Are you still reading the other newspaper in town? Did you know that the Daily Bugle is owned by an out-of-town business syndicate that couldn’t care less about the people of Gotham City? Read the Daily Clarion, the only real voice of the people of Gotham City! Which of the following most directly refutes the argument raised in the advertisement above?

(A) Over half of the advertising revenues of the Daily Clarion come from firms whose headquarters are located outside of Gotham City.
(B) The Daily Clarion usually devotes more of its pages to out-of-town news than does the Daily Bugle.
(C) Nearly 40 percent of the readers of the Daily Clarion reside outside the limits of Gotham City.
(D) The editor-in-chief and all the other members of the editorial staff of the Daily Bugle have lived and worked in Gotham City for ten years or more.
(E) The Daily Bugle has been published in Gotham City for a longer time than has the Daily Clarion.

The Iroquois were primarily planters, but supplementing their cultivation of maize, squash, and beans with fishing and hunting.
(A) but supplementing
(B) and had supplemented
(C) and even though they supplemented
(D) although they supplemented
(E) but with supplementing

A conventional view of nineteenth-century Britain holds that iron manufacturers and textile manufacturers from the north of England became the wealthiest and most powerful people in society after about 1832. According to Marxist historians, these industrialists were the target of the working class in its struggle for power. A new study by Rubinstein, however, suggests that the real wealth lay with the bankers and merchants of London. Rubinstein does not deny that a northern industrial elite existed but argues that it was consistently outnumbered and outdone by a London-based commercial elite. His claims are provocative and deserve consideration.

Rubinstein’s claim about the location of wealth comes from his investigation of probate records. These indicate the value of personal property, excluding real property (buildings and land), left by individuals at death. It does seem as if large fortunes were more frequently made in commerce than in industry and, within industry, more frequently from alcohol or tobacco than from textiles or metal. However, such records do not unequivocally make Rubinstein’s case. Uncertainties abound about how the probate rules for valuing assets were actually applied. Mills and factories, being real property, were clearly excluded: machinery may also have been, for the same reason. What the valuation conventions were for stock-in-trade (goods for sale) is also uncertain. It is possible that their probate values were much lower than their actual market value: cash or near-cash, such as bank balances or stocks, were, on the other hand, invariably considered at full face value. A further complication is that probate valuations probably took no notice of a business’s goodwill (favor with the public) which, since it represents expectations about future profit-making, would today very often be a large fraction of market value. Whether factors like these introduced systematic biases into the probate valuations of individuals with different types of businesses would be worth investigating.

The orthodox view that the wealthiest individuals were the most powerful is also questioned by Rubinstein’s study. The problem for this orthodox view is that Rubinstein finds many millionaires who are totally unknown to nineteenth-century historians: the reason for their obscurity could be that they were not powerful. Indeed, Rubinstein dismisses any notion that great wealth had anything to do with entry into the governing elite, as represented by bishops, higher civil servants, and chairmen of manufacturing companies. The only requirements were university attendance and a father with a middle-class income.

Rubinstein, in another study, has begun to buttress his findings about the location of wealth by analyzing income tax returns, which reveal a geographical distribution of middle-class incomes similar to that of wealthy incomes revealed by probate records. But until further confirmatory investigation is done, his claims can only be considered partially convincing.

1) The main idea of the passage is that
(A) the Marxist interpretation of the relationship between class and power in nineteenth-century Britain is no longer viable
(B) a simple equation between wealth and power is unlikely to be supported by new data from nineteenth-century British archives
(C) a recent historical investigation has challenged but not disproved the orthodox view of the distribution of wealth and the relationship of wealth to power in nineteenth-century Britain
(D) probate records provide the historian with a revealing but incomplete glimpse of the extent and location of wealth in nineteenth-century Britain
(E) an attempt has been made to confirm the findings of a new historical study of nineteenth-century Britain, but complete confirmation is likely to remain elusive

2) The author of the passage implies that probate records as a source of information about wealth in nineteenth-century Britain are
(A) self-contradictory and misleading
(B) ambiguous and outdated
(C) controversial but readily available
(D) revealing but difficult to interpret
(E) widely used by historians but fully understandable only by specialists

3) The author suggests that the total probate valuations of the personal property of individuals holding goods for sale in nineteenth-century Britain may have been
(A) affected by the valuation conventions for such goods
(B) less accurate than the valuations for such goods provided by income tax returns
(C) less, on average, if such goods were tobacco-related than if they were alcohol-related
(D) greater, on average, than the total probate valuations of those individuals who held bank balances
(E) dependent on whether such goods were held by industrialists or by merchants or bankers

4) According to the passage, Rubinstein has provided evidence that challenges which one of the following claims about nineteenth-century Britain?
(A) The distribution of great wealth between commerce and industry was not equal.
(B) Large incomes were typically made in alcohol and tobacco rather than in textiles and metal.
(C) A London-based commercial elite can be identified.
(D) An official governing elite can be identified.
(E) There was a necessary relationship between great wealth and power.

