PSAT Eng Set 4

The following text is from the 1989 novel The Ancient Child by Kiowa writer N. Scott Momaday. The main character has achieved tremendous commercial success as a painter.

More and more often he was asked to compromise his art or himself in one way or another, and more often than not he did so, for he was inclined to be passive and naïve; it was difficult for him to say no. Those who exhibited his work, who praised and purchased it, and who demanded its proliferation began to determine it.

As used in the text, what does the word “determine” most nearly mean?

A. Conclude

B. Dictate

C. Evaluate

D. Select

B

Text 1 In a study of insect behavior, Samadi Galpayage and colleagues presented bumblebees with small wooden balls and observed many of the bees clinging to, rolling, and dragging the objects. The researchers provided no external rewards (such as food) to encourage these interactions. The bees simply appeared to be playing—and for no other reason than because they were having fun.

Text 2 Insects do not have cortexes or other brain areas associated with emotions in humans. Still, Galpayage and her team have shown that bumblebees may engage in play, possibly experiencing some kind of positive emotional state. Other studies have suggested that bees experience negative emotional states (for example, stress), but as Galpayage and her team have acknowledged, emotions in insects, if they do indeed exist, are likely very rudimentary.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the underlined portion of Text 1?

A. By objecting that the bees were actually experiencing a negative feeling akin to stress rather than a positive feeling

B. By arguing that some insects other than bumblebees may be capable of experiencing complex emotional states

C. By pointing out that even humans sometimes struggle to have fun while engaging in play

D. By noting that if the bees were truly playing, any positive feelings they may have experienced were probably quite basic

D

It is by no means ______ to recognize the influence of Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch on Ali Banisadr’s paintings; indeed, Banisadr himself cites Bosch as an inspiration. However, some scholars have suggested that the ancient Mesopotamian poem Epic of Gilgamesh may have had a far greater impact on Banisadr’s work.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. substantial

B. satisfying

C. unimportant

D. appropriate

C

The Appalachian Trail is a hiking path in the eastern United States. Much of the 2,000 mile trail passes through wilderness areas. In order to ______ those areas, the United States Congress passed the National Trails System Act in 1968, ensuring that the trail would not be sold or commercially developed.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. borrow

B. postpone

C. protect

D. decorate

C

Some bird species don’t raise their own chicks. Instead, adult females lay their eggs in other nests, next to another bird species’ own eggs. Female cuckoos have been seen quickly laying eggs in the nests of other bird species when those birds are out looking for food. After the eggs hatch, the noncuckoo parents will typically raise the cuckoo chicks as if they were their own offspring, even if the cuckoos look very different from the other chicks.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

A. It introduces a physical feature of female cuckoos that is described later in the text.

B. It describes the appearance of the cuckoo nests mentioned earlier in the text.

C. It offers a detail about how female cuckoos carry out the behavior discussed in the text.

D. It explains how other birds react to the female cuckoo behavior discussed in the text

C

The recent discovery of a carved wooden figure dating to around 2,000 years ago in a ditch in England was truly surprising. Wooden objects ______ survive for so long due to their high susceptibility to rot, but archaeologists suspect layers of sediment in the ditch preserved the figure by creating an oxygen-free environment.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. sturdily

B. carelessly

C. rarely

D. simply

C

Disproving the common misconception of Native art as ______, the painters whose work appears in the collection at the National Museum of the American Indian employ a range of styles. There are artists working in the traditional arts of their specific tribal communities, artists working in European modernist or American abstract expressionist art traditions, and artists blending various traditions into something wholly new.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. uncontroversial

B. individualistic

C. theoretical

D. homogeneous

D

Text 1 Although food writing is one of the most widely read genres in the United States, literary scholars have long neglected it. And within this genre, cookbooks attract the least scholarly attention of all, regardless of how well written they may be. This is especially true of works dedicated to regional US cuisines, whose complexity and historical significance are often overlooked.

Text 2 With her 1976 cookbook The Taste of Country Cooking, Edna Lewis popularized the refined Southern cooking she had grown up with in Freetown, an all-Black community in Virginia. She also set a new standard for cookbook writing: the recipes and memoir passages interspersing them are written in prose more elegant than that of most novels. Yet despite its inarguable value as a piece of writing, Lewis’s masterpiece has received almost no attention from literary scholars.

Based on the two texts, how would the author of Text 1 most likely regard the situation presented in the underlined sentence in Text 2?

A. As typical, because scholars are dismissive of literary works that achieve popularity with the general public

B. As unsurprising, because scholars tend to overlook the literary value of food writing in general and of regional cookbooks in particular

C. As justifiable, because Lewis incorporated memoir into The Taste of Country Cooking, thus undermining its status as a cookbook

D. As inevitable, because The Taste of Country Cooking was marketed to readers of food writing and not to readers of other genres

B

The following text is from Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1910 poem “The Earth’s Entail.”

No matter how we cultivate the land,

Taming the forest and the prairie free;

No matter how we irrigate the sand,

Making the desert blossom at command,  

We must always leave the borders of the sea;

 The immeasureable reaches  

Of the windy wave-wet beaches,

The million-mile-long margin of the sea.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A. The speaker argues against interfering with nature and then gives evidence supporting this interference.

B. The speaker presents an account of efforts to dominate nature and then cautions that such efforts are only temporary.

C. The speaker provides examples of an admirable way of approaching nature and then challenges that approach. 

D. The speaker describes attempts to control nature and then offers a reminder that not all nature is controllable.

D

Text 1 It seems clear that emotional contagion (the unintentional transfer of an emotional state from one person to another) requires physical interaction and the observation of body language. After all, research shows that talking to someone who is smiling and expressing positive feelings often causes people to respond in a comparably positive way. Similarly, displays of nervous fidgeting have been found to prompt others to begin behaving more nervously, too.

Text 2 In an experiment using a social networking service, Zeyao Yang and Emilio Ferrara found evidence of emotional contagion in text based online interactions. The researchers discovered that reading social media posts that expressed a positive outlook led people to make more positive posts themselves, while posts with a negative emotional tone led people to make more negative posts.

Based on the texts, what would the researchers in Text 2 most likely say about the claim underlined in Text 1?

A. It perpetuates a flawed understanding of emotional contagion, because there isn’t enough evidence to suggest that smiling is a sign of emotional contagion.

B. It reflects an incomplete view of emotional contagion, because this phenomenon can occur even without in-person interaction.

C. It’s fairly persuasive, because studies attempting to identify emotional contagion in situations without in-person interaction have thus far yielded unclear results.

D. It’s mostly accurate, because the social networking study confirmed that emotional contagion primarily occurs in response to negative emotions like nervousness.

B

In editor Lisa Yaszek’s introduction to her anthology The Future Is Female! More Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women, Yaszek identifies an increasing sense of ______ feminist mode of writing in the 1970s, in contrast to many woman-authored science f iction stories of the 1920s to 1960s whose politics were less deliberately signaled.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. a prudently

B. an overtly

C. a cordially

D. an inadvertently

B

Radar and sonar can detect objects or people through walls, but they are too costly for consumer use. Researchers Fadel Adib and Dina Katabi have shown, however, that there may be a comparatively ______ alternative: small changes to the Wi-Fi technology used in smartphones can give users a cheap way to count people or even identify their gestures through walls.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. infrequent

B. inexpensive

C. unmistakable

D. impractical

B

Manul cats are small, shy felines. They live mostly alone in out-of-the-way parts of Asia, such as on Mount Everest. These cats have been difficult to research because their habitats are so ______ large populations of humans.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. full of

B. drawn to

C. responsible for

D. distant from

D

The following text is from Yann Martel’s 2001 novel Life of Pi. The narrator’s family owned a zoo when he was a child.  It was a huge zoo, spread over numberless acres, big enough to require a train to explore it, though it seemed to get smaller as I grew older, train included. 

