Grammar
Transitions
Words in context
Grammar
Transitions
100
What is the correct pronunciation of Kiribati? In the Gilbertese language spoken by residents of the island nation, the letter combination -ti makes the -s sound; as a result, the country’s name _____ pronounced “Kiribas.”
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. is
B. are being
C. have been
D. are
A. is
100
Researchers have successfully created “synthetic” mouse embryos without using any paternal or maternal gametes or structures. The “synthetic” embryos are identical to natural mouse embryos up to about nine days post-fertilization. This discovery opens up many new areas of research for humans. ________ scientists hope to use this technology to create synthetic human embryos for research in the future.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A. Regardless,
B. Specifically,
C. Similarly,
D. In short,
B. Specifically,
100
Botanist Al Kovaleski has pointed out that maple trees already thrive in a wide variety of climates and thus may ______ changes in climate better than some other tree species do. The alterations maples may undergo in response to a changing climate are likely to be relatively small and easily achieved.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A. relocate from
B. refer to
C. originate from
D. adapt to
D. adapt to
100
Astronaut William Anders was a member of the Apollo 8 mission, the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon and orbit it. During the mission, Anders took a photo of Earth rising above the lunar surface, an __________ was later named Earthrise.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. image, that
B. image
C. image that
D. image
C. image that
100
Berenice Alice Abbott was a photographer from the US who captured a wide variety of subjects with her camera. ________ she photographed cultural figures, architectural structures, and scientific discoveries throughout her career. Some of her photos were used in physics textbooks and helped to improve high school physics classes.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A. Otherwise,
B. By contrast,
C. For example,
D. For these reasons,
C. For example,
200
In addition to her research into the effects of hormones, ultraviolet light, and chemotherapy agents on cell __________ Jewel Plummer Cobb served as dean at Connecticut College and Rutgers University and as president of California State University, Fullerton, where she led many projects expanding the school’s facilities.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. division: biologist
B. division. Biologist
C. division biologist
D. division, biologist
D. division, biologist
200
In 2009, the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles hosted a special exhibition, Sueños/Yume, showcasing the works of local sculptor Dora de Larios. As suggested by the show’s title (sueños and yume mean “dreams” in Spanish and Japanese, respectively), de Larios’s art reflects a mix of cultural influences. ______ her work is grounded in the artistic traditions of both Mexico and Japan.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A. In addition,
B. In contrast,
C. Specifically,
D. Therefore,
C. Specifically,
200
According to a team of neuroeconomists from the University of Zurich, ease of decision making may be linked to communication between two brain regions, the prefrontal cortex and the parietal cortex. Individuals tend to be more decisive if the information flow between the regions is intensified, whereas they make choices more slowly when information flow is ______.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A. reduced
B. evaluated
C. determined
D. acquired
A. reduced
200
A recipient of both the Wolf Prize in Chemistry and the Robert A. Welch Award, chemist Ahmed Zewail expanded the limits of measurability when he devised a novel technique in optical spectroscopy that allows researchers _____ chemical reactions occurring within molecules at a quadrillionth of a second, or one femtosecond.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. to study
B. will study
C. who study
D. studying
A. to study
200
In a photo taken in 1921 at the University of Chicago’s Yerkes Observatory, several male scientists are easily recognizable, including physicist Albert Einstein and astronomer Edward E. Barnard. ________ the eight women in the photo were unknown to present-day researchers until librarian Andrea Twiss-Brooks and her team uncovered the women’s stories.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A. Similarly,
B. By contrast,
C. In fact,
D. Thus,
B. By contrast,
300
In 1956, American physicists Clyde L. Cowan and Frederick Reines determined that _______ exist by observing the neutrinos’ interactions with protons in water.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. neutrinos—subatomic particles that have no electric charge, very small mass, and a spin of one-half—
B. neutrinos, subatomic particles that have: no electric charge, very small mass, and a spin of one-half,
C. neutrinos—subatomic particles—that have no electric charge, very small mass, and a spin of one-half,
D. neutrinos, subatomic particles that have no electric charge, very small mass, and a spin of one-half
A. neutrinos—subatomic particles that have no electric charge, very small mass, and a spin of one-half—
300
To perform a quad axel, a figure skater must leap into the air and complete four and a half rotations before landing, an extreme feat. ______ in 2022, when 17-year-old Ilia Malinin landed the first quad axel—considered the most difficult quad jump—in a high-level competition, the audience was left awestruck.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A. Moreover,
B. Fittingly,
C. Next,
D. However,
B. Fittingly,
300
