Reading & Writing

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, revealing that humans occupied the cave thousands of years before the Clovis people reached the continent.

Text 2

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

Each night in Gijón, Spain, a section of the city’s marina is bathed in a soft green glow. The source of the glow is the Árbol de la Sidra, a large sculpture made up of 3,200 recycled glass bottles. A lamp inside the tree-shaped structure ______ the green glass.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. will be illuminating

B. illuminates

C. would illuminate

D. illuminated

French philosopher René Descartes doubted whether he could prove his own existence. Eventually, he found proof in his famous phrase “I think, therefore I am.” The ______ complexity: only those who exist would be able to ponder their existence.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. phrases’ simplicity masks its

B. phrases simplicity masks their

C. phrase’s simplicity masks their

D. phrase’s simplicity masks its

In the early 1970s, Albert Popa took up graffiti art, spraying his work onto what was at the time an unconventional surface: concrete. ______ Albert’s son David has chosen an unusual canvas for his new art project, Fractured. In this remarkable work, the artist draws charcoal faces onto fragmented ice floes in Finland, creating the visual effect of a face slowly fracturing.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. However,

B. Indeed,

C. Second,

D. Likewise,

The War of 1812 has ______ place in historical memory in Britain, partly because it is overshadowed by the much larger concurrent conflict against Napoleonic France and partly because it essentially maintained the geopolitical status quo for Britain: the country neither gained nor lost significant territory or position as a result of its participation in the war.

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

A. a tenuous

B. an enduring

C. a contentious

D. a conspicuous

In 1891, design artist William Morris cofounded the Kelmscott Press, which printed editions of books using preindustrial methods. Historians argue that Morris’s repudiation of industrialization is ______ the Kelmscott editions’ use of handmade materials and intricate ornamentation reminiscent of medieval manuscripts: these meticulously handcrafted elements exemplify the artistry involved.

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

A. insensible to

B. manifest in

C. scrutinized by

D. complicated by

______ the long-standing trend of overemphasizing teenagers and young adults in research on social media use, scholars have recently begun to expand their focus to include the fastest-growing cohort of social media users: senior citizens. 

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

A. Exacerbating

B. Redressing

C. Epitomizing

D. Precluding

The following text is adapted from James Baldwin’s 1956 novel Giovanni’s Room. The narrator is riding in a taxi down a street lined with food vendors and shoppers in Paris, France.

The multitude of Paris seems to be dressed in blue every day but Sunday, when, for the most part, they put on an unbelievably festive black. Here they were now, in blue, disputing, every inch, our passage, with their wagons, handtrucks, their bursting baskets carried at an angle steeply self-confident on the back.

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

A. Arguing about

B. Disapproving of

C. Asserting possession of

D. Providing resistance to

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.

Elizabeth Asiedu has identified a negative correlation between the share of developing countries’ economies derived from natural-resource extraction and those countries’ receipts of foreign investment. This may appear counterintuitive—resource extraction requires initial investments (in extractive technology, for instance) at scales best met by multinational corporations—but Asiedu notes that natural-resource industries’ boom-bust cycle can destabilize local currencies and increase developing countries’ vulnerability to external shocks, creating levels of uncertainty to which foreign investors are typically averse.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

A. Although it may seem surprising that foreign investment declines in developing countries as natural-resource extraction makes up a larger share of those countries’ economies, that decline happens because resource extraction requires initial investments too large for foreign investors to supply.

B. Although developing countries tend to become less dependent on foreign investment as natural-resource industries make up a larger share of their economies, this change may not occur if the boom-bust cycle of those industries destabilizes local currencies or increases countries’ vulnerability to external shocks.

C. Although one might expect that foreign investment would increase as natural-resource extraction makes up a larger share of developing countries’ economies, the opposite happens because heavy reliance on natural resources can lead to unattractive conditions for investors.

D. Although foreign investors tend to avoid initial investments in natural-resource industries in developing countries, foreign investment may increase significantly as those industries stabilize and the risks associated with them decline.

