ALL WIC VAR

The extensive use of the costly pigment ultramarine in the paintings of Johannes Vermeer—creator of masterpieces such as Woman with a Lute (ca.1662-1663)—was likely ______ as much by the pigment's chemical durability as by its exclusiveness and vivid blue hue: relative to indigo and other blue pigments employed by Vermeer and his contemporaries, ultramarine is less susceptible to degradation.

A. constrained

B. motivated

C. expedited

D. preempted

B. motivated

The springbok can run very fast—up to 88 kilometers per hour (km/hr)—but it is significantly slower than the white-throated needletail swift, which can fly at speeds up to 169 km/hr. The difference between these speeds is largely ______ of the fact that the features that make flight possible do less to limit top speeds than the features suitable for running on land.

A. an explanation

B. a consequence

C. an objective

D. a repudiation

B. a consequence

When minor planets are discovered, each is given a unique identification number, and some may be given a unique name, as in the case of 1083 Salvia, which was named after the plant genus that includes sages. Under current astronomical conventions, it is ____ for the discoverers to name their discoveries, but they are not required to do so; whether to assign a minor planet a name is entirely the choice of whoever discovers it.

A. permissible

B. infeasible

C. selective

D. mandatory

A. permissible

The Urfa Man—a statue of a human figure found in what is now Turkey and dating from around 11,000 years ago—is sometimes said to be emotionally powerful despite its age, but in fact the statue is _____ precisely because of its age. It is the link of shared humanity with the artist across so many centuries that makes the Urfa Man so meaningful.

A. neglected

B. authoritative

C. moving

D. simple

C. moving

The people inhabiting the Ice Age sites now known as Shuidonggou 2 and Potocka Cave likely began wearing clothing as a defense against the cold, but Ian Gilligan et al. argue that as clothing became ______, its purpose shifted from the purely practical. Once wearing clothing turned into a widespread, familiar practice, differences in clothes could take on social and cultural significance.

A. divisive

B. provisional

C. ubiquitous

D. feasible

C. ubiquitous

The ______ May-lee Chai's book Tiger Girl has been very positive. Many reviewers have praised the book, and it won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature.

A. inspiration for

B. neglect of

C. response to

D. confusion about

C. response to

The reception of Kelly Yang's book Front Desk has been very ______. Reviewers have praised the book extensively, and it won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature.

A. positive

B. confusing

C. humorous

D. secretive

A. positive

The Mackenzie River delta in Canada is where the river flows into the Beaufort Sea. As the river reaches the sea, it forms smaller channels where sediments carried by the river are deposited and form many deltaic lobes, or wetland formations. The shape and size of the delta are _____ by the sea's tides, which shift sediments along the coast and reshape the deltaic lobes over time.

A. enhanced

B. protected

C. surpassed

D. influenced

D. influenced

In the architectural process called modular construction, a building is manufactured in modules under controlled conditions and then assembled at its intended location. ___ of this approach cite a greater potential for reuse and recycling and the reduction of noise pollution in crowded urban areas.

A. Components

B. Safeguards

C. Proponents

D. Epitomes

C. proponents

Some cities track pedestrian activity to map their sidewalks, but this method often ______ sidewalks few pedestrians use, resulting in incomplete maps. Maryam Hosseini and her team found that a computer program trained to identify sidewalks in aerial images of Boston could also accurately identify sidewalks in aerial images of Philadelphia and even distinguished between concrete and granite.

A. neglects

B. oversees

C. approves

D. detects

A. neglects

Some cities track pedestrian movements to map their sidewalk networks, but this method often results in incomplete maps because it can _____ an area with few pedestrians for an area without sidewalks. To help address this problem, Maryam Hosseini and her team trained a computer program to identify sidewalks in aerial images of Boston; they found it could not only accurately identify sidewalks in asphalts.

A. mistake

B. create

C. search

D. deceive

A. mistake

Often, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is given to a single person, such as George de Hevesy in 1943. But recognition isn't restricted to ______ individuals. Instead, success in fields like chemistry is usually achieved through collaboration with other experts, as was the case for Max Ferdinand Perutz, who was among those awarded for "their studies of the structures of globular proteins."

A. solitary

B. coordinated

C. considerate

D. coincidental

A. solitary

It is hardly an exaggeration to characterize modern Hawaiian literature as having ______ the traditional stories of the Kanaka Maoli, the Native Hawaiian people. In a variety of ways, Samuel Kamakau, Kristiana Kahakauvila, and other acclaimed writers have drawn on these stories to craft a rich portrait of the Hawaiian Islands and their people.