5) The author mentions that goodwill was probably excluded from the probate valuation of a business in nineteenth-century Britain most likely in order to
(A) give an example of a business asset about which little was known in the nineteenth century
(B) suggest that the probate valuations of certain businesses may have been significant underestimations of their true market value
(C) make the point that this exclusion probably had an equal impact on the probate valuations of all nineteenth-century British businesses
(D) indicate that expectations about future profit-making is the single most important factor in determining the market value of certain businesses
(E) argue that the twentieth-century method of determining probate valuations of a business may be consistently superior to the nineteenth-century method

6) Which one of the following studies would provide support for Rubinstein’s claims?
(A) a study that indicated that many members of the commercial elite in nineteenth-century London had insignificant holdings of real property
(B) a study that indicated that in the nineteenth century, industrialists from the north of England were in fact a target for working-class people
(C) a study that indicated that, in nineteenth-century Britain, probate values of goods for sale were not as high as probate values of cash assets
(D) a study that indicated that the wealth of nineteenth-century British industrialists did not appear to be significantly greater when the full value of their real property holdings was actually considered
(E) a study that indicated that at least some members of the official governing elite in nineteenth-century Britain owned more real property than had previously been thought to be the case

7) Which one of the following, if true, would cast the most doubt on Rubinstein’s argument concerning wealth and the official governing elite in nineteenth-century Britain?
(A) Entry into this elite was more dependent on university attendance than on religious background.
(B) Attendance at a prestigious university was probably more crucial than a certain minimum family income in gaining entry into this elite.
(C) Bishops as a group were somewhat wealthier, at the point of entry into this elite, than were higher civil servants or chairmen of manufacturing companies.
(D) The families of many members of this elite owned few, if any, shares in iron industries and textile industries in the north of England.
(E) The composition of this elite included vice-chancellors, many of whom held office because of their wealth.

Affording strategic proximity to the Strait of Gibraltar, Morocco was also of interest to the French throughout the first half of the twentieth century because they assumed that if they did not  hold it, their grip on Algeria was always insecure.

(A) if they did not hold it, their grip in Algeria was always insecure
(B) without it their grip on Algeria would never be secure
(C) their grip on Algeria was not ever secure if they did not hold it
(D) without that, they could never be secure about their grip on Algeria
(E) never would their grip on Algeria be secure if they did not hold it

Virtually everything astronomers known about objects outside the solar system is based on the detection of photons—quanta of electromagnetic radiation. Yet there is another form of radiation that permeates the universe: neutrinos. With (as its name implies) no electric charge, and negligible mass, the neutrino interacts with other particles so rarely that a neutrino can cross the entire universe, even traversing substantial aggregations of matter, without being absorbed or even deflected. Neutrinos can thus escape from regions of space where light and other kinds of electromagnetic radiation are blocked by matter. Furthermore, neutrinos carry with them information about the site and circumstances of their production: therefore, the detection of cosmic neutrinos could provide new information about a wide variety of cosmic phenomena and about the history of the universe.

But how can scientists detect a particle that interacts so infrequently with other matter? Twenty-five years passed between Pauli’s hypothesis that the neutrino existed and its actual detection: since then virtually all research with neutrinos has been with neutrinos created artificially in large particle accelerators and studied under neutrino microscopes. But a neutrino telescope, capable of detecting cosmic neutrinos, is difficult to construct. No apparatus can detect neutrinos unless it is extremely massive, because great mass is synonymous with huge numbers of nucleons (neutrons and protons), and the more massive the detector, the greater the probability of one of its nucleon’s reacting with a neutrino. In addition, the apparatus must be sufficiently shielded from the interfering effects of other particles.

Fortunately, a group of astrophysicists has proposed a means of detecting cosmic neutrinos by harnessing the mass of the ocean. Named DUMAND, for Deep Underwater Muon and Neutrino Detector, the project calls for placing an array of light sensors at a depth of five kilometers under the ocean surface. The detecting medium is the seawater itself: when a neutrino interacts with a particle in an atom of seawater, the result is a cascade of electrically charged particles and a flash of light that can be detected by the sensors. The five kilometers of seawater above the sensors will shield them from the interfering effects of other high-energy particles raining down through the atmosphere.

The strongest motivation for the DUMAND project is that it will exploit an important source of information about the universe. The extension of astronomy from visible light to radio waves to x-rays and gamma rays never failed to lead to the discovery of unusual objects such as radio galaxies, quasars, and pulsars. Each of these discoveries came as a surprise. Neutrino astronomy will doubtless bring its own share of surprises.

1) Which of the following titles best summarizes the passage as a whole?
(A) At the Threshold of Neutrino Astronomy
(B) Neutrinos and the History of the Universe
(C) The Creation and Study of Neutrinos
(D) The DUMAND System and How It Works
(E) The Properties of the Neutrino

2) With which of the following statements regarding neutrino astronomy would the author be most likely to agree?
(A) Neutrino astronomy will supersede all present forms of astronomy.
(B) Neutrino astronomy will be abandoned if the DUMAND project fails.
(C) Neutrino astronomy can be expected to lead to major breakthroughs in astronomy.
(D) Neutrino astronomy will disclose phenomena that will be more surprising than past discoveries.
(E) Neutrino astronomy will always be characterized by a large time lag between hypothesis and experimental confirmation.

