set through
qualified men): several recent decentralized wage bargaining.
studies have demonstrated that 8. The author of the passage attributes the highlighted
decentralized wage bargaining "decrease" to which of the following?
produces relatively large wage (A) A decline in Sweden's gender wage gap
inequality in general and large gender (B) A decline in low-wage workers' wages in Sweden
wage differentials in particular, and (C) A decline in women' s wages in Sweden
international comparisons show that (D) A policy governing wage bargaining in Sweden
a society's overall wage inequality is (E) A change in Sweden' s wage-bargaining practices initiated in the
positively related to the gender wage mid-1980s
gap. Therefore, in designing a study of
9. If the researchers' reasoning presented in the last
organizational factors that perpetuate paragraph of the passage is correct, then which of the following
inequities in women's wages, would be most likely to be true?
researchers decided to gather data on (A) Organizational factors that perpetuate inequities in women's
the current situation in Swedish wages are less prevalent in Swedish companies today than they
companies. The researchers reasoned were prior to the mid-1980s.
that the occurrence of discriminatory (B) The gender wage gap in Sweden is larger today than it was prior
wage setting practices in Swedish to the mid-1980s but smaller than that in many other developed
companies could provide a countries.
conservative estimate of the (C) Discriminatory wage-setting practices have declined in Sweden
prevalence of such practices in other since the mid-1980s but not as sharply as they have declined in
developed countries. Despite many other developed countries.
increasing decentralization of (D) Overall wage inequality in Sweden has declined more sharply
Sweden's wage-bargaining process since the mid-1980s than it did during the period when
since the mid-1980s, they reasoned, centralized wage-bargaining processes prevailed in Sweden.
the effects of the earlier policy on (E) Women workers occupy more high-level positions in Swedish
current wages should still be evident companies than they do in companies in many other developed
to some extent. countries.

10. Many types of rocks contain small voids that _____vibrations: the greater the proportion of a rock's
volume that is void, the more gradually vibrations travel through it.
(A) amplify
(B) dampen
(C) generate
(D) impede
(E) produce
(F) conceal

11. The writer assumes that most people feel some version of vexed ambivalence toward large
corporations:____ the convenience they deliver yet resentful of the trade-offs that they continually demand.
(A) wary of
(B) enthralled by
(C) appreciative of
(D) encouraged by
(E) suspicious of
(F) dazzled by
12. Responsibility for the nation's decline rests squarely with a people who take for granted their claims to
preeminence but do not _____interest in or commitment to actually maintaining it.
(A) foresee
(B) rebuff
(C) evince
(D) reject
(E) predict
(F) betray

Question 13 is based on this passage.

Pharmaceutical Developer: Until 13. The scientist's response does which of the following?
recently, certain bacteria were (A) Indicates a possibility that shows that the conclusion drawn by
considered too dangerous for use in the pharmaceutical developer does not follow from the evidence
vaccines. However, without a cited in its support
particular gene, these bacteria are (B) Argues that all of the evidence that the pharmaceutical developer
harmless, and we can now remove the cites actually undermines the pharmaceutical developer' s own
gene from these bacteria. Therefore, conclusion
vaccines containing these bacteria can (C) Challenges the truth of a piece of evidence cited in support of the
now be used safely. Scientist: Actually, pharmaceutical developer' s conclusion
the safety of such vaccines remains (D) Offers a hypothesis that, if true, would provide an alternative
doubtful. Genes often migrate from explanation of the facts cited by the pharmaceutical developer
one strain of bacteria to another, and (E) Points out a further consequence of the pharmaceutical
other strains of bacteria in the human developer' s conclusion that follows directly from that conclusion
body contain the harmful gene.

Questions 14 and 15 are based on this passage.

In their zeal to narrate a single, teleological jazz Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
tradition, early scholars studying Black music, and 14. The author of the passage would most likely
most subsequent historians, understood the progress agree with which of the following statements
of jazz along a certain contour: birth, development, about ragtime?
(A) It has not received adequate scholarly treatment.
and ideal form (usually the 1940s jazz style bebop).
(B) It was important to the development of jazz.
Most scholars in the twenty-first century still contend
(C) It had an important influence on the blues.
that jazz is a music that is rooted in specific
discernible qualities (e.g., improvisation, swing,
15. In the context in which it appears, "ideal"
group play) and instrumentation (e.g., horns, piano, most nearly means
string bass, and drums). In this telling, the style (A) idyllic
known as ragtime is a precursor to later, more (B) conceptual
developed jazz styles. While many do see ragtime, like (C) exemplary
the blues, as a necessary ingredient of jazz, writers (D) unattainable
rarely examine it on its own merits, much less take (E) abstract
account of its own historical circumstances.

Answer
Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
A BD AEH B B AE DF CE CD D A E

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
E AD CDH CEH A C E D B BD BC CF A AB C
 Verbal Practice Test: fifteen
Section: 1
1. The process in which Earth's crust rises or sinks is not _____ the movement varies from place to place and
has occurred irregularly as a result of different causes.
(A) linear
(B) abrupt
(C) ephemeral
(D) protracted
(E) perceptible
2. The city's traffic-planning department has been working hard to (i)_____ drivers. Closely spaced stop lights
have been added on roads into town, causing delays. Pedestrian underpasses designed to allow traffic to flow
freely across major intersections have been (ii) _____.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) assist (D)enhanced
(B) calm (E) stabilized
(C) discourage (F) removed
3. Most movie sound tracks lean so heavily on a few preprocessed musical devices-those swells of strings and
cymbals designed to manipulate our emotions in (i)_____ ways—that when a composer (ii)_____a more
personal language, the effect is (iii)_____: an entire dimension of the film experience is liberated from cliché.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) unprecedented (D) resists (G) meaningless
(B) predictable (E) adopts (H) revelatory
(C) provocative (F) eschews (I) disappointing
Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.
That the narrator in George Eliot's novel 4. According to the passage, Eliot differed from some of
Middlemarch (completed 1871) displays an her "contemporaries" in that she
astonishing breadth of knowledge may be (A) considered the cultivation of intellectual breadth to be an
partly explained by Eliot's reaction to a unrealistic endeavor
specializing division of labor that threatened (B) ascribed certain intellectual advances of her time to
an extinction of generalists. Some of Eliot's profound changes in the division of labor
contemporaries attributed the nineteenth (C) doubted whether the accelerating pace of knowledge
century's rapid specialization to an production was inevitable
accelerating pace of knowledge production. (D) perceived increasing specialization as driven partly by the
But specialization, Eliot recognized, was not self-interest of particular groups
simply an effect of proliferating information. (E) anticipated the potential negative effects of rapidly
The notion that specialization was essential expanding knowledge on professionals
to an individual's credibility was also an 5. The author mentions the "extinction" primarily to
ideological product of professionalization. (A) help explain why generalists were impressed by the
Nineteenth-century professional narrator in Eliot' s novel Middlemarch
organizations actively fostered public distrust (B) qualify a claim about the effect of specialization on the
of nonprofessionals, an effect, Eliot feared, nineteenth-century division of labor
that might pressure laypersons, confronted (C) cite a potential outcome that may have influenced an
with unfamiliar fields, to resign their aspect of Eliot' s writing
curiosity and abdicate moral authority, (D) note a nineteenth-century trend that worried many of
conceding decision-making to professionals. Eliot' s contemporaries
Eliot's narrator serves as her rejoinder: an (E) suggest that certain social changes in the nineteenth
ideal of intellectual expansiveness. century may have impeded the expansion of knowledge

6. Robert McCance and Elsie Widdowson's The Chemical Composition of Foods, published in 1940, contained
an extraordinary fifteen thousand entries, making it the first collection of nutritional information for cooked
and raw foods that could be considered_____.
(A) expurgated
(B) accessible
(C) substantiated
(D) exhaustive
(E) comprehensive
(F) authenticated
7. Much honored for her work in both theater and film, the director was prolific-too much so, according to
some critics who thought she sometimes took on projects_____.
(A) haphazardly
(B) unprofitably
(C) indiscriminately
(D) unflaggingly
(E) inappropriately
(F) prematurely
8. Like many other former student radicals who have discovered an aptitude for business, Mr. Schwartz has
not so much outgrown his student_____ as transferred it to the new subject of technology.
(A) fecklessness
(B) energy
(C) iconoclasm
(D) futility
(E) unorthodoxy
(F) earnestness
9. Although technically their members were hunter-gatherers, many early Native California communities
exhibited traits more typically associated with well-developed agrarian societies and, therefore, are often
presented in the ethnographic literature as_____.
(A) archaic
(B) pragmatic
(C) anomalous
(D) exemplary
(E) exceptional
(F) utilitarian
Questions 10 to 12 are based on this passage.
Although African American fraternal 10. It can be inferred that the author of the passage would
organizations grew vigorously in the United agree with which of the following statements about
States starting in the eighteenth century, fraternal organizations' rituals and regalia?
they have received little scholarly attention. (A) They are generally less elaborate and exotic than many historians
have represented them to be.
Researchers' attention to Black fraternal
(B) They reflect customs originally brought by rural people to cities in
orders has been eclipsed by their interest in the United States.
the churches, social clubs, and civil rights (C) They are not as widely used in African American fraternal orders
and political organizations they consider as they are in some other kinds of secret societies.
more central to the Black experience. The (D) They were probably not used in the earliest African American
Black church, for example, is often portrayed fraternal organizations in the United States.
as the incubator for other Black institutions, (E) They have been partly responsible for scholars' tendency to
including fraternal orders. But the African underestimate the social significance of fraternal organizations.
Methodist Episcopal church actually 11. The passage suggests which of the following about
emerged from the work of Philadelphia's Philadelphia's Free African Society?
Free African Society, a fraternal (A) Its historical relationship with the African Methodist
organization. Thus, while emphasis on the Episcopal church runs counter to a view widely held by
Black church and other institutions is not researchers.
necessarily misplaced, increased attention (B) Its role as a civic institution is better understood than the
to Black fraternal orders could illuminate roles of other Black fraternal organizations because of its
hidden dimensions of Black civic relationship with the African Methodist Episcopal church.
participation. However, the scholarly (C) It was more historically important than any other fraternal
neglect of Black fraternal orders also results organization in early United States history.
from scholars' inattention to secret societies (D) It is one of the few Black fraternal organizations about which
of all kinds in American social history. Most extensive research has been done.
historians simply perceive fraternal orders (E) It is often cited by scholars as an example of the influence of
as insignificant. Moreover, twentieth- Black fraternal organizations on other institutions.
century American historians were
profoundly influenced by the Chicago School Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
12. The author of the passage attributes scholarly neglect of
of sociology, whose scholars treated African American fraternal organizations to which of the
fraternal orders as ineffective responses by following?
rural folk to the city's erosion of primary (A) The influence of the Chicago School of sociology
rural associations. Finally, until recently, (B) Scholars' assumption that African American fraternal
historians shared certain stereotypes of organizations have been less influential than other African
fraternal orders as unrealistic ventures into American organizations
fantasy due to those organizations' use of (C) Scholars' assumption that other kinds of secret societies have
been more socially significant than fraternal orders in the United
exotic rituals and regalia.
States
Section: 2

1. Many legislator who helped Rosevelt shape the New Deal_____ the fact that emerging social problems
affected every segment of the population; nonetheless, they often acted with a view to aiding only their own
constituents.
(A) disregarded
(B) bemoaned
(C) ignored
(D) disputed
(E) downplayed

2. The differences between theater and film are never more _____ than with Shakespeare's plays, since
Shakespeare wrote for an audience that liked to listen and films are made for people who primarily like to watch.
(A) astonishing
(B) patent
(C) suspect
(D) constrained
(E) inconsequential

3. The 1938 "War of the Worlds" fiasco, in which millions of people supposedly believed that a fictional radio
program about a Martian invasion was true, is held up as an example (i)_____ of the of the American public.
While Americans are portrayed as (ii) _____ in this version of the story, research reveals that most listeners
knew the program was fictional.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) facetiousness (D stalwart
(B) mettle (E)gullible
(C) credulity (F) blithe

4. Despite its title and the recipes it provides, the main purpose of The Insect Cookbook is not (i) _____.
Instead, the book seeks to (ii)_____ of entomophily, i.e., the consumption of insects as food: it is composed of
interviews with chefs, farmers, politicians, and United Nations figures, all of whom attempt to (iii)_____ the
custom of eating insects.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) scientific (D) explore the history (G) promote
(B) culinary (E) condemn the practice (H) discredit
(C) educational (F) proselytize on behalf (I) reform

Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage.