A. brooded on

B. supplanted

C. anticipated

D. derived from

D. derived from

New and interesting research conducted by Suleiman A. Al-Sweedan and Moath Alhaj is inspired by their observation that though there have been many studies of the effect of high altitude on blood chemistry, there is a ______ studies of the effect on blood chemistry of living in locations below sea level, such as the California towns of Salton City and Seeley.

A. quarrel about

B. paucity of

C. profusion of

D. verisimilitude in

B. paucity of

The fossil remains of the individual known as TM 266, discovered in Chad in 2001, can help paleoanthropologists not only identify steps in the evolution of hominids but also illuminate the Miocene epoch generally, ______ important details about the time in which TM 266 lived.

A. spreading

B. celebrating

C. fabricating

D. revealing

D. revealing

Text corpora such as the Bank of English are enormous collections of electronically stored texts that can be used for empirical testing of hypotheses regarding the frequency of typical word usage. For example, a linguist who assumes that the word "life" is ______ in written English could find evidence supporting that assumption in a corpus: "life" is the ninth most commonly used noun.

A. ubiquitous

B. authoritative

C. diminishing

D. misused

A. ubiquitous

Philosopher Ingrid Robeyns argues that to minimize wealth inequality, there should be a legally enforceable upper limit on the wealth one person can hold. Robeyns acknowledges that some ______ in wealth should be tolerated—for example, some jobs assign more responsibility than others, and those jobs should therefore earn a higher income than others. But this is not a license for limitless wealth inequality.

A. disparity

B. assurances

C. security

D. confidentiality

A. disparity

Difficulties of documenting nocturnal pollinator visits and a general focus on diurnal invertebrate pollinators, such as Cerceris rybyensis, have resulted in ________ of information on nocturnal moth pollination of plants such as Rubus fruticosus L. aggregate, but Max Anderson et al have addressed this by utilizing infrared technology.

A. an abatement

B. an aggregation

C. a dearth

D. a dissonance

C. a dearth

The ________ of horse populations across Eurasia today reflects the competitive advantages of the highly mobile DOM2 breed that emerged through domestication and selective breeding in the 3rd millennium BCE. DOM2 spread quickly and extensively, completely supplanting other horse breeds in places like Kirklareli, Kanligeçit, Turkey, and Repin Khutor, Russia, by the end of the 2nd millennium BCE.

A. homogeneity

B. profusion

C. variability

D. ubiquity

A. homogeneity

Green hydras and certain other species lack functional ocular organs, so they use different mechanisms to navigate their surroundings. Licheng Yuan and colleagues investigated how Chinese red-headed centipedes ________ their lack of eyes and other organs with photoreceptors (light-detecting cells) by relying on thermal receptors to recognize and subsequently avoid sunlight.

A. compensate for

B. capitalize on

C. depend on

D. advocate for

A. compensate for

Research on Chaenocephalus aceratus and other icefishes of the Teleostei class has shown that their hearts are pale due to low levels of myoglobin expression, which was once thought to be related to their polar habitats. Recently, researchers have found that some tropical teleost species (such as Amblyeleotris wheeleri) also have pale hearts, raising the possibility that myoglobin deficiency in teleosts could be ______ habitat.

A predictive of

B obscured by

C mediated by

D irrespective of

D. irrespective of

To ________ concerns that quantified modal statements like "it is possible that all people could become excellent chess players" aren't evaluable in terms of formal logic because they depend too heavily on the nuances of natural language, Ruth Barcan Marcus developed a purely symbolic, nonlinguistic method of representing such statements as logical propositions.

A corroborate

B delineate

C obviate

D vindicate

C. obviate

Using clear-sky CSIF, a data set of plant fluorescence (a photosynthesis proxy), to track growing seasons, Zhu et al. found that start-of-season dates estimated from CSIF and from observation moderately correlated but that estimated end-of-season dates failed to correlate, likely because evidence of autumn photosynthesis decline—a staggered, protracted process—is more ________ than that of spring photosynthesis onset.

A exhaustive

B equivocal

C incontrovertible

D abridged

B. equivocal

Monitoring of bird population responses to restoration of riparian (river-adjacent) habitats in the Colorado River Delta revealed overall gains, but trends at the species level could be ______ even within ecological guilds (species linked by resource usage): though both are riparian forest birds, Columbina passerina showed initial signs of recovery, whereas Polioptila melanura did not.

A. ominous

B. extraneous

C. contrived

D. discrepant

D. discrepant

Efforts to reverse habitat degradation caused by water withdrawals and agricultural development in the Colorado River Delta have led to the recovery of some bird species of conservation interest, a sign—albeit a preliminary one—that restoration interventions, including reforestation with native willow trees and reconnection of secondary river channels, have likely been ______.

