Vocabulary &
Word Choice
Word Choice
The National Heritage Fellowship was created to publicly ______ exceptional folk and traditional artists in the United States. In 2012, the fellowship was given to the klezmer musician and composer Andy Statman to celebrate his lifetime contributions to the arts. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A. recognize
B. familiarize
C. convey
D. startle
A. recognize
In a 2022 analysis of 200 terms, researchers found a broad pattern of valence-dependent mutation in which negative adjectives saw a faster rate of cognate replacement—the rate at which a word will be replaced over time with a noncognate form—than other words. ______ the adjective “illegal” would be expected to mutate faster than the noun “debt.”
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A. Thus,
B. Meanwhile,
C. However,
D. Moreover,
A. Thus,
In the late 1800s, Spanish-language newspapers nourished in cities across Texas. San Antonio alone produced eleven newspapers in Spanish between 1890 and 1900. But El Paso surpassed all other cities in the state. This city produced twenty-two newspapers in Spanish during that period. El Paso is located on the border with Mexico and has always had a large population of Spanish speakers. Thus, it is unsurprising that this city became such a rich site for Spanish-language journalism.
Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?
A. To compare Spanish-language newspapers published today with ones published there during the late 1800s
B. To explain that Spanish-language newspapers thrived in Texas and especially in El Paso during the late 1800s
C. To argue that Spanish-language newspapers published in El Paso influenced the ones published in San Antonio during the late 1800s
D. To explain why Spanish-language newspapers published in Texas were so popular in Mexico during the late 1800s
B. To explain that Spanish-language newspapers thrived in Texas and especially in El Paso during the late 1800s
The following text is adapted from Kenneth Grahame’s 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows. The Mole is dazed after briefly meeting a stranger while traveling with a friend.
[The] Mole stood still a moment, held in thought. As one wakened suddenly from a beautiful dream, who struggles to recall it, and can recapture nothing but a dim sense of the beauty of it, the beauty! Till that, too, fades away in its turn.
As used in the text, what does the word “recall” most nearly mean?
A. Remember
B. Return
C. Activate
D. Overlook
A. remember
In the early 1970s, Albert Popa took up graffiti art, spraying his work onto what was at the time an unconventional surface: concrete. ______ Albert’s son David has chosen an unusual canvas for his new art project, Fractured. In this remarkable work, the artist draws charcoal faces onto fragmented ice floes in Finland, creating the visual effect of a face slowly fracturing.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A. However,
B. Indeed,
C. Second,
D. Likewise,
D. Likewise,
The following text is from Guy de Maupassant’s 1884 short story “A Recollection,” from the collection Guy de Maupassant Short Stories (translated by Albert M.C. McMaster et al. in 1903). The narrator is on a walk in the countryside outside of Paris, France. I walked slowly beneath the young leaves, drinking in the air, fragrant with the odor of young buds and sap.
I sauntered along, forgetful of musty papers, of the offices, of my chief, my colleagues, my documents, and thinking of the good things that were sure to come to me, of all the veiled unknown contained in the future. A thousand recollections of childhood came over me, awakened by these country odors, and I walked along, permeated with the fragrant, living enchantment, the emotional enchantment of the woods warmed by the sun of June.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
A. The narrator is using the quiet of the countryside to help him think about how projects at work could be advantageous for his career.
B. The narrator forgets to address pressing work issues because the smells of the countryside distract him with thoughts of his youth.
C. After a brief visit to his childhood home, the narrator decides to leave his job and return there to live permanently.
D. The narrator’s natural surroundings help him escape his work concerns by prompting hopes about the future and memories of youth.
D. The narrator’s natural surroundings help him escape his work concerns by prompting hopes about the future and memories of youth.
