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Question 1 |
Fashioned as an American epic, Hart Crane’s 1930 epic poem The Bridge is notable for the sheer number of time periods and cultures that it borrows images and __________ the Aztecs before contact with Europe, Chesapeake-based Native Americans during the arrival of the first English expeditions, and 20th century New Yorkers of a variety of backgrounds.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
allusions from | |
allusions, from | |
allusions: from | |
allusions from: |
Question 1 Explanation:
Choice (D) is the best answer because it correctly connects the independent clause and the explanatory list with a colon. The independent clause (“Hart Crane’s . . . allusions from”) and the list (“the Aztecs . . . backgrounds”) should be joined in this manner, since other options result in incomplete clauses and changes in meaning.
Question 2 |
The following text is from Susan Glaspell’s 1912 short story "The Preposterous Motive.” In this text, the Governor has just received a troubling communication by telegram.
Late in the afternoon a telegram reached the executive office. Styles was coming to town that night, and wanted to see the Governor at the hotel. Things always cleared when Styles came to town; and so, though still unable to foresee the outcome, he brightened at once. Styles was a railroad man, and rich. People to whom certain things were a sealed book said that it was nice of Mr. Styles to take an interest in politics when he had so many other things on his mind, and that he must be a very public-spirited man. That he took an interest in politics, no one familiar with the affairs of the State would deny.
According to the text, what is true about Styles?
He is a shrewd negotiator whose cleverness has made him wealthy. | |
He is a powerful businessman who wants to hold political office. | |
He is a thoughtful man whose loyalty to the Governor is unquestioned. | |
He is an influential figure whose actions reassure the Governor. |
Question 2 Explanation:
Choice (D) is the best answer because the Governor “brightened at once” when it becomes clear that Styles will be involved. This indication of Styles’s power in the political world, along with the the idea that styles is “rich” and connected to “the affairs of the State,” further confirms that Styles is an influential figure.
Question 3 |
Heart of Darkness is an 1899 novel by Joseph Conrad. In the novel, a first-person narrator gathers with several of his friends. All of these characters have worked as sailors, yet one, Marlow, has an adventurous mentality that sets him apart from the others: __________
Which quotation from Heart of Darkness most effectively illustrates the claim?
“Between us there was, as I have already said somewhere, the bond of the sea. Besides holding our hearts together through long periods of separation, it had the effect of making us tolerant of each other’s yarns—and even convictions.” | |
“Marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzen-mast. He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and, with his arms dropped, the palms of hands outwards, resembled an idol.” | |
“[Marlow] was the only man of us who still ‘followed the sea.’ The worst that could be said of him was that he did not represent his class. He was a seaman, but he was a wanderer, too, while most seamen lead, if one may so express it, a sedentary life. Their minds are of the stay-at-home order.” | |
“To [Marlow] the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine. His remark did not seem at all surprising. It was just like Marlow.” |
Question 3 Explanation:
Choice (C) is the best answer because it singles out Marlow, and establishes him as fundamentally different from the other sailors. The quotation identifies both his actions (continuing to work as a sailor after the others have retired) and his mindset (wandering) as being distinctive, and unlike the other friends of the narrator.
Question 4 |
Text 1
To avoid gathering data skewed by extraneous factors, neuroscientists often seek out populations of experimental participants similar in age, cognitive performance, and handedness. Right-handed and left-handed individuals may process information differently, but this fact led Roel M. Willems and colleagues, in 2014, to advocate including left-handed adults in specialized experiments. Humanity’s left-handed minority could provide insights into the “genetic underpinning of asymmetrical brain development,” whether in comparative studies of handedness or in studies with mostly left-handed subjects.Text 2
Handedness, presumably, is easy to gauge in experimental design through self-reporting and quick assessments of dexterity. But devising “naturally” right-handed and left-handed cohorts sidesteps the fact that humanity’s 90% right-handed preference is socially and culturally determined. As noted by Carolien G. F. de Kovel, Amaia Carrión-Castillo, and Clyde Francks in a 2019 study, cross-cultural “enforced right-handedness” in children makes infant test subjects more appropriate for considerations of innate handedness preferences and more reliable in studies of whether handedness has a genetic or physiological, not social, origin.Which choice best describes how Text 1 and Text 2 relate to each other?
Text 1 outlines an adjustment to research methodologies, while Text 2 cites a factor that complicates this new approach. | |
Text 1 describes a flaw in a commonly accepted research practice, while Text 2 argues that this flaw is excusable in some sophisticated research projects. | |
Text 1 calls into question the validity of a set of conclusions, while Text 2 notes that the same conclusions are ultimately convincing. | |
Text 1 explains the shortcomings of a recent set of inquiries, while Text 2 describes a practical application of the same research projects. |
Question 4 Explanation:
Choice (A) is the best answer because Text 1 calls attention to researchers who “advocate including left-handed adults in specialized experiments,” yet Text 2 cites other researchers who note that adult test subjects may not be ideal for considering handedness experimentally. In particular, the author of Text 2 cites the idea that handedness is a product of culture for adults, so that “infant test subjects” are superior in considerations of “innate handedness.”