From a biological perspective, culture may be 5. According to the passage, the occurrence of social
broadly defined as shared variation in behavior learning can be established by
that is generated and maintained by social (A) identifying the presence of a shared variation in
learning-through imitation or teaching, for behavior
example. Social learning in animals is often (B) establishing whether a learned behavior is complex or
difficult to demonstrate directly. But the simple
presence of culture can be established by (C) examining whether a behavioral difference is
observation and deduction: when behavioral maintained over time eliminating alternative
differences exist that cannot be accounted for by (D) explanations for a shared behavioral pattern
genetic or environmental factors, cultural (E) comparing behavior learned through teaching with
transmission must be occurring. Critics respond that learned through imitation
that it is often difficult to rule out hypotheses
that genes or learned individual responses to Consider each of the choices separately and select all that
differing environments are responsible for apply.
behavioral patterns. Often implicit in this 6. The passage suggests which of the following about
argument is the notion that social learning, individual learning?
considered a more complex and more (A) It does not occur as a result of imitation or teaching.
cognitively demanding phenomenon than (B) It is thought to be less complex than social learning.
individual learning, should be invoked only as (C) It can occur as a response to environmental factors.
an of last resort.
 Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.
In the years preceding the 1920 7. The passage is primarily concerned with
ratification of the Nineteenth (A) surveying the range of editorial opinion regarding female suffrage at
Amendment, which gave women in the time of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment
the United States the right to vote, (B) explaining the hesitancy with which United States magazines
the editors of such general opinion approached the issue of woman suffrage
magazines as The New Republic (C) exemplifying how tacitly held editorial positions can slant
and Literary Digest did not appear journalistic coverage of issues of public concern
to feel threatened by the possibility (D) analyzing the motivations that generated contrasting editorial
of woman suffrage. Their goal was attitudes toward woman suffrage in the United States
not to protect the status quo but to (E) discussing the effectiveness of magazine journalism in advocating
focus on the logic behind various woman suffrage in the United States
arguments advanced in the debate
on suffrage. In their estimation it 8. The author of the passage implies that a consequence of the
made no sense to deny women attitude toward woman suffrage of magazines intended for a
suffrage, hence their editorial female readership was that
position, whether overt, as with (A) any of their readers who needed information to think through a
The New Republic, or covert, as position on the issue would have needed to look elsewhere
with Literary Digest. But while (B) the political activities of women campaigning for the passage of the
general opinion magazines were Nineteenth Amendment received less magazine coverage than they
taking a positive stance, magazines otherwise would have
intended for a specifically female (C) they did not succeed in rallying their readers in defense of the
audience did so only belatedly. It political status quo
can be said that the editors of these (D) they lost readers to general interest magazines that provided a more
latter magazines were thorough and more positive coverage of the issue
subsequently proud of what (E) these magazines' editorial position was criticized by certain woman
women had accomplished in suffrage leaders who felt that a more active stance on the issue
obtaining suffrage. Otherwise needed to be taken
Ladies' Home Journal, to take one
9. The author mentions the women' s magazine Ladies' Home
example, would not have published
Journal primarily in order to
glowing accounts of women's
(A) exemplify the difference in editorial stance on the issue of suffrage
political effectiveness. But it
between such magazines and general opinion magazines like The
cannot be said that women's
New Republic
magazines actively participated in
(B) illustrate conformist attitudes on the part of such magazines prior to
gaining suffrage. Rather the
the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment
editors, perceiving a threat to the
(C) emphasize how few of such magazines took a positive stance toward
status quo, opted for conformism
woman suffrage before 1920
and, by so doing, provided little or
(D) provide a counterexample to a generalization about the role of such
no basis for their readers to
magazines in the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment
appraise the issue critically.
(E) substantiate a claim about the changed attitudes of such magazines
following the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment

10. Indian physicist Meghnad Saha is an example of _____: facing discrimination because of his humble
background, he went on to establish the journal Science and Culture to disseminate scientific knowledge without
regard for class hierarchies.
(A) originality
(B) serendipity
(C) equanimity
(D) precocity
(E) tenacity
(F) doggedness

11. The author's latest novel may _____those who generally spurn her writing: its unvarnished prose has little
in common with the labyrinthine interior explorations of her earlier work.
(A) entice
(B) gall
(C) surprise
(D) placate
(E) rankle
(F) appease
12. Three of the nation's largest airlines could be operating under bankruptcy protection in coming weeks,
analysts say, the latest sign of the industry's_____ as it lurches through a historic transformation.
(A) upheaval
(B) exorbitance
(C) affluence
(D) peril
(E) convulsion
(F) opulence

Question 13 is based on following passage.

Historical preservation 13. Which of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the
societies preserve old argument?
structures to educate visitors (A) The public is more likely to visit historical sites that are considered
about local history. These aesthetically pleasing than those that are not.
groups generally choose to (B) Most of the old structures that are not considered aesthetically pleasing
preserve old houses that are are about the same age as the beautiful old houses that have been
considered beautiful, leaving preserved.
less aesthetically pleasing (C) Some old houses that were considered beautiful when they were built
structures to be demolished. were subsequently rendered aesthetically unappealing by
Thus, by giving visitors the modifications.
impression that all old (D) Few old houses not preserved by historical preservation societies are
buildings are beautiful, the maintained in good condition by the people who live in them.
groups systematically (E) Historical preservation societies generally photograph and document
misrepresent history. all old buildings and display those records at sites they have preserved.

Questions 14 and 15 are based on following passage.

Blues music speaks histories that, from the Consider each of the choices separately and select all
conventional perspective, originate in the that apply.
experiences of African Americans. But invariably, the 14. The passage suggests that which of the
blues exceed rigid cultural boundaries. Ralph following is an accurate characterization of the
Ellison's definition of the blues suggests an expansive blues as defined by Ralph Ellison?
vista, limited only by a speaker's capacity to lyrically (A) They are not limited to a specific cultural
express an "autobiographical chronicle of personal tradition.
catastrophe." As an idiom, the blues record histories, (B) They emphasize personal experience over
yet Ellison's definition privileges the personal and collective history.
leaves uncertain the role of national histories, the (C) They must appear in written works.
stories that speak our collective experiences. Locating
the collective histories in the personal has proved a 15. Select the sentence in the passage that
pivotal problem for readers in the written use of the describes a particular alternative to the
conventional perspective on the blues.
blues both in Ellison's fiction and in works by Toni
Morrison, Gayl Jones, and others.

Answer:
Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
A CF BEH D C EF AC CE CE E A AB

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
B B CE BFG D BC D A E EF DF AE E AB Ralph Ellison's definition of the blues
suggests an expansive vista
 Verbal Practice Test: sixteen
Section: 1
1. When we try to conceptualize evil, we necessarily focus on the boundary between bare acceptability and what
is intolerable, that is, on an important_____ of moral concern.
(A) anomaly
(B) ambiguity
(C) threshold
(D) axiom
(E) characteristic

2. Among geophysicists there was considerably less (i) _____ the proposed environmental measure than the
(ii) _____ media accounts of the conference would suggest: the debate was often animated but never uncivil.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) ambivalence toward (D) sanitized
(B) satisfaction with (E) sensationalized
(C) rancor over (F) poignant

3. Much of what has been written about the life of Georges Simenon is (i)_____. Simenon need not be blamed-
at least not much. Publishers know that it is the stories in the news pages and not the dry old book reviews that
bring fame to a writer and send up sales. Authors are valued for their apparent (i) _____: there is no glamour
in knowing that a writer mows the lawn and walks the dog. Simenon understood the value of (iii) _____ and
was encouraged to spin yarns about himself.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) cliché (D) authoritativeness (G) discretion
(B) invention (E) extraordinariness (H) publicity
(C) routine (F) openness (I) tenacity

Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.

Economist Benjamin Friedman argues 4. Which of the following best describes the general rule
that progressive policies in the United referred to in the last sentence of the passage?
States are usually associated with (A) The enactment of progressive legislation is not dependent on
periods of rapid economic expansion. prevailing economic conditions.
During the industrial boom of the early (B) People are less inclined to push for progressive social change
twentieth century, for example, when facing widespread desperation caused by economic
legislation Friedman considers conditions.
progressive was enacted, imposing (C) Periods of alternating economic growth and stagnation occur at
income taxes, limiting monopolies, relatively predictable intervals.
establishing female suffrage, and (D) There is a positive correlation between economic growth and
protecting workers. Similarly, the 1950s progressive social policies.
and 1960s, both periods characterized by (E) Periods of rapid economic growth are typically followed by
progressive governmental policies, were periods of economic stagnation.
periods of rapid economic growth. By
contrast, during economic downturns, Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
such as the periods between 1880 and 5. It can be inferred that Friedman would probably agree
1895 and between 1973 and 1993, with which of the following statements about the programs
referred to in the highlighted portion of the passage?
government has typically cut taxes,
(A) They were anomalous given the prevailing economic
reduced social programs, and restricted
conditions in which they were enacted.
immigration. Yet many progressive
(B) Their occurrence undermines the theory that progressive
social programs were passed during
social policies usually occur during periods of rapid economic
the Great Depression of the 1930s.
growth.
Friedman maintains that this does not
(C) Their enactment was facilitated by factors not typically
undermine the general rule: instead, he
associated with periods of rapid economic expansion.
claims, widespread desperation made
these programs possible.

