English question prep
The spacecraft OSIRIS-REx briefly made contact with the asteroid 101955 Bennu in 2020. NASA scientist Daniella DellaGiustina reports that despite facing the unexpected obstacle of a surface mostly covered in boulders, OSIRIS-REx successfully _______ a sample of the surface, gathering pieces of it to bring back to Earth. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A) attached B) collected C) followed D) replaced
B) collected
In the music video for the song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel, the singer lists 118 political and cultural references. Such iconic references, cited in rapid and frenetic procession by the musician, who is seated impassively at a dinner table, _______ key moments and personalities of the twentieth century. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) represents
B) has represented
C) was representing
D) represent
D) represent
Consumer psychologists have theorized that the likelihood that people who identify as ethical consumers—meaning that they strive to purchase goods and services with positive or neutral social and ecological effects—will purchase a given product positively correlates with their perception of that product’s effects. In a recent study of the attitudes of self-identified ethical consumers toward purchasing a specific mobile phone coming to market, researchers found that, on average, study participants in their twenties rated the phone’s social and ecological effects much less positively than did participants in other age groups. All other things being equal, if consumer psychologists’ theory is correct, this finding suggests that _______ Which choice most logically completes the text?
A) the phone is less appealing to ethical consumers in their twenties than other similar phones on the market are.
B) ethical consumers in their twenties are less likely to purchase the phone than ethical consumers in other age groups are.
C) there is not a meaningful difference in the likelihood of purchasing the phone among ethical consumers in different age groups.
D) ethical consumers in their twenties are more likely than ethical consumers in other age groups to consider a phone’s social and ecological effects when deciding whether to purchase that phone.
B) ethical consumers in their twenties are less likely to purchase the phone than ethical consumers in other age groups are.
The following text is from Joan Didion’s memoir The Year of Magical Thinking. In the text, the author discusses her home life.
[I]n California we heated our houses by building fires. We built fires even on summer evenings, because the fog came in. Fires said we were home, we had drawn the circle, we were safe through the night.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
A) It illustrates that a fire provides comfort beyond physical warmth.
B) It summarizes the information that came before it in the text.
C) It explains that the house remains cold even in summer.
D) It suggests that the author feels comfortable inher home with or without a fire.
A) It illustrates that a fire provides comfort beyond physical warmth.
Although science fiction was dominated mostly by white male authors when Octavia Butler, a Black woman, began writing, she did not view the genre as _______: Butler broke into the field with the publication of several short stories and her 1976 novel Patternmaster, and she later became the first science fiction writer to win a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A) legitimate
B) impenetrable
C) compelling
D) indecipherable
B) impenetrable
Research conducted by planetary scientist Katarina Miljkovic suggests that the Moon’s surface may not accurately _______ early impact events. When the Moon was still forming, its surface was softer, and asteroid or meteoroid impacts would have left less of an impression; thus, evidence of early impacts may no longer be present. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A) reflect B) receive C) evaluate D) mimic
A) reflect
An online content creator who uses copyrighted songs without permission risks being demonetized (prohibited from including paid advertisements in content). The best way to avoid demonetization is to choose music from the public domain. Using one of these noncopyrighted songs _______ a creator won’t lose advertising revenue. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) are ensuring
B) have ensured
C) ensure
D) ensures
D) ensures
The Cretaceous pterosaur Tupandactylus navigans is known for having an anomalously oversized head crest. Until an almost complete fossil skeleton was found in Brazil, paleontologists had been able to study only skull specimens from T. navigans, though it was presumed that, like other pterosaurs, the species’s primary form of locomotion was powered flight. Examining the fuller skeleton in 2016, Victor Beccari and his team determined that T. navigans had long hind legs, short wings, and an unusually long neck—characteristics that, combined with the creature’s large-crested head, would have made sustained flight difficult and walking upright relatively comfortable. Based on these findings the team suggests that T. navigans likely _______ Which choice most logically completes the text?
A) flew for longer distances than did other pterosaur species that had oversized head crests.
B) had longer wings than other pterosaur species considered to have been comfortable walking.
C) had a smaller head than researchers expected based on the earlier T. navigans skull specimens.
D) flew for shorter distances and spent more time walking than researchers previously thought.
D) flew for shorter distances and spent more time walking than researchers previously thought.