As used in the text, what does the word “spread” most nearly mean?

A. Hidden

B. Discussed

C. Extended

D. Coated

C

Text 1 Most scientists agree that the moon was likely formed after a collision between Earth and a large planet named Theia. This collision likely created a huge debris field, made up of material from both Earth and Theia. Based on models of this event, scientists believe that the moon was formed from this debris over the course of thousands of years.

Text 2  Researchers from NASA’s Ames Research Center used a computer to model how the moon could have formed. Although simulations of the moon’s formation have been done in the past, the team from NASA ran simulations that were much more detailed. They found that the formation of the moon was likely not a slow process that took many years. Instead, it’s probable that the moon’s formation happened immediately after impact, taking just a few hours.

Which choice best describes a difference in how the author of Text 1 and the author of Text 2 view the evidence for the formation of the moon?

A. The author of Text 1 argues that the formation of the moon occurred much earlier than the author of Text 2 argues.

B. The author of Text 1 suggests there is more evidence confirming the existence of Theia than the author of Text 2 suggests.

C. The author of Text 1 claims that the moon’s surface is more similar to Earth’s surface than the author of Text 2 claims.

D. The author of Text 1 believes that the moon formed more slowly than the author of Text 2 believes.

D

Shoppers can help keep money cycling within a community by making purchases at small local businesses instead of large retailers. Some cities are ______ programs to encourage this behavior, establishing reward points and other incentives for shopping at small businesses.

‘

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. instituting

B. occupying

C. underestimating

D. encountering

A

Arturo A. Schomburg was dedicated to preserving books, art, and other materials from peoples of African descent around the world. To get these items, Schomburg ______ friends and colleagues, whom he asked to bring back rare and valuable objects from their international travels. Now, Schomburg’s collection is a valuable resource for scholars of Black history and culture.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. admired

B. disagreed with

C. warned

D. depended on

D

Text 1 An excavation in Chiquihuite Cave in central Mexico has upended the belief that approximately 13,000 years ago, a group known as the Clovis people were the first human inhabitants of North America. More than 200 crude stone tools were found embedded in a layer of earth that is up to 33,150 years old, people reached the continent.

Text 2 revealing that humans occupied the cave thousands of years before the Clovis The objects uncovered in Chiquihuite Cave are intriguing, but it is premature to characterize them as tools. The stone pieces are so roughly shaped that they may have simply fractured from rocks during natural geological activity in the cave. Moreover, their unearthing has thus far not been accompanied by discoveries of other signs of human activity or even traces of human DNA from surfaces.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the underlined claim in Text 1?

A. By suggesting that it draws a plausible connection between two groups of people but will need to be confirmed with further study

B. By asserting that it rests on an assumption about the stone pieces that is not sufficiently supported by available evidence

C. By acknowledging that it will most likely be proved correct when the stone pieces undergo more detailed analysis

D. By pointing out that it fails to account for evidence that the Clovis people were active on the continent as early as is commonly thought

B

Pteropods are small swimming snails with thin, delicate calcium carbonate shells. These animals are thought to be especially vulnerable to ocean acidification due to calcium carbonate’s susceptibility to dissolution at lower pH values. Victoria L. Peck and colleagues recently found that the periostracum (a protective coating on pteropods’ outer shells) prevents this dissolution when intact. Moreover, the team was surprised to discover that even when the periostracum is breached, pteropods can still mitigate damage by rebuilding the inner shell wall.

Which choice best describes the main purpose of the text?

A. To call for additional research on biological mechanisms that improve pteropod survival rates

B. To discuss a conclusion drawn in a study of calcium carbonate’s role in protecting the periostracum of pteropods

C. To address some of the ways ocean acidification has altered pteropod behavior over time

D. To present findings that suggest that a concern about the effects of ocean acidification on pteropod shells may be unwarranted

D

The Bayeux Tapestry, from eleventh-century France, depicts 75 scenes over 250 feet of fabric. It was likely produced by workers embroidering in sections and then joining the resulting panels together. It’s plausible that the workshop that produced the tapestry had never produced one so large, and some researchers claim that a close examination of the joins—the places where the panels are stitched together—suggests that the workers developed and refined their joining process over the course of production. For example, the first join the workers completed exhibits a clear misalignment of the borders of the two panels, whereas the later joins are virtually invisible.  

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

A. It identifies the people and events depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry.

B. It supports an argument about the workers who produced the Bayeux Tapestry.

C. It compares the Bayeux Tapestry with other tapestries from eleventh-century France.

D. It describes how researchers determined where the Bayeux Tapestry was produced.

B

The following text is adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1837 story “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment.” The main character, a physician, is experimenting with rehydrating a dried flower.

At first [the rose] lay lightly on the surface of the fluid, appearing to imbibe none of its moisture. Soon, however, a singular change began to be visible. The crushed and dried petals stirred and assumed a deepening tinge of crimson, as if the flower were reviving from a deathlike slumber.

As used in the text, what does the phrase “a singular” most nearly mean?

A. A lonely

B. A disagreeable

C. An acceptable

D. An extraordinary

D

The field of study called affective neuroscience seeks instinctive, physiological causes for feelings such as pleasure or displeasure. Because these sensations are linked to a chemical component (for example, the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain when one receives or expects a reward), they can be said to have a partly physiological basis. These processes have been described in mammals, but Jingnan Huang and his colleagues have recently observed that some behaviors of honeybees (such as foraging) are also motivated by a dopamine-based signaling process.

What choice best describes the main purpose of the text?

A. It describes an experimental method of measuring the strength of physiological responses in humans.

B. It illustrates processes by which certain insects can express how they are feeling.

C. It summarizes a finding suggesting that some mechanisms in the brains of certain insects resemble mechanisms in mammalian brains.

D. It presents research showing that certain insects and mammals behave similarly when there is a possibility of a reward for their actions.

C

Ronyoung Kim creatively captures the Korean American immigrant experience in her novel Clay Walls by writing about a family from three ______ perspectives. The first section of the novel is from the mother Haesu’s perspective, the second is from the father Chun’s perspective, and the last is from the daughter Faye’s perspective.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?

A. distinct

B. required

C. unintended

D. unknown

A

The following text is from George Marion McClellan’s 1895 poem “Eternity.”

My spirit swoons, and all my senses cry

For Ocean’s breast and covering of the sky.

