Part To Whole
The following text is adapted from Zora Neale Hurston’s 1921 short story “John Redding Goes to Sea.” John is a child who lives in a town in the woods. Perhaps ten-year-old John was puzzling to the folk there in the Florida woods for he was an imaginative child and fond of day-dreams. The St. John River flowed a scarce three hundred feet from his back door. On its banks at this point grow numerous palms, luxuriant magnolias and bay trees. On the bosom of the stream float millions of delicately colored hyacinths. [John Redding] loved to wander down to the water’s edge, and, casting in dry twigs, watch them sail away down stream to Jacksonville, the sea, the wide world and [he] wanted to follow them.
Which choice best describes the function of the italicized sentence in the text as a whole?
A) It provides an extended description of a location that John likes to visit.
B) It reveals that some residents of John’s town are confused by his behavior.
C) It illustrates the uniqueness of John’s imagination compared to the imaginations of other children.
D) It suggests that John longs to experience a larger life outside the Florida woods.
D) It suggests that John longs to experience a larger life outside the Florida woods.
Louise Bennett (1919–2006), also known as “Miss Lou,” was an influential Jamaican poet and folklorist. Her innovative poems _______ the use of Jamaican Creole (a spoken language) in literature.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) popularized;
B) popularized,
C) popularized
D) popularized:
C) popularized
In the search for extraterrestrial life, astrobiologists Stuart Bartlett and Michael L. Wong propose that scientists avoid using the term “life.” _______ researchers should use another word: “lyfe.” This new term, they argue, could be used to draw distinctions between the known characteristics of life on Earth and the potentially differing characteristics of lyfe on other planets.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A) Previously,
B) Regardless,
C) There,
D) Instead,
D) Instead,
Though not closely related, the hedgehog tenrecs of Madagascar share basic _______ true hedgehogs, including protective spines, pointed snouts, and small body size—traits the two groups of mammals independently developed in response to equivalent roles in their respective habitats.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A) examples of
B) concerns about
C) indications of
D) similarities with
D) similarities with
The Boston Saloon was one of the most popular African American–owned establishments in nineteenth-century Nevada. _______ by businessman William A.G. Brown, the saloon was known to offer elegant accommodations and an inclusive environment.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) Created
B) Creates
C) Creating
D) Create
A) Created
According to historian Vicki L. Ruiz, Mexican American women made crucial contributions to the labor movement during World War II. At the time, food processing companies entered into contracts to supply United States armed forces with canned goods. Increased production quotas conferred greater bargaining power on the companies’ employees, many of whom were Mexican American women: employees insisted on more favorable benefits, and employers, who were anxious to fulfill the contracts, complied. Thus, labor activism became a platform for Mexican American women to assert their agency.
Which choice best describes the function of the italicized portion in the text as a whole?
A) It elaborates on a claim about labor relations in a particular industry made earlier in the text.
B) It offers an example of a trend in the World War II–era economy discussed earlier in the text.
C) It notes a possible exception to the historical narrative of labor activism sketched earlier in the text.
D) It provides further details about the identities of the workers discussed earlier in the text.
A) It elaborates on a claim about labor relations in a particular industry made earlier in the text.
Researchers Amit Kumar and Nicholas Epley investigated how _______ In a series of experiments conducted in 2022, they found that people performing small acts of kindness underestimated the positive effect their actions had on others.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) do people perceive acts of kindness.
B) do people perceive acts of kindness?
C) people perceive acts of kindness?
D) people perceive acts of kindness.
D) people perceive acts of kindness.
Before it unveiled a massive new gallery in 2009, the Art Institute of Chicago was only able to display about 5% of its art collection. _______ the museum is able to display close to 30% of its collection.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A) Additionally,
B) For example,
C) Nevertheless,
D) Today,
D) Today,
In editor Lisa Yaszek’s introduction to her anthology The Future Is Female! More Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women, Yaszek identifies an increasing sense of _______ feminist mode of writing in the 1970s, in contrast to many woman-authored science fiction stories of the 1920s to 1960s whose politics were less deliberately signaled.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A) a prudently
B) an overtly
C) a cordially
D) an inadvertently
B) an overtly
“He was just the man for such a place, and it was just the place for such a man.” This line is from Frederick Douglass’s autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845). It’s an example of antimetabole, a writing technique that _______ emphasis by repeating a statement in a reversed order.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) create
B) are creating
C) have created
D) creates
D) creates
The following text is adapted from Indian Boyhood, a 1902 memoir by Ohiyesa (Charles A. Eastman), a Santee Dakota writer. In the text, Ohiyesa recalls how the women in his tribe harvested maple syrup during his childhood. Now the women began to test the trees—moving leisurely among them, axe in hand, and striking a single quick blow, to see if the sap would appear. The trees, like people, have their individual characters; some were ready to yield up their life-blood, while others were more reluctant. Now one of the birchen basins was set under each tree, and a hardwood chip driven deep into the cut which the axe had made. From the corners of this chip—at first drop by drop, then more freely—the sap trickled into the little dishes.
