Module 1: Reading and Writing

Question 1

Text: The National Heritage Fellowship was created to honor exceptional folk
and traditional artists in the United States. One artist who received the
fellowship is Navajo (Diné) basket weaver Mary Holiday Black. Black was
chosen for her lifetime _____ the arts.

Question: Which choice completes the text with the most logical and
precise word or phrase?

Options:
A) contributions to
B) doubts about
C) imitations of
D) misunderstandings of

Question 2

Text: The following text is from Kenneth Grahame’s 1908 novel The Wind in
the Willows. The Mole is returning home after a visit to Mr. Badger’s house.
As he hurried along, eagerly anticipating the moment when he would be at
home again among the things he knew and liked, the Mole saw clearly that
he was an animal of tilled field and hedge-row, linked to the ploughed furrow,
the frequented pasture, the lane of evening lingerings, the cultivated garden-
plot.

Question: As used in the text, what does the word “anticipating” most
nearly mean?

Options:
A) Describing
B) Getting ahead of
C) Looking forward to
D) Instructing

Question 4

Text: The Fly River delta is a remarkably _____ landscape: it is a constantly

evolving network of channels and strips of land that change in size and
shape as the river deposits new sedimentary particles where the river meets
the waters of the Gulf of Papua.

Question: Which choice completes the text with the most logical and
precise word or phrase?

Options:
A) mutable
B) habitable
C) secluded
D) homogeneous

Question 5

Text: A microgenre is a specialized genre consisting of a comparatively small

number of stylistically similar artists. The microgenre of electronic music
known as hyperpop emerged in the 2010s, with American singer Dorian
Electra as an early exponent. Their combination of lush synthesizer
arrangements and propulsive beats with vocals electronically shifted in pitch
below their natural range exemplifies the hyperpop sound. More recently,
Japanese-British recording artist Rina Sawayama has contributed to the
microgenre by incorporating pop melodies into hyperpop songs.

Question: Which choice best describes the function of the underlined

sentence in the text as a whole?

Options:
A) It anticipates an objection to the text’s endorsement of hyperpop.
B) It notes an exception to the text’s description of hyperpop.
C) It defines a term used in the text’s discussion of hyperpop.
D) It states that the text’s intended audience mainly consists of hyperpop
fans.

Question 6

Text: Cuttlefish and toads see in three dimensions (3D) by combining two
images in their brains, one from each eye. This produces a sense of depth,
helping the animals judge how close or far away an object is. Researchers
have investigated 3D vision in praying mantises as well. In one study, Vivek
Nityananda and his team fitted mantises’ faces with two different color
filters, one covering each eye, much like the filters in 3D glasses once worn
at movies. By observing the mantises’ reaction to projected images, the
team confirmed that mantises do indeed have 3D vision, but it’s unlike that
of other animals.

Question: Which choice best states the function of the underlined portion in
the text as a whole?

Options:
A) It identifies a potential problem that the researchers faced while studying
the praying mantises.
B) It offers a comparison meant to aid understanding of the praying mantis
study.
C) It emphasizes a difference between the research on praying mantis vision
and research on other animals’ vision.
D) It describes an earlier use of a tool the researchers used in the praying
mantis study.

Question 7

Text 1
The island of Grande Terre split from the former supercontinent Gondwana
around 80 million years ago, carrying Gondwanan species from a variety of
clades with it. The island was periodically submerged until 37 million years
ago, but some researchers suggest that its current biota includes species
from clades predating the split that took refuge on islands near Grande Terre
during submergence events and then returned.

Text 2
Thomas R. Buckley et al. found that the crown age—the age of the most
recent common ancestor of all species in the clade (i.e., the clade’s founder)
—of Grande Terre’s clade of stick insects is 41.1 million years, which is
among the oldest clade crown ages of species inhabiting the island today.
Nearly all of Grande Terre’s living species belong to clades that originated
much more recently: for example, the crown age of the island’s clade of
Goodeniaceae plants is 2.0 million years.

Question: Based on the texts, the author of Text 2 would most likely agree
with which statement about the “Gondwanan species” discussed in Text 1?

Options:
A) Most of them began recolonizing Grande Terre from nearby islands around
2.0 million years ago.
B) Clades to which they belong originated no earlier than 41.1 million years
ago.
C) Few if any of them were members of a clade that includes species
currently inhabiting Grande Terre.
D) Although most of them have living descendants on Grande Terre, the stick
insects and Goodeniaceae plants do not.

Question 8

Text 1
According to a study by a conservation group representing 11 tribal nations
in the Great Lakes region, the northern wild rice (manoomin in the Ojibwe
language) will have significantly worse outcomes over the next 50 years if
temperatures increase as much as some models suggest. By contrast, the
white-tailed deer (waawaashkeshi in Ojibwe) should be able to withstand the
highest predicted warming without much harm and so likely won’t require
the conservation efforts that the northern wild rice will.