Rock me to sleep, ye waves, and outward bound,

Just let me drift far out from toil and care,

Where lapping of the waves shall be the sound,

Which mingled with the winds that gently bear

Me on between a peaceful sea and sky,

To make my soothing slumberous lullaby.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To illustrate the increasing intensity of the speaker’s desire to escape ongoing hardship by gliding on the ocean

B. To contrast the demands of the speaker’s everyday life with the serenity of being rocked to sleep by the ocean 

C. To convey the speaker’s longing for the ocean to impart a sense of inner tranquility

D. To justify the speaker’s qualms about being transported by the ocean to a quiet destination

C

A study by a team including finance professor Madhu Veeraraghavan suggests that exposure to sunshine during the workday can lead to overly optimistic behavior. Using data spanning from 1994 to 2010 for a set of US companies, the team compared over 29,000 annual earnings forecasts to the actual earnings later reported by those companies. The team found that the greater the exposure to sunshine at work in the two weeks before a manager submitted an earnings forecast, the more the manager’s forecast exceeded what the company actually earned that year.

Which choice best states the function of the underlined sentence in the overall structure of the text?

A. To summarize the results of the team’s analysis

B. To present a specific example that illustrates the study’s findings

C. To explain part of the methodology used in the team’s study

D. To call out a challenge the team faced in conducting its analysis

C

Eighteenth-century historian Edward Gibbon thought the only character defect of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius was his mild temperament—though the emperor was widely considered virtuous, his overly permissive nature led him to ______ the vices of those who surrounded him.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. indulge

B. despise

C. moderate

D. criticize

A

The following text is adapted from Lewis Carroll’s 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. Alice, a child, is talking to her cat.

“Do you hear the snow against the window-panes, Kitty? How nice and window all over outside.”

As used in the text, what does the word “soft” most nearly mean?

A. Gentle

B. Sensitive

C. Shapeless

D. Bland

A

Jazz tap is a dance form that was first developed in African American communities. Jazz tap was heavily influenced by jazz music, which became widely popular in the United States in the 1920s. Tap dancers were inspired by jazz music’s quick rhythms and by the way jazz musicians would make up melodies as they played. As jazz music continued to develop in the 1930s and 1940s, jazz tap evolved with it. Because of jazz music’s influence, jazz tap quickly developed into a dance form that was very different from earlier kinds of tap dance.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. It explains why audiences prefer some kinds of music over others.

B. It discusses the development of a dance form.

C. It describes how to play a musical instrument.

D. It emphasizes the popularity of a famous dancer.

B

Domesticated thousands of years ago by Indigenous people in South America, cacao, the plant from which chocolate is made, deviates structurally from the wild plant it is descended from. Maize (corn), another crop domesticated by Indigenous Americans, shows so little resemblance to any wild plant that genetic research was necessary to ______ teosinte grass as its ancestor.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. acquire

B. develop

C. attract

D. confirm

D

Art scholars have noted that some colors seem to be more ______ viewers than others. For example, people tend to find paintings featuring blues and greens more appealing than paintings featuring yellows and oranges.  

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. confusing for

B. attractive to

C. corrected by

D. similar to

B

In recommending Bao Phi’s collection Sông I Sing, a librarian noted that pieces by the spoken-word poet don’t lose their ______ nature when printed: the language has the same pleasant musical quality on the page as it does when performed by Phi.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. scholarly

B. melodic

C. jarring

D. personal

B

The following text is from Alice Kaplan’s 1993 memoir French Lessons.   When I started to talk on my own, I couldn’t be stopped. When I was in first grade, my sister’s friends could hardly stand to ride to school with me in the car. I was loud and unrelenting.

As used in the text, what does the author most nearly mean by “I couldn’t be stopped”? 

A. She had a hard time sitting still.

B. She often changed her mind.

C. She was well liked as a child.

D. She seemed to talk all the time

D

The following text is adapted from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1905 novel A Little Princess. Sara is a young student at a school in London.

Sara not only could tell stories, but she adored telling them. When she sat or stood in the midst of a circle and began to invent wonderful things, her green eyes grew big and shining, her cheeks flushed, and, without knowing that she was doing it, she began to act and made what she told lovely or alarming by the raising or dropping of her voice.

As used in the text, what does the word “invent” most nearly mean?

A. Mislead

B. Disguise

C. Create

D. Discover

C

The following text is adapted from Sui Sin Far’s 1912 short story “Mrs. Spring Fragrance.” Mr. and Mrs. Spring Fragrance immigrated to the United States from China. Mrs. Spring Fragrance was unaware that

Mr. Spring Fragrance, tired with the day’s business, had thrown himself down on the bamboo settee on the veranda, and that although his eyes were engaged in scanning the pages of the Chinese World, his ears could not help receiving the words which were borne to him through the open window.

As used in the text, what does the word “receiving” most nearly mean?

A. Denying

B. Entering

C. Carrying

D. Hearing

D

Kelp forests grow underwater along the eastern Pacific Coast. These underwater forests are important to fish and other marine animals. Ocean currents can be powerful and rough, making it difficult for animals to find safe places to hide from predators. The underwater forests slow down the currents. This creates a more ______ environment with calmer waters where animals can take shelter.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. tranquil

B. dangerous

C. imaginative

D. surprising

A

San Francisco is known for the colorful murals painted on many of its buildings. The densest collection of murals is found on Balmy Alley in the Mission District neighborhood. In the 1970s, Latina artists painted vivid scenes of community life on walls along this block. As the original murals have faded, later generations of artists have painted new ones over them. As a result, Balmy Alley has become a living showcase of San Francisco’s artistic spirit, with its murals reflecting changes in the cultural life of the city.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To compare the Balmy Alley murals to other murals in San Francisco

B. To offer an overview of the history and importance of the Balmy Alley murals

C. To urge people to protect the murals of San Francisco from decay

D. To describe the rise of mural painting in San Francisco beginning in the 1970s

B

The following text is from Claude McKay’s 1922 poem “Morning Joy.” The speaker is looking out a window and observing a wold, or large area of land.

At night the wide and level stretch of wold,

Which at high noon had basked in quiet gold,

Far as the eye could see was ghostly white;

Dark was the night save for the snow’s weird light.

I drew the shades far down, crept into bed;

Hearing the cold wind moaning overhead

Through the sad pines, my soul, catching its pain,

Went sorrowing with it across the plain.

As used in the text, what does the word “drew” most nearly mean?

A. Pulled

B. Drained

C. Inspired

D. Sketched

A

Sueño de Familia is an exhibition of drawings, paintings, and ceramics that explores the artistic heritage of US-based artist Yolanda González. The exhibition ______ five generations, featuring works by González’s great-grandfather, grandmother, mother, and niece as well as González herself. 

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. borrows

B. spans

C. judges

D. neglects

B

Dance choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar aims to give people the opportunity to be ______ her creative process. For example, live performances of her dance HairStories, which debuted in 2001, featured videos of people across the United States talking about their hair and audience members sharing pictures of their interesting hairstyles.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. nervous about

B. completed by

C. delayed by

D. involved in

D

The following text is adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1844 short story “Drowne’s Wooden Image.” Drowne, a young man, is carving a wooden figure to decorate the front of a ship. Day by day, the work assumed greater precision, and settled its irregular and misty outline into distincter grace and beauty. The general design was now obvious to the common eye.

As used in the text, what does the word “assumed” most nearly mean?

A. Acquired

B. Acknowledged

C. Imitated

D. Speculated

A

The equipment from the Apollo Moon landings (1969–1972), such as radiation detectors and temperature probes, 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 Seiichi Nagihara to make use of the information in investigating temperature changes on the Moon.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. predictable

B. complicated

C. representative

D. available

D

On the basis of extensive calculations and models, astronomers in the 1990s predicted that the collision of two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole could release a massive burst of gamma rays in an event called a kilonova. This ______ was confirmed with observations in 2017. 