A. exhaustive

B. definitive

C. inevitable

D. efficacious

D. efficacious

Electricians confronting century-old wiring often find themselves playing detective, tracing circuits that were modified numerous times by different hands, each addressing immediate needs with varying levels of sophistication—and little effort to maintain overall organization. What appears to be a simple fixture replacement can reveal a network that is truly ______.

A) byzantine

B) fraudulent

C) rudimentary

D) monotonous

A. byzantine

The links between the Lindy Hop, a 1930s dance, and seemingly unrelated contemporary styles like voguing have been ______ in dance history accounts. The Jazz Continuum, whose ensemble has featured the show's creator LaTasha Barnes and dancer Tyedric Hill, has corrected this, its choreography integrating the Lindy Hop, voguing, and other styles in an illustration of their shared history.

A) celebrated

B) neglected

C) revived

D) overemphasized

B. neglected

Some scholars have argued that the stories of the Kanaka Maoli, the Native Hawaiian people, ______ Hawaiian culture to a remarkable degree, extensively shaping its literary expression, as is evident in works by Anwei Skinsnes Law and Imaikalani Kalahele.

A. expound

B. protract

C. permeate

D. elide

C. permeate

Some literary scholars have claimed that no matter their varying evident subjects, works by modern and contemporary Hawaiian writers such as Samuel Kamakau and Kiana Davenport are all ______ the themes and concerns of the traditional stories of the Kanaka Maoli, the Native Hawaiian people. These stories permeate Hawaiian culture to a remarkable degree and continue to shape its literary expression.

A. extolled in

B. imbued with

C. chastened by

D. impervious to

B. imbued with

The Roc-aux-Sorciers frize—a group of relief carvings of animals found in what is now France and dating from around 14,000 years ago—is sometimes said to be emotionally powerful despite its age, but in fact the frize is ______ precisely because of its age. It is the link of shared humanity with the artist across so many centuries that gives the Roc-aux-Sorciers frize such resonance.

A. ingenious

B. pristine

C. meticulous

D. affecting

D. affecting

Contesting claims that the massive increase in patents in recent decades has been ______ a rise in technological innovation, Yuen Ang et al. show that truly novel patents—those, like a 2004 patent for a robot with flexible structures, that combine previously unaffiliated technological domains—have been vastly outnumbered by nonnovel patents (e.g., a 2011 patent for a mobile-phone holder).

A) occluded by

B) dissociated with

C) misconstrued as

D) tantamount to

D. tantamount to

Yuen Yuen Ang et al. argue that merely tallying the number of patents filed per year ______ the degree of innovation occurring: truly novel patents—those, like a 2004 patent for a robot with flexible structures, that combine previously unaffiliated technological domains—are vastly outnumbered by nonnovel patents (e.g., a 2008 patent for a method of making soup).

A) thwarts

B) maligns

C) belies

D) portends

C. belies

The Iowa Writers' Workshop, an influential graduate program in creative writing, is often criticized for promoting strict ______ conventional approaches to storytelling, and it's true that many graduates of the program comply with narrative conventions, as Ayana Mathis does in The Twelve Tribes of Hattie. Yet others reject them, as Justin Torres does in the innovative We the Animals.

A. obliviousness to

B. contempt for

C. indecision about

D. adherence to

D. adherence to

Castanopsis chrysophylla (giant chinquapin tree) has reticulate venation, in which intersecting leaf veins form netlike structures. Though the ______ inherent to this venation pattern makes hydraulic conductance less efficient than in plants with simpler branching veins, it also serves a crucial function: if any veins are damaged, alternative pathways reduce disruptions to fluid circulation.

A. complaisance

B. reprisal

C. incongruity

D. redundancy

D. redundancy

To investigate whether ______ adverbs ending in -ly (e.g., "cheerfully") is associated with literary acclaim for novelists, Ben Blatt calculated the rates at which such words occur in the works of James Joyce and other celebrated English-language authors. Blatt confirmed that there is indeed a positive correlation between low-ly adverb rates and novels' perceived literary merit.

A. refuting

B. scrutinizing

C. extolling

D. eschewing

D. eschewing

The endings of historical cities are often less clear-cut than those of legendary lost cities like Atlantis. In Four Lost Cities, Annalee Newitz argues that political tensions and natural disasters left their marks on the thriving Roman city of Pompeii but did not erase it, making the city ______ the forces that successively shaped it over time.