3) In the last paragraph, the author describes the development of astronomy in order to
(A) suggest that the potential findings of neutrino astronomy can be seen as part of a series of astronomical successes
(B) illustrate the role of surprise in scientific discovery
(C) demonstrate the effectiveness of the DUMAND apparatus in detecting neutrinos
(D) name some cosmic phenomena that neutrino astronomy will illuminate
(E) contrast the motivation of earlier astronomers with that of the astrophysicists working on the DUMAND project

4) According to the passage, one advantage that neutrinos have for studies in astronomy is that they
(A) have been detected for the last twenty-five years
(B) possess a variable electric charge
(C) are usually extremely massive
(D) carry information about their history with them
(E) are very similar to other electromagnetic particles

5) According to the passage, the primary use of the apparatus mentioned in lines 24-32 would be to
(A) increase the mass of a neutrino
(B) interpret the information neutrinos carry with them
(C) study the internal structure of a neutrino
(D) see neutrinos in distant regions of space
(E) detect the presence of cosmic neutrinos

6) The passage states that interactions between neutrinos and other matter are
(A) rare
(B) artificial
(C) undetectable
(D) unpredictable
(E) hazardous

7) The passage mentions which of the following as a reason that neutrinos are hard to detect?
(A) Their pervasiveness in the universe
(B) Their ability to escape from different regions of space
(C) Their inability to penetrate dense matter
(D) The similarity of their structure to that of nucleons
(E) The infrequency of their interaction with other matter

According to the passage, the interaction of a neutrino with other matter can produce
(A) particles that are neutral and massive
(B) a form of radiation that permeates the universe
(C) inaccurate information about the site and circumstances of the neutrino’s production
(D) charged particles and light
(E) a situation in which light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation are blocked

9) According to the passage, one of the methods used to establish the properties of neutrinos was
(A) detection of photons
(B) observation of the interaction of neutrinos with gamma rays
(C) observation of neutrinos that were artificially created
(D) measurement of neutrinos that interacted with particles of seawater
(E) experiments with electromagnetic radiation

The earth’s resources are being depleted much too fast. To correct this, the United States must keep its  resource consumption at present levels for many years to come.

1. The argument above depends on which of the following assumptions?
(A) Per capita resource consumption in the United States is at an all-time high.
(B) The United States wastes resources.
(C) The United States uses more resources than any other country.
(D) The United States imports most of the resources it uses.
(E) Curbing U.S. resource consumption will significantly retard world resource depletion.

Beatrix Potter, in her book illustrations, carefully coordinating them with her narratives,
capitalized on her keen observation and love of the natural world.
(A) Beatrix Potter, in her book illustrations, carefully coordinating them with her narratives,
(B) In her book illustrations, carefully coordinating them with her narratives, Beatrix Potter
(C) In her book illustrations, which she carefully coordinated with her narratives, Beatrix

Potter
(D) Carefully coordinated with her narratives, Beatrix Potter, in her book illustrations,
(E) Beatrix Potter, in her book illustrations, carefully coordinated them with her narratives

Milankovitch proposed in the early twentieth century that the ice ages were caused by variations in the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. For sometime this theory was considered untestable, largely because there was no sufficiently precise chronology of the ice ages with which the orbital variations could be matched.

To establish such a chronology it is necessary to determine the relative amounts of land ice that existed at various times in the Earth’s past. A recent discovery makes such a determination possible: relative land-ice volume for a given period can be deduced from the ratio of two oxygen isotopes, 16 and 18, found in ocean sediments. Almost all the oxygen in water is oxygen 16, but a few molecules out of every thousand incorporate the heavier isotope 18. When an ice age begins, the continental ice sheets grow, steadily reducing the amount of water evaporated from the ocean that will eventually return to it. Because heavier isotopes tend to be left behind when water evaporates from the ocean surfaces, the remaining ocean water becomes progressively enriched in oxygen 18. The degree of enrichment can be determined by analyzing ocean sediments of the period, because these sediments are composed of calcium carbonate shells of marine organisms, shells that were constructed with oxygen atoms drawn from the surrounding ocean. The higher the ratio of oxygen 18 to oxygen 16 in a sedimentary specimen, the more land ice there was when the sediment was laid down.

As an indicator of shifts in the Earth’s climate, the isotope record has two advantages. First, it is a global record: there is remarkably little variation in isotope ratios in sedimentary specimens taken from different continental locations. Second, it is a more continuous record than that taken from rocks on land. Because of these advantages, sedimentary evidence can be dated with sufficient accuracy by radiometric methods to establish a precise chronology of the ice ages. The dated isotope record shows that the fluctuations in global ice volume over the past several hundred thousand years have a pattern: an ice age occurs roughly once every 100,000 years. These data have established a strong connection between variations in the Earth’s orbit and the periodicity of the ice ages.

However, it is important to note that other factors, such as volcanic particulates or variations in the amount of sunlight received by the Earth, could potentially have affected the climate. The advantage of the Milankovitch theory is that it is testable: changes in the Earth’s orbit can be calculated and dated by applying Newton’s laws of gravity to progressively earlier configurations of the bodies in the solar system. Yet the lack of information about other possible factors affecting global climate does not make them unimportant.