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. theory

B. evidence

C. constant

D. experiment

A

Diadromous fish migrate between freshwater and marine biomes during their life cycle. The migration’s obligate nature is why diadromous fish can be ______ those that are merely euryhaline (able to tolerate high salinity): the euryhaline blackchin tilapia can survive high salinity, but its life cycle does not involve relocation to a different biome, as does that of the diadromous wild salmon.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. demarcated from

B. reconstituted as

C. conflated with

D. derived from

A

The following text is adapted from Charles Chesnutt’s 1899 story “The Wife of His Youth.” Mr. Ryder is hosting a formal gathering where he will propose marriage to the woman he has been courting.

[A] younger and less cautious man would long since have spoken. But he had made up his mind, and had only to determine the time when he would ask her to be his wife. He decided to give a ball in her honor, and at some time during the evening of the ball to offer her his heart and hand.

As used in the text, what does the word “determine” most nearly mean? 

A. Choose

B. Influence

C. Demonstrate

D. Measure

A

Biologist Jane Edgeloe and colleagues have located what is believed to be the largest individual plant in the world in the Shark Bay area of Australia. The plant is a type of seagrass called Posidonia australis, and it ______ approximately 200 square kilometers.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. acknowledges

B. produces

C. spans

D. advances

C

Stephen Hannock’s luminous landscape paintings are appealing to viewers but have elicited little commentary from contemporary critics, a phenomenon that may be due to the very fact that the paintings seem so ______. Many critics focus their attention on art that is cryptic or overtly challenging. 

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. innovative

B. subversive

C. profound

D. accessible

D

ext 1 Many studies in psychology have shown that people seek out information even when they know in advance that they have no immediate use for it and that they won’t directly benefit from it. Such findings support the consensus view among researchers of curiosity: namely, that curiosity is not instrumental but instead represents a drive to acquire information for its own sake.

Text 2 While acknowledging that acquiring information is a powerful motivator, Rachit Dubey and colleagues ran an experiment to test whether emphasizing the usefulness of scientific information could increase curiosity about it. They found that when research involving rats and fruit flies was presented as having medical applications for humans, participants expressed greater interest in learning about it than when the research was not presented as useful.

Based on the texts, how would Dubey and colleagues (Text 2) most likely respond to the consensus view discussed in Text 1?

A. By suggesting that curiosity may not be exclusively motivated by the desire to merely acquire information   

B. By conceding that people may seek out information that serves no immediate purpose only because they think they can use it later     

C. By pointing out that it is challenging to determine when information-seeking serves no goal beyond acquiring information

D. By disputing the idea that curiosity can help explain apparently purposeless information-seeking behaviors

A

Oral histories—whether they consist of interviews or recordings of songs and stories—can offer researchers a rich view of people’s everyday experiences. For her book about coal mining communities in Kentucky during the twentieth century, Karida Brown therefore relied in part on interviews with coal miners and their families. subjects’ day-to-day lives. By doing so, she gained valuable insights into her

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

A. It provides a little-known geographical fact about Kentucky.

B. It argues that Karida Brown is an expert on United States politics.

C. It presents a major historical event that took place in the twentieth century.

D. It describes how Karida Brown benefited from incorporating oral history in her book.

D

Drivers who strongly believe that the toll they must pay to use the Lewis and Clark Bridge, which spans the Ohio River to connect Indiana and Kentucky, is currently too high are unlikely to be ______ a proposal to increase the toll. Advocates for a higher toll are likely to have more success if they instead direct their arguments toward a more persuadable segment of the population. 

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. receptive to

B. apprised of

C. incensed by

D. cited in

A

A musician and member of the Quechua of Peru, Renata Flores Rivera was eager to promote the Quechua language in her music, but she was ______ speaking it. She met this challenge by asking her grandmother, a native speaker of Quechua, to help her pronounce words in her song lyrics and also by taking classes in the language.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. prepared for

B. inexperienced with

C. skilled in

D. excited about

B

The north celestial pole (NCP)—the fixed point around which stars in the Northern Hemisphere (including the Sun) appear to rotate—is discernible only at night. Inspired by the navigational strategies of some insects and birds, researchers devised a method for locating the NCP in daytime using skylight polarization, which occurs as atmospheric particles scatter sunlight. A polarimetric camera captures images of polarization patterns, which rotate as the Sun’s position in the sky changes; temporal variances across images can then be used to determine an observer’s latitude and bearing relative to the NCP.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A. It illustrates how most navigational tools utilize the NCP, recounts how researchers discovered that certain animals are able to navigate without using the NCP, and then proposes that this discovery could be used to avoid problems in navigation associated with reliance on the NCP.

B. It presents a celestial-based method of navigation, enumerates the comparative benefits of an alternative method used by certain animals that is based on an unrelated natural occurrence, and then indicates how researchers assessed the relative accuracy of the two methods.

C. It explains how the NCP is typically located, emphasizes a key difference between how humans and certain animals use the NCP for navigation, and then suggests an alternative way of using the NCP to improve existing navigational instruments.

D. It notes an obstacle to observing an astronomical phenomenon, mentions a navigational ability of certain animals that inspired a solution to that obstacle, and then explains how researchers used an optical device to mimic that ability.

D

Text 1 Dominique Potvin and colleagues captured five Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen) to test a new design for attaching tracking devices to birds. As the researchers fitted each magpie with a tracker attached by a small harness, they noticed some magpies without trackers pecking at another magpie’s tracker until it broke off. The researchers suggest that this behavior could be evidence of magpies attempting to help another magpie without benefiting themselves.

Text 2 It can be tempting to think that animals are deliberately providing help when we see them removing trackers and other equipment from one another, especially when a species is known to exhibit other cooperative behaviors. At the same time, it can be difficult to exclude the possibility that individuals are simply interested in the equipment because of its novelty, curiously pawing or pecking at it until it detaches.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the researchers’ perspective in Text 1 on the behavior of the magpies without trackers?

A. That behavior might have been due to the novelty of the magpies’ captive setting rather than to the novelty of the tracker.

B. That behavior likely indicates that the magpies were deliberately attempting to benefit themselves by obtaining the tracker.

C. That behavior may not be evidence of selflessness in Gymnorhina tibicen because not all the captured magpies demonstrated it.

D. That behavior might be adequately explained without suggesting that the magpies were attempting to assist the other magpie

D

Seminole/Muscogee director Sterlin Harjo ______ television’s tendency to situate Native characters in the distant past: this rejection is evident in his series Reservation Dogs, which revolves around teenagers who dress in contemporary styles and whose dialogue is laced with current slang.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. repudiates

B. proclaims

C. foretells

D. recants

A

The following text is adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s 1912 play Pygmalion. Henry Higgins has just arrived at the house of his mother (Mrs. Higgins). She is expecting her friends to visit soon.