6. By avoiding hyperbole in her definitive account of one of the most influential but controversial banks of the
modern era, Hurst shows herself to be a_____ author.
(A) judicious
(B) brilliant
(C) compelling
(D) sensible
(E) sympathetic
(F) solicitous
7. If aging is merely an avoidable by-product of life rather than a necessary progression, it is possible that we might
eventually forestall_____.
(A) senescence
(B) dynamism
(C) decrepitude
(D) privation
(E) ennui
(F) vitality
8. In nineteenth-century Puerto Rico, the consumption of salted cod spread among the entire population; on the tables of
humbler families it became_____ food, adding flavor to other products and supplying much-needed protein.
(A) an exotic
(B) an affordable
(C) an essential
(D) a supplemental
(E) a complementary
(F) a commonplace
9. The essay, focusing on the intricacies of complex corporate accounting practices, was_____ almost to a fault, leaving
the impression that these practices are rather straightforward.
(A) lucid
(B) punctilious
(C) reductive
(D) exhaustive
(E) intelligible
(F) comprehensive
Questions 10 to 12 are based on this passage.
In his essay "Classical Jazz and the Black 10. The author of the passage introduces the subject of jazz
Arts Movement," Lorenzo Thomas argues primarily in order to
(A) identify an exception to a generalization about the goals and values
that the Black Arts movement of the 1960s
of the Black Arts movement
grew out of the Harlem Renaissance of the (B) contrast the formal qualities distinctive of jazz with those
1920s, during which African American distinctive of European orchestral music
artists produced work consciously (C) suggest that, despite their differences, participants in the Harlem
grounded in their cultural heritage. Both Renaissance and the Black Arts movement held many views in
movements hoped to advance African common
Americans' social position through cultural (D) illustrate an essential difference between the political and aesthetic
expression. Yet Black Arts movement philosophies of participants in the Harlem Renaissance and the
scholar Larry Neal pronounced the Harlem Black Arts movement
Renaissance, which produced enduring (E) demonstrate that jazz held a special place among the art forms
produced by African Americans during both the Harlem
works in many genres, "essentially a
Renaissance and the Black Arts movement
failure." According to Thomas, Neal's 11. It can be inferred from the passage that, according to
statement reflects a difference in the two Thomas, the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance would
movements' political and aesthetic probably agree with which of the following statements
philosophies. Whereas leaders of the about the European artistic tradition?
Harlem Renaissance championed the cause (A) Its greatest achievements have been in the area of music
of African Americans by demonstrating rather than in the other arts.
their achievements in "high art" as defined (B) Its possibilities have been more thoroughly explored by
by European tradition, the Black Arts African American artists than by European artists.
movement's leaders celebrated an African (C) It has been unable to absorb or respond to artistic
American aesthetic conceived as openly achievements in the traditions of other cultures.
oppositional to that tradition. This is (D) It has been a vehicle for a political philosophy that does not
evident in the status held by jazz within the support the interests of African Americans.
two movements. Commentators of the (E) It sets a standard by which the accomplishments of non-
Harlem Renaissance cited, as evidence of European artists may be measured.
the sophistication of jazz, the adaptation of
12. It can be inferred from the passage that proponents of
jazz elements by European classical
the Black Arts movement did not view jazz in the same way
composers such as Antonín Dvorák. Some as the commentators of the Harlem Renaissance primarily
hoped that jazz musicians themselves because proponents of the Black Arts movement
would develop jazz into forms resembling (A) favored work that was consciously grounded in their cultural
European orchestral music. By contrast, heritage
asserts Thomas, Black Arts movement (B) did not feel that music necessarily needs to express a people'
participants celebrated jazz as a musical s historical experience
form grounded in African Americans (C) regarded European aesthetic norms as an inappropriate standard
historical experience that could not be for critiquing the jazz tradition
evaluated using European aesthetic values. (D) considered European orchestral music less sophisticated than jazz
(E) felt that European composers should not borrow elements from an
African American musical form
Section: 2
1. Because we participate in the dynamics of ecosystems as we restore them, restoration practice is in essence
antithetical to the idea of_____ wilderness.
(A) improved
(B) protected
(C) remote
(D) pristine
(E) degraded

2. The paintings of the 1960s Photo-Realists were meticulously rendered by artists who eschewed abstraction
for realistic representation and thus achieved a precisely detailed, impersonal_____.
(A) verisimilitude
(B) imagination
(C) idealization
(D) subjectivism
(E) grandiloquence

3. The author argued that the field of sociology has been overly (i) _____, partly because, for many scholars,
the edges of the social universe are defined by national borders. In this era of increasing globalization, however,
sociology is presented with a historically distinct opportunity to transcend its former (ii) _____.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) narrow in scope (D) utilitarianism
(B) susceptible to fads (E) parochialism
(C) averse to empiricism (F) historicism

4. Unlike other anthologies of Asian American literature, this one is organized solely by alphabetical order of
the authors' last names rather than along chronological or ethnic lines. While this decision is not explained, it
is not in itself (i) _____. More troubling is that similarly shrouded in editorial (ii) _____ is the question of
why these particular writers were selected and others excluded, for which some (iii) _____was clearly
employed.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) comprehensible (D) respectability (G) detachment
(B) distinctive (E) silence (H) rationale
(C) problematic (F) convention (I) action

Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage.

During the early nineteenth century, the demand for Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
ever-louder sound led to ever-increasing tension on 5. Which of the following statements about the
piano strings, making evident the need for stronger development of the piano can be inferred from the
passage?
framing. Sooner or later, someone would think of
(A) Pianos continued to be made by artisans well into
making metal frames. Although pianos were crafted
the nineteenth century.
by artisans long after factories had taken over the
(B) The use of steam-powered tools in piano making
manufacture of other commodities, the Industrial
led to a decline in tone quality.
Revolution nevertheless shaped the attitudes of those
(C) Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the framing in
who decided whether to accept this innovation. To
pianos was made entirely of wood.
build pianos with steam-powered tools was one thing;
to put a cast-iron frame at the center of the
6. In the context in which it appears, "tone" most
instrument, making the product itself a modern nearly means
factory of sound rather than a fully handcrafted (A) interval
artwork in wood, was quite another. The resulting (B) mood
debate was vigorous, with many feeling certain that (C) timbre
iron in the piano would ruin the tone. (D) pitch
(E) shade
 Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.
Study of the geological history of 7. The primary purpose of the passage is to
the Moon is based on the law of (A) explain how a scientific law was inferred from processes that were
superposition, which states that first revealed by photographic evidence
younger rocks and geological (B) reconstruct a chronology of events in order to explain the absence of
features visibly overlie older rocks certain expected lunar features
and features. For example, lines-or (C) show how physical evidence has been used to substantiate inferences
"rays" -radiate outward from the based on the application of a particular methodology
crater Copernicus and overlie the (D) suggest how conclusions are formed about the absolute ages of
rim of the neighboring crater geological features
Eratosthenes, demonstrating that (E) illustrate how a general principle has been used to draw certain
Copernicus is younger. Both of specific conclusions
these craters are younger than the
dark lava plain, Mare Imbrium, 8. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following
upon which they lie. In contrast, geological events occurred first?
the crater Archimedes is filled with (A) The impact that formed the rays of Copernicus
and surrounded by this dark lava, (B) The impact that formed Eratosthenes
from which its rim protrudes; thus, (C) The eruption that flooded Archimedes
the impact that created (D) The formation of the Imbrium basin
Archimedes predates the lava (E) The creation of Mare Imbrium
eruption that flooded the whole
region to create Mare Imbrium. All 9. It can be inferred from the passage that a medium-sized lunar
impact crater could be clearly determined to predate a smaller lunar
the foregoing features occur inside
impact crater if which of the following were observed in a
the giant Imbrium basin, itself a photograph of the two craters?
kind of colossal impact crater. (A) The smaller crater is entirely contained within the rim of the medium-
Thus, the relative ages of surface sized crater.
features in the Imbrium- (B) The medium-sized crater partially obscures the rim of the smaller
Copernicus region were crater.
unambiguously derivable from (C) Lava surrounds the medium-sized crater on all sides, but does not
photographs taken from Earth well surround the smaller crater.
before any lunar missions. Their (D) The rim of the smaller crater is an unbroken circle, but the rim of the
absolute ages, however, were only medium-sized crater is incomplete in places.
later inferred from physical (E) The smaller crater is streaked with the rays of the medium-sized
samples of lunar rock. crater.

10. The work is alive and heterodox, the kind of ambitious failure that is more _____than many finely crafted
critical successes.
(A) compelling
(B) interesting
(C) innovative
(D) lauded
(E) inspired
(F) celebrated

11. While the environmental detection of nuclear explosions has become_____, the ability to detect nuclear
weapons programs well before they result in a nuclear device would better serve security objectives.
(A) immediate
(B) unnecessary
(C) redundant
(D) straightforward
(E) surreptitious
(F) unproblematic

12. Though renowned among physicists today, Bell's paper garnered no great_____ when it first appeared.
(A) attention
(B) protest
(C) acclaim
(D) support
(E) outcry
(F) fanfare
 Question 13 is based on this passage.
Vitamin E helps the body eliminate 13. Which of the following most logically completes the
harmful chemicals, so some health- argument?
conscious people take vitamin E (A) any boost in the level of the alpha form in a person' s body will
supplements. There are two forms of tend to suppress the level of the gamma form in that person' s
vitamin E, and currently vitamin E body
supplements contain only the alpha (B) the alpha and the gamma forms can easily be combined in a
form, while only the gamma form rids stable form suitable for use in vitamin supplements
the body of the destructive chemical (C) there are some foods containing high levels of the gamma form
peroxynitrate. As it turns out, there is that are not a part of most people's diets
enough gamma form contained in the (D) people who take vitamin supplements are more likely to
typical diet to protect against maintain a diet containing high levels of the gamma form than
peroxynitrate, yet even so, the gamma are people who do not take vitamin supplements
form should be added to vitamin E (E) in the process currently used to manufacture vitamin E
supplements because_____. supplements, the gamma form of the vitamin is actually
removed as a result of steps taken to purify the alpha form

Questions 14 and 15 are based on this passage

Most popularizations of science actually do 14. The author of the passage mentions black holes in
more harm than good. Why? The single order to provide
most important feature of scientific work is (A) an instance of a factual error to which popularizations of
not this or that specific result. Instead, what science are prone
science accomplishes-and what physics in (B) a metaphor for the emptiness typical of most popular
particular accomplishes so beautifully-is science writing
the linking of diverse phenomena, the (C) a case in which a metaphor for a scientific process leads to a
binding together of a myriad of predictions misunderstanding of that process
and explanations. What nearly all (D) an example of the metaphorical explanations the author
popularizations do is systematically believes are typical of bad science writing
undermine the progressive reasoning that (E) an illustration of a complex phenomenon for which most
links principles, conventions, experiments, readers require simplified explanations
and laws. Bad science writing splinters the
most interesting feature of science, its long Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
run of connected argumentation, into 15. The passage implies that most popular science writing
isolated metaphors that last just long (A) focuses on discrete results arrived at by scientific reasoning
enough to evoke a particular result: black (B) spends more time describing scientific personalities than
holes are said to be huge funnels and scientific processes
quantum electron orbits are characterized (C) gives readers an incomplete view of the interrelatedness of
as diffuse clouds. scientific discovery

Answer
Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
C CE BEH D C AD AC DE AE D E C

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
D A AE CFH AC C E D A DF AD AF A D AC
 Verbal Practice Test: seventeen
Section: 1
1. It ought to be surprising that the bank falsified the numbers on its accounts; it is truly shocking that such
_____was documented, in black and white, and that regulators found it and did nothing about it.
(A) chicanery
(B) raillery
(C) enmity
(D) sagacity
(E) probity

2. Scientists once said that cosmology was the field where the ratio of theory to data was (i) _____: there was
an abundance of theories, but almost no data. Recently, however, that ratio has flipped. A huge and ever-
increasing amount of data has (ii) _____ all theories but one.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) largely unknown (D) eliminated
(B) nearly infinite (E) supported
(C) highly variable (F) clarified