Some astronomers searching for extraterrestrial life have proposed that atmospheric NH₃ (ammonia) can serve as a biosignature gas—an indication that a planet harbors life. Jingcheng Huang, Sara Seager, and colleagues evaluated this possibility, finding that on rocky planets, atmospheric NH₃ likely couldn’t reach detectably high levels in the absence of biological activity. But the team also found that on so-called mini-Neptunes—gas planets smaller than Neptune but with atmospheres similar to Neptune’s—atmospheric pressure and temperature can be high enough to produce atmospheric NH_3.

Based on the text, Huang, Seager, and colleagues would most likely agree with which statement about atmospheric NH3?

A. Its presence is more likely to indicate that a planet is a mini-Neptune than that the planet is a rocky planet that could support life.

B. Its absence from a planet that’s not a mini-Neptune indicates that the planet probably doesn’t have life.

C. It should be treated as a biosignature gas if detected in the atmosphere of a rocky planet but not if detected in the atmosphere of a mini-Neptune.

D. It doesn’t reliably reach high enough concentrations in the atmospheres of rocky planets or mini-Neptunes to be treated as a biosignature gas.

Inés Ibáñez and colleagues studied a forest site in which some sugar maple trees receive periodic fertilization with nitrogen to mimic the broader trend of increasing anthropogenic nitrogen deposition in soil. Ibáñez and colleagues modeled the radial growth of the trees with and without nitrogen fertilization under three different climate scenarios (the current climate, moderate change, and extreme change). Although they found that climate change would negatively affect growth, they concluded that anthropogenic nitrogen deposition could more than offset that effect provided that change is moderate rather than extreme.

Which choice best describes data from the graph that support Ibáñez and colleagues’ conclusion?

A. Growth with nitrogen under the current climate exceeded growth with nitrogen under moderate change, but the latter exceeded growth without nitrogen under extreme change.

B. Growth without nitrogen under the current climate exceeded growth without nitrogen under moderate change, but the latter exceeded growth with nitrogen under extreme change.

C. Growth with nitrogen under moderate change exceeded growth without nitrogen under moderate change, but the latter exceeded growth without nitrogen under extreme change.

D. Growth with nitrogen under moderate change exceeded growth without nitrogen under the current climate, but the latter exceeded growth with nitrogen under extreme change.

Under normal atmospheric pressure at Earth’s surface, water molecules form a tetrahedral network stabilized by hydrogen bonds between adjacent molecules. Extreme high pressure, such as can be found in deep ocean waters, destabilizes these bonds and compresses water’s structure, allowing water molecules within organisms to permeate proteins and impede crucial biological functions; yet deep-sea organisms known as piezophiles have adapted to extreme pressure. Studies have found a positive correlation between the depths that various piezophiles inhabit and concentrations of a compound called trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) in their muscle tissues, which has led a team of researchers to hypothesize that TMAO reduces water’s compressibility.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers’ hypothesis?

A. Water molecules are found to be impervious to TMAO even when the water molecules’ tetrahedral configuration has been distorted by high pressure.

B. Examination of TMAO’s molecular structure shows that TMAO molecules retain their shape even as pressure increases.

C. A positive correlation is found between concentrations of TMAO and the rate at which water’s molecular structure compresses as pressure increases.

D. Analysis of water’s molecular structure under high pressure reveals that hydrogen bonds are more stable when TMAO is present than when it is not.

Simulated Change in Annual Input and Irrigation Output if Precipitation Concentration Increases as Climate Models Predict

Some climate models for the western United States predict that while total annual precipitation may remain unchanged from the present level, precipitation will become concentrated into fewer but more intense rain and snow events. University of Texas climate scientist Geeta Persad and her colleagues simulated how the amount of water entering aquifers and the amount being used for irrigation purposes would change if this were to occur. Persad and her colleagues concluded that concentration of precipitation into fewer events would result in a higher number of dry days, triggering more irrigation, but that this change in irrigation output is highly sensitive to the baseline concentration of precipitation that currently exists in an area.