MRS. HIGGINS: I’m serious, Henry. You offend all my friends: they stop coming whenever they meet you. HIGGINS: Nonsense! I know I have no small talk; but people don’t mind. MRS. HIGGINS: Oh! don’t they? Small talk indeed! What about your large talk? Really, dear, you mustn’t stay.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To describe what Henry’s mother does when she goes out with her friends 

B. To show that Henry’s mother wants him to leave

C. To present a detailed account of what Henry’s home looks like

D. To explain why Henry often visits his mother

B

Bioluminescent beetles called fireflies may seem to create flashes of light randomly, but each species of firefly actually has its own special series of repeated flashes and pauses. These unique ______ allow fireflies of the same species to find each other.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. quantities 

B. decorations

C. patterns

D. agreements

C

The following text is from Ameen Rihani’s 1921 poem “The Wanderer.” 

I wander among the hills of alien lands

Where Nature her prerogative resigns

To Man; where Comfort in her shack reclines

And all the arts and sciences commands.

But in my soul The eastern billows roll—

I hear the voices of my native strands.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined lines in the text as a whole?

A. It establishes that the speaker’s enthusiasm about current travels conflicts with the growing urge to return home.

B. It illustrates the speaker’s uncertainty about maintaining strong links with relatives in distant places.

C. It conveys the speaker’s sense of feeling a pull toward home while traveling in an unfamiliar place.

D. It reveals that upon returning after an extended absence, the speaker longs for the way a location once felt.

C

The following text is from Virginia Woolf’s 1919 novel Night and Day. The text describes a gathering of young artists and intellectuals.

One person after another rose, and, as with an ill-balanced axe, attempted to hew out his conception of art a little more clearly, and sat down with the feeling that, for some reason which he could not grasp, his strokes had gone awry. As they sat down they turned almost invariably to the person sitting next them, and rectified and continued what they had just said in public.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portions in the text as a whole?

A. To demonstrate individuals’ puzzlement over the reputation of a certain artwork

B. To highlight the physical effort involved in individuals’ construction of large-scale works of art

C. To draw attention to individuals’ discontent with the group’s conversation about art

D. To emphasize the extent of individuals’ struggles to articulate thoughts on art

D

Text 1 Digital art, the use of digital technology to create or display images, isn’t really art at all. It doesn’t require as much skill as creating physical art. “Painting” with a tablet and stylus is much easier than using paint and a brush: the technology is doing most of the work.

Text 2 The painting programs used to create digital art involve more than just pressing a few buttons. In addition to knowing the fundamentals of art, digital artists need to be familiar with sophisticated software. Many artists will start by drawing an image on paper before transforming the piece to a digital format, where they can apply a variety of colors and techniques that would otherwise require many different traditional tools.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the claims of the author of Text 1? 

A. By arguing that a piece of art created digitally can still be displayed traditionally

B. By explaining that it’s actually much harder to use a tablet and stylus to create art than to use paint and a brush

C. By insisting that digital art requires artistic abilities and skill even if it employs less traditional tools

D. By admitting that most digital artists don’t think fundamental drawing skills are important

C

The following text is adapted from Elizabeth von Arnim’s 1922 novel The Enchanted April. Mrs. Wilkins and her friend Rose are traveling in Italy.

“I’m going to have one of these gorgeous oranges,” said Mrs. Wilkins, staying where she was and reaching across to a black bowl piled with them. “Rose, how can you resist them. Look—have this one. Do have this beauty—” And she held out a big one.

As used in the text, what does the phrase “reaching across to” most nearly mean?

A. Joining with

B. Gaining on

C. Stretching toward

D. Arriving at

C

Text 1 On April 26th, 1777, Sybil Ludington rode 40 miles by horse through Putnam County, New York, to gather up local militia. British forces were burning nearby Danbury, Connecticut, and Ludington wanted to rally rebel troops to meet them. Although she was only 16 years old at the time, her brave feat made Ludington one of the heroes of the American Revolution. Since then, Ludington has been widely celebrated, inspiring postage stamps, statues, and even children’s TV series. 

ext 2 Historian Paula D. Hunt researched the life and legacy of Sybil Ludington but found no evidence for her famous ride. Although many articles and books have been written about Ludington, Hunt believes writers may have been inventing details about Ludington as they retold her story. Ludington is revered by Americans today, but there simply isn’t a strong historical record of her heroic ride.

Based on the texts, both authors would most likely agree with which statement?

A. Sybil Ludington was crucial to the outcome of the Revolutionary War.

B. Historians have confirmed which route Sybil Ludington took.

C. Sybil Ludington was likely not a real person.

D. Many people have come to admire the story of Sybil Ludington’s ride.

D

Barring major archaeological discoveries, we are unlikely to ever have ______ account of ancient Egypt under the female pharaoh Hatshepsut, as much of the evidence of her reign was deliberately destroyed by her successors. 

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. an imaginative

B. a superficial

C. an exhaustive

D. a questionable

C

The following text is adapted from Oscar Wilde’s 1895 play The Importance of Being Earnest.

CECILY: Have we got to part?

ALGERNON: I am afraid so. It’s a very painful parting.

CECILY: It is always painful to part from people whom one has known for a very brief space of time. The absence of old friends one can endure with equanimity. But even a momentary separation from anyone to whom one has just been introduced is almost unbearable.

As used in the text, what does the word “endure” most nearly mean?

A. Regret

B. Persist

C. Tolerate

D. Encourage

C

Anthropologist Kristian J. Carlson and colleagues examined the fossilized clavicle and shoulder bones of a 3.6-million-year-old early hominin known as “Little Foot.” They found that these bones were ______ the clavicle and shoulder bones of modern apes that are frequent climbers, such as gorillas and chimpanzees, suggesting that Little Foot had adapted to life in the trees.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. surpassed by

B. comparable to

C. independent of

D. obtained from

B

Text 1 The idea that time moves in only one direction is instinctively understood, yet it puzzles physicists. According to the second law of thermodynamics, at a macroscopic level some processes of heat transfer are irreversible due to the production of entropy—after a transfer we cannot rewind time and place molecules back exactly where they were before, just as we cannot unbreak dropped eggs. But laws of physics at a microscopic or quantum level hold that those processes should be reversible.

Text 2 In 2015, physicists Tiago Batalhão et al. performed an experiment in which they confirmed the irreversibility of thermodynamic processes at a quantum level, producing entropy by applying a rapidly oscillating magnetic field to a system of carbon-13 atoms in liquid chloroform. But the experiment “does not pinpoint ... what causes [irreversibility] at the microscopic level,” coauthor Mauro Paternostro said.

Based on the texts, what would the author of Text 1 most likely say about the experiment described in Text 2?

A. It would suggest an interesting direction for future research were it not the case that two of the physicists who conducted the experiment disagree on the significance of its findings.

B. It provides empirical evidence that the current understanding of an aspect of physics at a microscopic level must be incomplete.

C. It is consistent with the current understanding of physics at a microscopic level but not at a macroscopic level.

D. It supports a claim about an isolated system of atoms in a laboratory, but that claim should not be extrapolated to a general claim about the universe.

B

The following text is adapted from Paul Laurence Dunbar’s 1902 novel The Sport of the Gods. Joe and some of his family members have recently moved to New York City.

[Joe] was wild with enthusiasm and with a desire to be a part of all that the metropolis meant. In the evening he saw the young fellows passing by dressed in their spruce clothes, and he wondered with a sort of envy where they could be going. Back home there had been no place much worth going to, except church and one or two people’s houses.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. It illustrates a character’s reaction to a new environment.