3. This book cannot be evaluated properly without examining the author's choice of format, which is the (i) ___
of the format of standard academic works; here the photographs take center stage, with the text playing only a
supporting role. This layout poses many dangers for the serious historian, not the least of which being the (ii)
_____ reception that academics-motivated partly by (iii) _____ but also by a genuine concern over scholarly
standards-generally reserve for books apparently aimed at the popular market.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) duplicate (D) scornful (G) academic integrity
(B) epitome (E) deferential (H) snobbish elitism
(C) inverse (F) good-natured (I) collegial sympathy

Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage

In the 1830s, Stephens and other explorers 4. The author of the passage refers to "Egyptian and
of ancient Maya cities were struck by the Anatolian hieroglyphic" script primarily in order to
highly pictorial appearance of the then (A) establish the antiquity of Maya script by comparing it
undeciphered hieroglyphs, which with writing systems whose age is well known
frequently featured heads of humans and (B) suggest that they share a common origin with Maya
animals. In these hieroglyphs, the heads script
almost always face left. In other early (C) indicate the relative order in which different scripts were
scripts that feature pictorially based signs, deciphered
such as Egyptian and Anatolian (D) cite a precedent for reading scripts in a particular way
hieroglyphic, the order in which the (E) argue for the universality of certain symbols in pictorially
signs are to be read is opposite to the way based scripts
they face. Thus, even without the ability to
actually read Maya writing, Stephens, Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
based on his knowledge of the newly 5. Which of the following statements about ancient
Egyptian hieroglyphic can be inferred from the passage?
deciphered Egyptian script, might have
(A) Heads depicted within it generally face to the right.
correctly surmised that the general
(B) It was deciphered before Maya script was.
reading order is left to rightin contrast to
(C) Its deciphering was made easier by the deciphering of
Egyptian, which is usually scanned from
Anatolian hieroglyphic.
right to left.

6. Although initially it may be difficult to discern the essay's message of peace and conciliation, a close reading
reveals its essentially_____ nature.
(A) pacific
(B) indolent
(C) banal
(D) lethargic
(E) austere
(F) dovish
7. Interest in the recovery of lost works by Brazilian women writers is growing as scholars increasingly
recognize writing by Brazilian women as inherently worth study, not as _____writing by Brazilian men.
(A) divergent from
(B) ancillary to
(C) interchangeable with
(D) antithetical to
(E) subsidiary to
(F) complimentary to
8. The adipose tissue in which our bodies store fat from the food we eat has traditionally been thought of as
_____, but in reality this tissue constitutes a dynamic organ, not a mere repository.
(A) capacious
(B) deleterious
(C) inert
(D) detrimental
(E) passive
(F) inessential
9. Cunliffe is intellectually indebted to the Annales school of French economic and social historians, which
emphasized largely static environmental influences and long-term historical continuity and regarded political
events mainly as _____.
(A) breakthroughs
(B) advances
(C) disasters
(D) trivia
(E) conundrums
(F) ephemera
Questions 10 to 12 are based on this passage.
The manuscripts of the eight extant Latin 10. The author implies which of the following about
tragedies identify the plays as the Marci Seneca's status as the emperor s tutor?
Lucii Annei Senecae Tragoediae. Since (A) It enabled Seneca to illustrate points of his philosophy to the
nobody of that name is known, modern leaders of the early Roman Empire.
scholars believe the dramas to be the work (B) It had more of an effect on Seneca s career as a dramatist
of Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger, the than it did on his career as a philosopher, orator, and
well-known philosopher, orator, and politician.
politician. Clearly, the tragedies were (C) It might have offered Seneca some protection from certain
written during Seneca's lifetime: internal dangers playwrights typically faced.
references to earlier poets, most notably (D) It required Seneca to avoid making references to his various
Ovid, indicate that the dramas cannot have writings.
been composed prior to the second decade (E) It required that Seneca take particular care that his writings could
C.E., and the plays must have been written not be construed as being directed against the emperor.
by 96 C.E., when Quintilian quotes Medea, 11. The author of the passage makes which of the following
one of the tragedies. It is remarkable, claims about the eight extant Latin tragedies?
however, that Seneca himself never (A) There is only circumstantial evidence that the plays were all
mentions the plays, since there are written by the same author.
certainly passages in them that could be (B) Scholars have persistently attributed the plays to Seneca
used to illustrate points of his philosophy. despite evidence that some of them may have been composed
There are at least two possible prior to his lifetime.
explanations. In the early Roman Empire, (C) Evidence in the manuscripts of the plays identifies them as
playwrights were sometimes exiled or having been written by Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger.
executed for lines construed as directed (D) The plays contain some lines that have been construed as
against the emperor; thus, Seneca's silence being directed against the emperor.
may be simple prudence. But if anyone (E) The plays contain material that could illustrate certain
could safely attach his name to dramas, aspects of Seneca's philosophy.
surely it would be Seneca, the emperor's 12. Each of the following assertions consistent with Seneca's
tutor. And although Herrmann offers authorship of the plays appears in the passage EXCEPT:
Seneca's modesty as an explanation, (A) There is no known author by the name to which the plays are
Seneca is not averse to referring to his attributed.
other writings. The evidence for equating (B) Playwrights in the early Roman Empire were politically
Seneca with the author of the tragedies vulnerable.
seems circumstantial. (C) There are references in the plays to Ovid.
(D) There are references in the plays to Seneca's philosophical works.
(E) There are quotations from the plays in the works of Quintilian.
Section: 2

1. According to one prominent sociologist, the insider doctrine—the claim that only a member of a particular
group should study that group—is inherently _____in that the doctrine assumes that, to put it colloquially,
"you have to be one to understand one."
(A) insular
(B) fatalistic
(C) absolutist
(D) irrefutable
(E) impressionistic

2. There are several reasons why the rainbow color scale, and its use in data visualization, is problematic.
Perhaps the most fundamental issue is that the (i)_____ the colors in a rainbow is not (ii)_____: people do
not perceive the colors as ordered.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) intensity of (D) great
(B) difference in (E) intuitive
(C) sequence of (F) uniform

3. The book is not comprehensive but is, instead, (i)_____in the most positive sense of the word: it (ii)_____
rather than settles.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) definitive (D) stipulates
(B) provocative (E) suggests
(C) timely (F) disseminates

4. Since scientific truths must be discovered, and since many, probably most, are far from (i)_____, futile
investigations are (ii)_____. Thus, the path to the truth is decidedly a (iii)_____ one.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) intuitively obvious (D) inevitable (G) sinuous
(B) routinely acclaimed (E) auspicious (H) clandestine
(C) potentially useful (F) negligible (I) progressive

Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage.

This passage is adapted from material published in 2001.
Higgins has pointed out the perplexing Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
absence of a single musical composition 5. Which of the following statements about women and
music in Europe from 1300 to 1566 is supported by the
attributed to a woman in Europe from passage?
1300 to 1566 as a phenomenon more (A) Only women of European nobility had the opportunity
apparent than real. During that period, to receive musical training.
anonymous creativity by both men and (B) More songs were improvised by women in the European
women of European nobility was nobility than by men in the European nobility.
encouraged; hence improvised songs by (C) Signing their own musical work would not have been an
women would have been so common as to accepted standard of good taste.
deserve no particular attention. In
6. Which of the following best describes the function of
addition, many courtly women had the first sentence in the passage?
sufficient musical training to enable them (A) It provides a basis for understanding the nature of
to commit their songs to paper, even musical compositions in Europe from 1300 to 1566.
though it would have been unseemly for (B) It presents a reason to explain the lack of musical
them to sign their work. The existence of compositions attributed to women from 1300 to 1566.
many anonymous works increases the (C) It introduces a hypothesis to account for unexpected
likelihood that music by women of that inconsistencies.
period has indeed been preserved and that (D) It establishes a point of view regarding a phenomenon.
the circumstances of its composition and (E) It raises concerns about the unorthodox interpretation
preservation have prevented us from of a phenomenon.
identifying it.
 Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.
Some archaeologists speculate that the 7. The passage is primarily concerned with doing which of
Americas might have been initially the following?
colonized between 40,000 and 25,000 (A) Presenting an objection to a claim
years ago. However, to support this (B) Accounting for an apparent anomaly
theory it is necessary to explain the (C) Outlining an alternative interpretation
absence of generally accepted habitation (D) Correcting a particular misconception
sites for that time interval in what is now (E) Questioning the validity of a comparison
the United States. Australia, which has a
smaller land area than the United 8. The author of the passage notes Australia' s "smaller land
States, has many such sites, supporting area" in order to
the generally accepted claim that the (A) suggest that the number of habitation sites from between
continent was colonized by humans at 40,000 and 25,000 years ago that have been found in
least 40,000 years ago. Australia is less Australia is somewhat surprising
densely populated (resulting in lower (B) help show why the absence of habitation sites from between
chances of discovering sites) and with its 40,000 and 25,000 years ago in what is now the United States
overall greater aridity would have is problematic
presented conditions less favorable for (C) indicate that Australia is not exactly comparable to the United
hunter-gatherer occupation. States in size
Proportionally, at least as much land (D) emphasize a difference between Australia and the United
area has been lost from the coastal States in population density
regions of Australia because of (E) help explain a difference between Australia and the United
postglacial sea-level rise as in the United States in the number of habitation sites from between 40,000
States, so any coastal archaeological and 25,000 years ago
record in Australia should have been
9. The author of the passage implies that, in what is now the
depleted about as much as a coastal
United States, archaeological evidence of inhabitation in the
record in the United States. Since there period from 40,000 to 25,000 years ago is lacking because
are so many resource-rich rivers leading that region
inland from the United States coastline, (A) had its oldest habitation sites inundated following a postglacial
it seems implausible that a growing rise in sea level
population of humans would have (B) has many resource-rich rivers that facilitated the dispersal of
confined itself to coasts for thousands of its early inhabitants from an initial concentration in coastal
years. If inhabitants were present areas
25,000 years ago, the chances of their (C) was sparsely populated until about 25,000 years ago
appearing in the archaeological record (D) was colonized less than 25,000 years ago
would seem to be greater than for (E) was inhabited only by hunter-gatherers until 25,000 years ago
Australia.
10. Receiving sole credit for a scientific breakthrough is tantamount to acquiring a much coveted prize: small
wonder, then, that scientists often _____the claim of first discovery.
(A) trumpet
(B) shelve
(C) impugn
(D) dispute
(E) evaluate
(F) defer
11. One of the features of spoken discourse is that a speaker need not be maximally _____: if an interlocutor
is confused, he or she can interrupt and ask for clarification.
(A) honest
(B) forthcoming
(C) courteous
(D) meticulous
(E) explicit
(F) unambiguous
12. The vivid, intelligent introduction to fundamental elements of classical music offered by conductor Michael
Tilson Thomas in these programs has few precedents: Thomas is truly performing radical acts of _____.
(A) elucidation
(B) appropriation
(C) chicanery
(D) inspiration
(E) demystification
(F) subterfuge
 Question 13 is based on the following passage.
Most shells of most species of snails 13. Which of the following most logically completes the argument?
coil the same direction, (A) the text that appears in seventeenth-century engravings of snail
conventionally called right-handed. shells reads in the usual way from left to right
Shells with left-handed coiling are (B) the fact that not all snail shells coil in the same direction was not
exceedingly rare. Yet engravings of generally known to naturalists of the seventeenth century
snails in books for naturalists from (C) present-day books for naturalists sometimes contain snail
the seventeenth century always photographs that are reversed because a photographic negative has
show the shells coiling left. The been turned around by mistake
engraving process produces a (D) the primary interest of naturalists of the seventeenth century was
mirror image of what is drawn on in the correct description and classification of structures
the engraving plate. Nevertheless, (E) most of the engravings illustrating seventeenth-century books for
the reversal of the shell images was naturalists were drawn from observation of actual living specimens
clearly a convention rather than an and not copied from other drawings
artifact of the process, since_____.