Text 2
US government agencies involved in conservation are unfortunately not able
to address every possible threat to natural resources. They must use the best
information available to decide which species are most threatened and
therefore most in need of conservation efforts.

Question: Based on the texts, both authors would most likely agree with
which statement?

Options:
A) State, federal, and tribal groups involved in natural-resource management
in the Great Lakes region should immediately begin conservation programs
for both the northern wild rice and white-tailed deer.
B) Agencies involved in natural-resource management in the Great Lakes
region should focus their conservation efforts more on the northern wild rice
than on the white-tailed deer.
C) A collaborative approach is necessary to keep temperatures in the Great
Lakes region from increasing to the highest predicted levels.
D) Conservation efforts focused on the northern wild rice are more likely to
be successful if they incorporate state and federal agency resources with the
knowledge of tribal groups in those efforts.
Question 9

Text 1
French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas insisted that his paintings be kept in
their original frames after they were sold. Like many Impressionist painters,
Degas used painted frames that stood in contrast to the gold frames
frequently seen at the Paris Salon, a prestigious art exhibition that was
sponsored by the French government and promoted traditional painting
styles. Impressionist painters likely chose these colorful frames to distinguish
themselves from what was considered conventional at the time.

Text 2
Impressionist painters often focused on the interplay of color and light in
their works. As such, those Impressionists who placed their works in painted
frames instead of the more traditional gold ones did so for aesthetic reasons:
a frame’s color was likely chosen because it would harmonize with the colors
or subjects in a painting. Gold, conversely, could distract from the subtleties
in a painted scene.

Based on the texts, both authors would most likely agree with which
statement?
A. Degas’s preferred framing style was different from that of most
Impressionist painters.
B. The colors in an Impressionist painting were often chosen to complement
the colors of the frame it would be placed in.
C. Many Impressionist painters were intentional about the frames they
selected for their works.
D. Gold frames were considered especially desirable by those who purchased
works from Impressionist painters.

Question 9

Text: The following text is from Julia Alvarez’s 2000 novel In the Name of
Salomé. Salomé, a poet, is hosting guests in the front parlor of her family
home, and Ramona is her sister. A salon is a social gathering for the
exploration of intellectual ideas.
It was evening when the two men got up to leave. Tía Ana had already come
into the room several times to see if these guests had departed yet. The
front parlor had always been her special province, as she used it for her little
school. Now, every evening, it turned into Salomé’s salon, as Ramona called
it, and it was never in order for its transformation back to a classroom the
following morning.
©2000 by Julia Alvarez

Question: Based on the text, what most likely motivates Tía Ana’s behavior
during Salomé’s salon?

Options:
A) She considers the guests to be uninteresting and is trying to convince
them to leave.
B) She is impatient to share her plans to start a new school with the guests
and hopes they will support her.
C) She is anxious for the gathering to disperse so that she can ready the
space for her own needs.
D) She is frustrated because she needs assistance elsewhere in the house,
but Salomé is unavailable while entertaining the guests.

Question 10
Neuroscientist Kiyohito Iigaya and colleagues developed a computational
model to predict how much a person will enjoy a particular work of art on a
scale from 1 (not at all) to 4 (very much). They then recruited participants to
use the same scale to rate several sets of paintings in various styles and
calculated the correlation between the ratings predicted by the model and
those reported by the participants. Assuming participant P4 gave equal
ratings to the abstract and cubist paintings, the data in the graph indicate
the model predicted that _____

Question: Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to
complete the example?

Options:
A) P4’s ratings for abstract and cubist paintings would differ from one
another.
B) P4 would derive less aesthetic pleasure from cubist paintings than from
abstract paintings.
C) P4 would derive more aesthetic pleasure from cubist paintings than from
abstract paintings.
D) P4’s rating for abstract and cubist paintings would equal one another.

Question 11

Researchers Carolina Laura Morales and Anna Traveset gathered data about
flowering plants growing alongside each other in various locations. In each
case, the researchers identified one plant as a “target species” and a nearby
plant as a “neighboring species.” The researchers then calculated a value to
show how the neighboring species affected pollinator visits to the target
species. A negative effect value indicates that the neighboring species had a
harmful effect on the target species. Based on the table, two neighboring
species that had a harmful effect on target species are the _____

Question: Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to
complete the statement?

Options:
A) prickly pear and the Canadian wood betony.
B) leafy spurge and the prickly pear.
C) leafy spurge and the sticky catchfly.
D) Canadian wood betony and the sticky catchfly.