A. a sanctuary from

B. a harbinger of

C. a testament to

D. an accessory to

C. a testament to

______ traditional descriptions of pollination syndromes (suites of floral traits, such as nectar composition and symmetry, hypothesized to have independently evolved as a result of selection pressure exerted by pollinators) and recent empirical observations of floral-trait combinations have led some ecologists to express reservations about the utility of those descriptions.

A. Discrepancies between

B. Proclamations of

C. Recurrences of

D. Affinities between

A. Discrepancies between

Corn's diffusion toward the Oneida people was geographically and temporally ______: as with other varieties developed by eastern North American tribes, the ancestry of Oneida white corn extends to southwestern populations, including one grown in Arizona circa 275 BCE, to older populations in northern Mexico, and finally to southern Mexico, where corn was domesticated circa 7000 BCE.

A. idiosyncratic

B. opaque

C. volatile

D. incremental

D. incremental

Like all hummingbirds, Selasphorus scintilla has high metabolic needs and is thus expected to prefer flowers with copious nectar, but María A. Maglianesi et al. found that nectar volume poorly predicted interaction frequencies between plants and hummingbirds, including S. scintilla. If, they concluded, nectar volume does in fact mediate hummingbirds' foraging, its precise role remains ______.

A. incredulous

B. incipient

C. elusive

D. ephemeral

C. elusive

The corolla (collection of petals) of Heliconia beckneri may ______ visits from hummingbirds, like Heliodoxa jacula, whose bills are shorter than the corolla. Nectar production is energetically expensive, so long corollas that impede broad access to nectar stored at their bases may help the plant conserve resources for interactions with more efficient pollinators with compatible traits.

A. obscure

B. concentrate

C. induce

D. deter

D. deter

By placing sites such as Belgium's Historic Centre of Brugge on its World Heritage List, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization designates them as having "outstanding universal value" and publicly recommends their preservation—a noteworthy act of ______.

A. contention

B. vanity

C. revision

D. advocacy

D. advocacy

By placing sites such as Brazil's Discovery Coast Atlantic Forest Reserves on its World Heritage List, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization champions their preservation, in the hope that they will not be willfully damaged or left to ______.

A. deteriorate

B. diversify

C. regenerate

D. provoke

A. detertoriate

By placing sites such as Azerbaijan's Khan's Palace on its World Heritage List, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization champions the ______ of those locations for having what the organization designates as "outstanding universal value," which therefore makes them deserving of protection.

A. explication

B. prohibition

C. concentration

D. preservation

D. preservation

The pinecone fish is among the 1.32% of marine species with confirmed bioluminescence. Many glowing displays are subtle and brief, making detection difficult. However, advances in deep-sea exploration technologies are likely to ______ the confirmation of bioluminescence in more marine species by enabling observations of this ability in their natural habitats.

A. extrapolate

B. accelerate

C. recalibrate

D. navigate

B. accelerate

Though iconic Brutalist structures, like the Barbican Estate (1976) in London, UK, are known for their visually arresting use of concrete, the choice of the material was also ______. The unprecedented expansion of public services and civic institutions in the United Kingdom during the 1950s-70s required widescale construction, and concrete was inexpensive and plentiful.

A. anomalous

B. polarizing

C. onerous

D. pragmatic

D. pragmatic

The 1981 recording "9 to 5" established Dolly Parton as a key figure in pop music. But before she dabbled in pop, her singing and songwriting had been ______ the traditional folk music of the Appalachian Mountains. For example, "Down from Dover," one of her best early songs, borrows its approach to storytelling from Appalachian ballads.

A. rooted in

B. helpful to

C. unaware of

D. hostile to

A. rooted in

The decline of the giant ground sloth, a species found throughout South America before it became extinct around 8500 BCE, surely had a number of ______ the larger ecosystem in which it existed. The giant ground sloth was part of a complex food web with other organisms, and its disappearance likely affected several other species.

A. sources in

B. consequences for

C. similarities to

D. precedents in

B. consequences for

Large marine sinkholes known as blue holes (for example, the Dahab Blue Hole) can reach depths of hundreds of meters. The Dragon Hole, which extends 300 meters below sea level, was the deepest known blue hole until Laura Carrillo and colleagues determined in 2023 that the Taam Ja' Blue Hole ______ it, extending at least 420 meters below sea level.

A. surpasses

B. precludes

C. mitigates

D. subverts

A. surpasses

Because blue holes (such as the Lost Blue Hole in the Bahamas) and cenotes (such as Melissani Cave in Greece) differ in their size, water composition, and type of location, they are not usually viewed as being _____, but both are water-filled sinkholes typically produced by the natural dissolution and collapse of rocks.

