Reading & Writing
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
The artisans of the Igun Eronmwon guild in Benin City, Nigeria, typically ______ the bronze- and brass-casting techniques that have been passed down through their families since the thirteenth century, but they don’t strictly observe every tradition; for example, guild members now use air-conditioning motors instead of handheld bellows to help heat their forges.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A. experiment with
B. adhere to
C. improve on
D. grapple with
In a 2019 study, Jeremy Gunawardena and colleagues found that the single-celled protozoan Stentor roeseli not only uses strategies to escape irritating stimuli but also switches strategies when one fails. This evidence of protozoans sophisticatedly “changing their minds” demonstrates that single-celled organisms may not be limited to ______ behaviors.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A. aggressive
B. rudimentary
C. evolving
D. advantageous
The following text is adapted from Karel Čapek’s 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), translated by Paul Selver and Nigel Playfair in 1923. Fabry and Busman are telling Miss Glory why their company manufactures robots.
FABRY: One Robot can replace two and a half workmen. The human machine, Miss Glory, was terribly imperfect. It had to be removed sooner or later.
BUSMAN: It was too expensive.
FABRY: It was not effective. It no longer answers the requirements of modern engineering. Nature has no idea of keeping pace with modern labor.
As used in the text, what does the word “answers” most nearly mean?
A. Explains
B. Rebuts
C. Defends
D. Fulfills
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
Pterosaurs were flying reptiles that existed millions of years ago.
In a 2021 study, Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan analyzed fragments of pterosaur jawbones located in the Sahara Desert.
She was initially unsure if the bones belonged to juvenile or adult pterosaurs.
She used advanced microscope techniques to determine that the bones had few growth lines relative to the bones of fully grown pterosaurs.
She concluded that the bones belonged to juveniles.
The student wants to present the study and its findings. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
A. In 2021, Chinsamy-Turan studied pterosaur jawbones and was initially unsure if the bones belonged to juveniles or adults.
B. Pterosaur jawbones located in the Sahara Desert were the focus of a 2021 study.
C. In a 2021 study, Chinsamy-Turan used advanced microscope techniques to analyze the jawbones of pterosaurs, flying reptiles that existed millions of years ago.
D. In a 2021 study, Chinsamy-Turan determined that pterosaur jawbones located in the Sahara Desert had few growth lines relative to the bones of fully grown pterosaurs and thus belonged to juveniles.
New and interesting research conducted by Suleiman A. Al-Sweedan and Moath Alhaj is inspired by their observation that though there have been many studies of the effect of high altitude on blood chemistry, there is a ______ studies of the effect on blood chemistry of living in locations below sea level, such as the California towns of Salton City and Seeley.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A. quarrel about
B. paucity of
C. profusion of
D. verisimilitude in
Whether the reign of a French monarch such as Hugh Capet or Henry I was historically consequential or relatively uneventful, its trajectory was shaped by questions of legitimacy and therefore cannot be understood without a corollary understanding of the factors that allowed the monarch to ______ his right to hold the throne.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A. disengage
B. annotate
C. buttress
D. reciprocate
Mosasaurs were large marine reptiles that lived in the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 100 million to 66 million years ago. Celina Suarez, Alberto Pérez-Huerta, and T. Lynn Harrell Jr. examined oxygen-18 isotopes in mosasaur tooth enamel in order to calculate likely mosasaur body temperatures and determined that mosasaurs were endothermic—that is, they used internal metabolic processes to maintain a stable body temperature in a variety of ambient temperatures. Suarez, Pérez-Huerta, and Harrell claim that endothermy would have enabled mosasaurs to include relatively cold polar waters in their range.
Which finding, if true, would most directly support Suarez, Pérez-Huerta, and Harrell’s claim?
A. Mosasaurs’ likely body temperatures are easier to determine from tooth enamel oxygen-18 isotope data than the body temperatures of nonendothermic Late Cretaceous marine reptiles are.
B. Fossils of both mosasaurs and nonendothermic marine reptiles have been found in roughly equal numbers in regions known to be near the poles during the Late Cretaceous, though in lower concentrations than elsewhere.
C. Several mosasaur fossils have been found in regions known to be near the poles during the Late Cretaceous, while relatively few fossils of nonendothermic marine reptiles have been found in those locations.
D. During the Late Cretaceous, seawater temperatures were likely higher throughout mosasaurs’ range, including near the poles, than seawater temperatures at those same latitudes are today.
Average Number of Individuals Reporting Directly to CEOs
Considering a large sample of companies, economics experts Maria Guadalupe, Julie Wulf, and Raghuram Rajan assessed the number of managers and leaders from different departments who reported directly to a chief executive officer (CEO). According to the researchers, the findings suggest that across the years analyzed, there was a growing interest among CEOs in connecting with more departments in their companies.
Which choice best describes data from the graph that support the researchers’ conclusion?
A. The average numbers of managers and department leaders reporting directly to their CEO didn’t fluctuate from the 1991–1995 period to the 2001–2008 period.
B. The average number of managers reporting directly to their CEO was highest in the 1996–2001 period.
C. The average number of department leaders reporting directly to their CEO was greater than the average number of managers reporting directly to their CEO in each of the three periods studied.