Question 12

Text: “A Pair of Silk Stockings” is an 1897 short story written by Kate Chopin.
In the story, Mrs. Sommers attends a play, which she experiences as a
temporary escape from the circumstances of her daily life: _____

Question: Which quotation from “A Pair of Silk Stockings” most effectively

illustrates the claim?

Options:
A) “The play was over, the music ceased, the crowd filed out. It was like a
dream ended.”
B) “But there were vacant seats here and there, and into one of them she
was ushered, between brilliantly dressed women who had gone there to kill
time and eat candy and display their gaudy attire.”
C) “It was a little later when she entered the theatre, the play had begun and
the house seemed to her to be packed.”
D) “When she entered [the restaurant] her appearance created no surprise,
no consternation, as she had half feared it might.”

Question 13

Text: Hypothesizing that lullabies, characterized by their slow tempos, are

universally calming to infants, Constance M. Bainbridge and colleagues
played a lullaby sung in the Western Nahuatl language and a non-lullaby
sung in the Serbian language to a group of infants. The team found that the
infants’ heart rates and pupil size both decreased more during the lullaby
than during the non-lullaby. Since a decrease in heart rate is associated with
relaxation, the team concluded that the lullaby relaxed the infants. However,
noting that reduced heart rate can also be associated with increased
attention, one critic argues that instead, the lullaby simply attracted the
infants’ attention.

Question: Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the critic’s
claim?

Options:
A) Parents of infants in the study preferred the Western Nahuatl lullaby over
the Serbian non-lullaby.
B) Infants in the study had never heard the Western Nahuatl lullaby before.
C) More frequent blinking has also been found to be a reliable indication of
attention.
D) Pupil size typically increases when a stimulus captures a person’s
attention.

Question 14

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) have been observed to have greater fracture

toughness—greater resistance to crack propagation—than conventional
alloys. It has been proposed that fracture toughness increases with the
proportion of an HEA consisting of cobalt, but data on HEAs compiled by
engineer Xuesong Fan show that this is not the case; for example, _____

Question: Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to
complete the text?
Options:
A) cobalt constitutes the same proportion of HEA 7 as it does of HEA 95.
B) cobalt constitutes a higher proportion of HEA 15 than it does of HEA 7.
C) cobalt constitutes a substantial proportion of HEA 15 but does not
constitute any of HEA 51.
D) cobalt constitutes a different proportion of HEA 25 than it does of HEA 7.

Question 15

Text: The olona shrub is one of many forest plant species native to Oahu (a
Hawaiian island) that are at risk of extinction. The survival of most of these
species in the wild largely depends on birds eating their fruits and then
dropping the seeds in different locations. Although Oahu’s native fruit-eating
birds have all gone extinct, the common waxbill and other fruit-eating bird
species have been brought to the island and are now common there. Studies
confirm that these non-native birds are spreading plant seeds on Oahu,
suggesting that the birds _____

Question: Which choice most logically completes the text?

Options:
A) are dropping higher numbers of native forest plant seeds around the
island than native bird species did in the past.
B) show significantly more interest in eating the fruits of native forest plants
than in eating the fruits of non-native ones.
C) may be necessary for the continued survival of vulnerable forest plant
species, such as the olona shrub.
D) may also engage in other activities that affect the ability of olona shrubs
and other vulnerable forest plants to continue to spread to new areas.

Question 16

Text: The human body has three types of muscle _____ cardiac, and skeletal.
The levator anguli oris is a skeletal muscle—of which the body contains more
than six hundred—and it helps with raising the corners of the mouth.

Question: Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the

conventions of Standard English?

Options:
A) tissue and smooth,
B) tissue: smooth,
C) tissue smooth,
D) tissue. Smooth

Question 17

Text: Alabama resident Benjamin S. Turner, sworn in as a member of the US

House of Representatives in 1871, was one of the nearly two thousand
African _____ during the decade following the Civil War.

Question: Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the

conventions of Standard English?

Options:
A) Americans’ who won elections’
B) Americans who won election’s
C) American’s who won elections
D) Americans who won elections

Question 19

Text: The programming languages COBOL, developed by Grace Hopper in

_____ developed by Rich Hickey in 2007, are all routinely translated into
executable code by tools known as compilers.

Question: Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the

conventions of Standard English?

Options:
A) 1959, Java developed by James Gosling in 1995; and Clojure
B) 1959, Java; developed by James Gosling in 1995; and Clojure,
C) 1959; Java, developed by James Gosling in 1995, and Clojure,
D) 1959; Java, developed by James Gosling in 1995; and Clojure,

Question 20

Text: Proto-Kru is a protolanguage, or a hypothesized ancestral language, of

all the Kru languages (thirty-eight languages that, because _____
descendants of Proto-Kru, can provide information about the protolanguage’s
structure).
Question: Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the
conventions of Standard English?