1) In the passage, the author is primarily interested in
(A) suggesting an alternative to an outdated research method
(B) introducing a new research method that calls an accepted theory into question
(C) emphasizing the instability of data gathered from the application of a new scientific method
(D) presenting a theory and describing a new method to test that theory
(E) initiating a debate about a widely accepted theory

2) The author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about the Milankovitch theory?
(A) It is the only possible explanation for the ice ages.
(B) It is too limited to provide a plausible explanation for the ice ages, despite recent research findings.
(C) It cannot be tested and confirmed until further research on volcanic activity is done.
(D) It is one plausible explanation, though not the only one, for the ice ages.
(E) It is not a plausible explanation for the ice ages, although it has opened up promising possibilities for future research.

3) It can be inferred from the passage that the isotope record taken from ocean sediments would be less useful to researchers if which of the following were true?
(A) It indicated that lighter isotopes of oxygen predominated at certain times.
(B) It had far more gaps in its sequence than the record taken from rocks on land.
(C) It indicated that climate shifts did not occur every 100,000 years.
(D) It indicated that the ratios of oxygen 16 and oxygen 18 in ocean water were not consistent with those found in fresh water.
(E) It stretched back for only a million years.

4) According to the passage, which of the following is true of the ratios of oxygen isotopes in ocean sediments?
(A) They indicate that sediments found during an ice age contain more calcium carbonate than sediments formed at other times.
(B) They are less reliable than the evidence from rocks on land in determining the volume of land ice.
(C) They can be used to deduce the relative volume of land ice that was present when the sediment was laid down.
(D) They are more unpredictable during an ice age than in other climatic conditions.
(E) They can be used to determine atmospheric conditions at various times in the past.

5) It can be inferred from the passage that precipitation formed from evaporated ocean water has
(A) the same isotopic ratio as ocean water
(B) less oxygen 18 than does ocean water
(C) less oxygen 18 than has the ice contained in continental ice sheets
(D) a different isotopic composition than has precipitation formed from water on land
(E) more oxygen 16 than has precipitation formed from fresh water

6) According to the passage, which of the following is (are) true of the ice ages?
I) The last ice age occurred about 25,000 years ago.
II) Ice ages have lasted about 10,000 years for at least the last several hundred thousand years.
III) Ice ages have occurred about every 100,000 years for at least the last several hundred thousand years.
(A) I only
(B) II only
(C) III only
(D) I and only
(E) I, II and III

7) It can be inferred from the passage that calcium carbonate shells
(A) are not as susceptible to deterioration as rocks
(B) are less common in sediments formed during an ice age
(C) are found only in areas that were once covered by land ice
(D) contain radioactive material that can be used to determine a sediment’s isotopic composition
(E) reflect the isotopic composition of the water at the time the shells were formed

The purpose of the last paragraph of the passage is to
(A) offer a note of caution
(B) introduce new evidence
(C) present two recent discoveries
(D) summarize material in the preceding paragraphs
(E) offer two explanations for a phenomenon

9) According to the passage, one advantage of studying the isotope record of ocean sediments is that it
(A) corresponds with the record of ice volume taken from rocks on land
(B) shows little variation in isotope ratios when samples are taken from different continental locations
(C) corresponds with predictions already made by climatologists and experts in other fields
(D) confirms the record of ice volume initially established by analyzing variations in volcanic emissions
(E) provides data that can be used to substantiate records concerning variations in the amount of sunlight received by the Earth

Most geologists believe oil results from chemical transformations of hydrocarbons derived from
organisms buried under ancient seas. Suppose, instead, that oil actually results from bacterial action on other complex hydrocarbons that are trapped within the Earth. As is well known, the volume of these hydrocarbons exceeds that of buried organ- isms. Therefore, our oil reserves would be greater than most geologists believe. Which of the following, if true, gives the strongest
support to the argument above about our oil reserves?

(A) Most geologists think optimistically about the Earth’s reserves of oil.
(B) Most geologists have performed accurate chem- ical analyses on previously discovered oil
reserves.
(C) Ancient seas are buried within the Earth at many places where fossils are abundant.
(D) The only bacteria yet found in oil reserves could have leaked down drill holes from surface
contaminants.
(E) Chemical transformations reduce the volume of buried hydrocarbons derived from organisms
by roughly the same proportion as bacterial action reduces the volume of other complex
hydrocarbons.

Unlike the lives of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, subjects of other Troyat biographies, Chekhov belongs to the twentieth century, an age of fretfulness and melancholy skepticism.