The results of randomized clinical trials testing the efficacy of common medical interventions sometimes fail to ______ conclusions that practitioners reach based on their real-world observations of patients. While there are several possible reasons for this, one is that practitioners may overlook confounding variables that account for the results they attribute to the interventions in question.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A. circumvent
B. corroborate
C. disseminate
D. implement
B. corroborate
300
Art Deco architecture, which rose in popularity in the 1920s, represented an optimistic and forward-looking style that utilized modern materials such as stainless steel and aerodynamic lines inspired by the latest technology. Other influences were much ________ many of the decorative elements found on Art Deco façades were drawn from the art of ancient Egyptian and Mayan civilizations.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. older, however;
B. older, however,
C. older, however
D. older; however,
A. older, however;
300
With its clichéd imagery of suburban lawns and power lines, John Ashbery’s 2004 poem “Ignorance of the Law Is No Excuse” may seem barren terrain for critical analysis. ______ cultural critic Lauren Berlant finds fertile ground in just its first two stanzas, devoting most of a book chapter to deciphering the “weight of the default space” Ashbery creates in this poem.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A. Likewise,
B. Nonetheless,
C. In turn,
D. That is,
B. Nonetheless,
400
Moroccan-French visual artist Bouchra Khalili’s works include The Seaman, a digital film about the port of ________ a trio of videos about immigrants’ experiences in three different cities; and The Typographer, a 16mm film about French poet Jean Genet.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. Hamburg; The Speeches Series
B. Hamburg, The Speeches Series:
C. Hamburg; The Speeches Series,
D. Hamburg, The Speeches Series,
C. Hamburg; The Speeches Series,
400
Seismologists Kaiqing Yuan and Barbara Romanowicz have proposed that the magma fueling Iceland’s more than 30 active volcano systems emerges from deep within Earth. The great depths involved—nearly 3,000 km—mark Iceland’s volcanoes as extreme outliers; ______ many of Earth’s volcanoes are fed by shallow pockets of magma found less than 15 km below the surface.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A. indeed,
B. nevertheless,
C. in addition,
D. consequently,
A. indeed,
400
The following text is adapted from George Eliot’s 1871–72 novel Middlemarch. [Mr. Brooke] had travelled in his younger years, and was held in this part of the country to have contracted a too rambling habit of mind. Mr. Brooke’s conclusions were as difficult to predict as the weather.
As used in the text, what does the word “contracted” most nearly mean?
A. Restricted
B. Described
C. Developed
D. Settled
C. Developed
400
Unlike those of the white-bodied peppered moth, ________ they allowed the moth to better camouflage in industrial environments with high levels of air pollution.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. the black-bodied peppered moth’s colors provided an advantage during the Industrial Revolution:
B. an advantage during the Industrial Revolution was the black-bodied peppered moth’s colors:
C. the black-bodied peppered moth has colors that provided an advantage during the Industrial Revolution:
D. the black-bodied peppered moth had an advantage during the Industrial Revolution because of its colors:
A. the black-bodied peppered moth’s colors provided an advantage during the Industrial Revolution:
400
In response to adverse environmental conditions, many plants produce abscisic acid (ABA), a stress hormone. ABA triggers a slowdown in the biological processes of most plants. ______ when the mustard plant Schrenkiella parvula produces ABA in response to an environmental stressor, the hormone triggers accelerated growth.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A. Moreover,
B. In contrast,
C. For example,
D. Thus,
B. In contrast,
500
In 1986, after a 56-day expedition, Ann Bancroft became the first woman to reach the North Pole. Her experience as a physical education teacher and her leadership of the first all-female team to cross the ice to the South ______ her to create a foundation that supports girls in pursuing their dreams.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. Pole to inspire
B. Pole that inspired
C. Pole, inspiring
D. Pole inspired
D. Pole inspired
500
When printing paper money for the colony of Pennsylvania in the 1730s, Benjamin Franklin—then a Philadelphia shop owner—took steps to combat the circulation of counterfeit notes, such as weaving blue threads and muscovite (a reflective mineral) into the paper he used. ______ he stamped the notes with detailed imprints of sage leaves that proved difficult for forgers to replicate.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A. Specifically,
B. That said,
C. For example,
D. Moreover,
D. Moreover
500
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. variable
500
Abuwtiyuw was an Egyptian royal hunting dog that lived in the Sixth Dynasty and is thought to have been one of the first domesticated animals. A stone depicting gifts donated for the dog’s funeral was discovered in 1935, and researchers _______ that these gifts provide evidence that Abuwtiyuw was mummified.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. to believe
B. believing
C. believe
D. having believed
C. believe
500
If the formation of Earth’s mantle had been purely a product of core differentiation—whereby heavier elements sink toward the core and lighter elements rise—the upper mantle would be depleted of heavy siderophile elements. Siderophiles are much more abundant in the mantle than predicted in that model, however. ______ extraterrestrial material containing siderophiles, likely from asteroid or comet impacts, almost certainly accreted to Earth following core differentiation.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A. That said,
B. Hence,
C. For example,
D. Likewise,
B. Hence,