Question 5 |
Television writers and producers have a few different ways of preparing __________ for the possibility their series will be canceled after one season. One is to create a first season that is coherent regardless of future prospects. This was the route taken by the acclaimed—and canceled—academic drama The Chair, whose characters reach meaningful points of change within a well-shaped first and only season.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
them | |
themselves | |
itself | |
it |
Question 5 Explanation:
Choice (B) is the best answer because the plural pronoun “themselves” agrees with the plural antecedent “television writers and producers” to effectively indicate that the television writers and producers are preparing themselves rather than preparing something else, such as a script. “Themselves” is reflexive, which indicates that the television writers and producers were both the preparers and the ones being prepared.
Question 6 |
In the 1860s and 1870s, George Eliot composed intensely realistic psychological novels—including her 800-page masterpiece Middlemarch—that are arguably antithetical to a contemporary taste for shorter fiction. Eliot and her works nonetheless received renewed public notice in 2013, when the wide-circulation magazine The New Yorker ran an appreciative feature essay on Eliot; in the same year, Cathy Tempelsman’s drama A Most Dangerous Woman opened at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, offering audiences a survey of Eliot’s life. This intensified attention to Eliot suggests that __________
Which choice most logically completes the text?
readers and writers continue to gravitate to Eliot regardless of trends towards brevity in literature. | |
Eliot’s books, particularly Middlemarch, are likely to sell larger numbers of copies in the years ahead. | |
a staged play can be more effective than even the most well-researched magazine article in generating renewed interest in an author. | |
journalists and playwrights alike find Eliot to be a valuable model for nonfiction writing. |
Question 6 Explanation:
Choice (A) is the best answer because the passage refers to Eliot’s popularity being threatened by trends in literature shifting towards a preference for shorter works, but also provides evidence for ongoing interest in Eliot and her works. A sentence that references Eliot’s enduring popularity in spite of changing literary tastes thus most logically completes the passage.
Question 7 |
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes.
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides an overview of the private, political, and civil rights that modern nations should respect.
- It was ratified by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948.
- Eleanor Roosevelt, a former First Lady of the United States, was one important proponent of the Declaration.
- Roosevelt was a UN delegate and a respected humanitarian figure.
- Other important proponents of the Declaration were Lebanese diplomat Charles Habib Malik and Canadian diplomat Charles Humphrey.
The student wants to make and support a generalization about the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
Eleanor Roosevelt, Charles Habib Malik, and Charles Humphrey were some of the proponents of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. | |
Advocates of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights hailed from different countries: Eleanor Roosevelt was from the US, while Charles Humphrey was from Canada. | |
On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. | |
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was promoted by UN delegate Eleanor Roosevelt, who had once held a different position: First Lady of the United States. |
Question 7 Explanation:
Choice (B) is the best answer because it states a generalization about the multinational nature of the advocacy for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and then supports that generalization with two examples. This choice is consistent with the student’s goal of “mak[ing] and support[ing] a generalization about the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
Question 8 |
The following text is from Virginia Woolf’s short story “A Society,” published in the 1921 collection Monday or Tuesday.
Then we had Fanny's account of her visit to the Law Courts. At her first visit she had come to the conclusion that the Judges were either made of wood or were impersonated by large animals resembling man who had been trained to move with extreme dignity, mumble and nod their heads. To test her theory she had liberated a handkerchief of bluebottles at the critical moment of a trial, but was unable to judge whether the creatures gave signs of humanity for the buzzing of the flies induced so sound a sleep that she only woke in time to see the prisoners led into the cells below.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
To remark upon an exception to the previous sentence’s criticisms | |
To introduce a premise for the test outlined in the subsequent sentence | |
To balance the satire in the subsequent sentence with a more objective depiction | |
To suggest a solution to the problem noted in the previous sentence |
Question 8 Explanation:
Choice (B) is the best answer because it introduces a hypothesis (Fanny is not sure whether or not judges are actually human), which is followed by a test of the hypothesis (she lets flies loose in the courtroom to see if the judges react).
Question 9 |
Frilled sharks dwell in the deep reaches of the sea, feeding primarily on the various squids that inhabit these areas, where light seldom reaches. For their part, fieldwork expeditions seldom reach this far below the surface, so much knowledge of the squid species in these deep-sea regions has been gleaned secondhand, from squid specimens that float to lower depths. __________ knowledge of the frilled shark relies little on direct observation.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
Secondly, | |
Likewise, | |
Instead, | |
Alternatively, |
Question 9 Explanation:
Choice (B) is the best answer because “likewise” signals that the fact that “knowledge of the frilled shark relies little on direct observation” is similar to the fact that “much knowledge of the squid species in these deep-sea regions has been gleaned secondhand.” This transition properly signals a similarity relationship.
Question 10 |
The genus and species names that scientists assign to organisms sometimes involve _______ allusions, even for organisms with seemingly mundane traits. One recently discovered crustacean, Gnathia jimmybuffetti, was named to commemorate Jimmy Buffett, a vibrant musician who himself had an offbeat sense of humor; for its part, G. jimmybuffetti is a tiny parasite that feeds on the blood of fish.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
tiresome | |
derogatory | |
erudite | |
playful |
Question 10 Explanation:
Choice (D) is the best answer because the passage describes scientists exhibiting whimsy and humor in their choice of names for recently discovered organisms. (D) best conveys the meaning of an action that is light-hearted, whimsical, and designed to provoke a sense of fun.
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