A. distinct

B. incongruous

C. analogous

D. explicable

C. analogous

Although Mistress and Maid, which depicts two women perusing a letter, is atypical of Johannes Vermeer's genre paintings (scenes of everyday life) in that its subjects are set against a plain background instead of—as in The Guitar Player—a richly detailed one, the painting nonetheless ______ many signature traits of Vermeer's art, including use of the costly pigment ultramarine.

A. evinces

B. eschews

C. repudiates

D. predates

A. evinces

While some scholars have ______ the use of the costly pigment ultramarine distinguishes Johannes Vermeer from many other Dutch genre painters of the seventeenth century—a group that also includes Pieter de Hooch and Nicolaus Maes—E. Melanie Gifford et al. noted that in fact the pigment can be found, to a greater or lesser extent, in works by almost all of those painters.

A) misdescribed why

B) contended that

C) overlooked why

D) refuted that

B. contended that

There is significant ______ in the top speeds of the world's fastest animals, which partly results from differences in animals' means of locomotion. The springbok, for example, can run up to 88 kilometers per hour (km/hr), while the white-throated needletail swift can fly at the astounding speed of 169 km/hr.

A) ambiguity

B) correspondence

C) equivalence

D) variation

D. variation

The springbok can run very fast—up to 88 kilometers per hour (km/hr)—but it is significantly slower than the peregrine falcon, which can fly at speeds up to 389 km/hr. The ______ between these two speeds is not surprising, however, because the features that are most useful for running on land tend to be more limiting on top speeds than the features that are best suited for flying through the air.

A. interaction

B. disparity

C. equivalence

D. competition

B. disparity

Even among fast animals, top speeds can vary significantly. For example, the quarter horse can run up to 89 kilometers per hour (km/hr), whereas the golden eagle is much faster, flying up to 320 km/hr. This difference is largely because the features that are ______ for running on land restrict top speeds more than the features needed for flying through the air.

A. approved

B. essential

C. challenging

D. trivial

B. essential

Although oil shocks—such as the 10% rise in oil prices in November 1970—can strongly affect individual consumers, Gbadebo Oladosu and colleagues have shown that at the level of national economies, their effects are often quite ______. The effect of recent oil shocks on the gross domestic product of Germany, for example, was only slightly greater than zero.

A. variable

B. persistent

C. subdued

D. beneficial

C. subdued

As the use of non-oil energy resources has increased, the relationship between oil shocks—such as the 45% rise in oil prices from November 1980 to February 1981—and national economic activity has _____. Indeed, Gbadebo Oladosu and colleagues showed that the effect of recent oil shocks on the gross domestic product of the United States was only slightly greater than zero.

A. acquiesced

B. abated

C. oscillated

D. reverted

B. abated

Gbadebo Oladosu et al. have shown that the effect of oil shocks—such as the 37% rise in oil prices between November 1947 and January 1948—on national economies has declined in recent decades. (In Japan, the effect is now only slightly different from zero.) This ______ of oil prices and general economic performance is attributable to the rising use of non-oil energy resources.

A. decoupling

B. inversion

C. devaluing

D. oscillation

A. decoupling

Urban green spaces can improve air quality, as vegetation absorbs pollutants and also dilutes pollutant concentrations through ventilation. However, data from air-quality monitoring stations in locations throughout Romania suggest that this often-cited benefit of vegetation is not always ____; researchers found that when there are many trees along a busy street, ventilation has minimal effect on the air quality.

A. moderate

B. realized

C. unappreciated

D. compressed

B. realized

The subscription model in which consumers who do not deliberately cancel their subscriptions automatically pay recurring fees for access to products and services benefits retailers when consumer ______ is high. Many of the 8.5 percent of subscribers who canceled their food and beverage subscriptions in January 2022 had stopped valuing their subscriptions long before then, but sellers profited from those customers' passivity in the interim.

A. inertia

B. evasion

C. decisiveness

D. turnover

A. inertia

The subscription model in which consumers who do not deliberately cancel their subscriptions automatically pay recurring fees for access to products and services benefits retailers when consumer passivity is high. Many of the 8.5 percent of subscribers who canceled their food and beverage subscriptions in January 2022 had stopped valuing their subscriptions long before then, but sellers profited from these customers' ______ in the interim.

A. torpor

B. elasticity

C. evasion

D. brevity

A. torpor

The metal displayed in the structure of House in Kamiaraya by Kazuto Nishi Architects and the metal hardware in UE House by GENETO are representative aspects of a juxtaposition common in contemporary Japanese architecture: the ______ of sleek, contemporary elements and traditional organic materials in a single design is a trend with both aesthetic and highly practical purposes.