The majority of plastics today wind up in landfills or are, at best, recycled into materials that have a very limited range of applications. To address this problem, chemist Guoliang Liu and colleagues designed a reactor that melts polyethylene and polypropylene—two widely used plastics—into a wax. The wax can then be transformed into a surfactant (a chemical compound usable as a detergent). With this promising new method, plastic waste could be turned into a range of useful cleaning products.
Which choice best states the function of the underlined portion of the text?
A) It clarifies the meaning of a scientific term.
B) It describes an environmental concern.
C) It explains the significance of a scientific discovery.
D) It identifies a result that confused the team.
A) It clarifies the meaning of a scientific term.
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) It notes a factor that led Seira et al. to not dismiss risk-disclosure messaging altogether despite their evidence of its limited utility.
Handedness, a preferential use of either the right or left hand, typically is easy to observe in humans. Because this trait is present but less _______ in many other animals, animal-behavior researchers often employ tasks specially designed to reveal individual animals’ preferences for a certain hand or paw. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A) recognizable B) intriguing C) significant D) useful
A) recognizable
In 1929, Edwin Herbert Land invented a polarizing filter that was featured in a number of products, from sunglasses to 3D movies. A decade later, Land _______ his technology to invent the world’s first instant camera, the Polaroid Land camera. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) used B) to have used C) to use D) using
A) used
To understand how Paleolithic artists navigated dark caves, archaeologist Ma Ángeles Medina-Alcaide and her team tested different lighting methods in a cave in Spain using replicas of artifacts found in European caves with art. They used three different Paleolithic light sources—torches, animal-fat lamps, and fireplaces—determining that each likely had a specific purpose. For instance, the team learned that the animal-fat lamps were less useful than torches while walking because the lamps didn’t illuminate the cave floor. Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A) Medina-Alcaide and her team’s study demonstrated that fireplaces were essential to the creators of Paleolithic cave art.
B) Medina-Alcaide and her team discovered that Paleolithic cave artists in Spain used animal-fat lamps more often than they used torches.
C) Medina-Alcaide and her team were reluctant to draw many conclusions from their study because of the difficulty they had replicating light sources based on known artifacts.
D) Medina-Alcaide and her team tested Paleolithic light sources and learned some details about how Paleolithic artists traveled within dark caves.
D) Medina-Alcaide and her team tested Paleolithic light sources and learned some details about how Paleolithic artists traveled within dark caves.
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) It challenges the stance of the investors and enthusiasts who are mentioned earlier in the text.
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) They would encourage Fan to investigate whether the projected effect on subscription prices persists over an extended period.
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) unimportant
Changes to vegetation cover and other human activities influence carbon and nitrogen levels in soil, though how deep these effects extend is unclear. Hypothesizing that differences in land use lead to differences in carbon and nitrogen levels that are not restricted to the topsoil layer (0–30 cm deep), Chukwuebuka Okolo and colleagues sampled soils across multiple land-use types (e.g., grazing land, cropland, forest) within each of several Ethiopian locations. They found, though, that across land-use types, carbon and nitrogen decreased to comparably low levels beyond depths of 30 cm. Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
A) It describes a phenomenon that scientists do not fully understand, explains a research team’s hypothesis about that phenomenon, and then describes a finding that led the team to refine the hypothesis.
B) It introduces an unresolved scientific question, presents a research team’s hypothesis pertaining to that question, and then describes an observation made by the team that conflicts with that hypothesis.
C) It discusses a process that scientists are somewhat unclear about, introduces competing hypotheses about that process, and then explains how a research team concluded that one of those hypotheses is likely correct.
D) It explains a hypothesis that has been the subject of scientific debate, discusses how a research team tested that hypothesis, and then presents data the team collected that validate the hypothesis.
B) It introduces an unresolved scientific question, presents a research team’s hypothesis pertaining to that question, and then describes an observation made by the team that conflicts with that hypothesis.
The 2021 exhibition This Is the Day at Arkansas’s Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art featured works dealing with expressions of faith and spirituality in the Black community. The museum’s 2022 exhibition The Dirty South, meanwhile, focused on Black culture in the American South from 1920 to 2020, with a particular focus on the intersections between visual arts and music. Together, these exhibitions don’t merely highlight the diversity of the Black experience in the US; they also showcase the diverse media through which artists have depicted and engaged with that experience. Which statement about the exhibitions, if true, would most directly support the underlined claim?