Questions 14 and 15 are based on this passage.

New Zealand's lesser short-tailed bat, Mystacina 14. The passage is primarily concerned with
tuberculata, is one of only two bat species to use a (A) outlining certain difficulties associated with the study
true walking gait when maneuvering on the of a particular species
(B) suggesting that the development of a phenomenon
ground. It has been assumed that the specialized
was not predicated upon a particular condition
terrestrial habits of mystacinids evolved in New (C) pointing out that a particular event is rarely known to
Zealand following their isolation there. Absence of occur
native terrestrial mammalian predators in New (D) detailing evidence that refutes a commonly held
Zealand has been hypothesized to have facilitated notion
evolution of terrestriality. However, although it is (E) evaluating rival interpretations of a phenomenon
likely that terrestrial foraging by extant Mystacina
15. Which of the following can be inferred from the
tuberculata makes it vulnerable to introduced passage about Mystacina tuberculata?
mammalian predators, there is as yet limited (A) It derives benefits from ground foraging that
available data on the actual risk of terrestriality. outweigh the risks of predation.
Indeed, Lloyd argues that although some (B) Its flying ability is in some respects diminished in
individuals may be caught on the ground, comparison with most other bat species.
(C) Its isolation in New Zealand has led to a
generally they would not be easy prey: they
misunderstanding regarding its abilities.
olfaction, and can quickly take flight. (D) It has developed keener hearing than most other bat
species.
(E) It is not subject to predation by other bat species.

Answer
Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
A BD CDH D AB AF BE CE DF C E D

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
A CE BE ADG C D A B D CD EF AE B A A
 Verbal Practice Test: eighteen
Section: 1
1. The watchword in astronomy is _____: all claims must be examined critically in the light of current
knowledge, and one's mind should never be closed to the possibility that a theory could be wrong.
(A) implausibility
(B) imagination
(C) wariness
(D) determination
(E) incoherency

2. Increasing (i) _____ to use land for purposes other than food production (ii)_____ expanding agriculture
into currently uncultivated lands. Therefore, in order to meet growing global demand for food, more efficient
means of crop production must be found.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) reluctance (D) encourages
(B) pressure (E) underestimates
(C) failure (F) precludes

3. Since readily available computer programs now allow photographers to manipulate their images with the
same (i) _____ as painters, photography's claim to any inherent truth has just about evaporated. But the (ii)
_____ possibilities of photography have been present from the medium's birth. Distortions of truth not only
occur mechanically (through shutter speed, for example) and in printing (as through choice of chemicals and
paper) but are (iii) _____ to the very idea of photographers being stylistically different from one another.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) license for fiction (D) realistic (G) antithetical
(B) concern for precision (E) fictive (H) integral
(C) anxiety about errors (F) methodical (I) extraneous

Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.

Animals live longer when their calorie 4. The passage suggests that some scientists believe which
intake is restricted to two-thirds of what of the following about the changes mentioned in the
is considered normal for their species. highlighted portion of the passage?
Animals so restricted are also generally (A) They are adaptations that enhance the organism's ability to
healthier: most diseases, including process the toxic by-products of metabolism.
cancer, diabetes, and neurodegenerative (B) They cannot occur without some overall change in the rate of
illnesses, are forestalled. This metabolism.
phenomenon was long attributed (C) They are induced both by natural food scarcity and by artificial
to a simple slowing of metabolism restriction of calorie intake.
(cells' production of energy from fuel (D) They occur solely in response to reductions in total calorie
molecules) and consequent reduction of intake.
its toxic byproducts in response to less (E) They do not occur in nonmammalian species.
food. In fact, however, calorie restriction
does not slow mammalian metabolism, Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
and in yeast and worms, metabolism is 5. The passage implies which of the following about the
explanation mentioned in the highlighted text?
both sped up and altered. Some
(A) There are empirical findings that conflict with a presumption
scientists now theorize that calorie
of the explanation.
restriction is a biological stressor that,
(B) The explanation predicts that the effect of calorie restriction
like natural foop scarcity, induces a more
on longevity will be greatest for the species with the highest
complex defensive response, which in
rate of metabolism.
mammals includes changes in
(C) The explanation predicts that the effects of calorie restriction
cellular defenses and repair.
will be uniformly positive.

6. The difficulty of understanding subtle behavioral cues in dolphins is undisputed, but this does not obviate
the need for the evidentiary foundation of any study of dolphin behavior to be_____.
(A) substantial
(B) outdated
(C) solid
(D) circumstantial
(E) hypothetical
(F) unconfirmed
7. Early natural history collections in eighteenth-century Europe were _____: a bear's tooth might sit
incongruously alongside a piece of silverwork or, in the menagerie, a South American capybara might be housed
next to an African baboon.
(A) painstakingly arranged
(B) impressively comprehensive
(C) meticulously organized
(D) highly exotic
(E) fundamentally miscellaneous
(F) thoroughly eclectic
8. Many types of rocks contain small voids that _____vibrations: the greater the proportion of a rock's volume
that is void, the more gradually vibrations travel through it.
(A) amplify
(B) dampen
(C) generate
(D) impede
(E) produce
(F) conceal
9. There's_____ throughout the Broadway adaptation of The Color Purple that, while hardly true to the
harrowing bleakness of the early chapters of Alice Walker' s novel, does bring to mind the enjoyably hokey
cinematic lavishness of the film version.
(A) a starkness
(B) a splendor
(C) an austerity
(D) a sumptuousness
(E) a frivolousness
(F) a gravity
Questions 10 to 12 are based on this passage.
Julie Roy Jeffrey's recent book The Great 10. The passage is primarily concerned with,
Silent Army of Abolitionism shows how (A) using specific examples to illustrate certain shortcomings in
women participated in all aspects of the historians' traditional approach to a particular historical period
antislavery movement in the United (B) outlining the issues underlying a debate among scholars about
States, from its inception in the early a particular historical period
1830s through the end of the Civil War (C) considering the work of a particular scholar on a certain subject
(1861-1865). While scholars have in contrast to other work on the same subject
already pointed out the importance of (D) identifying some of the most important influences on a
women's work in early abolitionist particular historian's recent work
circles, especially in spreading a (E) pointing out certain inconsistencies in a recent work about a
grassroots antislavery message through particular historical period
the constant and tireless circulation of 11. Which of the following is cited by the "scholars" as an
petitions, Jeffrey disputes certain example of the important work done by early abolitionist
aspects of the traditional account of their women?
participation. For example, even though (A) The organization of fund-raising fairs
the abolitionist movement split into (B) The campaign against the Fugitive Slave Law
political and nonpolitical wings at the (C) The integration of the abolitionist movement
end of the 1830s and women were largely (D) The circulation of antislavery petitions
relegated to the less politicized faction, (E) The formation of African American abolitionist societies
Jeffrey does not accept the view that
12. The author mentions the "fund-raising fairs of the 1840s"
women's participation became primarily in order to
marginalized as a result. She (A) provide an example of the kind of grassroots work cited by
demonstrates that women found scholars in support of their claim that women played an
numerous ways to persist effectively in important role in early abolitionist circles
the cause, such as by organizing the (B) give an example of evidence used by Jeffrey to support her challenge
antislavery fundraising fairs of the to the claim that women's participation in the abolitionist movement
1840s. She also disputes the notion that became marginalized at the end of the 1830s
African American women were relegated (C) support Jeffrey's claim that in the decades preceding the Civil War,
to secondary positions in the largely African American women's abolitionist groups were often more
White movement: their own abolitionist effective than were integrated abolitionist groups
societies, she argues, often responded to (D) show how a split in the abolitionist movement into political and
the crises of the pre-Civil War decades, nonpolitical factions resulted in the marginalization of women's
participation
such as the Fugitive Slave Law, more
(E) make a comparison between the kinds of abolitionist activities
directly than did integrated abolitionist favored by integrated abolitionist groups and those favored by
groups. African American women's abolitionist groups
Section: 2
1. Drug companies rarely pursue new pharmacotherapies for rare diseases because of the high failure rates
and the cost of research, which make the companies' chances of recovering their investments_____.
(A) tenable
(B) dubious
(C) invaluable
(D) sanguine
(E) expensive

2. That there were a dozen complex debates on the lawyer's mind at any given moment did not (i) _____his
ability to perform physical work; on the contrary, he labored more vigorously when simultaneously engaged in
such (ii) _____ forensic exercises.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) enhance (D) elementary
(B) restore (E) cerebral
(C) impede (F) tangential

3. In writing about environmental issues, the author takes on some special artistic challenges. It is hard to
write a good novel that takes a strong stand on a social issue, although there are a few novelists, Zola and Norris
for example, who do manage to (i) _____the often circumscribing effects of (ii)_____.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) convey (D) cynicism
(B) reinvent (E) polemic
(C) transcend (F) tradition

4. The essential difference between writing nonfiction and writing fiction is that the artist can (i)_____ a
completed vision of the world, while the journalist never can, the real world being always (ii)_____. Art
provides freedom from the bewildering complexities of constant change. Indeed, it is the very (iii)_____ of
well-wrought fiction that can sometimes make it feel more real than reality.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) shun (D) diverting (G) popularity
(B) correct (E) tragic (H) rarity
(C) realize (F) unfinished (I) clarity

Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage

Simulations indicate, and observations 5. It can be inferred that the author of the passage mentions
confirm, that the particles constituting protoplanetary disks because
Saturn's rings are giving up angular (A) the computer modeling techniques used to study them were
momentum to moons of the planet. The later applied to Saturn's rings
simulations predict that over just a few (B) conclusions about them might reasonably be applied to
hundred million years, the related Saturn's rings
energy transfer will cause the rings' (C) the accepted understanding of them is challenged by
collapse. An analogous process occurs observations of Saturn' s rings
around young stars in the disks of matter (D) the material of which Saturn's rings are composed must at
from which planets emerge, and these one time have been in a protoplanetary disk around the Sun
protoplanetary disks do vanish that (E) observations of Saturn' s rings may serve as a substitute for
quickly, computer models show. Yet if observations of protoplanetary disks
Saturn's rings are so short-lived, a large
comet or moon-the rings' presumed Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
source-must have broken apart in 6. The passage suggests which of the following about
Saturn's vicinity within the past several the "energy transfer"?
hundred million years. That is quite (A) Its effects are obscured by the angular momentum of Saturn's
unlikely. It would have been much more moons.
probable in the young solar system-4 (B) It is part of a process that also imparts angular momentum to
billion years ago or more. at least some of Saturn's moons.
(C) It proceeds more slowly than does an analogous energy
transfer that occurs in the vicinity of young stars.
 Questions 7 to 9are based on this passage.
This passage is excerpted from an article 7. The primary purpose of the passage is to
discussing archaeologists' recovery of wooden (A) contrast two types of archaeological evidence
combs from an ancient Roman fortress. (B) explain why ~a particular finding is puzzling
When writing about combs, Roman (C) note an exception to a generalization question
archaeologists and ancient historians have (D) a particular interpretation
nearly invariably associated these 'toilet (E) evaluate two competing hypotheses
articles' with female beauty and the mundus
muliebris, the world of women. Such an 8. The author mentions "grave furnishings" primarily to
interpretation is in striking contrast with (A) account for a particular error made by some
many other periods of the European past, archaeologists and historians
when combs appear to have been either (B) acknowledge the diversity of uses for combs in different
ungendered or tokens of an exclusive male historical periods
identity. From the Middle Bronze Age through (C) establish a precedent for a particular assumption about
to the Iron Age as well as in the Middle Ages, the mundus muliebris
combs and other grooming tools often served (D) suggest that combs may have had different meanings in
as references to masculine beauty and as such funerary settings than in other settings
became part of the grave furnishings arranged (E) substantiate a particular interpretation of the
around the dead bodies of warriors. The significance of recovered combs
question then comes to mind: why there would
have been nothing of an equivalent in the 9. The passage implies which of the following about
Roman interlude? Moreover, the numerous Roman archaeologists and ancient historians?
finds that have recently been reported from (A) They have tended to underestimate the significance of
various Roman army camps make one feel combs recovered from sites of ancient Roman army
uneasy about the strengths of the traditional camps.
interpretation. Admittedly, the presence of (B) They appear to have misconstrued the decorative
women in and around Roman army camps is function of combs found at sites of ancient Roman army
no longer a point of discussion, and some of camps.
the combs from such military contexts may (C) They diverge from researchers studying many other
indeed have been in use by the wives of officers periods in the way they interpret combs recovered from
or the concubines of ordinary soldiers, but can historical sites.
they account for the numbers that have been (D) They make an assumption about the use of ancient
found? In view of these thoughts, one is combs based on evidence from later periods of history.
tempted to consider whether the combs were (E) They have generally assumed that combs were
perhaps rather used by the soldiers primarily used by women but that other toilet articles
themselves. were used equally by both genders.

10. The manufacturing company's swift maneuver enabled it to evade the full impact of the increasing cost of
raw materials, which brought the downfall of firms that responded less_____.
(A) ruthlessly
(B) deftly
(C) adroitly
(D) carefully
(E) extravagantly
(F) cautiously

11. Despite the critic's assertion that Willa Cather's place in the literary canon is now so entrenched that it
scarcely matters if she were really a modernist, her reputation arguably remains_____.
(A) flawless
(B) uncertain
(C) impressive
(D) tenuous
(E) consequential
(F) steadfast

12. Because chemistry's position as one of the natural sciences has long seemed_____, historians have
generally treated the foundation of chemical professorships as an inevitable component of the progression of
universities.
(A) manifest
(B) impregnable
(C) relevant
(D) predictable
(E) germane
(F) self-evident
 Question 13 is based on this passage.
At the beginning of 1995, Granville 13. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the
Center, a busy shopping mall in the city argument?
of Granville, initiated an anticrime (A) Some people who were convicted of crimes committed in
effort. Closed-circuit television cameras Granville Center in 1995 had not noticed the cameras.
were placed throughout the mall in (B) Among the crimes committed in Granville Center, the
conspicuous locations, and all activity proportion of burglaries was lower in 1995 than in 1994, but
within their range was monitored. The the proportion of acts of vandalism was higher in 1995.
number of crimes at the mall was 13 (C) Most of the cameras were installed in areas of the mall that had
percent lower in 1995 than it had been the greatest number of crimes in 1994. S
in 1994. Clearly, therefore, the cameras (D) Some of the cameras installed at the mall were not installed
discouraged the commission of crimes until the anticrime effort was well under way.
in Granville Center. (E) The number of crimes in the city of Granville was about 20
percent lower in 1995 than it had been in 1994.

Questions 14 and 15 are based on this passage.

Before feminist literary criticism emerged in the 14. It can be inferred that the author of the passage
1970s, the nineteenth-century United States mentions Fern' s "sharply humorous social criticism"
writer Fanny Fern was regarded by most critics primarily in order to
(when considered at all) as a prototype of weepy (A) contrast Fern' s apparent intentions with the
sentimentalism-a pious, insipid icon of impression her writing made on Harris
conventional American culture. Feminist (B) suggest that many feminist critics have attributed to
reclamations of Fern, by contrast, emphasize Fern intentions that she may not have had
her "nonsentimental" qualities, particularly her (C) identify an aspect of Fern's writing that strikes some
sharply humorous social criticism. Most scholars as incompatible with other attributes of her
feminist scholars find it difficult to reconcile writing
Fern's sardonic social critiques with her effusive (D) help account for the effect Fern's writing had on critics
celebrations of many conventional values. of her own time
Attempting to resolve this contradiction, Harris (E) identify the aspects of Fern' s writing for which she
concludes that Fern employed "flowery rhetoric" was primarily known prior to the 1970s
strategically to disguise her subversive goals
beneath apparent conventionality. However, 15. In the context in which it appears, "reclamations"
most nearly means
Tompkins proposes an alternative view of
(A) reformations
sentimentality itself, suggesting that
(B) rehabilitations
sentimental writing could serve radical, rather
(C) recapitulations
than only conservative, ends by swaying readers
(D) retractions
emotionally, moving them to embrace social
(E) reiterations
change.

Answer
Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
B BF AEH C A AC EF BD BD C D A

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
B CE CE CFI B BC D E C BC BD AF E C B
 Verbal Practice Test: nineteen
Section: 1

1. The assumption that children learn about science primarily in the classroom is so_____ that few policy
makers question it, despite an ever-growing body of evidence demonstrating that most science is learned outside
of school.
(A) tenuous
(B) subtle
(C) irrefutable
(D) pervasive
(E) misconstrued

2. Many civic institutions tend to (i) _____, when they do not actively discourage, the better natures of the
citizenry. People are individually altruistic social animals who nonetheless teach themselves to be (ii)_____ in
the public sphere.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) expose (D) selfish
(B) ignore (E) critical
(C) presuppose (F) adamant

3. In framing old paintings, after the gilding comes a process that is freer and more like art: toning the gold
and distressing it, so that the frame does not look new. Since verisimilitude is sought, the aim in adding apparent
age to the new surface must be to (i)_____,circumventing the human eye' s adeptness at spotting anything that
seems (ii)_____. Different framers have different ways of (iii)_____ the effect of chance.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) highlight the colors (D) inconsequential (G) ignoring
(B) conceal the artifice (E) illegitimate (H) circumventing
(C) increase the painting's value (F) intentional (I) mimicking

Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.

African American soul music's commercial 4. Which of the following does the passage suggest about the
influence gradually declined during the "shift" mentioned in the final sentence?
early 1970s as newer styles such as funk (A) It closed paths to musical expression for some African
and disco began to dominate the American musicians.
airwaves and other, larger changes (B) It ushered in a period of increasing profitability for major
occurred within the American music corporations.
industry. After the Second World War, (C) It was largely caused by changing creative priorities within
African American popular music had soul music.
largely been the province of independent (D) It prompted independent record labels to focus on funk and
record labels. By the 1970s, though, these disco music.
labels were either going out of business or, (E) It was the culmination of a trend that began during the Second
to an increasing degree, coming under the World War.
control of major corporations. This shift
had dire consequences for the production 5. The author mentions "the airwaves" primarily to
of soul music: whereas independent labels (A) suggest that the way people listen to music shapes their
had achieved success through a skillful musical tastes
balance of commercial and artistic (B) identify a major difference between soul music and other
considerations, the emphasis now became musical genres
fixed upon marketing a product, resulting (C) draw attention to the extent of technological change since the
in the more individualized voices in Second World War
African American popular music being (D) contrast the marketing strategy used by major corporations
quelled. with the strategy used by independent labels
(E) point out one sign of change in the musical landscape in the
1970s

6. Curry did not necessarily agree with the criticisms about her research paper, but rather than_____ them,
as many scientists might have done, she began to engage with the critics.
(A) dismissing
(B) refuting
(C) acknowledging
(D) recognizing
(E) ignoring
(F) attacking
7. The public memorial in Pretoria's Freedom Park presents _____view of South Africa's history, with the
names on it representing all those who died in conflicts that contributed to the shaping of the country.
(A) an inclusive
(B) a comprehensive
(C) a definitive
(D) a coherent
(E) an empowering
(F) a conventional
8. Scientists are finding that the adult brain is far more _____than they once thought: our behavior and
environment can cause substantial rewiring of the brain or a reorganization of its functions and where they are
located.
(A) reparable
(B) heterogeneous
(C) malleable
(D) variegated
(E) complex
(F) plastic
9. Given the important role that apologies can play in human relations and the almost daily news reports of the
latest celebrity or political apology, the_____ of empirical research on the subject is surprising.
(A) weakness
(B) scarcity
(C) complexity
(D) impartiality
(E) want
(F) sophistication
Questions 10 to 12 are based on this passage.
Ralph Cohen, in his 1964 critical history of 10. The primary purpose of the passage is to
Thomson's The Seasons, argued nearly half a (A) refute an established view of how an author's works
century ago that illustrations are criticism of the were received by his contemporaries
works they illustrate. More recently, critics have (B) account for the sophistication of graphic design in a
fruitfully explored illustrations of the works of particular literary genre
Defoe and Sterne. In her study of graphic design (C) compare the eighteenth-century reception of a work
and the novel, Janine Barchas has explained with its current reception
the function of illustrations as "interpretive (D) make a case for a particular approach to studying the
guides." Barchas mainly discusses frontispieces, works of a novelist
but her point applies to other kinds of (E) argue for the importance of reviving interest in the
illustrations. In the case of Tobias Smollett, early writings of an author
illustrations not only indicate what illustrators
thought of the novels, but may also reveal how 11. The author of the passage cites Janine Barchas
those novels were received by readers. The primarily to
number and diversity of the images are especially (A) highlight a shortcoming of an earlier approach
valuable because, as Fred W. Boege long ago (B) support the credibility of an analytical strategy
demonstrated, we know relatively little about (C) question an assumption underlying a critical trend
how eighteenth-century readers conceived of (D) illustrate how critics' understanding of Smollett' s
Smollett as a novelist. Our understanding of eighteenth-century reception has improved
Smollett's reception has improved since Boege's (E) explain why methods used to study other eighteenth-
time, but some difficulties in knowing what century novelists might not apply to Smollett
readers thought of Smollett remain, because
recorded responses are scanty. Roderick 12. The passage suggests that eighteenth-century
reviewers of Smollett' s novels were likely to
Random, for instance, did not receive any
(A) quote long stretches from the books they reviewed
reviews, since it was published before reviewing
(B) identify with characters in the books they reviewed
contemporary fiction became widespread. And
(C) privilege style over plot when evaluating novels
reviews of the other novels consist mainly of large
(D) compare the books they reviewed to the literature of
excerpts from the work itself with a few general
earlier periods
remarks on how well the characters are
(E) pay close attention to illustrations in the books they
conceived. Nor do the few responses we have
reviewed
provide a consistent picture of how Smollett was
read. The illustrations, therefore, give us
alternative perspectives that can only enrich our
understanding of Smollett's reception.
Section: 2
1. Some experts now feel that exercise should not be regarded as _____other treatments for depression: they
believe that exercise can itself serve as an appropriate remedy for some forms of the mood disorder.
(A) a model for
(B) a substitute for
(C) an improvement on
(D) an adjunct to
(E) an impediment to

2. One of the most appealing things about Sloterdijk's philosophy is his willingness to be_____: he does not
attempt to anticipate and to refute all possible objections.
(A) adaptable
(B) impartial
(C) vulnerable
(D) accessible
(E) charitable

3. The 1938 "War of the Worlds" fiasco, in which millions of people supposedly believed that a fictional radio
program about a Martian invasion was true, is held up as an example (i)_____ of the of the American public.
While Americans are portrayed as (ii) _____ in this version of the story, research reveals that most listeners
knew the program was fictional.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(D) facetiousness (D stalwart
(E) mettle (E)gullible
(F) credulity (F) blithe

4. The world we inhabit is extremely rich in detail and may be very complex. (i) _____, when solving a problem
or executing a task, (ii) _____aspects of the reality are (iii)_____: for instance, when one is planning a flight,
the physical attributes of the aircraft, such as color or the exact shape and size, are irrelevant and can be ignored.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) therefore (D) many other (G) obvious
(B) surprisingly (E) all these (H) confusing
(C) fortunately (F) only some (I) material

Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage.