(A) Unlike the lives of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, subjects of other Troyat biographies, Chekhov belongs
(B) Chekhov, unlike the other Troyat biographies of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belongs
(C) The life of Chekhov, unlike the lives of the subjects of other Troyat biographies, Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belongs
(D) Chekhov and his life, unlike that of the other Troyat biographies— Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belong
(E) The life of Chekhov, unlike that of other Troyat biographies of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belongs

In terms of physics, the characteristic feature of the roller coaster is that the cars’ potential energy, gained through their being lifted by a chain drive through the Earth’s gravity to the top of the first drop, has been converted to kinetic energy by the time the ride ends.
(A) cars’ potential energy, gained through their being lifted by a chain drive
(B) cars’ potential energy, a gain achieved as they are lifted by a chain drive
(C) potential energy from the cars’ being lifted by a chain drive
(D) potential energy of the cars, gained as a chain drive lifts them
(E) potential energy gained by the cars, being achieved while a chain drive lifts them

At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native American customs and an increasing desire to understand Native American culture prompted ethnologists to begin recording the life stories of Native American. Ethnologists had a distinct reason for wanting to hear the stories: they were after linguistic or anthropological data that would supplement their own field observations, and they believed that the personal stories, even of a single individual, could increase their understanding of the cultures that they had been observing from without. In addition many ethnologists at the turn of the century believed that Native American manners and customs were rapidly disappearing, and that it was important to preserve for posterity as much information as could be adequately recorded before the cultures disappeared forever.

There were, however, arguments against this method as a way of acquiring accurate and complete information. Franz Boas, for example, described autobiographies as being “of limited value, and useful chiefly for the study of the perversion of truth by memory,” while Paul Radin contended that investigators rarely spent enough time with the tribes they were observing, and inevitably derived results too tinged by the investigator’s own emotional tone to be reliable.

Even more importantly, as these life stories moved from the traditional oral mode to recorded written form, much was inevitably lost. Editors often decided what elements were significant to the field research on a given tribe. Native Americans recognized that the essence of their lives could not be communicated in English and that events that they thought significant were often deemed unimportant by their interviewers. Indeed, the very act of telling their stories could force Native American narrators to distort their cultures, as taboos had to be broken to speak the names of dead relatives crucial to their family stories.

Despite all of this, autobiography remains a useful tool for ethnological research: such personal reminiscences and impressions, incomplete as they may be, are likely to throw more light on the working of the mind and emotions than any amount of speculation from an ethnologist or ethnological theorist from another culture.

1) Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?
(A) The historical backgrounds of two currently used research methods are chronicled.
(B) The validity of the data collected by using two different research methods is compared.
(C) The usefulness of a research method is questioned and then a new method is proposed.
(D) The use of a research method is described and the limitations of the results obtained are discussed.
(E) A research method is evaluated and the changes necessary for its adaptation to other subject areas are discussed.

2) Which of the following is most similar to the actions of nineteenth-century ethnologists in their editing of the life stories of Native Americans?
(A) A witness in a jury trial invokes the Fifth Amendment in order to avoid relating personally incriminating evidence.
(B) A stockbroker refuses to divulge the source of her information on the possible future increase in a stock’s value.
(C) A sports announcer describes the action in a team sport with which he is unfamiliar.
(D) A chef purposely excludes the special ingredient from the recipe of his prizewinning dessert.
(E) A politician fails to mention in a campaign speech the similarities in the positions held by her opponent for political office and by herself.

3) According to the passage, collecting life stories can be a useful methodology because
(A) life stories provide deeper insights into a culture than the hypothesizing of academics who are not members of that culture
(B) life stories can be collected easily and they are not subject to invalid interpretations
(C) ethnologists have a limited number of research methods from which to choose
(D) life stories make it easy to distinguish between the important and unimportant features of a culture
(E) the collection of life stories does not require a culturally knowledgeable investigator

4) Information in the passage suggests that which of the following may be a possible way to eliminate bias in the editing of life stories?
(A) Basing all inferences made about the culture on an ethnological theory
(B) Eliminating all of the emotion-laden information reported by the informant
(C) Translating the informant’s words into the researcher’s language
(D) Reducing the number of questions and carefully specifying the content of the questions that the investigator can ask the informant
(E) Reporting all of the information that the informant provides regardless of the investigator’s personal opinion about its intrinsic value

5) The primary purpose of the passage as a whole is to
(A) question an explanation
(B) correct a misconception
(C) critique a methodology
(D) discredit an idea
(E) clarify an ambiguity

6) It can be inferred from the passage that a characteristic of the ethnological research on Native Americans conducted during the nineteenth century was the use of which of the following?
(A) Investigators familiar with the culture under study
(B) A language other than the informant’s for recording life stories
(C) Life stories as the ethnologist’s primary source of information
(D) Complete transcriptions of informants’ descriptions of tribal beliefs
(E) Stringent guidelines for the preservation of cultural data

7) The passage mentions which of the following as a factor that can affect the accuracy of ethnologists’ transcriptions of life stories?
(A) The informants’ social standing within the culture
(B) The inclusiveness of the theory that provided the basis for the research
(C) The length of time the researchers spent in the culture under study
(D) The number of life stories collected by the researchers
(E) The verifiability of the information provided by the research informants

It can be inferred from the passage that the author would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about the usefulness of life stories as a source of ethnographic information?
(A) They can be a source of information about how people in a culture view the world.
(B) They are most useful as a source of linguistic information.
(C) They require editing and interpretation before they can be useful.
(D) They are most useful as a source of information about ancestry.
(E) They provide incidental information rather than significant insights into a way of life.