B. It explains why a character has traveled to a city.

C. It compares a character’s thoughts about an event at two different times of day.

D. It presents a character feeling regret over leaving home.

A

Scholarly accounts of the Chicano movement—a movement that advocated for the social, political, and cultural empowerment of Mexican Americans and reached its zenith in the 1960s and 1970s— tend to focus on the most militant, outspoken figures in the movement, making it seem uniformly radical. Geographer Juan Herrera has shown, however, that if we shift our focus toward the way the movement manifested in comparatively low-profile neighborhood institutions and projects, we see participants espousing an array of political orientations and approaches to community activism.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?

A. It presents a trend in scholarship on the Chicano movement that the text claims has been reevaluated by researchers in light of Herrera’s work on the movement’s participants. 

B. It identifies an aspect of the Chicano movement that the text implies was overemphasized by scholars due to their own political orientations. 

C. It describes a common approach to studying the Chicano movement that, according to the text, obscures the ideological diversity of the movement’s participants. 

D. It summarizes the conventional method for analyzing the Chicano movement, which the text suggests creates a misleading impression of the effectiveness of neighborhood institutions and projects.

C

In 2023 literary scholar Jeremy Douglass cautioned technology investors and enthusiasts who predict conventional books’ ultimate displacement by newer forms of media. Douglass observed that the concept of an “interactive” text is much older than technologists assume, extending back to the first time readers scratched notes into a text’s margins. In addition, newer media, such as video games, haven’t replaced older forms of entertainment, such as comic books, but rather exist alongside them. Douglass believes that rather than supplanting books, technology is simply making new forms of expression possible.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?

A. It challenges the stance of the investors and enthusiasts who are mentioned earlier in the text.

B. It explains the basis for the claim made by the technologists mentioned in the text.

C. It suggests that academics are better suited than investors to see the potential uses of contemporary interactive texts.

D. It provides a historical anecdote about the technological challenges involved in reading the earliest interactive texts.

A

The following text is adapted from Jean Webster’s 1912 novel Daddy-Long-Legs. The narrator is a young college student writing letters detailing her weekly experiences.

[The college is] organizing the Freshman basket-ball team and there’s just a chance that I shall make it. I’m little of course, but terribly quick and wiry and tough. While the others are hopping about in the air, I can dodge under their feet and grab the ball. 

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To compare basketball with other sports

B. To provide details of how to play basketball

C. To state how players will be chosen for the basketball team

D. To explain why the narrator thinks she might make the basketball team

D

The güiro, a musical instrument traditionally made from a dried and hollowed gourd, is thought to have originated with the Taíno people of Puerto Rico. Players use a wooden stick to scrape along ridges cut into the side of the gourd, creating sounds that are highly ______: the sounds produced by güiros can differ based on the distance between the ridges, the types of strokes the player uses, and the thickness of the gourd.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. overlooked

B. powerful

C. routine

D. variable

D

Text 1 Imagine you and your friend are trying to decide where to eat lunch. When people try to make joint decisions like this, they often don’t reveal their true preferences. Instead, they say they would be happy with all options because they think this response will help them appear more easygoing and likable to the other person.

Text 2 Research shows that people who don’t state their preferences when making a decision with others aren’t more likable in the eyes of others. In fact, stating that you have no preference actually makes the decision more difficult for other people. It can also cause them to feel less happy with their ultimate decision and with you.

Based on the texts, what response would the author of Text 2 most likely suggest for someone in the situation described in the underlined sentence in Text 1?

A. Cancel the plan to have lunch together.

B. Ask where the friend typically likes to eat.

C. State a preference about where to eat.

D. Change the subject to talk about something else.

C

Companies are providing consumers with more opportunities to purchase customized products than ever before. Whether buying customized sneakers, jewelry, or clothing, consumers can participate in the design of products to meet their specific needs and tastes. In turn, companies profit too: studies have shown that consumers are willing to pay more and wait longer for a customized product. Still, it can be difficult for companies to offer customization while keeping costs low, as the standard methods of mass production may not be able to accommodate making a unique product each time.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A. It discusses several recent innovations in product manufacturing and then suggests some potential applications of those innovations.

B. It describes a company’s recent success with new products and then explains multiple factors that may have contributed to that success.

C. It introduces a trend in consumer products and then explains how the trend both benefits and poses a challenge to companies.

D. It presents two contrasting product-marketing techniques and then provides examples of one of those techniques

C

Animal researcher Amalia P.M. Bastos led a 2021 study about a wild kea parrot that used small stones as tools to preen its feathers. Skeptical colleagues had initially suggested to Bastos that the kea’s interactions with the stones might simply be ______, but Bastos and her team showed that the kea was using the stones deliberately.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. intriguing

B. obvious

C. accidental

D. observable

C

Since the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into space in 1990, astronauts have needed to complete regular missions to repair the telescope and keep it working smoothly. Researchers hope that robots will soon be able to make these repairs. Employing robots instead of humans to make repairs will be helpful, as ______ astronauts to maintain the telescope can be expensive. 

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. straightening

B. forgetting about

C. relying on

D. reducing

C

Text 1 When companies in the same industry propose merging with one another, they often claim that the merger will benefit consumers by increasing efficiency and therefore lowering prices. Economist Ying Fan investigated this notion in the context of the United States newspaper market. She modeled a hypothetical merger of Minneapolis-area newspapers and found that subscription prices would rise following a merger.

Text 2 Economists Dario Focarelli and Fabio Panetta have argued that research on the effect of mergers on prices has focused excessively on short-term effects, which tend to be adverse for consumers. Using the case of consumer banking in Italy, they show that over the long term (several years, in their study), the efficiency gains realized by merged companies do result in economic benefits for consumers. 

Based on the texts, how would Focarelli and Panetta (Text 2) most likely respond to Fan’s findings (Text 1)?

A. They would recommend that Fan compare the near-term effect of a merger on subscription prices in the Minneapolis area with the effect of a merger in another newspaper market.

B. They would argue that over the long term the expenses incurred by the merged newspaper company will also increase.

C. They would encourage Fan to investigate whether the projected effect on subscription prices persists over an extended period.

D. They would claim that mergers have a different effect on consumer prices in the newspaper industry than in most other industries.

C

The National Heritage Fellowship was created to publicly ______ exceptional folk and traditional artists in the United States. In 2015, the fellowship was given to the circus aerialist (mid-air acrobat) Dolly Jacobs to celebrate her lifetime contributions to the arts.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. startle

B. recognize

C. familiarize

D. convey

B

The Illustrated History of San Mateo County, published in 1878, features several illustrations by Grafton Tyler Brown showing the California county’s farms, residences, and businesses. It was ______ for a business to be featured, since being included suggested that a business was an important part of the community.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. risky

B. misleading

C. advantageous

D. unremarkable

C

The fashion resale market, in which consumers purchase secondhand clothing from stores and online sellers, generated nearly $30 billion globally in 2019. Expecting to see continued growth, some analysts ______ that revenues will more than double by 2028.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. produced

B. denied

C. worried

D. predicted

D

Text 1 In 1954 George Balanchine choreographed a production of The Nutcracker, a ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It has since become a tradition for hundreds of dance companies in North America to stage The Nutcracker each year.  But the show is stuck in the past, with an old-fashioned story and references, so it should no longer be produced. Ballet needs to create new traditions if it wants to stay relevant to contemporary audiences.