The early-nineteenth-century British economy 5. The primary purpose of the passage is to
did not experience a rapid and wholesale (A) revisit a model that scholars have recently abandoned
"industrial revolution," as scholars once (B) qualify a scholarly view that has superseded a previous
claimed. Nevertheless, the more gradual and one
uneven picture that has emerged at the (C) offer reasons for a recent shift in a scholarly consensus
aggregate level should not disguise the fact that (D) illustrate the cultural consequences of an economic
in some regions and industries dramatic phenomenon
discontinuities occurred, creating an economic (E) explain why a historical phenomenon is easily
configuration (and a cultural response) that misinterpreted
became very different very quickly. Perhaps
paradoxically, the recent scholarly emphasis on Consider each of the choices separately and select all that
gradualism has placed focus on the 1830s as a apply.
decade of critical change, when economic 6. The author of the passage suggests which of the
development accelerated significantly and a following about the early-nineteenth-century
recognizable "industrial" economy first became British economy?
visible, with many industries and occupations (A) It did not develop in a uniform fashion in every part of
rapidly evolving. Factories and machines did not the country.
become ubiquitous, but they became dominant (B) It did not evolve as rapidly as recent scholars have
images of the age and a powerful motor for the claimed.
development of new social identities. (C) It changed in ways that fostered cultural and social
changes.
 Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.
This passage is adapted from an essay 7. In the context of the passage, the mention of the
published in 2010. As I write, the Large Hadron Large Hadron Collider primarily serves to
Collider, the world's biggest atom-smasher at (A) demonstrate the attention that is paid to what some
CERN in Geneva, has switched on with almost consider pure science
unprecedented media jamboree. Asked about (B) introduce a change in the prevailing attitude toward
the practical value of it all, Stephen Hawking science
has said that "modern society is based on (C) call into question the currently existing priorities for
advances in pure science that were not foreseen scientific research
to have practical applications." It's a common (D) illustrate the contributions that applied science has
claim, and it subtly reinforces the hierarchy made to pure science
that Medawar identified: technology and (E) cast doubt on the hierarchy identified by Medawar
engineering are the humble offspring of pure
science, the casual cast-offs of a more elevated 8. According to the passage, the "explicit and
pursuit. painstaking efforts" are
I don't believe that such pronouncements are (A) part of the same overall endeavor as pure science
intended to denigrate applied science as an research
intellectual activity; they merely speak into a (B) the foundation of the techniques that allow advances in
culture in which that has already happened. pure science
Pure science undoubtedly does lead to applied (C) needed before the findings of pure science have
spin-offs, but this is not the norm. Rather, most practical benefit
of our technology has come from explicit and (D) in danger of dying out because of the attractions of pure
painstaking efforts to develop it. And this is science
simply a part of the scientific enterprise. A (E) ultimately of greater importance than the great
dividing line between pure and applied science majority of work in pure science
makes no sense at all, running as it does in a
convoluted path through disciplines, 9. The passage implies that the statement made by
departments, even individual scientific papers Stephen Hawking has which shortcoming?
and careers. Research aimed at applications (A) It overstates the importance of technology for modern
fills the pages of the leading journals in physics, society.
chemistry, and the life and Earth sciences; (B) It fails to recognize the distinct goals of pure and applied
curiosity-driven research with no real practical science.
value is abundant in the "applied" literature of (C) It ignores the work involved in tuming initial insights
the materials, biotechnological, and into useful technology.
engineering sciences. The fact that "pure" and (D) It treats somewhat unusual cases as if they were the
"applied" science are useful and meaningful general rule.
terms seduces us sometimes into thinking that (E) It inappropriately understates the value of pure science.
they are real, absolute, and distinct categories.
10. The online discussion became so ferocious that some participants were reluctant to continue logging in for
fear of being confronted with yet another_____.
(A) platitude
(B) harangue
(C) rant
(D) panegyric
(E) eulogy
(F) disquisition
11. Researchers studying India's monsoon weather have evaluated more than 100 years of rain gauge
data;_____ such information, South American scientists are forced to reconstruct centuries of monsoon history
by analyzing lake-bottom sediment cores.
(A) verifying
(B) lacking
(C) utilizing
(D) employing
(E) wanting
(F) confirming
12. In a time when so much new concert music failed to speak to listeners, the composer symphonies expressed
with _____wit and scorching emotional power the tragic history he lived through.
(A) torpid
(B) insouciant
(C) patronizing
(D) caustic
(E) phlegmatic
(F) stinging
 Question 13 is based on this passage.
The Great Sphinx, a huge statue in the 13. The argument that the Sphinx's face is not that of Khafre
Sahara Desert, has a lion's body and a relies on which of the following as an assumption?
man's head. The face was long thought (A) The face of the Sphinx bears no resemblance to the face of the
to be that of the pharaoh Khafre, who pharaoh Khafre.
lived around 2600 B.C. Certain erosion (B) There are no other erosion patterns on the legs of the Sphinx
patterns recently discovered on the of a sort that could have been caused by wind and sand alone.
Sphinx's legs can only have been caused (C) The Sphinx was not originally created for the purpose of
by heavy rains. Since the Sahara has not honoring any individual person.
had heavy rains in over 10,000 years, (D) A new face was not made on the Sphinx during Khafre's reign.
the face of the Sphinx cannot possibly (E) On the face of the Sphinx, there are erosion patterns that could
be that of Khafre. only have been caused by heavy rains.

Questions 14 and 15 are based on this passage.

Critical neglect of Emily Brontë's poetry is 14. The author mentions "Virginia Blain's anthology"
longstanding and once resulted from an primarily in order to
idea of Victorian poetry as essentially a (A) represent a voice opposing the feminist critics mentioned in
male preserve. Feminist critics have the second sentence
challenged this understanding of Victorian (B) elaborate on a claim made in the third sentence
poetry, largely by displacing critical (C) provide an example of an omission decried by feminist critics
approaches that required a particular (D) cite a tendency that preceded the advent of feminist criticism
subject matter or point of view and (E) note an exception to a tendency described earlier in the
therefore undervalued women poets passage
whose work did not conform. But feminist
critics' own assumptions about Victorian 15. The reference to what "Emily's sister Charlotte said"
women's poetry have also threatened to serves primarily to
exclude Emily Brontë. Virginia Blain s (A) illustrate an attitude toward Victorian poetry that has been
anthology of Victorian women's poetry is common among feminist critics
representative, not eccentric, in omitting (B) provide a vindication for those scholars who have given
Brontë. Blain aimed to provide wide- critical attention to Emily Brontë's poetry
ranging coverage of "the kinds of subjects (C) suggest that Emily Brontë's poetry would not be well served
and poetic treatments most often by being included in an anthology of poetry by women
employed by Victorian women poets," yet, (D) identify an aspect of Emily Brontë's poetry that is
as Emily's sister Charlotte said, increasingly of interest to literary critics
Emily's poetry is not "at all like the poetry (E) shed light on a particular oversight common among feminist
women generally write." critics studying Victorian poetry

Answer
Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
D BD BFI A E AE AB CF EF D B A

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
D C CE CFI B AC A A D BC BE DF D B E
 Verbal Practice Test: twenty
Section: 1

1. In an ironic twist, the recent_____ of the reductive observational methods that have enabled science to
progress for four centuries may turn out to be science's biggest step forward.
(A) introduction
(B) validation
(C) acceptance
(D) standardization
(E) questioning

2. Fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli was just nineteen years old when Futurism erupted, but she later heeded
that violent, belligerent art movement's call in the (i) _____ of her broad-shouldered suits, the rawness of her
furs and embroidery, and her (ii) _____attitude, which her contemporaries described as "hard chic," toward
any simpering or mincing in fashion.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) swagger (D) tolerant
(B) fustiness (E) pugnacious
(C) delicacy (F) ingenuous

3. For any art lover who has sat through a high-stakes auction, where artworks often are applauded for their
(i)_____, there is something undeniably (ii)_____ about encouraging more people to see (iii)_____, rather
than dollar signs, when they look at paintings on museum walls.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) flouting of tradition (D) refreshing (G) creativity
(B) facile aestheticism (E) pretentious (H) ambition
(C) record-breaking prices (F) gratuitous (I) dilettantism

Questions 4 and 5 are based on this passage.

In late imperial China (circa 1650-1850), 4. It can be inferred that the author assumes which of the
excessive exploitation came not from the following about the emperor's strategy of keeping "the taxes
sovereign but from his agents, who had low and his bureaucracy small"?
shorter-term goals and narrower (A) It was implemented with little understanding of its
interests than their ruler did. While the consequences.
emperor's interest in preempting (B) It was a concession made to ameliorate an unacceptable
rebellion militated against over taxation, situation.
his agents had incentives to exploit the (C) It was an indication of the emperor's refusal to compromise
taxpayers for their own benefit. Due to his principles.
weak oversight, the emperor had to keep (D) It was a rare success in a policy area characterized by failure.
the taxes low and his bureaucracy (E) It was a choice of the common good over the emperor's
small to mitigate this "tyranny at the personal interests.
bottom" effect. This fiscal weakness of
the Chinese state had long been masked 5. It can be inferred from the passage that the Chinese
emperor and the bureaucracy differed with respect to the
by its huge tax base; however, the
(A) priority each placed on preventing popular rebellion
economic expansion of the eighteenth
(B) aversion of each to economic and bureaucratic reform
century exacerbated the problems of
(C) interest each showed in addressing the fiscal weakness of the
administrative control, further
state
squeezing the nation's finances and
(D) willingness of each to encourage economic stability through
leaving China ill prepared for the
large tax revenues
challenges of the nineteenth century.
(E) enthusiasm each had for the expansion of the Chinese
economy

6. A time of social and economic turmoil, it nevertheless witnessed marked cultural_____, proving again that
political stability is no prerequisite for artistic excellence.
(A) repression
(B) cohesion
(C) autonomy
(D) flowering
(E) unity
(F) advancement
7. Viruses are generally regarded as being on the far side of the demarcation between living and nonliving
things, yet newly discovered giant viruses have longer genomes than some bacteria, whose status as living
entities is _____.
(A) elusive
(B) incontrovertible
(C) questionable
(D) underestimated
(E) indisputable
(F) debatable
8. Throughout human history, intelligence and consciousness have been _____concepts: those possessing
much of the former are assumed, in some ill-defined way, to be more conscious than those less astute.
(A) disputed
(B) allied
(C) conflated
(D) loaded
(E) contested
(F) misjudged
9. Because Latin American colonial societies were fundamentally organized along hierarchical bases, the
spatial arrangement of the cities and towns was also_____ ranking.
(A) subordinate to
(B) imbued with
(C) equated with
(D) permeated by
(E) compromised by
(F) constrained by

Questions 10 to 12 are based on this passage.