According to some analysts, whatever its merits, the proposal to tax away all capital gains on short-term investments would, if enacted, have a disastrous effect on Wall Street trading and employment.
(A) its merits, the proposal to tax
(B) its merits may be, the proposal of taxing
(C) its merits as a proposal, taxing
(D) the proposal’s merits, to tax
(E) the proposal’s merits are, taxing

In 1977 the prestigious Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, Korea, announced the opening of the first women’s studies program in Asia. Few academic programs have ever received such public attention. In broadcast debates, critics dismissed the program as a betrayal of national identity, an imitation of Western ideas, and a distraction from the real task of national unification and economic development. Even supporters underestimated the program; they thought it would be merely another of the many Western ideas that had already proved useful in Asian culture, akin to airlines, electricity, and the assembly line. The founders of the program, however, realized that neither view was correct. They had some reservations about the applicability of Western feminist theories to the role of women in Asia and felt that such theories should be closely examined. Their approach has thus far yielded important critiques of Western theory, informed by the special experience of Asian women.

For instance, like the Western feminist critique of the Freudian model of the human psyche, the Korean critique finds Freudian theory culture-bound, but in ways different from those cited by Western theorists. The Korean theorists claim that Freudian theory assumes the universality of the Western nuclear, male-headed family and focuses on the personality formation of the individual, independent of society. An analysis based on such assumptions could be valid for a highly competitive, individualistic society. In the Freudian family drama, family members are assumed to be engaged in a Darwinian struggle against each other—father against son and sibling against sibling. Such a concept projects the competitive model of Western society onto human personalities. But in the Asian concept of personality there is no ideal attached to individualism or to the independent self. The Western model of personality development does not explain major characteristics of the Korean personality, which is social and group-centered. The “self” is a social being defined by and acting in a group, and the well-being of both men and women is determined by the equilibrium of the group, not by individual self-assertion. The ideal is one of interdependency.

In such a context, what is recognized as “dependency” in Western psychiatric terms is not, in Korean terms, an admission of weakness or failure. All this bears directly on the Asian perception of men’s and women’s psychology because men are also “dependent.” In Korean culture, men cry and otherwise easily show their emotions, something that might be considered a betrayal of masculinity in Western culture. In the kinship-based society of Korea, four generations may live in the same house, which means that people can be sons and daughters all their lives, whereas in Western culture, the roles of husband and son, wife and daughter, are often incompatible.

1) Which of the following best summarizes the content of the passage?
(A) A critique of a particular women’s studies program
(B) A report of work in social theory done by a particular women’s studies program
(C) An assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of a particular women’s studies program
(D) An analysis of the philosophy underlying women’s studies programs
(E) An abbreviated history of Korean women’s studies programs

2) It can be inferred from the passage that Korean scholars in the field of women’s studies undertook an analysis of Freudian theory as a response to which of the following?
(A) Attacks by critics of the Ewha women’s studies program
(B) The superficiality of earlier critiques of Freudian theory
(C) The popularity of Freud in Korean psychiatric circles
(D) Their desire to encourage Korean scholars to adopt the Freudian model
(E) Their assessment of the relevance and limitations of Western feminist theory with respect to Korean culture

3) Which of the following conclusions about the introduction of Western ideas to Korean society can be supported by information contained in the passage?
(A) Except for technological innovations, few Western ideas have been successfully transplanted into Korean society.
(B) The introduction of Western ideas to Korean society is viewed by some Koreans as a challenge to Korean identity.
(C) The development of the Korean economy depends heavily on the development of new academic programs modeled after Western programs.
(D) The extent to which Western ideas must be adapted for acceptance by Korean society is minimal.
(E) The introduction of Western ideas to Korean society accelerated after 1977.

4) It can be inferred from the passage that the broadcast media in Korea considered the establishment of the Ewha women’s studies program
(A) praiseworthy
(B) insignificant
(C) newsworthy
(D) imitative
(E) incomprehensible

5) It can be inferred from the passage that the position taken by some of the supporters of the Ewha women’s studies program was problematic to the founders of the program because those supporters
(A) assumed that the program would be based on the uncritical adoption of Western theory
(B) failed to show concern for the issues of national unification and economic development
(C) were unfamiliar with Western feminist theory
(D) were not themselves scholars in the field of women’s studies
(E) accepted the universality of Freudian theory

6) Which of the following statements is most consistent with the view of personality development held by the Ewha women’s studies group?
(A) Personality development occurs in identifiable stages, beginning with dependency in childhood and ending with independence in adulthood.
(B) Any theory of personality development, in order to be valid, must be universal.
(C) Personality development is influenced by the characteristics of the society in which a person lives.
(D) Personality development is hindered if a person is not permitted to be independent.
(E) No theory of personality development can account for the differences between Korean and Western culture.

7) Which of the following statements about the Western feminist critique of Freudian theory can be supported by information contained in the passage?
(A) It recognizes the influence of Western culture on Freudian theory.
(B) It was written after 1977.
(C) It acknowledges the universality of the nuclear, male-headed family.
(D) It challenges Freud’s analysis of the role of daughters in Western society.
(E) It fails to address the issue of competitiveness in Western society.