A. designation

B. analysis

C. diffusion

D. synthesis

D. synthesis

A team of microbiologists measured surface temperatures of various wild mushrooms including Amanita muscaria and a species from the genus Cantharellus. The temperatures ranged from 1.4 to 5.9°C lower than the temperature of the surrounding air, a difference the team ______ to water evaporating from the mushrooms and thus cooling them.

A. prescribed

B. conceded

C. amended

D. attributed

D. attributed

Microbiologist Radames Cordero and team investigated surface temperatures of a variety of fungi, including Pleurotus ostreatus and a species from the genus Cantharellus, in a study ______ a previous observation. Cordero had taken thermal images of various wild mushrooms while hiking and found that the mushrooms all appeared to be colder than the surrounding environment, raising questions about thermoregulation in fungi.

A. released in

B. acknowledged in

C. excluded by

D. prompted by

D. prompted by

Siemomysł is said to have ruled what eventually became Poland in the 10th century. Unlike that of Zbigniew or other well-attested figures from early Polish history, Siemomysł's existence has been the subject of debate, as our knowledge of him is ______ somewhat dubious oral traditions first written down hundreds of years after the events they describe.

A. reminiscent of

B. unsupported by

C. derived from

D. independent of

C. derived from

Daniel J. Kliebenstein and colleagues ______ pots of sterilized soil with slurries of live microbes collected from soil in five sites across Colorado, including areas of sagebrush and dry pasture. Kliebenstein and team then grew mustard plants in the pots to see if the different microbial slurries affected levels of spicy glucosinolates like butenyl in the plants' seeds.

A. estimated

B. precluded

C. sanitized

D. populated

D. populated

A number of recording artists ______ distinctions between Indigenous music and other musical styles. For example, the Haudenosaunee group the Halluci Nation incorporated powwow music into electronic dance music on its album One More Saturday Night, and Swinomish/Iñupiaq musician Black Belt Eagle Scout combined powwow-style melodies with rock on her album At the Party with My Brown Friends.

A) disguise

B) reject

C) replace

D) observe

B. reject

A number of recording artists ____ Indigenous music with other musical styles. For example, Wolastoq musician Jeremy Dutcher incorporated traditional Wolastoq songs into experimental pop on his album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, and Tuscarora/Taino singer-songwriter Pura Fé combined Indigenous rhythms and vocals with R&B on her album Sacred Seed.

A. fuse

B. analyze

C. acquire

D. exaggerat

A. fuse

Some social scientists argue that while a belief in the importance of individual autonomy is key to democracy, the public's understanding of economics is also central to its subsequent comprehension of a state's politics, and if an electorate is to function, economic issues cannot remain the domain only of experts. Economics is too ___ to leave to economists alone.

A. respectable

B. accessible

C. complex

D. critical

D. critical

Some social scientists say that while a belief in the importance of reason and progress is key to democracy, public understanding of economics is also central to public comprehension of state politics, and if a citizenry is to function, economic issues cannot remain the province only of specialists. In short, knowledge of economics is not ______ and must not be left to economists alone.

A. unattainable

B. equitable

C. superfluous

D. commonplace

C. superfluous

One way to evaluate the importance of a scholar's research is to ______ other scholars' references to that research. For example, a count of other scholars' citations shows that Boston University economist Marianne Baxter, who studies international finance, is referenced frequently, indicating that her work has been significant in the field.

A. constrain

B. dispute

C. tally

D. predict

C. tally

One way to evaluate the importance of a scholar's research is to ______ other scholars' references to that research. For example, a count of other scholars' citations shows that Cornell University economist Francine Blau, who studies labor economics, is referenced frequently, indicating that her work has been significant in the field.

A. abridge

B. transpose

C. enumerate

D. circumvent

C. enumerate

One reasonable way to evaluate the ______ of a scholar's research is to track how often other scholars refer to that research. For example, Stanford University economist Caroline Hoxby, who studies education and economics, is among the world's most frequently cited researchers in her specialty, indicating that her work has had a significant effect on the field.

A. impact

B. complexity

C. expense

D. unity

A. impact

One way to ______ the importance of a scholar's research is to track how often other scholars refer to that research. For example, Yale University economist Xiaohong Chen, who studies statistical methods in economics, is among the world's most frequently cited researchers in her field, indicating that her work has been quite significant.

A. increase

B. measure

C. diminish

D. vary

B. measure

Three pieces likely from the repertoire book of a traveling medieval minstrel indicate the narrator directly appealing to the audience, referring to Holbrooke, Radford, and other towns along the minstrel's route; and using standard characters such as Jon Belly-Burst. These features likely ___ the sort of flexibility traveling performers would have needed to customize their performances for different audiences in different places.