Options:
A) its
B) they’re
C) their
D) it's

Question 21

Text: Though Middle English was widely spoken in fourteenth-century

England, the English language was rarely employed in literature until poet
Geoffrey Chaucer pioneered its literary use. _____ his manuscripts contain the
first documented uses of over 2,000 English words—like the word “digestion”
in his 1395 poem “The Squire’s Tale”—which led a contemporary to dub him
“the first finder of our fair language.”

Question: Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Options:
A) However,
B) Besides,
C) In fact,
D) On the contrary,

Question 22

Text: In skateboarding, the 900—a trick in which the skateboarder spins two
and a half times in midair—is so rare that every successful execution of it is a
historic occasion. _____ ever since Mitchie Brusco and Tas Pappas performed
their 900s (in 2011 and 2014, respectively), fans have revered them as titans
of the sport.

Question: Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Options:
A) In conclusion,
B) By comparison,
C) For this reason,
D) Regardless,
Question 23

Text: Visually distinguishing the common raven (Corvus corax) from the
Chihuahuan raven (Corvus cryptoleucus) can confound even seasoned bird
watchers. _____ the two species share similarities that—at times—make the
birds appear virtually identical. Size, though, remains a differentiating
feature: the common raven tends to be larger.

Question: Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Options:
A) Instead,
B) Moreover,
C) Indeed,
D) Thus,

Question 24

Text: While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

 Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012) was a celebrated African American artist.

 She is best known for creating sculptures and prints that explore the
Black experience.

 Mahalia is a 2002 sculpture by Catlett.

 Paulina is a 2009 print by Catlett.

Question: The student wants to provide an example of one of Catlett’s

sculptures. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the
notes to accomplish this goal?

Options:
A) The sculpture Mahalia was created by celebrated artist Elizabeth Catlett in
2002.
B) Elizabeth Catlett, a celebrated artist, was born in 1915.
C) The print Paulina was created by celebrated artist Elizabeth Catlett in
2009.
D) Artist Elizabeth Catlett is best known for creating sculptures and prints
that explore the Black experience.
Question 25

Text: While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

 Lighthouses send out crucial light signals to help ships and other
watercraft navigate at night.

 Before automation, lighthouses were run by lighthouse keepers.

 Kate Walker was the lighthouse keeper at Robbins Reef Light in New
York.

 She held this position from 1894 to 1919.

 Georgiana C. Brumfield was the lighthouse keeper at Turkey Point Light

in Maryland.

 She held this position from 1895 to 1919.

Question: The student wants to emphasize a similarity between Kate Walker

and Georgiana C. Brumfield. Which choice most effectively uses relevant
information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

Options:
A) Lighthouse keepers during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries were crucial to ensuring safe navigation for watercraft.
B) From 1894 to 1919, the nighttime waters of New York were more
navigable thanks to Kate Walker.
C) Kate Walker and Georgiana C. Brumfield were both lighthouse keepers
during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
D) Kate Walker and Georgiana C. Brumfield spent their careers as lighthouse
keepers in different lighthouses.

Question 26

Text: While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

 The University of Oslo in Oslo, Norway, is home to a Foucault

pendulum.

 The pendulum consists of a weighted ball that swings at the end of a

roughly 14-meter-long cable.

 Like all Foucault pendulums, it dangles from a fixed point that ensures
the swing path of the pendulum doesn’t change.
  To an observer, the swing path of a Foucault pendulum appears to
change over time because Earth rotates beneath it.

 Foucault pendulums are used as a simple way to provide evidence of

Earth’s rotation.

Question: Which choice most effectively uses information from the given
sentences to specify the length of the Foucault pendulum’s cable?

Options:
A) With a swing path that appears to change over time, a Foucault pendulum
provides evidence of Earth’s rotation.
B) The Foucault pendulum at the University of Oslo consists of a weighted
ball and a cable.
C) Although the swing path of a Foucault pendulum doesn’t actually change,
it appears to change due to Earth rotating beneath the pendulum.
D) The Foucault pendulum at the University of Oslo in Oslo, Norway, includes
a cable that is roughly 14 meters long.

Question 27

Text: While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

 Mauritania is a country in North Africa.

 A high percentage of Mauritania’s population (39.9 percent) is under

fifteen years old.

 It has the thirty-fourth-largest under-fifteen population in the world.

 Roughly 40 percent of Africa’s population is under fifteen years old—

the highest of any continent.

 According to the United Nations (UN), Africa’s “high number of young

people is an opportunity for the continent’s growth—but only if these
new generations are fully empowered to realise their best potential.”

Question: The student wants to emphasize the global rank of Mauritania’s

youth population. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information
from the notes to accomplish this goal?