British painter Peter Edwards is known for his portraits of notable figures in different fields, from poet Vahe Oshagan to casting director Ruth Lambert. Widespread admiration of these works has helped Edwards gain substantial ______ as an artist.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A. sympathy
B. assistance
C. tolerance
D. prestige
D. prestige
The world’s first airplane, the 1903 Wright Flyer, was not very aerodynamic, as evidenced by its low lift-to-drag ratio of just 8.3:1. The F-4 Phantom II jet, like most modern aircraft, is far more aerodynamic. ______ its lift-to-drag ratio is more than twice that of the Wright Flyer.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A. Specifically,
B. However,
C. Nevertheless,
D. In conclusion,
A. Specifically,
In Muscogee, an Indigenous language from the southeastern region of what is now the United States, hopanki means “broken”, whereas hopanhoki is used to refer to two or more broken things. This phenomenon in which an element of a root word is repeated, sometimes with modification, within another word that is related to the root word, is called reduplication. In this case, the element “ho” in hopanki gets repeated in hopanhoki. There are many examples of this type of reduplication in Muscogee.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
A. It emphasizes how frequently reduplication occurs in Muscogee.
B. It acknowledges that Muscogee has some important exceptions to the general pattern described earlier.
C. It provides English translations of the Muscogee words mentioned earlier.
D. It elaborates on the discussion of reduplication by explaining how it works in the specific Muscogee words introduced earlier.
D. It elaborates on the discussion of reduplication by explaining how it works in the specific Muscogee words introduced earlier.
“Lines Written in Early Spring” is a 1798 poem by William Wordsworth. In the poem, the speaker describes having contradictory feelings while experiencing the sights and sounds of a spring day: ______
Which quotation from ‘Lines Written in Early Spring” most effectively illustrates the claim?
A. “Through primrose-tufts, in that sweet bower, /The periwinkle trail’d its wreathes; / And ‘tis my faith that every flower Enjoys the air it breathes.”
B. “The budding twigs spread out their fan, / To catch the breezy air; / And I must think, do all I can, / That there was pleasure there.”
C. “The birds around me hopp’d and play’d: / Their thoughts I cannot measure. But the least motion which they made, / It seem’d a thrill of pleasure.”
D. “I heard a thousand blended notes, / While in a grove I [sat] reclined, / In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts / Bring sad thoughts to the Mind.”
D. “I heard a thousand blended notes, / While in a grove I [sat] reclined, / In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts / Bring sad thoughts to the Mind.”
The Krishna River delta system is located in India, where the river drains into the Bay of Bengal, and is shaped by ______ factors: for example, the geography of the coastline influences sedimentary deposition, which over time alters coastal geography.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
A. tenuous
B. interdependent
C. comprehensive
D. unyielding
B. interdependent
Modernist architects championed nature in their designs. ______ the domed rooftop and painted floral designs of Casa Estapé, a Modernista private home designed by Bernardí Martorell i Rius, couldn’t exactly grow in a forest. Still, one sees natural influences in Martorell i Rius’s penchant for curves (rather than right angles) and plant- and animal-inspired flourishes.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
A. Furthermore,
B. Thus,
C. Of course,
D. Similarly
C. Of course,
In a study by Mika R. Moran, Daniel A. Rodriguez, and colleagues, residents of Quito, Ecuador, and Montevideo, Uruguay, were surveyed about parks in their cities. Of the 618 respondents from Quito, 82.9% indicated that they use the city’s parks, and of the 617 respondents from Montevideo, 76.7% indicated using city parks. Given that the percentage of Quito respondents who reported living within a 10-minute walk of a park was much lower than that reported by Montevideo respondents, greater proximity alone can’t explain the difference in park use.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?
A. It introduces a counterexample to the scenario described earlier in the text.
B. It identifies the nature of a relationship that is significant to the text’s conclusion.
C. It provides context to help readers understand the scope of the researchers’ survey.
D. It marks a shift from a discussion of the researchers’ conclusion to a discussion of their methods.
B. It identifies the nature of a relationship that is significant to the text’s conclusion.
The Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) examines trends in aging among 66,000 people in multiple countries unfolding over many years. As is true of most longitudinal studies, this need for years of data collection results in high costs. By contrast, a relatively straightforward sociology study, such as one that is merely trying to identify the average age at which people in a given city first become parents, may not need a large budget because ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A. longitudinal methods are probably suitable for the sociology study.
B. it would be easy for SAGE researchers to add questions to their aging study.
C. 66,000 people is more than enough for SAGE to find trends in aging.
D. the sociology study can be done well without years of data collection
D. the sociology study can be done well without years of data collection