Text 2 The Nutcracker is outdated, but it should be kept because it’s a holiday favorite and provides substantial income for some dance companies. Although it can be behind the times, there are creative ways to update the show. For example, Debbie Allen successfully modernized the story. Her show Hot Chocolate Nutcracker combines ballet, tap, hip-hop, and other styles, and it has been gaining in popularity since it opened in 2009.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the underlined claim in Text 1?

A. By questioning the idea that the story of The Nutcracker is stuck in the past and by rejecting the suggestion that contemporary audiences would enjoy an updated version

B. By agreeing that contemporary audiences have largely stopped going to see performances of The Nutcracker because it’s so old-fashioned

C. By pointing out that most dance companies could increase their incomes by offering modernized versions of The Nutcracker

D. By suggesting that dance companies should consider offering revised versions of The Nutcracker instead of completely rejecting the show

D

Text 1 What factors influence the abundance of species in a given ecological community? Some theorists have argued that historical diversity is a major driver of how diverse an ecological community eventually becomes: differences in community diversity across otherwise similar habitats, in this view, are strongly affected by the number of species living in those habitats at earlier times. 

Text 2 In 2010, a group of researchers including biologist Carla Cáceres created artificial pools in a New York forest. They stocked some pools with a diverse mix of zooplankton species and others with a single zooplankton species and allowed the pool communities to develop naturally thereafter. Over the course of four years, Cáceres and colleagues periodically measured the species diversity of the pools, finding—contrary to their expectations—that by the end of the study there was little to no difference in the pools’ species diversity. 

Based on the texts, how would Cáceres and colleagues (Text 2) most likely describe the view of the theorists presented in Text 1?

A. It is largely correct, but it requires a minor refinement in light of the research team’s results.

B. It is not compelling as a theory regardless of any experimental data collected by the research team.

C. It may seem plausible, but it is not supported by the research team’s findings. 

D. It probably holds true only in conditions like those in the research team’s study

C

One popular theory of the origin of the Moon, the “big whack,” posits that a protoplanet called Theia collided with Earth, flinging debris into orbit that eventually coalesced into the Moon. Until recently, Theia was ______, but researcher Qian Yuan and colleagues now claim to have identified pieces of the protoplanet in the lowermost section of Earth’s mantle.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. desultory

B. spurious

C. veritable

D. notional

D

Studying how workload affects productivity, Maryam Kouchaki and colleagues found that people who chose to do relatively easy tasks first were less ______ compared to those who did hard tasks first. Finishing easy tasks gave participants a sense of accomplishment, but those who tackled hard tasks first actually became more skilled and productive workers over time.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. secretive

B. efficient

C. outgoing

D. unsympathetic

B

In response to concerns that some recent financial crises were exacerbated by consumers misunderstanding risks associated with credit cards, loans, and other financial products, policymakers in many countries have instituted risk-disclosure requirements on sellers of those products. Enrique Seira et al. investigated a variety of risk-disclosure messages sent to thousands of credit card customers and found that the messages had only small and short-lived effects on behavior. Seira et al. asserted that such effects may nevertheless be worth pursuing, given the negligible cost of messaging.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?

A. It notes a factor that led Seira et al. to not dismiss risk-disclosure messaging altogether despite their evidence of its limited utility.

B. It acknowledges a type of risk-disclosure messaging that Seira et al. may not have fully accounted for in their study. 

C. It describes a consideration that explains why Seira et al. recommended risk-disclosure messaging even though its effects may be small relative to its costs.

D. It points out a circumstance that Seira et al. conceded may make risk-disclosure messaging more effective than their study suggests.

A

The percentage of US forest land that a 2023 federal report identified as being either mature or old growth exceeds other recent estimates. Given how little ______ there is among scientists regarding the scope of these categories, this discrepancy shouldn’t be surprising: forest researchers regularly dispute one another’s classifications. 

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. deliberation

B. vigilance

C. interest

D. consensus

D

The printing of Virginia Woolf’s novels featured a creative ______ between Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell: a talented painter, Bell worked closely with Woolf to create original cover art for most of the novels.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. rebellion

B. partnership

C. discovery

D. disagreement

B

Text 1 Most animals can regenerate some parts of their bodies, such as skin. But when a three-banded panther worm is cut into three pieces, each piece grows into a new worm. Researchers are investigating this feat partly to learn more about humans’ comparatively limited abilities to regenerate, and they’re making exciting progress. An especially promising discovery is that both humans and panther worms have a gene for early growth response (EGR) linked to regeneration.

Text 2 When Mansi Srivastava and her team reported that panther worms, like humans, possess a gene for EGR, it caused excitement. However, as the team pointed out, the gene likely functions very differently in humans than it does in panther worms. Srivastava has likened EGR to a switch that activates other genes involved in regeneration in panther worms, but how this switch operates in humans remains unclear.

Based on the texts, what would the author of Text 2 most likely say about Text 1’s characterization of the discovery involving EGR?

A. It is reasonable given that Srivastava and her team have identified how EGR functions in both humans and panther worms.

B. It is overly optimistic given additional observations from Srivastava and her team.

C. It is unexpected given that Srivastava and her team’s findings were generally met with enthusiasm.

D. It is unfairly dismissive given the progress that Srivastava and her team have reported

B

A brief book review cannot fully convey the ______ of Olga Tokarczuk’s novel The Books of Jacob, with its enormous cast of characters, its complicated, wandering plot, and its page numbers that count backward (beginning at 965 and ending at 1).

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. accuracy

B. inactivity

C. complexity

D. restraint

C

Archaeologists studying an ancient amphitheater in Switzerland believe that it dates back to the fourth century CE. Their discoveries of a coin made between 337 and 341 CE and era-appropriate building materials ______ evidence for this theory.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. dismiss

B. provide

C. regulate

D. refuse

B

In the past, historians who wanted to examine Frederick Douglass’s diary and other personal papers had to visit the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, to view them on microfilm (film containing scaled-down reproductions of documents). But traveling to the library often added time and costs to research projects. Now, by going to the library’s website, researchers can access digitized versions of Douglass’s papers without physically going anywhere.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?

A. It gives information about a famous person.

B. It explains the meaning of a word.

C. It describes a debate among historians.

D. It summarizes an unexpected finding.

B

Vadamalai Elangovan and Ganapathi Marimuthu showed that high moonlight intensity inhibits the activity of the greater short nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus sphinx), a result explicable in terms of benefits and costs: greater lunar intensity may not enable the bats to increase foraging success enough to offset the higher chance of detection by predatory owls or hawks. Most other nocturnal mammals respond to lunar intensity variations similarly to greater short-nosed fruit bats, but mongoose lemurs (Eulemur mongoz) display the opposite pattern, as their heavy reliance on visual foraging results in a different balance of reward and risk.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A. It discusses two different responses to the same natural phenomenon, explains why one of those responses occurs, and then suggests that the other response still needs to be explained. 

B. It describes and accounts for a finding, characterizes the finding as representative of a general pattern, and then describes and accounts for an exception to that pattern.

C. It presents and explains a study result, indicates that the result is similar to the results of many other studies, and then attributes a conflicting study result to a difference in that study’s methods.