Options:
A) With 39.9 percent of its population under fifteen years of age, Mauritania
has the thirty-fourth-largest population for that age range in the world.
B) Africa’s high population of young people is due in part to the high
percentage of young people in Mauritania.
C) Making up roughly 40 percent of the continent’s total population, Africa’s
under-fifteen population offers “an opportunity for the continent’s growth,”
according to the UN.
D) “Only if these new generations are fully empowered to realise their best
potential,” says the UN, will Africa’s high percentage of young people lead to
the continent’s growth.

Module 2: Reading and Writing

Question 1

Text: Jessica Watson, who was the youngest person to sail nonstop and
unassisted around the world, undoubtedly accomplished much, but to gain a
lasting place in our historical memory, there is little that can _____ being the
first to do something. For example, people will always remember that Jeanne
Baret was the first woman to circumnavigate the world.

Question: Which choice completes the text with the most logical and
precise word or phrase?

Options:
A) overreach by
B) prevail over
C) fluctuate with
D) constrain within

Question 3

Text: In the mid-1980s, the price of vintage and even new baseball cards
rose dramatically, which had the counterintuitive effect of _____ demand:
buyers who hadn’t previously wanted to purchase baseball cards thronged
the market, believing prices would continue to rise and the cards could be
resold later at a profit.

Question: Which choice completes the text with the most logical and
precise word or phrase?

Options:
A) capitalizing
B) exploiting
C) eliciting
D) satisfying

Question 4

Text: The fact that publications by University of California–Berkeley

economist Bronwyn Hughes Hall, who studies innovation and economics, are
so frequently cited in other scholars’ work _____ the usefulness of her
research for her peers—other economists clearly find her studies valuable for
their own scholarship.

Question: Which choice completes the text with the most logical and
precise word or phrase?

Options:
A) belies
B) underscores
C) forestalls
D) overshadows

Question 5

Text: Shedding light on the thermal biology of fungi, research by Radamés

Cordero et al. indicates that certain mushrooms (including Boletus
separans and species from the genus Thelephora) can achieve a
hypothermic state through evaporative cooling. Effects of this
thermoregulation were not limited to the fungi’s fruiting bodies and root-like
hyphae: temperature reductions were observed in the air immediately
surrounding the mushrooms. Though slight, the reductions inspired an air-
cooling device; using approximately 400 grams of mushrooms, the team’s
prototype lowered the air temperature in a controlled environment by 10°C
in forty minutes.

Question: Which choice best describes the function of the underlined

portion in the text as a whole?

Options:
A) It identifies an unexpected observation that motivated the study of
evaporative cooling in fungi that is discussed earlier in the text.
B) It provides empirical evidence to bolster the claim made earlier in the text
that certain fungal species maintain a hypothermic state.
C) It establishes a finding central to the text’s discussion of a practical
application resulting from the team’s study of fungal thermal biology.
D) It presents a tangential finding about thermoregulation in certain fungal
species that the experiment described later in the text was designed to
explain.

Question 6

Text: In Grenada, use of solid fuel (e.g., coal, wood) as a share of total
household fuel use fell by more than a third between 2000 and 2019; such
shifts are often explained by appeal to the energy ladder, a model holding
that fuel choice is mediated mainly by household income (specifically, high-
technology fuels displace solid fuels as incomes rise). Moses Pundo and
Gavin Fraser’s study of fuel use in Kenya shows this model to be reductive,
however: household fuel use was heterogeneous, flexible, and influenced by
several factors, including the age of the household head.

Question: Which choice best describes the function of the information about
Grenada in the text as a whole?

Options:
A) It provides an example of a type of change that the text goes on to
suggest is poorly suited for evaluating whether the energy ladder is a viable
model.
B) It introduces a finding that the text goes on to suggest can be explained in
two different ways that are equally compelling.
C) It illustrates the kind of phenomenon that the text goes on to suggest is
frequently but inadequately accounted for by the energy ladder.
D) It describes a trend that the text goes on to suggest has a similar cause
as a seemingly unrelated trend observed in Kenya.

Question 7

Text: In a study by Mika R. Moran, Daniel A. Rodriguez, and colleagues,

residents of Quito, Ecuador, and Lima, Peru, 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 663 respondents from Lima, 72.7% 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 Lima respondents, greater proximity alone can’t explain the
difference in park use.

Question: The text makes which point about the difference between the
proportions of Quito residents and Lima residents using parks?

Options:
A) It was much larger than the researchers conducting the study expected.
B) It could be due to inaccuracies in the survey results.
C) It was calculated using sources that predate the survey.
D) It is caused by something other than the parks’ proximity to city residents.