Which choice best describes the function of the italicized sentence in the text as a whole?
A) It portrays the range of personality traits displayed by the women as they work.
B) It foregrounds the beneficial relationship between humans and maple trees.
C) It demonstrates how human behavior can be influenced by the natural environment.
D) It elaborates on an aspect of the maple trees that the women evaluate.
D) It elaborates on an aspect of the maple trees that the women evaluate.
Consider the mechanics of the pinhole camera: light passes through a small hole, resulting in a focused projected image. A ray diagram reveals how this _______ the hole’s small size restricts light to a single ray, all light passing through the hole can only arrive at a single destination, eliminating diffraction and ensuring a clear image.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) works because
B) works. Because
C) works, it’s because
D) works: it’s because
B) works.
The Inca of South America used intricately knotted string devices called quipus to record countable information, like population data and payments. _______ they may have used quipus to record more complex information, like stories and myths, according to researchers.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A) As a result,
B) In other words,
C) In addition,
D) For example,
C) In addition,
While recent scholarship has undermined claims that the works of twelfth-century Islamic philosopher Ibn Rushd were _______ other Muslim philosophers of his time, it is indisputable that his location in the Muslim-ruled area of what is now Spain meant that his works were primarily available thousands of miles west of the era’s center of Islamic thought.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A) controversial among
B) antagonistic toward
C) imitated by
D) inconsequential to
D) inconsequential to
In a painting titled “The Milkmaid” by Johannes Vermeer, the artist prominently features a bread basket, milk pitcher, and bowl. Such quotidian objects, depicted in exquisite detail by Vermeer, a painter celebrated for his naturalism, _______ the daily minutiae of a seventeenth-century Dutch household.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) was revealing
B) has revealed
C) reveals
D) reveal
D) reveal
A study by a team including finance professor Madhu Veeraraghavan suggests that exposure to sunshine during the workday can lead to overly optimistic behavior. Using data spanning from 1994 to 2010 for a set of US companies, the team compared over 29,000 annual earnings forecasts to the actual earnings later reported by those companies. The team found that the greater the exposure to sunshine at work in the two weeks before a manager submitted an earnings forecast, the more the manager’s forecast exceeded what the company actually earned that year.
Which choice best states the function of the italicized sentence in the overall structure of the text?
A) To summarize the results of the team’s analysis
B) To present a specific example that illustrates the study’s findings
C) To explain part of the methodology used in the team’s study
D) To call out a challenge the team faced in conducting its analysis
C) To explain part of the methodology used in the team’s study
Jamaican British artist Willard Wigan is known for his remarkable _______ so small that they are best viewed through a microscope, Wigan’s sculptures are made from tiny natural materials, such as spiderweb strands.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) microsculptures creations
B) microsculptures, creations
C) microsculptures. Creations
D) microsculptures and creations
C) microsculptures.
Working together with the Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources, Dr. Lani Tsinnajinnie analyzed data about snowpack levels in the Chuska Mountains. She found that the snowpack (the amount of snow on the ground) was deepest in early March at lower elevations. At higher elevations, _______ the snowpack was deepest in mid-March.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A) in other words,
B) for instance,
C) on the other hand,
D) in summary,
C) on the other hand,
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. ©1956 by James Baldwin
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
D) Providing resistance to
A species of Byropsis algae produces toxins to avoid being eaten by predators. However, in some cases, the toxins the organism uses to protect itself from predation actually _______ its attractiveness to predators. The Hawaiian sea slug, for example, not only tolerates Byropsis toxins but actually uses them for protection in the same way the algae does.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) is increasing
B) increase
C) increases
D) has increased
B) increase
The following text is from Edith Wharton’s 1905 novel The House of Mirth. Lily Bart and a companion are walking through a park. Lily had no real intimacy with nature, but she had a passion for the appropriate and could be keenly sensitive to a scene which was the fitting background of her own sensations. The landscape outspread below her seemed an enlargement of her present mood, and she found something of herself in its calmness, its breadth, its long free reaches. On the nearer slopes the sugar-maples wavered like pyres of light; lower down was a massing of grey orchards, and here and there the lingering green of an oak-grove.
Which choice best describes the function of the italicized sentence in the text as a whole?
A) It creates a detailed image of the physical setting of the scene.
B) It establishes that a character is experiencing an internal conflict.
C) It makes an assertion that the next sentence then expands on.
D) It illustrates an idea that is introduced in the previous sentence.
D) It illustrates an idea that is introduced in the previous sentence.
Latin America is known to have dozens, if not hundreds, of popular dance forms. Only five of these dances are included in international ballroom dance _______ rumba, samba, cha-cha-cha, paso doble, and jive—the last of which is grouped with the other Latin dances despite not having Latin roots.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) competitions, however:
B) competitions, however,
C) competitions, however;
D) competitions; however,
C) competitions, however;
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,
B) then,
_______ 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
B) Redressing
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