A. facilitate

B. necessitate

C. habituate

D. belabor

A. facilitate

The Heegge Manuscript (HM) consists of various texts copied by Richard Heege at his home in fifteenth-century England. Most contemporary collections like the HM consist of pieces for polite society like genteel romances and other readings favored by elites; in contrast, the HM reflects a strong ______ toward popular entertainments (such as parody romances) and practicalities (like advice about religion).

A. skepticism

B. proclivity

C. sagacity

D. ambivalence

B. proclivity

To address Sumitava Mukherjee et al.'s contention that low financial stakes reduce loss aversion—the tendency for losses to be felt more acutely than equivalent gains are—and thus test a concept that has informed research in fields ranging from behavioral economics to neuroscience, Kellen Mrvka et al. conducted a study in which some participants were presented with scenarios involving ______ amounts of money.

A. negotiable

B. idiosyncratic

C. indeterminate

D. nominal

D. nominal

Because cyanobacteria and other microphyto benthos (MPB)—microscopic organisms inhabiting tidal flats—are consumed by mussels as well as by certain shorebirds and fish, MPB are ______ estuary ecosystems. Decreased MPB abundance, which may be caused by environmental stressors, thus has a direct, negative impact on coastal food webs.

A. imperative for

B. evaluative of

C. subordinate to

D. interchangeable with

A. imperative for

Described in treatises mainly published between 1768 and 1950 (such as Peter Kabala's Musical Shorthand), musical stenography used quickly written squiggles and dots in an attempt to preserve, in print and in real time, the ______ features of live performances—those that result from impromptu deviations of performers when fidelity to an established musical score is not mandated.

A. extemporaneous

B. meticulous

C. inevitable

D. inconspicuous

A. extemporanous

Because it enabled more immediate transcription of a piece of music than conventional Western notation—fast enough to allow the ______ recording in print of improvisational performances—musical stenography was promoted by many nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars (such as John Austin and Charles C. Guilford, each with their own proposed method).

A) synchronous

B) archaic

C) purported

D) prescient

A. synchronous

Many of late nineteenth-century artist James McNeill Whistler's oil paintings and lithographs depict the streets of European cities. While his contemporaries approaches to these subjects were often sentimental, Whistler's eye seemed ______. In this way, he anticipated the early twentieth-century photographs of Walker Evans, which create the illusion of being objective documentations of life.

A. tranquil

B. peculiar

C. nostalgic

D. dispassionate

D. dispassionate

The ____ Keshni Kashyap's book Tina's Mouth has been very positive. Many reviewers have praised the book, and it won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature.

A. inspiration for

B. reception of

C. neglect of

D. confusion about

B. reception of

he reception of Keshni Kashyap's book Tina's Mouth has been very good. Many reviewers have ______ the book, and it won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature.

A. overlooked

B. praised

C. attacked

D. misunderstood

B. praised

Some social scientists say that while a government with effective checks and balances is key to democracy, public understanding of history is also central to public comprehension of state politics, and if a citizenry is to function, historical issues cannot remain the province only of specialists. In short, knowledge of history is not ______ and must not be left to historians alone.

A. superfluous

B. equitable

C. commonplace

D. unattainable

A. superfluous

Some social scientists argue that while a belief in the importance of reason and progress is key to democracy, the public's understanding of history is also central to its subsequent comprehension of a state's politics, and if an electorate is to function, historical issues cannot remain the dominion only of academics. History is too ___ to leave to historians alone.

A) respectable

B) complex

C) accessible

D) critical

D. critical

As with other river deltas, the Yangtze River delta is ______: it is a constantly evolving network of channels and strips of land that change in size and shape as the river deposits new sedimentary particles where the river meets the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

A. dynamic

B. immutable

C. sustainable

D. unrivaled

A. dynamic

The Fly River delta is a remarkably ______ landscape; it is a constantly evolving network of channels and strips of land that change in size and shape as the river deposits new sedimentary particles where the river meets the waters of the Gulf of Papua.

A. mutable

B. habitable

C. secluded

D. homogeneous

A. mutable

Lessons from previous declines in biodiversity can help shape policy recommendations aimed at preserving species at risk. The factors that contributed to the extinction of the shrub-ox around 9500 BCE may also ______ endangered species today.