Question 8

Text: The bird species Schistocichla leucostigma (the spot-winged antbird)

shares some territory in French Guiana with Thamnomanes caesius (the
cinereous antshrike), which emits a loud alarm call when it detects predators.
Biologist Ari Martínez and colleagues recorded T. caesius alarm calls and
played them in the vicinity of wild S. leucostigma. Finding that the birds often
froze in place or scattered into vegetation upon hearing the calls, they
concluded that S. leucostigma associates T. caesius alarm calls with danger.

Question: Which finding, if true, would most directly support Martínez and
colleagues’ conclusion?

Options:
A) In some instances, S. leucostigma froze in place or scattered into
vegetation when Martínez and colleagues approached but before they began
playing sounds.
B) When Martínez and colleagues played control sounds of random noise in
the vicinity of S. leucostigma, the birds displayed no reaction.
C) Other bird species than S. leucostigma also showed a tendency to freeze
in place or scatter into vegetation when Martínez and colleagues played T.
caesius alarm calls.
D) Martínez and colleagues played alarm calls from different T.
caesius individuals and observed no significant variation in the responses
of S. leucostigma.

Question 9
Text: The Lego Group’s introduction of the Legoland theme park in 1968 is a
quintessential instance of brand extension—the company leveraged its brand
recognition as a toy manufacturer to enter a product category where it had
not previously competed. An outstanding question is whether perceived
category similarity predicts consumers’ likelihood of purchasing brand
extensions. To answer this question, Alicia Grasby et al. identified 30
extended-brand pairs (e.g., the same brand of wristwatch and necktie) in 52
weeks of purchases by approximately 60,000 households and, for each pair,
calculated the change in probability of a brand in one category being
purchased if the same brand was purchased in the other category.

Question: Based on the text, which potential study design would be most
likely to produce evidence that would enable Grasby et al. to answer their
research question?

Options:
A) Have a representative sample of the households rate the similarity of the
product categories in each extended-brand pair, then determine how, if at
all, those ratings correlate with the change in probability that the team
calculated for each pair.
B) Poll a representative sample of the households to determine the degree of
brand recognition for each brand in the extended-brand pairs, then
determine how, if at all, the degree of brand recognition correlates with the
frequency with which a different group of households purchased at least one
product of that brand.
C) Poll a representative sample of the households to determine the degree of
brand recognition of each brand in the extended-brand pairs, then determine
how, if at all, the degree of brand recognition correlates with the average
cost of each product in the pairs.
D) Have a representative sample of the households rate the similarity of one
product in each extended-brand pair to other products in the same category,
then determine how, if at all, those ratings correlate with the change in
probability that the team calculated for each pair.

10.
Arthurian legends (tales related to the character of King Arthur) derive from
many often contradictory sources, such as Annales Cambriae, composed
around 970, and Tom a Lincoln from around 1607. Sir Thomas Malory’s 15th-
century text Le Morte d’Arthur was an attempt to compile these stories into a
coherent narrative. Many of Malory’s sources derive from Geoffrey of
Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, written in the 1130s. While
neither History nor any works that predate it mention Arthur’s famous Round
Table at which his knights assembled, Le Morte d’Arthur does, suggesting
that _____.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A. when a version of an Arthurian legend contradicted the version in History,
Malory preferred to include Geoffrey of Monmouth’s version in Le Morte
d’Arthur.
B. Le Morte d’Arthur is more historically accurate than History, because Tom
a Lincoln had not been written when Geoffrey of Monmouth was writing his
work.
C. Geoffrey of Monmouth’s accounts of Arthurian legends in History are more
similar overall in content to the accounts in Tom a Lincoln than they are to
the accounts in Le Morte d’Arthur.
D. Malory encountered the Round Table in a source that Geoffrey of
Monmouth was not familiar with when writing his History.

Question 11

Text: Many studies have found a positive association between levels of

dissolved organic carbon and mercury in bodies of fresh water in North
America. But Petri Porvari and Matti Verta did not find this correlation in a
study conducted in Finland, leading some scientists to hypothesize that the
association is particular to North America. However, several other studies
conducted outside North America, such as one by Sara M. Ekström and
colleagues in Sweden, showed similar results to the North American studies,
while few have produced results similar to those of Porvari and Verta’s study,
suggesting that _____

Question: Which choice most logically completes the text?

Options:
A) the hypothesis that the positive association is particular to North America
is correct.
B) levels of dissolved organic carbon and mercury in bodies of fresh water
are both much higher in Finland than elsewhere.
C) there were circumstances unique to Ekström and colleagues’ study that
impeded accurate measurements of mercury levels.
D) dissolved organic carbon and mercury levels do typically rise and fall
together in fresh water.