A) Between them, This Is the Day and The Dirty South included drawings, paintings, photographs, sculptures, textiles, videos, costumes, and music.
B) This Is the Day included works by fewer than two dozen artists, whereas The Dirty South included works by more than 80 artists.
C) This Is the Day exclusively included works in the permanent collection of the museum, whereas The Dirty South included works from multiple sources outside the museum.
D) Between them, This Is the Day and The Dirty South included works depicting more than 300 years of Black experience in the United States
A) Between them, This Is the Day and The Dirty South included drawings, paintings, photographs, sculptures, textiles, videos, costumes, and music.
Almost all works of fiction contain references to the progression of time, including the time of day when events in a story take place. In a 2020 study, Allen Kim, Charuta Pethe, and Steven Skiena claim that an observable pattern in such references reflects a shift in human behavior prompted by the spread of electric lighting in the late nineteenth century. The researchers drew this conclusion from an analysis of more than 50,000 novels spanning many centuries and cultures, using software to recognize and tally both specific time references—that is, clock phrases, such as 7 a.m. or 2:30 p.m.—and implied ones, such as mentions of meals typically associated with a particular time of day. Which finding from the study, if true, would most directly support the researchers’ conclusion?
A) Novels published after the year 1800 include the clock phrase 10 a.m. less often than novels published before the year 1800 do.
B) Novels published after 1880 contain significantly more references to activities occurring after 10 p.m. than do novels from earlier periods.
C) Among novels published in the nineteenth century, implied time references become steadily more common than clock phrases as publication dates approach 1900.
D) The time references of noon (12 p.m.) and midnight (12 a.m.) are used with roughly the same frequency in the novels.
B) Novels published after 1880 contain significantly more references to activities occurring after 10 p.m. than do novels from earlier periods.
In documents called judicial opinions, judges explainthe reasoning behind their legal rulings, and in those explanations they sometimes cite and discuss historical and contemporary philosophers. Legal scholar and philosopher Anita L. Allen argues that while judges are naturally inclined to mention philosophers whose views align with their own positions, the strongest judicial opinions consider and rebut potential objections; discussing philosophers whose views conflict with judges’ views could therefore _______ Which choice most logically completes the text?
A) allow judges to craft judicial opinions without needing to consult philosophical works.
B) help judges improve the arguments they put forward in their judicial opinions.
C) make judicial opinions more comprehensible to readers without legal or philosophical training.
D) bring judicial opinions in line with views that are broadly held among philosophers.
B) help judges improve the arguments they put forward in their judicial opinions.
The following text is adapted from Susan Glaspell’s 1912 short story “‘Out There.’” An elderly shop owner is looking at a picture that he recently acquired and hopes to sell. It did seem that the picture failed to fit in with the rest of the shop. A persuasive young fellow who claimed he was closing out his stock let the old man have it for what he called a song. It was only a little out-of-the-way store which subsisted chiefly on the framing of pictures. The old man looked around at his views of the city, his pictures of cats and dogs, his flaming bits of landscape. “Don’t belong in here,” he fumed. And yet the old man was secretly proud of his acquisition. There was a hidden dignity in his scowling as he shuffled about pondering the least ridiculous place for the picture. Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
A) To reveal the shop owner’s conflicted feelings about the new picture
B) To convey the shop owner’s resentment of the person he got the new picture from
C) To describe the items that the shop owner most highly prizes
D) To explain differences between the new picture and other pictures in the shop
A) To reveal the shop owner’s conflicted feelings about the new picture
More than 60% of journeys in Mexico City occur via public transit, but simply reproducing a feature of the city’s transit system—e.g., its low fares—is unlikely to induce a significant increase in another city’s transit ridership. As Erick Guerra et al. have shown, transportation mode choice in urban areas of Mexico is the product of a complex mix of factors, including population density, the spatial distribution of jobs, and demographic characteristics of individuals. System features do affect ridership, of course, but there is an irreducibly contextual dimension of transportation mode choice.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
A) It presents an objection to the argument of Guerra et al. about transportation mode choice in urban areas of Mexico.
B) It explains why it is challenging to influence transit ridership solely by altering characteristics of a transit system.
C) It illustrates the claim that a characteristic associated with high transit ridership in Mexico City is not associated with high transit ridership elsewhere.
D) It substantiates the assertion that population density, the spatial distribution of jobs, and demographic characteristics are important factors in transportation mode choice.