A) concealed from

B) applicable to

C) integrated with

D) dependent on

B. applicable to

When it comes to crafting policy recommendations to protect species at risk, lessons from previous declines in biodiversity can be especially _____. The factors that contributed to the extinction of the Jefferson's ground sloth around 11,000 BCE, for example, may be applicable to endangered species today.

A. simplified

B. debatable

C. relevant

D. idiosyncratic

C. relevant

The Chao Phraya River delta is a constantly changing landform made up of a network of distributaries, small channels that branch off from the main river. The delta is shaped and reshaped over time as sediments carried by the river ______ where the river meets the Gulf of Thailand, eventually forming new portions of land.

A. accumulate

B. dissolve

C. accelerate

D. thrive

A. accumulate

It is tempting to treat the clustering of car manufacturing firms in Detroit, Michigan, as representative of industrial agglomeration generally, but Guilia Faggio et al. caution against ______ this one example: the existence of labor pools, a dominant driver of collocation in this industry, was largely absent from the vegetable oil manufacturing industry.

A. extrapolating from

B. corroborating

C. convening with

D. scrutinizing

A. extrapolating from

Agglomeration economies arise when multiple firms in related industries ______ an area, as with textile finishing firms and knitted clothing manufacturers in Leicester, UK. Economists have assumed that companies cluster for the same reasons, but Giulia Faggio et al. found that factors driving agglomeration in some cases are only weakly correlated with agglomeration in others.

A. intercede in

B. appeal to

C. concur with

D. amass in

D. amass in

Because of its salience, economists often treat the clustering of textile manufacturing firms in Manchester, UK, as ___ of industrial agglomeration generally, but Giulia Faggio et al. caution against this: while the potential for knowledge spillovers drives collocation in this industry, data from UK industries show that its effect on the paint manufacturing industry is not significant.

A. evocative

B. paradigmatic

C. idiosyncratic

D. cognizant

D. cognizant

Although the clustering of information technology firms in Northern California is often cited as typical of industrial agglomeration, Giulia Faggio et al. use UK data to show that the mix of factors driving the phenomenon is ______ across industries: while the potential for knowledge spillovers can prompt agglomeration, collocation among tube manufacturers occurs for different reasons.

A. credible

B. heterogeneous

C. imperative

D. decisive

B. heterogeneous

Economists have long observed that firms in related industries tend to cluster in the same area, as is the case in Leeds, UK, where many thread and yarn-spinning firms as well as textile-weaving firms are located. The factors causing such clustering are ______: what drives firms in certain industries to cluster may not be especially relevant among other industries.

A) unknown

B) impressive

C) focused

D) variable

D. variable

When multiple firms in an industry cluster in a geographic region, that can ______ further clustering in the area. A team of economists found that ceramic tile manufacturers in the United Kingdom that locate near one another have increased access to shared supply networks that reduce costs and improve efficiency, an advantage that draws yet more firms to the region.

A. induce

B. resolve

C. revive

D. systematize

A. induce

The term "agglomeration economies" refers to the economic benefits enjoyed by firms in the same industry that ______ in a region. For example, in the game and toy manufacturing industry in the United Kingdom, firms that locate near one another can more readily take advantage of increased potential for information sharing among firms that fosters greater technological innovation.

A. concentrate

B. recur

C. dissipate

D. terminate

A. concentrate

The equipment from the Apollo Moon landings (1969-1972), such as solar wind sensors and seismic sensors, remains there to this day, but the data from these missions were mostly inaccessible until a recent data-transfer project made them ______. This project has allowed researcher Renee Weber to make use of the information in investigating tectonic activity on the Moon.

A. complicated

B. representative

C. available

D. predictable

C. available

The Apollo Moon landings (1969-1972) brought radiation detectors and equipment too heavy for liftoff to the Moon and procured large amounts of data. Researcher Philip Metzger, who is investigating the long-term effects of being on the Moon, continues to use Apollo's data, demonstrating that the mission's value to science is ______.

A. ongoing

B. original

C. displaced

D. controversial

A. ongoing

The Apollo Moon landings (1969-1972) brought radiation detectors and seismic sensors to the Moon and produced large amounts of data, much of which was stored on outdated technologies. A data-transfer project is making the data available again, thereby ___ the Apollo data's usefulness, as the data are used to study tectonic activity on the Moon.

A. exceeding

B. installing

C. renewing

D. persisting

C. renewing

The astronauts of the Apollo Moon landings (1969-1972) ____ charged particle detectors and temperature probes on the Moon's surface. Although the astronauts put those instruments in place long ago, researcher Seiichi Nagihara still uses temperature data from the Apollo missions to help investigate temperature changes on the Moon.

A. installed

B. retrieved

C. expanded

D. renewed

A. installed