Federal courts in the United States, 10. The author of the passage is primarily concerned with
especially before the famous 1962 (A) analyzing the sources of a disagreement
case of Baker v. Carr, were often (B) criticizing the past decisions of a court system
thought to be powerless in the area of (C) evaluating the impact of a set of judicial decisions
election law, voting rights, and other (D) comparing two dissimilar approaches to the study of a discipline
legal questions clearly bearing on (E) commenting on an aspect of United States judicial history
politics. This perception was not
11. It can be inferred that the author of the passage believes the
entirely correct, of course, as pre- record of judicial decisions regarding voters' rights between
1962 Supreme Court decisions such the Civil War and 1962 to have been
as that in the case of Smith v. All (A) inconsistent with the record of judicial decisions regarding
wright demonstrated: in the wake of related political issues
that decision, voting participation (B) unlikely to be helpful in arguing present-day cases
among African Americans in the (C) counter to the principles upheld in the case of Baker v. Carr
South increased substantially. (D) a reflection of the lack of federal court jurisdiction over cases
However, political rights had not bearing on politics
always been so clearly championed (E) an indication of the evolution of society' s ideas
by the Supreme Court as they were in
Smith v. All wright. Indeed, the 12. Which of the following can be inferred regarding the case of
Baker v. Carr?
transformations that took place in
(A) Its outcome required clarification in subsequent decisions
judicial thinking and its underlying
rendered by the Supreme Court.
assumptions between the Civil War
(B) Its resolution attested to the power of federal courts to address
and 1962 were such that, in
legal issues related to politics.
reviewing voters' rights cases over (C) It marked a radical change in judicial thinking in the United
the intervening decades, one feels States.
like an archaeologist cutting through (D) It was decided before the Supreme Court heard the case of
distinct layers in which the judicial Smith v. All wright.
decisions uncovered reveal a pattern (E) It has little historical significance aside from its focus on laws
of ideological and societal change. affecting politics.
Section: 2
1. The message the author conveys is that the bluefin tuna fishery worldwide is being mismanaged and that
despite a few_____ signs, such as the partial recovery of stocks in some areas, the immediate future looks bleak.
(A) extraneous
(B) ominous
(C) conclusive
(D) prosaic
(E) propitious

2. The apparent promise of clean alternatives to environmentally harmful fossil fuels might actually (i) _____
fossil-fuel industries by framing energy problems not as a matter of excessive consumption but rather as a
remediable lack of clean energy production, thus enticing citizens to (ii) _____ the current energy consumption
patterns from which fossil-fuel industries profit.
Blank (i) Blank (ii)
(A) benefit (D) call attention to
(B) pressure (E) demand changes in
(C) transform (F) remain complacent about

3. The enthusiasm that many English artists and writers felt regarding the Labour Party (i)_____amid
complaints that arts funding remained as (ii)_____under Labour as it had been under the Tory Party. And even
though the government recently announced a significant funding boost for the Arts Council, some arts leaders
still refuse to (iii) _____ Labour.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) intensified (D) far-reaching (G) trust
(B) resurfaced (E) parsimonious (H) condemn
(C) waned (F) staggering (I) ignore

4. It would be easy to (i) _____Dahl' s fine little book on democracy-barely 200 pages long, yet sketching the
meaning of democracy, the history of democracy, the forms of democracy, and the prospects for democracy-on
the grounds that it failed to go into this or that in the detail required. But such a response would be misguided:
(ii)_____ and (iii)_____ are the whole point of such a book.
Blank (i) Blank (ii) Blank (iii)
(A) compress (D) accuracy (G) controversy
(B) overrate (E) brevity (H) subtlety
(C) criticize (F) authenticity (I) sweep

Questions 5 and 6 are based on this passage.

Willa Cather's ability to adopt different 5. The primary purpose of the passage is to
narrative personae in her fiction was (A) examine the role of journalism in Cather's success as a
significantly informed by her earlier writer
journalistic writings, in which she used (B) suggest that Cather's journalism made her fiction writing
pseudonyms to navigate between a possible
feminized domestic sphere and a (C) reveal the sources of Cather's financial independence
masculinized professional sphere, widening (D) discuss Cather's conflicted attitude toward journalism
her audience appeal. But Cather grew much (E) document the evolution of Cather' s writing style
more ambivalent about her magazine work
as she began to write fiction: while early on 6. The author of the passage discusses Cather's "ability to
journalism was crucial to her financial adopt different narrative personae" primarily in order to
independence and vital to the cultivation of (A) show how Cather' s fiction writing differed from her
her developing writing skills, she eventually journalism
saw it as a threat to her artistic autonomy as (B) explain why Cather made statements that may appear
a writer of literary fiction. It may thus not be contradictory
surprising that the same author who claimed (C) describe how Cather benefited from her work as a
that writing "has to be gone at like any other journalist
trade" would also condemn journalism as (D) examine some of Cather's strengths as a writer
the "vandalism of literature." (E) consider how Cather matured as a writer
 Questions 7 to 9 are based on this passage.
Biologists know that some marine 7. The primary purpose of the passage is to
algae can create clouds by producing (A) explain the role played by temperature in the stimulation of
the gas dimethyl sulphide (DMS), DMS production by marine algae
which reacts with oxygen in air above (B) outline the sequence of events that occurs during the process of
the sea to form solid particles. These cloud formation caused by algal activity
particles provide a surface on which (C) describe a dispute about the role played by marine algae in
water vapor can condense to form certain instances of cloud formation
clouds. Lovelock contends that this (D) propose a way in which scientists might be able to understand
process is part of a global climate- the effects of clouds on marine algae
control system; according to Lovelock, (E) discuss a theory regarding the function of DMS production by
Earth acts like a super organism, with marine algae
all its biological and physical systems 8. It can be inferred from the passage that Lovelock thinks
cooperating to keep it healthy. He that biologists who question his hypothesis about cyclical DMS
hypothesized that warmer conditions output and algal activity make which of the following errors?
increase algal activity and DMS output, (A) They do not recognize the benefits that Earth receives from the
seeding more clouds, which cool the activity.
planet by blocking out the Sun. Then, (B) They exaggerate the rate at which nitrogen falls from the
as the climate cools, algal activity and clouds.
DMS levels decrease and the cycle (C) They assume that the algae remain near the ocean surface
continues. In response to biologists throughout the cycle.
who question how organisms (D) They overlook the benefit that the algae receive from the
presumably working for their own formation of clouds.
selfish ends could have evolved to (E) They fail to recognize changes in surface water temperature
behave in a way that benefits the that are caused by algae clouds.
planet, Lovelock points out that DMS
9. The passage mentions the possible benefit to algae of
production benefits not only the planet
nitrogen falling down in rain most likely in order to
but the organisms as well: cooling
(A) provide support for Lovelock' s response to an objection
benefits the algae, which remain at the
mentioned in the passage
ocean surface, because it allows the
(B) suggest that the climatic effects of DMS production have been
cooled upper layers of the ocean to
underestimated
sink, and then the circulating water
(C) acknowledge that Lovelock' s hypothesis is based in part on
carries nutrients upward from the
speculation
depths below. Algae may also benefit
(D) demonstrate that DMS production alters the planet in more
from nitrogen raining down from
than one way
clouds they have helped to form.
(E) assert that algae are the sole beneficiaries of DMS production
10. Whether the director's action was pusillanimous or merely the effect was the same: many board members
argued against continuing to entrust leadership to a person who was perceived as unwilling to take risks.
(A) flagrant
(B) envious
(C) prudent
(D) intrepid
(E) brazen
(F) circumspect
11. Whereas ground-based interferometers detect astrophysical events briefly and infrequently, space-based
ones should hear a_____ of signals as soon as they turn on, including a constant chorus from binary white
dwarfs in our galaxy.
(A) smattering
(B) plethora
(C) profusion
(D) trickle
(E) range
(F) hum
12. Hamlin Garland has tried to appeal to a wider audience by moving away from the gritty realism of his early
writings, which often advanced populist political causes, and toward_____ mainstream fiction.
(A) demanding
(B) topical
(C) anodyne
(D) toothless
(E) derivative
(F) challenging
 Question 13 is based on this passage.
A person who, after drinking alcoholic 13. The answer to which of the following questions would be
beverages, is too intoxicated to drive most relevant to an evaluation of the argument?
safely will fail certain tests of manual (A) How many automobile accidents, on average, are caused by
dexterity. Therefore, if all intoxicated drivers each year?
automobiles were equipped with (B) How long, on average, after a person has consumed an alcoholic
devices that test manual dexterity and beverage does it take for the effects of intoxication to appear?
prevent those people who fail the tests (C) How long would it take to equip all automobiles with devices to
from starting their cars, there would test manual dexterity?
be significantly fewer automobile (D) What percentage of accidents that are caused by intoxicated
accidents caused by driver drivers result in injury to other people?
intoxication. (E) Aside from manual dexterity, can other abilities that might be
impaired by consumption of alcohol be readily tested?

Questions 14 and 15 are based on this passage.

In the mid-1970s, historians often debated Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
the motives of the American 14. According to the neo-Whig scholars as described in the
Revolutionaries. For neo-Progressive passage, which of the following were motives for the
scholars, the Revolution was rooted in the American Revolution?
(A) The desire of elitist gentlemen to defend their liberty
experience of social inequity and in a
(B) The desire to thwart the actions of powerful men
democratic striving against privilege. These
(C) The desire to create an egalitarian society
scholars focused less frequently on great
men of the Revolution than on ordinary 15. The author of the passage would most likely agree
people -farmers, artisans, and laborers-and with which of the following statements?
marginalized groups. Conversely, neo- (A) The neo-Whig scholars suggested that powerful men
Whig scholars believed that republican recognized the impact the American Revolution would have
political ideas determined the actions of the on ordinary people.
(B) The motivations behind the American Revolution were
Revolutionaries. Their Revolution followed
politically conservative for the most part.
from the shared belief that powerful men (C) The neo-Progressive scholars underestimated the extent to
had always sought, and would always seek, which powerful men benefited from the American
to deprive their fellow citizens of liberty and Revolution.
property. Ironically, in the conservative act (D) One result of the American Revolution was a furthering of
of defending their own liberties and estates, the goal that the neo-Progressive scholars attributed to the
the decidedly elitist gentlemen who Revolutionaries.
(E) Powerful men ultimately had less influence than
articulated revolutionary ideals also
marginalized groups did on the direction of the American
liberated egalitarian impulses that would Revolution.
produce a democratic society.

Answer
Section: 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
E AE CDG B A DF BE BC BD E E B

Section: 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
E AF CEG CEI D C E D A CF BC CD B B D