B) It explains why it is challenging to influence transit ridership solely by altering characteristics of a transit system.
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• In the 1930s, the Imperial Sugar Cane Institute in India sought to limit the country’s dependence on imported sugarcane.
• The institute enlisted botanist Janaki Ammal to breed a local variety of sugarcane.
• She crossbred the imported sugarcane species Saccharum officinarum with grasses native to India.
• She succeeded in creating sugarcane hybrids well suited to India’s climate.
The student wants to emphasize Janaki Ammal’s achievement. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
A) By crossbreeding the imported sugarcane species Saccharum officinarum with grasses native to India, Ammal succeeded in creating sugarcane hybrids well suited to India’s climate.
B) In the 1930s, the Imperial Sugar Cane Institute, which enlisted Ammal, sought to limit dependence on imported sugarcane.
C) Ammal was enlisted by the Imperial Sugar Cane Institute at a time when a local variety of sugarcane needed to be produced.
D) As part of efforts to breed a local variety of sugarcane, an imported sugarcane species called Saccharum officinarum was crossbred with grasses native to India.
A) By crossbreeding the imported sugarcane species Saccharum officinarum with grasses native to India, Ammal succeeded in creating sugarcane hybrids well suited to India’s climate.
A student in a political science course is writing a paper on Aristotle’s The Politics, in which Aristotle offers his opinion on political instability and gives advice on how constitutions can be preserved. Aristotle observes that different forms of government can fall in different ways—for example, oligarchies might grant power to military leaders during wartime who refuse to relinquish that power during peacetime—but some methods of preserving order apply across all forms of government. The student claims that in particular Aristotle asserts that in a healthy state obedience to law must be as close to absolute as possible and that even minor infractions should not be ignored.
Which quotation from a philosopher’s analysis of The Politics would best support the student’s claim?
A) “When constructing his argument regarding the characteristics of a well-functioning government, Aristotle asserts that ‘Transgression creeps in unperceived and at last ruins the state,’ illustrating this idea with a comparison to frequent small expenditures slowly and almost imperceptibly chipping away at a fortune until it is ultimately depleted.”
B) “When Aristotle writes on the necessity of avoiding corruption in government, he proposes that ‘every state should be so administered andso regulated by law that its magistrates cannot possibly make money.’ In particular, he thinks oligarchies are particularly susceptible to corruption through bribery.”
C) “When Aristotle considers the health of constitutions, he states that ‘Constitutions are preserved when their destroyers are at a distance, and sometimes also because they are near, for the fear of them makes the government keep inhand the constitution.’ He holds that rulers whowish to see constitutions preserved must continually remind the populace of the dangers that would result from a constitutional collapse.”
D) “When contrasting different forms of government, Aristotle holds that ‘oligarchies may last, not from any inherent stability in suchforms of government, but because the rulers are on good terms both with the unenfranchised andwith the governing classes.’ That is, oligarchic leaders who wish to hold on to power will introduce members of disenfranchised classes into government in a participatory role.”
A) “When constructing his argument regarding the characteristics of a well-functioning government, Aristotle asserts that ‘Transgression creeps in unperceived and at last ruins the state,’ illustrating this idea with a comparison to frequent small expenditures slowly and almost imperceptibly chipping away at a fortune until it is ultimately depleted.”
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• NASA uses rovers, large remote vehicles with wheels, to explore the surface of Mars.
• NASA’s rovers can’t explore regions inaccessible to wheeled vehicles.
• Rovers are also heavy, making them difficult to land on the planet’s surface.
• Microprobes, robotic probes that weigh as little as 50 milligrams, could be deployed virtually anywhere on the surface of Mars.
• Microprobes have been proposed as an alternative to rovers.
The student wants to explain an advantage of microprobes. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
A) Despite being heavy, NASA’s rovers can land successfully on the surface of Mars.
B) Microprobes, which weigh as little as 50 milligrams, could explore areas of Mars that are inaccessible to NASA’s heavy, wheeled rovers.
C) NASA currently uses its rovers on Mars, but microprobes have been proposed as an alternative.
D) Though they are different sizes, both microprobes and rovers can be used to explore the surface of Mars.
B) Microprobes, which weigh as little as 50 milligrams, could explore areas of Mars that are inaccessible to NASA’s heavy, wheeled rovers.