D. The average number of department leaders reporting directly to their CEO rose over the three periods studied.
Given that stars and planets initially form from the same gas and dust in space, some astronomers have posited that host stars (such as the Sun) and their planets (such as those in our solar system) are composed of the same materials, with the planets containing equal or smaller quantities of the materials that make up the host star. This idea is also supported by evidence that rocky planets in our solar system are composed of some of the same materials as the Sun.
Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the astronomers’ claim?
A. Most stars are made of hydrogen and helium, but when cooled they are revealed to contain small amounts of iron and silicate.
B. A nearby host star is observed to contain the same proportion of hydrogen and helium as that of the Sun.
C. Evidence emerges that the amount of iron in some rocky planets is considerably higher than the amount in their host star.
D. The method for determining the composition of rocky planets is discovered to be less effective when used to analyze other kinds of planets.
While attending school in New York City in the 1980s, Okwui Enwezor encountered few works by African artists in exhibitions, despite New York’s reputation as one of the best places to view contemporary art from around the world. According to an arts journalist, later in his career as a renowned curator and art historian, Enwezor sought to remedy this deficiency, not by focusing solely on modern African artists, but by showing how their work fits into the larger context of global modern art and art history.
Which finding, if true, would most directly support the journalist’s claim?
A. As curator of the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany, Enwezor organized a retrospective of Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui’s work entitled El Anatsui: Triumphant Scale, one of the largest art exhibitions devoted to a Black artist in Europe’s history.
B. In the exhibition Postwar: Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic, 1945–1965, Enwezor and cocurator Katy Siegel brought works by African artists such as Malangatana Ngwenya together with pieces by major figures from other countries, like US artist Andy Warhol and Mexico’s David Siqueiros.
C. Enwezor’s work as curator of the 2001 exhibition The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945–1994 showed how African movements for independence from European colonial powers following the Second World War profoundly influenced work by African artists of the period, such as Kamala Ibrahim Ishaq and Thomas Mukarobgwa.
D. Enwezor organized the exhibition In/sight: African Photographers, 1940 to the Present not to emphasize a particular aesthetic trend but to demonstrate the broad range of ways in which African artists have approached the medium of photography.
One challenge when researching whether holding elected office changes a person’s behavior is the problem of ensuring that the experiment has an appropriate control group. To reveal the effect of holding office, researchers must compare people who hold elected office with people who do not hold office but who are otherwise similar to the office-holders. Since researchers are unable to control which politicians win elections, they therefore ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A. struggle to find valid data about the behavior of politicians who do not currently hold office.
B. can only conduct valid studies with people who have previously held office rather than people who presently hold office.
C. should select a control group of people who differ from office holders in several significant ways.
D. will find it difficult to identify a group of people who can function as an appropriate control group for their studies.
Compiled in the late 1500s largely through the efforts of Indigenous scribes, Cantares Mexicanos is the most important collection of poetry in Classical Nahuatl, the principal language of the Aztec Empire. The poems portray Aztec society before the occupation of the empire by the army of Spain, and marginal notes in Cantares Mexicanos indicate that much of the collection’s content predates the initial invasion. Nonetheless, some of the poems contain inarguable references to beliefs and customs common in Spain during this era. Thus, some scholars have concluded that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A. while its content largely predates the invasion, Cantares Mexicanos also contains additions made after the invasion.
B. although those who compiled Cantares Mexicanos were fluent in Nahuatl, they had limited knowledge of the Spanish language.
C. before the invasion by Spain, the poets of the Aztec Empire borrowed from the literary traditions of other societies.
D. the references to beliefs and customs in Spain should be attributed to a coincidental resemblance between the societies of Spain and the Aztec Empire.
Hegra is an archaeological site in present-day Saudi Arabia and was the second largest city of the Nabataean Kingdom (fourth century BCE to first century CE). Archaeologist Laila Nehmé recently traveled to Hegra to study its ancient ______ into the rocky outcrops of a vast desert, these burial chambers seem to blend seamlessly with nature.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. tombs. Built
B. tombs, built
C. tombs and built
D. tombs built
The Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden in Norway and the Jardim Botânico of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil are two of many botanical gardens around the world dedicated to growing diverse plant ______ fostering scientific research; and educating the public about plant conservation.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. species, both native and nonnative,
B. species, both native and nonnative;
C. species; both native and nonnative,
D. species both native and nonnative,
The Babylonian king Hammurabi achieved much during his forty-year reign. He conquered all of Mesopotamia and built Babylon into one of the most powerful cities of the ancient world. Today, ______ he is mainly remembered for a code of laws inscribed on a seven-foot-tall block of stone: the Code of Hammurabi.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A. therefore,
B. likewise,
C. however,
D. for instance,
When designing costumes for film, American artist Suttirat Larlarb typically custom fits the garments to each actor. ______ for the film Sunshine, in which astronauts must reignite a dying Sun, she designed a golden spacesuit and had a factory reproduce it in a few standard sizes; lacking a tailor-made quality, the final creations reflected the ungainliness of actual spacesuits.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A. Nevertheless,
B. Thus,
C. Likewise,
D. Moreover,