According to the passage, critics of the Ewha women’s studies program cited the program as a threat to which of the following?
I) National identity
II) National unification
III) Economic development
IV) Family integrity
(A) I only
(B) I and II only
(C) I, II, and III only
(D) II, III, and IV only
(E) I, II, III, and IV

In choosing a method for determining climatic conditions that existed in the past, paleoclimatologists invoke four principal criteria. First, the material—rocks, lakes, vegetation, etc.—on which the method relies must be widespread enough to provide plenty of information, since analysis of material that is rarely encountered will not permit correlation with other regions or with other periods of geological history. Second, in the process of formation, the material must have received an environmental signal that reflects a change in climate and that can be deciphered by modern physical or chemical means. Third, at least some of the material must have retained the signal unaffected by subsequent changes in the environment. Fourth, it must be possible to determine the time at which the inferred climatic conditions held. This last criterion is more easily met in dating marine sediments, because dating of only a small number of layers in a marine sequence allows the age of other layers to be estimated fairly reliably by extrapolation and interpolation. By contrast, because sedimentation is much less continuous in continental regions, estimating the age of a continental bed from the known ages of beds above and below is more risky.

One very old method used in the investigation of past climatic conditions involves the measurement of water levels in ancient lakes. In temperate regions, there are enough lakes for correlations between them to give us a reliable picture. In arid and semiarid regions, on the other hand, the small number of lakes and the great distances between them reduce the possibilities for correlation. Moreover, since lake levels are controlled by rates of evaporation as well as by precipitation, the interpretation of such levels is ambiguous. For instance, the fact that lake levels in the semiarid southwestern United States appear to have been higher during the last ice age than they are now was at one time attributed to increased precipitation. On the basis of snow-line elevations, however, it has been concluded that the climate then was not necessarily wetter than it is now, but rather that both summers and winters were cooler, resulting in reduced evaporation.

Another problematic method is to reconstruct former climates on the basis of pollen profiles. The type of vegetation in a specific region is determined by identifying and counting the various pollen grains found there. Although the relationship between vegetation and climate is not as direct as the relationship between climate and lake levels, the method often works well in the temperate zones. In arid and semiarid regions in which there is not much vegetation, however, small changes in one or a few plant types can change the picture dramatically, making accurate correlations between neighboring areas difficult to obtain.

1) Which of the following statements about the difference between marine and continental sedimentation is supported by information in the passage?
(A) Data provided by dating marine sedimentation is more consistent with researchers’ findings in other disciplines than is data provided by dating continental sedimentation.
(B) It is easier to estimate the age of a layer in a sequence of continental sedimentation than it is to estimate the age of a layer in a sequence of marine sedimentation.
(C) Marine sedimentation is much less widespread than continental sedimentation.
(D) Researchers are more often forced to rely on extrapolation when dating a layer of marine sedimentation than when dating a layer of continental sedimentation.
(E) Marine sedimentation is much more continuous than is continental sedimentation.

2) Which of the following statements best describes the organization of the passage as a whole?
(A) The author describes a method for determining past climatic conditions and then offers specific examples of situations in which it has been used.
(B) The author discusses the method of dating marine and continental sequences and then explains how dating is more difficult with lake levels than with pollen profiles.
(C) The author describes the common requirements of methods for determining past climatic conditions and then discusses examples of such methods.
(D) The author describes various ways of choosing a material for determining past climatic conditions and then discusses how two such methods have yielded contradictory data.
(E) The author describes how methods for determining past climatic conditions were first developed and then describes two of the earliest known methods.

3) It can be inferred from the passage that paleoclimatologists have concluded which of the following on the basis of their study of snow-line elevations in the southwestern United States?
(A) There is usually more precipitation during an ice age because of increased amounts of evaporation.
(B) There was less precipitation during the last ice age than there is today.
(C) Lake levels in the semiarid southwestern United States were lower during the last ice age than they are today.
(D) During the last ice age, cooler weather led to lower lake levels than paleoclimatologists had previously assumed.
(E) The high lake levels during the last ice age may have been a result of less evaporation rather than more precipitation.

4) Which of the following would be the most likely topic for a paragraph that logically continues the passage?
(A) The kinds of plants normally found in arid regions
(B) The effect of variation in lake levels on pollen distribution
(C) The material best suited to preserving signals of climatic changes
(D) Other criteria invoked by paleoclimatologists when choosing a method to determine past climatic conditions
(E) A third method for investigating past climatic conditions

5) The author discusses lake levels in the southwestern United States in order to
(A) illustrate the mechanics of the relationship between lake level, evaporation, and precipitation
(B) provide an example of the uncertainty involved in interpreting lake levels
(C) prove that there are not enough ancient lakes with which to make accurate correlations
(D) explain the effects of increased rates of evaporation on levels of precipitation
(E) suggest that snow-line elevations are invariably more accurate than lake levels in determining rates of precipitation at various points in the past