Which choice best describes data from the table that support Persad and her colleagues’ conclusion?

A. If baseline precipitation is somewhat concentrated, the amount of water being used for irrigation will increase 0.4% for surface water and 0.9% for groundwater, whereas the amount of water entering aquifers will increase 11.0% if baseline precipitation is evenly distributed.

B. If baseline precipitation is somewhat concentrated, water use for irrigation will increase only slightly, whereas it will increase 9.0% for surface water and 7.9% for groundwater if baseline precipitation is evenly distributed.

C. If baseline precipitation is somewhat concentrated, the amount of water entering aquifers will increase 4.9%, while the amount being used for irrigation will increase 0.4% for surface water and 0.9% for groundwater.

D. If baseline precipitation is somewhat concentrated, water use for irrigation will decline by a small amount, whereas it will increase 11.0% for surface water and 9.0% for groundwater if baseline precipitation is evenly distributed.

In a 2013 study, Agness Gidna, José Yravedra, and Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo compared the feeding behaviors of wild lions in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park with those of captive lions in Spain’s Cabárceno Reserve. The researchers noted that previous studies focused on other carnivores have shown that providing animals with food at regular intervals, as is common in captive settings, may inadvertently facilitate the development of novel stereotypic (i.e., purposelessly repetitive) behaviors by reducing the need for a high degree of cognitive engagement with the environment; the researchers were therefore not altogether surprised to find that ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A. bones from carcasses provided to captive lions showed signs of extensive gnawing beyond the point of nutrient extraction, whereas bones from prey hunted by wild lions did not.

B. during feeding episodes, captive male lions showed much more aggression than did wild male lions, whereas female captive and wild lions showed similar levels of aggression.

C. when caretakers placed food in boxes that were cognitively demanding to open, captive lions showed repeated behaviors similar to those that wild lions show when stalking prey.

D. captive lions showed a stereotypic behavior of pacing in their enclosures as feeding times approached, whereas wild lions showed a stereotypic behavior of pacing before embarking on a hunt.

In 1986, conceptual artist Sophie Calle asked twenty-three people, all of whom had been born without sight, to describe “their image of beauty” in rich detail. Calle paired excerpts of these conversations with photographs—both of interviewees and the items they ______ to powerful effect in her exhibition The Blind.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. described, from hair to grass to sculptures

B. described, from hair to grass to sculptures—

C. described—from hair to grass to sculptures,

D. described: from hair to grass to sculptures

American abstract artist Richard ______ his installations to make passersby keenly aware of how one’s movements are affected by the physical features of one’s environment, assembles large-scale steel plates into sculptures that dominate the outdoor spaces they occupy.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

A. Serra is intending

B. Serra, intends

C. Serra, intending

D. Serra intends

In hindsight, given the ideas about the natural world circulating among British scientists in the 1800s, the theory of natural selection was an obvious next step. It may not have been a coincidence, ______ that Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace arrived at the concept independently. Indeed, contrary to the popular myth of the lone genius, theirs is not the first paradigm-shifting theory to have emerged from multiple scholars working in parallel. 

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

A. however,

B. then,

C. moreover,

D. for example,

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

• The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) keeps a list of all at-risk species.

• Species on the list are classified as either endangered or threatened.

• A species that is in danger of extinction throughout most or all of its range is classified as endangered.

• A species that is likely to soon become endangered is classified as threatened.

• The California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii) is likely to soon become endangered, according to the FWS.

The student wants to indicate the California red-legged frog’s FWS classification category. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

A. Species on the FWS list, which includes the California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii), are classified as either endangered or threatened.

B. The California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii) appears on the FWS list of at-risk species.

C. According to the FWS, the California red-legged frog is in the endangered category, in danger of extinction throughout most or all of its range.

D. Likely to soon become endangered, the California red-legged frog is classified as threatened by the FWS.