D. It introduces an observation of a behavioral pattern, presents an explanation for the pattern, and then describes an exception to the pattern that casts doubt on that explanation. 

B

When marine biologist Brittany Williams played different ocean recordings to groups of oyster larvae, groups that heard sounds of a healthy oyster reef were the most ______. They were twice as likely as other groups to show signs of making a permanent home. This suggests that playing recordings of a healthy ocean reef may encourage oysters to create such a reef.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. responsive

B. inactive

C. liked

D. distressed

A

Text 1 Mycoprotein is a fungal biomass that can be eaten as an alternative to meat. Studies of the environmental impact of its manufacture generally agree it is lower than that of beef and closer to that of chicken or pork. But the expense of producing mycoprotein restricts its availability to a few countries with postindustrial economies. Knowing that cost reductions would expand access to mycoprotein, biochemists are exploring solutions, such as a cheaper substrate to feed the mycoprotein as it grows.

Text 2 Cattle farming is a principal cause of global deforestation, and a study by Florian Humpenöder and his colleagues found that replacing 20% of beef consumption worldwide with consumption of mycoprotein would cut deforestation by half if accomplished over the next thirty years. However, this would likely involve only a small change in agricultural water consumption, since water once dedicated to raising cattle would be diverted to raising crops instead.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 1 most likely respond to the study findings mentioned in Text 2?

A. By emphasizing that since agricultural water consumption would remain static in the event of replacing beef consumption with mycoprotein consumption, an effort must be made to substitute mycoprotein for chicken and pork in diets as well

B. By asserting that the development of a more inexpensive substrate for mycoprotein production would contribute to the goal of decreasing worldwide deforestation over time

C. By noting that most people would be more likely to use mycoprotein as a substitute for chicken or pork in their diets than as a substitute for beef

D. By pointing out that some countries are responsible for greater deforestation than others and thus, to have any significant effect on the environment, will have to replace more than 20% of their beef consumption with mycoprotein

B

The following text is adapted from Cynthia Kadohata’s 2004 novel Kira-Kira. [Uncle Katsuhisa] was as loud as my father was quiet. Even when he wasn’t talking, he made a lot of noise, clearing his throat and sniffing and tapping his fingers.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence?

A. It lists the kinds of topics Uncle Katsuhisa enjoys discussing.

B. It suggests that Uncle Katsuhisa dislikes meeting new people.

C. It contrasts Uncle Katsuhisa with the narrator’s father.

D. It describes a conversation between the narrator and the narrator’s father. 

C

The following text is adapted from Louisa May Alcott’s 1869 novel An Old-Fashioned Girl. Polly, a teenager, is visiting her friend Fanny.

Fanny’s friends did not interest Polly much; she was rather afraid of them [because] they seemed so much older and wiser than herself, even those younger in years. They talked about things of which she knew nothing and when Fanny tried to explain, she didn’t find them interesting; indeed, some of them rather shocked and puzzled her.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To portray Polly’s reaction to Fanny’s friends

B. To identify the topics Polly talks about with Fanny’s friends

C. To explain how Fanny met some of her friends

D. To illustrate how Fanny’s friends feel about Polly

A

Many ancient sculptures of people’s heads are missing their noses. This is because the nose is the most ______ part of a sculpture of a person’s head. It is delicate and sticks out from the rest of the sculpture, making it especially easy to break.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. recognizable

B. fragile

C. common

D. sophisticated

B

Steiger Butte Drum, a family ensemble from the Klamath Tribes of the Pacific Northwest, collaborated with composer Michael Gordon to create Natural History, a work featuring traditional drumming and vocals alongside an orchestra and chorus. Steiger Butte Drum’s participation is ______ to the piece: members not only contributed to its composition but also must be included in all performances.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. tangential

B. subsequent

C. analogous

D. integral

D

Although critics believed that customers would never agree to pay to pick their own produce on farms, such concerns didn’t ______ Booker T. Whatley’s efforts to promote the practice. Thanks in part to Whatley’s determined advocacy, farms that allow visitors to pick their own apples, pumpkins, and other produce can be found throughout the United States.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. enhance

B. hinder

C. misrepresent

D. aggravate

B

Dubautia carrii is a species in a family of plants known collectively as the silversword alliance, all of which grow only on the Hawaiian Islands. Members of this alliance exhibit an extraordinary range of phenotypes, with some species maturing into vines and others into shrubs and trees. All species in the alliance descended from a single ancestral tarweed plant that arrived on the islands around 5 million years ago. The tarweed’s descendants diversified into distinct species as they adapted to live in the wide variety of habitats found on the Hawaiian Islands.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A. To indicate the specific tarweed ancestor of all plants that grow on the Hawaiian Islands and explain why the plants have such varied physical characteristics

B. To describe the specific habitat where Dubautia carrii are found and identify other plants that share a common ancestor with them

C. To describe the silversword alliance and explain how the plant family became so varied

D. To advance the claim that all plants on the Hawaiian Islands are part of the silversword alliance and list possible ancestors of the plants that make up the alliance

C

Text 1 Ecologists have long wondered how thousands of microscopic phytoplankton species can live together near ocean surfaces competing for the same resources. According to conventional wisdom, one species should emerge after outcompeting the rest. So why do so many species remain? Ecologists’ many efforts to explain this phenomenon still haven’t uncovered a satisfactory explanation.

Text 2 Ecologist Michael Behrenfeld and colleagues have connected phytoplankton’s diversity to their microscopic size. Because these organisms are so tiny, they are spaced relatively far apart from each other in ocean water and, moreover, experience that water as a relatively dense substance. This in turn makes it hard for them to move around and interact with one another. Therefore, says Behrenfeld’s team, direct competition among phytoplankton probably happens much less than previously thought.

Based on the texts, how would Behrenfeld and colleagues (Text 2) most likely respond to the “conventional wisdom” discussed in Text 1?

A. By arguing that it is based on a misconception about phytoplankton species competing with one another

B. By asserting that it fails to recognize that routine replenishment of ocean nutrients prevents competition between phytoplankton species 

C. By suggesting that their own findings help clarify how phytoplankton species are able to compete with larger organisms

D. By recommending that more ecologists focus their research on how competition among phytoplankton species is increased with water density

A

The following text is adapted from Oscar Wilde’s 1897 nonfiction work De Profundis. 

People whose desire is solely for self-realisation never know where they are going. They can’t know. In one sense of the word it is of course necessary to know oneself: that is the first achievement of knowledge. But to recognise that the soul of a man is unknowable, is the ultimate achievement of wisdom. The final mystery is oneself. When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens star by star, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul?

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined question in the text as a whole?

A. It reinforces the text’s skepticism about the possibility of truly achieving self-knowledge.

B. It speculates that some readers will share the doubts expressed in the text about the value of self-knowledge.

C. It cautions readers that the text’s directions for how to achieve self-knowledge are hard to follow.

D. It concedes that the definition of self-knowledge advanced in the text is unpopular.

A

In 1776, the United States sent Benjamin Franklin to France to try to win the country’s support in the United States’ fight for independence from Great Britain. Franklin was very popular in France. This ______ surely helped him to convince France to assist the United States.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

A. thoughtfulness

B. esteem

C. controversy

D. sincerity

B