12.
A group of primate conservationists recently began a long-term study of the
effects of different conservation strategies on the Perrier’s sifaka
(Propithecus perrieri). The species population is currently estimated to be
around 500. It is challenging to accurately count these primates, however,
which makes it difficult to tell whether the population is increasing,
decreasing, or staying stable. The study may thus _____.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

A. risk making inaccurate conclusions about the effectiveness of different
conservation strategies.
B. cause other conservationists to adopt a new methodology for counting
populations.
C. benefit from including species beyond the Perrier’s sifaka.
D. fail to consider less-well-known conservation approaches for the Perrier’s
sifaka.

Question 13

Text: Prolonged exposure to anthropogenic noise (sounds from human

sources like traffic or mining) can affect animals, as Amy Morris-Drake and
colleagues found in a 2017 study of dwarf mongooses. Researchers
conducted a meta-analysis of studies of how such noise affects animals and
found that, for every study, relevant traits or behaviors of the animals were
observably different between the exposed group and the otherwise similar
but unexposed group. Although, on average, studies of mammals showed
larger differences than studies of birds did, for every class of animals
examined, there were individual studies showing differences well above the
average for mammals. Therefore, the results of the meta-analysis suggest
that _____

Question: Which choice most logically completes the text?

Options:
A) the studies in the meta-analysis that examined mammals were more likely
than those that examined birds to specify whether the observed effects were
detrimental.
B) the differences that studies attribute to exposure to anthropogenic noise
are likely to be more pronounced for birds than they are for mammals.
C) the difference found in the study conducted by Amy Morris-Drake and
colleagues was likely larger than the average difference for studies of dwarf
mongooses included in the meta-analysis.
D) some studies of birds found larger effects of exposure to anthropogenic
noise than some studies of mammals did.

Question 14

Text: Although the epic poem The Aeneid dates back to the 1st century BCE,
_____ compelling narrative still captivates readers today.

Question: Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the

conventions of Standard English?

Options:
A) their
B) they’re
C) its
D) it’s

Question 15

Text: Most sand is beige because of deposits of gray- and tan-hued minerals,
such as quartz and feldspar. The sand at Les Sables Roses Beach in French
Polynesia is a more unusual _____ deposits of crushed coral and other organic
matter lend the sand a unique pink hue.

Question: Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the

conventions of Standard English?

Options:
A) shade, though;
B) shade, though,
C) shade, though
D) shade; though
Question 16

Text: The poem “The Ballad of Rudolph Reed,” which was published in 1960,
contains three signature elements of Gwendolyn Brooks’s poetic _____
compressed lines infused with bursts of vivid imagery; syncopated rhythms,
largely inspired by the blues tradition; and a keen attention to everyday life
in Brooks’s South Side Chicago neighborhood.

Question: Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the

conventions of Standard English?

Options:
A) style. Terse,
B) style: terse,
C) style, terse,
D) style; terse,

Question 17

Text: Neoclassical economic models assume that people consistently make

rational economic decisions, but Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School
makes no such assumption; behavioral economists such as Gino, whose
research focuses on worker productivity, _____ that economic decision-
making can in fact be highly irrational.

Question: Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the

conventions of Standard English?

Options:
A) contend
B) is contending
C) has contended
D) contends

Question 18

Text: While the greater adjutant (Leptoptilos dubius) can be found in places
like Dong Khanthung in Laos and Chitwan National Park in Nepal, more than
80 percent of this endangered stork species is found in Assam, India. There,
wildlife _____ is on the front lines of conservation efforts to bring adjutants
back from near extinction.
Question: Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the
conventions of Standard English?

Options:
A) biologist Dr. Purnima Devi Barman
B) biologist: Dr. Purnima Devi Barman
C) biologist, Dr. Purnima Devi Barman,
D) biologist, Dr. Purnima Devi Barman

Question 19

Text: The story of Chile’s electrification is perhaps most readily understood

by studying developments in several key years: 1916, when engineer Arturo
Salazar attended the Pan-American Scientific Conference; 1936, when the
study entitled “Política eléctrica chilena” was _____ 1943, when the national
electrical plan was finalized.

Question: Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the

conventions of Standard English?

Options:
A) released; and
B) released and
C) released. And
D) released, and

Question 20

Text: The Greek dramatist Euripides’s Cyclops, a satyr play, is an extant

work: it can still be read. By contrast, lost works like Euripides’s play about
the hero Alcmaeon, Alcmaeon in Psophis—no copy of which exists—_____
known to antiquarians only through references in extant works.

Question: Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the

conventions of Standard English?

Options:
A) have become
B) becomes
C) has become
D) is becoming
Question 21

Text: Long thought to be sessile (immobile), adult Chelonibia testudinaria,

barnacles that adhere to sea turtle shells, have been observed to shift
slightly in position over time—a phenomenon that has been attributed to the
barnacles’ passive displacement by water currents. _____ a research team
found that adult C. testudinaria moved toward the heads of their sea turtle
hosts and thus against the prevailing water flow, behavior consistent with
self-initiated locomotion.