6) It can be inferred from the passage that an environmental signal found in geological material would not be useful to paleoclimatologists if it
(A) had to be interpreted by modern chemical means
(B) reflected a change in climate rather than a long-term climatic condition
(C) was incorporated into a material as the material was forming
(D) also reflected subsequent environmental changes
(E) was contained in a continental rather than a marine sequence

7) According to the passage, the material used to determine past climatic conditions must be widespread for which of the following reasons?
I) Paleoclimatologists need to make comparisons between periods of geological history.
II) Paleoclimatologists need to compare materials that have supported a wide variety of vegetation.
III) Paleoclimatologists need to make comparisons with data collected in other regions.
(A) I only
(B) II only
(C) I and II only
(D) I and III only
(E) II and III only

Which of the following can be inferred from the passage about the study of past climates in arid and semiarid regions?
(A) It is sometimes more difficult to determine past climatic conditions in arid and semiarid regions than in temperate regions.
(B) Although in the past more research has been done on temperate regions, paleoclimatologists have recently turned their attention to arid and semiarid regions.
(C) Although more information about past climates can be gathered in arid and semiarid than in temperate regions, dating this information is more difficult.
(D) It is difficult to study the climatic history of arid and semiarid regions because their climates have tended to vary more than those of temperate regions.
(E) The study of past climates in arid and semiarid regions has been neglected because temperate regions support a greater variety of plant and animal life.

Judge Lois Forer’s study asks why do some litigants have a preferred status over others in the use of a public resource, the courts, which in theory are available to all but in fact are unequally distributed among rich and poor.
(A) do some litigants have a preferred status over others in the use of a public resource, the
courts, which in theory are available to all but in fact are unequally distributed among
(B) some litigants have a preferred status over others in the use of a public resource, the
courts, which in theory are available to all but in fact are unequally distributed between
(C) do some litigants have a preferred status over another in the use of a public resource, the
courts, in theory available to all but in fact are unequally distributed among
(D) some litigants have a preferred status to another in the use of a public resource, the courts, in theory available to all but in fact not equally distributed between
(E) does one litigant have a preferred status over the other in the use of a public resource, the

In the 1970′s there was an oversupply of college graduates. The oversupply caused the average annual income of college graduates to fall to a level only 18 percent greater than that of workers withonly high school diplomas. By the late 1980′s the average annual income of college graduates was 43 percent higher than that of workers with only high school diplomas, even though between the 1970′and the late 1980′s the supply of college graduates did not decrease.

Which of the following, if true in the late 1980′s,best reconciles the apparent discrepancy described above?

(A) The economy slowed, thus creating a decreased demand for college graduates.
(B) The quality of high school education improved.
(C) Compared to the 1970′s, a greater number ofhigh schools offered vocational guidance programs for their students.
(D) The proportion of the population with at least acollege-level education increased.
(E) There was for the first time in 20 years an over-supply of seekers with only high school diplomas.

The average weekly wage nearly doubled in the l970′ s, rising from $ 114 to $ 220, yet the average worker ended the decade with a decrease in what their pay may buy.

(A)  with a decrease in what their pay may buy
(B)  with what was a decrease in what they were able to buy
(C)  having decreased that which they could buy
(D)  decreasing in purchasing power
(E)  with a decrease in purchasing power

The Avary Company hired a consulting firm to advise it on how to improve retention of new employees. Avary implemented several of the consulting firm’s recommendations, and, as a result, only 5 percent of newly hired clerical staff left within twelve months of hiring, but fully 10 percent of newly hired professional staff left during the same period. The result of the new policy is that Avary is now losing more professional employees than clerical employees.

The argument above can be criticized because it fails to consider the possibility that

(A) prior to adoption of the new policy more newly hired clericals left than newly hired professionals

(B) Avary Company is not sincere in its efforts to retain professional as well as clerical employees

(C) the consulting firm’s recommendations took into account the different needs of professionals and clericals

(D) the number of newly hired professionals is substantially less than the number of newly hired clericals

(E) a company may not be able to exercise meaningful control over the number of newly hired employees who leave

An efficiency expert studied an accounting firm to determine what factors are most important in determining employee productivity. Using criteria such as caseload and average dollar value per case, the expert determined that the most important determinant of productivity is physical surroundings. Those employees who ranked highest on the productivity criteria were also those employees with the largest offices with the most light.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the conclusion above?

(A) The more productive employees identified by the criteria used by the expert are likely to be more senior and allocated the more desirable office space.

(B) On the average, the more productive employees were found to spend just about the same amount of time per day in their workspace as less productive employees.

(C) Darker work spaces tend to depress employee energy levels, making it more difficult to concentrate on complex problem-solving tasks.

(D) A greater percentage of the less productive employees studied responded that they were “entirely satisfied” with their home lives than did more productive employees.

(E) The overall profitability of the firm was determined to depend upon the ratio of more productive workers to less productive workers.

If industrial pollution continues to deplete the ozone layer, the resulting increase in ultraviolet radiation will endanger human health, causing a rise in the incidence of skin cancer and eye disease, and perhaps even threatening global ecological systems.

(A)  and perhaps even threatening
(B)  and may even threaten
(C)  and even a possible threat to
(D)  as well as possibly threatening
(E)  as well as a possible threat to