Question: Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Options:
A) Confirming this hypothesis,
B) Undermining this explanation,
C) Drawing a similar conclusion,
D) Contrary to this phenomenon,

Question 22

Text: Marcia Rieke is a space scientist who works on the James Webb Space
Telescope, or JWST. Thanks in part to Rieke’s contributions, the telescope is
now positioned near the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, almost one million
miles beyond Earth’s orbit. _____ the JWST’s predecessor, the Hubble
Telescope, is only about 340 miles above Earth’s surface.

Question: Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Options:
A) Therefore,
B) Similarly,
C) By contrast,
D) Secondly,

Question 23

Text: Photogrammetry and polygonal modeling, methods used by digital

artists to create three-dimensional elements for video games, typically
require software to process geometric shapes numbering in the thousands.
_____ these approaches are more economical than surface model methods,
which require more powerful and expensive processors to manage polygons
numbering in the millions.

Question: Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Options:
A) For example,
B) Instead,
C) As such,
D) Specifically,

Question 24

Text: The total solar eclipse of June 5, 762 BCE, was the second-longest total
eclipse before the Dark Ages—7 minutes, 25 seconds long. Another
memorable solar eclipse occurred on March 21, 424 BCE, but unlike the 762
BCE eclipse, the 424 BCE eclipse was annular. _____ the Moon didn’t cover
the Sun completely, instead creating an annulus, or “ring of fire.”

Question: Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Options:
A) Meanwhile,
B) That is,
C) For example,
D) Nonetheless,

Question 25

Text: While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

 The Coachella Valley National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) is a protected

natural area in California.

 It encompasses 3,592 acres.

 It was established to safeguard the habitat of the Coachella Valley

fringe-toed lizard, an endangered species.

 The Coachella Valley NWR is managed by the US Fish & Wildlife

Service.

 The US Fish & Wildlife Service limits human activities in the area.
Question: The student wants to indicate the size of the Coachella Valley
NWR. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes
to accomplish this goal?

Options:
A) The Coachella Valley NWR is a natural area in California, home to the
Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard.
B) A protected natural area, the Coachella Valley NWR encompasses 3,592
acres of land in California.
C) The Coachella Valley NWR is a protected natural area managed by the US
Fish & Wildlife Service, which limits human activities there.
D) Home to the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard, California’s Coachella
Valley NWR is managed by the US Fish & Wildlife Service.

Question 26

Text: While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

 Antelope House is an Ancestral Puebloan dwelling site located in

northeastern Arizona.

 It was built under a rock overhang and inhabited from approximately

1050-1270 CE.

 The overhanging rock ledges offered protection from heavy rain and
snow.

 Mud Springs Pueblo is an Ancestral Puebloan dwelling site located in

southwestern Colorado.

 It was built on relatively flat terrain and inhabited from approximately

1200-1250 CE.

 This level surface allowed for the construction of large terraced

buildings.

Question: The student wants to explain an advantage of the Antelope

House dwelling site. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information
from the notes to accomplish this goal?

Options:
A) The relatively flat terrain on which Antelope House was built allowed for
the construction of large terraced buildings.
B) Located in northeastern Arizona, Antelope House is an Ancestral Puebloan
dwelling site that was inhabited from approximately 1050-1270 CE.
C) The location of Antelope House, an Ancestral Puebloan dwelling site in
northeastern Arizona, provided an advantage to its inhabitants.
D) Since it was built under a rock overhang, Antelope House was naturally
protected from heavy rain and snow.

Question 27

Text: While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

 Kepler’s first law of planetary motion states that the orbit of a planet
around the Sun is an ellipse.

 The law also states that, in an elliptical orbit, the object being orbited
is one of the ellipse’s foci.

 Kepler’s laws of planetary motion also apply to natural satellites (e.g.,

moons).

 Europa is a moon of Jupiter that orbits the planet in 3.55 Earth days on
average.

 Europa’s orbit is elliptical.

Question: The student wants to provide an explanation and example of

Kepler’s first law of planetary motion. Which choice most effectively uses
relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

Options:
A) Kepler’s first law of planetary motion, which describes the orbits of Jupiter
and other planets in the solar system, states that the object being orbited is
one of the ellipse’s foci.
B) Jupiter’s moon Europa completes an orbit in 3.55 Earth days on average, a
clear example of Kepler’s first law of planetary motion, which describes the
elliptical orbit of planets.
C) Kepler’s first law of planetary motion states that the orbit of a planet
around the Sun is an ellipse; for example, planetary satellites orbit their
planets in an elliptical fashion.
D) Europa’s orbit of Jupiter is elliptical, demonstrating Kepler’s first law of
planetary motion, which describes the elliptical orbits of planets but applies
to moons as well.